I finished the bricks top I started earlier this month. I’m not thrilled with that one dark green brick in the middle, but I’m not about to rip it out at this point. The topics made from 3.5″ x 6.5″ bricks cut from the Connecting Threads Hearth and Home line. It measures 48″ by 60″. A good donation size. The remaining bricks were tossed in the 3.5″ scrap drawer.
Today, I got one of my Keyhole tops sandwiched and ready for quilting. I made this top at the 2012 Shipshewana retreat. The fabric is the Summer 2012 Batik line from Connecting Threads. I absolutely love the quality of their batiks. And, you can’t beat the price.
My granddaughter and I hit the LQS today and came home with a pillowcase kit. Sloane made this almost entirely herself. We had some trouble with the old Brother machine I keep at my son’s house so I had to help drive the machine a bit.
I woke up this morning determined to get rid of at least one little project that I had stashed away in a Baggie or food container. They are every where in my sewing space. Ideas I ran across and started making blocks or cutting scraps. Then stashed them away for later. Well now IS later.
The first up is the Summer Stars from last summer hosted by Temecula Quilt Company. They posted one 4.5″ star each week for eight weeks. I made four and stopped. However, I did finish all the flying geese for the star points. So today I sat down and finished the rest of the stars and got them into a top. Now I just have to decide on borders.
Second, I grabbed a Baggie of tumblers I started cutting from scraps years ago and started sewing them together alternating dark and light. There are not enough for a top yet, but it feels good to have them sewn together and gives me some motivation to cut more tumblers next time I’m cutting up scraps.
These two little projects made only a small dent in the stash of miscellaneous projects, but it’s a start.
I’m going to participate in the May for Me Celebration this year. Click the button on my sidebar to find out what it’s all about. And, to get started, here’s a post about some playing I’m doing this week.
Here’s a little peek at assorted bins of quilty “stuff” on a shelf in my closet. I know, not much compared to some I’ve seen, but I have very limited space to store all the projects, fabric, etc. that come with this obsession of mine. This is just one stash.
I’m trying to use this stuff up and move it out. So I chose a bin of 3.5” x 6.5” bricks that I cut up some time ago from some Connecting Threads scraps I had. But I didn’t have a plan for these.
I pulled these out and starting putting them together in a brick pattern keeping the colors the same diagonally, if not the actual fabric pattern. I think I like it. I was going to try to make all the diagonal rows match in fabric, but I’m playing fast and loose on this one.
My goal is to get all these bricks into a top by the end of May. Then I can free up this bin for one of the many other UFOs stashed around here out of sight and out of mind.
This top is destined for a Donation quilt.
I’m participating in two UFO Challenges this year.
The first is at Heather’s blog. She chose number 11 for April. That’s my Easy Street quilt. Here it is with the last stitch in the binding sewn down earlier today.
The second challenge is at Aunt Marti’s blog, 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks. She chose number 2 for April. That’s my Big Star quilt which I actually finished in January so it was an easy month for me.
Check out the April Parade of finishes here.
For May, Aunt Marti chose number 12, which is my Double Delight. Yay! I finished it in February in a finishing spurt. Seems like once I get a quilt quilted, it just has to be finished.
And, Heather chose number 9, which is my Asian Sampler. This one is twelve 12” blocks that I need to get laid out into a top. No idea what I’m going to do with it yet. This one will be challenging and I’ll be lucky to get the top finished by the end of May, let alone quilted and bound.
Easy Street is finished. This is the 2012 Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt. The pattern is only available on her web site until June, then it becomes part of one of her future books. So I won’t link to the page.
I can’t believe I started and finished the quilt all within five months. The mystery started on November 23rd, 2012, the day after Thanksgiving.
As usual, Bonnie’s quilts are a little too big for me so I made 3/4 of the number of units. As it turned out, for this pattern, I could have gotten away with far fewer units.
So I made a second, mini version without borders, which will make a really cute baby quilt. I actually finished the mini-version first because it was so quick to put together.
Every scrap of fabric in both versions is completely from my stash, mostly my 2″ and 3.5″ strip bins. Even the 3.5 yards I used for the backing of the large version had been fermenting for quite a few years.
Full size: 75” square
Mini: 45″ square
Batting: Warm and Natural
Backing: Full size is a black on white all over feather patterned fabric. The 3.5 yards I had was not quite enough so I added a yard of purple down one side of the back. I like a slightly off center backing. The mini backing is a lavendar heart fabric.
Quilting: Large meander in Gray thread
Binding: Full size is a purple from Connecting Threads; Mini is a turquoise Fusions
This is what it looks like on my queen bed laid over a cream coverlet.
See more posts about these two quilts here.
For April, my goals were:
It’s quilted and I’ve got about three feet of binding to sew down. It will be finished today since it’s my April quilt for a UFO Challenge at Heather’s blog.
Read about it here.
4. Border one of the Key Hole quilts. (Decisions, decisions….)
Not so good here. Didn’t even take the top off the hangar. Sigh! Goes on next months list.
Other things I got done this month are:
For May, my goals are:
That’s it for me. Go see how everyone else is doing here at Judy’ blog.
