I was having fun until OCD set in.

I was having fun until OCD set in.

I have been using my 1 1/2" squares as Leaders and Enders all this past week.
And loving how many I was making. I pieced a top for my second daughter's birthday and two copies for Project Linus. The Leaders and Enders then became a major sewing exercise that required no brain work. And a few more days of blissful sewing happened.

There are several quilt blocks that use these precious squares. With the Idaho Square Dance as one goal block, I have a small white container now full of the 3- patch units. And an entire larger plastic container full of 4-patches. Then a smaller container with some Square in a Square finished blocks. And another container with 4-patches of only Civil War fabrics.

And yes I have all my neutral squares pretty neatly stored and easy to grab for sewing. When I want a lighter square I can grab a pinch full  of lighter squares. I am very happy with being organised. But then today something happened.

As I was pulling UNSORTED squares from their large storage container (in the back on the left side) my hands started placing them by color. I knew what was happening but was unable to stop.

To ease my urges I simply made two 9-patch blocks. I even turned off my machine and told my hubby I was going to take a nap.

I did not take a nap. I slowly reached for my sorted by color container. Right on top of the container were 54 colored sixteen-patch blocks and 22 neutral colored sixteen-patch blocks.

Cute little blocks aren't they? They measure 4 1/2".

I then proceeded to make 13 more 9-patch blocks with controlled color. My cake container with the patches sorted by color is nearly empty. I wanted no repeats of fabric in each block. This means I need to color sort that large container.
ARRRGGG!!!!!

On a lighter note I have a new tea cup and three cones of 70 weight thread.

XOXOXOXO Subee

Swapping out my 1 1/2" squares

Here they are. All counted out and sorted through. The cats are waiting to ambush my plastic baskets. I have to keep shooing them away.

But there is a small issue with one of the swappers. She sent 50 unique fabrics in one set of 25 squares. The others all sent 25 fabrics in 25 sets. If they wanted to swap 50 fabrics they sent in another unique set.

I can get this swap done okay but to all the swappers it will seem as if you are a package short!!! Please understand that we used to swap 50 fabrics in one set. It is not her fault.
XOXOXOX Subee

Postage Stamp cartoon

We all understand this!!!!

XOXOXO Subee

Sorting my 1 1/2" squares from 10 years of swapping on the Postage Stamp group.

Sorting my 1 1/2" squares from 10 years of swapping on the Postage Stamp group. I admit it. I am a hoarder of major proportions. I save almost everything as I may have a need of it later. Dear Hubby has broken me of saving plastic containers. But when he wants one I remind him of his teachings. HA!

I watched 10 episodes of Season 1 of Boardwalk Empire as I sorted my hoard of scrappy postage stamp squares. The bottom container here is full to the brim. (But there are more that are color sorted. I will explain later.)

The top round basket has only neutrals. We need to swap some of these this next year too!!

 Closer view of the neutrals. I had somewhat sorted them a couple of years ago. That little plastic basket fits right into a gallon baggie keeping them clean and together.

My first sorting venture. They are all below this...forgot to take a photo. I am making 16 patch blocks of all close in value patches. This warms my OCD heart. And the sorting is a humbling experience. You need a really good light.

Here are the first blocks made before I started sorting all the color squares. I wanted to see what these little blocks looked like. Love the blocks and love making them.

I made 5 blocks before I decided to just sort all of the squares. I filled a wastebasket three times with plastic bags. I also came across some sets that were sewn together as we used to swap them when I first started. They were difficult to swap as the thread always broke creating a mess.

And here is a birthday quilt for my Granddaughter Arika. Birthday is in March.

XOXOXO Subee

Many more quilts made & another mitered border!!

Here is Tulip Fields designed by Our Bonnie Hunter (http://www.quiltville.com)

I sure enjoyed sewing on this string pieced quilt.

Here is a little "quickie" baby quilt I made for Theo's birthday. (Oct 23)
It is so mind blowing to know he is a year old already! And he started out 3 months premie...you would never know it. He is Great Grandson #3.

My niece, Leslie, is pregnant and it is a boy. Her hubby coaches girls softball. So I thought a baseball themed quilt would work well. I had some leftover blocks in my stash and only had to make a few more to get this 65" square beauty!
I am going to get some Quilters' Dream Puff. I love all their other products so I want to try this super fluffy batting.

