Wow I haven’t finished a quilt I started in the same month in a LONG time! This is Star Shadows that was started at our September guild day (daytime workshop with the Redneck Quilter). I quilted it with loopy stars all over and I love how it looks now that it’s done! At some point I might do another but make it a lot bigger by making more stars, but that’s way down the line.
This quilt was started in 2022 as a block exchange at guild. 8 participated and each made 2 blocks to share. For a while I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with a setting, and then decided to just use white on white fabrics for the sashings and 2.5″ squares of the fabrics I used for the cornerstones. Then it sat because I needed to figure out how I wanted to quilt it. I spent 2 days a few weeks ago in classes for my longarm and one of the things we did was ruler work. I decided this quilt needed ruler work and free motion quilting. It took the equivalent of 2-3 days to get it done, but it was so worth it!
Screenshot
One of the many things we talked about in class was taking a picture and using an app to try out quilting designs before you get to the machine. It came in really helpful on this quilt! I took pictures of the blocks I didn’t know how I wanted to quilt them and I played on the ipad with designs. When I figured out which ones I wanted I just printed them out so I could look at them next to the quilt without the heavy ipad on the quilt. I’m going to continue doing this for anything that isn’t getting an all over design. Our instructor used an app called Whiteboard from Microsoft, but I used an app already on my ipad and Mac Mini called Freeform. It works great, and syncs between my devices perfectly!
I finished this months Table of Elements section with plenty of time to spare. It was getting difficult to hold the scroll frame while trying to stitch so I ordered a stand with an Amazon gift card I received. It’s taken some getting used to using both hands for stitching, but it’s made me actually stitch faster since my right hand isn’t going under the frame for each stitch. Right hand now stays on top and left hand stays on the bottom. Now I’m looking to see if I can put some of my other projects in a scroll frame so I can work on them faster. I’ll be able to just switch out the frame on the stand when needed. Can’t wait for Monday to get the next piece of the design, we had 13 elements for the first month and for February we get 20 elements! Since I’m hoping to have other projects done before then, I might actually be able to stay on target with this.
I had to order way too many fabrics to try and get what I wanted for the last border on this quilt and still didn’t get the one I wanted. But after a couple of guild meetings where I asked advice from friends, I picked a fabric and got the borders on this and now it’s ready to be quilted. I talked about finding the pieces for this quilt back in 2020, the post is here. This was a fun quilt to do, and used a ton of my 1.5″ squares, but somehow there’s still a ton of them in the bin. I have another quilt that will use a bunch of those, that will be another post though!
Wow, this 2017 Hexagon Temperature Quilt took 5 years to complete the top! I started part way the year in 2017 and just totally lost the urge to work on it for awhile. The hexagon blocks were done for a long time, I just needed all the sashing pieces completed. I even had the 4 border pieces completed way before I needed them. Thankfully EQ allows me to see how many pieces are used in a quilt, 1,415 2.5″ squares in this quilt. Yet somehow the bin is just as full as it was before! I have 1 little lone hexagon that needs appliqued on and it’s ready for quilting. I have so many ready for quilting!!
So while I was doing some cleaning and putting things away I found a bin of already cut HST pieces that finish at 2.5″. So I decided that would be perfect to use as a leader/ender project while I work on other things. I matched up everything I had already cut – 1 white with 1 color and then found that I had a TON of colored triangles that needed a white to match. Ended up spending an afternoon cutting white-on-white fabrics with the Studio, I needed 356 white triangles cut and then spent time during Cassie’s gymnastics class pinning them together so they are ready to stitch when I need them. Have no clue what pattern I’ll use for these yet, I have plenty of time before that needs to be figured out!
I finally finished the Harry Potter quilt top!!! Well I need to do a border still, but the fabric is sitting here waiting to be cut and sewn on. I am only going to do a small border on the top and bottom since it’s already the right size for our bed. I need a little bit more on the sides though. I have no clue what to do about the backing yet, I have a bunch of different Harry Potter fabrics I’m thinking about putting together for the back, I just don’t know if I have enough or not though.
I’m very excited that I’m making progress on so many things this month. I currently have 46 items on my 2022 UFO Challenge list, and I think about 20 of them JUST need quilted. I’m still saving up to get a long arm and I’m hoping there are some good deals at the sewing expo this year that will allow me to get the one I want for less money. Still not 100% sure where it’d go if I do get one, but man I’d be able to get so many quilts completely finished if I had one! I’ll be back in a few days with more, I have an OMG post to do as soon as I finish the EPP work on Cassie’s quilt and I have a new project to let you know about.
I can’t believe I managed to finish all 20 X blocks this month! I was a little worried, but finished the last 2 after we got home from the skating rink tonight. Looking at this picture there’s a couple that I’m not sure if I want to keep them in it or not, I will probably wait until I get the O’s done and see them all together. Cassie keeps asking when her quilt is going to be done, she really doesn’t understand that it takes awhile to make a quilt, especially one that is being made by hand!
