Finish Along 2017 Goals

So, the Finish-A-Long is where you write down what quilts you want to finish in the next 3 months and for each project that you finish, you get an entry to win prizes from sponsors. Goodness knows I have a million work in progress quilts and could use a little motivation to get them done.

The first quilt on my list is the Sunshine Quirky Scrap Quilt (tutorial here). I finished piecing it last week (yea!) and hope to get it basted, quilted and bound in the next week or two. I have already pieced the backing so hopefully I can get it basted tomorrow.

I will also be basting this scrappy quilt made with Denyse Schmidt fabrics - with a few Cotton and Steel thrown in. It has been waiting to be basted for at least 6 months, if not 8. Ugh.

I can't find the picture of the pieced top, but I also have this 16-patch ready to baste. (Looks like I am going to be doing a lot of quilting.)

This foundation paper pieced beauty has been basted for almost a year and I just need to quilt it. I have been paralyzed by the fear of ruining it, but I just need to bite the bullet and start quilting.

This is another quilt top that has been sitting around for awhile. I started it Nov. 2, 2016 while I waited and waited and waited for the US election results to come in. I put a pieced border on it which has some issues (thus why I haven't touched it in months) but I would like to finish it before Nov. 2017.

 I also have these improv curve blocks from a bee that I would like to get pieced in time to enter into Quilt Con. I'd better get moving on that!

And I just ordered some Tilda Harvest fabric that I want to make into a star quilt for my bed. But now, looking at my earlier list of things to do, I don't know if that is really going to happen --- unless I put something else off longer. :) So many quilts, so little time!

What are you working on? Any ancient projects? (I didn't even bothered to post my oldest - it's not going to get done anytime soon.)

A Little Bit of Everything

I signed up for a pillow swap on Instagram.  It has been forever since I was in a swap and it has been lots of fun.  I had an idea (based on my partner's likes - scrappy, text, micro improv.) to make a mini scrap vortex pillow cover.  It started with this.

Which turned into this.

And then this.  I think the pictures actually look better than the real thing for once in my photography "career".   But now I am second guessing myself.  It is kind of blah.  What do you think?  Keep going or start over?  

 Too simple?  Would you like to get a pillow like this or would you think your partner had taken the easy/lazy way out?  I have another idea in the wings that I am leaning towards at this point.

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In other news, AQS posted their best selling new book releases of 2015.  Of their books on piecing, You Can Quilt! took 3rd with approx. 1000 copies sold.  Not bad.  If you have a copy of You Can Quilt! I would be so grateful if you could take a few minutes and post a review of it on Amazon.  There have only been 7 reviews and we need to increase that number.  Thanks!

Last week my 1st grader and I made a shirt for the 100th day of school.  They wanted us to make something that had 100 of something on it.  I wanted to make something that she might possibly wear in the future.  This is what we came up with.  

Regular cheap felt cut out in squares, glued onto the shirt, then sew in lines through the middle.  It was a pretty kid friendly project.

I hope you are having a great week.  It has been snowing and we have missed two days of school -- I am starting to go stir crazy.  My plan is to stay sane by sewing.  :)

WIP La Passacaglia

Slowly but surely my La Passacaglia quilt is coming along. 

  Very slowly.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

My New English Paper Piecing Project

Last December I cut up all of my small scraps and started making this hexagon quilt.  I had seen pictures of the La Passacaglia quilt and decided to make my own much simplified version with overlapping hexagons - partly because I didn't want to invest in the papers and templates.  Then last month I saw the papers and templates on sale on Massdrop and I totally caved.  A sale and almost a year of seeing the most gorgeous La Passacaglia blocks totally broke my resolve not to start another EPP project.

I have put away my hexagon quilt for now and am focusing on my La Passacaglia.  It is awesome!  I worked on it today and got even further than this.  It is going to take forever, but it is lots of fun choosing fabrics.  Fussy cutting the flowers did waste quite a bit of fabric, but I hope to use those little bits in a different block.  You are sure to see many more pictures of this project.  :)

In the You Can Quilt! Blog Hop there have been posts on the Half Square Triangle, Quarter Square Triangle and Flying Geese Chapters.  The posts are a great way to get a feel for the book and you can enter to win a copy of You Can Quilt! and a bundle of fabric at each of the posts.  Check them out!

Linking to Scraptastic Tuesday.