Being a bit OCD about sorting colors I sort all the 1,250 squares I get every 4 months from the Postage Stamp swap I also hostess.
There is a method to my madness...

So many colors and not enough space...

I have 60 blocks made and my little box is almost empty!!! Good thing there is another swap due this month! WHOOPIE!!!!

Love those full spectrum bulbs. They sure help to match colors.

I made two of these little pumpkin quilts in one day. They are placemat panels.
I wanted a Fall theme quilt at my door this year!!

I bought a "Knucklehead" pumpkin. It was harvested before it turned orange. But that is fine with me as green is my favorite color after pink, brown, neutrals...etc.

Here is my youngest daughter, Laura. And her daughter, my granddaughter Zoey.
They have made every single play date at the New Haven park on Thursday nights. It was so cold and windy last week that we only stayed 90 minutes. And this Thursday is supposed  to be even cooler and rainy to boot. We will have to play it by ear....

XOXOXOXOOXOX Subee

I love 1 1/2" squares!

I have several of these cake carriers holding my 1 1/2" square collections. And a special shout out to Our Bonnie (http://www.quiltville.com) for this great idea for carrying and storing quilt related items. There are so many kitchen gadgets that work so nice for quilting too!
And also Our Bonnie won four (4) quilting awards!!!! Way to go Bonnie!!!!!

The other containers full of squares are not sorted by color. But the OCD in me just had to have some of them sorted by colors. And of course as you sort there are colors that are light, medium and dark. I ran out of "stack" spaces. HA!

And since I have been swapping with the postage stamp group on Yahoo for maybe 10 years and hostessing for the last three years, I have lots a bagillion of these squares. We swap 1,250 squares 4 times a year. Well...now we only swap three times a year because of postage and fabric costs. Do the math...lots of squares!!

So after doing my normal de-linting of the bobbin area and a fresh needle I dug out the container and made a few 16 patch blocks. They ended up being a sweet 4 1/2".

This is my normal cleaning after an intense three days of sewing three Project Linus quilts. From cutting to quilting and binding, I finished 3 quilts in three days.
So of course my machine wanted some tender loving care.

And before sewing I had to wind some bobbins up. I feel so good having lots of bobbins wound ahead of time. I never know what I am sewing on next. So I cover the color spectrum.

The top bobbin drawer holds the bobbin boxes and all my size 60 threads that work very well for bobbin filling.

And this drawer is the top on to the left of my machine. And yes, it always looks like this. I cannot help it. My house is in shambles but my sewing stuff isn't!!

I made three of these quilts for our local Project Linus. My good friend, Gladys, donated the fabrics and I donated my time.

They were all alike but I did use three different fabrics for the backings. And I feel these are kinda unisex. Peanut fabric with polka dots and I hope they can use these quilts. I did piece all the battings from leftovers. That almost makes them free!

These fabrics are the three backings I used...
XOXOXOXO Subee

Fabric log roll

I have mentioned this before that I periodically go through my fabric bolts and tear off a one yard chunk. I did that with the log roll below. There are 56 neutrals in this roll. I was doing a neutral swap over at the 1 1/2" Postagestampquilt swap location. We ended up only swapping 25 fabrics instead of 50 but that made no difference to me. 

I swapped two sets then! HA!

I am in LOVE with neutrals. I have always bought them before deeper colored fabrics.

And this is my own invention. I have browns stored this way too.
I have my batiks rolled this way by color. Makes it so easy to just grab a bunch of same color fabrics.

 This roll was one yard chunks at one time. They are all pressed and starched then one strip in many sizes were cut from each one. Not one fabric at a time either. Maybe 6-8 fabrics...that means 12-16 layers. You need strong arms and a sharp blade to do this.

Anyway, after doing the harvesting, I rolled them all up together (keeping the cut ends as even as I could) tied them up with some of those great Moda ribbons, and put them into a plastic container. The last time I harvested fabric from this container was early last Spring 2010.

 Here is the roll before unrolling. It is a beautiful sight and it is also quite heavy. Sigh!
 Did I tell you I love fabric???? Like you couldn't guess.
They are all nice and flat with no wrinkles or puckers.

