A year of Finishing

Decluttering the Stash (Part 2)

2012-01-29T15:24:00.002-05:00

If you are following this Blog, you now have a box of fabric that is old and/or ugly and you have probably been berating yourself for spending money on it. So what do you do with it?

Get rid of it. If you are like me, you can't just throw it in the trash, but hopefully, you threw some of it in the trash already, the little bits that were cut into and ragged with frayed edges or the ones that had big seams going right down the center. As quilters we would buy those bits if they gave us a discount on them because we knew we were going to cut tiny pieces out of them anyway--had we ever used them at all. Well, so What now? If we can't just throw them in the trash what?

How about taking them to guild and offering them to other quilters who will pick through them and take the bits they like. This is good for fabric that is not Quilt Shop Quality (QSQ) fabric. If it is QSQ then you might offer it for sale to people at a substantial discount and make back some of the cash you spent on it. Or you can donate it to any number of groups that make quilts for charity. I can't stress more highly the idea of getting rid of fabric that isn't going to get used in your stash.

OK, now that your rid of the old/ugly fabric, presumably all you have left in your stash is good, new, beautiful, useful fabric. It is now that you have to ask yourself an important question. Is there still too much of it? Yes, no? Maybe? Count a maybe answer as a yes. If the answer is yes, than more sorting is required.

Your first purge should have let you see how much fabric from any given piece you are in the habit of using. I used to always buy a half yard of anything that I liked. I bought a yard if I really liked it and thought it would be nice to use as a major part of a quilt such as the background, or sashing, or as a major theme of a quilt. For the most part though I have found that I usually use less than a 10 inch square of any given fabric. There are exceptions to this rule for sure. But for the most part, if I don't have a particular use in mind for a fabric, I have to assume I will only use a 10 inch square or less. So what does this mean? It means, dear reader, that I only need to keep a 10 inch square of whatever fabrics I have. Not the full yardages that I seem to acquire. Again, there are exceptions to these rules, so as you go through your stash a second time, use your judgement. Did you buy 2 yards of this bright purple because you had it in mind for a project? Are you still going to do that project or have you lost interest in it? Could you get by cutting off a half yard of it to keep and getting rid of the other 1 1/2 yards? If so then do so.

You have a half yard of fabric and a 4 inch square was cut from one side of it. How about cutting it along the fold and selling the other as a fat quarter on E-bay or at guild. I took a bunch of fat quarters that I had cut this way to my guild's retreat and ended up making more than the cost of the retreat.

You're new assignment is to go through your stash again and downsize it by cutting off saleable parts of it and then keeping what is left over for yourself. The idea is to only keep what you will use, and only the amount that you are apt to use in the future. You should be able to reduce your stash by half this way.

Once you have done this, come back and I will give you the next installment in how to declutter your stash.

Decluttering the Stash--A how to moment

2012-01-10T17:58:00.003-05:00

How many of you have uttered these phrases?

"I have so much fabric at home, I can't buy any more fabric!"

"I need to finish some of the stuff I have at home, so I can go out and buy more."

"I just inherited a huge stash from my (whoever) and I just don't know what to do with it all."

Don't tell me you've never said at least one of these phrases, I've heard you. I work at Interquilten and these are the three things I hear most often and usually it's an excuse not to buy any more fabric from our shop.

So let me tell you something about the fabric industry once and for all.

Number one, no matter how much you love the fabric that you are buying right now, later on down the road there will be another one that you like better.

Number two, the reason you need to buy more fabric is because the fabric in your stash is: (choose however many apply)
__ Too Old
__ Too Ugly
__ Too Bright
__ Too Dull
__ Just not right
__ Just tired of looking at it
__ Doesn't fit current project needs
__ Not this one in my hand right now

Number three, face it right now and take the pledge: You are addicted to buying fabric and your quilting has become unmanageable. You need a power greater than yourself to restore you to quilting sanity.

Well, I'm here. I've been there, I've done that, I've bought the T-shirt. (It's pink and it has a bunch of ladies in a car with fabric flags flying out the window and it says, "Road Trip".)

So your first assignment from me, your higher power.

Go through your fabric stash and pull out all the old and ugly fabric that is over ten years old and that you are tired of looking at. Put it in a box. That's all. Next week I'll tell you what to do about it.

More projects finished!

2011-10-19T08:01:00.003-04:00

I am finishing projects again. Just wanted you all to know. I am no longer obsessing over my lengthy UFO list like I used to. Now I am simply asking the question, is this something I really want to do? If the answer is yes, then I do it. If the answer is no, I trash it, give it away, or re-purpose it. If the answer is yeah maybe, but not now, then it goes into a box on the back shelf. Simple huh?

Here are a few Applique blocks that I've finished over the summer while my arm was in a cast and trying to heal. I rarely let anything stop me from doing crafts but having a broken arm slowed me down a lot.

The Scottish Thistle. This is a block from Baltimore's Country Cousin, the book we are exploring in our guild Applique BOM. This is one of the alternative blocks. I now have six of these blocks done out of 12.
The Fantasy Flower Block, this one is from Hearts and Flowers. I liked this color combination so much that I decided to do the entire quilt of 12 blocks out of this color way. So you will undoubtedly see more of these. I also have a scalloped heart shaped frame pattern that I intend to use on these. It's going to take a lot of fabric but I think it's going to be a beautiful addition and make it into a truly spectacular quilt. All in good time.
My mother has a Christmas Cactus that is almost 50 years old in her house. The thing is huge. I remember when she rooted the slip when I was in grade school and watched it grow all through my high school years. So when I saw this applique pattern I had to include it in my Baltimore Album.
I was told by my birth mother "Sweetie, you're mostly Irish!" So I've been connecting with that side of my heritage ever since. This Celtic Cross that I designed from a picture I saw of a gravestone is part of that connection.

I am still working on heart blocks for another heart applique quilt. I am also working on circle applique blocks for a larger version of Japanese Circles using up most of what was left of my oriental fabrics. It's looking very cool! I am nearly finished with the applique. A few more nights should have it done!

Thanks for viewing, more to come!

Cindy K.-K.

I Won the UFO Contest!

2010-07-18T12:07:00.006-04:00

Dear Terise! I have announced it in my Blog. I have no pictures to share about it though except this. One of the prizes I got was this little wall hanging that I immediately put up on my wall and will view it daily as I iron out my unfinished projects! I also won a huge amount of Fat Quarters which I at once put into my ever growing stash. Well, here's the thing. Even though I managed to finish more projects than anyone else in the group of 18 people, I still have way more than I want.

Recently I decided that I no longer want to do multiple projects. There will always be a certain amount of multiples but even still I need to rid myself of the things that have been dragging me down lately. I have updated my goals for the next year and a half and one of them is to finish the multiple projects and stop doing them. Here is a pictorial inventory of the multiples that I've been up to lately.

The Bead Knitted Bags

Each of these little bags takes 10 hours to complete. They are made with size 8 pearl cotton and size 10 or 11 seed beads, on size 0000 knitting needles. It's rather like trying to knit hair on wires. I have made at least 60 or 70 of these little things, and possibly as many as 100. Here are five that I haven't sold yet, I think there may be more of them somewhere, probably in the box of stuff I take to sell at craft shows.
Anyway, I had several more that I had strung and ready to knit. I spent the whole of this last week knitting them. One more day and should have another dozen of them to add to the collection. These are the new ones that are unfinished as yet. Each one now has to be sewn together, which takes longer than one might think, and then a beaded necklace added to each one. So even when the knitting is finished there is still at least one to two hours of work left on each one. For any of you who would like to buy one, they retail for $30. Yes, I have done the math and I am only getting $3.00 per hour for my work! It's even worse because that doesn't include the cost of materials.

Socks

One of the things I love to make is socks. They are nice small projects. They don't take a lot of yarn. In fact about $10 will get you into a nice pair of socks. Granted it does go up to $30 at times. But when you consider the hundreds of dollars you could be spending on yarn to make sweaters, socks are kind of a bargain. And socks are also something that you really can't have too many of.
I have gotten to the point though where I only buy shirts and tops that go with a pair of socks I have made, and I only buy sock yarn that matches tops that I have. I usually pair my tops and socks with a neutral colored pair of tight legged knit pants for my signature look. After all, why bother making these beautiful colorful socks if your not going to show them off?

