quiltingorganization – Lisa Bongean's Web Blog

Assessing my situation…

Is anyone like me?…All has to be sorted, put away…cleaned up…re-organized to I can peacefully do my work? I think I am almost there again…It’s been 6 weeks since my hamstring injury…so time to get back to moving on a regular basis also, that has also been hanging over my head. I tried to get out this morning with Jeter…but the rain drops were too large…the sun is supposed to come out later today so I switched gears and made my Moon Garden Vidieo this morning that was long over due..but it’s hard to nail down Nick to help…and then I need to be in a state of being videoed…since that was not happening I just got up…put on my work out clothes, scratched that (rain) and went up to the studio….Nick came to kiss me good-bye and I said…wait…let’s get this video done..so no- make up…didn’t even comb my hair and we shot a short little video…as I wait for it to be loaded into Facebook I am writing this…so here is what’s going on in my world..

Twilight Garden- 6 blocks finished

Summer Freebies- All done..need to think about finishing…

Star Studded Event- Working on Week 3…(this is what I need to work on and maybe do a tutorial on how I stitch my little flying geese…)

Row by Row starts tomorrow??? Need to finish up pattern TODAY!

BlockHeads II post needs to be done…

Block Heads edits for Martingale due June 26th

Finishing up projects for our September Outer Banks Retreat- everyone wants to know what we are making!!!!

Quilt Stock/ Re Store need some attention…what am I bringing to sell?…Each designer gets 10 things?

I am designing the WI Shop Hop Fabric!!! Just sent back strike-offs…I love it!!

Deadline for Star & Stripe Gatherings Fabric- Projects due July 14th…Fabric release is Jan/Feb

Working on a few ruler projects.

Triangle Gatherings finished quilts are starting to arrive for photography…

Launching Wool Mystery Box and Mini Quilt Mystery box…every other month/6 installments. Time to start designing and working on these projects ..

Now you are all up to date with what’s on my plate at the moment…along with some other new additonal products…like…

Primitive Gatheirng Wooly Mats!!! That is what the photo on the top is really all about!!!

We must have purchased a ton of these so they contacted us and asked if we wanted to do custome sizes…they must have been reading my mind because….I was thinking I have a “big board” ironing board…and I wanted the whole thing covered!! We also wanted to be able to give you great pricing on them!!!

For us Quilter’s these pads help us create perfectly press seams. Heat is trapped in the pressing pad and then radiates back up to the underside of the fabric therefore, effectively ironing both sides at the same time. The wool fibers of this pad hold the fabric to minimize stretching while ironing. Stretching often happens with half-square triangles.

This dense wool pad is ideal for blocking your wool applique or embroidery or yarn projects as they can be pinned directly into the wool pad. Because there is some “give” to the wool surface, when ironing embroidery projects there is less chance of losing the dimension to the embroidery, while not flattening the threads or knots.

The main reason I wanted my whole “big board” ironing surface covered for when I was pressing quilt rows and whole quilts…I did not like the lumps and bumps of only having a 17x 24 mat…and then…If you don’t have a big board ironing surface what the next best thing? 20×20 wool pad…so I can press my whole wool applique blocks and not have to move them…and then we also have the 12×12 travel or mini size if you doing some pressing by your machine…I did not spend the extra money to round the corners..I did not this mattered for the extra $$ it would have costed.

Our prices on these items are way more reasonalble then the others out there on the market…Our 20×58 is only $95! 20×20 is only $45 and then the mini 12×12 is $18…HERE is the link to our site to order!

I know some of you have orderd the wooly mats we sold at Christmas time and now maybe it’s time to another OR maybe you were on the fence…I can’t wait to be pressing, now!!! Time to cut round 3 and starch round 4 of Star Studded Event!!!

Also Amy, my assistant is having some Oral surgery today and will be out for a time….Let’s send her some Facebook love today!!! Here FB is Amy Wichman Hoefler

Have a great day!!! Lisa

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June 19, 2018June 19, 2018

lisabongean30 Comments

Quilt Hangers

I have had so many requests about the quilt hangers I use to hang my quilts in my home. I did not want to tell you about them unless I had a source…My cousin Scott who is the same age as I, and is probably my closest of cousins…came to work for me almost a month ago…

He has been a home builder for 30 years and has had enough of the cold and the climbing and wants to preserve what left of his beat up body…so now he is working on many many projects for us…the first being these quilt hangers…

Here is Scott putting the the “quilt room” shelving he made and installed for me at Anchor Point (home)…this turned so awesome…you may have seen it in an earlier post filled with quilts.here it is again…it is that glorious…right?

