Off to Paris!

Well, in spirit, anyway :)  Paris fabric is the theme of today's quilty finish.

I think I'm doing a pretty good job crunching through my UFOs. This quilt was started in November at a retreat - in fact, the top was finished there, so it's been in my "to be quilted" pile ever since.  The block pattern seems to be floating around the internet, but I didn't like the way it was put together. So I redesigned the instructions to make the block simpler to assemble, with fewer small pieces to mange. And then I realized that there was a big patch of open space in the corner, just crying for something to fill it. One of the original treatments I saw put applique there but I wasn't interested in doing that.

However, I had a lovely Paris-themed fabric that I picked up earlier lastsummer, and some coordinating solids to go with it. So I decided that this was the perfect project to highlight those fabrics.  I had only bought a little - 1 yard of the print, and 1/4 yard of each of 6 coordinating colours. So I had to get a bit creative with the colour placement, in order to stretch the fabric as far as possible. Twenty-four 12" blocks turned out to be the answer. And with careful placement, all of the Paris scenes are upright.

When I pulled this quitl out a couple of weeks ago to finish it, I needed a backing for it.  I didn't have quite enough of any of my white fabrics, and I was completely out of the solids I used on the top.  But I decided that I could make a giant block for the back of the quilt, if I could find some suitable pieced in my stash. Luck was with me - I found a very similar shade of each of the 6 colours, in tone-on-tone in my stash.

Happy to have one more UFO off my list, but that doesn't mean I'm not starting anything new. I was asked to make a sample for a local shop, so I put aside some other projects and  put this together this week.  It just needs binding and it's off to the shop on Saturday.

Friday Finishes

In honour of TGIFF and WIPs Be Gone, I present to you ... some finishes for this week!

First, my 1000 pyramids quilt.  OK, it's more like 60 pyramids, but you get the idea :)  This was made from leftover fabric from my Gananoque stars project - pretty much every scrap of leftover fabric. I even remembered to keep some of the background fabric set aside for binding.  It was quilted with feathers in all the borders, and a meander in the main part of the quilt.   This was a short-lived UFO, since I started the quilt earlier this year for a demo day at the local quilt shop (demoing the 60 degree ruler).

Next up is quilt from a panel I picked up at a guild meeting - back in early 2014, I think.  There's a second, partner to this one, but the binding isn't on that one yet.  I had the 2 panels, plus I think it was 4 fat quarters and a 1/2 yard of a striped border fabric.  Most of the fat quarters were used on the other panel, and this one got sections of the border print.  The cut was just a bit too short, unfortunately, for the size of the panel, but I did some piecing and made it work out.

I never would have picked that red binding, but as I was trimming the quilt, I found it on my cutting table. I think my cats pulled it off the shelf recently and I never got it put away again.  But when I looked at it, the red was a perfect match for some of the darker reds in the quilt, and I think it makes a nice frame for it now that it's done.

And finally, I have a little quiltie, made from leftovers from my Chain Reaction quilt (which still is not quilted).  It's 24" square, and will be a donation to the children's hospital through a guild, when meetings start up again in September.  I had some purple/blue and some green/blue 9-patches left over from Chain Reaction. But only purple and blue fabric left. I had to add an additional purple fabric, and I left the green 9-patches scattered in there for interest.

I'm also linking up to Link a Finish Friday and Can I get a Whoop Whoop

Looking for my motivation

I've been slacking on my blogging this week.  I think probably because I'm not inspired right now.  But someone pointed out that blogging creates inspiration/motivation, as much as quilting inspires blogging.  So, let's see if this works :)

I have actually been working the past couple of weeks, just not posting.  I finished the flying geese quilt, and even completed the binding on it.  The quilt is backed with a flannel batik - a lovely discovery I made just a couple of weeks ago when a local shop put some on sale.  I love it!

This quilt was inspired by a photo I saw online, which I have unfortunately lost the link to.  The assembly was really easy, and it went together quickly once I pulled it off the shelf.  For some reason, blogger has decided not to roate this picutre the right way up.  The geese are fact flying upwards, not sideways :)

If you look closely at this picture, you can see a couple of geese that I quilted into the background.  I put these in about 4 places throughout the quilt.

This was my first finish for April.  Although most of the work was done in March, I put the last stitches into the binding in April.

I have been working on my "quilt-as-you-go" redesign of my jelly roll race.  5 quilts came out of the endeavour, and now I just have to sit down with a needle & thread, and do all the hand-stitching on the sashing. Then I can bind them.  There are 2 shown here.  3 others are ready to go.

Fixed!

And finished. Well, almost - just the binding left to go.

