Year end stats

I keep my empty spools from sewing and quilting threads. Why? I guess just to see if I have accomplished anything. Here are this year's spools

And the count - 79 - with about 30,000 yards of quilting thread used.

Here is my quilting thread at the beginning of 2014

and here it is now

In reading last year's post about my thread spools, the first picture I posted that day was of this t-shirt quilt for my niece. It was all sewn together and pin basted on 1/1/14.

Well, now it is a year later and I am finally going to quilt it! I got started on it last evening and will try and work on it every day. It is around 83" x 94" so it is a beast of a t-shirt quilt!

Have a happy and safe new year!

2014 Finishes - second post today

I know it is only the 30th, but I don't think I will have another quilt finished this year so here is my completed quilts for the year.

number 1 - 1/20/14

Number 2 - 1/22/14

Number 3 - 41" x 51" 2/4/14

Number 4 - 2/10/14

Number 5 - 40.5" x 50.5" 2/17/14

Number 6 - 3/10/14

Number 7 - 4/7/14

Number 8 - 6/2/14

Number 9 - "Where's Jimmy?" 88"x88" August 2014

Number 10 - Homespun top 48 1/2" x 57" April-May 2014 - donation

Number 11 - Homespun top 48" x 60 1/2" April-May 2014 - donation

Number 12 - Homespun top 50" x 59" April-May 2014 - donation

Number 13 - Homespun top 52" x 69" April-May 2014 - donation

Number 14 - Orange and green Halloween quilt

Number 15 - Houston Farm to Fabric challenge reject

Number 16 - Houston Farm to Fabric challenge reject

Number 17 - Purple and green Halloween quilt

Number 18 - Michael Miller challenge 46 1/2" x 66"

Number 19 - A Moda Halloween 91" x 115" 22.5 miles of quilting thread (top and bottom) and 150 hours of work

Number 20 - Flannel Family Xmas quilt 75" X 90"

Number 21 - Rejected challenge quilt 43.5 x 53.5 - I started this back in the spring, but finished it 12/30/14

Number 22 - Rejectged challenge quilt 49.5w x 46.5h - I finished this back in the spring, but was asked not to post it. Since then the person who had the challenge said you could enter it in QuiltCOn so what the heck I am posting it now.

21st finish of 2014

Here is my 21st finish for 2014. It was a piece I had started in the spring for a challenge, but it was not accepted. I decided to finish it anyway. It is 43.5 x 53.5.

I got my friend's dress hemmed that she is going to wear for New Years Eve. It was made of tricot and that stuff is a pain to sew, but it is done so yeah rah!


I think my next big project will be working on quilting my niece's graduation t-shirt quilt. It had been sitting around too long! I think she graduated from high school 3 1/2 years ago!

Making a dent

I have been trying to make a dent in my list of things I wanted to get done with this time off from work. I finally made the new curtains for the studio. I even lined them with blackout lining to keep the sun blocked in the summer as the window faces south. I have had the fabric for this since this summer.

Before I just hung some scrap backing up - pitiful!

The after

I had a old queen sized mattress pad that was perfectly good so I cut it down to fit the twin sized guest bed.
This is a project that has needed to be done for at least a year and a half!
Before

After

I had a queen sized flat sheet that was too short so I added about an 18" piece to the bottom of the sheet. This way maybe it will not pull out as easy. Another job that I had been thinking about doing for a long time

I made a linen pillowcase from fabric I bought a couple of years ago.

I went thru my backing and batting scraps and made up some small practice pieces for free motion machine quilting. I have borrowed some DVD's from the library and now I will be ready to sew along with the DVD's when I watch them.

It feels so good to get some of these projects done! Let's see what other damage I can do!

I stopped into work when I went for my walk to take care of the mail so I thought I would post while I was here.

Making a list

I plan on using my time off over the holidays in a productive way. I have learned that if I make a list I get more done. I also spent some time last night laying out things on my big table that need to be made, fixed, or remodeled.

Left to right - window treatments for the studio and the guest room, three small quilts in various stages of completion, my friend's purple dress that I need to hem, a top sheet that I want to add length to it as it is too short to stay in place, a mattress pad that I want to cut down to fit the twin guest bed, and work on the DP quilt that I am using the pile of solids and you can see it in the background.

I also need to build up my stash of baby quilts to have on hand just in case. One of my brothers had a friend who recently had a baby boy and I am scraping around trying to find something! I found two quilts that could work and then I have this one ready to quilt so it will go on the pile to do over the holidays.

The more I think about it the more I could add to my list so I am going to stop here!

Have a wonderful holiday!

20th finish of 2014 - hip to be square flannel quilt

Yeah! I got the flannel quilt done!

This is all the thread I had left on the second spool of Connecting Threads Essential Olive. It's a good thing I decided to reduce the size of this quilt by one row in the length and width!

I won some more fabric! The giveaway fabric came from a place called Massdrop. There are 14 FQ and the solid yellow is a 3/4 of a yard. They also included two spools of Aurifil thread. There are some interesting prints in this group of fabrics.

I also got these two little girl dresses made. I used a pattern that was in a Japanese sewing book I borrowed from the library. I changed the pattern a bit by making the neckline round instead of square, I faced the top part of the dress, made the sleeves a bit longer, and I added a zipper. I sure hope they fit! The one little girl loves unicorns so I used that crazy unicorn fabric I won several months ago for the one dress and the other girl loves orange. Stupid me I cut the orange dress too short, but I found one leftover strip of striped binding in the perfect shade of orange so I added that to the bottom.

My Xmas sewing is done so now I need to get the kitchen cleaned up for pie baking on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

DP - more pieces added

I managed to get a few more wedge units sewn together. I have some strips of fabric that are almost too narrow to piece so I thought I would put them on the design wall and see how it would look to use some solid strips between the blocks. I will continue to play with this.