However, as you can see, I probably have enough socks. In fact, I have so many that there are a couple of pair I haven't yet worn. And I have yarn for 8 more pair. Once I finish these I will have 25 pair of hand knit socks. I wouldn't have to do laundry for nearly a month! Enough already!

Plarn Bags

Plarn, or Plastic Yarn, is made from those annoying plastic grocery bags that you never quite know what to do with. They are flimsy and break when you're carrying things into the house and once in the house, you have the perplexing question of what now? Do I just pitch them and let them try to biodegrade for the next millennium in a landfill, or do I save them and try to re-use them, or do I take them back to the store and trust the store to re-cycle them in a proper way, when we really don't know what they do with them? What to do? Some people use them as trash bags thus saving themselves some money. Others use them to collect animal wastes. Others don't ask these questions and just use their cloth bags when they remember to take them into the store with them.

I make Plarn out of them. Many people have made rugs our of Plarn. I make grocery bags out of them and I actually use them, when I remember to take them into the store with me! They reside in my car which is why this picture is set in my hatchback!
But the problem is, even though I have enough of these bags to handle my most heavy shopping days, I still have this mess next to my TV chair of unfinished Plarn bags. The reason why I wanted to dedicate this Blog to my multiples is to show that I really don't need all of these things and to count how many I have in the works. But I have no idea how many Plarn bags I have in the works. I have 4 of them started. The yellow one is waiting for me to collect more yellow bags to finish it. The others just need to be crocheted. But part of the problem is, I have plarn pieces cut and stored in various boxes and containers waiting to be formed into Plarn, a very labor intensive task.
I have plarn balled up in various colors that I could make a striped plarn bag out of and I have bags collected and waiting to be cut into plarn pieces. It's a never ending process! And it's a real mess! I have to get rid of it. But I can't see my way clear to throwing it all out because well, that wouldn't be ecologically PC. It's why I have the mess to begin with. So I have a goal. I will put a sign on my rear view mirror that says, "Take bags" to remind me. I will not get any more bags from the grocery store. I will finish the Plarn I have and make weird looking striped bags with whatever I have left and I won't worry about it. I'll take the ones I never use and put them into my box of things to sell at craft shows. Then I'll put a nice end table in that spot next to my TV chair, and that will be the end of it.

Pattern Models

These are two of the projects that I've designed patterns for. Designing patterns for me is a sideline, kind of akin to my writing. I use these patterns in my classes and eventually would like to publish them and put them on the market. But in order to do it, I have to make several versions of the thing so that I have a number of them to photograph for the cover art. Also, since I use them in the classes I teach I make a new one for nearly every class, so I have a lot of them. But I need to go ahead and finish the patterns and package them so that I can sell them somewhere other than Tawni's shop.

Those are my multiple projects and my goal now is to finish them all before fall! If I can get all that done, then this fall I plan to build up my shoulder muscles as I machine quilt about 20 projects in preparation for the quilt show next year.

Wish me luck!
Finishing Multiples,
Cindy K-K

Wow!

2010-04-23T11:02:00.006-04:00

How long has it been since I Blogged?

I have not given up on my goal of finishing something everyday for a year. I've just given up on blogging about them all! LOL! So maybe it was pretty unrealistic to find one thing I could finish everyday. But TRYING to find one thing everyday to finish put me in a particular state of mind, that being one of striving toward a goal of finishing. With Quilting there are times when you can often get something done in one day, finish a paper pieced block, or finish putting the binding on a top. There are also times when you can work away all day at something and not get it done, such as doing the machine quilting on a large quilt, or putting 15 pieces on an applique project. There is just no way to finish some of these things in one day. Two days yes, maybe three, but I found myself not bothering to work on some of these more lengthy projects in order to get something else shorter done so I could blog about it. Soon I ran out of things I could get done in less than one day.

Then this whole Sookie Stackhouse thing happened and I thought about giving it up entirely. But I still have to finish things! So I calmed myself down and I started working on some of these longer term projects, and here are the ones that I was able to finish entirely.

First the quilts:

I got the blocks for this one a few years ago at swap. We were swapping fabric and blocks that we no longer wanted to finish and I think I swapped a shoebox full of scraps to this woman for the blocks for this quilt. Anyway, the blocks weren't made very well, I had to cut off most of the points in order to get them into a quilt top. But the top turned out nice and I practiced this greek-key type of football quilting on it. It turned out great, except, my husband, a Lion's fan, complains that the quilt isn't big enough even for a lap robe. I figured it could be a chair hanging or a wall hanging and maybe a bench warmer for the games.

This also started as fabric from a swap. I must say that this is one of the most effortless quilts I've ever made. The fabric with the bears on it is from a collection called "A Quilter's Gift", you may have heard of the story book with the same name. While I was cleaning out my stash several of these fabric came out and seemed to just go together. I put them aside and then one day as I was looking through the kitted projects I saw this thing and decided "today is the day!"

I pulled it out, gathered a couple more fabrics and started cutting, before I knew it the top was together, Easy peasy! I layered it at the library a few weeks ago and then this past month quilted it, it only took the better part of one afternoon to quilt. That night I sat watching TV and hand sewed the binding. OK, totally finished with very little effort! WOW!

This picture is only here to prove that when you see me display one sock that is finished on this blog, the other one is not far behind. Some people only make one sock and the second one never gets finished. I'm just the opposite. It takes me forever to do the first one but once that's done, I can't wait to get the second one finished!
While I was still in the winter mode I wanted to get some more knitting done. I finished this shawl in record time and then I used the leftover yarn to make a nice thick scarf. I used to have lots of leftover yarn, but these days I don't want both a stash of fabric and of yarn so I try to knit up whatever yarn I have leftover from a project into something useful. As a result, I have a huge number of scarves. I'm going to have to add them to the box of stuff I sell at craft shows.

Speaking of which, I probably should add these bags to that box as well. I now have about half a dozen of these I've made. I wrote the pattern for them and I need to take pictures of them to put on the cover. One of these days I will be able to really start working on my pattern design company and maybe making some interesting extra money. But for now that's in the future still.
Another thing I like to do is pick up the odd needlepoint project when I find them at thrift shops. I love to do needlepoint and have ever since my Aunt Joyce gave me a needlepoint kit when I was in grade school and I figured out how to do it. I made a mistake though. She saw that I was having fun doing the project and asked me what I was going to do with it once I finished it. I told her I would probably give it away. She misinterpreted it to mean that I didn't want the thing. And I never got another handwork kit from her. I wish now that I had told her that I didn't know what I was going to do with it after it was finished but that I was having a great time doing it and I loved the gift. That's the information that she really wanted anyway. I finish the needlepoint projects I do these days into the pockets of bags or purses that I design around the needlepoint.

I finished this quilt top for the store. We're having a class in how to do this quilt and how to use the ruler that this quilt was made from.
and another quilt that I finished for store use. This is a paper pieced pattern and I've taught two classes now from this pattern. It's so cool, I want to keep it. When it's run it's course at the shop I'm going to redecorate my living room around this piece! LOL!
Here's an applique block from the Country Cousin's book that we're doing at guild. I finished it and it's residing with the rest awaiting more blocks to make an album quilt.
this one is the Breadfruit Hawaiian style applique. I did this one for the Interquilten Applique BOM.
Last but certainly not least is a face quilt depicting my friend Anne Nelson. I took this picture when we were on a picnic after the bridge walk with a group of friends. We were eating cupcake's because it was Anne's birthday. Anyway, I was searching my coffers for a picture that I could use to make a face quilt. I tried taking one myself and found that if it's an indoor picture with a flash it won't work because the flash fills in all the cooler shadows and flattens everything out. The picture has to be taken in sunlight and it has to be at an angle so that part of the face is in shadow. After coming up with this little piece I was brainstorming with Tawni (proprietor of Interquilten and my employer) we thought about finding a photo of someone famous who will be performing at Interlochen this summer and making a face quilt of that person. If the person isn't too famous we thought we might try to approach the person into making an appearance at the store while they are here to see the quilt that we make. So Now I'm searching out images of either Garrison Keilor, Lyle Lovette, or Foreigner. Sheryl Crow is in June, which doesn't give me much time to finish a quilt with her face on it. She would have been my first choice. And a face quilt featuring the three talented men from the Moody Blues with a backdrop of a Knight wearing white Satin is just the thing I could sink my teeth into except having that ornate of a project done by June 26th and generate enough publicity to attract their attention? Might not happen.

