Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Bonnie Hunter

A Few Finishes

August 22, 2023 1:57 pm ⋅

I’ve finally gotten to some of the binding. It’s not all done, but I’ve finished a few.  First up is Cairdeas. This wall hanging was done in commemoration of my trip to Ireland in June with Bonnie Hunter. She designed this quilt, and the pattern is available in her on-line store.  I started the embroidery in Ireland June 14th and finished the binding August 4th. It measures 24 1/2 x 25 1/4 after washing.

Up next is the Christmas Star Swap quilt.  In April 2019, I attended a quilt retreat and some of us swapped blocks.  This quilt was on my 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO list.  This quilt finishes at 74″ x 93 before washing.  The quilting is a combination of ruler work — 1 1/4″ and 3/4″ circles using the Handi Quilter Swiss Cheese ruler, free-motion continuous curves in the chain, and computerized motifes-Feathered Square 3 which I divided in half for the white areas and used who in the pieced blocks, and Christmas 2010 Border and Boder Corner by Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio. It took about 6 bobbins of Glide 40wt in Pistachio.

Kimberly is my most recent finish.  I started this quilt at the MQA Summer Gathering and finished it August 21st.  The quilting motif is Liberty. I used 3 bobbins in Glide 40wt in Mercury. It measures 65 x 82 1/2.

Posted in: 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO, Cairdeas, Christmas Star Swap, Kimberly

Time to Bind

August 4, 2023 9:16 am ⋅

It’s past time to bind. I now have 6 quilts waiting to be bound.  On the bottom is my Christmas Star Swap, quilted May 7th.  I put this off as I wanted to finish the red, white, and blue quilts and didn’t need it until the Brandon Quilters Christmas in July program.  The binding is cut, I just need to make it.

The RWB quilts are Tara, quilted May 20th, Kimberly, quilted July 15th, and Crystal quilted July 29th. Although I’m not sure if they will all be bound the same, the binding is coming from the same set of fabric, so I held off to see what my options were going to be.

The Squedge 18 degree table runner just came off the frame last night. I demonstrated the ruler at the guild meeting last month.

The night before Cairdeas came off the frame.

Guild is Monday night.  My goal is to have the Christmas quilt and Cairdeas bound and ready for Show-n-Tell.  I’d like to get the entire stack done, but I have a knitting class Saturday morning and a quilting class Saturday night, so I doubt it will happen. Stay tuned.

Posted in: Cairdeas, Crystal, Kimberly, Squedge 18, Tara

What’s on My Design Wall

May 7, 2023 11:43 pm ⋅

This is a photo I took Saturday afternoon.  Friday night I was cutting fabric for a couple of new quilts and cut something wrong, so I decided I needed to focus.

Clockwise, starting on the long arm

  1. Christmas Star Swap on the long arm
  2. Squedge 18 degree tablerunner on the design wall
  3. Community Quilt for Brandon Quilters (brown bag on floor by design wall)
  4. Auction Quilt from Brandon Quilters (butterfly bag on floor by design wall)
  5. Postage Stamp Leader/Ender because I need to cut more HST for Rivanna (brown bin)
  6. Pink, Green, & Purple Quilted Sweatshirt
  7. An old sheet to make some body pillow cases
  8. Fairy Frost Sunset pillowcase and remaining fabric to process
  9. Christmas Star Swap pillowcases & binding fabric
  10. HSTs for Rivanna
  11. Kimberly from Stripology 3
  12. Tara from Stripology 3
  13. Crystal from Stripology 3

So this is the progress I made over the weekend.  I’ve left the numbers the same, but obviously stuff has been moved around.