On my Design Wall today are the same pieces for Lazy Sunday as last week. No progress there.
But new on the wall are the Blue scrappy blocks I’ve started for Bonnie’s Pineapple Blossom for my grandson. He wants a Blue and White quilt "with no turquoise please". So I cut some strips from every medium to dark blue in my stash for this one.
Linking up to Judy’s Design Wall Monday. Check out what everyone else is up to.
I’m happy to say I continue to be in the Green when it comes to fabric this year.
2 yards In this month
14.25 yards In Year to Date
15.58 yards Used this month
35.96 yards Used Year to Date
21.71 yards Net Year to Date out of my Stash
Wow, over 15 yards used in April. That’s because I made two quilts backs, several bindings, and 3 covers for the topponcino I made for my niece. Those covers used 1 yard each. That was a plus.
I did buy 2 yards of a blue that I really like from JoAnns. I had used all I had in my stash and needed more for the Blue Pineapple Blossom that I started for my grandson. I don’t usually buy fabric from JoAnns but there are a couple of staples that I keep around.
Stay tuned for Design Wall Monday tomorrow and Getting it Done April on Tuesday.
Linking to Judy’s Stash Report.
Today is the day we go bagless in our county. No more shopping bags. I have been hit or miss about bringing my own bags for while now. But with the knowledge this was coming, I’ve gotten used to carrying a scrunchie bag or Target bag in my purse and I keep extras in the car for bigger shopping trips. This is a good thing, but like every other change, it will take some adjustment.
I had a good weekend busting stash for two backings and getting a couple quilts ready to quilt. See my previous post. I’ll report my stash busting for April next Sunday. Once a months seems enough for me.
Here’s what’s on my design wall today.
Bits and pieces of Bonnie’s Lazy Sunday mystery found in Quiltmaker and one wee little Wild & Goosey block.
Linking up to Judy’s Design Wall Monday post today.
Two more quilt tops are sandwiched and ready for quilting:
Jared Takes a Wife
Monster Bash
Having a seven foot granite island makes all the difference in getting quilts finished. I love not having to crawl around on the floor or even getting out my folding table to use Sharon Schambers method.
This week I quilted and bound my version of Roll Roll Cotton Boll. I say blue in the title because I have a pink one in the works as well. This makes 10 finishes for the year, and it’s only April. This quilt is also number 1 on my UFO Challenge list which should have been completed in March. But better late than not at all.
All the fabric is completely from Stash. No new purchases to complete this one. Note even batting. It was pieced from leftovers too.
This top took a long time to finish because I really didn’t like the neutral string alternate block. I got the inspiration for the alternate block I chose from the Quiltville Yahoo Group photos. I really like how this turned out and it already has a home.
Size: 56” x 71”
Batting: Warm and Natural pieced
Backing: Purple and Blue pieced
Quilting: Large meander
See previous blog posts about this quilt here.
Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.
My March goals were:
In addition, to these goals, I:
I’ll post pics of these accomplishments in another post.
For April, I’d like to:
Hooking this up to Judy’s Getting it Done in March post.
I am one of the people devastated by the news that Reader is going away. I’m trying Bloglovin as an alternative. And, this link has to be in a post to use the follow me button at the right.
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
I just got back for spending four days with 7 of my good sewing friends in Danville, IL at Threads of Time retreat center. We ate, talked, sewed, ate, shopped, ate, sewed, and on and on. And, what a great way to retreat with a quilt shop built in. Carol even had her two machines serviced while we were there.
Here’s what I accomplished:
Nine in the Middle center top DONE.
Strip Twist II center top DONE.
And I decided to jump on the Scrappy Trip bandwagon and made as many blocks as I could from the 2.5” strips I brought with me.
As leaders and enders, I put together some random, precut individual blocks that I bought years ago when Lazy Mazy was still in business. I’m not surprised they aren’t in business any longer. Since many of the pieces were not cut accurately to fit together properly. So I had to fudge here and there.
I also tried a new layout for the alternate blocks for Bonnie’s Carolina Christmas. But now that I’m home, I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to put that top together with the least amount of work and call it done. Standby for that post.
Best of all, look at this snow that fell on Tuesday.
Being from San Francisco Bay Area, this was a treat for me. But I can see how it would get old fast.
We had a wonderful time and are planning on doing this again next year. I can’t wait.
Check out Jennifer’s blog for more on our retreat.
Warning! Picture heavy but I love seeing my progress.
Here are my February Goals and progress:
In addition to these, I accomplished the following:
For March, my goals are:
See what everyone else has accomplished in February here.
It’s the end of February already. And, time to report on our UFO completions.
This month, Heather at Peachy Pages chose number 10. That’s this preemie quilt for me. I actually finished it in January.
And, Marti from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks chose number 4, Orca Bay for me. While I didn’t finish Orca Bay, I did finish the top and that was huge for me this month.
Check out both blogs to see what everyone else completed this month.
Wow! I was nominated for a Liebster Award by Heather at Peachy Pages. Thanks Heather, I accept.
