Friday, May 18, 2018

2018 Finish-A-Long, Q2 - 2nd Project finished


This week, I finished #1 on my Finish-A-Long list for quarter 2. This is a graduation quilt for our oldest granddaughter Kyleigh.   The project started out as swap blocks from a number of years ago.  They consisted of Laurel Burch's line Jungle Songs and black Kona cotton. I decided to add a panel from Laurel Burch's Ocean Songs with a mermaid, and I made a braided border.  I ended up making about 13 more blocks than the original swap blocks.  To be able to quilt it on my frame, I was not able to add any further borders for the outside.  As it was, I had to go back and separately quilt 4 inches on either side that was too long for my frame.  


Front




Back

I have no clue why when I bought the fabric for this swap I bought so much extra but I was able to use up a lot of it on the back of the quilt.  The quilt measures about 91 x 91 inches.  

Two more items on my Finish-A-Long list, and I have actually almost finished an item that wasn't on the list,  quilting a Wooly Flowers sampler, a UFO from 2007.  

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

FALL INTO A QAL, BLOCK 1, KYLEIGH'S COLLEGE SIGNING

Block 1 of the Fall Into QAL was released today.  Vanda Chittenden is the designer of the cute hedgehog block.  The block can be found here with her tutorial and instructions.  I could hardly wait to get started today. 

My completed block is here:  



My other excitement for the day was our granddaughter Kyleigh's college signing.  She will be going to Regis Colllege in Weston, Mass in the fall.  This is a picture about 15 years ago.


And today.  



That's it for today.  Still working on quilting Kyleigh's graduation quilt.  

Sunday, May 13, 2018

Finish-A-Long Quarter 2, First One Bites the Dust





I've been working really hard on my Finish-A-Long List.  In this post from April 12th, I described my goals for this second quarter of the Finish-A-Long. 

Item #3 was an Angel Wreath quilt and cushion to finish.  My picture of the project somehow didn't make it into the post, but this is the before picture.


This UFO was from 1997, I hgad completed the top, and started handquilting it.  When I started in April, the wreath sections were quilted, but nothing else.  This was a Linda Brannock pattern out of the book Gardening for Quilters.  I have worked really hard the last several weeks finishing up the quilting, and I completed this yesterday,.  Today I completed assembling the cushion .




I am so thrilled to have these 2 items done, and I appreciate the Finish-A-Long for spurring me on.  

Well back to the next item on my list, quilting my granddaughter Kyleigh's quilt.  It is on the frame and has been started.  

Until next time....

Wednesday, May 02, 2018

Sad and Disappointed

February 9th, 2008 I posted about how I had started on the quilt below. It was Sweet Land of Liberty by Cheri Saffiote-Payne.  I made the first block.  I had the physical pattern.  



Apparently life got in the way, and it was set aside.  I remember loaning this pattern to someone, but I never got it back.  Lori from Humble Quilts is working on this as a QAL.  This is month 5.  I thought I would pull out the pattern yesterday and start trying to to catch up.  

What I ended up doing was tearing my sewing room closet apart, and another couple of hiding places to the conclusion I do not have the pattern anymore.  I found A BUNCH more UFO's that I had not previously listed in my journal where I keep track.  I took some pics of my semi-organized sewing room.  I didn't take a pic of the messed up corner though!


Behind those roosters (another UFO) is a double closet shelf that goes to the ceiling that is stuffed with projects.


The brown antique dresser under the counter has 14" drawers, with more UFO's.  Right next to that are some plastic drawers with part of my Civil War Reproduction fabs.  The plastic drawers off to the right have laces, ribbons and trims for my crazy quilting.  


This is a cabinet DH made and I stenciled.  This contains my wools, wool projects and homespuns.


This is a cabinet DH made that is on a lazy-Susan type deal that will turn 360 degrees and has pie-shaped drawers.  A lot of my notions, thread, and children's fabric are in here.  


There is a dry sink with more homespuns and flannels, a fairy doll I made years ago, that still needs to be clothed.  I have bookshelves around the whole room.  


This is where I sew.  Underneath this countertop is bins of red, white and blue fabric, and 3 of those containers are crazy quilt fabrics.  

Anyway, I never found what I was looking for the Sweet Land of Liberty Pattern.  Guess I will get the measurements on Lori's blog and try to figure it out myself.  

Tuesday, May 01, 2018

Kyleigh's Flimsy Done

I had a busy week last week.  I finished up Kyleigh's graduation quilt to a flimsy stage.  I never did find my 2 blocks, and ended up making 3 more as one of the blocks was too small, and 2 are AWOL.  I just got the batting for this quilt, but am going to quilt a couple of others first.  This is the finished top.  It is about 91 x 91.



I also finished Buttermilk Basin's A Tisket-A-Tasket sew along from a couple of weekends ago and it came out really cute I think.  



I think next up to quilt is this Wooly Flowers Sampler by Starry Pines Pattern Company.  It has been finished since 2003, just not quilted.  This was not on my original list for the Finish-A-Long, but I feel a need to get started quilting it.  It shouldn't take too long.  


I have been quilting since probably around 1996 or so, and have had a Handiquilter rail set up since the first ones came out. This was before they had a Handiquilter machine, so I use a Juki.   All I have basically done on it is meander. I am challenging myself to do something besides meander.  I have been watching lots of videos to do something besides meander.  

So tomorrow I will load this one up, and hopefully my thread won't shred like it usually does.  I have bought some Aurofill thread.  

Well off to think about dinner.