OK, so these are the thoughts I've been having this past month. Was it worth the wait? I'll try not to wait so long to blog again. Maybe even later tonight if I get this one applique project done. I better get it done, it's due tomorrow!

Cindy
Still finishing even though you don't know about it!

Falling through the cracks

2010-03-11T08:26:00.002-05:00

Yes, there are things that are falling through the cracks. I have been finishing projects this month. Not as many as I should. In fact I came up with only these two that I could actually show.
This first one is a sock that I finished from yarn that was purchased in Ludington when my friend Pam from Australia was up to visit. She bought the same yarn (I was copying her not vice versa) and now I'm finally getting to finishing them 6 months later. I'm never without a sock to work on these days.
This one finally got finished and off my design wall! I call it,
"Deconstructed Star". It was a piecing nightmar . . . er I mean challenge! I managed to do only about six partial seams to put the top together. When I get finished with the big sale this weekend I plan to explore some more embellishments. Oh and the Border Babes are swapping Batik charm squares for a new project that some of them are interested in doing. I'm not necessarily doing the project, but I'm always interested in getting my hands on new Batiks!

Cindy K-K
Getting back on the finishing wagon.

Sookie Stackhouse is to blame!

2010-03-02T11:53:00.004-05:00

If any of you have been a fan of the HBO series "True Blood" then you know Sookie. Sookie Stackhouse is the heroine of a series of books about Vampires in rural Louisiana. They are very original (despite the whole Anne Rice phenom) and ultimately intriguing. If you enjoy a good mystery/romance/scary vampire story then you will love Sookie and her cohorts!

That's my excuse for not posting for the whole month of February. I read my way through all 9 books and most of the way through another collection of short stories staring Sookie. Yes, I'm on a first name basis with her for a reason.

Anyway, so today I am starting fresh on my goal of finishing one thing per day. Here is what I managed to get done during Feb.

I got this bear finally once and for all finished and it's now hanging up at Interquilten. It was a very fun project to do and I hope this will inspire some of you to delve into the possibilities of trying some of these techniques.

This is one Paper Pieced block of a wall hanging called "Majestic Fir" which I did for a class. The class was very successful and I can't wait to finish the rest of the wallhanging. It too will hang in Interquilten and we will have more classes based on this pattern.

This is the latest of the Applique BOM's, also for Interquilten. (Are you beginning to sense a theme here? Yes, I finished all the projects I should have for the shop but none of my own?)

Oops, how did I manage this? I finished this block which is going to be a page for my embellishment book. Eventually I will have a whole booklet of these wonderful idea pages. Yes, even at my age I have hope for the future!

Oh look! A project that I didn't need to do for the shop! This is the center to my latest Round Robin. It's going to be slightly different than most RR's. This one I'm asking for textures rather than colors and shapes. I found this little project at Goodwill in a kit that I paid $.53 for. I finished it in one day. It was for a little sachet type pillow with a lace edging. I put that lace on and then added another border. It's about 6 inches square at the moment and I'm hoping it will only get to be less than 18 inches total. But we shall see. Round Robins are like children, you put them out into the world and trust that they will come back to you as fully realized individuals!

Now I'm caught up to yesterday! Yesterday was March 1. I managed to finish something else in time for the guild meeting. I showed this project at the meeting so I present it here.
This is how it starts, as a yellow bead and button "Stew". The recipe for this Stew is in the book pictured here, Quilting Arts Book, based on the magazine of the same name. My take on the stew was to add certain charms, lapel buttons, and costume jewelry.
Here's what I made out of it. I began with a circle of a beautiful yellow and orange batik. I fused it to a piece of Peltex and then put another backing of fusible onto it. I then place a small layer of yellow and gold Angelina fibers onto the front with misty fuse and once that was attached I trimmed the entire piece the shape of batik. I peeled off the paper backing of the fusible and began to sew. I sewed the beads on in circular lengths that stood up from the backing. I also did kind of a bead fringe technique where you string on a row of beads and then skip the last one and go back through all the others. I tried to fill as much space as possible on the surface of the moon. I wanted to leave the outside edges free so that I could do a satin stitch around it to attach it to the finished project. This is just one design element in a larger piece. Also, the watch on this project is a dead watch that I had, I set the time to a significant time the time of my birth and that of my son's. I was born at 10:30 am, and he was born at 10:30 pm. My idea to finish this project is to commemorate the island of Kynthia where Apollo and Athena were born. Athena is the goddess of the moon. Kynthia is the derivation of my name Cynthia.
Side view showing the 3-D effects of the bead fringe technique.

More later!
Cindy K-K
Finished with Harris' novels; now on to more of my own projects.

Geese weekend!

2010-02-03T23:59:00.002-05:00

I spent the weekend doing geese. Yes, geese. I've been wanting to do this project for a while. I know how to do at least five or six different methods to make geese, some handy, some simple, some dimensional. So I did them all weekend. I got the blocks for this top finished and on the design wall. I'm loving it. It's the first time I ever designed a quilt like this one. I had fun fun fun! And I had some blocks left over to make the sample for the class I'm having in the same technique. This is one of the blocks for that sample.
I also finished this applique block for a demo that I did at guild Monday night. Then I finished it yesterday after I did the demo. I know! I only had five more little tiny pieces to put on it, but I just ran out of time to do before the meeting on Monday. It's finished now though!
Today I went off and layered this bear quilt top. I have to go to the library. One of the tables on the second floor is the perfect size for this size quilt, so I didn't have to reserve a room or anything. Now I am free to work on Machine quilting. I figure I'd better get set up for that and get some of it done. The machine quilting is beginning to pile up around here. That's all that needs to get done on several projects. I could show about five or more projects next month if I spent just a week machine quilting. OK, so I will! LOL!

Talk with you later.
Cindy K-K
Still finishing.

Another top completely finished!

2010-01-29T21:21:00.002-05:00

This one is like I said, over ten years in the finishing. But here it is! Now all I have to do is layer and quilt it! But I need to wait until I can find some batting on sale! Meanwhile, I'm going to a friend's house tomorrow to do some sewing. I also did some knitting and needlepoint today to get going on some other projects.

Stay tuned.

Cindy K-K
Finishing really old stuff.

Another 12 year old project finished!

2010-01-28T20:16:00.003-05:00

This is the last block which I got finished today. I decided to do this beautiful star block instead of that silly Noah's Ark block with all the appliqued Animals! So I got it done today, doing the last of the applique while I watched a movie. Then I worked the rest of the day to get the top done.
This was a piecing nightm . . . I mean a piecing challenge! There were more partial seams in this one than any other project I've ever done, and I did a heart quilt for my friend Char where every single block had a partial seam. Anyway, the top is done except for the borders. Now I have to figure out if I want it to be a bed quilt because the instructions have a series of borders that take it from the lap sized thing it is now all the way up to a King sized. But I'm thinking definitely Lap robe. Two borders and I'd be able to use it for laying around the house at Christmas time.

I plan to use tomorrow to do some machine quilting. I know, I know, I seem to get stuck on that segment of quilting. But I made a goal and well, I need to do it.

OK, so I'll report back to you tomorrow!

Cindy K-K
Keep up the finishing!