Hexagonal Christmas Tree Skirt

Tomorrow our Modern Quilt Group in Des Moines is having a meeting and the theme is "Christmas Ideas".  We are all suppose to bring something holiday/gift themed to share with the group so we can get in gear and have all of our sewn stuff ready for the holiday season.  (Yeah....we can dream.)

I decided that I would finish the Christmas Tree Skirt that I cut pieces for two years ago so I could have something to share - and use.  I used my Diamond Quilt tutorial (the first tutorial I ever wrote!)

(Funny side note about the tutorial.  My husband was talking to a co-worker a few months ago and quilting came up.  It turns out that the co-worker and his wife had commissioned a quilt for their niece.  The quilter gave them some quilt ideas and they ended choosing my Diamond Quilt!  It is a small world.  Anyway....)

It came together quickly (about 2 hours of sewing).  I had already laid out and pinned the fabric into "row bundles" so the sewing was pretty straight forward.  For the quilting I decided to do a scallop starting in the center and circling out.  I'm not sure that was the best design choice, but it doesn't matter because I have to pick it all out anyway.  (grrr)  I kept on having trouble with "eyelashing" on the back of the quilt.  I tried everything I could think of to fix the problem, but it only cleared up when I changed the machine needle.  At least it unpicks quickly because the tension is so loose.

Once it is re-quilted, I will cut out a hole in the center and a slit down the side and bind it.  It probably won't be done for tomorrow, but I'll have a bit of something to show.

It measures about 24" on a side and about 50" across the middle.  You can find the tutorial here.

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

WIP - In two color ways

This week I have been working on making some 8" quilt blocks.  I decided to make them in two different colorways.  I am liking the orange/blue/purple/brown blocks a lot more than I thought I would.  Now to add some more orange and yellow blocks!

I also basted That Quirky Scrap Quilt today.  I am going to do some simple quilting tonight (if I can find my free motion quilting foot!) and have it bound by Friday.  If you have finished (even the top) of That Quirky Scrap Quilt I would love to see in in the link-up on Friday!

Moving Along With the Guild Challenge Quilt

Yesterday I trimmed up the blocks for my challenge quilt.   Leaving the size and piece # pinned on them really helped.  It would have mess otherwise.  Most of the blocks have both pieced and whole strips.  I really like how they look mixed together.

The mix of colors is so calming.  I am hoping it turns out as well in reality as I imagine it will.  Right now I am thinking of quilting it with a wood grain design.

In other news, I cut down a tree this week!  It was small but I am still impressed with myself.  :)  I also divided hostas and peonies, burned leaves and planted peas, lettuce, spinach and turnips.  It looks much more impressive when I write it down than when I look out at the yard at everything else that needs to get done (like cutting up said tree so it isn't laying in the middle of the yard!).  Baby steps, baby steps...  I am loving the spring weather and our beautiful flowers.  They make me happy.  I hope you have a great weekend!

Echino Top Finished!

Well, I sewed the 10 extra blocks onto the main quilt this morning.  It went really fast.  Yea!  Unfortunately I used more white Eiffel Tower fabric in the new blocks than I used in the old ones so the left side of the quilt is kind of heavy on white.  But it is probably one of those things that no one else would notice unless you pointed it out.  Which I guess I just did.

I bet no one would notice my daughter's head peeking out over the top of the quilt unless I mentioned it either.  I need to make her do more push ups so she will be able to hold quilts all the way up over her head for loooong periods of time.  You have to have good upper body muscle tone to be in a quilter's family.  :)  Seriously though, I usually take the quilt pictures around here, but I held up a quilt for someone awhile ago and my arms got tired fast.  So I have a bit of empathy.

I think I am going to skip the batting and use fleece to back this.  Has anyone done that?  Good results?  Things to look out for?

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Works In Progress - The Unabridged Version

Yesterday At the Heart of Quilting, a local long arm quilting store, needed someone to pretend to be a customer while Channel 5 made a commercial for them.  I was more than happy to oblige, especially since they said I could bring in a quilt to quilt while they were filming.  Sweet!  It was all low key and fun.  I love free motion quilting on a long arm and told them that when all of my kids were in school that I wanted to come down to Des Moines all the time to quilt.  Since time was limited, I brought my smaller I-spy quilt did a large all over flower design.  The quilting really shows up well on the back.  I used minky fabric for the first time as a backing.  It is awesome!

