November "Get it Done!"

Each month Judy challenges us to set some goals and see what we can get done that month.  Here's what I said at the beginning of this month:

For October, I'm keeping my plans minimal, and binding oriented apparently:

1. Bind Storm at Sea
2. Bind Bear's Paw 
3. Bind Labyrinth
4. Finish quilting Dresden plate (not mine)

From this list, I can say - done, not done, 1/2 done, done.  I guess that's not too bad, and I had really hoped that 1/2 done would be finished by today, but that doesn't happen when you just sit and look at the quilt that needs binding :)

I did get my Storm at Sea bound, as I mentioned earlier.  And the dresden plate quilt I quilted for  a friend came out really nicely.  But it appears that I let that one go without taking a single picture of it.

I even finished quilting my Kaffe Fasset quilt - but it wasn't on my list.  And the labyrinth quilt is almost done binding - I just need one evening with it to finish that one.

Overall, not a bad month progress-wise.  For next month, I think I want to:

1. finish binding labyrinth
2. quilt and bind Living in Harmony
3. bind bear paw
4. catch up on BOM - Downtwon, Toes in the Sand, and Block party.

There's not a single quilt piecing project there - but that dosen't mean I not doing one (or two). I'm off to a retreat next weekend, and I have several projects already in mind for taking with me.  Which of course will just add to the stack of "to be quilted" projects I'm collecting.

Drop by Judy's blog to see how everyone else did on their lists this month.

Blogathon!

I am absolutely thrilled to have been asked to be a host blogger for this year's Blogathon, brought to you by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop.  This is the second year for this Blogathon, and it celebrates the tremendous craft, talent, and passion of the online quilting community in Canada.

Here's how it works:

Each day host bloggers will introduce themselves and their work on their blogs. They will include links to more blogs from their province so you can visit those blogs as well. The host bloggers will also host a giveaway of some of their favorite goodies from Sew Sisters so you have a chance to win every day of the week! This year Sew Sisters has teamed up with Aurifil, Northcott and Robert Kaufman to bring you even more fantastic giveaways! Check out the Sew Sisters blog for more information and to see how you can join the party!

Here’s the Schedule. Be sure to drop by all the blogs during the blogathon week.  Get to know some Canadian bloggers, and enter for a chance to win prizes. And be sure to come back here on November 23 for my hosting day!

Monday, November 18	BC	Holly	Holly's Red Bike
Monday, November 18	BC	Heather	Winding Bobbins
Tuesday, November 19	Maritimes	Adrienne	Chezzetcook Modern Quilts
Tuesday, November 19	Maritimes	Marjorie	Marjorie's Busy Corner
Wednesday, November 20	AB	Katherine	Sew Me Something Good
Wednesday, November 20	AB	Andrea	Urban Quilt Works
Thursday, November 21	SK	Flo	Butterfly Quilting
Thursday, November 21	MB	Kathy	Tamarack Shack
Friday, November 22	QC	Izzy	Dizzy Quilts
Friday, November 22	Territories	Danielle	A Geeky Crafty Life
Saturday, November 23	ON	Jackie	Jackie's Art Quilts
Saturday, November 23	ON	Krista	Krista Quilts

Catch-Up Time

It's catch up week!  All of my block of the month projects are behind, and it's 5 days to the end of the month, so here goes nothing.  How many can get caught up before Thursday?

1. Back to Square One.  August is complete, but Sept and Oct have not been touched. 
2. Downtown BOM.  I received the first blocks a couple of weeks ago, and haven't even opened the package. Next class is Nov 6, so gotta get moving on this.
3. Block party. Thanks goodness October was cancelled, but I still haven't finished the blocks we got in September, so those must get done before the next block party.
4. Toes in the Sand.  The LQS is running this as a block of the month.  I managed to miss the first class, so now I have to catch up before the next one.
5. Gardener's Alphabet.  Let's not even talk about this one. I'm so far behind I've lost count. But now that Tigger is complete, I should be able to start working on this again.
6. Guild mystery.  This one is OK for this month.  Cutting instructions were handed out on Wednesday, but I'm going to sit on my fabric for another month, and cut as we go rather than all up front.
7. Border Creek Station. Thank goodness it's running a month later than I thought.  No clue yet, but it should be available on Friday.
8. Get it Done! for October.  Looking at my list, I have 2 quilts to bind before Thursday.  That is definitely not going to happen, although there's a chance one will get finished since it's 3/4 done.

