Lots of updates!

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.

A Post with Another Finish

Back in July when we were allowed to start having guild meetings again, one of our members – who owns a quilt shop – did a presentation and showed a new MSQC Quilt As You Go (QAYG) hexagon template. Of course I had to buy one! When I got home that night I grabbed a charm pack I had sitting here and some scraps of muslin to see how quickly I could put one together. While you can machine stitch them once you’ve folded the sides over, I decided to hand stitch them all. Because you know I needed another hand project 🙂 I used 3 charm packs I bought from Connecting Threads years ago, Mirage Garden and Mirage Home, for the centers and black and muslin for the backings. I used just enough of the muslin to account for the 6 really dark charm squares that just wouldn’t show up with a black binding/border, of course that was just enough to make a big hexagon for the center. 🙂 I think once I get my dresser in the bedroom cleared off – it’s a mess! – I’ll use this as a cover for it. But I might find somewhere else to use it in the meantime.

I’ve been busy the last few days working on orders – a few HUGE orders came in so it’s been all day with the embroidery machine running. Hope to start quilting the next quilt soon.

Finishes!

I mentioned earlier in the month that I had 2 finishes, I just didn’t have any pictures! So finish #1, last year I picked up a baggie of HST from the free table at guild. I started putting them together slowly as the leader/ender as I was working on other projects. Eventually it took center stage and became a finished top. Then came the part I just don’t like – basting! It was small so I was able to spray baste it before I started quilting it. I decided to step outside my comfort zone and do something different, so I put on the ruler foot and used a straight edge ruler to help me stitch stars in each 9 patch area. Still not sure where it’s going, might just let Cassie have it for a doll blanket 🙂

In 2013 we had a block swap at guild. 6 women participated and each made 2 blocks. I wanted it to be a little bigger so I added the blocks in the corners. I finished the top right away in 2013, but it sat here for a long time because I just don’t like to baste! This year I just had to complete something, so this was basted in January and was just sitting here waiting for me to quilt. Since I had started working with rulers I decided let’s get moving and work more with them. It was so much fun! I did ribbon candy in the sashing, which I’ve never done before. Once I got the hang of the moving the quilt the right directions it wasn’t bad. The picture doesn’t show any of the details of the quilting, it was taken at guild and I don’t feel like pulling it out to get another picture 🙂

So, 2 more finishes for the year, I have another quilt that I basted a couple of weeks ago at guild that I’m just waiting to start quilting. Working on a huge order right now and hopefully I can get to it in the next day or so. I’d love to have 1 or 2 more finishes for the year.

Updates in September

First Day of School

Wow, 5 months without a post! It’s been a whirlwind last 5 months and I just haven’t done a lot of stitching. We finished the school year at home with mommy as the teacher, Cassie did great and Alex just didn’t want to work on anything. Home just isn’t the right place for my kids and school. They just started back this week and we’ve had an eventful first week! Yesterday the phone rang and my heart always drops when it says it’s the school. Yep, Alex threw up at recess and had to come home from school. So I had to run up to school and get him. Let’s hope it’s the only time this year!

It was a busy spring and summer with orders, including one to Germany that took forever to get there! Everyone was shopping online for the end of the school year gifts and it definitely helped me! It’s been a slow start to fall, but that’s ok it will pick up in the next month or so for Xmas. Because I was so busy with orders the sewing machine sat idle for a long time. Plus we were doing a lot of camping and visiting with family in other states. We stayed in the whole time but had so much fun!

Now that I am starting to have some time to myself I’ve been working on Harry Potter SAL blocks. Just finished another one today, I only have 9 more blocks and I can get the top put together. Since our quilt show for 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19 I have time to get this and maybe a couple more quilts completed before our show in September 2021.

I have a lot of projects to work on when I’m sitting in my chair at night, cross stitch, all the various EPP projects, a new knitting project and I picked up a QAYG Hexagon template at a guild meeting a few months ago and have been hand stitching those and will be machine stitching them together when they are all ready. Hope to be back soon with a new update, hopefully it won’t be 5 months from now!