I have been getting a lot done, but I still feel like I am drowning in projects.  So I want to get old school WIP Wednesday today and make a comprehensive list of my WIPs.  I didn't think there were this many....

Needs Binding:
1.  I-spy quilt
2. Hexagon Christmas pillow

 Needs Quilting:
1.  Megan's Star quilt
2.  Christmas triangle quilt
3.  Star Flower quilt
4.  Diamond Christmas pillow

Needs a Border:
1. 1930's Sampler
2. Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt

Needs to be sewn together:
1. Yellow/purple triangle quilt
2.  Tree skirt

Needs a few more blocks and to be sashed and set:
1. Meadowsweet star quilt
2. Dresden plate quilt

Fabric that I want to do something with:
1.  Jelly roll of Kona solids
2.  Jelly roll of Lotta Jansdotter fabric
3.  A rainbow pack of vintage sheet fabric

Need to get rid of:
1. Coral and black baby quilt top
2. Brother's blue quilt (totally messed up the quilting on that)

Quilt Ideas:
1. Iowa State Fair Quilt made with solids
2. Simple patchwork with my special "sweet" fabrics
3. Fun improvisation (multiple ideas there)
4. Selvage pillows/quilt/skirt/etc
5. Scrappy hexagon quilt
6. Christmas pillow with selvage trees

12 active projects and tons in the wings...I think I have enough to keep me busy for awhile.  :)  What have you been working on?

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

What I Am Working On

Last week I made the backing for my star quilt.  I used up the leftover challenge fabric that I knew I wouldn't really use anywhere else and some larger cuts of fabric that I knew I wasn't going to use in a quilt anytime in the near future.

I think quilt backs are a great place to use up those cuts of fabric that you don't love anymore or just don't quite know what do do with.  There are just over 2 yards of fabric in that back - that's a lot of stash used up!  They are also a great place for me to use up those large scale prints that I love, but just don't know what to do with.

Last week I also worked on the Christmas quilt.  I have sewn all but two of the twelve rows (I need to cut more fabric for the last two).  Not bad for an afternoon!  I am always surprised at how much I can get done if I just sit down and sew for an hour or two.  I love quilting, but sometimes it seems overwhelming and like it is impossible to finish anything.  But if I just get sewing (instead of checking my email or other blogs)  I can actually get a lot done.

Another thing that seems overwhelming right now is the garden.  You won't be seeing any pretty garden pictures here because our huge garden is a royal mess.  I was out picking tomatoes and weeding with the kids and I kept telling them to just focus on pulling the weeds that were taller than their knees.  Don't worry about the short ones!  I pulled tons of 3-4 ft tall pig weed and the beets are much happier now that they can see the sun.  :)

Even with the garden being a weedy mess, we managed to get a ton of tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, squash and potatoes.  But that means I have been spending time making salsa (38 quarts so far!) and freezer pickles and trying to keep the fruit flies at bay.  I think I have the last major haul of tomatoes and cucumbers sitting on the counter right now.  I just have to motivate myself to do something with them.

Maybe sewing all day tomorrow can be my reward for spending today working on tomatoes.  And it will go faster if I just stop blogging and start working on it, right?   :)  I hope.  help!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and The Purge at Stitched in Color

Quilt Update

I finally finished appliqueing on all the little stars and pinwheels onto the background fabric of this quilt.  In retrospect I don't know if it was any faster than piecing them it, but it did allow me to play with the placement quite a bit.  Perhaps too much.  There was a lot of rearranging and second guessing.

My clothesline is acting up (ie very droopy) so I hung the quilt sideways.  Just turn you head and imagine that the big star is in the bottom right hand corner. And imagine that I have trimmed up the edges too.  :)

(The tutorial for the big star can be found here.)

Here are some closeups.  I love that green color.  It is a bit more teal in real life.

And I love the mini Ohio star blocks.  I need a whole quilt of them!  It was fun to play with my Meadowsweet scraps and fussy cut the center of this block.

Now I just have to quilt it.  I have big plans for this little quilt.  Think swirls and ghost blocks floating in the background.  Hopefully I will be able to pull it off!

Releasing My Inner Gee's Bend

 I know I said I was going to focus on my summer sewing on these four projects but I needed some handwork to take with me on vacation and the one project that required handwork was too unwieldy to take with me.  So I gathered up some scraps and decided to do some improvisational hand sewing kind of like the quilts of Gee's Bend.