Whew, that's a list and half. So on Sunday I spent the afternoon plugging away at the September clue for Back to Squaer One.  24 log cabins - this may be an easy block, but it sure is a time sink.  I got a lot done, but no where near the end.  Still have half of the logs to attach to these blocks.  But I did manage to get the solid border attached to the quilt.  So, now I need a plan to get me to Thursday.

1 - finish the log cabins.
2- tackle the October clue. I would really like to complete this step before Judy posts her linky on Thursday.
3 -  catch up on block party

That should keep me busy until the 1st but if I have extra time, I'll start on the Downtown blocks for this month.

Design Wall Monday

It's design wall Monday time!  My design wall doesn't look quite how I expected it to, today.  But it looks different than it did, which means there's been lots going on this week.

This is what happens when you don't actually read all of the instructions on your latest quilt project.  If you assume the author has made (yet another) mistake in the directions and merrily go ahead and sew all 11 blocks you've decided you need, you then discover that 1) not only was she right and 13 blocks are actually required, but 2) the reason the instructions said to sew 7 is because the next instruction on the following page says to sew 6 mirror image blocks.

So now you have 11 blocks all tilting the same way, and not enough fabric to cut 6 more to repair the error (because the earlier instructions incorrectly had you cut twice as many of another piece as you actually needed).

But, there is no such thing as a mistake in quilting.  There are only design opportunities.  So, I took the opportunity to redesign the back of this quilt, and rather than a zigzag pattern across the back, this is what my (unique) quilt will look like. And now the back is done and Harmony is ready for quilting.

Rather than tackle that quilting project right away, I took a break from quilting to put together a Hallowe'en costume.  I never used to dress up for Hallowe'en, but my dance studio has a party every year, and I love to go. So, a costume is required. This year - Little Red Riding Hood. I dug out some red fabric (not quilting fabric!  That would be sacrilege.) and put together a quick cape, after scanning the internet for some hints.  Cape made, skirt and top dug out of my closet, and an Easter basket re-purposed.  Now I can get back to quilting!

Stash Report

Finished the top!  Living in Harmony is almost ready to be quilted - just have to put the back together.  This top used 9.5 yards of fabric, which I get to count in my stash report today.  This tips me over the 200 yard mark, which was my unofficial goal for the year.  Still a few yards to go to meet last year's total (212 yards), but there's lots of weeks left to get there.

And, I even finished quilting a top today.  Put this one on the longarm this afternoon, loaded up my spiffy new template, and went to it.  Fun and easy, and I love the look of this pattern.

Total this year: 205 yards out

Drop by Judy's blog to see more stash reports today.

Diamond progress

I've been plugging along on my latest quilt.  All the main blocks are made, and I decided to lay it out, and make sure I pick colours that fit well for the edge pieces.  Since the instructions were wrong and I cut twice as many pieces as I need for one part of those, this seemed like a good idea.  Lots to choose from, and an opportunity to make sure all the colours are balanced in the end.

Please ignore the piles of stuff in front of the design wall.  I have so many quilts in progress & planned right now, I have no place to put everything.  I need to focus and finish a few projects over the next couple of months.

Most of this fabric is from the "Sweet Serenade" Moda line. The quilt might be "Living in Harmony" but I'll have to give that more thought.  The pattern comes from "Modern Patchwork".

Design Wall Monday - Oct 21

New quilt!  Now that Kaffe is off the wall, I've started on my next project.  Yes, I know, I need to quilt Kaffe.  But I've been itching to start this one.  It's going to be a sample for class I'm teaching in January, so the sooner I can get it done, the better.

I fell in love with the orange/turquoise in these fabrics, and was determined to make a quilt with them.  A bit of pondering, lots of help from the ladies at the LQS, and this is what I came up with.

I love the way it's coming together, although I'm not overly fond of the instructions for doing it (particularly the cutting directions, which had 18" of waste in every strip cut). But I fixed that up and now it's coming together.

There are some althernate blocks to get in there too, but for now I'm just stitching together all of block A, before I lose track of what I cut out.

Drop by Judy's blog to see what everyone else is up to this week.

