UFO’s, What To Do?

As I mentioned on my New Year’s day post, my guild Quilters by the Sea is having a UFO challenge this year.   Next week we have to turn in a list of 5 UFO’s numbered 1 through 5.  A number will be picked and the UFO that is assigned to that number is what you will work on.  We will have two months to complete it, finished all the way including a label.   As I understand it, there will even be prizes. 

My problem is I have lots, and I mean lots of UFO’s.  I started going through them and came up with these.  Trust me I have way more than this but I’m going to pick my 5 from these. 

Row 1:

• A mystery quilt from years ago.  It’s quilted but need binding and then need to be given away.  I don’t like it.
• A simple rails quilt that was made as a sample to help sell the fabric, the fabric sold but I still need to bind it.  This one will be given to charity.
• Nine patch surprise Halloween quilt that was designed by my sister Melinda.  I bought glow in the dark thread to quilt it.  Guess I better find the thread, quilt it and bind it.  I love Halloween so this one I will probably keep.

Row 2:

• A Wacky Devine Nine that I stated about 1 1/2 years ago.  It need a border, quilting, binding and then it will be ready to donate.
• Sort of a disappearing nine patch.  This is a charity quilt that needs to be quilted, bound and given away.
• This is so old, I have no idea how old.  It was an on-line exchange of 25 - 2 1/2” squares.   I started sewing them together way back when.  I still have some that need to be sewn but at this point, I’m just going to start sewing some of the 25 patch blocks together, quilt it, bind it and give it to charity. 

Row 3:

• This is almost new, LOL, it’s from a 2010 exchange of red and turquoise D9P blocks.  As you can see I already have border fabric and binding fabric all ready to go.  I just need to decide on a layout, sew it together, quilt it, bind it and decide what to do with it. 
• A very old cat wall hanging.  It was quilted at a machine quilting retreat but it need more quilting in the border so it lays flat.  After that, bind, label and hang on the wall.
• Another one that’s too old for me to remember when it was started but it’s a Stack and Whack from Bethany Reynolds book.  I’m not sure what needs to be done but clearly something needs to happen to this ancient project.

Row 4:

• A mystery quilt from a guild retreat, way back when.  The top is finished but it needs to be completed and probably donated. 
• Another Simple Rails quilt.  This was meant to be a picnic quilt for me, although I’m not sure if I’ve ever been on a picnic.  Anyway it needs the usual, quilting, binding and label. 
• A log cabin wall hanging made at a Mary Ellen Hopkins retreat several years ago.  I really like this one but it needs to be finished and out of the UFO stack.

Row 5:

• OK this is bad.  I took these pictures just a few days ago and I still don’t remember what this quilt is but it’s obviously old and needs to be completed then donated. 

I wish this was all of them, but it’s not.  I’ll pick 5 of them for the guild challenge and then challenge myself to finish some of the others. 

Here’s hoping you don’t have the same problem.

Enjoy,

Wacko Christmas Gifts

Wacko you say?  What’s a Wacko gift for that matter what’s a Wacko?  For those that don’t know, I belong to a wonderful friendship group and we lovingly call ourselves the Wednesday Wacko’s.  Each year we have our annual Christmas get-to-gather and  this year it was at my friend Linda’s house.  We had a great evening of eating, a little wine and a gift exchange.  Unfortunately since I took so long to write this post, some of the gifts have been put away with the Christmas decorations but I’ll show you what I can still photograph.

This is a beautiful and delicate pincushion made from an old handkerchief.   Thank you Marilyn.

This darling little zipper bag was made by my friend Pat B.

Susan made us each a gorgeous bias cut, tube scarf, out of a wonderful soft, slinky fabric.  

Sue made this great bag.  It’s a really nice size that will hold all kinds of things. 

Our hostess, Linda made each of us a little Chinese takeout box.   Notice mine has flip-flops on it, she knows me well. 

Pam made us each a wonderful table topper along with this darling pincushion.  Unfortunately the table topper is packed away, sorry.

I know I’ve left out several other gifts but unfortunately I didn’t get pictures.  Pat M. Margie, Rob, Terri, I love you all, next year I’ll try to do a better job. 

