Monday, August 14, 2006

Sew For an Hour Quilt

Thanks for the answers to the longarm questions. I'm definitely buying one -- it just remains to be seen when I can save up the money because it definitely will be paid in cash -- no financing here. I'm pretty sure it'll be a Gammill, too. Because the Gammill dealer is the closest to me. Every longarmer in this area has a Gammill -- so I'm more familiar with them, also. A good friend bought one at the end of last year and the lady at one of the lqs upgraded last year and added the Statler Stitcher this year (no -- I don't ever plan on buying the SS --costs as much as the longarm!) Anyway -- except for quilts that I have to have done by a certain time -- any of the larger quilts I do from here on out will wait til I get the machine to be quilted! I'm not going to fight it any more -- way too frustrating.

I'm doing the Sew for an Hour Quilt that Judy at Sunshine Quilts designed for us and challenged us with. Today was day one (or hour one). It took me about an hour and a half to pull fabric -- all from stash and scraps, press it and cut it to size. Then, I marked my squares to make hst's -- because I also use that method to make them, and sewed 40 squares, cut them apart and pressed them -- so I have 80 (4 blocks x 5 blocks) hst's ready to be squared up. It only took me about 45 minutes to actually do that part, but I was tired from doing chores, and running up and down stairs doing laundry in between the cutting/sewing part. vbg I think I made a respectable start today anyway. I cleaned up my mess -- actually I stacked the fabric left over and stuck it in the cabinet without sorting, so I need to clean out the cabinet again -- big time.

Then, I managed to prep one applique block for Briana's quilt -- the pieces are all cut that need to be pieced, but I haven't pulled the fabric or cut any of the applique pieces. I'll do them one at a time. That's the next big project I'll be working on -- so I'll probably be doing it in between the Hour a Day Quilt. I hope to do the applique tonight on that one block.

I also managed to sew the binding on the baby quilt I no longer like. vbg Still need to hand stitch it to the back. I washed the Jacks baby quilt and it is now ready for baby -- well, still need to wrap it and buy a card. Need to wrap the first baby quilt - hearts and stars -- too.

So, basically, it was a quilty day and I even managed to finish the laundry and clean the basement and the bath down here and mop the floor in the basement. ('Course I mopped this morning and left the bucket of vinegar/water with the mop still in it until this evening when I came down and remembered I hadn't emptied it!)

Gratitudes:
1. Bill had to run to the hardware store, so he picked up the salad fixin's for tonight's dinner (I hate having to run into town for one thing at the grocery store - especially since tomorrow is shopping day.)
2. I'm glad I organized my next projects in bags waiting on the table -- so much easier to open the next project and have everything I need right there.
3. Another beautiful day in the midwest -- but no rain.
4. I'm getting the rush from the longarm dealer -- another note in the mail today. That's okay -- keeps the idea fresh in Bill's mind, so he will know when the money is saved that it's going to be spent on the longarm! vbg

6 comments :

Melanie said...

I like the part in your post where you talked about picking up after up worked. I've got to get better at that. I love the pinwheel baby quilt.

Gail said...

You made wonderful progress- and even cleaned up, like screen door said, I need to do that each time also. Maybe part of this challenge will be creating 2 new habits: sewing for an hour a day, cleaning up a al Hanne "do it now".

quiltpixie said...

sounds like you've been really busy... :-)

ForestJane said...

You were pretty productive! You are also making me jealous with talk of the long arm... lol

Susan said...

Yay! A quilty day. You made a lot of progress on Judy's quilt. I stopped when my hour was up. =) And a nice clean basement, too. Good day!

Libby said...

What fun - a day filled with quilting things -- a nice way to spend time.
I clean my floors with vinegar, too. Sometimes it makes me hungry for eggsalad *s* but I love how it cleans, no streaks or spots.