  1.  Christmas Star Swap is off the frame and trimmed.  Not only that, I have the binding cut (it’s on the far side of the sewing machine) and most the trimmings have been processed.
  2.  Squedge 18 table runner is now a top. There is a pile of fabric on the corner of the ironing board that is for the backing and binding.  I counted wrong and have some extra wedge pieces, so I may end up making either a square table topper or a pillow.
  3. The Community Quilt is still waiting to be quilted.
  4. The Auction Quilt will be up next on the longarm.
  5. Postage Stamp Leader/Ender. It’s put away.  I only sew use the 1-1/2″ squares as my L/E when I don’t have another L/E project going on.
  6. Pink, Green, and Purple Quilted Sweatshirt is still waiting to be finished — I don’t need it until September, so I have some time.
  7. An old sheet to make some body pillow cases – I’ll work on it after I get the Christmas quilt bound while the longarm is running.
  8. Fairy Frost Sunset pillowcase is pinned to the design wall.  The extra fabric is processed and put away.
  9. Christmas Star Swap pillowcase and extra binding if I need it. I won’t make it until after the quilt is bound in case I need more fabric for the binding.
  10. HST for Rivanna.  I trimmed the 60+ HST which were sewn, then cut another 240, which should keep me going for a while.
  11. Kimberly from Stripology 3 – 4 of the 14 fabrics are cut
  12. Tara from Stripology 3 – 4 of the 14 fabrics are cut
  13. Crystal from Stripology 3 – I’ll the fabric for this quilt after I get the rest of the fabric cut.

 

As I was recording my most recent purchases I realized I missed the April Stash Report.

Posted in: Christmas Star Swap, Crystal, Fairy Frost Sunset, GE Designs, Kimberly, Leaders & Enders, Moms Sweatshirt, Pillowcases, Rivanna, Rulers, Squedge 18, Stash Busting Report, table runner, Tara

A Whirlwind Trip

April 16, 2023 10:09 pm ⋅

Last Thursday morning my SIL and I headed off to the Kansas City metro area.  The occasion?  The start of Hunter Quilt Marts Customer Appreciation sale where everything in the store is 25% off. (I’m not sure is that is true for sewing machines and longarms).  I was in need of quilt batting.  I’m down to about 9 yards on my king roll and maybe 9 yards on my queen roll.

After 12 hours switching off the driving every few hours we arrived at my brother’s just outside of Ottawa (KS).  We visited that evening and Friday morning. We then headed toward the city where I visited with a friend from my previous guild for a few minutes — she was holding some quilt books for me (will do a post on those books) and we did another small task that I cannot do here in Mississippi. Then we kept driving north to St Joseph (MO) where we visited with my sister who had quilts I had purchased from a guild members estate via proxy. We spent the night, heading to bed early so we could get to Hunters Quilt Mart in Centerview (MO).

The goal was to get there by 10:15 or so because we wanted to leave by Noon so we could get to another shop before they closed.  We got there at 10:45.  Oops.

We both had lists.  Ruby started with her notions and notions she remembered from my list.  I headed to the thread.

All of these are Glide 40wt thread which stitches beautifully with no tension issues.  Cool Gray 7, Mercury, Biscotti, Magic Mint, Grape, Salmon, Strawberry Blonde, and Yellow Whisper. All of these are replacement cones except for Salmon and Yellow Whisper.

As for the notions, I picked up needles for the longarm, an 8″ rotating mat, a Hot Ruler, a tube of bobbins, 2 backlash springs for my bobbin case, a new ruler and small snips.  The small snips were not on my list.  They did not have the Brother bobbins for my sewing machine in stock, but now I know exactly what I’m looking for.

That just left backings – not that any of these quilts are finished (or started in some cases).  At the top left is the backing for my Quartered Squared quilt which I haven’t started. In the middle is the backing for Cascade which clearly hasn’t been started.  At the top right is the backing for my Rivanna which is my current leader/ender project. I have just over half of the HST made for it.   That’s the left over FQs sitting on top of it.  At the bottom is the backing for Star Studded, a BOM I started in 2019.  It turns out I only have to made the center star and assemble it.

