2019 Finish-A-Along, Quarter 1 Finishes

It's time to link up finishes for the 2019 Finish-A-Long Quarter 1.  I continue to appreciate the motivation this gives me to get my numerous UFOs finished!

Back in January, I listed my goals here.  Lets see how I did.

1)  Piece the first two Nutcracker BOM months.  Completed.  I was able to get these done. The top picture has all the steps done as stated, although it looks unfinished.  I think those pieces go around the Nutcracker blocks.

2)  Embroider last 3 redwork blocks.  Not done  Sadly, I did not get to these as I participated in 2 blog hops during this quarter.

3).  Applique Flourishes #10 BOM.  Completed.

4)  Finish embroidery on Take Me to the Sea, and make into a pillow.  This was a Kathy Schmitz design.   Completed.  Fits in perfect with my decor.

5.  Make another section of Sweet Land of Liberty, a Cheri Payne quilt. Not Done. Lori at Humble Quilts is having a Quilt a Long again this year.  April is month 2, which is where I am starting in.  Last year I started when people were putting their quilts together.  I got this much done, which is pretty much month 1 except for the angel.  I finally found my directions too which I had had before.  So this item is going back on my list for second quarter.

6. Project for Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop.  Completed.  I had long wanted to make this quilt for my husband, had flannel fabric set aside.  It is heavier than anything.  The past couple of years, he has had to sleep in a hospital bed due to disability., and it seemed a perfect time to make it.  He thanks me everyday for making this for him.   It would be way, way to heavy for me to sleep under.  But as he is constantly cold, it is perfect for him and I am so thankful to have gotten this done.

7.  Project for Quilt Qwazy Queens Blog Hop.  Completed.   For this blog hop, I took some swap blocks on wool.  This was done in the crazy quilt group Crazy Quilting International.  I made a bunch of basket blocks on wool, sent them aroundto participants, and they embroidered on them.  My basket I had never completed.  For this blog hop I completed the embroidery on my block and put it together into a small wall hanging.

These blocks were embellished by other participants.  

 

My unfinished block                                               After I finished the embroidery.

    Completed project

8.  Cherry quilt blocks to flimsy.  Completed.  I put these blocks I had found at some sort of estate sale together into a quilt for Hands2Help, will be donating this to Quilty Hugs charity.

9.  Good Fortune Mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter into flimsy.  Completed.  I sent this off to a longarm quilter and donated it to the Carolina Hurricaine Quilt Project. 

10.  One Father Christmas BOM block appliqued.   Completed.  This is an old, old UFO.  Had one block done for years.  Now there are two!

11.  All Things Bright and Beautiful, finish to flimsy.   Not done.  Never got around to this one.  

So all in all I completed  8/11 projects on my list.  

One Monthly Goal, Hospital Sketches

I continue to appreciate the motivation One Monthly Goal provides me to get a project done.  Thanks so much to Patty at Elm Street Quilts!   It's time to set goals now if you would like to join in.  

My One Monthly Goal for April is to get this last block from the Flourishes BOM done.  I've been sort of dreading this one with all the berries, and leaves. 

Meanwhile, this morning I finished Barbara Brackman's Hospital Sketches BOM #2 this morning.  The blocks can be found at her blog Civil War Quilts.  I'm using my Civil War reproductions for this one.  

Will be linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal.

Embracing Our Imperfections

Bernie from Needle and Foot is hosting a blog along today asking us to share our imperfections, goofs, or problems we have had with projects.  I've had a few, and I generally try to show them.  

I was recently in the All About Strings Blog Hop, my day was here.  I noticed my imperfections in this quilt particularly.  I took some basket blocks I had received, and made in a swap from 1997 and set them on point with the strings I made.  

The quilt doesn't look too bad here.

I noticed when I was putting it together that the baskets I personally made the pieces did not quite meet.  This caused difficulties when trying to stitch in the ditch.I did not redo my baskets, it was from 1997 and I hope I am a bit better now.  But I am hoping these were the reject and I sent the other participants better matching baskets!

The other thing I noticed was that my strings didn't exactly meet up either, and I just did these last month.  All I can say about that is the lighting is poor in our house.  I try to sew out the in kitchen when I am assembling a quilt because the afternoon sun comes in that bay window.  But at the time I was sewing these together, we were having a lot of rain in Northern California and I didn't notice it.  But I think I assembled these in my sewing room (poor light), and I had the blocks laid out on my bed (also bad lighting).  It also made it hard to stitch in the ditch when it is going all wonky.  

Also, last year for my One Monthly Goal hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts I was trying to finish up this old, old stitchery project.  I had part of the blocks done, and wanted the project finished.  This project was probably from around 2000.  The first couple of blocks I did when I picked it back  up in 2018 were OK.  Then I started to notice the linen-like fabric or homespun that was the backing was disintegrating.  I would start to sew down the raw edge applique, and my finger would go through the back.  I had about 3 more yards of this, and it was all the same thing, I'd start to sew and my finger would go through it.  I went and bought some similar fabric, and started assembling the project.

This is where I was trying to join the pieces together on the back.    The little flower was where my fingers had come through in another place.

This actually an edge down by the maple section, and the holly section is the same way.  

