Petthefabric, what an awesome reason for a move.

Motorcylemad, what awesome tops!

I have been too busy with my organizational stuff to even be tempted by fabric. Or at least I haven't had the time to either be tempted or sew. Yesterday I did a bunch of stuff in the sewing room, today I do hope to put it back to sewing state and maybe do those seams I pinned at Tuesday group.

We still haven't found either the pumpkin or purple & green quilt projects my friend has, I was hoping to make some blocks for those before starting another project of my own. Still weeks before I can expect Bernie back and try some quilting down. What to do, what to do...

So the good new is my arm is on the mend. (I broke it while taking a walk. 'cause I'm *extra*) I have 95% of my range of motion and have enough grip strength to ...well making dinner no longer knocks me out. I am able to get back to the sewing table. I've been testing myself for the past few days. Large projects which require stretch my arm out fully are still no-go but I seem to be ok with basic cutting and block piecing. I've been testing myself with some flannel scraps that I'm putting into pieced backing for projects that don't exist yet. It's amazing how the 8" x 90" pieces of long arm leftovers can actually become something useful with a little time and courthouse steps technique.

Valid to this thread because it means less shopping for backings later...or at least just enough for the immediate need.

I have now 3 projects on hangers needing sandwiching and quilting. But I don't think I am up for that yet.

Rff1010, glad to hear you are getting back to some sewing!

I am close to moving on from my current prep/leader-ender quilt to the next in line, which will be a simple black and gold design. I planned it so as to use up some gold, but I did have to buy some black FQ to pair with the gold.

Rff1010: Ouch to breaking your arm. I’m glad it’s healing.

I stopped in to our little local quilt shop this week, hadn’t stopped by in months. Lots of new beautiful fabrics on the shelves. All I picked up were 2 new reds in fat quarters I need for some log cabin blocks I need to make- when cleaning/ organizing my shelves I realized I don’t have many reds left- needed a couple. I went in with a need- and even though I did spend some time admiring the new fabrics I only grabbed what I needed.
I need to keep working on making a dent in my scraps or pass them on- every time I think I have them under control over night they seem to multiply. ;)

Lots of good news here. I'm glad you arm is healing, RFF1010. Using it to tolerance has to be good for the continued healing.
ckcowl, good job only buying what you went for. I have to stay out of fabric stores because I have become addicted to ombres and both stores have some gorgeous ones. I am using a piece of Moda Grunge wrong side up rather than go to a store.

Motorcyclemaid, very nice tops. I particularly like the TATW.

petthefabric, I can't imagine moving, but I'm glad you will be near your daughter. I have two daughters within five miles. One twenty, one a hundred and a son 500 miles. He drove from Georgia (he lives in Kentucky) last weekend to take me canoeing. A fun day.

Cool tops, Motorcyclemad!
Glad you're healing,RF1010.
Petthefabric- way to go on moving closer to your daughter!

Here's a photo of the quilt I'm piecing now, it's from the class that I impulsively signed up for when I was at the fabric shop two Wed. ago. It was a lot of fun and I think I'm going to be making it a little larger by adding some more snail trail blocks to the top.
All from scraps and stash. Just had to buy the rulers and the pattern. I think I'll make more as it really lends itself to using up the sizes of scraps I store.


Rob

Glorious colors! Keep going, if you don't you will wish you had. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/hug.gif

Rob - that's a stunner! Yes please keep going. Beautiful use of scrap\ stash. Could make a great queen bed size if you were of a mind to do so.

rryder, that is a stunning little quilt! I love how you mixed the snail’s trail with diamonds! It is so bright and happy. The colors just dance!

ckcowl: Way to go on purchasing only what you needed! I agree to the scraps multiplying.

Irishrose2: Great option to use the back side of the fabric.

Rob: Very pretty! What is the name of the pattern?

Thanks everyone. The pattern is called Snail’s Trail Al Fresco and it is one that was designed specifically to use a couple of the Creative Grids specialty rulers. It’s a Snail’s trail combined with a Storm at Sea setting. I can’t remember the name of the designer off the top of my head. I never purchase specialty rulers and seldom use other people’s patterns, but I’m very glad that I made the impulse purchases and took the class. I will be making this one again since it uses lots of sizes that I already have cut out of scraps- Yay!

I’m going to expand it by two more Snail’s Trail blocks since I have enough of all the fabrics to do so. Yesterday I pieced the first Snail’s trail block together as a reward for getting some other things done. I was surprised at how easily it went together. Those specialty rulers really did make it easier and they are both rulers that can be used for more than just the one pattern. This one will not be turning into a UFO https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png.

Rob

Rob, another one who loves that top. I really enjoy putting different blocks together and getting whole new designs -- haven't seen that one before.

