Binding audition, reaction to Where's Jimmy, cooking, and the next quilt

I folded up some of the leftover green Halloween fabric and pinned them to the design wall over the orange binding. Here is what it looks like.

I know you all think I am nuts, but I am going to change the binding and add the green.

The reaction so far to the "Where's Jimmy?" quilt has been good. When people talk about it they smile and have commented about the details including all the different fabric I used.

The mailman brought me the King Tut thread that Superior had on sale in August. I bought two Linen White and a Papyrus. King Tut is one of my favorite machine quilting thread to use.

Last evening was time spent in the kitchen. I needed to finish the soup I started last week. I didn't have any beef broth to add to my beef veggie soup. I finally went to the store and got some, so it was time to finish the soup with the broth, some chopped baby spinach, and some additional seasoning. I ended up with this container plus 6 quarts of soup for the freezer.

I wanted to make some lemon curd in my Vita Mix for my yogurt, so that was next on the agenda.

I needed to make room in the freezer (I only have the one in the refrigerator) for the veggie soup so I took out a lasagna and baked it. I had a bit for dinner last night and the rest will be for breakfasts and lunches this week. Yes, I like to eat lasagna for breakfast. Yum!

While the lemon curd was cooking in the Vita Mix, I cut up 5 peaches out of the 1/2 peck I had bought Friday. A half peck is about 10 peaches. The are large, juicy, and came from PA. The lady told me the Ohio peach crop failed this year due to a cold wet spring.

After all that I finally got down to the studio and worked on the next quilt a bit. I cut the batting off the roll.

I layered two layers of the backing fabric which is the same as the spider web fabric I used on the front and cut to size.

Next I sewed the backing strips together.

Tonight I can press the backing and start layering the backing and top for pin basting.

14th finish of 2014 and one busy weekend

I finished the Orange and green Halloween quilt - YEAH! After hanging it up to take a picture of it, I am not sure about putting the orange binding all the way around the quilt. I think I should have put green binding next to the green blocks on the left and right sides. I will have to think about this. It would only take a couple of hours to change. I will have to think about this. I am sure the 4 year old this is for won't care, but it bugs me. This quilt finished 79" x 91".

The next quilt will be the purple and gray Halloween quilt. I had bought plenty of the off white spider web fabric so that will be used for the backing.

Saturday morning the band had a gig and wouldn't you know it there was a chance of rain and for once the weatherman was right. The rain started about an hour before the show started and almost quilt after we loaded out. We were soaked. The wind would blow at times it was hard to keep the tarp on the merchandise booth. You see those white lines on the right side of this picture? That is rain running off the tent I was standing under.

That brown tarp in the upper left corner is covering the merchandise. We didn't have a tent because my brother packed the tent frame, but forgot the tent! Oops!

Saturday evening was the opening night for the Akron Art Prize. I went down to see all the entries. Here is mine

There was a wonderful mix of pieces: photography, sculpture, watercolor, paintings, stained glass, jewelry, and mixed media. There was a lot to see.

Sunday morning I met my brother, Mike, at my brother Bob's house to clean up the yard. Bob is coming to Akron for a few days and we needed to clean up the yard. We raked, weed wacked, swept, leaf blowed, and power washed as much as we could in 3 1/2 hours. The yard looks much better. Here is Mike weed wacking away.

I was a wet, dirty mess when I got home! I brought home sheets and towels to wash so I did laundry while I worked on the Halloween quilt. About 7 p.m. I headed out to mow my grass. I tried to mow the backyard but the grass is still too wet. The temperature has dropped, but it is still humid so the grass just won't dry out.

Orange Halloween quilt, giveaway, and yeah it's the weekend soon!

I quilted last evening during the commercials of Project Runway reruns. I did not know the new season started so I watched two of the previous episodes and taped the new one. I did managed to get the area of one and one half blocks done, so I have four and one half left to quilt.

Since I am almost done with the machine quilting it is time to figure out what fabric I am going to use for the binding. I dug thru my stash and auditioned some selections.
A Jay McCarroll fabric - it is actually orange and navy

Black and white polka dot

A light orange tone on tone print - maybe a bit too yellow

A darker orange tone on tone print - this looks pretty good

Clothworks Witchful Thinking spider print - this is pretty cute

Orange stripe - not bad at all

Black and white stripe - the white is too white - the Boo Crew Moda fabric is off white so I don't think this one will work

Any thoughts?

I forgot to put a closing date on the giveaway I posted yesterday. Tuesday at noon EST sounds good to me. I will notify the winner by email to get their name and address.

My goal this weekend it to spend as much time as possible in the studio and get the orange Halloween quilt done. I would like to get the purple and gray Halloween quilt pin basted, but we will see how it goes.

Have a great weekend!

Orange Halloween quilt, to do lists & giveaway - UPDATE

I forgot to have a end date for the giveaway, so it will be 9/9/14 at noon EST.

I got two more blocks quilted last evening. So that is 24 done and six to go.