Productive day

2010-01-26T19:49:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately the most creative thing I did today was make Potato and leek soup. But I did get the border on this quilt top. I'm going to have to do something creative on top of this project to cover up the holes. Why does it have holes? Because the strips weren't wide enough. The SNS technique requires that you cut strips of fabric and then trim them down at angles to create the blocks (If anyone is interested in this technique, I'll be teaching a class at Interquilten about it) Well, I think there was a mistake in the instructions on this block, because it seemed like that last strip was consistently about a half inch short. But not to worry, I think I'll take some pieces of the flower carpet fabric and fuse it on all the holes before I machine quilt it. That should take care of the problem.
Then I also got the borders on this quilt. Isn't he handsome? I think I'll go over to the shop tomorrow and get the backing fabric for him and some batting and get him layered. I can't wait for him to go up in the shop. I can't wait to hear the comments.
Now this one only had about three more seams left to do today so I sat and did them. Now the top is finished. I kind of like how the sides without being trimmed form points. I am thinking about doing the same thing on the top and bottom. Unfortunately this project is wider than it is long. I don't like quilts that go the wrong way like that so I have to fix it, maybe with more rows or maybe with a larger border on the top and bottom, or maybe with two extra borders on top and bottom. But I want to keep the points on the sides, I kind of like them. So I'm going to have to do some more thinking about this project.
Anyway, here is a detail so you can see some of the unique kitty fabrics I collected to make it. Man I had a great time collecting those!! Actually I still have several that I plan to use on other projects.

I really want to spend the rest of this week machine quilting things, so I'm clearing the decks for that endeavor. I'll let you know more tomorrow!

Cindy K-K
Still Finishing

Two of the three done.

2010-01-24T22:27:00.003-05:00

I finished two blocks today. This one is the last of the total hand applique ones. I finished it today and it turned out OK, I think. Now I can piece a whole section of the Christmas Sampler quilt.
I also finished this block which is fused applique. Even fused applique takes a while to complete because of the use of fusible web. You have all of the prep work to do, even though you have basically none of the sewing afterward. So in other words, all the necessary stuff but none of the fun stuff! Oh well. I'm just trying really hard to finish this project. The last block that I have yet to do is a "Noah's Ark" block, but I couldn't really see what that had to do with Christmas other than the fact that it's a popular kids toy and a bible story both. But I just didn't want to include it in my quilt, so I looked through the Christmas blocks I had patterns for and found one that is called Nativity Star. It's wonderful and includes both piecing and applique. I pieced it today and I'll finish the hand applique on it either tomorrow or Tuesday. Wow, then I'll be done with a project I've been working on for more than 10 years.

I got a comment about the Bear quilt. I didn't make up the pattern myself, but it is available for purchase at Interquilten. As soon as I finish the project, it will hang in the shop.

Cindy K-K
Shortcuts to finishing!

Stuff happening!

2010-01-22T21:20:00.002-05:00

I finished the binding on this little quilt tonight. That's the first thing I've finished in three days. I've been working on lots of stuff though.Including a new novel. Yes, I'm working on a werewolf novel. Jumping on that particular band wagon. I do believe mine is going to be a bit different though. More on that later.
Another project I've been working on lately is this Christmas sampler. You saw some of the blocks I finished for it earlier. I ran out of greens and needed to go buy some to finish the last two blocks for this quilt. I have yet to do that though. I will update more on this project later and keep you all posted.

Cindy
Slowing down but still finishing.

#25--A store project

2010-01-19T22:48:00.002-05:00

I finished this quilt top today. Actually I started it today too. It's a store project designed to showcase the flowered fabric along with the Square in a square ruler and some of the many possibilities that can be accomplished for that. The pattern for this is the book Advancing on II. I still need to put a border on it, and you know, layer, etc. So I'll keep it on the list. But start to finish it was not a very hard project at all.

Cindy K-K
Finishing more than I start!

Pair finished! #24

2010-01-18T23:28:00.003-05:00

Finished the second one tonight. I also worked a little on the Bear from yesterday. I put on the first border and added the two leaves that went over the border. I think that Wednesday I'll be going in to Interquilten to get the rest of the fabric for the other two borders. So tomorrow I hope to run some errands and then come back and do some machine quilting. I have a pile of stuff that needs to be machine quilted before I can finish it. Maybe my next goal should be to finish everything that is layered before the next meeting. I'll take it under advisement!

Cindy
Keep on finishing!

Finished the Bear! #23

2010-01-18T01:21:00.002-05:00

I didn't finish anything yesterday, boohoo. We all knew these days would come. OK so I had my first one, of many probably. But I'll still try to catch up. But today I finished the fused applique on this wonderful bear. I now need to find some border fabric for it then I can finish putting the last two leaves on it.

I think I'll be finishing the second copper sock tomorrow, we shall see!

Cindy
Keep on finishing!

I've been recovering!

2010-01-15T18:36:00.002-05:00

I've been recovering from the move. It's taken me a while. I guess these old bones aren't as limber as they used to be! Anyway, I took a couple of days off, but today I tried to catch up. Here's what I did:
I finished putting together this quilt top. We'll call this number 20. You've seen this before when I finished the blocks the other day. Well, I put the top together today. Then
I finished the whole top by attaching borders. It looks pretty neat huh? I love the 3-D effect this pattern gives. I have big plans for embellishing this one. I'll have to work on it. We'll call this #21.
Then I sat down to watch some videos and finished this one sock. Number 22. I'll start the other one tonight yet. I don't really like to wait too long before starting the second sock. Sometimes you forget how the first one was made and then you have to try to figure it out. I eliminate that problem by starting the second one immediately and trying to finish it within a few days as well. So number two will be coming up soon.

Thanks for your patience! Tomorrow is Saturday Sew at the Library so we shall see what I can get done there.

Cindy K-K
Catching up with the finishing.

Store moving!

2010-01-12T21:57:00.004-05:00

The store is moved. It is all in the new location now and open for business. Come in and take a look!

So I didn't actually finish anything yesterday because of the move, but today I finished two things, or maybe three, but I'm not counting one of them. Here I'll show you:
I promised you and here it is. The completely finished Tomato Quilt! I woke up this morning and sewed the binding on first thing.

Here is a picture of the back. Notice the label! Yes, I labeled it. And also notice the quilting. Most of it is in white because the front was white, but it's pretty neat to see the pattern on the back.

Here is a detail of the quilting on the back. I also did some quilting in green on the dinner plates. Isn't it funny how much green food there is in Italian cooking?

I'm including this picture, not because I finished anything on this quilt but because I found the label. I knew I had printed up a bunch of labels for quilts that I was nearly finished with and I stored them . . . somewhere! I found them this past winter, I had them stored in a page sleeve in my quilting journal. So I figured, it was about time for me to sew it on.

So here it is, attached! All of this happened before noon while I still had some energy. But I figured that I still had some energy for a short time after lunch. So I finished the blocks for this project.
It's an attic window quilt with a halloween theme. I found this little cartoon depiction of tricks-or-treaters. I cut them into 3 inch squares. They have been up on the design wall for a good long time, maybe even months. Today I finished sewing the blocks. I have an interesting idea for embellishing this one. I'm going to have to think and plan a little, but in the mean time, I intend to finish the top of this. The glitz will come in the embellishments.

Well, not bad for one day, and that's with recovering from one of the most strenuous work days of my life! I'll come up with something for tomorrow!

Cindy K-K
Catching up on the finishing!

Today!

2010-01-10T20:38:00.002-05:00

I finished the freemo on the tomato quilt today. It's really cool looking too. I'll take a picture of it tomorrow after I finish the binding and sew on the label. So that's it! I am helping move the store tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Cindy
Finished for now!

Yesterday!

2010-01-10T12:21:00.002-05:00

Yes, I did finish something yesterday. Two things actually. I finished layering two projects, the tomato quilt (today I'm free motion quilting it) and another of my wild log cabin bags. I'll try to get the freemo done on the tomato quilt today. I have another appointment tonight so it's gotta be this afternoon. More later.

No pictures today

2010-01-08T19:24:00.003-05:00

I finished the prep work today on four different Baltimore Album blocks. Two of them are from the guild project, and the other two from the Applique BOM that I'm doing at Interquilten. On top of that I finished the patterns and instructions for the two store BOM's. I figure that means I'm finished with the class prep. Now I just need to do the sewing on the four blocks. Next time I report on one of these is when I finish the sewing.

Many of you might think this is cheating, that I really didn't finish anything today. If that's true then you never prepped applique before. It can be very labor intensive.

One of the projects I prepped was a Hawaiian applique Breadfruit pattern. There are several steps to completing this prep work.