I am really fighting the temptation to buy stuff today. Not fabric but sewing machines (plural) from that auction site of mine. I know, especially since I'm still stiff and sore that I have too much stuff. I know that I won't actually use these machines and that I already have more back-up machines than necessary. I still want them.

So I'm coming here to confess and hopefully not put in a perfectly reasonable super low bid and end up with more stuff that I don't have room for. Just in case you want to wrestle with the decision to bid on a complete $5 treadle or not (or the 3? other machines or the other lovely things), here's the link.
https://maxsold.maxsold.com/auction/...15/bidgallery/

Just remember -- no shipping you have to be local to pickup!

Some friends are coming Friday to shop. Need to get "want to keep" packed.

Hey y'all,
I just posted pics of my July Colorblock quilt over in the pics section. It's all from scraps and stash. Yay! Hop over and take a look if you get time.

Rob

Rob: Great July Color Block quilt! Great quilting also.

pulling fabrics from my stash and been working for all the quilts being made this year. The scraps are growing however I have found the perfect way to use most of them. Of course string quilts are the way for me to go. I purchased the Accuquilt 3 in one strip dies with 3 different sizes for strips and the scraps are quickly become workable pieces. The left over tiny pieces are being used for an animal shelter for dog beds.
I hope this winter I can rearrange my fabric stash a bit so it is easier to dig into. Right now it looks like it has not been touched except you see fabrics all over my studio. That dear friends is very difficult to deal with.

juliasb: I enjoy using my AccuQuilt dies also. Both of the quilt tops I show below have many parts cut with the die system.

I finished my August Color Block project only I chose to use a panel rather than making all of the blocks. I think this one will have a home with me for this fall rather than be donated. 60” by 80”

The second quilt top is Bonnie Hunter’s Bricks and Stepping Stones free pattern. It will be finished by my church group and donated. 60” by 80”.

I am continually impressed with how folks are using the color blocks each month in ways unexpected. Lovely and can see why you would want to keep it close by for a while any way. The BH should help make a dent into scraps. But we always have more, right?!

Cool tops, Connie- that panel works great with colorblocks.

Very nice tops, Connie. I'd like to make another Bricks and Stones in prettier colors like yours though patriotic colors were right for the young Marine.

retired T...great use of your panel and the checkerboard quilt looks great!

Meanwhile I have a scrappy stash quilt on the LA that I need to get finished...got some ripping to do first. Lots of new fabric in the shop and I am so tempted, but have stayed strong!

Thanks for the compliments.

Bricks and Stepping Stones was the last of the kits I had started a year ago so it feels good to have those quilt tops finished. I still have some kits that I started to assemble later but they aren’t at the year date yet. 🙂. I’m hoping to finish those by the end of the year.

Hey all,
I just posted my August Colorblock quilt to the pics section. All from scraps and stash, including the backing- Yay!

Rob

Just had a look at your August Colorblock quilt in the pics section. I love how the quilt has great unity even though it uses up scraps! Very nice!

Rob: Very pretty quilt and quilting! The sashing is an interesting design.

Good going Rob! Hope everyone has been doing well in real life and in fabric temptations. With Bernie in the shop most of the last month I haven't been doing much fabric usage and have been spending my time with my organization stuff.

Posting here today because it does concern fabric usage -- but mostly because I love my free ping pong table :) It is exactly 108 inches long -- fortunately for me most of my quilts end up shy of 100 and 108/3 yards is my standard backing length. I bought a huge commercial size roll of batting a number of years ago when I had access to the long arm and today I cut off 3 pieces, each long enough (108!) and wide enough to fit Aunt Debby Bleeds Blue, and the last two Bonnie Hunter projects (Frolic and Grassy Creek).

So here we are in action, in my heat/drought killed back yard still in morning shade... (is actually rather nice and bright and will be too hot by mid-afternoon) The door in the background is to my laundry room, fresh backs will be whisked out of the dryer, clamped on the table and the spray baste shall begin in an hour or so!

So great to have a workspace like this (especially when it was free) and way to be super-productive! I can't imagine having three quilts at this stage at the same time. Good luck with your completion stages! :-)

I've been doing really good on my organization stuff. Even doing good on my quilting stuff, sort of. Got Bernie back from the shop and was 90% complete quilting the first of three tops and it broke again. Actually as in a piece fell out of my machine and landed on my project! It was part of the just replaced thread sensor thing and so was fixed again for me under warranty of the last repair -- huzzah!

I got the quilting finished and even have the bindings on, well the machine part. I am so slow at the hand work part of things this will be weeks of Tuesday group sessions.

Today I do have to confess to buying. Two of my thrift store finds, lovely pieces both of them and unlike many I get very usable, not sure if they are indeed big enough for a back, about 4 yards each at $6/each. One is a timeless treasure/hi fashion and the other a Hoffman. I turned down a big golf novelty print -- plenty on that bolt for a back. And I even have some golf fabrics in my stash but I have no plans to make a golf themed quilt in the next 5 years so I passed. Yay me, pat on the back.

