I am NOT a designer.....hahahahahaha

I really like the concept of the jelly roll quilts....with sewing all the strips together into one and then folding and stitching them....that goes so fast.  i wanted to do more...so i got out the neutral fabrics left over from the wedding quilt and threw in a few more fabrics. not all of them were width of fabric pieces. where i could...i cut WOF....otherwise i just cut what i could. i still cut approximately 40 strips....just some of them might be 2 smaller pieces to make up the whole strip. when i put it all together...this is what i got.

It turned out ok...but...all the 'darker' neutrals seem to have landed on the right hand side....don't know HOW that happened.  and seams are closer together than i like. i guess that is what you get when you don't use a true jelly roll or cut all your fabrics to WOF.

I still pretty much like it...but learned a lesson about cutting strips. i used this wild stripe that i had for a border and it seemed to work out really well. it has some shiny gold in there. LOL

Now...as i am piecing this neutral top i got to thinking....not always a good thing with me.     what if i cut out more fabrics and use a bunch of kid fabrics.....just mix them all up.....but maybe cut them 4 inches instead of 2.5".  wonder what would happen.

So i looked on the shelves for kid fabric....most of it was baby stuff and different colors and different values. but i seemed to have more blues and pinks than other stuff. so i separated the blues and pinks and decided to cut the pinks. well,  i only really had 4 different pink kid fabrics. another lesson learned  .... (that i really KNEW....just sort of ignored).....you need MORE than 4 different fabrics.

Again...i sort of ignored the WOF rule and cut willy-nilly. but all the same kind sort of wound up together....which i guess is what you get when you only have 4 fabrics. and when i was done stitching it together it was like 54"x86"....not a good size.

So i decided to cut that part in half...giving me 2 pieces at 43x54....better. then i put carousel horses on for borders....one has pink and the other has white. don't know why i have all these carousel horses.

So, i think i may be done with this technique for a while...LOL   you almost have to cut WOF....you need LOTS of different fabrics. or just buy a damn jelly roll and don't be so cheap. (but i gotta stashbust.....talking to myself here.)

So, there i am....2 more kid donation quilts. hell, they aren't even cute. i hope i don't scar some poor kid for life.

They may have to marinate in the 'to be quilted' cabinet for a long, long time.

After all this madness i went back to quilting on the customer quilt that is on the frame. i finally figured out what to do and it is looking good. will probably just work on that tomorrow and stay out of trouble.

So, time to go back to the house and have dinner...i'm hungry. then another evening of cross-stitching on that Amish picture. it is coming along slowly.

Have you tried the jelly roll technique? did you like it?

Yesterday revisited

Ahhh...yesterday.  today it is just a distant memory....well, almost. i DO remember how tired i was. LOL

But i did you a disservice by not sharing pictures of what i had accomplished....so i have come to apologize for that and make it up to you with pics today of the fruits of my labor.

I quilted 2 of these small quilts together with pottery blocks and Indian women fabric on top and bottom

They are about 45x60....the backing looks like this....binding will be the backing fabric.

Then i did another with the same pottery blocks but put a different Indian fabric on the top and bottom and it got a bit larger.

The backing on this one is a salmon colored fabric with bits of color that reminds me of an aztec type design.

Then there was a beach quilt....it was larger...with more blocks..about 50x70.  this one has the same backing as the one above...they were quilted together.

There were Victorian Santas that i never figured out what to do with.....so they all stayed together and became a kids quilt.

It was about 50x60 and the back was just a red that i had on hand...nothing whatsoever to do with santas. and this one got quilted by itself.

Country kids like deer....so here is one for them.

Quite a bright green in those corners....but it matches the grass inside the blocks. the back of this one got a flannel with camping signs...seemed appropriate.

That one got quilted by itself, too. there didn't seem to be anything else to go with it that i could quilt 2 at a time. and i couldn't resist this for the binding. LOL

And, finally, 2 of these kitties...both just alike...quilted together.  about 40x50

The backs are a green partial FatBack from Wilma at  www.christianlanequilters.com  

So, there you are....proof that i actually worked yesterday. LOL but now the binding pile is huge once again. well, they won't get any binding on them today. i have other plans for today.

These were all quilted with a large meander that went very quickly. from the time i got them loaded till i took them off was about an hour for each set. it took longer to load than it did to quilt. and i used lots of batting sections, too. between the tops, backs and bindings i used up 20.5 yards of fabric....not bad for a day's work.

