Sunday, April 28, 2013

April goals-back on track!

I've done well in April with my goals!

1. I now have two completed Swoon blocks.  I will continue sewing blocks in May.
(btw for some reason blogger keeps flipping this picture upside down)

2.  I finished my Scrappy trip along quilt top!
I love how it came out!  I call it my Big Trip.  Ill let it stew a while until I fugure out how I want to finish it.

3.  I basted 2 baby quilts and my giant Lemoyne star.  
My knees have really been bothering me.  Since basting I have not been able to do the quilting.  But they are ready when I can!

Stay tned for my May goals!

keep dreaming...Colleen
Finally got a picture of the whole Love Swoon quilt.  Rainy day, dang!


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Boston Strong!


Monday I participated in an amazing event.  
Monday is my regular NOBO (No Boundaries ) night.  
It was practice #3 of our couch to 5k group sponsored by Fleet Feet. 

 But it turned out to be more than a 2 mile run/walk. 

 It turned into an amazing show of caring, friendship, and support for Boston.

Keith and Emily, owners of our local Fleet Feet sports organized our local event with other Fleet Feets around the country having their own.  Over 800 people came!
I hooked up with some friends from previous NOBO sessions.

And some new friends from this spring session.

They started the event  by Stacey lining us up by what we were run/walking. 

 1,2,3,or 5 miles.


Keith began the run by introducing a group of people who had been at the race.  The group included a firefighter whose daughter is still in the hospital.  Her boyfriend pushed her out of the way when the explosion happened.  Her boyfriend and his brother each lost a leg in the bombing.

We all held hands and came in close together.

And Keith read from Romans 12: 9-21

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[c] Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[d] says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”[e]
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

(copied from www.biblegateway.com)


We raised our hands in unity !


Then we all sang the national anthem,


 Please excuse the awful singing.  I couldn't find my key.


It was really awe inspiring moment!

I walked with my quilty/NOBO friend Kim the 2 mile route.

At the finish line a new friend Fleet Feet Pete was there to greet us!

And more NOBO friends!

Dawnyelle...
And Stacey our fearless leader!


There were some amazing shirts and shows of support!

The positive energy of the evening was incredible!


keep dreaming...Colleen

After the run Carolina Vineyards & Hops opened just for our event.
The Salem choir sang.  I enjoyed a glass of Scuppernong juice.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Tripin' along to a finish



Yesterday I finished one of my April goals-my scrapp tripalong!
Yeah!  
The scrappy trip along movement was promoted by imagingermonkey last December after Christmas on instagram.  The quilt is a free pattern by Bonnie Hunter .  Be warned it is addictively easy and scrap busting

This is my second scrappy trip finish.  
The first is this baby quilt that is basted and waiting on me to quilt it.  
Maybe today.

Its actually half a row bigger top and bottom then this picture shows.  The center cat block is one of a set I have my late grandmother made.  She used to make whole quilts from this pattern for her grandchildren.  This is for a cousin's baby.



Here is a picture of my last scrappy trip block being pieced!


I was using a couple of repro jelly rolls.  I threw in Kona Coal, one of my favorite neutrals.  I used 8 strips per block instead of six.  I had 8 different colored strips.  The strips were left over from making my granny square quilt last summer.  I used imagingermonkey's tutorial


I love how these two quilts will work together!  
The granny square has lots of 'negative space' .  
Whereas the scrappy trip is mostly the prints.  


I just had to sleep under the finished top last night! 
 Am I alone in doing this?  Anyone else sleep under finished tops? 
 I did the same with the granny square.  

BTW the scrappy trip is 62.5" square and the scrappy trip is 64" square.  I can imagine the granny square folded at the end of the bed with the scrappy trip covering the bed.

BTW2 Please dont look too closely at my nonmatching points.  I realized as I was sewing the large block rows together that I had sewn some of these blocks on my featherweight and the fractional difference in the seams added up to about a 1/2 inch in 2 rows.  Thus mismatched points.  Do you think I was going to rip it all out?  Heck NO!  

Sewn and let sewed is my motto!

Keep dreaming...Colleen
Kalli-cat and I were sewing along with Bonnie on Quilt Cam the other night.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Please vote for Me!

OMG!!! I thought it was awesome when I had 2 quilts in the Accuquilt Barn quilt contest top 100 last year!

This year I have 4!!!!!!
Please vote for me!!!  

They will look great on the side of a barn!

Sorry if I was a little excited there.  I was hoping to at least have two of my 6 designs in the top 100.  I never expected 4!  Most of my designs are inspired from actual quilts I have made through the past year.  I change layout, design and color.  You want a design that will stand out in large scale, and be able to be seen on the side of a barn up high.

BTW with this top 100 I will finally have enough Accuquilt points to get a Go! Baby!

I hope you will consider voting for my 4.  You do not have to vote for 5.  The minimum vote is one.  Please pass this along to your friends.

keep dreaming...Colleen
Ones that didnt make it.


Thursday, April 4, 2013

Destash the old stuff

Jenny want to know what we do with that old fabric.  I started quilting in the early 1990s and accumulated fabric from a grandmother and great-grandmother, as well as yard sales, and Piece Goods-like Joanns.  I had some quilt store quality fabric, mostly Hoffmans, and Nancy Crows.  I stopped quilting in 2000 due to a move, change of jobs, lack of space, illness, graduate school...then started in July 2010.  This is what I had when I unpacked the long stored boxes.

I sorted it and organized and touched it, and realized I really did not like alot of it.  I still had no clue at point what awesome modern quilt store fabrics were now out there.

Ive slowly destashed my 1990s and early 2000s fabric that I didnt want to keep a few ways.  
  • Sell in my etsy store(least successful unless lnked to blog sale)
  • sell it in online blog yard sales 
  • sell on fb destashing auction pages (most successful ways).  
  • Ive given it away on my blog-vintage Christmas is the most popular followed.
  • Ive donated to my quilt guild
  • Ive also made donation quilts with some of it
The blue and orange solids, and notice the 2000 fabric!

Most is gone except for the stuff I half like.  
Kept or used the top shelve, destashed the bottom(except for 2 of my favorite sunflower prints!)

I've pulled some of it out to use in Bonnie Hunters Quiltmaker magazine mystery. 

 And boy am I cutting it up!  The mystery uses about 12 yards for the blocks and another 8 yards for the backing and binding.  A couple are Joanns prints that I bought before I discovered my LQSs!

That's a lot of yards!  I will probably have some scraps.  I will probably cut them up for bow tie leaders and enders. 

 I need more cut as I don't have enough blocks for the bow tie scrap quilt I want to make. I like Bonnie Hunters philosophy that any fabric can  be successfully used in a scrap quilt like the one above and the mystery.  Its all about color and value.  She has a ton of free patterns on her website.  Many of you may be familiar with the scrappytripalong that has gone viral all over the web starting on instagram.  

Well there you have my old stash.
Link up your old stash and what you do with it with Jenny over at Squwak That

keep dreaming...Colleen
And this is what I have, well what I had last summer.  There may or may not be more.