Iceblossom: Patting you on the back, 🙂

I haven’t bought any fabric in a while but some followed me home from my church quilting group. 🤷‍♀️ Now I just need to feel like sewing again.

I love your August color block quilt Rob. I’ve been making stacks of 16 squares blocks but hadn’t thought about how to put them together- wasn’t really keen on sashing strips. I love how you made star blocks.

Haven't checked in for awhile. I got my two Bonnie Hunter mystery tops quilted down with simple serpentine grids and Bernie is being cranky again for Aunt Debbie Bleeds Blue... Oh well, at least I have the hand finish for my bindings to do at Tuesday group and I'm doing ok not starting any new projects. I'm really pleased with myself that the last two mysteries will be completely done before starting this year!

I have been planning a trip -- May 2022 hubby and I will go back to Grand Rapids, MI to visit his mom and family and take a grand road trip there and back again. We'll be going through 13 states, spending the night in 10. I couldn't fit in Yellowstone to the dates, but we will be seeing Mt Rushmore for the first time. We are just spending two nights in Grand Rapids and then starting the homeward trek. There is a ferry that goes across Lake Michigan from Muskegon to Milwaukee -- what a hoot! (Much smaller and much more expensive than our tax supported local ferries.) The northern route back will take me right through where my grandparents were from in North Dakota. They lost the family store in the Great Depression and when my father was born in 1937, they moved west to Tacoma where my great aunt and her husband were established. It's mostly about the road trip...

Hope all are well -- Rob, thanks for the updates. Keep up on pain management, as you have found you want to keep ahead of the curve and not have to make your way back up.

edit/ps: you will notice that no quilt stores are mentioned for this trip. Will be traveling with dogs and while there are the various exemptions, I am not planning on any fabric shopping!

Connie: I love your "Growing up Odd". I don't believe I have ever seen an arrangement like that. Nice Work!

Rob: Your Snail's Trail variation almost looks alive. As always, Great job!

I was able to get two more diagonal finishes for September. The first is for my Oldest Nephew--colorful and extra-long. He's graduating this year. The second is a simple diagonal I needed to add sashing to get it to an acceptable size (Twin +)

Some of you mentioned that you had not see the "Growing Up Odd" quilt that Connie made before..... Oh yes, you have! It is my avatar! Tee-Hee-Hee. Color choices can disguise a pattern. Here is the tutorial for the pattern from Wedding Dress Blue.https://weddingdressblue.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/tutorial-growing-up-odd-quilt/ I made it with 2.5 inch squares rather then 2 inch, a very easy adjustment and found it quick and fun whether scrappy or planned. Keeping with our theme and focus, this pattern is a good way to use what is in your stash.

You are right there. It doesn't even look like the same quilt! Thank you for the link.

I would have never guessed that to be a GUO quilt WMUTeach! Your color placement is great! Meanwhile back at the farm I have been working on some UFO's and using stash to finish a couple of kid sized quilts as well as a sofa throw for MrOK from his dad's shirts...strips and borders from stash as well as backing. Now to finish. I pulled from the LA a stash queen sized quilt...LOL as I need to get fabric for the binding...oh well.

Well done, motorcyclemad

Well, for the first time in probably 3 years I ( fell off the wagon) today. It’s been a long, long time since I purchased any fabric just because I loved it. I stopped in to our little local shop this morning, actually with a plan and a need - needed another red fat quarter and possibly a new blue to finish up the last 4 blocks I need to do for my secret Santa exchange blocks and I was looking for 1/2 yard of something for journal covers for my secret Santa package— she loves orange and bright green—
first thing I found was some new, beautiful, vibrant Laurel Birch fabrics. Perfect colors- for my journals- and a panel….oh I love that— tote bags, possibly ( two hand pot holders) aprons I was thinking gifts for a few people…I did get my needed red & blue fq’s , 2 half yards in a fabulous bright green and a Laura’s Birch colorful stripe with great greens and oranges and 2 Laurel panels. When I pulled in I expected to spend about $10-$12 actually spent $46. Oh well- I’m thinking when also using stash fabrics I managed to get things that will make 4-7 different Christmas gifts and now I feel ( inspired and motivated)
and it wasn’t really a purchase just adding to stash it all has definite use/ projects. I did manage to stop looking and not be tempted by all the new projects I haven’t seen before. It was nice to drop in and browse a little

A friend got 100+ yds yesterday. And 17 books and a box of thread. And several quilts for charity. Keeps getting downsized. I'll never use it in my time and especially before I move.

Wow, petthefabric, you are doing great with your downsizing!

Yesterday, 2 lg/heavy boxes and 5 totes downsized to 2 totes. My brain was out to lunch for a lot of years.