One Monthly Goal - Feb

Setting my One Monthly Goal was easy this month.  See the challenge from Elm Street Quilts here.

I have been way behind in making baby quilts for my family members.  My great-niece will be turning two soon and she's been waiting patiently (although she doesn't know it) for this quilt to be hers:

I bought this kit well in advance of her birth and circumstances got in the way.  She has two older cousins and this quilt will be big enough for all of them to sit on it and read Dr Seuss books together.

Definitely will be completed soon and in the mail to this precious baby!

Two More Elephants

Still working on making a few elephants each month for the monthly Rainbow Scrap Color Challenge:

The one on the left is the last one from April's multi-color challenge and the one on the right is for May's green challenge.  The green one is feeling lucky because she has lots of lucky ladybugs!

I have quilted a few more for Sunshine On-line Quilters, but I need to have a Binding Blitz day to finish these up and get a box out.  Maybe this weekend ...

Panto is Arrowhead

Panto is Celtic Scroll

Panto is Mod Hearts

QBB FQ Challenge

Quilts Beyond Borders has a booth at the Houston Quilt Show each year and gives fat quarters to quilters as a Challenge to add their own fabrics and return a finished quilt as a donation to the group.  Those that return their quilts are eligible to enter a drawing to win prizes!

This is my finished FQ Challenge quilt and detail of the quilting:

The fern-like fabric was the original FQ fabric and I added the various green and blue frames and the alternating squares with the froggie fabric.  Since I quilted it with my new panto called Route 66 that is wavy, I call it Ripples in the Frog Pond.

It would have been mailed out today, but I was able to stop myself from going to the Post Office on Tax Return day.  I have a penchant for going to the P.O. when normal people are trying to get their tax returns postmarked at the last minute ... not this year!  I'll go tomorrow...

Check Out the Multi-Color!!

Speaking of the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge, I picked out my multi-color scraps for more elephants last weekend (see this post), and finally started making them last night.  I’m lovin’ the newest additions to the herd!

Only two are done, since I am undecided about the third fabric.  But I’m pretty sure I want to go ahead and work with the directional rainbow fabric, so watch for that elephant soon!

 

This is the quilting design I picked for the giant Project Linus chevron top that I have mentioned:

It was a panto called Cool Beans and it stitched out beautifully – nice easy curves.  It’s finally finished and already returned to the Project Linus local group – whew!

I must repeat that it’s such a joy to return to smaller kid’s quilts … this one was 63 x 65 and seemed huge!

And in news of the weird, my poor dog has been in the cone-of-shame this week:

 

Although the vet really couldn’t pin down the origin, she somehow got an infection in her paw at the nailbed of one toe.  I suspect that she either got cut when they tried to trim the dark toenail or when trimming the fur between her paw pads, or she cut herself on the sharp acorn tops due to the bazillion of acorns we have had this year.  I’m not kidding about those acorns – they have been so abundant that it’s been hard for her to walk on the grass – it’s been like walking on gravel around our pond and you can’t avoid the oak trees that drop the acorns around here.

Anyway, after paying the ransom for antiseptic wipes, oral antibiotics and an antibiotic ointment, she is doing much better.  She only limps now when she has to go on the grass and then it’s much less than it was.  She doesn’t limp anymore when walking on the sidewalk, so the cone might come off tomorrow.  She will be so happy!

Rainbow Scrappy Day!

And now that we've moved into March, it's time for another color challenge over at SOSCRAPPY and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  The color for March is RED!  Here are my red elephants:

Left side of the line

Right side of the line

And here are the Jan and Feb elephants with their new friends:

Did that elephant on the right look a little suspicious to you?  Do you think that maybe the sea green/teal/aqua elephant was messing around with the red elephant?  Or is that too personal to ask?!!

And did those purple dogs from the bottom elephant jump up and walk all over the red elephant in the middle and leave paw prints?  Maybe a surveillance camera in the sewing room is required - LOL ...

Sunday Summary

I just took another quilt destined for Wrap-a-Smile off of the quilting frame.  Last summer, we had a Challenge in my quilter's group to make a quilt using the colors of the Olympic Rings.  So I used all of the colors, but made squares instead (no copyright issues here!).  We had all kinds of cute quilt designs result from the Challenge, but I am happy with my simple version.

Then I found the cutest backing fabric at Connecting Threads on sale.

Now I don't know what to name my quilt.  I was calling it Stepping Up to the Olympics, but now I am considering calling it Out of This World Athletes just for fun.

I really like the quilting I selected, too.  I have worked up this pattern before - it's called Square Dance by Anne Bright - and it always turns out nicely.