Here are the hangers in action in my home…shown with no quilt…this the the 3 foot wide one…

They really add a nice touch to any room…these two hangers are located on each side of this cased opening…

This is the 4 foot long hanger, this one is in my bedroom…you might want more of the quilt showing …or just have the option of a small quilt or a large one…this quilt could be spread out wider or it is nice as it is too!!
So here are your options…they come black, white, grey, stained brown (like the backdrop in the photo at the top of the post) or plain/no finish…I was thinking maybe you could want them the same color as the wall?? I also want to note that they come with a little sanded off edges…you cannot see it it the photo shown here…We also will have a limited number of them at the shows…but color options might be limited.

They are 23″ long(tall) and 36″ or 48″ wide…we have ordered special double walled boxes for shipping and this will be added to your shipping cost- the shipping will be calculated exactly…we will call you and to let you know what that charge will be…we do not want to guess- we do not want to make or lose any money on shipping so we will want to handle that after your order is placed and we are ready to ship. All of this info will be on our website…you can order HERE. They are $55 or the 3 foot aned $70 for the 4 foot.

I have recently arrived home from our quilting cruise to Haiti, Jamaica and Cozumel MX just in time to change out the quilts for Easter…Hope you enjoy these beautiful antiques.

Lisa

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March 29, 2018April 26, 2020

lisabongean42 Comments

weekend at anchor point…

Well I’ve been home a whole week…still moving “stuff” from the old house to the new…little by little…we are living at Anchor Point…but we still have about 40% of our stuff to move out of the old house…I spent some time sewing in my new studio…I am “functional”, but not “pretty” yet…I want to live in the space before I decide to decorate it…My space is amazing…I have everything from the old home studio plus what I had at the lakehouse, so 2 sewing stations, 2 pressing stations…3 cutting tables and a sitting area…plus a bunch of built in storage…I do not have a fabric vault..but you can’t have it all! Why does one need all of this?…I plan on working at home Mondays and Fridays and Amy my assistant may be with me some of that time. I plan on going into the work studio tues-thursdays working 12 hour days…so thats the plan…wonder if it will work?

This made be laugh so I thought I would share…Jeter (who is my dog, he was really supposed to be Nick’s but they really choose us) who spends time with me when I stitch…was checking out all the “new” spots in his new studio…

So far I have nothing in any of these cabinets….hmmm I know I have lots of things to put in them…but what should I really put in there??? I promise to show real pics again when it’s decorated.

I am stitching on a quilt from my fabric line…The Farmer’s Son..Wool & Needle Flannels IV. Does this ever happen to you? It happens because I layer 4-5 fabrics when cutting…but here is my solution…I may not even need this one as I always have extras but just in case…I have a wonderful selection of permanent Sharpies…I use them when needed…I sometimes have to “fix” things…so I’m prepared…Now you know we will only see a little bit of this right? Have you ever done this?

Well really there is a lot going on here in my world. I have the pieced SBOW figured out..we are also doing an EPP(English Paper pieced SBOW too, and I think I might have settled on the wool appliqué one……just thought I would touch base and let you know I’m working hard and will be sharing soon!

I also got to hang out with “little man” today…he was so much fun…he’s gonna be a little dare-devil…gee I don’t know where any of that comes from!!! Happy Sunday!!!

PS…If you have read this to the end…It’s National Quilting Day…Leave me a comment at the end of this post on what you are stitching on and I will pick some winners! I will pick tomorrow night when I’m in my hotel room in MI for a workshop and guild meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday…they will be mystery packages! So fun!

March 20, 2016

lisabongean655 Comments

12 Days of Needful Things…Day 4!

DAY 4 AURIFIL THREADS AND BOBBIN BUDDIES

Then next two items go hand in hand. While the Aurifil thread is no stranger to us, these cute little bobbin buddies are new this year…

The 50wt. Aurifil threads is the best threads for our sewing machine stitching. Hands down… It’s fine…doesn’t take up room in the seam…its a 50/2 this means it 50 wt. but only wound with 2 strands of thread…most 50wts. are 3 strands….it’s clean…there will be hardly any lint residue in your bobbin case or machine… They come in three sizes…mini spools with 220 yds for $5.00…regular spools with 1422 yds on them for $13.35…and then the large cones with 6452 yds for $50.00…I use mainly the regular and cones sizes for my machine piecing and the mini spools would be for hand or machine appliqué where you would need lots of colors….

Why the big cone? It’s like getting one of the regular sizes free if you do the math? Yes, the cone seems like a lot of $$$ but it is the better bargain especially if you only stitch with 4 threads like I do…cream, black, medium tan, but mostly the dark taupe…

Now my favorite thing to mention is one the biggest mistakes people do in machine piecing… drives me crazy when I see it…and I notice it right away…Do you know what it is??? Using TOO light of thread when piecing…it sticks out like a siren blaring!!! We need to darken our threads so they blend in…I know we need to use cream when we are piecing cream on cream…but when we are piecing cream and navy together I still would use a dark thread…My all time favorite thread that is stitched into 90% of my quilt is 1140. Shown here on my machine…I know it looks dark here…but it disappears in my piecing. Have I ever led you astray? If you do not want to go this dark…the other one that would work 2372…but I really love the 1140. Shop the AURIFIL selection of threads by clicking the link. The threads we carry in the cones will have a drop down box for you to pick your selection of either cone or regular spool. If you want a fast link to my cone 1140 here that it…1140 All Aurifil Thread will be 25% off and will show up in the cart at the discounted price…

