Getting excited!

I sewed the rest of the rows together yesterday on the Hollow Cubes, Too quilt. I have added the background border...now just need to cut and sew on the final border, hopefully today. I am excited to get it finished!

Since it was a bit cooler this morning, I started loading the Potato Chip quilt on the quilting machine. I'm not sure if I will get anything quilted today, but it helps to have it loaded and the bobbins wound so that I can quilt when I get a chance.  I had to do a bit of straightening before I could load it. I tend to lay things on the quilt machine table when I am cleaning up fabric messes around the sewing area downstairs or have bought new fabric. I keep most of my fabrics in tubs under the quilting machine, so when I am cleaning up from one project I take those leftover fabrics upstairs and put them away. (Or lay them on the table to be put away later.)

Now that this quilt is almost finished, I need to decide what is next. I have a lot of ideas of things I want to make, so I guess it's time to start fine tuning one of them. I really enjoy having the summers off to work on these projects, but it seems like the summer is going by so quickly and there is so much more to do. I am trying to get quilts finished for my fall/winter class schedule this summer while I have the time. There is some painting I want to do too, but I'm waiting for it to cool off a bit for that. 


Speaking of lots to do, I guess it's time to get off this computer and get busy!

Cutting, lots of cutting.....

 I decided to take a break from sewing yesterday and cut up this box of pieces. I have used these fabrics in several quilts, and most of them didn't have enough usable fabric left to do much with.

 Sometimes I cut leftovers into strips for stringpiecing, but this time I decided to cut them into squares.

 These pieces were left from cutting diamonds last year. I also found a bunch of strips that I sewed together using leftover bits and pieces from cutting diamonds. I forgot to take a pic, but there are enough strips to make a small quilt. That's a project for another day.

 Here are the stacks of squares with the box of fabrics that are left. (aren't they so cute in piles?) Does this look like a day's work?  I spent last evening sorting them into color groups. Some of them are hard to sort, as they have so many different colors in them once cut up.

Small pile for the stringpiecing box.

I have lots of pieces of batiks as well, and will sort through those next. I have a project I want to make using batiks so I need to see what I have that's big enough to use. The rest will get cut up.

I want to load a quilt on the quilting machine this morning, since it's a little cooler. It's supposed to be cooler all week.  Then I want to get back to sewing the Hollow Cubes Too quilt. Maybe I will get those rows sewn together!

Are you sick of reading about Hollow Cubes?

 I worked on sewing the rows together on the Hollow Cubes, Too quilt yesterday. I am over half way now, 7 finished and 6 to go. Lots of fussy intersections to pin, and they are not all perfect by any means. It's just fun to make something that seems to jump off the wall. I toyed with the idea of putting something in the bottom of one of the cubes but I don't think I will. Might be a bit much. What do you think?

Not sure what I am going to work on today....might start cutting something new before I go back to the cubes.

Cubes....bit by bit...

I cut the fill-in fabric yesterday for the Hollow Cubes, Too quilt. I chose a deep reddish purple to go with the background I had chosen originally. I really like this floral fabric and bought enough for the back too when it went on sale. It's a very rich looking fabric and has a batik look to it as well.

 I love them together.

 I worked all day on getting the rest of the vertical rows sewn. I have 2 rows left, then I will be ready to start sewing them together. I still need to get the rest of the top and bottom filler pieces sewn to the rows I finished Tuesday too, but that won't take long.

It is supposed to be over 100 here today.  I have already watered everything so it can survive another hot day. I hear it's going to cool down a bit tomorrow, to 91. Yea, cool!

Mini shop hop

 Some friends and I went on a quilt shop hop to the Sioux City IA area on Saturday. First stop was Susie's Quilts and More in Onawa. It's a nice little shop stocked with lots of pretty fabrics. Our next stop was My Quilt Shop in Sergeant Bluff. Several of the other ladies had been there in the past and had many good things to say about it. We discovered it had closed since they had been there, so we were disappointed at that.

Our next stop was Heart and Hand Dry Goods in Sioux City. Huge shop with lots of gorgeous fabrics. They were having a special that day on any fabrics that were red or blue, so I had to get some gorgeous blue batiks. (the 6 on the left of the above picture). I could've spent much, much more, but was trying to be good. I am getting low on usable batik pieces and have plans to start a batik quilt soon. (so I had to buy some, right?)

We ate lunch at a cute pita sandwich shop called Pita Pit. I had never heard of it, but the food was awesome. I wish there was one in the Council Bluffs/Omaha area.

We then headed to Granny's Stitches with Viking. They sell all manner of Viking machines as well as fabric. Nice little shop jam packed with fabric of all types. They had a little bit of everything there.

They told us about Unique Fabrique in Le Mars....it was only 20 min. away, so off we went. What a fabulous store! If you love asian fabrics, this is the place to go. I have never seen so many asian fabrics in one spot. Lots of pretty choices. They also had a full wall of batiks, so I chose the 2 purple batiks on the left there. I was having a hard time with the asian, as I love those prints and could've just bought and bought. But since I don't have a project in mind right now I restrained myself (see, I really was good!). I bought the 3 green and pink fabrics there. They have an online business as well, so if you love asian fabrics, this is definitely the place to go.

Great trip with some great ladies! Now to get back to sewing....

Hollow Cubes, Too continued

 I sewed with friends yesterday, so got the Hollow Cubes pieces out and spent a few hours arranging them on the design wall. I sewed together 5 vertical rows, so it's a start. This quilt won't be as big as the Tumbling Blocks quilt. There are 13 vertical rows, and there are 21 triangles in each row. I am excited to get it finished now! I had to number each piece, as it would be easy to turn those triangles the wrong way while sewing.

My daughters and I are heading up to my Mom and Dad's today to celebrate the 4th. Have a great holiday!

Border added and some potholders too

 I decided on the teal for the narrow border around the funky stars, mainly because I liked it the best with the piano key border. I thought there needed to be a definite divider. Thanks for all of your help in deciding. I got the back ready and made the binding, so now to get it on the machine and quilt it.

I usually like to quilt in the morning, especially in the summer. But with my husband's schedule now, he is sleeping, so I have to wait. I could load it and I might when I get back...have an errand to run first.

I started these potholders last Dec. I was making them for Christmas gifts. I had them all sewn together, with right sides together, when I realized that I had pinned them all wrong. The insulbrite and batting were on the outside when I turned them, not the inside. Note to self: Sew one and turn right side out and check before you sew the rest. So I just put them away, as I was pretty disgusted with it. Didn't want to take the time to unsew all the seams. I got them out yesterday and just cut the old seams off and redid them the right way. They are a little smaller than I originally wanted them, but they will work  just fine. So now I guess I'm ready early for Christmas giving!