BOUTIQUE SEWING AGAIN, SCRAP BINS AND SUE

 This has been another week of sewing for my guild's quilt show boutique.  A request went out that the boutique needs many more home made items.  Our last quilt show made a profit of $15,000 and the boutique contributed $5,000 of that.  Obviously it is important to stock the boutique well.  Placemats, table runners and table topers were the primary items that sold like crazy.

I knocked out these nine this week and have another 7 ready to go.  A good part of all this sewing is cleaning out some of my scraps bins.  

I have 5 wire racks with scraps in various colors in my sewing room closet like this.

Three wire bins like this.  Really time to try to clean some of this out.  So I fear that the next couple weeks will be madly sewing boutique items.

I did take a bit of a break though and worked on the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.  This is the fourth and final row ready to quilt.  I will admit that it has been a real chore, but it is going well and I am very happy with the quilting results.  

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RAIDERS FOOTBALL APRONS AND PATTERNS

 This past week had me spending some of my time working on finally preparing appliqué pieces for my Sweet Tweet final bird block number 9.  I still have vines, leaves and a couple more flowers to cut out and fuse, but I am getting there.

It's a start, as fabric selection is the hardest for me and takes the most time to pick out.

My daughter recently asked me to make Raider football team pillowcases for her friend for Christmas.  So this past week she asked if I could make an apron for this friend for her birthday.  Yes, Raider themed.  I headed to JoAnn's to pick up a pattern.  After a good 30 minutes and selecting multiple patterns, every one was out of stock.  To make matters more interesting, patterns are very expensive.  Yes, a simple apron pattern runs between $15.99 to $19.99.  While they offer 30% off not one of them was available.  Only choice at that point was Amazon, yes $15.99 plus tax.  I am putting this one in a very safe place.

The good news was I found Raiders fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby at 40%, and it is 90" wide and a nice heavy weight fabric for that pattern.

Plus a perfect back for my Southern Charm quilt top too.  Off to the quilters this coming week.

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SOUTHERN CHARM AND BLOCK 9

This week I spent a good deal of time working on my Souther Charm quilt top.  After fininally finishing Sweet Tweet block 8 I needed a break from appliqué for a few days and Sun Bonnet Sue as well.  Something easy and somewhat mindless.

Southern Charm is finished.  This top was a lot of fun to work on as    I had lots of half yard pieces in the bundle I purchased to work with   and lots of pieced blocks that I could use to make it interesting.          

Block 9 of Sweet Tweets is finally here.  I do have one more month which is a pieced border.  I do not plan to do that border.  I think a simple border is just fine.  Who knows I could change my mind, but as of now that is my plan. 

This is the border fabric I selected and the binding.  I don't think I have any blocks in 1 through 8 that have any lavender or purple fabric in them, so block 9's bird might need a bit of that color.  So I may need to do a bit of shopping for some lavender or purplish fabric or even a good climb through my stash. 

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HEARTS AND STARS

This has been an interesting week.  Between multiple guild meetings at my home and teaching a beginning quilting class to three new students at our local quilt shop, and trying to work on the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt  things have been just CRAZY around here.

I ran into an issue with quilting the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.  Started 20 years ago and stashed away only to be found last month as a completely forgotten UFO I had sewn buttons on many of the blocks.  How does one quilt it around those?  My solution was to quilt individual heart on the blocks.  Yes, CRAZY!  I knew I was out of my mind, but I have two rows of the 4 done on the quilt and not as bad as I thought it would be.

My solution to dealing with a project that is making me crazy is to     

start a new one that is simpler and easier to deal with.  In my January

reorganization of my sewing room I turned up this half yard fabric bundle.

This pattern came with the fabric.  Easy to deal with.

However, I did not want plain star blocks.  This Free Style Star pattern has been a go to for many of my quilts.  I like the idea of the points being a bit wonky and not worrying about cutting off the points either.  

Block one done, measures 10.5" quilt will be 70" by 70".  A perfect project to rest one's nerves.

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SWEET TWEET 7 PLUS 8 AND ATTIC WINDOWS

I am finally back to working on Sweet Tweets again.  I took most of January off dealing with reorganizing my sewing room.  Glad that is done, and sure discovered a lot of really old UFO's and have spent some time dealing with them.  Oh yes, there are more in there but it was a start.

Block 7 is completed and block 8 has a very good start.  Just a couple more blossoms to finish up and fuse on.  Just block 9 to go and it should be available later this week.  The 10th month is just the border instructions.  Once I have all 9 of the blocks done and sewn together I will see about the border fabric and binding.

I pulled out my Attic Windows blocks this past week and got them sewn together.  It is bright and cheery but with very limited fat quarter fabrics available it has lots of repeats.  I am quilting it with a serpentine stitch and variegated orange thread.  It will be going to my guild's charity quilt group and off to someone that hopefully will love it.  It is 48 by 56 in size so a nice size quilt for this purpose.  

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FORGOTTEN UFOS

I am still digging through several unearthed UFO's after reorganizing all my fabric and storage system.  Some of these items are really old, and completely forgotten.

I know this little piece has to be a good 15 to 20 years old.  I started it with my granddaughter, she is 32 years old now and I know she was in either Middle School or early High School when we worked on it together.  Somewhere along the way she lost interest in it and it got stashed away in the sewing room and forgotten.  She was the one that picked all the buttons out to sew on the blocks.  Not sure how I will quilt around them, but do plan to finish it up.

