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!

Stashbusters UFO Finish for March

I didn't do well in the Numbers Game in the Stashbusters yahoo group this month.  The numbers drawn for March were 7 and 17.  Well, I didn't have a #17 since my list only went up to 14 - and #7 was a creepy strippy that I just can't fall in love with.  I did sew it together from the cut strips, but it still doesn't strike my fancy.  I even bought a different fabric to add to it, but no inspiration there either when I got home.  Back in the bin it went ...

But I did finish quilting my low-contrast quilt top that was a UFO, so I accomplished something in the UFO Challenge for March.  That’s good for me!  This is the finished quilt:

Closeup pictures of the quilting were shown in this post.  The pattern is adapted from one called Chain Reaction in a recent Fons & Porter magazine.  The panto is called Delight.  I donated this one to Project Linus today since I am holding up one of their tops until I finish the embroidery - that could (and will) take me awhile to finish.

Just Monkeying Around!

One of our local quilt shops was having a pre-inventory sale with good prices for end-of-the bolt sales, so I ended up with an extra large piece of this cute monkey fabric.

In my recent efforts to use what is in my stash, I pulled out this fabric and began the hunt for bits and pieces that might go with it.  I wanted to use a pattern called Anthony’s Star from an older Quiltmaker magazine, and I found a few fabrics I liked and I auditioned them as I went:

And this is the design as it grew (not sewn together yet).

I think it will end up 40 inches wide, but I didn’t want it square so I am still adding to the top and bottom.  So what I’ve really created is another UFO!

Oh, and we did have an early cold snap in FL last November – this is the proof in the Fall Foliage!

Usually, we don’t get many red leaves, just faded green and yellow, but this one looks pretty in the back yard.  And it did get cold last week:

 

not frost on the windows, but condensation!

But the cold is gone now and rain is expected.  The poor tourists can't catch a break!

Edited:  I linked up with Oh, Scrap! at http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/
I always seem to be at least a day late - maybe I'll get the hang of the Friday update soon!

Busy as a Bee in the Sewing Room

I’ve been happily sewing away in the New Year.  I have vowed that 2015 will be the year that I use my fabric stash and scraps to make interesting quilts for children.

This is a low-contrast top I made on New Year’s Day from fabric I’ve had for several years.  The two colorways of the floral fabric look brighter in person and I like the design called Chain Reaction from a recent Fons and Porter Magazine.

I  joined the Stashbusters Yahoo Group for more incentive to dig into that stash of mine.  My first step was to officially join their 2015 UFO Challenge … and I actually dug out a few of those UFOs and counted them and sent in my entry.  Wahoo!  That’s progress already because I know now that I have too many UFOs (well, you would have thought I’d have known that before now, wouldn’t you?).  But now they are organized and readily available for me to sew them up.  And I joined the Numbers Game whereby they draw numbers and you work on that number from your list should you choose to do so.

The first numbers drawn were 8 and 35.  My #8 was a homemade kit for a kid-size Warm Wishes design using fabric printed with tropical fish.  It was in pieces before and I sewed up the top today:

And my #35 was strips that I had cut to make Mary Johnson’s Quick Strippie.  She says it is her favorite quick donation quilt and it really is so easy that I can’t imagine why mine is still a UFO.  Anyway, I sewed the strips all together today to make this quilt top (it’s actually straight, but I didn’t take the time to straighten it out on the rug):

 

The star print and the checkerboard are actually a dark Hunter green

I have desperately wanted to get rid of that checkered fabric that makes me dizzy looking at it – what was I thinking when I bought it?!!  They have to be quilted and bound before they are considered finishes for the UFO Challenge, so I have some work to do.

I also have a new button on my sidebar, Oh Scrap, that links to a blog that will have linky parties beginning on Jan 4^th where people will share their creative ideas.    Cynthia Brunz sponsors the linkies and has a blog titled “Quilting is More Fun Than Housework” (you had me at the title, Cynthia!), also with numerous ideas for how to use those scraps.

So 2015 should be great fun in the Sewing Room!

Too Many UFOs?

Can there be such a thing as too many unfinished objects?  Can there be too many works-in-progress?  We have a mini guild, maybe more like a quilt club, that has begun meeting at my LQS.  They decided that we should all bring one of our UFOs to the January meeting and vow to complete it in 2014.  So I took a look at what I had piling up … NEVER do that ... you really don't want to know!  I do know what I want to take in January – more on that later.

But I did find out I have a few simultaneous projects being made into tops:

        The Dr. Seuss baby quilt

        The Mystery Quilt for Military going on now

        A Celtic Knot for Quilts of Valor

        A 5-Yard Quilt kit for a child

So I decided to finish a few quickly so they don’t qualify as UFOs in January!  This was the 5-Yard Quilt that was begun, but was turned into a strippie to get it done today:

 

Swimming with the Fishies

detail

This is the Celtic Twist that I will be getting done this week:

 

those boys like their Army green and cammo

It is from a free block offered by McCall’s Quilting.  Here’s the link.

