Orange Crush Choices - Too Many!

Rather than doing any quilting I have been playing in my fabrics looking for what I have that will work for the OC mystery. I pulled everything I had in large enough quanity and looked "solid" color from high and low and made a real mess in my sewing room. I've now narrowed it down to the following choices and ask for your help in making a final decision.





The first is most like Bonnie's choices...on the second I subsituted a purple for the black.





Not quite sure where I would use a quilt with these colors but I like them, and I always like what Bonnie does.

These next choices I think would make a nice quilt I could use in my living room. I have used the green and burgandy fabric in another project, a runner I have in the living room.



Love the fabric on the far right in the second picture...it has gold metalic highlights. I'm not sure it has enough contrast with the others tho.

The brown with the acorns on it is a bit warmer, however I think I would use the other which is a mottled brown and black and the pattern doesn't show as much.



This is alittle softer palete with the spring yellow and pink....I think I would use it in my living room as well. The dark is a real deep mottled burgandy which goes with my burgandy leather sofa.








These next choices I think would make a quilt I would use in my car...it's a blue/green minivan. I think it is more a teal blue than green. It's a good idea to have a quilt in your car, and I don't, yet.








The colors on the right are very bright and I would be tempted to use my bright scrap strips in lights and darks with this combo.

And then there is this combo. I don't know where it would go...as if that really matters....but I like them.









Just kind of clasic. Could be good.




And then I tried the orangy fabric from above with the fabrics I like for my living room....hmmmm.....



So what to do, what to do? I thought it would be helpful to look at the choices in pictures....but I'm not so sure....I'm more confused....what do YOU think?

I'm going to go quilt my Bargello....really, I mean it this time! And let all this percolate.

Procrastination = Shopping

I've been playing in my fabrics and have not done any quilting...seem to be procrastinating and I'm getting excited about OC.

Yesterday I just had to get out of the house, so took a trip to, what else?, the fabric stores! I was looking for an issue of Austrailian Patchwork and Quilting from earlier this year. No luck...they aren't even carring the magazine. Did find that Joann's carries the magazine but I guess the one I want is too old. I was also looking for the book More Nickle Quilts, but didn't find it either. So I didn't buy anybooks or magazines. Good girl! Those were the only things on my list. I came home and ordered from Amazon. It's cheaper than in the quilt stores but I always order more books to get the free shipping so it doesn't end up saving me anything. I ordered Lisa Boyer's books too.

However....I went to the Quilt Barn for the first time since they moved into their new digs. Like it! Usually don't find that when a quilt shop moves from a quaint location to a strip mall type place that the move is an improvement...in this case it was! More room and still felt cozy. I was so tempted to just pick out fabrics for my OC...and buy this and that....I was so very tempted...and these days I don't often find myself being so tempted. But I just had to buy something! It's such a nice shop, and they need my support! I remembered that I had bought a pattern for a tote bag that uses charm squares...this shop had lots of charm packs to pick from...so how could I not? Also found some prewound bobbins for my HQ. And the coordinate needed for the tote bag.

I also visited Pacific Fabrics and Joann's and didn't buy a thing! Amazing for me...am I sick? Not really, just acutely aware of how much is in my stash.

I went to the sewing machine shop to see if they had a single hole needle plate for my Pfaff, and they did, so it came home with me too. All in all a nice outing and not too much damage done.

Oh yeah, and Buddy got to go to the pet store too. We got some cat food. He didn't mind one bit! He was so excited that he got to do alittle shopping of his own.

Random Act of Kindness?

When I came home from quilting at the library on Saturday I noticed that someone had cut my grass in my front yard. It was a surprise and I was thrilled it was done and mystified. My first thought is that my nephew, Travis had come by, but no, he was playing ball,a double header, and the back wasn't cut and he would have done that too. Started to realize that it was one of my neighbors...yikes...is my yard that bad? Terror and quilt feelings now... The grass was starting to get a bit long, but I don't think it was to the obnoxious state yet. Everyone who knows me knows that I'm not all that fond of yardwork and I'm a bigtime procrastinator. My neighbors pretty much keep to themselves and I don't really know them and it has never happened before so I'm alittle bewildered. I've decided to take it as an act of kindness and appreciate it for that. I think it may have been one of the guys who rents the house next door. They have only been in there about 4 months or so, and I noted their front was cut too. So maybe I'll bake them some cookies or something...one of these days.

Today was a day for cleaning house, making calls, getting the mail, doing laundry and grocery shopping. I did stop by the local quilt shop, Carriage Country Quilts, (picture above) alittle over a mile from my house. I was good! I wanted to get the book More Nickel Quilts but they didn't have it. I found a pattern for a tote bag and that was all I bought! No fabric! I fondled lots, and thought about combos for the OC...but didn't buy any. Decided I have to shop my stash first and I know it will be a great quilt even tho it isn't made from the newest fabrics. I'm finding that I'm starting to drool over the reproduction and civil war prints that I've not really been attracted to in the past....probably because my stash is deficient in that catagory.

No further progress on my CC...have decided what to do for the borders. I received the panto in the mail today that I think I may quilt it with....the improved clamshell pattern. Still have to make a decision on the batting I'm going to use on the BB and get it quilted and make a backing for the CC and quilt it. My goal is to have that done by next Sunday. There I have said it...it shall be so. (I wish anyway, lol)

Orange Crush, Yikes!

The new mystery on www.Quiltville.com is about to get underway...I'm excited but I really, really want to finish my CC first! I'm still plugging away, no new pictures yet, but I have started working on the borders. Dragging my feet on quilting the Bargello too, but I did make the binding today. Baby steps, I know but I'm working on it. The fabric requirements for the new mystery is giving me an adrenaline boost tho...a push to the finish...what is it that runners get?