February Goals

I’m trying to figure out what I want to work on for my goals this month. I have a lot of tasks I have to do for Valentine’s Day for the kids school, but I certainly don’t want to list those as goals., those are MUST DO’s. 🙂 I think what I really would like to do is put together at least 1 Harry Potter block (not sure which one yet) and quilt the baby doll quilt that I basted last month. I ordered thread for the guild block exchange quilt but I know that won’t get done this month. Maybe if I have time I can get another quilt basted, but I certainly don’t think that will happen!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilt OMG.

January Finishes

January goal: Baste 2 quilts. Shouldn’t be too hard right? Well it wasn’t! Granted one of them was quite small, I still got it done! The small one is going to be a baby doll blanket for Cassie. Just need to figure out how I want to quilt it. Then I picked out a large quilt to baste. Found just the right color backing and basted my 2013 quilt guild challenge quilt! I need to get some Aurifil thread in the right aqua/blue color before I can quilt it, but I’m not sure how I want to quilt it yet anyway. The board basting was easier than I thought it would be, it took me an afternoon when Alex was sick to get it basted. Can’t wait to start quilting it!

Like I said Alex was sick for 3 days last week, then of course this week I get it! So I haven’t had time – or felt like even working – on quilting anything yet. I do have another quilt that is on my UFO list to get a binding on, that will be another post when it’s finished. 🙂 I did pull out another top to baste, but since I was sick it didn’t get anywhere. I want to start hand quilting my first hexagon quilt, just need to pick out a backing first!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts and will have to start thinking about next months goal!

Happy New Year!

Wow! I can’t believe it’s 2020! Seems like just yesterday that we were getting married in 1999, then the kids being born 2010 and 2014 and now here it is 2020. Why does time have to march so fast??

I spent the last week of the year working on getting some things completed, including finishing the top we started at our mystery workshop at guild in December. I bought the fabric back in 2013 I was trying to get folks interested in doing a block exchange with the 2014 Hoffman Challenge fabric. No one was interested but I decided to buy fabric anyway because I liked it so much. So when I decided to do the mystery quilt I remembered this fabric and found that it was just about enough to make the top. I had to order some additional – yes I found some even 5 years later! – so I could finish the top. Not sure when it will be quilted, but it is on my UFO challenge list for this year!

Back in 2016, one of my online groups, the Twilters, did a block exchange based on the book by Frances O’Roarke Dowell called Birds in the Air. It started as a way to help Frances get a quilt completed for the release of the book, and then morphed into a signed block exchange. My blocks sat here for quite some time because I couldn’t decide what to do with them. How did i want to set them? I had a lot of designs done in EQ and just never followed through with any of them. So as I was working on my UFO list for 2020, I decided that these might be a quick finish to completed top – I just needed to make 3-4 blocks to finish the design. Got that all put together New Year’s Day. Now it’s on the UFO list and just needs to be quilted.

Beginning of last year I found out about a SAL for a Harry Potter quilt – and you know how much I love Harry Potter! It was being run by Kelli over at Seriously I think it needs stitches who did the Pokemon quilt I put together a year or so ago. (links are to the pages on Kelli’s site). I bought the kit from Fat Quarter Shop and got started on blocks. I fizzled out during the year, business started picking up and we just weren’t home much over the summer. But at the end of the year I really wanted to be working on something simple, and these blocks are put together pretty simply – just lots of pieces. So I sat and figured out how many I need for the layout that would totally cover our king sized bed and started working to fill in the blocks I needed for the first 2 rows. Got those 3 blocks done and the first 2 rows are now put together. As soon as I can get my year end inventory completed I can work on the next block.

So, I want to rejoin the One Monthly Goal linkup this year in the hopes that I can get something done on my UFO list this year. Last year I completed NOTHING on my list! I’ve created the page at the top and hope to have some finished quilts in it this year! This month I want to get 2 quilts basted and possibly start quilting them. I don’t know which 2 they will be, possibly the ones shown above, maybe one of the many others that just needs to be quilted. I have batting, just need to figure out backings.