Enjoy,

Some People Collect Stamps, I collect Irons

So maybe that’s a slight exaggeration but I do love a good iron.   Recently my beloved Rowenta decided to turn off for the last time.  I’ve heard reports of Rowenta’s leaking but I’ve never had that problem.  Mine just decided to quit, never to work again.  So what’s a person to do, well head to Costco of course and buy a new one.

It [pretty and it works really well but I have a problem seeing the water level and water is important to me, I love steam.   But it’s a great iron and really, I wasn’t in the market for a new one.  I had some time to kill and wondered in to a Big Lot’s (a super duper discount chain) and sitting there calling my name was this little beauty.

They called it a classic and I just fell in love the looks of it.  BTW, who buys an iron based on looks?  Am I a little strange?  Oh well, I bought it for about $10.00 to $15.00 and brought it home, opened the box, poured some water in, turned it up full blast and……….fell in love for more than it’s good looks.  Not only can I see the water level, it gets really, really hot and steams beautifully.

As you can see the Rowenta is a little larger and although it’s a great iron, it’s going to spend sometime in the closet while I enjoy my Hamilton Beach.  

Enjoy,

Handling Laminated Cotton

Last week I spent some time talking about ironing or pressing laminate especially as it applies to attaching a fusible fleece or interfacing.  In case you missed it you can read it here.  After that post, I continued working with the laminate and found the Teflon sheets were just a little bit smaller than my project.  I had an AH-HA moment.  I ran (ok I didn’t run, but I walked quickly) into the kitchen and got out my parchment paper. 

Sure enough, I had two different brands of parchment paper.  For those of you that haven’t used it for cooking, it is a nice crisp paper that is non-stick and can be used to line a baking sheet when cooking a variety of things but I use it primarily for cookies.   Although it’s typically white or natural it is sheer enough to be able to see a line drawing through it.  Many people us it for appliqué. 

OK so back to ironing.  The paper worked perfect and in fact I liked it a lot better than the Teflon pressing sheets.   One of these packages has now moved from the kitchen to my sewing room. 

Now it was time to sew.  Typically when we sew, we put right sides together so that the wrong side of the fabric is a against our pressure foot and the bed of the sewing machines.  As long as that is how you are sewing the laminate, no problem, it’s just like sewing any cotton fabric (remember the laminate is only on the right side of the fabric).  I used an 80/10 topstitch needle because that’s what I usually have in my machine.  I think whatever needle you typically use will work just fine.  BTW the laminate doesn’t seem to show pin marks.  I was able to pin the layers together without seeing anything.  I even had to do a little reverse sewing and the laminate looked just fine. 

Everything was going along well until it was time to topstitch.   The bag that I made has pockets topstitched in place as well as some other topstitching that means I now had to deal with the laminate riding against the sewing machine bed as well as the pressure foot.  Here’s what I did to make the job much easier.

First, a Teflon pressure foot.  Although I have a Bernina, I believe most of the major manufactures make either a Teflon foot or a rolling foot to handle sewing on difficult fabrics.    Check with your dealer.

  The other life saver was this.

What is that you say?

It’s a product called SewSlip and is a slick surface that you lay on top of your sewing machine bed.   It’s primarily used for free motion quilting but it worked really good for this.  It can be purchased from www.sewslip.com.  I tried to use the parchment paper the same way.  I cut out a hole and then taped it in place.  I had trouble getting the tape to stick but I’m sure if I spent a little more time I could have figured out a way to make it work. 

That’s it, other then when you need to sew with the laminate touching the foot or bed it’s business as usual.   Give it a try, it’s worth the little bit of extra work. 

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday–1/3/11

This week my design wall is my cutting table.  I really need to get around to putting my design wall back up, but in the mean time the cutting table will do.  I wish I had something more exciting to show but this is the best I can do this week,

 

My husband and I are headed to New York soon so this fabric is out so that I can make some Click-it bags for his nieces.  I bought this fabric quite awhile ago from City Quilter in New York City.  Isn’t it fun?

And isn’t this exciting?