So let's hope this one doesn't languish in the to-be-bound basket too long ...

Two Are Quilted

I had such trouble with my machine last year that I was frustrated and sent it back to the factory to be refurbished.  It was returned in fantastic shape and is quilting up a storm now.  I had done one quilt that I debated whether to remove all of the quilting stitches or just donate it as it was (in bad shape).

After a short deliberation, I decided that I had to send in something reasonably proper especially for a donation quilt where the recipient's feelings must be respected.  You never know if this might be the only quilt they ever receive and it has to hold together.  So I spent time off and on ripping out quilting stitches and finally got the quilt top back to its pristine condition.  This lady makes particularly well made tops.

This is the quilt that inspired the fish panto described in the last post with its lovely fish blocks (to be bound).

And this is the quilt that I didn't know was wrapped in the other top until last weekend when I finished removing stitches (also to be bound).  It is quilted with musical notes and treble clefs - it is wrinkly from being folded:

What was the inspiration fabric for the panto for that one, you say?  It was this, of course!:

But then, what happened with the purple elephants of a few posts ago?  Well, they've been going to the dogs:

Sunday Sewing

I’m joining with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at: http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

My intention is to make various animals this year in the Challenge colors-of-the-month.  The January color is PURPLE, so these pieces were on the cutting mat this morning:

And sewn together, you've probably guessed that they make this (I have cut out all of the parts and will be making three):

This cute elephant block was designed by Miri and a free pattern is offered on her blog Milk and Honey Quilts:

http://milkandhoneyquilts.blogspot.com/2009/03/free-pattern-elephant-baby-quilt-block.html

And then I got distracted with organizing a little of the sewing room to decide what to put next on the quilting frame.  First, I put all of the UFOs into the purchased bins and labeled them:

Then I went through the cloth baskets of tops and backings and put each top with an intended back:

They look lovely now and all ready to pick one and quilt it up!  It feels good to be a little more organized.  Unfortunately, I discovered several more UFOs in one of the cloth baskets:

They never end!  Whatever made me think I had corralled them all?!

I just had to stop and unplug everything since we are expecting bad weather.  We are under a tornado watch until 10 this evening and there will be severe thunderstorms.  Our Sunshine Skyway bridge is already closed to all traffic due to high winds.  I definitely want to protect my expensive equipment, so it will have to be hand-sewing this evening.

And She's B-A-C-K !!

I haven’t updated this blog since January of 2016.  The year just kept creeping past without my realizing how long it had been.  Well into the year, I decided to just let it go, but then I found that I missed posting and that blogging was an excellent way for me to keep track of my donation quilts.

So, I am back in 2017 and intend to keep posting about my current projects, how I intend to organize my sewing room to streamline my creative process and perhaps some gardening and local news!

Welcome back to my small corner of the world …

 I am currently working on:

-  Finishing a New Year’s Eve Mystery.  The intended design was for a large quilt that I am breaking into two smaller (kid-size) quilts for donation.  I had to stop for a brief period when my desktop machine had to go to the sewing machine hospital, but I am making progress.  Photo soon.

- Joining in with a Double Wedding Ring challenge.  I will be working with an old UFO (unfinished object) that I never went far with after a class.

And I just sent off a “stringy thing” to add to a banner that will be given to a lady who was in a terrible car accident to cheer her up as she recovers.

January is shaping up to be a good quilting month!

Out of This World Quilting!

I missed seeing a major event last year and in case you did, too, I am reporting it here so we can all take part in the Block Challenge part of it.  And maybe, if you can get to Houston in Oct-Nov 2014, you can go see the results.

What I missed was the fact that Quilting has gone out of this world – literally!

No, really ... it has.

Astronaut Karen Nyberg went on a routine 5-month mission to the International Space Station in May of 2013 and, get this …, she took her quilting with her!!

Well, of course, one would need breaks in between studying the human microbiome, nutrition studies as they relate to bone loss in space and maybe how combustion works in zero gravity – oh, and working on that pesky leaky space suit – even if your free time is very limited.  Wouldn’t you want to turn to quilting?!

This is Nyberg’s 9-inch block and her description:

“Now that I’ve tried my hand sewing in space, I can say one thing with certainty: it’s tricky,” Nyberg said in a video sent down from the space station. “This is what I’ve made. It’s far from being a masterpiece, but it was made in space.

And Astronaut Nyberg, a lifelong lover of sewing, has invited us all to join her in stitching together a global community space quilt.

