My No Buy Diet

Being on this no buy diet is slowly sucking the life out of me. Really. There are so many things I want to buy. I may have to break down and buy Weeks Ringle (I love that name) and Bill Kerr's book, Quilts Made Modern. I love the quilt on the cover. I have started a wish list for when I do start spending again. You should see my list. It is about five pages long and written on both sides. OMG, I feel greedy. But I am going to be on this fabrics/notions/books/magazine diet for the rest of the year. I may extend it until next year if I find that I still have a lot of UFOs. You should see me somedays when I have to drive pass a quilt shop. It would make you want to throw me a fat quarter. I have almost ran off the road trying to drive with tears in my eyes. I know it would be simpler to go the long way home but this is the long way home. Seriously, I have made progress in my quilting. AND I am so proud of myself for not buying fabric to stash away. Just keep sewing and quilting. Jeri

It's February

How time flies when you are having fun. And I am having fun finishing the quilts I started. I haven't starting quilting the Spiderweb quilt but I did finish the back for the Scrappy Bargello by Bonnie Hunter. I am now using a stencil and pounce to mark the quilting lines. I wanted to buy a new stencil or pantograph (Bayside quilting had free shipping last week and I really wanted to buy their Lime Tree pantograph, it is oh so pretty) but this is my year to use what I have and finish what I started (I have to keep telling myself that as it is so easy to forget). So, my stencil is a heart meander I have had for some time.
As for my leader-ender quilt, also Bonnie Hunter's Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll, I have completed the strip squares and triangles. This week I am making the 600 red and light half square triangles. I went to JoAnn's to buy the angle ruler she uses but talked myself out of it (use what you have rule). Soooo, this weekend I am cutting 300 2 1/2 squares in red and lights. All next week I will sew them together between my February Quilt.
My February quilt is my Cat Quilt. I have all the cats made. Plus the border is made. All I have to do is put it together. I have not chosen a back yet, but I have enough 5 and 6 yard pieces to make a back.
This week I hope to get a lot of sewing in. Next weekend I hope to quilt the Scrappy Bargello.
I will be on the road again with the West Palm Beach Quilters. We are heading for the Suwannee
River quilt show on March 12. I plan on having a great time as my friend JoAnna will be joining us for the first time. Hope to see you there.
Jeri

Spiderweb Quilt Progress

I finally finished the Spiderweb quilt top. Next weekend I will start quilting it. I could not decide if I wanted lime green or the blue I had bought for the borders. I decided to go with the blue and I am really happy with it. This quilt is going to be a little bit bright.
Please forgive my photography. I have never been able to take good photos.

I also completed the 60 string blocks for Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Roll, Roll, Cotton Roll. I need to square them up and cut them in half. Since I have the instructions I may just skip to the last step and sew them together and then start on the 600 red triangles. So, my next leader-ender project is the 600 red triangles. I have not decided what color green I want to use. There are so many greens on the market. Also, my pinks are not girlie pink. They are a more subdued pink. Okay, flat pink.

The next quilt I am going to finish is the cat quilt. I need to finish up all my quilts I started over the last two-three years. This may turn into a never ending New Year's Resolution.

Happy quilting.

Jeri

Spiderweb Quilt Progress

I did not think I would get this far after getting into putting it all together. Matching the hexagon centers were a little much. I have one left that I am not really happy with but I can only do as much as I can do. I took it out twice and I do not feel good about taking it out a third time.
I went to the quilt shop to get my free fat quarter this month and saw this blue color on the sale wall. Plus, it was end of the month sale and I got an additional off.

While I was there I asked Theresa, the shop owner, about border ideas. She suggested a black border to frame it and then the blue and maybe another black border.

I did like that suggestion as it toned the blue down a little. I put what my quilt group refers to as a thread catcher on the edges. When I attach the border I will have an half inch border showing.

I am thinking that I will make the blue border 3-inches wide and then make a wide binding on the front and the back. I read somewhere about making wide bindings. I will google it later today.