My husband and I consider ourselves to be of “normal height” but apparently the clothing manufactures don’t think so.   They just don’t make pants short enough.  Am I the only one that hates to shorten jeans?  This sounds terrible but I usually take them to the cleaners and have them do it, but time is of the essence so I have to break down and do it myself today.  Yuk, I’d rather be quilting. 

Hopefully next week I’ll have something better to share.  Head on over to Judy’s Blog and see if anyone is doing anything more exciting, I suspect they are. 

Enjoy,

First Finish of 2011

While at Houston Quilt Mart, I fell in love with the cotton laminate by Tula Pink for Free Spirit.  Marilyn and I decided to order one bolt each of two of the laminates and one bolt of a cotton coordinate.  The cotton coordinate came right away as I waited patiently for the laminates to arrive.  Finally right in the middle of the holidays they arrived.

 
And there it sat, propped up in the corner, taunting me.  Finally I started working with it earlier this week.  You can read about it here.   I actually started assembling a Letty’s Bag New Years Eve and completed it yesterday.   All I can say it is the cutest thing EVER!  I just love it. 

I changed a few things from the original pattern.  Since I always carry my cell phone plus a small camera, I added a second cell phone pocket on the inside to accommodate my camera. 

I also decided to make it a little smaller than the original.  I’ve put together my notes on the changes I made so if you own a Letty’s Bag pattern and would like a copy of my notes, just sent me an email and I’ll send you a PDF with the changes.   

There were a few challenges sewing on the laminate but not all that difficult.  I’ll post about my experience and my recommendations later this week. 

I had some scraps left over so what to do with them?  Well, make a Click-It bag, of course.  

It’s not very big and will tuck inside the Letty’s Bag nicely. 

So the big question you may have, is where do you buy this gorgeous fabric.   Well, Two Wacky Women has it for sale, although we have a limited quantity.   It retails for $19.00 US per yard and it’s 60” wide for the laminate.  The coordinated cotton retails for $9.00 US per yard and is 44” wide.  You won’t find it on our website but all you have to do is send an email to either me or Marilyn and we can calculate the cost, invoice you through PayPal and ship it off to you. 

Enjoy,

2011 – A New Beginning

It’s 2011, I’m up, sitting here watching the Rose Parade, I’ve had my first cup of coffee, my husband is here watching the parade with me, bacon is  cooking, what more can a person ask.   I hope your day is starting off as well as mine. 

I’ve thought a lot about what my goals are for 2011 (I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, goals are the best I can do).  I’ve come up with a few and thought I’d share them with you. 

1.  My guilt guild Quilters by the Sea is having a UFO challenge.  We pick 5 UFO’s, list them and turn in our list.  The organizers will then tell us which UFO we are to finish during the following 2 months.  Finish means finished including the label.  I have way more than 5 UFO’s so today I hope to pick which ones to list. 

2.  Grow my Robin Quilts, inc. business.  I’ve been very fortunate to see my pattern business grow by leaps and bounds in 2010.  It’s now time to take it to the next level.  I’m in the process of deciding whether or not to vend at Spring Market.  I need to decide soon.

3.  Grow the Two Wacky Women business.  Along with my partner Marilyn, we are continuing to focus on our retreats.   We are thrilled that several of the 2011 retreats are already sold out so it’s time for us to figure out where to go from here. 

4.  Have some fun sewing something that isn’t part of the business.   This is a tricky one but I came across this Block of the Month that looks like fun.  Shannon over at Pieceful Kwilter has just posted block 1.   It looks like fun, doable and finishes a nice size.  I think I’ll give it a try.   This is January’s block. 

5.   I really do need to get back to my exercise program.  I was doing really well and somehow fell off the wagon.  Time to climb back on.  The Race on the Base in Los Alamitos is in February.  Better dust of the shoes and start training. 

6.  My Blog.  I’m going to try to do a better job of updating it on a regular  basis.  Maybe not everyday but more often than in 2010. 

7.  Last but not least, continue to enjoy by family.  I am so blessed.

My husband John and me from a few years ago.   This year we celebrate our 30th.	My granddaughter Emily, my daughter Shelli, and granddaughter Natalia.

What are you hoping to accomplish in 2011?  I’d love to hear from you.

Enjoy,