Well with all the top finishing I’ve been doing lately I decided to try and figure out one of the quilts that’s been on my to-do list for a LONG time. Really a bucket list quilt. I found instructions on how to design it in EQ, got that done in a couple of hours and started looking for the fabrics I needed. The triangles were the easy part, used up just about all of a half yard of fabric I had sitting here from another project. I need to figure out what I’m going to use for the hexagons, not sure if I want white or something else. I’ve started going through all my 1.5″ squares and separated all the whites from the colors and started making piles for each 9-patch. I’ll start working on those until I figure out what I want to work on next. Here’s my EQ design – the 9-patches will be scrappy both color and the white-on-white squares. This one will be a bit of a challenge to put together, but I’m up for a challenge!
Looking forward to start putting this together, once I figure out what those hexagons are going to be!
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 think I mentioned in my last post that I was going to be starting a new cross stitch piece, and I did start it on Monday. I gotten a few patterns from Pixel Patterns, and found out she was doing another SAL that I wanted to do too, the last one was a crochet SAL and I don’t do that anymore. Details are here, it is the Table of Elements and I’ve gotten some good work in the last few nights. I really haven’t worked with a scroll frame very much so this is definitely new for me. I’m trying to make myself use both hands to stitch and when I do it goes much faster. I think the app said I was just over 25% done with it. This first month we have 13 blocks to do so it’s not too much work. The picture is from last night when I was working on it, Raven is the lap puppy (at 5 years old) and refused to move so I could stitch. I might have gotten a little more done after the picture was taken and I’ll get more done tonight. The next section doesn’t come out until January 31st, so I have plenty of time to get this section done. I’ve already added this to my 2022 UFO Challenge list, I’ll be putting that up soon.
Ok, we are going to try this again for 2022. Every year I have the best of intentions of doing one monthly goal (hosted by Elm Street Quilts) and I do ok for the first month or so and then never continue. In the attempt to get my 40+ list of UFO’s down I’m going to try this again! 🙂
This months goal is to get the top of Cassie’s EPP quilt put together. I have the first 4 rows assembled and I’m trying to work on it at least a little each night. 5 rows left to put together and then assemble into a top with border. Tonight I’ll start working on row 5 after dinner as my Sunday slow stitching. Cassie gets more and more excited with every row that gets added, which is making me want to get this done for her before her birthday in mid-March. I’ll be able to work on the quilting while she’s at school so she won’t see it.
Wow, what a year we’ve had! Lots of camping and family time, some health issues with Raven back in the spring – she’s back to acting like her old self – and not much finishing of projects! I’m determined that 2022 will be the year of finishing projects and I’ve been getting things to the point where I can finish them.
I’ve been working on Cassie’s bed quilt, since it’s EPP I can work on it at night. 3 rows are put together and I have the 4th ready to add on, possibly tonight since we are staying up to see the ball drop.
I’ve been working on cross stitch this year, trading off with EPP and my puzzles. I did a couple of Star Wars planets (patterns from Etsy), did 2 of the teacher pieces in the spring, and lately I’ve been working on the Deathly Hallows that I found on Etsy. Monday I’m starting on a SAL with PixelPatterns and we are doing the periodic table over I think it’s 7 months. I have everything ready to start, except the pattern!
I’m still working on too many EPP projects, but some of them are REALLY long term projects. I have the EPP pentagon quilt top almost done, unfortunately I need to order fabric for the border before I can finish it, the piece I want to use is too small, and it’s pretty small so I should be able to quilt it on my domestic. Haven’t done much on the Dear Jane EPP quilt, but a little bit got done on the Hexie Insanity quilt. I’m hoping that once I get the hand work done on Cassie’s quilt that I’ll be able to get another old EPP quilt put together.
I’m still working on saving the money to get the longarm machine that I want, it would help me finish quilts so much faster! I might see about renting time on a machine and see how much it will cost. I just don’t know if I’d be better off saving the money toward my own instead of renting time. We’ll see.
The Harry Potter quilt blocks have now all been cut out, and like I mentioned yesterday I have only 2 left to stitch. Once I get those done I can start putting the rows together, but I can’t get too much of it done since I need more of the background fabric that I’m using for sashing. I only have a little bit of it left. I can’t wait to get this one done since it’s for our bed. The quilt I have on it now is a queen and doesn’t fit very well on the king bed!
Happy New Year, be safe if you are going out and hopefully I’ll be back soon because something is finished! 🙂
Wow! I wasn’t planning on being gone so long! Life took over with lots of activities for the kids, camping over the summer and with new school year volunteers are allowed back in the school! I’ve been spending lots of time with 2 kindergarten classes, plus PTA activities and holiday parties for the kids.
Since the holidays are over and all gifts finally got sent out (1 package went out late!) I decided that as much as I could this week I wanted to spend some time sewing. I have a few quilts in process that I’d like to get to a finished state, or at least finish the tops. I’m still saving up for a long arm, it’s very slow going! Today I got back to working on the Harry Potter SAL quilt, finished the Quidditch Cup and started working on Fawkes. Hoping that I can finish Fawkes tomorrow and cut out the last 2 blocks I have to put together!
While I was working on the HP blocks I worked on stitching the sashing strips I need to continue working on my 2017 Hexie temperature quilt. I now have all the strips done for the sides of the blocks that have been done for awhile, so I can start putting the rows together, possibly while I’m working on finishing up the HP top.
I have some cross stitch projects I’ve started in the last few months, I’ll write about them another day. One is a SAL (stitch-a-long) that starts on Monday (1/3) that I can’t wait to work on.