Dancing with the Stars has a repaired border, has been back on the long arm, and is now off.  All quilting complete!  I'm pretty happy with the fix.  I thought about mending the hole - received several suggestions on ways to do that - but decided I would always see it.  And because the feathers are so open, I was afraid that the mend would be in one of the big open spaces - leaving it subject to fraying down the road.

I decided my best option was to un-sew a bit more, and cut out a rectangular section of border.  I replaced about a 1 1/2" wide section with a new border section, stitched the borders back together, and quilted it.  If you look closely, the piece is visible, but I think if you aren't looking for it, it's not obvious.  And I'm confident that this section will stand up to use just as well as the rest of the quilt.


Now, on to binding!

Friday Finishes for August

Lots of finishing this month, both quilting and knitting.  First, my socks are done!  First pair (well, srot of - I did make a pair from some waste yarn last year).  These were done toe up, on 2 circular needes.  Once I got the hang of keeping the yarn untangled, it was really easy to do.  And I love the fact that when I was done, I was DONE.  No second sock hanging around guilting me.

I'll make a few adjustments next time, but not too bad for a first pair, I think.  The key learning point for me was - cast off loosely means LOOSELY.  I had to go back and redo my cast off, so that I could actually get the sock on :)  I should have taken a photo before I put the socks on, so you can see the pattern.  They are made from a pattern on Ravelry, and it worked out really well.

Then there are a pile of quilts.  Some already shown on this blog, and some just finished last night.  First, my January colour challenge.  No too bad - 9 months start to finish :)  I love colours in this one, and it was my first hint that I was going to have a lot of fun with the colour challenge this year.  It's really forced me outside of my comfort zone.

 Then, a mystery quilt from last year.  This was one of the first quilts done on my long arm.  And now it's bound and ready for donation, only 1 month after I quilted it.  Not bad.

Followed by another colour challenge quilt.  "Rising Sun" won out for the name, but I still say the quilt was "easy as pie" to make :)

And then finally (or actually, firstly since they were finished earlier in the month) 2 baby quilts ready for donation, after serving as the guinea pigs on my long arming skills.  The contrast in the colours is better in person.

Joining  a few links ups today:
Judy's Friday "What's on your needles"
A stitch in time August finishing party

And, Judy's UFO challenge (if I have the dates right).  None of these quilts were my UFO for the month, or even on the list.  But I'm counting them anyway, as the first 2 have been sitting around waiting to be quilted and/or bound for several months.

Plugging Away

I can't seem to get motivated for a good long sewing session these days. Probably just as well, since I do have to work and make sure the kids get to their evening activities.  I have been plugging away as much as I can.  I put the final borders on the Carpenter's Star.  My son loves it, and has asked if he can have it.  I don't think it's the right size for his bed - I suppose if I was a nice mother I would check, and add some border if I need to, so that it will fit. 

Of course, he's the same son for whom this quilt is in progress.

I've also managed to finish 3/4 of one block for Dancing with the Stars. It's actually even more complete than this, because the last quarter is 2/3 done. So I should be able to finish this one tomorrow.  I do have some plans for this weekend, plus it's supposed to be nice so gardening is hopefully in the cards.  Sewing may continue to take a back seat, but I hope to make it into the sewing room a few times over the weekend.

I'm linking up at AmyLouWho tonight.  Drop by to see what everyone's been up to.

May Plans

May is starting to feel like a busy month, and it's just begun.

I have these projects on my "to do" list this month:
1. finish quilting watercolour star
2. May colour challenge
3. Carpenter's Star for June feather quilting lessons
4. May UFO (my son's quilt) - needs borders
5. April block from Blogger's block of the month
6. April and May blocks for Dancing with the Stars
7. Block Lotto for May
8. baste and quilt one more WIP

I really wish one of those was a major stash user, since I need to work my way back in the right direction.  Especially with 6 yards of fabric for #4 on its way to my doorstep. I only needed about 2 yards, but I can't tell the exact colour so I ordered 2 yards of each of the 3 colours that look close.  I sure hope one works.

#1 is slow going.  I did one star point last night, so I'm up to 5 complete now.  3 more to go, and then to figure out the quilting for the background and border.  Slow and steady on that one.  There's no real deadline, but I don't like switching back and forth between free motion quilting and piecing, so in my head I want to finish this one before I start the next projects.  That might make my May deadlines impossible to meet, however.  Maybe I'll finish the star points, and then put this one aside for a bit.

I am combining #2 and #3 - my May colour challenge will be a Carpenter's Star.  Otherwise there'd be no hope at all of getting those both done.  And the pattern looks really quick and easy, so I hope to put this quilt together next week.