I started this quilt on March 31st and finished it yesterday including putting it on our bed with brand new sheets. It’s now finished with a week to spare and entry in our guild quilt show (I will get a better picture when it’s hanging for the quilt show). This was my first time doing quilt as you go, and I’m not 100% happy with the way they blocks were put together. If this quilt were ever judged I’d get a lot of bad remarks because of the lack of batting in the sashing, but since this is a for “us” quilt I don’t care! 🙂 I love how it turned out and I’m happy to be sleeping under a quilt that I made. Now to work on some projects for Xmas, consignment quilts and some guild stuff I need to get done.
So I finally decided what I wanted to buy with my Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate, just looked at tracking and it should be here tomorrow, I can’t wait!
I know, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything! It’s been a busy couple of months around here! The school year ended and the camping season began. Alex was sick during our Memorial Day camping trip – including a trip to the ER. Turned out he had an ear infection and the start of pneumonia! Our next trip was just the hubby and I on a little long weekend trip for our 17th anniversary. We ended up totally changing the plans due to the transmission going on our truck while on the highway in West Virginia. Took pretty much an entire month to get it fixed and back too! We spent a whole week (including 2 weekends) in Virginia at the MIL’s new house – pretty much spent the whole time in the pool. The kids had a ball playing with their cousins the whole week. July 4th weekend was fun in PA and this past weekend was spent at a KOA with one of my high school friends and her family camping. It’s been non-stop fun!
In between all these camping trips, I managed to finish putting the Mario Quilt blocks together, layer each one and quilt them. I put them together in rows of three and I’m currently working on hand sewing the sashing on the back since I’m doing quilt as you go on these. I have all the pieces cut out for the borders and I’ve started putting them together, but it’s going to take a long time since there’s a lot of pieces! I won’t be able to enter this in any judged shows, it’s the first time I’ve ever done quilt as you go, and there’s not enough batting in between the blocks. I debated adding some additional batting in, but I’m actually very ok with the lack of batting in between blocks. I’ll have to measure a little better for the sashing in between the rows to minimize the issue. IF I can finish it soon I can enter it in our guild quilt show in October though!
Hope to be back soon with a finish! Linking up with Patchwork Times, check out what everyone is up to!
I FINALLY finished Alex’s bed quilt! I started cutting out and putting the blocks together January 1st last year, had the whole top finished February 28, 2015. It took me just over 10 months to get it basted and quilted. I had all the quilting finished and ready for the binding to be hand sewn while I was recuperating from surgery. Last stitch was sewn on the 10th and it got washed and now is on his bed. It’s VERY gratifying when he came up to me after it was on the bed and gave me a BIG hug and said “Thank you mommy, I love you”. Unfortunately for him I’m taking it off his bed tomorrow so I can take it to guild tomorrow!
I also have had a quilt sitting here for a couple of years that just needed the binding put on. I had found some black binding that was just a few inches too short and just folded the whole thing up and put it in a corner for awhile. I wasn’t happy with the way the quilting turned out, it was the last thing I quilted on my mini-pinni frame before we took it down to make it Cassie’s room. So I figured I’d get it ready for when I finished Alex’s quilt. I found some already made solid black binding and just added it in for the last few inches. You really can’t tell there’s a different fabric in there. At least now it’d completed and it’ll go in daddy’s truck as a blanket for the kids. Now they’ll both have a blanket in my truck and daddy’s truck, and can’t complain about being cold!
A few weeks ago I posted that I just had 1 border left to finish on my 2010 Quilt Show BOM. I needed just 1 more strip to finish off the last side and had ordered 2 greens to try and match it. Yeah, that didn’t work so well. Neither of the greens I ordered matched, so I decided to just take off the 3 sides I had already completed and use one of the new greens to do all 4 sides. I finished taking off the border this morning and hope to get the last border on by the weekend to have another finished top!
I have been so busy the last few months that I really haven’t done much sewing. Why have I been busy? Because my precious little girl Cassie was born!!!! She will be 2 months old on Wednesday and I can’t believe how fast the time has gone! We cannot believe she’s here, it’s amazing how different she is from Alex in size and attitude. Alex loves his little sister, almost too much, since he always wants to kiss her when she’s sleeping and that wakes her up!
I managed to get a few things done in my office over the weekend, finally made a cover for Alex’s dresser and now it’s protected from scratches. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it’s nothing special just 2 different fabrics (construction equipment and Chuggington trains) with some batting. I didn’t even quilt it, just stitched a 1/4 inch around the edges.
I finally managed to finish the last diamond for the penultimate row of my hexagon diamonds quilt. At the same time I’ve been working on the black pieces I need for fill in at the top and right now I’m working on putting one of those in place. Everything is slow work since Cassie wants to be fed every few hours! 🙂 I really would like to finish this so I can put it in our guild quilt show this year. Plus it’s for our bed in the trailer!
