Naughty Me

I’ve been very, very naughty….

A lot of fabric has been purchased lately….

I swore that I was going to go on a “fabric diet”…. But… well…..

First, I got a small bonus – cash – from my contract firm and I’ve also been feeling a little down about a lot of things and retail therapy helps. 

Earlier this month, a friend and I hiked out west to couple good, but not often visited due to drive fabric stores as well as hitting standbys that are close by.  The end result:  Blue Bamboo for metallics and some batiks that I cannot find elsewhere, SR Harris for 108 wide batiks, an embroidered piece and many, many, cottons, three large chunks of 108 backing fabric at Joann’s and on TWO days – fabrics from Twin City Quilting.  There was also a trip in there to Glad Creations for the fabrics I needed for the “Jo’s Little Women” club (ANOTHER block of the month)

And, honestly, none of them are really for any current projects.

I also went a little crazy online.  I bought three patterns from Keepsake quilting AND signed up for their bits and pieces club.  I pay monthly (credit card) and get a pack of mystery fabrics each month.  I like the idea and hoping that it will stimulate some creativity.  The first month arrived with the patterns a couple days ago.  It is a layer cake of some very feminine small florals.  Anyone have an idea what I should do with them?

Connecting Threads also got a chunk of money from me.  I have a very fussy Juki.  I’ve written about it before.  It’s one factor in my decision to only buy good quality cotton thread from now on.  I first decided to go with Gutterman because I can get deals at Joann, and Aurfil for a smaller thickness (quilting mostly).  Gutterman is a great thread, but I don’t like the spools.  They are what most people know as the standard spool of thread with “discs” on either end and the thread on the narrower part in the center.  While this is fine for standard sewing – especially when the spool gets spun around to use – it doesn’t work for quilting.  The spool is usually stood up, and the thread needs to wind off quickly.  With the standard spool, thread can often get caught on the ends and break.  I really needed to find another thread type with a different spool configuration.

I love thethreadexchange.com for my embroidery thread, but I haven’t been 100% satisfied with cottons from there.  I bought several large cones – 40 and 60 wt – that are just beautiful and sew very well.  They are high quality, strong, etc., but one cone just will NOT work on the Juki.  It’s the same brand as the others, but it breaks non-stop.  I tried it on several quilts.  I can piece with it, but it won’t work for the quilt sandwich.  A big shame, because it’s a variegated green/purple that I haven’t found elsewhere.

I buy quite a bit of fabric from Connecting Threads.  I really like the charm packs and other collections she puts together (her own selections and collections; not things that everyone carries) and her prices are the best.  I decided to try a small color collection of her threads – brights – just to see.  They are the same weight as Gutterman – 40 – but come wound on straight spools (cardboard cylinders).  The thread is also even cheaper than Gutterman at 50% off. 

Well, suffice to say, the thread is fantastic!  The Juki likes it!  I am also very pleased with her colors.  She doesn’t have as many shades as Gutterman displays in Joann’s, but a large color range is covered and her brights are simply vibrant.  I’ve even quilted a piece with Minkee for the back and it turned out very well.  So, along with my quilt shop shopping, and online fabric purchases, I also got a big box of thread…. And a couple more pieces of fabric….

The Project Box Status

While I’m still putting the “must get dones” on the project list, I’m not listing all the smaller things that I pull out of it and get done.  I’ve actually been really good on that front.  I am ONLY pulling things out of that box to do, and I’m using scraps as much as I can in conjunction with those projects. 

For the last two weeks, most of what I’ve been doing from there is small projects:  (note:  “decorative piece” means a smaller than baby quilt size that can be a wall hanging, table topper, etc.)