The May UFO is a biggie - which is why it's a UFO :)  Lots of piecing in the borders, but my son saw the quilt last week and really likes it, so I am inspired to finish before he heads off to university. Which means I'd better get the borders done this month because it's going to be a bear to quilt.

#5, 6 and 7 are simple once I'm back into piecing mode, so I should be able to catch them up pretty easily. And #8 is just on there as a wish list.

My WIP (Work in Progress) pile is the set of quilt tops I finished this year but haven't quilted yet.  They haven't made UFO status because they are too new and haven't spent time in the dark of my closet :)  Feb, March, and April colour challenges.  Orca Bay.  Monday Mystery.  Just five quilts (although I feel like I'm forgetting one somewhere).

So, I guess May is "hop to it" month for me. Let's see how much of this I can get done.  I'm linking up with AmyLouWho today.  Drop by to see what everyone's up to.

Finish it up Friday - April 27

One big finish for this week.  I put the last stitches in the binding for Pink Posies, while watching the hockey game last night.  Too bad my team lost, but hockey certainly is productive for my quilting (binding) activities.

 You can see the quilting better from the back.  The squares are done with a celtic knot. And the borders are a simple braid. single lines braided in the narrow inner border, and a celtic braid in the outer border.

 

This quilt was the one that I had so much trouble marking.  I "marked" the center blocks by using a template and stitching through it.  removing all the paper afterwards was a complete pain, and I never want to do it again.  So, I hunted around for options. The narrow border I marked with chalk, freehand.  That worked pretty well, for that portion.  But I knew that I could never get the outer border even, if I tried to do that.  So, I hunted around, and bought one of pretty much every marking implement my quilt store carried.  Eventually I managed to find some transparencies that I could use to cut a template using an x-acto knife.  That plus a pounce worked reasonably well for marking this border.  I will certainly keep this process in mind for future quilts.

The second quilt I finished binding is my 4-patch posy quiltie.  Only about 24" on a side, it will make a nice donation for the NICU at the children's hospital.

I'm linking up at Finish it up Friday today.  Hop over to Crazy Mom's blog see what everyone else has been doing this week.

Friday Night Sew-in

It's sew-in night!  Today is my son's 16th birthday, so I don't know how much time I'm going to have to participate, but I have great plans for tonight anyway :)  I want to finish putting together my April colour challenge.  Do the border for Orca Bay. And hopefully finish the latest Monday Mystery, before the next one starts.

But this month, Friday Night Sew-In is dedicated to ConKerr Cancer.  So I am going to try to complete 2 pillowcases to send to them for the kids.  Check out the details here, and I hope you'll join us.  Here are some of the pillowcases I made last year, to help inspire you.

On a different note, I submitted a quilt to the contest at Quilting Gallery. I'd love it if you dropped by and voted for "Pink Links".

Border Time

This is the state my quilted started in today.  I finished all the blocks earlier this week, and now it's time to start assembly.  It's not quite finished yet, but I hope to have it done by the end of the day.  Holiday Friday's make for great progress in the sewing room.

After I finished all the pink and green blocks, I auditioned a couple of border options.  It was easy to pick - the one on the left wins.  Now the only problem is, the extension I made to the center row is the wrong width for the double border.  So I'll have to figure out how I want to extend it.

Of course, changing the plan midway leads to trouble.  The first thing I did was cut the wrong border strips and attach a floral border directly to the pink blocks.  Rats.  It's a good thing I stopped at the quilt shop yesterday and picked up this new seam ripper.  I already have 3 of them, but the newest one is at least 8 years old.  So I treated myself to a new one - and WOW!  I barely have to use any pressure at all to cut threads.  What a change.  This made quick work of detaching the wrong border, and I now have the first round of border attached to the quilt.

Now I think I need to head outside to enjoy some of this sunshine, before it disappears.  I'm linking up to Finish it up Friday with Crazy Mom this week.  Drop by to see what everyone has accomplished this week.  And come back here tomorrow to see how many of the borders I manage to finish today.

Recovery

OxyClean, I think I love you. 

Yesterday I washed a quilt - and this is what came out of the dryer. I was so upset.  I spent hours on this quilt, working out the sizes for all the star points.  Cutting and piecing and making sure it lay flat.  Plus, it's the most intricate quilting design I've ever attempted.  And it was ruined on the first washing.

I didn't know what to do, but I headed out to the grocery store to scour the laundry aisle.  I was hoping to find colour catchers, as I've heard people have good luck with those.  But apparently none of the grocers around here carry them.  And Amazon won't ship them to my (Canadian) address.   So in desperation I picked up some Oxy Clean, and decided to try that.  I figured it couldn't hurt, given the state of the poor quilt.  I put the quilt through twice.  First in cold water with Oxy Clean and my detergent. It seemed to have helped a lot, although I could still see some bleeding.  So I took a deep breath, and washed it again - this time in warm water, which is recommended on the Oxy Clean packaging.