1. Take a piece of freezer paper four times the size of the pattern. Fold it into eighths.
2. Draw the pattern on the eighth panel of the folded paper.
3. Carefully cut out the pattern through all 8 layers.
4. Carefully unfold the paper pattern and iron it to a piece of fabric.
5. Using a prisma pencil in a color that will show up on your fabric trace the pattern using the freezer paper as a template. Remove the freezer paper.
6. Press the background fabric and fold it into quarters, press again to create centering folds.
7. Layer the marked fabric onto the background fabric centering it onto the pressed in folds.
8. Pin in place.
9. Baste the entire outside of the applique fabric with heavy quilting thread.
10. Baste the entire inside of the design at least a half inch away from the drawn line.

At this point the piece is ready to be stitched.

No two pieces of applique are alike in what they need as prep work. One of the pieces only needed small bits and pieces cut from freezer paper patterns. One needed bias tape made from whole fabric. One needed a freezer paper stencil cut with an exacto-knife. I worked on these things all day long and now it's nearly 7 pm and I consider myself finished! I'm calling this number 17!

I'm going to relax tonight with some knitting. Maybe I'll be able to finish a sock tonight! Or get near enough to finish it for tomorrow. I work tomorrow.

This is going to be a very busy week. I work Saturday and Monday at Interquilten. I am going to spend time with friends on Sunday. Tuesday is the day the store is moving across the street. We will be very busy packing and unpacking that day. Wednesday likewise. Thursday is Borders. Friday I have off! Saturday is Saturday Sew. I'll be able to get something done those two days! I will endeavor to finish at least a heart block every day this week and work on something more. We shall see!

Cindy K-K
Running out of quick finishes!

Top done!

2010-01-07T22:07:00.004-05:00

A couple of days ago I finished the last of the applique blocks for this quilt, and today I finished the quilt top. Imagine it with a bright red binding. I'll be machine quilting it soon too, as soon as I can get a bat cut for it. I could very easily be done with this whole project within a week. I could make that a goal, couldn't I?

I spent time at Borders today with the Border Babes and I got several pieces of applique attached. Nice! I wanted to continue working on it this afternoon, but I had to do silly things today like vacuuming and dishes. Whatever!

Cindy K-K
Still Finishing~!

Almost didn't make it!

2010-01-06T21:56:00.003-05:00

I finished that big organizing project this morning and then tried working on the tomato quilt, I was planning to finish that top today. But then I had a meatball sub for lunch and it made me sick to my stomach. Those of you who know me know that I had stomach surgery two years ago and have lost about 100 lbs. But I am still prone to some stomach ailments when I eat wrongly! So I spent the entire afternoon napping listlessly in the chair and trying to ignore the book on CD playing in the background. So I thought today would be the first day that I actually missed finishing something. Then tonight while watching TV I picked up this block and managed to get the last 9 cherries on it. I was saving this one for a day that I worked. Guess I'll have to prep a new one!

Cindy K-K
Too many things, I can't even avoid finishing!

More Finished Christmas Sampler Blocks

2010-01-05T19:40:00.002-05:00

Yes, I was working hard on the Christmas Sampler. Some of these blocks were not precisely done as planned but so what they are finished. I used fusible web on the appliques. But it still took me several hours to do.

I also spent some time getting organized today. I still have some cutting to do to finish the organizing, but once it's done I'll be good to get going!

Last nights guild meeting was fun fun fun! Lots of laughs!

More tomorrow,
Cindy K-K
finishing up the organizing!

One for Tomato Lovers!

2010-01-04T13:45:00.000-05:00

My son is a chef trained at the Great Lakes Culinary Institute. So when I saw this cute little wall quilt I had to make it. The original design had a BLT depicted on it, but that was hardly culinary. So I switched it. I designed the salad with the bacon bits and cherry tomatoes. Today I finished appliqueing the last block, this Pizza block. As you can see, it's kind of a California style pizza with the tomato slices on it. Jake is really more into Sicilian pizza.
All of the blocks are now finished for this quilt top. I can spend some time this week putting it together. In fact, I might make that one of my weekly goals.

Tonight is the Guild meeting and the unveiling of the Grandmother's Flower Garden. This will make it official!

Again tomorrow!
Cindy K-K
Getting closer to finishing it all!

Really I accomplish more!

2010-01-03T15:23:00.001-05:00

Here is my offering today. I finished these four blocks. Two of them are for the same project as the two blocks I did yesterday, it's a Christmas Sampler. The other two, the ones with the blue backgrounds, are for my Chicago fire quilt. That's a long story and I'll tell it later when I get around to finishing it. But for now I'll tell you about this Christmas sampler.

I started receiving these patterns, which all fit in a notebook. They came in installments and cost about $18 each including shipping. Little did I know that I would paying for about 30 of them. It's a very cute pattern, and I was employed at the time so I went ahead and wrote the check every month. Yikes. I don't even like to think about how much the pattern cost me.

So I started making the blocks and (as usual) lost interest in them after a time. Every so often I regain momentum for this project and as a result I have most of the blocks done. Of course the hardest part is finishing the applique blocks. they are very ornate and have lots of tiny little pieces. So many that I often lose them. Yesterday I made two of the more difficult pieced blocks. Today I made two fairly simple ones, but here is how the project snow-balled (pun intended).

First I got out the rest of the blocks yesterday and decided that I might try to put a few more of them together, trying to finish what I can of the top. I worked on that for several hours last night. Then I got out my stash of Christmas fabrics, that's always an invitation for getting creative. I just love how certain fabrics go together.

I found a piece of fabric that I'd forgotten about with kitties all over it with little Santa hats on. It's just precious! So I spent a goodly time then trying to figure out what to do with that fabric. I found several more that went with it. Then I fell into a dead sleep (yeah it was after midnight).

This morning when I woke up after a cup of coffee I started looking through magazines, actually just one magazine, and I found a cute pattern that I could see the kitties going into. So I got out some other fabrics and did some calculations (which always takes a long time because I'm Mathematically challenged) and discovered that I had enough to make a full sized quilt. So I cut out the pieces and then rummaged through my file drawers of 2 1/2 inch squares to find reds, greens, and golds. I found plenty of course. I used to collect greens and I have so many of them cut into 2 1/2 inch squares which is why I needed the four drawer container, but that's yet another story!

While rummaging I discovered a pile of greens all in the same basic color and value, so I pulled them out. At this point I started getting the overwhelming feeling that I was biting off more than I could chew, BUT I surged forward none-the-less. I counted them and found that I had enough for about 44 nine patches, and I thought, OK, that's enough for a single Irish chain quilt. So I pulled out some light yellows, creams and a white and cut them into 6 1/2 inch squares and 2 1/2 inch squares. I put all the pieces together into a baggie for later sewing. Likewise the Santa Kitties and all those pieces went into a baggie for later sewing. So I have two new projects for lull sewing times (Yeah Right!!!) Then I went back to the Christmas Sampler. I made the four tree blocks (see above, yes thank you, I did finish them!) And now I am Blogging. I have to update my other Blog as well before I quit. But then I think I'm going to go back and finish as many more blocks for the Christmas Sampler as I can. There are a couple of blocks that I wasn't really interested in hand appliqueing, like the Noah's Ark block (two of everything). So I'm thinking that in order to get this project finished I'm going to go ahead and dig out the fusible web and slap some of these together with raw edge applique. I've been working on this project long enough! So that's the plan!

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. You look at the four little tree blocks and think, gosh, is that all she did today? Nope, it's the tip of the iceberg, it's only what I finished today!

Cindy K-K
finishing things, but accomplishing more.

After Yesterday? Give me a break!

2010-01-02T19:43:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I finished a whole 20 year old quilt, my oldest UFO, and today you're just going to have to give me a break. I managed to finish two very complicated blocks today. I'm nearly finished with another and I did some prep work but I'm going to call it a night. I had some dishes and laundry to do today as well. I know, that's not really an excuse but I can't spend all day every day on my hobbies!

Oh BTW, I made a mistake on one of these blocks. If anyone can spot it I will send the first one who notices it a prize~!

More tomorrow!
Cindy K-K
Finishing the bits and pieces.

Finishing out the Old Year and Starting a New~!

2010-01-02T00:08:00.001-05:00

I didn't actually finish anything yesterday except the old year. I made a batch of amaretto cookies if that counts. Some friends took us downtown to the State Theater to see Grease and then to watch the cherry drop. It was wall to wall people on Front Street, there were so many people that we didn't even get cold!