Now aren’t’ these little bobbin buddies so cute? Organization is the key here…its so nice to keep a bobbin with a thread for when you need to quick stitch something…and you don’t have to look for a matching bobbin, its right there…I love that I can now store my lonely cream thread with it matching bobbin…and when I need it…its right there! The bobbin buddies are reg. 6/$2.10 on sale for 6/$1.75. Order yours here. BOBBIN BUDDIES The discount will show up in your cart.

Fast post today…lots to do at work and for the Holidays….I stitched most of the day yesterday…on this lovely block…do you stitch everyday? If so tell, me…your daily schedule…if not…tell why NOT??? in the comment section for today…Remember, to HOLD if your holding and I have to slow down a little and enjoy this all…you do the same today!

…and to clear up the questions about the Lakehouse…We held Luke and Brooke’s wedding on August 22 this last summer….

the next day we emptied the house…on Monday Habitat for Humanity striped the house, as we donated the house to them…The next day it was down and hauled away, there is no part of the house remaining, full tear down..that is why we had to move back from the lake to 58 1/2″ at the closest. New construction is now 75 feet away…but because we were 30ft, they took an average and came up with the 58 1/2 feet…the boathouse/guest house is still standing we will remodel that…no more turd brown house with turd brown trim.…

December 21, 2015December 21, 2015

lisabongean157 Comments

12 Days of Needful Things…Day 6!

DAY 6-FABRIC BOARDS

Thank you all for the kind words yesterday…I appreciate the fact that you all appreciate how hard I really work…I know I have sometimes been accused of working too much, but when you have 40+ persons relying on you for their income, its a lot of pressure…The good thing is..is that I LOVE what I do, so it’s easy for me. There were no snarky remarks yesterday so hopefully they got the hint, with your help no doubt…so I will post more about the Lakehouse….

Now back to the fabric boards…You are really going to LOVE/need this product or you will not. If you have a COLLECTION of fabric, (you never say stash by the way…) these are for you. I have used these boards for years to display my fabrics for easier accessibility, but when I ran out and reordered them the company that sold them never filled my order…I need black and it was a special order…I mean I ordered 500, just like my first order, so I don’t know why if wasn’t filled but after about 9 months of waiting…I decided we will make our own. (as you can see I did not take the time to make it look perfect on the shelves, I don’t have that obsession, so showing you them this way is just fine with me…we use these fabrics… it’s not just for show, so they are forever being picked and pulled on and off the shelves.) So that’s the back story on why we are selling fabric boards. They do not have the tabs to hold the fabric, because I didn’t use them, they made big bumps in the roll and they weren’t necessary, so why put them in our boards. They also fit better on the shelves without the tabs being used. Our boards are only half the price of the company I was buying them from. They come in black or white, and black is not a special order from us…we do not discriminate here. We see the need for both colors…If you have a special request like blue…we probably could do that too and it wouldn’t take nine months…I really, really try to support other companies and form relationships with them, but sometimes they make it impossible.

I would say you can roll from 3/4 yd to a whole bolt on these boards. When you come home from the quilt store you would fold your fabric in half, to about 11″ and then roll it on the board. (this is taking in account that your fabric is already folded from when it was cut from the bolt) We fold and and then pin the end…just like in the quilt store!!! I even label my boards with their fabric numbers. The boards are $30 for 24 of them. But for this special they will be $24 for 24 so $1 each. You order in multiples of 24. So if you order 3 in the cart you will be getting 72 boards. FABRIC BOARDS

If you didn’t notice a lot of the items this year have to do with organization. I am starting to go through and organize and purge almost 20 years of stuff in my sewing studio at our Menasha home ( there will be some give-aways, good for you…and me)…I strongly believe in spending $$$ on things to help organize…we feel better when things aren’t a mess, when we can see what we are looking for or know exactly where they should be…saves time and sanity!!!

Today’s a short post….lots to do..only 6 days til Christmas.

Please remember to leave a comment( if you are running out of things to say… tell me how long you have been quilting and why you started)…remember to add HOLD to your order comment section if you want it held!

House pic of the day…made it before dark yesterday and was greeting with this amazing site..my kitchen & living room hardwood floor is A-mazing!!! I show a better close up when I’m not getting in their way.

Remember to have a good day…I believe it 90% up to us to decide whether we are going to have good day or not!!! LB

December 19, 2015

lisabongean181 Comments

Category: quiltingorganization

Quilt Hangers

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weekend at anchor point…

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12 Days of Needful Things…Day 4!

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12 Days of Needful Things…Day 6!

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