There’s something big goin’ on….

 

I have a huge (read into this queen size bed quilt) project that I have on the "TO DO" list with a very, very, very (read into this by the end of September) short deadline.   

 

 

 

 

I have made a goal calendar for where I should be every day when I close my eyes.  I am going hard on it with a stepped up due date of Sept 25th.  I work best when I leave wiggle room at the end. 

 

I can't wait to share this with all of you as I am loving it.  (read into it my Civil War Repros loving heart is singing).

 

I ask that you just hang in there with me and as soon as a cover is decided (oops there's a clue) and the nod is given for release I (and someone else...another clue)  will let you in on what we have been working on.

Now back to your regularly scheduled quilting.   Carry on.

Another Road Warrior is born.

Where does time go?  Oh I know we have all heard this over and over again.

But truly this year just seems to be flying by.

I can hardly believe it is September already.

And I can hardly believe that the Holiday weekend is basically over.  Well at least for us.

It can’t be that just 72 hrs ago we were wild with anticipation for Em’s flight to come in at 6:50pm from Little Rock.  Well by the way of Baltimore.

 

 

 

And then the storms blew thru. 

And we all know what happens next.

 

 

And we eventually picked her up at 10:30pm.

So much for hanging together the first night.  Paul has had to work this entire weekend and well Em was just exhausted from her marathon travel day.

So we squeezed a whole lot of together time into Saturday and Sunday.

But I was also able to squeeze in some studio time.

Kitting up blocks for my next two projects.

One that I will be able to share with you starting later this month and well the other will most likely remain between me and the design board until late spring next year.

 

 

With Project #1 I decided to put a dent in my overflowing Civil War tubs of stash.

Going totally scrappy in this quilt so for 36 blocks I needed a minimum of 216 different fabrics. I lost count after 250.   Now keep in mind these are very small amounts of each fabric.  Some might appear as only a 4.5” square in the quilt. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was so happy I had this jelly roll (but cut at 3.5” x 20”) of shirtings in the stash.   I bought this earlier this year while out in Tucson, AZ.   Perfect for this project!  

So I sliced and diced and cut some more and now I have the “fixins” for 36 blocks to sew while out at Quilt Expo later this week.   

YES! Traveling up to Madison.  So that means I will get to see Pauli this week.  Oh my both kids in one week.  I am truly a lucky mom.

Project #2 involves my using the 4000+ 4” blocks of fabric that I used to use in my Coloriffic Workshop.  I have decided to retire this workshop after 12 years and it will be gone from the line up with the unveiling of my brand new All-Spiffed-Up website in about 10 days.

So I have conjured up an plan and it involves many 6” blocks.   So I started with making a bunch of half square triangles…and some other mystery pieces.  And then put all the pieces together for a block with a pin.  More things work on the road.

But for now I just dropped Emily off at the airport. 

Tomorrow she begins her life traveling for Hendrix College in the capacity of an Admission Counselor.   With just 14 days home from tomorrow until Halloween she most definitely will be a road warrior.   I have shared with her all the bits of wisdom I have compiled myself over the years of traveling. 

She makes her father and I so proud.   She and her brother make us look like great parents. 

I can hardly wait for her batch of road stories at Thanksgiving.

P.S. Please note I was forced to purge my personal Facebook Page and ask all of you to move over and join the Pieced Hexies with Mickey Depre professional page.  This will allow all of us to talk and share all aspects of quilting (and life) under one “roof”.  

The Great Stash Bust!

I spent the last two days in the studio cleaning up. 

This meant I put away all the fabric I used in the next book.  I had been stacking all the used fabric pieces in a special bin…well bins by the time I was done.  So that I could guarantee that a fabric would only be used once during the making of all 84 commercial fabric samples for the next Pieced Hexies Book.  Each sample uses a minimum of 4 fabrics, with some designs up to 6 fabrics….so you can see a whole lot of fabrics were used.

So the goal was to straighten up everything.  Shoehorn all the fabric back into the appropriate bins.  And take a deep breath.  And sew.

While shoehorning I ran across some old friends which have lived in the fabric neighborhood for years.

It is time to move them out of the stash and into a quilt.

First group to be removed.  The hand marbled fabrics.

This collection has not been touched in 10 years minimum.  Time to take action.

 

 

 

 

 

I started by cutting the pieces into 2.5” strips. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I remembered the huge pile of black kona “odds–n-ends” left over from all the backings of the samples.

 

Guess what!?!  These fabrics are going to land up as some crazy 9 patches….maybe to go on to live as Sisters Choice blocks…or something else.

But it’s happening!  That marbled stash is beautiful..it needs to live in a quilt for all to see! 

I challenge you to take a good look at your stash and find the hidden treasure that you have held on to for ages and cut if up and start to “move it out”!.

There is more.

 

This is the Civil War and 30’s stash.  They are up next for “moving out”. 

 

 

And then it’s on to this stash. 

 

This is gonna take awhile.