You still have time to participate in the Astronomical Quilts! Block Challenge – entries are due by Aug 1, 2014.   The block is to be any 9.5 inch star-themed (but not embellished) quilt block – one entry per person.  All blocks will be made into a quilt to be displayed at the Quilt Festival in Houston in Oct-Nov, 2014.  Check out details at this link:

http://www.quilts.com/home/contests/viewer.php?menu=entries&page=../../contests/y2013/2013AstronomicalChallenge

For more about Nyberg’s personal hobbies, see:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition36/nyberg_profile.html#.Uz9OHaKTk40

And for more about the troubles Nyberg encountered cutting, sewing and otherwise handling fabric in space, this write-up by Helen Fields is very interesting:

http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2013/11/05/womens-work-in-space/

Congratulations, Astronaut and Quilter Karen Nyberg.  Let’s hope we always shoot for the stars!

2012 NEWFO Challenge Update

I’m ALMOST keeping up with my NEWFO Challenge goals!

·         I did get my Craftsy February blocks done and

·         I did get a UFO quilted and

·         I did get a UFO top put together and

·         I did get a NEWFO top made.

But I did not get to quilting either that NEWFO top or the finished UFO top.  But there’s always March!  Hop on over to check out the NEWFO Linky posts and see other participants’ progress.

These are my photos of the projects listed above:

Craftsy Feb Blocks

UFO quilted

New Scrappy Top from a Block Swap

New NEWFO Top with interesting border

My NEWFO for March is to complete a quilt using homemade bias tape and with a Celtic Knot design.  I posted about it here.  I meet with my Quilts of Valor group tomorrow, so I should be able to start on it this weekend.

2012 NEWFO Challenge Update

I have the button on my sidebar and you can read about the 2012 NEWFO Challenge at Cat Patches.  I really think I’m going to like this Challenge!  This is my status report for my January projects:

• I had wanted to work with the Lil’ Twister tool and the first photo below is my first finished top that used the 5” size tool, and
• I liked working with the smaller tool so much that I purchased the larger size (suitable for layer cakes).  The second photo below is the finished NEWFO for a baby due any day now (having a deadline works wonders), and
• The Craftsy website with Amy Gibson is offering a free BOM video and many of them will be new-to-me techniques.  I am planning to make these up each month in the colors of my group’s block lottery.  January’s colors were blue and yellow.  The two free-form blocks that Craftsy put forth for January were a stretch for my abilities since I like structure so much and have trouble doing wonky, but I enjoyed working with them.  The third photo is of those two blocks that went out into the mail.

Top Done

Quilted and Finished

Blocks Done

I did not get around to working with the various-colored dots fabric that I had wanted to make up into the Alaska Homestead blocks, so I’ve moved it into February – you’ll see what I did instead below.

In addition to NEWFOs, I also had a modest goal to complete one UFO each month.  This UFO got done:

Quilt Finished

And this UFO got to the finished top stage:

Top Done

Another UFO got quilted on the frame but still needs more quilting in the borders and the binding put on.  It will be finished in February so I’ll show it then.  So all-in-all, January went pretty well for me!

2012 Goals and Progress

I’ve decided that I will strive for these three quilting goals for each month of 2012:

• start (and finish!) one NEWFO [see button on sidebar]
• finish one old UFO
• create two new blocks from Craftsy’s BOM – use the appropriate colors for submission to my group’s block lottery

That seems like a manageable set of goals and right now I’m on track for January.  If I stick to the first two, I will have 12 children’s quilts for Wrap-a-Smile and 12 quilts for Wrap-Them-in-Love, the two groups that my Sunshine On-line Quilt Guild supports.

So what is my progress so far?  These are the four Craftsy BOMs for January that I worked up – the topic was Slashed Blocks (two designs):

They are in the mail already to my group's quilt block lottery.
 
And, this is my most recent finished UFO.

You know that some quilts just don’t appeal to you until they are quilted and then they look just fine.  That was the way it was with this scrappy quilt that used leftover Dora the Explorer fabric.  I think scrappy quilts look best when they use tons of small pieces and tons of different fabrics.  I much prefer “controlled scrappy” for larger size blocks and strips, but I tried not to be so particular with this top.  I wanted to have a bin of lights and darks and just pull strips and use them, so that’s what I did.  I wasn’t happy about the look, but I think it looks OK quilted with just fanciful swirls.  It was an interesting learning experience and used up some scraps, so it was worthwhile!

I also had an exercise goal for 2012 that I have already implemented.  I’m taking a class in Yoga.  This is me:

Credit: Free photos from acobox.com

Not!  I’ve NEVER been able to touch my toes, even when I was a stringy, 87 lb teenager – and splits are purely a laughing matter for me.  My goals in this beginner Yoga class are to learn correct breathing and posture and hopefully begin to develop some flexibility. We’ll see!