 I did not need to iron a single one of these as I took a few at a time from the unrolled log, cut them and stacked them to the other end of the table. Once again I did not need to iron them at all!!!! And yes, I do love to iron. Last night I went through all my shirtings prints and pressed and rolled them up after cutting 2" strips from them. They are all sewn now into Clue#3 of the Orca Bay Mystery from Our Bonnie Hunter of http://www.quiltville.com.
Just need to press and de-ear the little puppies.
I also found some treasures in the bottom of a 56 qt. container that held nearly all my black and gray collection. I will share them with you in another post. I was so surprised at what I found...

 Here is the fabric log all re-rolled and trussed up. And I also was very generous when I straightened the ends. I could have "sliver" trimmed and had even edges but I wanted some more neutral strings.

Now I have another nice container of 2" neutral strips and the beginnings of another bag of neutral strings. I do not know why but I have many containers with 2 1/2" strips sorted by color family. And the same amount of 1 1/2" strips stored the same way. But my 2" size only has the one drawer under the cutting table. Do I use them up as I cut them? I must because that bin is always in need of more fabric...you know like sourdough starter...have to feed the dough!

Postage Stamp Swap and how I do it!

I am a hostess on a Yahoo group called Postage Stamp Quilts. There were 18 participants and all of them sent in 25 packs of 50 different fabrics. This makes it a bit tricky swapping. I have developed my own system. And I am sure that out there someone else has the same thing going. It only makes sense.

Everyone gets their own little basket. The return envelope is on the bottom.

Their baggies of squares have been counted to verify 25 sent.

 Another view...they kinda look like Easter Baskets.

But I feel like I am distributing Halloween candy when I pass out the squares.

 As I go across the rows I lay one page that says START in the first basket in row #1.
I pick up their baggie and start counting as I place a package in each basket. Remember there are less than 25 of us swapping but we each have 25 packages. As I come back to the START basket, I skip that basket and continue across the rows until I run out of squares. The STOP paper goes in that basket where I ran out.
I move to the next basket in Row #1 and move the START paper to that basket. Now as I go around I will have one package on the stop paper as I finish with the second baggie. I continue this way until all the baskets are done.
I then count each basket to be sure they have 25, open their big baggie, seal it up, drop it in the return envelope and stack those into a larger plastic crate.

 Now all I need to do is make sure there is postage, their address and mine and then seal up the envelopes.

Ready for the post office!

WHOOHOOO!

Lots of sewing not much blogging

I seem to be in a "funk" I cannot explain. I am getting lots of sewing done yet feel like being a hermit and not sharing. What is going on with me? I do not think I am depressed just withdrawn....but I still love you all!

I keep working with these scraps and more and more items are getting made! And I still have more scraps! I made a sample Log Cabin block before cutting into Gladys' fabric. We want Log Cabin blocks all around the border on her Deer Quilt. As a result I ended up making four blocks and they became place mats! WHOOHOOO!

 I joined another swap of neutral 2 1/2" strips. This swap is connected to Bonnie Hunter's Yahoo group "Quiltvilleswap". I have swapped with them many times. I cut up and bagged these strips in record time. I will get them in the mail on Friday. It is so exciting to get the return packages back. I get so much variety in my scrappy fabrics swapping this way!

 I am the Hostess on the Yahoo group called "Postage Stamp Swap". We/I swap 1 1/2" squares of fabrics that we call Postage Stamps. I am hostessing neutral swaps and Everything But the Kitchen Sink" swaps on alternating months. This keeps me on my toes and on a first name basis with my Post Office workers!

 And here they are just before I left for the Post Office. I love these pink crates. So girlie and yet so functional. And I just remembered I neglected to take a picture of my newest purchase for organization. I found a hot pink/purple 3 ring binder and spent the day punching holes in all of my Bonnie papers. I will have all her wonderful patterns and tricks in one great location! Pictures to follow.

 I LOVE MY BREAD MACHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at this perfect loaf. Yummy too!

 Here is one of the 48 Log Cabin blocks I have made for the Deer Quilt. I added two small framing borders to the quilt today. Now I need to add more fabrics to the outsides to make them accept the Log Cabin blocks. I am thinking this quilt will be a BIG 112"X120"! Gladys said she wanted it BIG!

A basket of strips that made the Log Cabin blocks.