Friday, July 24, 2015

Spring Quilt Progress Report 2

Finally, got all the sashing in the quilt so now it's ready for me to cut the border.
Had hoped to do that today but had to get the car washed and tomorrow need to get it cleaned on the inside.  If I can get that done in the early morning,  I might just get to putting the borders on it.  They will not be pieced, just bars of a fabric I picked up along with the rest of the fabric in the quilt.  Right now the quilt is 48" wide and about 50 inches long.  Not sure how wide the borders are going to be but it's a wide print so they may be 8" on each side.  Will bind it in brown once it's layered, backed and quilted.

Forgot to add; there was only 1 yard of fabric for the sashing so there's a lot of piecing going on in the sashing but I made it! with about a 4x8 inch piece left over.  I was sweating it there for awhile.

Sunday will be reserved for attending a memorial service for Sandy Wroe, one of my bee members who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May.  Such an insidious cancer since it stays hidden until it's in the late stages of cancer.   She died this past Sunday.  We all miss her.

and back to Row by Row.  Still haven't started on a single row but am also still collecting row patterns.  Last weekend (July18), was down in Arlington, TX for a weekend car show and decided to spend a few hours visiting 4 shops there. Two in Arlington and two in Pantego, TX, all within 2 miles of each other.
so I picked up the rows for:

1. Lone Star Quilts
2. Quilt Among Friends
3. Peggy's Quilt Studio
4. Sew Fabricated

It really is time to lay out the rows and decide which ones to make for my first RbyR quilt.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

The Spring Quilt progress report

The spring quilt is coming along.  Have two rows completed but run out of fabric for the green sashing by just a small amount.  I have enough to do all the blocks I want EXCEPT for the green sashing on one of them and the very last bit of green sashing at the bottom row.
Here's what I have together so far:


I have two choices to make, 1 call the shop I bought the fabric from and see if they have any left at all and have them mail it to me, or delete one of the center bluebonnet  rows.  I have decided to just do it one row at a time so that is what I'm working on today.

btw, the pattern is a take-off of one from a video that I watched put out by the Missouri Star Company.  I didn't use the 10inch squares as in the video but 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch cuts from fabric I had on hand.  I may be adding embellishments when the top is done.  Haven't decided on that yet though.

Meanwhile, Have been visiting shops in the area since the Row by Row Experience 2015 started in June.
Have collected license plates and row patterns from each of them.  Here's my list:

  1. Quilter's Dream  (this is where my bee meets)
  2. Richland Sewing Center
  3. Sew It Up (please check store days and hours as I didn't!)
  4. Suddenly Sewing  
  5. Must Love Fabrics
  6. Pass Time Fabrics
  7. Sew So Easy
  8. Kaleidoscope Quilt Shop
  9. Minding My P's & Q's
  10. Material Girl Quilt Shop
Is that all?  no, There's more.  Wanted some more rows so this past Saturday, visited 5 more shops since I was in North Dallas for a club meeting.  Planned to only visit 3 but when I went to #1 on the next list, they told me about 2 more that were on my route, all on Coit Ave.  Thank you, The Fabric Affair!

  1. The Fabric Affair
  2. Sew Let's Quilt It (a wanted block with a west Texas theme)
  3. The Best of Bernina Plano
  4. Not Your Mama's Quilt Store  (love this row)
  5. Quilt Country
A side note.  Both The Fabric Affair and Suddenly Sewing are owned by two brothers whom I had worked with at JoAnn Fabrics 20 years ago.  They were young at the time, me, not so.  Glad to see them owning and running their own stores.

Now, those are not the only quilt stores I'm getting rows from.  Have my daughter and son both visiting a couple of quilt stores in WA state.  Have already received the row for one of them with the other on it's way, so that makes 17 in all.
and Next November, when the quilt stores can sell their rows via the mail, if they want to, there is one more row I plan to get unless I can get someone to visit Seattle to pick it up for me.

I vowed though to not work on any Row by Row's until I have the spring quilt top finished.  Oh my, building up my unfinished projects again!  Better get to work on my spring quilt.  and I think I better take some of my ufo's to my next bee retreat.