It's all gray and raining here today and my camera is taking yellow pictures, so no more of the projects, but here’s a photo from my walk the other day - just for a change of pace:

Isn’t that little vignette cute?  It’s in front of a townhouse and they made excellent use of a small space.  Now, let me get back upstairs to get those projects done …

What's in the Works

Nothing earth-shattering - I have been working on bindings … lots and lots of bindings:

Remember that I was shocked that I had 8 tops stacking up waiting to be quilted?  Well, I’ve whittled that stack down to only 2 still needing to be quilted.

the finished stack is growing - 5 down, 3 to go

And this one is quilted and only needs to be bound.

I’ve had to start and stop since we’ve been having electrical storms in the area.  The clouds looked beautiful in the sunset, but parts of our area have been pounded with rain.

Today alone, we had 2.96 inches.  Can’t say that’s not a good thing, but I hate unplugging my sewing machine when I’m on a roll!

Speaking of rolls … did I tell you that I picked up a wonderful Jelly Roll with the last of my birthday gift cards?

Just look at these great colors!  I have a pattern in mind – watch this spot for an update sometime soon …

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!

Finished Up a Top

I finished up the Frog Top today.

Oh, you didn’t realize it had anything to do with frogs?!  Well, check out the middle block … aren’t they cute?  Little frogs around bigger frogs.

This block was one, among many cute ones, that I won in the novelty block month and was the inspiration for the whole quilt!  Thank you, *S*, in the Sunshine Quilt Guild (you know who you are).  I loved everything about this block and couldn’t stop smiling at the frogs smiling back at me - so I surrounded them in their very own frog pond.  Now it’s in the UFO pile to be quilted for donation.  Hope that happens soon – the pile is growing!  These will all go to WAS.

Working with Flannel

Ellen, over at Wrap-Them-in-Love (a non-profit foundation) has received a request for 40 little quilts to go to the Philippines .  They asked for light weight quilts, just flannel on front and back, with no batting.

First, let me explain that I do not work with flannel.



Why I don't like flannel



But that having been said, I did once think I could make a baby quilt out of flannel and I bought a kit that was put together by a LQS.  It turned out the kit came with pre-cut small squares so that I couldn’t speed piece long strips then cut them with my rotary cutter and that slowed me down tremendously.   I had to sew together the little squares and make larger pieces so that I could pre-wash and THEN cut off all of the shreds so I was slowed down considerably more … At this point, of course, the solution was to quickly make my usual cotton (not flannel) quilt for the baby and put the kit away somewhere (wouldn’t that be your solution, too?!!).

I never thought I’d ever dig that kit out, but after receiving the note from Ellen, I knew I had to find it.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how far along I had gotten, so I just added two more borders, quilted it up and got it bound.

Quilted and Bound

With Polka Dot Back

It didn’t seem very light weight – maybe there are different weights of flannel – so I bought another piece of cute flannel with frogs and (after pre-washing) sewed a piece of whole cloth (regular woven cotton) to the flannel backing.  That seemed lighter to me.



Froggie Flannel



With another polka dot back

I’ll send both on to Ellen and see if either will do for the Philippines request.  I'm sure the one that might be too heavy will be suitable for her to send to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,  which they also support.  So I’m sure both will be put to good use somewhere in the world.

And the upside is that a long-forgotten UFO is complete and out the door.  Thanks to the 2011 UFO Challenge over at Patchwork Times, I’m now more likely to think of using some of my UFOs even if it means digging them out from their deepest hiding places!  I had already finished the number selected this month - #9 on my list was just to bind and send off a scrappy quilt that used up leftover binding strips.  I wrote about it in this post, so I was going to have to substitute another UFO and this fit the bill perfectly.   Glad to keep things moving along in the sewing room!

Catching Up on UFOs

I had a productive Easter weekend.  I was able to finish up quilting and binding the March UFO for the Patchwork Times 2011 UFO Challenge … and then I moved on to April’s UFO and finished that also!  What a great weekend, quiltwise.

This is the designated March item:

This one will go to Margaret’s Hope Chest.  Their project was born of a great tragedy and has lived on to bring hope to many people, including children of prisoners.

Read the story at:  http://margaretshopechest.com/

They currently have an effort on to collect tops (yes, tops) at Margaret’s Hope Chest with the added incentive of a chance to win a prize.  Many of us have tops stacked up (sometimes for years) that aren’t likely to get quilted.  It would be great to move those tops on out to a place where they can be completed and live happy and useful lives in their roles of comforting others.  Who wouldn’t want to give their tops a chance like that??!! 

Send completed tops (and yes, quilts can go, too) by April 29th to:

Margaret’s Hope Chest

630 Griswold SE

Grand Rapids, MI  49507

And you can check out the multiple ways to get chances to win here:

http://margaretshopechest.blogspot.com/2011/04/1000th-quilt-4-year-anniversary.html

Finally, this is the April finish for the UFO Challenge:

Flower Paths

Flower Path Back

Flower Path Detail

These were swapped blocks and they made into a cute child-size quilt.  I like the pieced back almost as much as the front!  This quilt will be donated to Wrap-a-Smile.