Although the batiks were calling to me, I remained strong and stopped shopping.  We checked out, stopped by the batting and told them what we bought and headed to the car to unload it so we could load the batting.  A Honda CRV has more cargo room than my Nissan Cube.  The same amount of batting was brought home, but I had plenty of leg room this year and there were 2 us in the car!

Where we went next later this week.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in: books, Cascade, Longarm, notions, Rivanna, shopping, Star Studded

Chilhowie is Ready to Quilt

March 18, 2023 12:09 pm ⋅

I’m ready to load Chilhowie on the longarm. I just need to figure out how I’m going to quilt it. It is one row longer than Bonnie’s quilt as I want to put it on a bed. After attaching the last border, I put away all of the fabric processing the bits and pieces into my Scrap Users System. The only fabric left out is yardage for the binding and a matching pillowcase.

 

My leader/ender project this year is Rivanna. Started in August, I’m about 2/5 of from finishing all of the HST I need.

 

Meanwhile, last weekend I decided to go on a road trip to Monroe, Louisiana.  I went specifically to look at the Husqvarna sewing machines. But of course that was in a quilt shop, so a few FQ came home with me.  Eight of those pictured above are from Material Things. The other 8 are from Quilt ‘n Stitch in West Monroe.

Some yardage also came home with me.

Now off to load Chilhowie.

Posted in: Chilhowie, Rivanna, Stash

Chilhowie Ready to Assemble

March 6, 2023 12:31 am ⋅

This past week, I’ve worked on Chilhowie, the 2022-2023 Quiltville Mystery Quilt.  I kept up with the mystery this year, right up until the reveal came out in early January. That’s when I decided I needed 4 more blocks to make the quilt work for me.  But I was distracted finishing some UFOs and starting & finishing a few other projects and Chilhowie was ignored for a couple of months. But now I have the extra blocks made, along with all of the parts and pieces so it is ready to assemble.

On a separate note, I have decided to track my fabric usage like I did when I first started blogging.  Last summer I said I would, and well, that didn’t really happen. But because I spent so much money on fabric and supplies last year when I tallied it after the fact, I’m determined to do better. I want/need to use my stash.  It’s really less about the money and more about using what I have. I have dozens of projects waiting to be made or finished – most with everything  I need to complete the project. I thought I was in a better position, but then realized I had not recorded my San Antonio purchases, which included a kit.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Chilhowie, Stash Busting Report

Pillowcases for Frolic

February 18, 2023 12:49 pm ⋅

Since Frolic is big enough for a pillow tuck, I really don’t need pillowcases. However I recently bought new sheets and need a couple of more cases.  I had approximately 1 -1/8″ yard of the blue and the gray that I used in the border fabric which was just enough to make 2 cases, swapping the colors.  The black accent piece is used somewhere in the piecing.

Posted in: Frolic, Pillowcases

Ready for Christmas?

February 16, 2023 10:42 pm ⋅

It’s taken 4 years, but the matching pillowcases for my Christmas En Provence are done.  And the fabric is put away.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, En Provence, pillowcase

A Little Bit of This and That

January 9, 2023 9:23 am ⋅

I had grand hopes of having my Chilhowie top finished, the Log Cabin finished, and perhaps even the Pizza Box top quilted.  But the last few days since I checked in I’ve done a little bit of everything so nothing is finished.

Bonnie released the final clue to Chilhowie.  The clues will only be available for a short time — my guess is the end of January 2023. Anyway, I need to make 4 more blocks and corresponding border and sashing pieces to finish the top.

When I get the Chilhowie top finished, I have the backing for it. I found it in my stash while digging for binding.

 

Binding was the challenge on the log cabin. The original plan was to carry the center fabric to the border.  I had been warned off using a yellow for the center, for fear it would leap out, but it doesn’t. However, I was afraid the yellow border would, so I dug through my stash and came up with these options.  Each of them had their advantage and disadvantage, but none were “right”. Facebook was evenly divided. So I went to my LQS to see if I could find the “right” fabric. It was suggested that I use the backing fabric and I was just about to walk out of the store when the “right” fabric was spotted.