The subject of to do lists came up yesterday in one of my email conversations. I thought it was about time I updated my lists. I had posted a list on 5/17/12 and 5/30/12 which listed a total of 30 quilts to do. Of those 30, I completed 21 since the to do list of 5/17/12. In addition to the 21 completed I also made 24 other quilts and 4 tops for donation since then. I hung the lists including the picture of the items as a reminded on the closet door next to the studio.

So what is going on my new to do list? Well, I still have the 9 quilts not done from the previous two lists, items that I forgot to put on the last two lists, and new items that have found their way to me.

1. Orange and green Halloween quilt I am currently working on - twin sized

2. Gray and purple Halloween quilt - twin sized

3. The Michael Miller Cotton Couture challenge for QuiltCon - I have not received the free 8 FQ's yet so I can't start on this one. These are the additional fabrics I bought for the quilt.

4. Halloween fabric for a quilt for QuiltCon

5. My niece's t-shirt graduation quilt

6. Blue & white log cabin - baby quilt

7 & 8. Two small quilts from the challenge earlier this year that didn't get picked

9. Log Cabin quilt - this is the second large quilt I had pieced. I had started to hand quilt this and it kept getting pushed aside. After two moves and several home remodels, the quilt was filthy and back then I used the batting that was available - polyester. I took out the hand quilting, washed the top and back, and plan to machine quilt this. This is my oldest UFO - 30+ years - and yes, I am going to get 'er done!

10. Improv musical quilt - queen sized - I have started quilting this, but had to put is aside.

11. Log cabin hand dyed fabric - look at the date - 2010! I don't remember the challenge I made this for, but I am way pass the entry date for sure!

12. Black and white star top - queen sized

13. Improv baby quilt

14. Pinwheel baby quilt

15. Blue and tan log cabin - this is partially hand quilted and has polyester batting. I am going to remove the hand quilting, replace the batting, and machine quilt.

16. Wedding ring quilt for a friend - needs some major TLC!

17. Tea towel quilt

18. T-shirt quilt - this is my son's quilt that I took apart to repair and re-quilt.

19. Hockey flannel quilt for my son

20.. Soccer boy 54 1/2 x 73" I may put a border on this one to make it a bit wider.

21. Scrap black and green 34" x 52" this one is partially hand and machine quilted. It has been in this state for years!

22. Maple leaf 78" x 102" the blocks were made by the late sister of a neighbor I had in Dover. I put together the top, because the neighbor does not sew.

23. Danks 90" x 99" this is a young fellow I work with. I made this as a housewarming gift. He and his long time girlfriend have been in their house for 3 years! Up date: they have now been in their house for 5 years and are now married! I need to get this done!

24. Red dog 54" x 65"

25. Cobbles 38" x 49"

I was hoping to find a top I could use for the family xmas quilt this year, but I don't think there is anything in this group that will work for that. I will print out this list and replace the previous two lists and see what I can get done.

I can't be the only one with this kind of crazy to do list. 1. Leave me a comment with how many UFO you have or may have and 2. tell me how old is the oldest UFO you have with every intention to complete. I will put together a fun prize package which will include fabric, thread, and some goodies. Sorry, I will ship to USA addresses only, but for international, I will help you solve a quilting problem or write a custom tutorial for you on a issue you are having - for example, binding, pin basting, or improv piecing.

So let's see how many UFO are out there in the world!

Progress on the orange & green Halloween quilt

I managed to get three more blocks quilted last evening. My total is now 22 blocks quilted with 8 more to quilt. I will be putting the binding on this one this weekend!

Sewing like crazy

I managed to get my two pieces submitted on-line late Friday for the Farm to Fabric challenge. I won't know until September 5. I did work a bit on getting the facing binding hand sewn on. I have about two feet left to do. I worked on that while I was watching a Dirty Harry movie last evening.

I worked all weekend on machine quilting one of the Halloween quilts. I was quilting along and saw this - yes, a hole in the fabric. Can you see it right under the white W?

Thank goodness the hole was in a corner block which made it much easier to fix. I took the stitches out on either side of the area, cut a piece out and used it for a pattern, cut a new piece and sewed it in. Here is what is looked like after I was done.

I now have 19 out of the 30 blocks quilted.

So far I have gone thru around 2000 yards of thread. I decided to do an overall quilt pattern rather than what I normally would do which is lines. Lines take longer and this quilt is going to get a lot of hard use so why bother put in all the extra time. I did quilt the mostly orange blocks in orange, the mostly green blocks with green thread, and off white for the mostly off white blocks. I need this done for the beginning of October along with the gray and purple Halloween quilt. At the pace I am quilting I will be able to meet my deadline.

I could have got more done on the quilt, but I needed to spend time on Monday doing some cooking. I made vegetable soup and chili so I would have quick meals this week. Throw in making some brown rice for the chili, all the clean up, and a few loads of laundry and that was 4 - 5 hours of my day. I tried to get as much done in the morning since AMC was having a Rambo marathon starting at 12:30 which I watched while quilting.