Baseball Swap

For nearly ten years I've been in an online group whose participants swap 6.5" fabric squares based on the results of Major League Baseball games.   For each game that the team you back wins, you get one square from the backers of the losing team, and vice versa.  You can chose one team from the AL and one from the NL, or one from each league.  For me, that's the Red Sox and the Cubs.  All the who-owes-what-to-whom is tracked by a group member. She sends us the tallies at the All-Star Break and at the end of the season.  (With the teams I back, that means that I usually get a few more than I give in the first half, but fade in the second half. :)) We send the squares, counted out and packaged in ziploc bags, to another group member who swaps everything out.

I have a acquired a great assortment of fabric squares that way which I use from time to time.  In addition to 'regular' quilt fabric, there are a lot of baseball-themed squares. 

When the Zion Area Chamber of Commerce announced that this year's annual banquet theme would be Root, Root, Root for the Home Team in honor of our new baseball team, the Lake County Fielders (http://www.lakecountybaseball.org/), I turned to the BBS box.  This jacket is the result.

Raffle Mania!

The quilt guild had Raffle Mania at this week's meeting.  We brought quilt-related items we no longer wanted which were raffled bucket-style.  Chances were fifty cents each.  I brought two boxes of stuff (books, a box of woolly nylon thread, some q-snap plastic frames, two hoops), bought $10 in chances, and came back with three boxes of stuff!

Here's the entire haul arrayed on my cutting table.  There were five 2-yard pieces of plaids  that turned out to be poly/cotton (not suitable for quiltmaking).  You can see the bright yellow corduroy print (bottom right) that will be great for Care Bags.  I also scored several books and patterns and a roll of upholstery-weight fabric (more Care Bags).  I estimated that I got 60 yards of fabric for $4.00.

Lynn R. brought two bags crammed with scraps. Once I opened the bags the contents burst out!  I spent last evening sorting through the pieces which include strips, squares, and even some fat quarters. 

The Annual Reckoning, 2009 edition

Since 1998 I have tracked fabric used and acquired. Since 2004 I have also tracked how much I have spent.  (None of these figures includes the expense for thread, batting, books, patterns, etc.)  This is the third year I've posted (confessed) the Annual Reckoning on my blog.  I have all the calculations in a spreadsheet available upon request.
My quilting (and sewing) accomplishments this year included:
* 11 quilts begun and finished (crib-sized to queen-sized)
* 7 wallhangings begun and finished
* 6 UFOs finished (begun in previous years)
* 6 flimsies created (a flimsy is an unquilted top)
* 150 Care Bags (http://www.carebags4kids.org/)
* 5 tissue box covers (holiday gifts)
* 1 tote bag (for a community project)
* 3 jackets, 1 dress, 1 pair of slacks, 1 shirt
I used 301 yards of fabric (that includes yards given away to HeartStrings sew-ins, the NLCQG White Elephant exchange, etc.).  I acquired 353 yards of fabric (that includes purchases and gifts) and spent $1371, or $3.88/yd.
Though I didn't use as much as some years, I acquired a LOT less. The used/acquired ratio is 85%, the best yet.
I sold 2 quilts, 1 wallhanging, and 5 flimsies.  I sold many quilt books, patterns, and magazines.  I sent a box of flimsies to a church quilting group (thus removing them from my UFO list).
Whew!
What's in store for 2010?  Stay tuned!

Season's Piecings

The Zion-Benton Unit of the Boys & Girls Club of Lake County has a "Have a Heart" fundraising banquet at Valentine's Day. It includes a raffle/auction. I knew I would contribute a quilt to the event but it wasn't until December 24 (yep, three days ago) that I found this pattern in a stack of articles I had clipped from quilt magazines. The design is by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith, aka Possibilities.

Some quilts just throw themselves together, and this is one of them. All the homespun fabric came right from my stash, including the red-on-red border.  It's 64x72 and it's finished!!

Stars and Rails

After I finished quilting "Scrappy Triangles" (see previous post), I put a bunch of red-and-blue rail fence blocks up on the design wall. I remembered a pattern in the December, 2009, issue of Quilter's World that used rail fence blocks and stars. Those blocks were 4.5" and mine were 6.5". As a result, my quilt is 92" compared to the QW version, which is 68".

Leaders-and-Enders: Scrappy Triangles

My leaders-and-enders project in recent months has been half-square triangles. [See www.quiltville.com/leadersenders.shtml for more about leaders-and-enders. Half-square triangles, HSTs for short, are not triangles. They are squares made out of two right-angle triangles.] I began with 3" squares and trimmed them to 2.5". The blocks are 12.5" unfinished and each contains 36 HSTs. There are 49 blocks, so the quilt has 1,764 HSTs (and thus 3,528 individual triangles). Many of the fabrics are repeated, so this is not a 'charm' quilt (in which each fabric must be different). It's 84 x 84 and I am not going to put a border on it. Did it make a dent in the box of 3" squares? Somewhat!

Estate Sale, part 2

After the JAD luncheon (see previous post) several of us went back to the Callahan estate sale. Today was positively the last day, and everything was 75% off. There was still a LOT of stuff.

Here's my haul. $51.25 total! The floral fabric on the bed turned out to be 11 yards, 'designed by Barbara Cartland,' copyright 1980. ($15.00) There is another chunk of upholstery fabric (1970's "Early American" style), a piece of uncut bandanna/scarf fabric (red heart print), and a Japanese yukata.

ERA buttons! (I did not purchase the one that said, "Another Republican for ERA.") Illinois is one of the states that has not yet passed the amendent, even though the Illinois state constitution has an equal rights provision.

Three pillows made out of vintage quilt blocks.

"Stars and bars"--20 brass star-shaped napkin rings and a whole sack of daisy-shaped guest soaps. What every P.E.O. hostess needs!

A silver-plated pitcher (engraved with "First place GPA 1968"), a serving spoon that I thought was silver (after polishing it, I found out that it is silver-over-brass: Indian, most likely) and a lustre-ware pitcher.

And, for the next white elephant exchange: this exquisite beaded basket made from the finest plastic beads--and safety pins!