So what is the Liebster Award? The gist of the award is that you “accept’ with the intention of “paying it forward”. Upon accepting the award, one chooses 11 blogs that you feel are deserving of more subscribers and “nominate” them for the award. No one is obligated to accept the award (or even to pay it forward), but it does help to generate traffic and get the word out about some really great little blogs that can be crammed full of big punches of inspiration! For now, let’s just say, it’s a fun and friendly award by bloggers, to bloggers, for bloggers!
To qualify the blog must have less than 200 followers or must be less than six months old. Once the award is received you are to write a post and in it
Let’s see, 11 random things about me:
Here are the questions from Heather and my answers:
So now, here are my questions for my nominees:
And now for my nominees. Not 11 but these blogs definitely worth checking out.
Hop on over and see what these very creative ladies have been up to.
Pattern: Happy Child by Villa Rosa Designs
Fabric: A kit I purchased at Scotty Dog Quilts at the Humboldt County Fair, August 2010
Finished Size: 45″ x 57″
Backing: Four Purple prints from my stash
Batting: Warm and Natural
Binding: Same fabric as the pink sashing.
Quilting: All over meander with gray thread.
Started: October 2011
Finished: February 11, 2013
Notes:
This was a very quick quilt to put together. I finished the top at the Shipshewana Retreat in 2011. Then I added a 1″ Navy border just to tone down the busy-ness of the top.
I’m particpating in two UFO Challenges this year in the spirit of my goal to Get It Done!
The first is Heather’s at Peachy Pages and second is Marti’s at 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks.
I got lucky for January. They both randomly chose Number 5. I finished that quilt. See post here.
For February, I got lucky again. Heather chose Number 10. For me it’s this preemie quilt that I actually finished in January.
Marti chose Number 4. For me that’s Orca Bay. That will be a bit of a challenge to finish by end of February. But who knows, I’ll give it a shot. I have the white inner border and the pieced border to add before I can sandwich it and get it quilted.
This has been a terrific month for stash usage, which means backings. Lots of backings.
13.82 yards Used since 1/1/2013
ZERO Added since 1/1/2013
Yesterday I finished my Blue Roll Roll Cotton Boll top and got it sandwiched. 
Not sure if I’m up to quilting it today. We’ll see how the day goes. Maybe while watching the 49er’s this afternoon.
Linking up to Judy’s blog today.
My goals for January were:
In addition this month, I quilted six quilts finishing three by machine stitching the binding. The other three will be hand stitched next weekend. Not a bad month.
Here are my February Goals:
Look here at what others have accomplished.
This pattern is free on Bonnie Hunter’s blog.
I started making pinwheels using some pre-cut triangles that were in a scrap bag that I won in a blog giveaway. Lot’s of rectangles, squares, and triangles. The fabric was not my favorite but I was determined to make scrap quilts from it. See my Scrappy Sassy Sixteen also made from these scraps.
The blocks are 6″ and I used a 7 x 9 setting, 42.5″ x 55″.
The cream is largely from an IKEA sheet. I added a 1.5″ gold border and a 3.5″ brown border to finish it off.
The finished quilt is 65.5″ x 53.25″. The border looks wavy in the picture below but it really isn’t.
For the back I used a cream on cream wide muslin. I’ve decided I’m not crazy about light backings. Shows every little glitch that happened while quilting.
The batting is Cream Rose. This is the first time I tried it and I don’t like handling it. It is much thinner than Warm and Natural and it seemed to pull apart easily.
I quilted an all over large meander using a YLI brown variegated thread on top and a cream on the bottom.
I used a bunch of green and gold left over binding strips to machine bind the quilt.
I had a lot of trouble quilting this on my Sapphire 850. Lot’s of broken and frayed thread and several broken needles. I’m not sure if it was the batting or the coarser muslin backing that was causing the problem, because I haven’t had this problem to this extent on other quilts. So there were a lot of thread tangles in brown on the cream back that I had to deal with.
Timeline:
7/1/2012 – Finished top
11/21/2012 – Sandwiched quilt with wide muslin backing.
12/30/2012 – Quilted top
1/27/2012 – Machine bound.
Progress posts:
Here
Here
This project was started on Judy’s blog as a Stash project and finished yesterday.
At the beginning, I went gangbusters working on this until I got the top mostly finished in May of 2009 and there it sat for the next 3 years.
The colored fabrics are all pretty much the same and are from Jo-Ann’s. The cream is actually a sheet from IKEA.
I pieced together the backing from four different pieces of blue in my stash. The binding is the pink that matches the pink in the blocks. The batting is Warm and Natural that was pieced together from some large leftover pieces.
I quilted it with my favorite all over large meander. I love the texture it gives quilts.
The finished quilt is 64″ square. A good lap-size quilt. Judy’s version of the quilt has several more borders making it a bit too large for me.
Timeline:
4/19/2009 – Started making the blocks.
5/23/2009 – Finished the top center.
9/1/2012 – Final border added. Made the binding.
11/21/2012 – Made the backing. Sandwiched the top.
1/26/2013 – Quilted with all over meander.
1/27/2013 – Bound by machine.
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