On to more stashbusting....as much fun as the law allows.

Mission Accomplished....and then some!

Today i had a 'free' day...nothing planned. hubby was gone so i was on my own. i decided to quilt up some more donation kid quilts. i had found another pile of them in the cabinet. i thought 6 was a managable goal. well, i exceeded expectations.....i did 8....woohoo!!   

I quilted 2 at a time so backings and thread were the same for 2 at a time. and i pieced a lot of batting...using up lots of that.....and pieced a couple of backs....using up more fabric. but now the binding pile is high again....and i just finished binding all those last ones. sigghhh!! 

I started at 8:30am and quit at 6pm. i took a small break for lunch and traveled across the road to the house twice to let the dog out. otherwise....it was nose to the grindstone. and i'm here to tell ya....i am pooped....my back is sore and my feet hurt. i'm going to the house and sit in my recliner with my heating pad and do nothing for 30 minutes. then i'll watch Survivor. by 8 i should be ready for the second shift and piece some blocks i have at the house. wonder how many of those i'll get done tonight.

What do you do on your 'free' days? i might do something different on my next one.

Playing catch up and giving the washer a spa treatment

When you work on multiple projects at a time....there comes a time when a lot of them are almost finished so you have to have a spurt of productivity to catch up and finish them all.....so you can start new stuff. LOL

I've been sort of neglecting the Amish cross stitching lately (bad girl)...but, gosh, there are SOOO many things i want to do and there are only so many hours in a day. and i have been bad and sucked into computer games at night for a while....got to get off those. and i read 3 books and perused about a dozen rehab magazines. But as of last night...this is how far i have gotten. that little black blob in the middle is going to be a horse pulling that buggy.

In the last month or so i have quilted up a lot of panels that i have here and made them into donation kid quilts. sometimes i had 2 of a kind and could load them both together and quilt up 2 at a time. these are usually just done with a large meander or a Quiltazoid pattern. they were piling up in the 'to have binding' pile.....there were 9 of them.

So, over the last 3 days i have made a point of getting the binding on one of them first thing when i come to the studio and another the last thing before i leave for the day. wanna see?  I have 2 of these John Deere tractor quilts. quick Quiltazoid pattern and Wilma's fatbacks for backing. ignore those flying geese under there....that's just another quilt. i was just laying these over the ledge to photo.

A cute little animal train with a pale yellow backing.

The baby Disney kids...so cute. this one was quilted at the same time as the animal train...so they both have the same backing and pattern.

There's a wolf and owl panel....i guess that better be for little older kids....don't want to scare the little kiddies.  it has a striped back...which in its former life was a sheet.

And these beach birds was another case of being quilted at the same time as the wolf...same backing and pattern. if fact, i use this pattern a lot for kid donation quilts. sometimes it sits on my table for weeks at a time. when i have time between other quilts i can do up one or 2 of these in a couple hours.

Here is a beach scene with cute boats on the back. i will add fabric borders to make it the size i want it. the top and bottom of this is white with tiny sea shells. i try to get these about 45 x 60...  or somewhere in that neighborhood.

And i have 2 of these also....cartoon sports. i think some kids are gonna be lovin on these. should have shown the other one....the backing on it is of bright colored life savers....also a sheet in its former life.

I have several more panels pieced together and awaiting quilting and then we shall repeat this binding cycle all over again.

So between all this and some crazy quilt blocks and dying lace and trim....that is what's kept me busy for a few days. oh, and quilting up the wedding quilt....it is almost finished...should be done today.

And .... on the home front....yesterday my dh tells me that the washer is acting up. it is not draining properly and has issues. it's maybe 7 years old....one of those fancy-dancy front loaders that sort of tells you how it wants to wash your stuff. LOL

Our water here is hard and we are constantly running vinegar through the coffee pot and soaking the shower head. the toilet bowls continually have crud built up on them. just the other day, i was thinking of the washer and wondering when it would act up....i really need to STOP THINKING of appliances if that is going to make them misbehave. anyway, this morning we pulled the washer and dryer out from their cubbyhole and cleaned up years of dust and dirt back there. and dh took off the offending part that was clogged up and is out in search of a replacement part. hopefully the appliance store in town has the part or can order it promptly.

Now i am off to finish up that wedding quilt and get it off the frame and the binding put on it. and then make my to-do list for tomorrow.

What's on your to-do list?  do you even HAVE a to-do list?  i seem to work better with a list.