I joined another group on Facebook for those that are making what is called the Insanity Quilt by Rhonda Pearce. I really don’t need another hexagon quilt to make, but I love the design!!! I bought 3/4″ and 1/2″ hexagon papers from paperpieces.com awhile ago so I could decide which size I liked better and I also bought the Studio dies that I needed to cut my fabric into the correct sizes. I got the quilt designed in EQ7 and it’s going to be almost 100″ x 100″!! I’m planning on using the 3/4″ hexis, the 1/2″ are just too small for me. So when hubby asked what I’d like for Mother’s Day, I found some Moda Marbles jelly rolls on Amazon and gave him that option. Since it’s a lot of diamonds and flowers, I can start working on them as soon as I get hexie diamonds finished. It’s really hard to NOT cut into the fabric and start working on it!! I have some Moda Marbles here that I’m using on another quilt that I will also use once I finish the other quilt (yeah I know something else to finish!). I still need to decide on the background color, but I’ll probably use a solid Kona, white or cream. I won’t need it for awhile since I’ll just work on the flowers and diamonds for awhile first.
Well, Cassie is up again, time to get her dressed and fed so we can go out for a walk – I have more baby weight to lose!!!! And since I just realized it’s Monday, I’m linking up to Patchwork Times!
I finished it!!!! I actually finished on Monday (3/3), but just got around to taking pictures today. I kept forgetting to take the good camera upstairs with me and I only go up twice a day anymore. It took me 2 months (almost exactly) of work and I did leave 2 of the repeats out because I didn’t think it needed to be any longer and because she’ll be here soon! Of course I finished it before my c-section was scheduled, but we found out yesterday that it is planned for 3/21, that’s only 2 weeks from tomorrow!!!! I can’t wait to wrap her in this blanket totally made with mommies love! Now I can work on hexies until I get more yarn so I can start a blanket for Kimmie’s friend who is due in July. Gotta keep practicing!
Before Alex was born I made a signature quilt and had everyone at the shower sign it. Well we aren’t having a shower for little girl so I couldn’t do the same thing. However I have decided that I will make signature blocks and anyone that comes to visit at the hospital or here at home needs to sign them. Then eventually I’ll put it all together into a quilt and it can hang in her room like Alex’s does. I’ve already designed the quilt and I’ve pulled some pink fat quarters out of the stash. Need to check one more place to see if there are any more pinks, might get a few more at the new Joann’s that’s opening tomorrow. Alex will be staying at my parents Saturday night, so hopefully Sunday I can cut everything out on the Studio and start sewing. Alex likes to help me push the pedal on the sewing machine, so maybe he can help me next week too!
Off to rest my back, teaching EQ tonight and my back hurts after sitting at the computer too long!
Look what I won last week! I retweeted something from Quilter’s Newsletter and won these two magazines – Best Weekend Quilts and Best Fat Quarter Quilts. Can’t wait to see if there’s something in these that I can use my fat quarters from the Guild exchange! I don’t usually win giveaways, but it seems no one wanted to win on twitter! 🙂 I’ll keep entering giveaways and at some point I have to win more!
I can finally post about the Christmas presents I made this year! Unfortunately I am missing a picture of the table runner I made my mom, I’ll have to get one next time I’m over their house. I had bought a charm pack years ago (don’t even remember how long ago it was) when we were shopping and the colors were perfect for her living room. It sat here for a long time because I couldn’t decide what pattern to use. I was going to use my small tumbler die to make it, but I wasn’t going to have enough charms to make it big enough and of course it is now discontinued. Once I found out the dimensions of her table (thanks to a call to dad) I designed it in EQ to be 9 squares across and 4 rows. I just needed a little extra on the sides. After a few web searches I found a shop in Ohio that had yardage of one of the fabrics in the pack. I ordered enough to use for the pieces on the front, the backing and the binding. It only took me a couple of days to get it all done and she loves it.
I decided I needed to finish the tumbler quilt for Kimmie for Christmas. I had bought 2 of the coordinating fabrics on ebay in 2010 and put the borders on, it just needed to be quilted. The plan was to do it on the frame, but I have a problem with tension on the back that I just didn’t have time to figure out so I used the frame to pin it and then quilted it on my machine in my office. Took me a couple of days to get it quilted, thank goodness for grandparents taking Alex! It allowed me to spend more time working on it. Got the binding sewed on by hand in just 2 days, even took it to my parents to work on it when my great aunt came to town. Kimmie loves it and was super excited when she opened it. She’s only been waiting for 2 years to get it! I forgot to get a picture before I wrapped it or when she opened it, but she posted one on Facebook that I grabbed until I can take a better one.
I started working on some cross stitch pictures for my cousins twins, but I was running out of time and really needed to get the quilt done so I decided to put those on hold and finish them for the twins birthdays in June.
I did make a present for our friend Angela that has a bakery in Wisconsin. I saw the pattern in the 123 Stitch ad and just had to get it. It only took me 13 days to finish it back in September, mostly working on it at night after Alex went to bed. It is almost all backstitch and went really fast. She loved it, I’m not sure if she’s hanging it at home or at the bakery.