Stash Report - Oct 20

It's been a while since I had anything to mention in my stash report, but today I have a completed top!  I finished the top from the Kaffe Fassett workshop a few weeks ago, and put together the backing for it yesterday.

The quilt will be a donation to Victoria's Quilts, once I finish admiring all my hard work :)  I spun the seams at every corner on the back of this quilt, to make sure it lies perfects flat.  The pressing was almost more time consuming than the sewing, because of that.

Then I played with some backing choices.  Flannel of course - that's a requirement for Victoria's Quilts.  After debating between these 3, I decided on the lighter brown fabric for the backing.

One other finish today - I finally! finished an embroidery block that I've been working on since January.  It really should not have taken this long, but I kept avoiding it, especially once I started on the black sections. But I think the rest of the blocks for this charity quilt are still waiting, so I didn't completely miss the deadline.

Fabric usage this week:

4 yards used for top
3 yards used for backing

Total this year: 195 1/2 yards out

Drop by Judy's blog for more stash reports today.

Design Wall Monday - Oct 14

Happy Thanksgiving, to all my Canadian readers.  I've been enjoying a nice relaxing long weekend, which has included a little bit of sewing.  I sewed all my squares into pairs, and now I'm putting the squares together into 4-patches.  Working my way across the quilt, slowly but surely.  I hope to finish this one so that I can have it quilted for December (even better if it was quilted before Nov 8, but that might be overly optimistic).  This is my quilt from the Kaffe Fassett workshop in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago.

Drop by Judy's blog for more design walls today.

Design Wall Monday - Oct 7

I wanted to have something (anything) on my design wall this week, since I've been pretty lax lately. So I pulled out my fabrics from the Kaffe Fassett workshop last week, and reassembled my quilt with the dark background. This was definitely my favourite from the few options I previewed at the workshop.

I think will sit on the design wall for a few days.  I want to get the current quilt off the long arm before this weekend, so I can take it back to the owner when I see her on Saturday.

Drop by Judy's blog for more design walls today.

The Tale of a Storm at Sea

This quilt has been in the making for over 2 years (since July 2011). It was originally intended to be a quilt for my son, before he went to university.  I made all the blocks over the course of about 5 months, and then stalled on the border.  I knew what I wanted to do, but the piecing and sizing of the border felt overwhelming at the time. So it went onto a shelf.

When I pulled it back out last year, I decided on the size of the quilt, figured out how much fabric I had left (ordered some more), and completed the pieced borders.  I thought the quilt was done, and added it to the "to be quilted" pile in May 2012.

At that point, I knew I was buying a long arm, so I waited. And then waited to get better at free motion quilting, and then waited for some other quilts to be done.  And FINALLY, in July this year got it out to do the quilting.  And at that point, discovered that I must have been dreaming when I finished it.  The size was completely wrong for its intended use, so it went back on the design wall, I dug out the last scraps of fabric from the making (lucky I still had it!), and adjusted the overall size of the quilt and added some new borders. That adventure is detailed here.  I ended up removing a row, and using those blocks on the back of the quilt.  And I extended the borders with an outer white border, because I really was not happy with the look when it ended right after the diamond border.

And THEN it could get onto the long arm.  And off.  And bound.  Only 27 months in the making :) my Storm at Sea quilt is complete, and perfectly sized for the double bed that now resides in the my son's old room (since he left for university over a year ago).

I'm linking up at the October finishing party over at A Stitch in Time.

Get it Done - October

Apparently I completely missed the September "Get it Done" post.  Not sure how that happened.  So, going back 2 months, this is what was on the table for August.

1. Storm at Sea is on the longarm, so I want to finish quilting it
2. Finish labyrinth top, and quilt it
3. finish binding Hunters Star, and Bear's Paw
4. bind Storm at Sea

As of today, here is my progress:

1. Done!
2. Done! (in September)
3. done (Hunter's Star) and not done (Bear Paw)
4. not done

In addition, I did finish quilting my mystery quilt, and bound it.  So at least some progress was made, even if it wasn't on a list anywhere.

For October, I'm keeping my plans minimal, and binding oriented apparently:

1. Bind Storm at Sea
2. Bind Bear's Paw 
3. Bind Labyrinth
4. Finish quilting Dresden plate (not mine)
     
   

Drop by Judy's blog to see what everyone else is planning this month.