Showing posts with label HSY's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HSY's. Show all posts

Friday, July 26, 2013

Changing and rearranging

I like to be organized, as my regular readers know.  I'm always aiming for the perfect organizational system.  I will make changes that please me, and will feel that I'm finally "there".  Then time passes, my mind goes off in a different direction, and the organization no longer feels "right".  So I make changes and do some rearranging, until things feel "right with the world" again.

And so I've been reorganizing my left side bar AGAIN.  Putting projects in hibernation has never felt quite right.  It made me feel like I was "forbidden" to work on those projects.  I know - I can be very silly at times.  So I put returned the list to its former arrangement, and feel much better about it.

As many of you know, for years I was addicted to buying "kits".  Thus the list of 65 "Golden Hussies" on the sidebar, which really should be longer as I know there are some that never got added.  This list has been bothering me more and more.  I rarely buy "kits" any more - they defeat my goal to reduce the amount of fabric on my shelves.  And I have no place to store them.  Currently there are four large totes full of "kits" upstairs under the longarm, with more piled on top and to the sides of the bins.  I need this space to store yarn and fiber!  So one of the goals I've set for this year is to drastically reduce that number.




The majority of those "quilt kits" include applique.  So I've pulled many of the kits and prepared them so they are ready to be stitched whenever I pick one up.  I've already reduced the list by 23 kits!  Thirteen are currently sitting on the dining room table ready for tracing.  Since we rarely use that table any more - except as a junk mail catcher - I've set up a production station.  I'm thoroughly enjoying tracing and cutting out each pattern while I listen to audio books. 


So far, as soon as I prep half a dozen patterns, I've completed the applique and then the quilt top.  I will finish those currently in the sewing room, and then I plan to switch to quilting and piecing when I'm not preparing applique.  I've spent the last month doing little but applique, and I'm beginning to feel the pull of the machine.  I want to get back to my "shoofly" blocks, as well as my 30's baskets and my Civil War Diary.  I need to make blocks for another 30's swap.  Not to mention binding the five quilts that are currently waiting for their finishing touches.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

No quilting time today

I've been procrastinating too long.  I MUST devote today to non-quilty things.  Currently I'm finishing the alterations on the camper sheets.

I can show you what I got  done yesterday while watching the tour.  Not a lot, but still progress.  Here are the applique blocks and quilts that are now prepped.  Except for the last one, which is pinned but not thread basted.  (I've tried using basting glue for this, but find I prefer thread.  I don't care for the stiff glue feeling - even when it is just little dots.  And it is easier to make slight adjustments while stitching by snipping threads instead of pulling away glue.)  The blocks were done earlier in the week but never photographed until now.





These are the first four applique blocks from "Afternoon Delight" by Sue Garmin, one of the three BOM programs that I've started in the last couple months.  I learned a good lesson with these.  When doing complicated shapes that have been created by folding and cutting (like making snowflakes) I need to stick to needle turn rather than my newer prep method.  It was a huge nuisance pressing under all the edges on the top block, and the bottom block was pure H***.  So the gold block, and all future such blocks, are prepped for basic needle turn applique.


The applique on "Where Liberty Dwells", designed by Jan Patek, will go very quickly.  The blank space at top and bottom are filled an embroidered quote:  "Where Liberty dwells there is my country".  Hand dyed floss for the stitching and a tiny wooden star for the eagle's eye are included in the kit.


"Jack at the Gate" was also designed by Jan Patek.  It looks a bit unfinished at the moment as I've not yet cut the pieces for the two Jack o'Lantern faces from black Ultrasuede.  It is also missing two borders so it looks like the stars are floating off the piece when they actually spill over onto the borders.  These pieces are just pinned into place.

The Tour de France is a time trial today, which I find much less interesting to watch.  I can postpone seeing it until tonight after the picnic.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Some quilting during the tour

I still have so much to do this week, but none of it can be done while I watch each day's Tour de France.  So I'm allowing myself to sit in the sewing room working while I watch.  Still completing applique prep.

Notice that very long list of Brazen HSY's on my left sidebar?  For several years all I've done is add to that list  Now you see something you've never seen before - 7 of  those have been started thanks to prepping applique for hot summer hand sewing.  I'm thrilled to be able to cross things off that list.  I chose to cross them off rather than eliminate them entirely as I don't feel like renumbering them all LOL!

Tonight I'll post pictures of what I accomplish today.

(FYI - a "HSY" is a project for which I have all the materials but I "haven't started yet".  A "Brazen HSY" is a HSY that is more than a year old.  Almost every HSY I have is Brazen!)