The End of Hoarding

Okay, I have figured something out that will be life altering. As a new quilter I have been watching blogs, joining bees, forming guilds all with the best of intentions.

There is one huge GLARING problem that I am willing to disclose to you. I cannot bring myself to cut into my fabric. I mean REALLY cut into it. Take my bee blocks. Here are the last six I made. I have two more to go as I was in 2 groups for a portion of this round.

They look nice but see how little i had to cut into my fabric? no big chunks.

I have so many ufo's it is ridiculous and I think this is the reason.

It was my birthday last week. This is a sampling of goods I received for my birthday.

My first obsession was Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks. I still own ALL of it. Some of it on bolts, the same with Garden Party, Chocolate Lollipop, Drawing Room and now Innocent Crush which I have been raging for since I knew about it. I love it. I love it so much that I have made a decision. I am cutting into it

 now. Thanks to Mary Dugan. You can find her at www.mollyflanders.blogspot.com. She does beautiful work. I have been following her on flickr for a while now and her work is perfection. The hand quilting, the fabrics. I realized that she takes the time and effort and really USES her fabric to its full extent. So...this is my promise to myself. I will finish my bee blocks and my Cross Quilt (which i intend to handquilt.) I have chosen The Quilt that i will cut into my Innocent Crush for. It is in Material Obsession 2 and the name of it is Erika's Honesty. I begin cutting today. The fabric is pulled and ready to go.

I cannot believe it took me this long to figure this out and although it is a relief it will be hard on me. You see I have all of Jennifer Paganelli, alot of Amy Butler, Erin Michaels, etc. etc. I have the entire cabinet filled with Heather Ross, Munki Munki and all my Denyse Schmidt including my Flea Market Fancy. If I can conquer this fear and get through this quilt then I can move on and create some beautiful quilts. Yes, the fabric will be gone but there will always be beautiful fabric...right? Then there are the scrap boxes and jars brimming with remnants for all those lovely scrap quilts. Real scrap quilts...where a scrap is not 10 yards...

hugs,

leslie

Fresh Beat Band

Does The Fresh Beat Band ring any bells out there? This is why my daughter needs a baby wrangler!
I try to keep my blog to quilting but isn't he the cutest thing you have ever seen? : )

This and that

It is so easy to get bogged down. I often wonder how some of the bloggers have time to turn out the quilts they do at the rate they do. I have no idea why my clock runs slower but it does.


I do tend to get into projects that are of no interest in blogging about. Such as special projects for people that choose what fabrics or things they want. I do not blog on those. Maybe I should.




I have not arranged them in the final positions



I have started our first Guild Quilt Along. I am in the West Virginia Modern Quilt Guild but several of the members are far away and our meeting turnout has been slow to say the least. Meetings are on hold right now. I decided it was time to do something, anything to get some involvement. Thanks to Sandy Deem for helping me rally the troops while Stephanie was out of town. We are working on Cross Quilts. Any darn one they want. I chose the Me Plus You pattern because it has been a UFO in my bin for a long time. I am using green and navy with white with Modern Meadow and some Amy Butler tie ins.

I have a definate issue with photograhy in this lovely sewing room of mine. I try my best but the lighting really needs to be natural.



I have made approximately twenty swaddlers with burp sets. I do not know if any of you do these kinds of projects when fabrics go on sale but it is time consuming. Here are about half of them.

I ran into a great tip out there regarding labels or pesonalized tags, i do not remember who wrote it, I wish I could so that I could thank her. If you are out there thank you! She suggested to get your logo printed onto Spoonflower! It was so easy to download, size and figure out! It took me about twenty minutes and they turned out perfect! I received them today. I ordered them with the repeat I wanted and i did use cotton sateen so that quality and fading of the colors of my logo would not be an issue. I have hundreds for under thirty bucks! I thought it may be too good to be true but they are great for any of you that tag your custom orders or place in or on any etsy items you may sell. I received them today and very pleased!  



these are about 3x 1.2 or so


                            I received a pic of Cooper on his blanket.

If only they would stay this sweet a little longer

My daughter cannot catch my grandson long enough to take a picture of him. Next post.

ADDENDUM: she got him!

he looks like this picture thing is a setup...and it is..hehe

jackson with his old quilt and new wall hanging

hugs,

leslie

FOR BABY JACKSON AND COOPER

Well, I finished my first applique. I have the definite opinion that it takes a lot of practice. I got much better with the second quilt but perfection is far, far away.

Jackson is my grandson and his quilt was the first i ever made. I used the scraps from his brown bear quilt to make a wall hanging. He moved to a bigger room and his walls looked empty. We can't have that.

Cooper is brand spanking new so congratulations to Ashli and Nick. Castle peeps are perfect for boy quilts. I can't wait to use all of them together.

Aside from the applique these were super easy. Coopers quilt is 42 x 48 and the wall hanging is 43 x 21. This was a project from moda bake shop found here.

Julie and Ashli, I will get these in the mail on Tuesday!