Item	Status
Baby quilt using a small jelly roll	Completely done and actually given to Ana to claim she made and give as a baby shower gift (it was planned unexpectedly)
Decorative piece using two charm packs	Completely done
Decorative pieces using leftover 4 ½ inch blocks from the circle dance quilt AND scraps from the scrap bin AND using one of the Scrap Tamer’s monthly patterns (Picture shown last posting)	Completely done
Decorative pieces using left over 7 inch  from the circle dance quilt	Completely done
Decorative piece using six embroidered blocks (originally done to use up ends of spools of embroidery thread) AND  many small bits from the scrap bin	Top pieced, needs to be quilted and bound
Decorative piece using two (slightly different) embroidered blocks AND the leftover QSTs made for the line above ( J )	Top pieced, needs to be quilted and bound
Mariner’s compass quilt (picture to be in a post soon, I promise).  This is a LARGE piece that I’ve been working on since later October (not solidly).  Yay!  One of the major things knocked off!	Top pieced, needs to be quilted and bound.
Decorative piece using the three extra Mariner’s Compass blocks.  How I made three extra when I so carefully cut and labeled, I do not know….	Top pieced and quilted, needs to be bound
Decorative piece using the single block that I made from the Fat Quarter Quilt Shop’s paper piecing block of the month.  This was the shop that I had such bad experiences with and decided not to continue with the program	Top pieced and quilted, needs to be bound

Block of the Month projects

·         Scrap Tamer’s Mystery (x2, remember?) – Not overdue, will be working on at Sewing day tomorrow.

·         Twin City Quilting – Not overdue, will be working on at Sewing day tomorrow.

·         Ranae Merrill – Behind….almost…  I did block one, block two came out 3/1, and block three will come out 4/1.  If I do block two in Sewing day tomorrow, I’ll be golden!

·         Jo’s Little Women: club project – just started this group three days ago and got the first project.  I have all the fabrics for it.

·         Jo’s Little Women:  extra project – again, the group just started.  I’m going to use a charm pack from the project box for this.

I really enjoy block of the month projects.  However, a lot of it is the solidarity with other quilters in the monthly meeting.  I like the presentation of new products, and seeing what other people are doing.  The online BOM with Ranae Merrill’s Spiral designs doesn’t have any of that, but I am really interested in the project as a whole. 

Contest Entry

*sigh*

I have to get going on this. 

Since I discovered that my project was too large, I finished the top, but have neither quilted that piece nor determined what to do instead.  I’m pretty sure that I’m going to do a spiral design, but I’m not yet inspired.  I have to submit the entry form by April 30, so I still have time.

Calendars, Photo Books and Blank Books

I’ve mentioned “The Picture Project”…. I bought a ton of groupons for Mixbook.com, PrinterPix.com, Vistaprint.com and MyPublisher.com with the intention of making calendars for my family, photo books of the children AND annotated books of my quilts.  I’ve also sent all the snapshots I could find to ScanMyPhotos.com and spent several hours hanging quilts on my front fence and taking pictures of them.  I’m at a stage where I’ve got a lot to work with, and a couple of the coupons are expiring early in April. 

Instead of doing a lot of writing here, I’ve been spending a lot of my computer time putting together quilt books in the online editors for the various programs.  I’ve developed some favorites and will gladly share!

·         VistaPrint.com – this site offers far more photo products than the other sites.  Most of the sites have books and calendars and maybe one or two other things.  VistaPrint has EVERYTHING.  You can make post it note pads, t-shirts, mugs, etc.  I use them mostly for 4 x 6 soft cover spiral bound books.  I have found that size at other sites, but not spiral bound.  These “flip” books make great little brag books that fit nicely in my purse.

·         PrinterPix.com – I got a good deal with this site on paper.  It was $9, plus shipping, for a hard cover book.  I haven’t gotten the first book yet and I will post when I do.  Since buying the coupons (2), I’ve read not so great reviews about them and the editor SUCKS.  It’s awful.

·         Mixbook.com – so far, this is the BEST for editors for full books.  I am really having a lot of fun putting the books together.

·         MyPublisher – I haven’t tried this one out yet

In addition to the books that I’m creating to showcase my quilts (and books of my children), I’ve also created a couple books that lead up to the ability to create more art – blank books.  I’ve created two of them – one with lined pages and one with unlined pages – that are my “working books”.  Each features a picture of one of my quilts on the front.  Granted, at $10 approximately apiece (and adjusted downwards as the groupon used was basically 70% off), they are expensive.  However, it’s really cool to carry a half sized lined notebook to quilt class that has your quilt on the front!  I frequent cut pictures out of quilt magazines and catalogues for inspiration.  They sit in piles on my end tables and I lose track of what I thought of when I cut it out.  I tried once to put them onto index cards and write on them.  That resulted in piles of unorganized index cards.  Now, I’m pasting them all into the blank book and writing in there!