I haven’t been doing much quilting lately, but I have been working to change that this weekend. After I finished making some masks for my sister and finished a small project for my dad, I decided it was time to work on my bow tie quilt. It’s been sitting around since before 2017 and I needed to get more done on it. So I stitched up all the bow ties I had sitting here already prepped and then finished all the alternate 9 patch blocks I needed for the border. I’m trying to do each bow tie block out of a different fabric, so I pulled out a large bag of scraps that I had bought years ago at a guild garage sale. All the squares are 3″ so I have to do some trimming before I can start sewing them together. I also need to cut some 2.5″ white on white squares, I will do that on the Studio once I’ve got the rest of the squares cut up. Hopefully I’ll have some time this week to cut them and get everything paired up so when I have time to stitch I’m ready to go.
I’ve been spending my time after the kids go to bed working on cross stitch. I have 2 wonderful teachers at school that are getting special gifts this year, one is finished and I need to get the second one started soon. I don’t have any pictures of the piece I’m working on right now, but it’s almost finished and I will post about it then. A friend on instagram had posted some Star Wars planets she was working on and she told me where to get them on Etsy. The first planet is almost done and Alex is quite thrilled with them getting done, all 9 will be framed and put on the wall in the hallway upstairs. I’m hoping that I can get the last 2 colors finished off tonight, depends on how tired I get after dinner. 🙂 That will be my Slow Sunday Stitching, check out what others are working on today at Kathy’s Quilts.
Since I got my cross stitching out again I found that there’s an awesome app that you can use to mark off what you’ve stitched. Unfortunately for me it’s only available for android, what’s a girl to do but buy a small android tablet for the app to run on? Pattern Keeper is a great app, but not all charts can be loaded in it yet. So I pulled up my MacStitch app and started putting some of them in myself. I also found that some charts on Etsy are already formatted for Pattern Keeper (PK) and if you ask nicely they might even add that to the download for you. I had one that I asked about before I bought and she saved it in the download for me. I can’t wait to start that one, it’s a Harry Potter Deathly Hallows piece, but I need to get the teacher ones and the Star Wars planets done first.
I need to get back to work on cutting up the 3″ squares, I hope to be back soon with some finishes.
I was afraid I’d have to much to do this month and not have time to finish what I wanted to this month, but I’m happy to say I’m wrong! Not only did I get ALL the pentagon/squares put together and pinned to the background for applique, but I started stitching them down to the background. 3 in the batch are done, and the rest all need to be stitched still. This has been put aside for a bit because I have some cross stitch I want to work on. I have 2 wonderful teachers that both kids have had, that I want to make something special for before the end of the school year.
Happy to have the first months goal met, now to decide on what the goal is going to be next month! Check out everyone else that met their goals at Elm Street Quilts.
It’s January 2nd, and we had a great New Year’s Eve! The kids wanted to see the ball drop, so we let them stay up until midnight. OMG were they cuckoo crazy! Running around the room, and just being goofy. We played some video games and watched the ball drop and put them to bed just after midnight – let them sleep on the couch, which they’ve been asking to do for awhile.
I try this every year, maybe this year I can stay consistent and do something every month! I start every year out with good intentions in participating with the One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts and after a few months I just get so busy that I fizzle out and never get back to it. So let’s try it again! 🙂 This month I want to get the rest of my pentagons put together, there’s 18 of them left, and then pinned to the background and ready for applique.
Need to finish my inventory today so I can balance my 2020 books for the business and I really want to start some quilting today if I can. So I’m out of here! Good luck on your goals this month!
Ugh, I was so hoping to get more quilting done this year! We had all this time at home and I could have done so much. However, I did have an absolutely wonderful year for my business and had lots of time spent with the hubby and kids.
I have started hand quilting my first hexagon quilt, it’s slow going because I have so many hand projects that I rotate through. I’ve only been working in the white areas, because I haven’t decided what thread I want to use in the hexie flowers yet. I figure there’s a lot of white and I can decide the other color(s) later. You should be able to see the detail if you click on the pictures. My stitches aren’t 100% uniform, but I’m getting the hang of it and as it’s not going in a show/contest I don’t care. It’s mine and it’s been 100% stitched by hand. I don’t think I’m going to put a regular binding on it either, I’m thinking of doing a knife edge to it – I think I’ll need to do the edges before I quilt that last border though.
In October I started working on the pentagon project. It’s changed a few times since I decided what I wanted to do with it, so now I have 4 pentagons with a square in the middle appliqued to a background. I’ve gotten enough done that I put together the first row, used a ton of 1.5″ squares from the bin, and there’s a lot more that will be used by the time I’m done with this top. I’m working on putting the sashing together while I put together bow-tie blocks and the 9-patches I need for the border on that quilt. It’s all pretty mindless sewing when I need it.
As if I didn’t have enough hand projects, I pulled out some cross stitch and started working on that again. This is a piece for Alex and I have one I want to make for Cassie as well as one I want to make for 2 special teachers the kids have had. I have a bunch of Star Wars ones to make for Alex and at some point they’ll get done. In the past I’ve done all my cross stitch with paper patterns, but lately I’ve wanted to do it with an ipad. The app that I really want to use isn’t available for ios yet, and the android tablets we have are WAY to old for it to work. So I found a pdf app that will allow me to annotate the file and we’ll see how that works. I just got it updated last night but didn’t have time to try and see how well it works, might try that tonight.
Kids are off until next Monday (1/4), and I’m hoping to get some time to work on quilting. I got everything ready yesterday, because I intended on starting the quilting until I realized I may have inadvertently tossed my quilting gloves! I ordered a new pair yesterday, but who knows how long it will take for them to get to me. I’ll have to start quilting without them I guess and hope I have enough black thread to last until the new spool gets here with the gloves. I know I won’t be able to finish it before the end of the year, but I’d still like to start working on it and maybe start the new year with a finish.
Here’s hoping that 2021 is a better year for everyone and that I finish some projects in the new year!
