Accountability Challenge - June 15

It's Wednesday once again.  No quilting time Monday (hockey) or Tuesday (dancing) this week, so I didn't quite get through my whole list. But I did make some good progress.

Here are the goals I set for this week.

1. finish binding Field of Stars - Done
2. bind the unnamed quilt (and name it) - Done
3. work on indigo top - top is done
4. quilt UFO #9 (aka my June UFO challenge quilt) - not done, but backing is ready

Three out of four isn't too bad. This week is not likely to be a quilty week.  I have house projects to get done, so I don't expect to get much quilting time (must as I want to).  Work before play, so I have to run some cables and paint my walls.  This time around I think I'm going to set my goals for the end of the month, rather than for this week.  There are two quilts that I want to finish before the end of June, because they are for challenges, so that is my goal for the rest of the month.

1. quilt UFO #9 (my June UFO challenge quilt)
2. quilt the indigo quilt (my monochromatic challenge quilt)

Check out Bari's blog to see what other quilters have been up to this week.

Design Wall Monday - June 13

My design wall has been busy this week.  First, I got 2 things off the wall - my indigo quilt is ready for quilting.  The backing for my tic-tac-toe quilt made a short appearance and is now ready to go too.

So, rather than have an empty design wall this morning, I started a new project last night.  That's not going to get my quilting done, but it sure was fun :)  These blocks were inspired by a quilt I saw online a few weeks ago.  It's slow going, as I try to match up all the rings out of my scrap bin.  So I hope to convince myself to do some quilting in between piecing these blocks.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Stash Report - June 12

It's been a "quilty" week.  I made good progress on my indigo quilt top, and it is almost done now.  EQ6 says it used 5 yards of fabric, so that's in my count for this week.  It's hard to tell from this picture, but there are 4 different indigos used here (mostly because I didn't have enough of any single one).  I think I could stop here with the borders, but I don't have any appropriate indigo left for binding, so my plan is one more 2.5" border in white and then I can bind it in white.  The quilt is about 55" square at this point, so it came out to a nice size I think.

Also used (or at least pulled from my stash) 1 yard for the backing of the tic tac toe quilt, my UFO for June.

Totals for this year:
Overall, 11.75 yards in, 33.75 yards out.
Net for the year:  22 yards out.

Check out Judy's blog for more stash reports.

Bordering on insanity

I don't usually do pieced borders, for one reason.  My 1/4" seam is never exactly 1/4".  I've tried, but I just can't seem to find and keep that 1/4" line - it's always plus or minus a thread or two.  I've learned to cope - I square up every block before I move on to the next step, and for the most part that resolves the problem.  But pieced borders really need that type of accuracy.

However, my indigo quilt was crying out for pieced borders.  It needs them. So I decided to give it a whirl.  I figured I'd make the pieced section, and then calculate the fill strips to fit.  That should work.

Here are the 4 border pieces.  Just the corner stones left to make.  Only one problem with this - the strip second from the bottom is a full 1/2" longer than the other 3 (which are amazingly within 1/8" of each other).  I guess I have some re-stitching to do on one of these.

Another UFO off the list

I finished my star quilt.  I want to jump up and down and repeat that about 3 times.  It is done!  This quilt has been sitting in my finishing drawer for over a year waiting for me to tack the binding down.  Not sure why, other than I took a long quilting hiatus and this poor thing got stranded in a drawer.  Well, it's done now.

This was one of my first attempts at free motion quilting with some design, rather than meander or stippling.  I really like the quilting I did in the stars.

Unfortunately, the rest of the quilt did not come out quite so well.  The back has a few puckers, and the leaves in the inner border are pretty wonky in some places.  The outer border was my first ever attempt at feathers.  Perhaps some more practice is in order.

This was a mystery quilt.  The guidelines suggested a light background, but I chose to reverse the colours and used a light foreground and darker background. Mostly because I didn't have enough of the green fabric to do it the other way around.  I really like the end result from that fabric choice.

I added a few extra stars to the middle to make it a bit larger and use up the last of the green fabric. This quilt may not be my best work, but Caramel seems to think it is quite acceptable :) And I think it will do quite well as a cuddle blanket for watching TV.

Finished

I finished my "Over the Rainbow" quilt this week.  I couldn't figure out what to do with my Moda jelly roll, but a few weeks ago I decided I needed to do something to get it off my shelf.  So I came up with a rectangular block, and a rainbow placement.  Now that it's done I really like this quilt, although I didn't expect to when I first started working with the solids.

I quilted it with free motion wavy lines, following the orientation of the blocks.  Each colour is quilted in a matching colour thread, and I'm really happy with how the quilting came out, and how nicely it shows on the quilt.  The binding is made from the leftover strips.

The backing is the last piece of my favourite children's print.  I've had this in my stash for years, and finally gave up trying to use it in a quilt.  The colours are just too bold for that to work.  But as a backing, I think it's great.  But there are no more colourful turtles in my stash anymore, other than a few scrap pieces.  I'm sad to see them go.

Although I hate to part with this quilt, I don't have young children in the house anymore so I think I'll send it down to Judy for the victims of the Joplin tornado.

Accountability Challenge - June 8

Last week, I set myself these goals. Not too optimistic, I thought.  Well, maybe not, but despite that I didn't get through all of it.  I made some good progress though.

1. bind the unnamed quilt (and name it)  - didn't touch it
2. finish quilting Over the Rainbow - done!
3. finish mystery top - done (ready for quilting)
4. Pick one more UFO to move forward.- picked it, but didn't actually do any work on it :)

However, I did make a lot of progress on my indigo quilt.  I'm having a lot of fun with this one, and I think it will get some more attention this week.  Forgot to upload pics from my camera last night, so I'll post my Rainbow finish later.

Here are my (again, more modest) goals for this week.

1. finish binding Field of Stars
2. bind the unnamed quilt (and name it)
3. work on indigo top
4. quilt UFO #9 (aka my June UFO challenge quilt)

I think #4 is a stretch, but once I finish the indigo top, I'm going to setup for quilting and try to get a couple done before I start another quilt.  I should be able to finish binding on the 2 quilts during the hockey game tonight.  Friday night at the latest.

Check out Bari's blog to see how other quilters did with their accountability challenge this week.