I started this paper pieced pattern maybe a year to two ago.  I like paper piecing but for some reason this one just never seemed to work well for me and I did loose interest with it and only finished the three large blocks.  This pattern is going to find a new home 

Best thing to do was just slap them onto some batting and a back, quilt them, and off to the quilt show boutique in May.  They are 18 inches square and perfect for someone's table.  

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SURPRISE FINDS

 This past week I finally completely finished reorganizing the fabric and storage in my sewing room.  I notice on several blogs that January seems it is a common theme.  Enlightening for sure.  I found things that I had no idea I had stashed away in the closets.  Some really had to go, but others were real gems and over a couple days I really got in and did some fun projects.

The butterfly fabric on the table topper was a great find.  I have a gift I need to make for a lady that provides us regularly with fresh fruit and vegetables during the year.  I had no idea I had that fabric left over from some long ago project.  I actually got two table toppers out of those left overs.  The roosters again left over from another project, enough to make 3 runners with them, they will go to my guild's quilt show boutique in May.  The last runner, I was able to make two.  That fabric left over easily has to be a good 6 or more years old.  Probably will keep those for gifts.  Yes, there are a couple more surprise finds dug out that are on my plate to do something with.  

All done, just about 180 mini bolts lined up in there.  Some pieces were just not  big enough to put on a bolt so still have a couple of stacks of half yard or less piled up.  

These two shelves hold large quilt back fabrics and linen fabric on the top shelf.  Just too big to fold onto bolts.  The lower shelf is all neutrals, and some black prints.  This closet is a bit difficult to get in and out of so these were moved out of the other closet.  The neutrals I do use a good deal, and I could do some more putting some of them onto mini bolts.  I think I have learned with all this chore completed for sure is.  I do not need to buy more fabric, at least not for a while.  

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MINI BOLT FABRIC STORAGE & A START ON SWEET TWEET BLOCK 7

 I was able to start working on Sweet Tweets block 7 .  It is birthday week here so celebrations have taken up a good deal of free time.  Our youngest daughter, husband, and youngest daughter's sister in law pretty much a second daughter for us all in one week.  Lots of fun dinners and cake.  Plus I am preparing to teach three classes to beginner quilters at our local shop in February and March.  Lots of prep work to get that going.   

I am still working on better storage in my sewing room.  I have two closets and multiple wire bins of fabric stacked in all of them.  Finding anything is a real chore.  I discovered a mini bolts system on Amazon and thought try them out.  Oh my, what a difference it has made.  That top row previously took up both these shelves.  Finding anything amounted to pulling the whole stack out and causing others to fall over.  I have ordered another 2 packs and plan to continue through both closets.  

Being able to see what I want to use and not having an entire stack fall over on the floor is just short of a miracle.  Just pull out what you need and pop it back in and it is ready to go next time. 

On Saturday morning I was able to get a good start on Sweet Tweets block 7.  All the appliqué pieces are prepared but at least I have half of them fused on the background and ready to start doing the machine appliqué on them.  Progress!   

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STORAGE SOLUTIONS, & SWEET TWEETS 2/3 COMPLETE

 I almost have Christmas decorations down and put away.  Still have a couple more mug rugs/coasters to finish up with left over Christmas fabrics.  Doing some storage additions in the sewing room.  Things got really messy in there and just not enough ways to stash in progress projects.  The beginning of a new year seems like a good time to do something about that.  

First thing Sweet Tweet blocks 1 through 6 are all done and put together.  Two thirds of the way done.  Now just time to start number 7, number 8 is downloaded and waiting as well to begin and then the final block 9 will be released in February.  Beginning to look like a quilt at last.  

I have an awesome sewing room, with fairly good storage, but is it ever enough?  I need better storage.

Previously I used these plastic storage containers.  Stacks and stacks of them and it just was not enough and cumbersome as they were all stacked 5 and 6 deep under my cutting table.  

I did not want to spend a great deal of money on another system.  I searched a number of options and found these storage drawer systems on Amazon.  They are approximately 24 by 24 with pull out drawers about 12 by 12 each.   

I bought 2 of them and set them back to back under the cutting table.  Every thing that I had in the plastic containers fit into them and I still have 3 drawers left.  So much easier to get to things and the cost was just under $120 for them.  They are very study.  Yes, still have a couple current projects in plastic bins that I am working on, but this has sure improved things in the sewing room.   

It is cold here and rainy.  Zoey our little Yorkshire Terrier has decided she is not going to get out of bed this morning.  She has a. nice deep nest in a chair in the sitting room of our master bedroom and that is the plan for the day.  

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A QUILTING I WILL GO AND SWEET TWEETS SIX

 I am finally getting back to Sweet Tweets blocks again.  Number 6 on it way finished and hopefully this week getting number 7 started.  

The better part of this week I have to quilt 3 small quilts for my guild's charity group.  I do not have a long-arm machine and I do not do free motion quilting, but can do a nice job on smaller quilts.  I only volunteer to do quilts under 45 by 60 in size.  My Bernina 750 does a great job with serpentine stitching and I have a nice stash of variegated threads in 30wt and 40wt that look really nice on them.  That frees up the long-arm quilters to do the larger quilts.

  

First one almost done, have the binding on and just finishing up the handwork on the binding.  

And a start on the second one.  

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