ERRORS AND TYPOS

I have played with the headings in my previous post--they are not consistent! Believe it or not, They look correct in draft form, however. This really does bug me . . . when I have time later, I'll re-key the whole post if I need to do so to get it right--I don't like messy headlines!

Summer Stash Goals

Goal #1

I want to use some of my floral fabrics and 30's repros to finish a Dresden plate. I have 9 blocks done, but need 16 blocks total. I already have the white background fabric. My progress here is that I spent this past Thursday and Friday cutting up the floral fabrics for all of the blocks. I need to sew the "spokes" together, cut the background blocks out of the 6 yard piece of white Kona cotton that I have had for six years now, and applique these plates to the blocks. This is doable by the end of August because I sit and wait for hours on my son who plays football and has weight-lifting/practice three days a week. While I wait for him, I belive I can accomplish quite a bit towards these goals.

Goal #2

I had ordered 16 1/4-yard cuts from KeepSake Quilting for a Thimbleberries-themed row by row robin I need to complete with another on-line quilting group. They arrived Friday, and I've washed and ironed them. I only need five blocks for the row robin, but the rest of these fabrics are PERFECT for my log cabin/fan block quilt. Still working on my loading pictures of this to show you--mine are too large and I have to re-size them all, but I wanted to update this blog anyway.

The quilt is rather large--I already have 70+ log cabin blocks made plus I have 26 fan blocks, but I need 36 of those. The outer border still needs to be sewn--it is made up of 1.25" x 5.75 " rectangles with cranberry squares in the corners of the outer border. I also need to cut all of the setting squares--there are quite a few of those to cut and sew. This challenge is going to force me to complete this top--I've only been working on it about 5 years now--it's been a project to use up leftovers from other projects.



Goal #3
While I was on vacation in May, I bought about 3 yards of fabric for a tote bag. I will edit this and insert a picture sometime this week. The fabric line was Gypsy Song by Benartex--it was my first machine quilted tote bag--it turned out beautiful! This one is done!!!!!


Goal #4

Use some of the French Country prints to make a quilted table runner, place mats, and possibly a serged edge table cloth for my newly tiled kitchen! I have about 10 yards of French country fabrics just waiting on the shelf.

Goal #5

Complete my curtains/Roman Shades for the following places:

1. master bath (2 windows, and 2 closet windows)
2. master bedroom (2 adjoining windows)
3. French doors (1sets of doors in Foyer, 1 set in living room)
4. Game Room Curtains (2 windows)
5. Office (2 windows)

This goal alone should take me through the end of August. I bought all of the fabrics two years ago, but the windows still have the cheap lacy curtains that were in place when we bought the house 7 years ago. I'm ready for some changes!

My Sewing Machine is Broke!

I finally have time off and my machine is broke! I took it to the sewing center yesterday to get it fixed--the last time it took three weeks, but I only have four weeks off before school begins. They assured me it would be ready this weekend--I surely hope so! I'm going to begin my lists of UFOs today. I need to set some goals and try to get some projects completed.

I bought a Little Gracie frame and attempted to use my Janome Memory Craft 3000 on it. My needle kept breaking and/or coming completely out, so I took it off the frame and attempted to sew. My feed dogs would not raise up again. I must look for a long arm machine--something I've never used before. If anyone has any information about a Janome or Juke longarm, I would appreciate hearing about it.

I would love anyone's input on the longarms.

For now, I'm off to organize and list my UFO's . . . .!

Introduction

Hello!

Welcome to my Quilting Basket Case blog site. Why such a name for a blog? I love to quilt, and want to focus on that hobby with this blog. My family members think I'm nuts for trying to spend time quilting when my job and other responsibilities take so much time. However, if I don't squeeze in some time to do this often, I literally feel like a "basket case." For anyone with regional differences in expressions, here in the South the expression means that a person is going crazy or nuts! Although my time for quilting is extremely limited, when I do squeeze in some quilting time, something usually has to give--like ironing, or dusting, or some other household chore.

Another reason I chose this name, is that I love quilt blocks that represent baskets. Now that you have the story behind the origin of my site's name, I will say that I saw some interesting sites for downsizing your stash. There was even one for finishing five quilts by July--that's probably too lofty of a goal for me at this point, but if I at least write my goals here, hopefully I can follow through until they are reached.

It looks as though I will be going to Photo-shop to resize some photos--I just tried to upload some UFO pictures, but the files are too large.

First, however, I'm off to sew a new tote bag for my trip this week.