Since I don't have any quilt pictures right now I thought I'd post this picture...I love looking at pictures on other peoples blogs...I took it alittle over a week ago on one of those days that felt like spring might be coming but it couldn't make up it's mind whether to rain or shine. It's looking out my slidder on the north side of my house. Looked like that rainbow was coming right out of that house. Wonder where the pot of gold is? Looks like they could use it to fix whatever they have that grey sheet hanging over and I could use some too!


Oh yes! I almost forgot...busted 43 yds of fabric today! Gave it away to friends in my quilting group. That counts! I don't have to struggle to find a place to keep it or worry about using it up before I die. :)

Lack of Motivation

Okay, so this last weekend was national quilting day and I had a 4 day weekend...why oh why could I not get motivated to sew???? Didn't do too much I must confess but sit on my kiester and surf the web and read blogs, also watched some movies and caught up on some reading that is collecting by my chair, made some delicious apple dumplings....but not much to be proud of.


Finally, Sunday afternoon, late afternoon, I forced myself to go downstairs to my quilting room and see if I could find something productive I could do...maybe quilt the Bargello Bowl? Well started to tidy up a bit and came across this tote...it's the leftovers from 3 baby quilts I made using mary's triangle...all with different arrangements. I thought I would empty it and sort the leftovers into my strip bins....

Well, I'm pretty tired of this fabric after making 3 quilts from it, but as I started to put it away I started to challenge myself on how to use it up...make another quilt. I had lots of leftover 5 inch squares I had cut for the other quilts. For some reason when I was making the earlier quilts I just kept cutting and cutting until I cut up all the fabric. So it's pretty much all cut up into the pieces I needed for those quilts.
This is the one that I have left. I've saved it to mark my quilting progress. It was one of the earliest quilts I quilted on the HQ16....did a line dancing technique. I turned out ok, but could use some work on stitch lenght consistency....my machine does not have a stitch regulator.




I started thinking about a technique I saw on TV awhile back....a long while back! But thought I could try it with what I had leftover. So I combined the 5 inch blocks into sets of one pair and one spare....
The I cut the pair in half on the diagonal....
Next came sewing the triangle pieces onto the squares....

And then cutting them apart.....

And mixing them up and sewing them back together....and squaring them up to 6 1/2 inches

Makes a block that looks a lot more complicated than it was to make....a good thing!

Before I was ready for bed I had 12 blocks made and I now have created another unfinished project! And totally didn't make any progress on my CC or Bargello...and I WILL have them finished before I start the next quiltville mystery!

I decided I needed some more blocks so tonight I worked on making some more while I watched Dancing with the Stars. Since I didn't really want too many more blocks, but I did want variety so I tried making them with two colors of triangles on the squares, like this....

It only produced 2 quarters like I wanted so it didn't really save much time...had to sew more to get less....so I went back to making them with the same color on the outside. Now I have leftovers....it just never ends! Stay tuned to see how I plan on setting these blocks...I have an idea but gotta work the next few days so there won't be any sewing time.

Checking In

Haven't got any quilt pictures to show right now, so here are my babies, Heidi my kitty and Buddy my big baby. Buddy is waiting patiently hoping Heidi will not eat all her food so he can. He is so submissive...the cat is the boss, even tho he out weighs her 10 to 1...he's about 100 lbs!

I have sewn my Carolina Crossroads blocks together, but I'm not going to say how I chose to do it yet as I don't have a picture. Will hopefully get borders on this weekend and then will post a picture.

I haven't had much time for sewing lately, or maybe it's not enough energy. I worked an extra day of overtime last week, been to the dentist, and seems like I've been running around too much. I'm looking forward to the weekend as I will have 4 days off. It's predicted to rain for most of it so I won't have to feel guilty about not working in the yard, but boy does it need it. I'll do alittle laundry and abit of housekeeping and then quilt. Oh, and there is a quilt show this weekend that I might decide to go to. Okay I better get myself to bed so I can get up for work in the morning...took a nap this afternoon around 5 and I'm not sleepy yet...I should never sit down around that time of day!

Carolina Crossroads

WA HOOO!!!! The blocks are done!

Pattern setting as per Bonnie's directions. I'm liking it!

With black sashing....

Or yellow...

Here's alittle of each...I saw someone's picture somewhere, sorry I can't remember where, who had used sashing and I really liked it. Not sure if I should sash or not. I'm liking the yellow better than the black one, but I like it without too. I'm going to work on quilting my Bargello Bowl tomorrow while I percolate on the CC.

Stashbusting?

It certainly is an eye opener to start keeping track of the yardage I purchase. These pictures show the 25.5 yds I just purchased. The price was hard to pass up, some will be for backings and some was just a different flavor than what I have in my stash. Reflecting on this purchase I don't really feel bad, I like the fabrics, and it doesn't look like all that much. Just don't know where I'm going to put it, I seem to be running out of space. And this amount, this 25.5 yds doesn't even look like that much, so I wonder how many yards I really have. I don't have any idea how to tally it all up.

So far this year I have bought 95.5 yds of fabric!!! If that was all I owned it wouldn't be so very much...I'm sure it would probably all fit on one shelf in my cabinet, maybe one and a half. I have 4 cabinets full of fabric, plus bolts on top of the cabinets and bins wherever I can fit them.

The sadest part of all is that so far for the year I have used 11.25 yds! If I continue at the same pace it will take me about 17 months to use the 95.5 yds. EYEOPENER! I think this is the most valuable thing I have done as far as my stashbusting efforts are concerned. I think it is time to go No Buy. Can you feel me shake with fear?