I think I am going to like this quilt.

Jeri

Spiderweb Quilt

I cannot believe how cold it is this year. I have always said we have four seasons in Florida-hot, hotter, hotter-hotter, and hottest. Never have I experienced it being this cold for this long. We usually have a few cold days in the winter, but nothing like this. I feels good to sleep under a quilt.
One of my recycled New Year's resolutions is to finish some of my quilts this year. I know you are wondering what is a recycled New Year's resolution. Well, it is the same resolutions I had last year and did not make good on them. My intentions were good, but willpower was a little lacking.
This year I am going to finish off the quilts I started over the last three years.
I decided to start with the Spiderweb Quilt I was making for my daughter. So I pulled out the stack of triangles.
While I was looking at them I wondered why I had put them aside. It was the way I was taught to do it. In the class we were taught to put them together to make a larger triangle. For some reason this did not work out well for me. So I took two triangles and put them together to make a square. I made four squares.

I took the four squares and made two strips.

I took the two strips and made one larger square. Which I like.

This weekend I plan on putting all my squares together. I do have some triangles put together that I need to take out. I want to have my quilt top done by Sunday evening. That does not include the borders (I have not decided what I am going to use for the borders).

I also want to make Bonnie's quilt Roll Roll, Cotton Roll. Since I am not crazy about the light strips I plan on doing that step first. I have went through my stash and found all the light I could. I have cut a large bag full and plan doing it as a leader-ender project. I have this bad habit of doing what I do not like first and the fun comes later. Silly I know but that is just being jeri.

I forgot to blog on my Clamshell progress. I did not make much progress in December. The holidays made everything rush-rush-rush. Now that I am back to sewing I hope to make some progress this month.
Until we chat again.

Jeri

New Name

I never cared for the name of my blog and wanted to change it for the longest. So, I decided to change my name to My Quilt Too. I like that. It has a nice ring to it.
I plan on spending the month updating my blog with a new header and more stuff.
I spent a lot of time with my clamshells this month. I have all 405 of them ironed and stitched. I bought some fabric glue (recommended by the ladies on the bus trip to Houston) and I plan on putting them together in November.
I was cleaning out some old boxes in my garage and found a box with three different blocks in them. I will post pictures this weekend. I have no idea what I had planned on doing with them.
Until I post again or read your blog, happy quilting.
Jeri

Clamshells on the road to Texas

I am leaving for the quilt show in Houston, Texas on Tuesday. I am excited and afraid at the same time. I want to have a good time but I am a little afraid I will be overhelmed by everything and mortgage the house while I am there. So, I have asked a few of my non-quilting friends to call me daily and say, "You don't need that". I hope it works.
When I get back I am going to the World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach, Fl. Last year I went for three days, was a white glove lady, took three classes and shopped until my purse ran dry. I did not buy a lot but I went to a lot of demos, test drove a lot of long arms, made a wish list a mile long and went home a tired, happy lady. This year I am only going for one day, Saturday, with my friend JoAnna. I want to enjoy the quilts more and spend less.
This is the third trip I have taken with the ladies from West Palm Beach. Last year I went with them to Lancaster. In September I went with them to the quilt show in Jacksonville, Fl. Now I am going with them to Houston, Texas.
I decided to work on my Clamshell Quilt on the road to Texas. I have 200 lights and 205 different color clamshells.

My goal is to have the top edge of all 405 clamshells basted down by the time I get back. I have basted some of them. Since I will not have an iron of the bus I plan to finger baste them and sew them down. I had planned to work on my T-shirt quilt but I could not get it together. Nothing seemed to work for me. I wouldn't or couldn't find the right stencils. I could never decide what color thread to buy. The back wasn't ready (yes it is) or the patches were in the wrong place (no they are not). I had more excuses than Carter has liver pills. So, while I was pondering over the little things, time slipped by and I missed getting everything together. This year I plan to do better.

Happy quilting,

Jeri