somebody to love me?

I, for one, am so glad that Cynthia is having her Quilty Orphan Adoption program again this year. it goes right along with my ImmaCleanOutMyHouseAndGetRidOfAlotOfTheCrapISeemedToAccumulateWithoutRealizingIt theme of this Lent season. 

(i'm doing a List Of 40 Things I Can Clean, Purge, Sort or Donate for Lent. SUPER EXCITED: i'm on #24 as i type!!!) 

The sewing room has not escaped my merciless super-good-intentions work sessions! i have 7 things to move along from there. 1 i've already shared, and 1 has been claimed, so here are my remaining 5 things i'd like to share/move/donate. 

priority will be given to Charity Sewing/Donations, but whatever you do, it will be better than just sitting collecting dust in my house, so that will also be taken into consideration! i will be happy to mail these to you; i'll mail them for free, but if you want to send a bit-o-money back to help with postage, that would be appreciated!

#1- ADOPTED a Huge Pile of {mostly batik} strips. i think they're all 2 ½", and many seem to be parts of a jelly roll. i know i won't make anything with these, and batiks are not really my cup of tea. I think there are just about enough of the strips to fill up a large flat rate priority mail box. (but expect to do some ironing when you receive them!) 

#2- ADOPTED this is a random assortment of mostly tan/beige/cream strips. they have been sorted into lengths, and maybe you can see the measurement on the green dot? i was (and still am) making the JuneQAL hosted by Amanda of Crazy Mom Quilts. i pulled these strips out, as i just wanted to use the white based fabrics.. 

#3-ADOPTED this quilt magically showed up on my front porch ages ago. it's a pretty neat quilt, but again: i obviously won't get to doing anything with it anytime soon. the measurements are 93" X 54". it's a mixture of really old fabric, and spans the ages through to feed sack fabric. the stars are pretty neat, but many of the points have been cut off. i suppose if you took the strips of green, blue or pink fabric out, that might improve matters some. 

#4- ADOPTEDa brother to the magically appearing quilt above. mostly vintage fabrics. it's 84" X 52". Walker is my beagle {besides super cute, he's VERY LOUD! we adopted him last spring. i nevernevernever thought i'd be one of those dog people. but to the surprise of my children-and me!-i am...}

#5- ADOPTED this one really has to take the cake for Longest Ever UFO. but to be completely fair to myself, it's not really MY UFO. i've just been hauling it around with me for the last 33 years and 6 moves. yikes! 

the DWR is started- 9 rings almost completely pieced. there are also the muslin centers (it was the 1980's, after all!) a few melons, MANY arcs and a few chain pieced wedges. there is also a little bit of purple, and some yardage of the aqua calico that was used in the 4 patch centers. 

here's the note that i taped to the top of the pretzel can this sad UFO has been stored in- it's older than my oldest child! marily is the mother of an old friend, and she was an accomplished quilter. i was just starting out, and she had passed along some of her stash/unwanted items. i guess as a new quilter, i didn't want to tackle this project. 

in conclusion- if you'd like to adopt and love any of my UFOs, please let me know. give me your mailing address, and i'll get these projects out to you as quick as i can! and thanks for stopping by! 

is it ok if i come out and play along today?

 officially speaking, I didn't do any RSC sewing this week, but I was busy with other stuff. (Tuesday we butchered all 25 of our turkeys- they weighed from 17lb. all the way up to 30lb. +. our bird for Thanksgiving dinner was 27lb.- plenty for 6 people!)

 

my friend asked me to make her a baby quilt for her newest great-granddaughter. I've had this jelly roll for a while- and it's sort of rainbow-y, too! (pattern here)

my DWR quilt is done! I'm happy with how it turned out, and it was definitely not as hard (or twiddly!) as I thought it would be. ( I will iron it soon, I promise!)

it's about a double size, and I plan to bind it in the gold solid. for now the plan for this quilt is to go to one of the MCC auctions, unless one of my children falls in love and claims it...

more gorgeous quilts here!

There's a lot to be said for the humble square!

even though I haven't joined Mr. Linky for a couple weeks, I've still been busy sewing. (very busy!) I just recently finished a Bethlehem Star quilt for a friend. my friend Leona loves to (hand) quilt, but hates to piece. she's been making a quilt for her children and grandchildren for many years now.

Iris is the last grandchild waiting for her quilt- and the wait is nearly over! Iris is 9 or so, and this is the pattern (and colors!) that she chose. it was a bit tricky keeping all those nearly identical reds separate, but everything went just fine. the quilt finished at 72X80- this picture was taken before I put on the borders.

all the colors in the quilt are Kona- some of the colors are blaze, deep red, red, lipstick, pepper and maize. once it's hand quilted, I know it will be even more stunning!

 

right now I'm taking a class at our LQS for a double wedding ring quilt. I've never made a DWR, and thought it's about time... (I've made some of the other difficult quilt patterns: apple core, Dresden plate and tumbling blocks...)

now that the growing season is over, I definitely have a bit more time for quilting and piecing, and have been squeezing it in around my other chores. I had 2 matching jelly rolls, and a nice neutral for the background, so I was all set.

 

this particular DWR technique is sewing 5 jelly roll strips together, and then cutting them into the arch piece, using the acrylic templates. I sorted  all my jelly roll trips, and got busy sewing. that was not too hard (or tedious) and I got all enthusiastic and inspired to make another DWR for my husband. I even picked out the fabrics that I thought I might like to use: I lovelovelove that cheddar yellow, and Dave's favorite color is blue. I thought the *tame* blue, and the *vivid* yellow would make a nice quilt that we could both love.

 

 

the second class was on Tuesday, and we started sewing the melons onto our arch pieces. still: not so bad, and definitely not too twiddly. I can manage this....(the quilter said confidently to herself....)

 

THEN: reality strikes in full force! it was time to sew the second arch onto the half-completed melon. ACK!!! that definitely is the definition of twiddly, and I hate working on twiddly things! SO: one circle down, and only 27 more to go! hopefully the third class will give some pointers on getting those arches onto the center pieces nicely- I just did the one, and it's not as nice as I would like...

 

BUT: I do plan on finishing this quilt- not dumping it into the UFO pile. my quilting friends would call this an exclusive quilt- and I'm definitely thinking the same!