It was really hard to tell, while the quilt was wet (because all the seam allowances looked like they bled through the white, when it was soaking wet).  But I figured it was the best I was going to get, and I tossed the quilt back into the dryer.  And low and behold, this is what came out!

It's not perfect.  I can still see that the whites are a bit bluer than they should be.  But there are no more big blue stains across the quilt.  I am so happy!

Here is the finished quilt, pre-washing.  This was a design of my own, and something I'd always wanted to try out.  I gave up early on figuring exact sizes for all the star points, and ended up with a "cut, sew, trim" method which worked out well.

And a close up of some of the quilting, post washing.  I picked a quilting design I found online, and adjusted it slightly to handle the graduated sizes of the white squares.  The original shape when here.  One size down, I pulled the center bit only.  And one size up, I put 4 of these together to make a larger square.

I echo quilted in the blue areas, to highlight the star points.  And did a diagonal cross-hatch in the diamond border.  This is one of my more intricate quilting patterns - both in the design and in the quilting.  I'm very glad I was able to recover it, after the washing disaster last night.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday today.  Drop by see all the fabulous projects.

Finish It Up Friday

I've been working like a busy little beaver the past two days, trying to complete the quilting on my indigo quilt.  I really want to get this one done before I move on to something new.  It's been a lot of work, but I think it's worth it.  I really like the overall design of this quilt, so I wanted to do something special for the quilting.

Here's a peek at what I've done in the white squares, and part of one border.  The blue points are echo quilted with blue thread.  I have 1/2 of one side of the last border left to do.  Should get that done in the next 1/2 hour or so.

Then I can start on my next quilt.  I'm still debating whether to start quilting another project (this month's UFO) or cut into a new design that sitting in the room calling my name.

Only time will tell.  I have 22 hours of Star Trek movies queued up.  I wonder if I'll get in enough quilting time this weekend to get through all of them.

I'm linking up to Finish It Up Friday over at crazy mom quilts.  Drop by to see what others have finished today.

2 steps forward, 1 step back

I can't say I finished anything at all this week.  But I made lots of progress - quilted the shop-hop quilt, attached binding to 2 quilts (just have to turn the binding and hand-stitch), actually did some stitching on the Hawaiian quilt.  That would be the 2 steps forward.

And then, I started a new quilt.  One step back.
Well, not really.  Some of the blocks already existed, so I could claim that I didn't start it, I just moved it forward towards finishing.  I took some of the orphan blocks on my design wall, decided on a layout and started the additional blocks I need to complete this new quilt.

Next up - the queen size quilt.  Want to get that done and sent off to my sister.

So my summary for this week is:

* - the shop hop quilt (half-way done binding)
*- A challenge quilt from my local quilt shop - 3 years ago (needs binding)
- a picture quilt from my 2005 trip to Mexico (needs quilting)
- a queen size quilt (need to quilt it)
- a set of 3 wall quilts (to be hung)
- a stained glass dragon (still piecing)
* - a Hawaiian wall-quilt that's been on my frame for 4 years now (finish quilting)
- mystery quilt (ready for quilting)
* - tumbling blocks (ready for quilting)
- reversible quilt
- kaleidoscope quilt
* - orphan block quilt

Finishing Friday - Aug 28

Even with my sewing room out of commission, I was able to make some progress on my projects this week. I setup my machine in my bedroom, and did a lot of piecing (with 3 boys in the house, retreating to my bedroom on occasion was a dream.) One quilt done, one completely pieced, and great progress on another. And my favourite finish of the week - my Lone Star is done, and on my bed. Finished turning the binding this week.

Maybe I should have visitors and give up my sewing room more often. Or not. I can't wait to have my room back, so I can start quilting the 4 tops that are sitting on my self.

I have: (the * indicates I made progress this week, but it's not done yet)
DONE - A quilty for the children's hospital
- the shop hop quilt (ready for quilting now)
DONE - queen-size lone star
- A challenge quilt from my local quilt shop - 3 years ago (needs quilting)
- a picture quilt from my 2005 trip to Mexico (needs quilting)
- a queen size quilt (need to quilt it)
- a set of 3 wall quilts (to be hung)
- a stained glass dragon (still piecing)
- a Hawaiian wall-quilt that's been on my frame for 4 years now (finish quilting)
* - mystery quilt (ready for quilting)
* - tumbling blocks
- reversible quilt

Want to share your finishes for this week? Add your link below, or post a comment.