The project is supposed to have embroidery along the outside and between the blocks, and that was one of my favorite parts.  This is just sitting right now, but one of these days I am going to overhaul it.  I'm going to cut all the blocks apart, back them with interfacing I think, and then put on a false back.  I'm going to attach new sashings and embroider them.  My heart still aches for this project, but I will finish!

Thanks so much Bernie for hosting this event.  I learn so much from reading my blogs each day, and from each one of you!

Hands2Help Finish, 2019 Finish-A-Long

This week I finished the first quilt in the Hands2Help Challenge.  It was a pretty simple finish.  Years ago, I picked up some blocks at an estate sale or something.  They had what looked like redwork blocks with cherries in the center, actually it was fabric.  This week I put those blocks together, pieced a piano keys border out of 30's fabric, and quilted it.  

This finishes at 48x48 and I will be donating it to Quilty Hugs.  This also happened to be #8 on my 2019 Finish-A-Long list for the first quarter, which was to get this to a flimsy.  I went past that original goal.

In going through my 30s reproductions, I came across this, so will expand it for another small quilt.

I found this pile of scraps in with my 30's fabrics I need to get cut up to use.  I couldn't believe the pile I had in there.  

I also pulled out a container with this line of fabric in it.  I knew I had some swap blocks.  These are all different sizes.  They were all done on a line of fabric that was called Bonnie Stratton Quilt for a Cure, all in blues whites and yellows.  I bought A LOT of it at the time. I would like to use most of it up.  

I had components to make some more baskets

But apparently these components I cut on the selvage, the white part.  I guess that is why I didn't put them together

I'm thinking about having long strips of this fabric as borders/sashing.  I have a lot of this too, yards and yards.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I did make my daughter a quilt with this fabric when she got married 19 years ago.  I think I intended to make myself one too, but nevergot around to it.

I have a bunch more of these scraps to cut up too.

I think all this will keep me busy and out of trouble a few days!

Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Sunday Stitching Hand Pieced QAL, Hands2Help Finish

I have done a lot of slow stitching this week.  I continue thank Kathy of Kathy's Quilts for the weekly motivation!  

First off I put together the top for the Hand-Pieced Quilt-Along hosted by Patty of Elm Street Quilts and Kristin of Simple, Handmade, Everyday.   I always planned to set it with something other than the background fabric, as I only had small scraps of the background fabric left after making my blocks.  

I started the third in the Hospital Sketches BOM by Barbara Brackman.  I'm using my Civil War Reproduction fabrics for this.  This block is called Love Apple.

I'll put my other activities this week in another post.  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Thanks again Kathy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sew Lets QAL, Hands2Help

Two weeks ago, Partner's in Design started a new Quilt A-Long, a sewing themed one.  I can't see that I blogged about it before.  The blocks come out every two weeks.  Thanks so much to the Partners in Design for this Quilt A-Long.  

The first block was a sewing machine, which I really loved.  This was designed by Sandra Healy of Sandra Healy Designs.  You can click that link and get the pattern there.  

This week's block was designed by April Adams of Janda Bend Quilts.  You can go to her site and download the pattern.  She had embroidered "Quilt Along With Me, the Best is Yet to be" on the mug, but I chose to use this quilt block named fabric instead. 

My other finish so far this week is this flimsy for the Hands2Help Project. It's not too late to sign up for this project at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.   I plan to donate this to the charity Quilty Hugs.  Just need to get some batting and backing together and I can start quilting it.  It measures 48x48.    The star blocks are something I have had for years, I picked up at an estate sale or something.  I decided to make a stringy border.  I ran outside today to get a pic before it started raining again.   

Thanks for stopping by!    Karrin

One Monthly Goal, 2019 Finish Along, More organizing

I continue to appreciate the motivation I get from the One Monthly Goal hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts!  If it gets toward the end of the month, I start getting nervous if I am not almost done!   Many thanks to Patty for all she does!

I stated my One Monthly Goal for March here.  It was to finish Flourishes BOM #11.  I'm happy to say it is done.

I'll be linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts.  This is a great motivation to get projects finished, and April's goal-setting will be coming up shortly.

I also finished another item on my first quarter Finish-A-Long list.   I enrolled in Shabby Fabrics  BOM called Nutcracker Suite.  For one of my goals, I wanted to get the first two months of this BOM done, which I also completed this week.  The first two months involved piecing blocks.  

I now have 2 nutcrackers to do, and a third one is on the way.  Me ordering this nutcracker BOM doesn't make much sense considering I have 29 BOM's I haven't started yet,  collected over a number of years.  But I love nutcrackers, have an extensive collection, and I had to have it.  I even talked DH into paying for half of it for my anniversary last November.

The one thing I got done yesterday besides the Flourishes block was a tiny bit of organization.  I've been working on my Hands2Help project.  I went looking through my 2 large bins of 30's fabric for some solid red.  I have very few solids, but I though there was some in one of those bins.  Those 2 bins were a mess and I had to organize everything but I found the red.  

I didn't think to take a before picture.  The bin on the right with the exception of the red pile is all backing fabrics.  I didn't realize I had so much.  These are mostly the size for children's quilts, not larger.  At least I can find stuff now.

That was all I was able to do, I had such a migraine, and had trouble getting rid of it, and once I took my migraine medication, I didn't feel like doing much at all.  

Thanks for stopping by!  Karrin