                                                    

                                                         Off to dive in to the WIP bin!

Fabric LOVE....and I do not mean AB

I can spend hours looking at fabric, fondling fabric, smelling fabric. If you have been bitten by this bug then you understand. I spend a lot of time looking at fabric. The majority of my time if the truth be known. But I never get tired of it. I also buy a lot of fabric...because you never know when it will go away...right? Let us take time for some fabric love.....ready?
                                       

yummy...lets break it down

modern meadow 1 and 2

whimsey circa 50 organic and how about michael miller kitchen utensils?
courtesy of fresh squeezed fabrics as well as the purple tufted tweets

castle peeps...i started with green in a quilt
they are just too cute

color!!!! i can hardly stand it

red and aqua but...
the alice and wonderland gauze is no more
i could just cry. you have never felt anything so soft in your life
way softer than kokka double gauze.
thanks to kerri at sew deerly loved

purples..finally awesome purples

hit the bargain bin for some 30's prints,
no bargain on the sugar prints

farmdale...i love these prints-fabricworm



That is it for now. I wonder how many other prints you all picked out in that pile
there are a lot of them.
We will have moments of fabric love occasionally.


hugs,
leslie

may the fabric be with you.

A salute to the end of summer and a back to school project.

 I think this is the end of summer. It has been an unusual summer. I did none of the things i usually do in the summer and things did not go like i thought they would (some surprise : ) )...my tomotoes are just now ripening but they are the size of golfballs. I have heard others say the same but let us say hurray for some things.

We have had the BEST watermelon this year!

great corn on the cob, red peppers and midnight grapes
and did anyone else get a kick out of the
"throwback" pop cans? hA! I did.


The antique and  resale shops have been full of good stuff

i found these great scarves, a vintage pin and look at the set of
dishtowels i found! all of this for 12 bucks!

Last but not least it is back to school for those of you who do not home school.

I always found back to school very liberating. I know it is hard on some of you but

I had a lot of kids around so I thought it was cause for adult celebration.

Anyway, my stepdaughter came up with this clever solution to a boring white binder

What she wanted was basically an idea straight out of denyse schmidt's book

"quilts".  Using the technique for the project "discards" she wanted munki munki

I cut out some cardstock the size of the binder, set the sewing machine on a patchwork

type stitch and she picked out the pieces of munki munki that she liked.

VOILA!

i thought she did wonderfully

The only thing I would change is to serge or overstitch the top fairly secure
after one week it was beginning to fray.
She is happy with it and I credit her with a great idea!

You guys have a great day and i will be back soon with some fabric love.
It is about time for some, don't you think?

hugs, leslie
oh...have you headed over to Heather Ross blog to check out
Macaroni Love? The newest spoonflower release?
here is the link.

Lots of Go! giveaways

I have noticed a lot of AcuQuilts being given away this week with the same requests for entries...hmmm. well i will post about only one as using this to post about all of them would be kind of cheating...i do not want that. you have until september 2nd to enter on sherri's blog..a quilting life. Good luck to you!

A Winner and a Huge Thank You!!

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1


Max: 120
Result: 41

Powered by RANDOM.ORG
 
 
 
 Congragulations to the winner,
 
Patty said...


You sewing room is gorgeous! Zoe looks like my dog Rooney even the little bit of white on her chest. We got him in New Hampshire last year around this time, but he's originally from Kentucky. I can't over the resemblance! I now follow you blog and this fabric would be ideal for a wall hanging I'm making during a retreat it's kinda like an American Beauty.

August 25, 2010 5:13 PM


 Patty, i hope you enjoy the fat quarters. I had to go back and find you twice as the random number generator erases the number. just an fyi for those who may use it in the future. I also reduced the number to 120 due to multiple entries in case anyone was wondering. Patty, I will email you and get your information so i can get your package to you.
 
 It is so wonderful to be back and i am overwhelmed by all of your comments! I had a lot of fun reading over some of your blogs and everyone had so many nice things to say as well as some wonderful ideas! i have not cut into the stash myself so i thought i would easily make up my mind how to use it after reading your responses. i was so wrong. overwhelmingly most would make a quilt and i think the d9p gets the most votes BUT a few of you sent links to patterns confusing me even more....hahaha. i think i will do what i normally do. circle around flickr, fondle the fabric, sketch around abit, fondle the fabric more and eventually make a decision.

 I wanted to address some specific questions and since i DID take the process pledge i am applying it to the sewing room. yes, i had a great room to start with. since we are basically empty nesters i do not have small ones running around and getting into things. just zoe and, as you could see, she is an excellent friend. she naps through most of it. I forgot to add that i bought a battery operated dirt devil upright that swivels. so..no dog hair or thread is left behind. i vacuum each day the room is used. the room is a basement which is good because i am out of the way, it is quiet, it is cool in the summer and warm in the winter but i only have one little window. the before pic clearly shows i had piled everything in here and it was a mess but once i got going here are the things that made it easy and inexpensive to complete.