Back soon!!

I’m back!

Sigh….I just need to get back into sewing so I can post more! I started working on this post over a month ago, I don’ t even remember why I didn’t finish it!

School has started and both kids are loving their teachers and going to school – no matter what Alex says! Cassie is flying through sight words, her kindergarten teacher is amazed at what she knows already. My little girl is going to do so well in school! Alex is in third grade and he’s doing well too, loving his teachers this year which is a good thing! Just got reports cards for the 1st quarter and he’s got 3 B’s and an A – this is the first year that they get real grades. I’m more than happy with that!

In one of my IGSecretPal boxes I received some yarn, a Sweet Roll from Premier Yarns in a color way called Bubble Pop. I looked through Ravelry and found the Absolute Beginner Knit Cowl. It was so very easy and fairly quick, well quick for me, as I got it finished in 3 months. Once I got it finished I gave it to my little sister since pink is her color. The pattern was so easy that I might just make some more with some of the many, many yarns I have.

In September, I took a workshop on how to make jelly roll rugs. I used a jelly roll the husband bought me back in 2003 called Icicle Kisses from Kansas Troubles Quilters. Usually when I have time to take workshops I end up not having time to finish the project. Well not this time! I had my rug completed and took it back to the meeting in October for show and tell. It looks great in my kitchen right in front of the sink. I got some of that non-skid stuff to put under it so that no one slips and falls.

I’m trying to figure out what quilt I can pull out, baste and start working on quilting. I have too many quilts that are in the quilting queue and I have not been able to complete even 1 item off my UFO list this year. At least half of my list just needs to be quilted! I hope to be back soon with something to show!

July Goals

Ugh! Has it really been 3 months since I’ve posted? May was so busy with end of school activities that I don’t even remember doing any sewing. As soon as school was out it was off to California to visit the in-laws, then another trip to Virginia for more family visits. Here it is already in July and we are home for 2 weeks before another camping trip. I’m really hoping it’s enough time to get some things done!

Last month I had plans to join the guild community sewing day, but kids halted that plan in it’s tracks. Alex had a fever and wasn’t going to be going to his Lego Camp so I had to stay home. So at the guild meeting I picked up a kit to make a small quilt for one of our community groups. I’d like to get this finished before our meeting next week.

I have 2 quilts that I need to do for my friend, both are signature quilts that won’t take long to put together, I’ve made at least 4 of them for her in the past, I just need to get moving on them! So this month I want to at least get them cut out and the tops put together. If I get more done great, if not that’s ok I’ve at least gotten some work done on them!

I hope to be doing more sewing, but summer is hard when the kids are here all day or we are gone camping. I’ve slowly been working on my hexie temperature quilt, but I have a LONG way to go on that one!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.

April Completions

I really need to start posting more, not just when I complete (or set) my goals for the month! It’s been a crazy month, getting things ready for the end of school year, teacher appreciation gifts, business items that need to be done, the list just goes on and on.

I did manage to finish Good Night Irene, put the last stitches in it last night while the kids started watching a movie. Threw it on them for a photo, then the dog got in the way. 🙂 Needs a good wash and then I can write on the label. Very happy to have this one off my list of to-dos. This was started January of 2014 and was supposed to be a SAL, well little Cassie was born and quilting, heck sewing!, was just not in the cards. Finally finished the top March 28 last year. I have GOT to stop letting these tops sit so long!

The commission quilt that was supposed to be done for May has been changed to May of 2019, so there’s nothing to work on for that anymore. I will probably get it done over the summer, along with the one due in October. The fabric is here and I can work on it when ever I have some free time – HA!

I did also get the 9 designs stitched out for my blue and white quilt for the guild quilt show. Not sure when I’ll finish the blocks or the alternate blocks, but at least I’ve made a little bit of progress on them! Maybe next months goal will to be to cut out all the pieces and start making blocks? We’ll see!!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.