So today I worked exclusively on the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt and guess what? I Finished it! Here is the finished product.
Now let me tell you about this project.
I started it in 1989 when a customer of mine at Erickson's brought in a finished top wanting to know how to finish it. I loved the look of her quilt top and thought that I could have done a better job of hand piecing it myself. So I started the project right away when I got home that night. I wanted the look of those wonderful pastel thirties prints but since they had no reproduction fabrics at that time I had to find prints and solids that mimicked the look I had in mind. I used whatever odds and ends of muslin I had in my stash, and this I wish I had not done. Of course, at the time, I didn't know that it was going to be my masterpiece!
I finished the blocks in 2000 after working on them during my breaks at Polk. Then I finished the top working on it at Border's with the Border babes in 2005. I layered it so that we could use it as a hand quilting demo at the Northwest Michigan Fair. We began to hand quilt it bee style. Members of the Rumpled Quilts Kin Guild worked on it on and off for the last five years. Members who worked on it included: Eleanor Howard, Char Blanchard, Alice Rogers, Karen Hill, Laura Munck, Arlene Kish, Nancy Larson, Nancy Crow, Mikki Gauthier, Sue Shipman, Dorothy Weber, Marsha Frick, Sharon Siladke, Elaine Penny, Terese Gavar, and Diana Siloff.

The last time I worked on it bee style was in the home of Eleanor Howard. Eleanor is a 89 year old woman who has been quilting her entire life. She is our guild's hand quilting guru! She has single-handed taught probably over a hundred people to quilt in our guild alone. She is a very dear friend of mine and she has been getting after me for over a year to finish this quilt. Finally last July I signed the UFO contract.

For those of you who don't know, I usually run a UFO (Unfinished Object) club for our guild. We had just gotten finished with the UFO club and I challenged everyone in the guild to take one of their UFO's their biggest baddest UFO and work on it for the next six months. I gave each person a contract to sign. The deadline is the January meeting, January 4th! I named this project as my biggest baddest UFO, I've been working it for 20 years now so it's also my oldest UFO.

Today it is finished~!!!! So being that I finished it on January 1, 2010 it will also count toward the new UFO club. Which reminds me, I need to send this link to Sue Shipman to prove to her that I did finish it today!!!

I sewed the Label onto it about 8 pm this evening which made it officially finished. I will dig out the permanent marker and write the finishing date on the label as the final touch.

I was raised by my Grandmother who had a very lovely flower garden behind her house. I always remember helping her plant annuals in it. She had tulips and lilies that came up every year too. Her garden was the first thing I saw when I came over to her house and there was a lovely little garden path that one had to walk in order to get to her back porch. Doing this project put me in mind of her nearly every time I worked on it. It was her house in Dixboro Michigan where our family gathered every Sunday night for games, TV, Pizza, conversation, and it's where I learned my values and my responsibilities as a member of a family.

This project is a tribute to my Grandmother and her lovely house and garden!

In finishing out the old year I also want to mention that in my little black book I have listed 68 projects that I finished last year. Of course many of those projects are multiples. Often if I made multiples of something I just wrote how many on one line of the list. Such as 14 wallets for sale, 7 jewelry bags, 2 green bags, 3 apple blocks, 8 video tape bags, etc. I also want to go on record that I completed 61 bags or wallets, some of which I still have in the box that I take to craft shows. I also finished 12 quilts this year, and ten hand knitted projects including three pairs of socks.

I'm very thrilled at everything I got done this year. When you consider that two years ago today I was looking forward to having my stomach stapled, I was depressed, had no energy and was awaiting my own death. So much has changed in these last two years. I am 100 lbs less, I have renewed energy, I have a job that I love with a boss that I love and I am so energetic about finishing these old projects. I really want to work on some new exciting techniques this year. I want to explore more embellishing techniques and surface design. But meanwhile I'm also going to continue to set weekly goals to rid myself of these older projects as well. I'm very excited to get started, so what I accomplished today is symbolic of my new life! Get finished with the old stuff, have that feeling of accomplishment and then go on to the next new thing!

So, on to the next thing!

Cindy K-K
Finishing the old stuff!

#9 another plarn tote, yep!

2009-12-31T01:08:00.001-05:00

OK, well I know I must have told you that I have a huge amount of Plarn. I have enough plarn for at least a dozen more bags. But the good news is, I'm no longer collecting plastic bags with which to make more Plarn. I just have to finish the ones I have. So Expect a few more plarn bags before the year is up. I will however try to have something quilty to finish tomorrow. I started working on a quilt top that I've had on my design wall for a while now. If I have the energy I'm going to try to finish it for tomorrow.

I also really have to work on my Grandmother's Flower Garden. I'm not sure if I can get it done in one day. I'll try though. Friday I'll have a whole day. My thumb nail is very short, but it's healed. I have to try!

Talk with you tomorrow,
Cindy K-k
I even finish the rediculous stuff!

Number 8 finished! Whew!

2009-12-30T00:13:00.000-05:00

Yeah, for a second or two, (make that an hour or two) today I was afraid I wouldn't get anything done. I couldn't seem to settle on one project. I was so scattered today, I got one thing out and moved it from point A to point B and then it lay for three hours while I went off and did ten other things instead. I thought maybe I could make the plarn for a whole bag AND get the thing crocheted all in one day. But I couldn't. Then I thought, well I could finally get to that one Halloween project that has been on my design wall since, yeah, before Halloween, but all the further I got on that was to pull the two fabrics I needed to make the blocks. Then later I cut the fabric.

Anyway this project that I actually did finish shortly before midnight yesterday was nearly finished, I only needed to applique two of the big leaves on it. I was waiting for a work day to finish this one but I pulled it out today and well, here it is! This is one of the applique blocks that we are doing at Guild. We are working out of a book called Baltimore's Country Cousin. This is one of those blocks. I have been working on Baltimore blocks for six months now and I'm only partly done with my Baltimore Album quilt. OK, there will be more.

I think the best thing for me to do is to make weekly goals. I realize that the week is half way over already but starting tomorrow I'm going to do that. I'm still going to finish a project every day but my weekly goal will be a bigger project to finish. Sometimes I will need to finish parts of it in a day.

So keep track of my progress by watching the new weekly goal side bar.

Keep me honest dear readers!

Cindy K-K
finishing things bit by bit.

Number 7 finished!!!

2009-12-28T20:56:00.000-05:00

This is a new design for an organizer that I invented. I will be writing the pattern for it soon and it will be available at Interquilten. It builds on the little plastic baggie organizer that Connie Stevens made for all of us at the last retreat. This one takes the quart sized freezer baggies and six of them are sewn into the quilted shell. It closes with a hair rubber band and a button. The first one I made didn't have handles but I like it better with the handles. The pattern will have both options.

The first one I made about two months ago is holding all of my hand sewing needles, but it would also be good to hold sewing machine accessories, or the things you need for applique, or fishing lures, or anything that needs to stay dry like matches or maps or I don't know. One of my customers at the store came up with about ten different applications for this little organizer. It's just made out of fabric and plastic baggies so it's completely washable. OK, how many advanced orders can I get for the pattern. That would make me finish that project faster!

OK, I gotta go work on something for tomorrow now!

Cindy K-K
finishing more and more.

Number six done

2009-12-27T22:22:00.001-05:00

These two blocks, well actually they are 8 blocks sewn together into 4-patches. They are the beginnings of another of my famous Wild Log Cabin bags. I had some fabric left over from the M-go blue bags I made for my mom for Christmas and wanted to make a maize and blue log cabin bag. I got the blocks done today. The next step will be for me to layer and machine quilt them, which I will do at my next Freemo class in February. I love the scrappy look of this bag. The only problem with doing scrappy blocks is that afterward you have to clean up. Anyway, I have to work again tomorrow, so I might only be doing another heart block. (grin)

I also finished an organizer today but I need to find a button to sew on, so maybe I'll finish that project for tomorrow.

Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Cindy K-K
The finisher!