1. The pegboard. it is actually two white pegboard sheets. cost: 12.00 ea. at home depot. 4 nails and small peices of styrofoam taped behind it to keep it off of the wall.
    the pegboard kit. I used every piece in this kit. here is the link. cost 13.00. that was it. Total 37.00

2. The design board. this is nothing but styrofoam sheets found at lowes or home depot for around less than 10.00. they are around 1x12x36" in a package of 6 and my husband measured the wall, taped multiple pieces together into a two sheet thickness (we could not find the thicker ones). i covered it with a package of warm and natural queen sized quilt batting (i thought white would get dirty faster) that i got on sale and secured it with t-pins. The entire wall was less than 30.00.

3. The cutting table was found at ReStore. If you have one in your area I strongly encourage you to go there. You can find virtually anything to build a house, room, whatever for a very good price and a very good cause. It is the Habitat for Humanity Warehouse. I picked up that table for 30.00 and it just needed a good cleaning. If i had a larger room I could have found much more there.

4. The fabric cabinet was found at a local used furniture store. I did not even have to paint it. It was ready to go and i would be embarassed to tell you how much fabric that dude can hold. I wish i had room for another one. I wish i could find another one. it did cost around 120.00. I always bargain at these stores. It pays off! The smaller shelved cabinet and the chest of drawers also came from used furniture stores, they were each less than 30.00 each and needed a fresh coat of paint.

5. Most of the decor (including the Couture pics, rugs and fat quarter baskets,) were found at tjmaxx or marshalls over a period of time.

6. Zoe was found at the local animal shelter a year ago last january. support your local shelter. she is the best dog i have ever had.....truly.... :)

7. The rest of it you all already know where to find!

so...that is the story of the sewing room and some tips for you. I hope yours turns out to be one you are happy with. I did keep a folder of ideas and rooms and it helped. Here are some of the images from my folder.

I want to send out a special thank you to those of you who sent so many here from your wonderful blogs. It is much appreciated.

Congragulations to our winner!

hugs,
leslie

SEWING ROOM REMODEL....COMPLETE! ....AND A GIVEAWAY

oh my goodness you all. i lost an entire summer and have missed you. i have had multiple issues from a broken foot to family crisis..blah, blah, blah. however, do you remember this? this was when i was at a goodstage in the process. it got much much worse.

the before

i am so happy to have this done and all of you have given me so much inspiration. here is the end result.

i know it looks like a big jumbled overcrowded area but really i found room for everything. i had a lot of fun with the details even though i have yet to recover the lampshade and chairs.

my sewing table has access to both computers

the rolling cart has everything i may run out of

i finally have a desk for some organization
......and shopping

sometimes you find just the right thing.

the pegboard freed up a lot of room

even a place for zoe's treats

zoe

a great design wall 95x75 inches

i love my hubby

i am going to leave it at that. if you would like to see the full scheme of my sewing room i invite you to go to my flickr page. i do not want to bore you to tears here.

THE GIVEAWAY!

i wanted to thank all my friends and followers, swappers and bee buddies for their unyeilding patience with me this summer. almost all my projects have been late and nothing of any interest has been on the blog. i will be giving away a full FQ set of AMY BUTLER LOVE. why amy you ask? i found when i rearranged all my fabric that i had more of her fabric lines than i thought. it really grew on me and i have seen some beautiful things made with it. i wanted to get it in before SOUL BLOSSOMS comes in so we all have a chance to work with love before we spend our money on the next release.

to enter simply join my blog. mention it on your own blog and if you do not have one have a friend do it for you. spread the word (guilds and groups,) and let me know what you think you might do with it when you post. i have seen a beautiful disappearing nine patch by providence handmade, i hope she posts it...as well as some clothing.

the last day for entering is sunday the 29th at midnight. the winner will be chosen by a random generator and will be notified by email (do not forget to leave me yours when you follow and join.)

good luck . i have missed you guys so much

hugs,

leslie

full set of FQ of Amy Butler LOVE

how cute are these? from rubyandstellahome on flickr

and this gorgeous quilt by
red pepper quilts at http://www.redpepperquilts.com/

Have you ever used Electric Quilt?

I personally have not but would love to and just in time. EQ7 is coming soon! Do you know how much easier this will make designing? Stay tuned to my blog. Hopefully I will have some exciting news! If you have used it let me know what you think.

hugs, leslie

p.s. sorry for the long absence, i am catching up!

IT CAME!!!

I thought it would be around a week but they made me wait just a wee bit longer. i know other blogs have these same pictures with the same topic but this blog is mine....and so is the fabric...well...i am splitting it with Mel and Steph but the remainder is mine!

step 1. Open the box...eeee!!! all wrapped in tissue and adorably peeking!

Step 2. Count the packages and admire the Spoonflower logo printed on cotton.

Step 3. Sort, love, caress, admire, photograph. I cannot wait to get my needle on these little babies!!

How cute are THESE!!!!!

THANK YOU HEATHER!!!