 

This Kaffe Millefiore. It’s darker than the yellow so will “frame” the quilt nicely, but at the same time it’s lighter than my previous choices.  Finally, it has all the colors.  After my running around over the weekend I started working on the binding. However, in my haste to finish it up missed spots when machine stitching it down.  I’ve got to take another look at it.

In addition to finding the backing for Chilhowie, I found another 3 Yard kit.  I think this was a ‘contest kit’ at the Quilted Cow. They called it ‘Anthony’, but I’m calling it Dragonflies & Flowers. I am adding it to my WHIMMs page.

Today it the last day to post about the results of the Final Countdown tasks. Here’s my recap.

Day 1 – Choose something you can finish quickly and do it  Big dreams, but I finished my pillow – a UFO from 2008.

Day 2 – Clean out a storage area – I got all the books put up which were stacked in the “Quilt Studio Annex”. As I look at the before and after pictures, I realize that I had already started putting the books up and when I took the before.

Day 3 – Take a project inventory and devise a plan. Since my Quilt Tops and Quilts In Progress (aka UFOs) were already tracked, and I had my UFO Challenge List defined, I decided to work on my PIGs and WHIMMs and what that means to me. I’ve added two tabs at the top of my page. I spent a good bit of time digging though my stash cataloging my projects.  I still haven’t found everything.  Earlier I wrote down “Bubbles – 4/23/22 Have a collection of FQs, now need pattern”. I have no idea what this is, but I’m sure it’s bagged up together and when I find it I’ll add it to my WHIMMs page.

Finally, I’m gearing up to begin the next phase of renovations.  My contractor and I have decided to tackle the den next.  I’ve narrowed down my paint color to one of the 2 purples that nearly blend into the sheetrock.  The paneling will be replaced with sheetrock.  The doors will get trimmed out, ceiling accent lights will be installed and replaced, and new flooring and base board trim will be installed.

 

 

Posted in: 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO, Chilhowie, Final Countdown, House, log cabin, PIGS, Pizza Box, WHIMMs

Mid-Week Review

January 4, 2023 1:42 am ⋅

The Log Cabin is Quilted! Now to get it finished by Monday.

 

While the longarm was running, I had 2 projects going on.  I was stitching on Chilhowie.

And compiling my PIGs for The Final Countdown Challenge.  As mentioned yesterday I have a lot of PIGs. Much in the same way I divided my UFOs into WIP and Tops, I’ve decided to divide my PIGs into 2 categories.  PIGs or Projects in Grocery Sack will be those projects and kits that I have all of the fabric for the top and the pattern. The second list will be WHIMMs – Works Hidden in My Mind.  I’m defining those as projects aren’t quite complete — a stack of fabric I plan to use together, but haven’t decided on a pattern or maybe I have the pattern and some of the fabric. It might not be the ‘true’ definition of a WHIMM, but it is my interpretation. These are just some of the PIGs I have. I’m still looking for some that I know I have.

Finally, while I was digging around looking for my PIGs, I found some clothes that Betsy can wear.  These were my clothes. The blouse was worn with a red velvet jumper when I was about 18 months old. It fits Betsy nicely.  The blue jumper it a bit big.  My best guess is I was about 5 or 6 as I know my sister had a matching dress and my brother had a matching romper. Somewhere there are pictures of me wearing both outfits.

In the background you can see my Christmas present.  My Den cabinets were installed before Christmas. I’m not sure what’s next on the remodeling — my bedroom and bath or the den.  They’ll more or less be back to back along the hall bath.  I need to reach out to my contractor and get him going again.

Posted in: 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO, Betsy, Chilhowie, Final Countdown, House, log cabin, PIGS, WHIMMs