Hope Academy Placemat Project

I am prepping for a new project with my son's group Hope Academy.  Beginning February 4th, we are going help the kids make placemats for their mom's for Mother's Day.

My idea is to weave strips of fabric and quilt/sew them to a quilt sandwich.

I've collected a dozen or so flannel shirts and the teachers are in the process of helping me debone the shirts.  Once done, I will run them through my Studio cutter and make 2.5in strips

While they are doing that I am making weaving looms and quilt sandwiches.

 

I am cutting 18x22in cardboard frames.  Then marking and cutting 1/2in slats and 13x18 placemat center.

 
Then I'm making 15x18 quilt sandwiches using muslin, cotton batting and spray adhesive.

Next I center the quilt sandwich on the loom and trim to fit 1/2-1 inch past the placemat markings.

Using blue masking tape the sandwich is taped to the loom.

Finally, I use #10 cotton thread and load the loom.

One done... nine more to go.

Studio Redo

Back in 2007, when we had some heavy rains, we discovered that the downspout emptied off the roof right next to the foundation and water seeped into my daughter's basement bedroom.  We waterproof painted the corner of the room, replaced the carpet and added a downspout extension directing the water away from the foundation and have had no futher problems since.... until now.

A couple years ago my daughter moved out and the room happily became my sewing room. I hadn't been able to get into my sewing room for the month of December.  I was busy with work and family and holiday plans and travel.  But, on New Years Day I went down to spend the day sewing.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.   One again, we discovered the rug was squishy wet; this time from the corner all the way into the middle of the room.  We discovered that someone had stolen the downspout extension and all that rain we had in December emptied off the roof next to the foundation and seeped into the room.

We replaced the downspout extension and I ran two dehumidifiers for several days, but the damage was already done.  

My handyman was busy on another job, so my youngest daughter came over to help.  We removed all the furniture and boxes of fabric stash, and cut up and remove the carpet and padding.  I'm glad we did because although the carpeting was beginning to feel dry to the touch... the padding underneath was still wet and some mold was forming.  Luckily, my stash was mostly in or piled on top of plastic containers, so no fabric was destroyed.

    

You can see the corner we painted with waterproofing the last time.

My handyman stopped by a couple days later and determined that the wood behind the wallboard was rotting.  He suggested cutting and removing about 2 ft of wallboard and checking the extent of damage hidden behind it.  He hopes he might be able to determine where the water is coming in and plug it so this doesn't happen again.  Then we will replace the wallboard and hide the damage with a beadboard chair-rail so we don't have to deal with taping and plastering and sanding and dust!  Then a fresh coat of paint before we have new padding and carpeting installed.  Hopefully, work will begin next week as soon as he finishes up his current job and I  can be back in my studio by Valentines Day!

UFO-WIP Listing - 2015 January

With the start of the new year comes an accounting and reporting of progress and accomplishments in 2014.  Also an attempt to get organized and plan for 2015.  So,here is my list....

Completed in 2014

2014 (6) Mitten ornaments (jan)

2014 (6) Star ornaments (nov)

2014 (6) Gingerbread Man ornaments (nov)

2014 (6) Tatted wreaths (dec)

2012 Orca Bay

2013 Daisy Placemats

2013 Red/Blue floral placemats

2013 Blue Toil Baby Quilt

2014 (2) blue doggie baby quilt

2014 (2) pink squares baby quilt

2014 Little Brother Quilt

2014 Middle Brother Quilt

2013 Blue floral placemats

2014 (3) Christmas Tablerunners

2014 (2) Cracker Barrel Tablerunners

2012 Christmas Swap Blocks

Waiting to be Quilted

Rosewood Cottage (since 2006) quilting by hand

Monkey Wrench BOM (since 2007) for sale

Class Projects Started

2006 Barn Blocks

2010 Swartz Creek Quilt

2012 Basic Class Wall Hanging…. Borders, quilting

2012 Winston Ways

2012 Turkey Tracks

2012 Midnight FIGHT
2013 Maddie Bea (becky’s barn)

2013 Spring Wall Hanging (WSS project)

2013 Becky’s Barn Basket wall hanging… borders, quilting

UFO – WIP

2009 1950s Santa

2009 Sunbonnet sue …prairie point borders

2010 Vicksburg BOM 

2011 Cheddar Bowties 2011 Happiness Key

2011 Novelty Quilt (pat sloan)

2011 Dear Jane/Hot Momma Rose

2012 Pillow Cover …assembly

2012 Red/White D4P… (needs quilting/binding)

2013 Celtic Solstice (nov) (clue 1)

2014 Cracker Barrel quilt (jan)… (needs binding)

2014 Grand Illusion (working on clues 2&3)

2014 Blue/Yellow Scrappy (needs quilting/binding)

Kits Not Yet Started

2012 maria’s stars

2012 Black white gray stars

Pastel stars

Pink baby quilt

5-star Table runner

Parisian 20

Cardinal wall hanging (blue)

Quilt Diva

Colonial Christmas

Golden stars table runner

CJ’s care bears

Iris table runner

2 American Dolls

Charm square CW strings

Jamestown landing BOM

Green/pink BOM

Orphan Fan Blocks

Heart Blocks

Pumpkin wall hanging

4^th July wall hanging

Recycle quilt teddy bears

Grand Illuisions update

 I have not made much progress on this mystery... what with a new grandbaby.. who ended up back in the hospital at 3 weeks old with RSV.. but doing better now.  

Then there were all the preparations for Christmas... gifts to purchase and wrap, meals to plan and cook, out of town family to take care of.  

Then the long drive to Maryland to visit the in-laws.  We arrived home with 35 seconds to spare before the ball dropped on the New Year.

So it wasn't until Friday Jan 2 that I was able to put any time into sewing.  Even though I wasn't through with clue 2 double diamonds, I decided to move on to Clue 3 floors and chair backs.

I quickly cut all the strips with my Studio Cutter and began sewing them together.  My easy sewing guide worked perfectly and the strips sets measured perfectly.  But....

   

After layering and cutting the strip sets to size, the trouble began. 

  

I played with my seam guide for 2 hours; sewing then frogging; sewing then frogging before locating the correct "scant" 1/4 seam that made these floor and chair back blocks measure correctly.

Once the seam guide was set the sewing began.   I still have a lot more to do, but here is what I have accomplished on this mystery so far:

Clue 1 Broken Dishes and extra HSTs

Clue 2 Double Diamonds and Clue 3 Floors & Chair backs

Now the mystery has been revealed and I am determined to keep making progress on this and not have another UFO to add to my list.