 Right now I am cutting (with scissors) strips of fabrics and sewing them together with a simple running stitch.  I don't have any real plan for them now, but I think I might use them to make a medallion quilt.  I'll keep you posted.

Baby Steps with Baby Blocks

 

Summer has hit and I am finding it hard to find time to sew.  I have vowed to get all of the saplings out of our numerous flower beds this year and have been spending most of my free time in the yard.  In past years I have tried to cut the saplings down and poison them, but as I dig them up this year I keep finding live saplings that have been cut down numerous times.  Arrg.  I hope old fashioned digging works better.

I did find the time to sew up a few mini blocks for the Baby Stars quilt.  The largest is 6 inches and the smallest is 3 inches.  They were pretty fast and fun to sew.  My plan is for them to be sprinkled on the background of the quilt.  To make the setting easier, I might applique them onto the background fabric.  That way I can easily place them where I want them.  And the final quilting will help mask the applique and really secure them to the backing.

I really like the yellow Ohio Star block and can't wait to carve out the time to make a few more.
I hope you are enjoying your summer and finding some moments to sew too!

Linking to Freshly Pieced.

Summer Quilting Priorities

 So, this summer the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild is having a Finish-It-Up quilting challenge.  Basically, everyone picks four projects that they want to finish by our September meeting and for each one they finish they get an entry for prizes.  Here are the ones I choose.

 1.  Christmas Triangle Quilt - this was totally inspired by a quilt made by Amy Smart.  I love it and finally got together enough Christmas Retro fabric to make it happen.  I cut it out last fall, but it didn't get finished by Christmas and then it languished in a bag all this spring.  I would like to get at least the top done in time for our Christmas in July guild meeting.

 2.  The Micheal Miller Challenge Quilt - I narrowed down the provided fabric and supplemented it with other prints and solids based on the colors my sister-in-law is using in their nursery.  This will be for their new baby...if I don't get too attached to it myself.  Seriously, if it turns out at all like I am envisioning it is going to be Awesome!

 I've cut out some of the fabric to make the mini stars that will be floating in the background.  And yes, that one in the middle is tiny.  We'll see how that goes.

3.  The Diamond Stars Quilt - I started this in ... 2012? ... eek ... and haven't worked on it in awhile.  I put it away early in 2013 because I had gotten to the part where I was appliqueing the middle onto the borders and it was hard to see with the poor winter lighting.  Appliqueing black fabric onto black fabric with black thread is not for the faint in heart.  This picture is deceiving in that it looks like the sides are on.  They are really just glued and pinned in place waiting to be appliqued.  I plan on taking this on our summer vacation.  (You can't go a month without quilting, right?) I might even add some decorative stitching before I quilt it.

4.  Cogs - I don't even have a picture of this one.  It is the oldest of the bunch.  The blocks are all done - I just have to sash, quilt and bind it.

So that is it.  My summer quilting priorities.  I really want to stay focused on those projects and get them done but I have already had to stop myself from starting something else.  :)

Do you have any summer sewing plans?

Seeing Red

There has been a lot of red happening around here.  A garden full of tomatoes means more canning and drying than I care to do right now.  Yet, I still really want home canned tomatoes all winter...want to come can for me?

I started a tradition years and years ago that the kids and I would go out to dinner one night if my husband was out of town on a business trip.  Then a few years ago I told myself that I could either go out to dinner or buy the equivalent  dollar amount in fabric.  So this year as my husband drove around the mid-west looking at corn, I made dinner and treated myself to some fabric.  :)  I have had this quilt on my mind for awhile and bought some vintage inspired Christmas fabrics to make it.

 I also bought some great reds to make up into a tree skirt for Christmas.  Yes, he was out of town tons this month!  I am going to make the tree skirt using my Diamond Quilt tutorial.  I have to say it was really handy to re-read the tutorial and not have to figure out how many diamonds to cut.

I have been using the cutting scraps to make this red and white hexi slab.  I think it wants to be a pillow.  Yep, I have Christmas on the mind, but if I don't start now it will be another Christmas with a random piece of fabric wrapped around the tree.

But I haven't totally forgotten about fall.  We went and picked some apples at a friend's house yesterday.  So this weekend we will be making applesauce and apple pie.  I love this time of year!