I did finish something today

2009-12-27T00:17:00.000-05:00

I worked today at the shop and had an Applique class. I had two beginning applique students and I have an applique heart quilt that I am working on just so that I will always have fodder for beginning applique students. The heart is the perfect form to applique because it has all the shapes that you need to be able to work on, it has straight aways, it has gentle curves, it has an inside point and an outside point. The beginning project is always twelve hearts appliqued in some configuration on the background. So today I pulled out one of my heart blocks for my primary colors quilt and finished it. I hardly think it's worthy of a whole blog but I did finish that one block. I suppose on the days that I work and can't get more done it's better than nothing.

Now here's the thing. If I had the better part of a day to work on applique, I can usually get way more than this done. So If I ever work on this project on a non-work day, then I won't count it unless I get at least four or five blocks done. There are a lot of blocks of varying sizes in this quilt but each one has only one heart appliqued on it.

OK, I guess I'm finished justifying! Number five it is!

Cindy K-K
Finishing little things one day at a time.

Fourth project, Green socks!

2009-12-25T22:58:00.000-05:00

Yesterday at the Timber Lanes Christmas Party my friend Rosy was hinting like crazy that she would love to have these socks. I just love the yarn, it's a cotton blend with three shades of very pretty green. Sorry Rosy, it's my favorite color, too. I've been trying to finish this applique for three days now. I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow and try again. But tonight I have to get ready for some classes on Saturday and again on Monday. Hope the weather is OK to get to Interlochen! We were supposed to have freezing rain today.

Anyway, I'm geeked that this is the fourth day and I've already finished four projects! I am so wondering how long I can keep this up! That's the thing. Maybe I should do a poll or maybe have a little pool. Maybe I'll wait a while and see if I get any interest from readers.

Gotta work tomorrow so I'm hoping I will have time to post.

Cindy K-K
Finishing still!

Third project done, Plarn bag

2009-12-24T23:30:00.000-05:00

Here's number three. So far so good. I've made about a dozen of these bags out of "plarn", plastic yarn. It's a pretty labor intensive project. If I were to sell these things I would have to charge about $40 each. Anyone who wants one please feel free to contact me! I used the plastic bags I recieved from Gordon's foods to make this one. And I used bags from Game Stop which are predominantly black to make the top edge looked finished. Check out my other two Blogs to see other bags I've finished like this one.

http://myhaunts.blogspot.com
http://theufoclub.blogspot.com

See you tomorrow! Can't wait to see what I finish!
Cindy K-K
The finisher!

QAC Quilt Finished!

2009-12-24T02:37:00.000-05:00

It only took me one day to piece this lovely quilt at a quilt marathon we had earlier this year. My BFF Suzy Bouwsma machine quilted it and gave it back to me to bind. It turned out great! And I finished it today. This is one of many quilts that are being sold on the QAC website to raise funds for woman who have no means to pay for their cancer treatments. Check out the other quilts that are for sale at this site: http://www.quiltersagainstcancer.com/availablequilts.html.

We at Interquilten are proud supporters of this unique organization.

See you tomorrow when it may by socks or it may be blocks, who knows?
Cindy K-K
Gettin her done!

First project done!!!

2009-12-23T20:26:00.000-05:00

This is it!! This is the first finished project on this journey. This is called the Wild Log Cabin Tote Bag. I've made a few of these before and I have a few more to make. I am writing the pattern for this one and it will be available at Interquilten within the next few months. Of course if you take the Free Motion quilting class at Interquilten you will get the pattern for this bag because this is the pattern that we use to practice freemo on.

Now that I'm finished with this project I will make strides toward another project. I need to finish an applique block by Saturday, so I'll work on that tonight!

OK, so I really wondered if this was going to work this afternoon as I was doing laundry and worrying over the fact that I was going to have to clean off the cutting table before finishing a project but I think I have a good plan and all I have to do is stick with it. Just don't accept any excuses from me OK? I hope you readers keep me honest! Talk with you tomorrow.

Cindy K-K
Finishing projects one at a time.

Consumate List Maker

2009-12-23T01:56:00.000-05:00

Yes I am! I make lists of my lists! I keep lists of everything, especially projects. I have a list of finished projects that I have completed over the last few years. It's in a Black notebook, written in light colored gel pen. I started using this book in 2002 at the bequest of an Internet guild member who suggested that keeping track of the projects that one finishes is sometimes more inspiring than keeping a list of things to do or projects that need to be finished. So My goal for the next 365 days is to write something down in this book nightly. The last thing I finished was on December 11, 2009, it was a gift for my mother for Christmas. Something called a "green bag". It had more to do with it being the type of tote that one uses to get groceries, than the actual color, but as I recall it had a lot of the color green in it as well. I think I have managed to finish a few things since then. I finished two Plarn bags. Plarn is made from plastic bags. Plastic Yarn=Plarn. To see a good video on how to make Plarn go to this website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdTm2V4ssvY.

So I'll start with that. No I won't count them. But I will record them since I'm recording. I'm starting tomorrow. I thought long and hard and I did not manage to finish anything today. I worked on the green socks, and the black Plarn bag. but didn't manage to finish. So tomorrow I should be primed. I'll finish one of those two things tomorrow and post it on here. What an interesting year this should be.

The quester,
Cindy K-K

A Year of Finishing!

2009-12-22T23:01:00.000-05:00

I am a fiber artist and I have too many UnFinished Objects (UFO's) So I decided that in 2010 I was going to finish as many of them as I can. I am going to try to finish a project every day!

I am posting the list in this post and a running tab will be on the side bar so you can keep track of my progress. I will finish something everyday and post photos and explanations on the blog.

So here is, I wrote this earlier. It contains the pledge, the goal, exactly how I'm going to do this and what exactly constitutes a finished project. I am counting parts of projects, they are still major parts, mostly because a lot of these things are really huge projects. I make quilts and I do needle art, I have been focusing on applique lately and these things are not like painting your living room. You can't always finish these projects in one or two days. So I've gotten it down to parts that I may be able to finish in one day. But the point is to finish projects. So therefore I'm going to work on a project daily for several days in a row in hopes of getting it finished. I plan to finish at least one major project per week. I have small projects that I can finish easily in one day while I work on larger longer things. But the goal, the one goal that I wish to really accomplish this year, is to get rid of all of the old projects that are weighing me down so I can go on to exploring new things, new techniques and new ideas.

The main obstacle that I have for this year long project is this. I have a job, I am a teacher of craft classes at Interquilten, a quilt shop in Interlochen Michigan. I also work the shop one day a week. I usually spend my extra time off in trying to develop new projects and classes for the shop. I'm also a writer. I write novels that are totally not related to my Blogging activities.

The fact is that there are a lot of reasons why I need to simplify my life and getting rid of old projects is one way to do just that.

So without further ado, here is the "list" that I wrote earlier, the one that will be posted in the side bar of this Blog.

The year of Finishing projects

2010

Pledge: I will finish one thing daily everyday of this year. One block, one whole portion of a project or one whole project. I will start by making a UFO list and then sorting it into things that can get done on a daily basis.

Further I pledge that when I take up a project I will not put it down until I finish it wholly. Then I will blog daily about the project I finished that day.

Further I will Try to finish at least one major project per week. Working exclusively until it’s finished.

Here is the list as it begins:

1. Applique and other Handwork:
2. Christmas Quilt—lots of appliqué and some more blocks that are pieced.
3. Santa and Reindeer
4. Cookie Jar
5. Row Houses
6. Train
7. Pieced Santa
8. Pieced stockings
9. Noah’s Ark
10. Gingerbread garland
11. Memory—pieced block
12. Pieced pine tree
13. Snow family
14. Hole in the barn door, pieced and appliquéd.
15. Holly wreath.
16. finish top.
17. layer
18. quilt bind
19. Lilac Afghan—
20. First of three panels to embroider.
21. Second of three panels
22. Last of three panels
23. put together
24. Karen’s fan quilt—
25. layer
26. hand quilt
27. bind.
28. Tomato Quilt—four dinner plates to be appliquéd and embroidered.
29. --Tomato soup—FINISHED
30. –Spaghetti—FINISHED
31. Salad with Cherry Tomatoes—FINISHED
32. Pizza-
33. Piece top
34. Layer
35. Machine quilt,
36. bind.
37. Four Borders for NW Winds quilt.—
38. One complete.
39. Second of four
40. Third of four
41. Last of four
42. Attach to quilt and appliqué corner motifs.
43. Layer
44. Hand quilt
45. bind
46. Cinderella Appliqué—
47. Finish top
48. add border
49. layer
50. quilt
51. bind
52. Purple Grapevine quilt—
53. Applique all vines, grapes and leaves.
54. Make pieced blocks to finish top
55. Sew top add borders.
56. Layer
57. Machine quilt
58. Bind.
59. Texas Star—
60. hand pieced finish top.
61. layer
62. hand quilt
63. bind
64. Grandmother’s Flower Garden—
65. finish quilting on border.— DEADLINE: January 4, 2010.
66. Tree Calendar quilt blocks—
67. Jan
68. Feb
69. Mar
70. Apr
71. May
72. Jun
73. July
74. Aug
75. Sept
76. Oct
77. Nov
78. Dec
79. Center
80. Second Appliqué Heart Quilt—
81. 4—12” blocks—4 done—FINISHED.
82. 28—8” blocks—0 done.
83. 20—6” blocks—4 done.—one is corner.
84. 44—4” blocks—6 done.—4 corners.
85. Baltimore Album blocks—
86. --Heart block.—FINISHED
87. --Grapevine Block—FINISHED
88. Celtic Block—Nov--FINISHED.
89. Celtic Cross.
90. --Multicolored flower block—Sept.—Finished!
91. Feather Wreath with inlays—Jan.
92. Laurel leaves block—Dec.
93. Folded fabric flowers—March
94. Lyre Wreath—layered figures—April
95. Rusched roses, split leaves, berries and stuffed grapes—July
96. Buildings, with silk ribbon embellishments—May
97. Shaping and shading with oil pastels—June
98. Beaded embellishments—August.
99. Cut work or Hawaiian style block.—Feb.
100. Sues’ Baltimore projects—
101. Crossed Hearts—FINISHED
102. Four feeding birds
103. drooping daisies
104. garden medallion
105. Bowl of tulips
106. My block, Beloved heart, double heart with reverse appliqué
107. leaves and berries
108. unbroken circle
109. Birds at the fountain
110. Home sweet home
111. fruitful pear tree
112. striped flower basket
113. sunflowers and sweet peas
114. Basket of bluebells
115. summer roses
116. Scottish thistle
117. Quilt Tops that need to finished into quilts:
118. Blue and Red Log Cabin—
119. machine quilt
120. bind.
121. Color wheel quilt—
122. hand quilt
123. bind.
124. Rainbow color wash quilt—
125. layer,
126. quilt,
127. bind.
128. Birthday Blocks #2—
129. Border,
130. layer,
131. quilt,
132. bind.
133. Birthday Blocks #3—
134. Border,
135. layer,
136. quilt,
137. bind.
138. Nick’s Quilt—
139. Layer,
140. quilt,
141. bind.
142. Lion’s Quilt—
143. Finish machine quilting,
144. bind.
145. Flying Geese—
146. layer,
147. quilt,
148. bind.
149. Wedding Ring—
150. Mark top,
151. layer,
152. hand quilt,
153. bind.
154. Roswell Quilt—
155. Layer,
156. quilt,
157. bind.
158. Bear Quilt—
159. Machine quilt,
160. bind.
161. Australian Morning Breaking—
162. layer
163. Machine quilt
164. Bind
165. Karen’s Fans—
166. Layer
167. Hand quilt
168. bind
169. Karen’s School house—
170. Layer
171. Machine quilt
172. bind
173. Kristina’s Pinwheels—
174. Layer
175. Machine quilt
176. bind
177. Friendship star—
178. Layer
179. Machine quilt
180. bind
181. Haunted House quilt—
182. piece sashings,
183. Piece top,
184. add borders,
185. layer
186. machine quilt
187. bind.
188. Cat I Spy—
189. Sew rows into top
190. borders.
191. Layer
192. Machine quilt
193. Bind.
194. Firehouse—
195. Make more tree blocks,
196. piece into top using inchie sashings and cobblestones.
197. Add borders
198. Write the essay about the quilt.
199. Layer
200. Machine quilt
201. Bind
202. Write the essay on the backing fabric.
203. Batik Lady of the Lake—
204. Finish blocks,
205. finish top.
206. Add borders
207. Layer
208. Machine quilt
209. bind
210. Hidden Star—
211. Make blocks
212. Sew into top
213. Add borders
214. Layer
215. Machine quilt
216. Bind
217. Central Park—
218. Make blocks.
219. Sew into top
220. Add borders
221. Layer
222. Machine quilt
223. bind
224. Reef Quilt—
225. Fused appliqué.
226. Add borders
227. Layer
228. Machine quilt
229. bind
230. Landscape quilt—
231. Sashings to fit everything together.
232. Top sewn, with borders
233. Layer
234. Machine quilt
235. bind
236. Cats in the moonlight—
237. borders,
238. layer,
239. quilt,
240. bind.
241. Star Roosting Robin—
242. make more blocks.
243. Do rest of final borders
244. Layer
245. Machine quilt
246. bind
247. Knitting and Crocheting:
248. Knitted Socks:
249. Var green
250. White
251. Gold and white Opal
252. Blue and green var.
253. Blue tweed
254. Harry Potter-Ron
255. Copper tones
256. Lots of scraps
257. Aqua & white Prayer Shawl
258. Alpaca hat and mittens
259. Black lacy shawl
260. Green Leafy scarf.
261. Blue sweater.
262. Dozens of Crocheted grocery bags.
263. Red
264. Green
265. Blue
266. Black
267. Orange
268. Red and green
269. Blue and red
270. Multi-on white
271. Etc.
272. White knitted Afghan.
273. Cross stitch, Needlepoint and Hardanger:
274. Needlepoint Bargello
275. Needlepoint pillow from kit blue and brown
276. Meowy Christmas Ornament
277. November Jewelry Bag.
278. Midnight Vigil-cat at window.
279. Green hardanger Table cloth.
280. Swan Serenity Prayer
281. Gnome Growth Chart
282. Night time Santa
283. March Marigolds
284. Gold Hardanger Needle case
285. Trim the tree
286. Cat ornament
287. Lilac Afghan
288. Dad’s workshop Stocking
289. Stitcher’s Studio Stocking
290. Accessories for hardanger table cloth
291. Angel of Love—beaded skirt
292. The Castle
293. Earth Angel
294. Store projects:
295. Bear
296. Finish fused appliqué
297. Border
298. Layer
299. Machine quilt
300. Bind
301. Busted out border quilt—
302. Do blocks lots of triangles
303. Border
304. Fusible appliqué to bust out the border
305. Layer
306. Machine quilt
307. Bind
308. Other store projects.
309. Other creative projects
310. Poppies project—
311. Finish top,
312. layer
313. quilt
314. bind
315. Ann Loveless snow scene—
316. finish top
317. machine quilt
318. bind.
319. Quilt background for inchies—
320. piece top
321. layer
322. machine quilt
323. attach binding and Velcro
324. Boucle scarf or shawl.
325. Elongated crocheted pineapple doily.
326. Wool project
327. Angelina Fiber project.
328. Halloween attic window—
329. piece blocks, keep in order
330. piece top
331. add borders
332. layer
333. machine quilt
334. add ghosty with tulle or sheer fabric
335. embellish with Angelina fibers.
336. bind.
337. Scrapbook quilt—background on wall.
338. Design rest of it.
339. appliqué on it.
340. layer
341. machine quilt
342. embellish it
343. bind.
344. Purple Mended heart quilt—
345. Finish quilting and mending blocks
346. put together quilt
347. bind
348. At least six more Wild Log Cabin bags—
349. blue and multi one nearly finished.
350. Blue and gold with Michigan fabric.
351. One for the March class
352. one for the April class
353. one for the may class
354. one for the June class
355. Pattern for Wild Log cabin Tote.
356. Pattern for plastic bag organizer.
357. One more plastic bag organizer finished.
358. another two plastic bag organizers finished using different colors.
359. Unusual girl—
360. make blocks
361. make sashing and piece top
362. add borders
363. layer
364. quilt
365. bind
366. Leaf scarf out of machine quilting and machine thread binding “leaves”.

So this is my glorious quest! Can I do it? We shall see! There is at least a years worth of work here. Let's see how I do.

Your quester,
Cindy K-K