Category Archives: Challenges

What’s On My Design Wall

December 14, 2015 12:08 am ⋅ Pam

The design wall proper is empty, but the Crazy Challenge II is progressing. The Red Disappearing 9-Patch is done. It just needs washing and photographing. I’ll wash it as soon as I get the pillowcase made.

The hardware quilt is done. I’m so glad I couldn’t find the extra backing fabric. I love the pop of red. I need to get this quilt labeled and it will go into the wash when I finish the pillowcase. BTW I finally found the extra backing fabric. I had decided it was too dark for the neutral box and not dark enough for the brown box and it ended up in the yellow and Halloween box.

This Black and Pink 4-Patch Stacked Posies quilt is a hug quilt. I need to finish cleaning up the threads, make the label and finish the pillowcase, then it will go in the wash. I think Butterscotch is trying to tell me something. I know I’ve stopped for the night. The pillowcases will be finished up this evening.

I re-evaluated and realized I needed two more pillowcases for a total 7 not associated with quilts. These are cut to size, but before I can put them together, the inside of the cuff will get a label and I need to make two more labels. Maybe Tuesday?

So, what’s left?

That lime green needs to be made into a backing for the Black and Bright quilt. The quilt needs to be put on the zippers and I have to figure out how I’m going to quilt it on Saturday. That’s got to be Wednesday’s project.

The Cream and Green hanging to the shelves and under the lime green needs to be finished, as does the Compass Lone Star on top. They will need labels and pillowcases of course. I think these two will be necessity get pushed to next week.

And the mystery quilt? I think I printed off the instructions and put them with the fabric — but at this point, I’m not sure. But clearly there is no more work on it until after the first of the year, and possibly not until February. I’ve been given two commissions for quilts which need to be done in January.

If you don’t hear from me, you’ll know why. I’m buried under quilts!

Check out what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Challenges, designwall, goals, UFOs

What’s On My Design Wall

December 7, 2015 10:03 am ⋅ Pam

This past week has gone by in a blur – lots of errands and not much time at the sewing machine. The good news is I have finally finished the quilting on the Red Disappearing 9-Patch and I have the binding cut. This means I now have two quilts to bind as the Hardware Quilt still needs binding — and I don’t have those strips cut.

While I had the cutting board cleared, I made one set of clue 2 of the mystery quilt. I started with just a single headless goose, using the Companion Angle ruler, which came out OK. But then apparently the next 3 I cut wrong as they almost have their head. I finished up the set using squares and the stitch and flip method – which I think I’ll use going forward.

Looking at this week, I have 2 evenings of activities which will limit my quilting time, so I doubt I’ll get much done on the mystery – I’ll have to focus on getting the Crazy Challenge quilts done.

See what others have on their Design Wall over at Patchwork Times and how others are doing on their mystery quilt over at Quiltville.

Posted in: Allietare, Challenges, designwall, DP9, goals

What’s On My Design Wall

November 30, 2015 12:09 am ⋅ Pam

This morning I have a little bit of several things in the works. I started Allietare, the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt — because clearly I don’t have anything to work on — 😉 Although I had all of clue 1 cut out, I only got 1/3 of them made since I got a chance to use the long arm.

This is the Hardware quilt which I quilted on Saturday. It still needs binding which is on my list for this week.

The Red Disappearing 9-Patch is maybe 1/3 quilted – I set it aside – I thought briefly – to work on Allietare and I haven’t gotten back to it. It too is also on my list for this week.

Hopefully I can get these two quilts finished up by midweek so I have plenty of time to finish up the rest of the Crazy Challenge II quilts.

I’m linking up with Patchwork Times for the Design Wall Monday post and Quiltville for the Allietare link-up.

Posted in: Allietare, Challenges, designwall, DP9

Orange Crush – The Blog Post

November 26, 2015 3:56 pm ⋅ Pam

The time change and weather has not bode well for getting good pictures outside. I’ve put off this post waiting for a good picture, but have decided if I don’t record details now, I’ll forget them.

My Orange Crush was started April 1, 2008 — well at least that’s when the first clue was released. I finished up the top 7 months later on November 4, 2008. The quilt top needed to age – waiting for the perfect occasion to gift it. I quilted it on October 26, 2015 using Superior’s So Fine! #722 “Crikey!” in the top and pre-wound SuperBobs in white for the bobbin. The quilting pattern is Curley-Q, a pantograph by Aimee Mahan. The batting is Hobb’s Tuscany 100% Bleached cotton. Finally I bound it using Susie’s Magic Binding. After washing the quilt measures…well shoot, I don’t have that information in the spreadsheet. I’ll have to come back and add it before it is gifted.

This was an October 31, 2015 finish – pulling it out of the washing machine that morning in time to be included in the November UFO Parade Aunt Marti’s 52 Quilts. It was also counted as a finish for the UFO Busting Report sponsored by Vicki over at Field Trips in Fiber. It is one of my finishes for the 2015 Finish Along off my 4th Quarter List and finally it is one of the Crazy Challenge II quilts.

I didn’t mention it, but the backing is the same Kansas City Chiefs fabric that I used for the pillowcase.

Posted in: Challenges, Finish-A-Long - 2015, Out of the Blue, UFO Busting - 2015, UFO Parade - 2015

Sew Scrappy Challenge Quilt – Week 7

November 24, 2015 9:51 pm ⋅ Pam

Last month I said that on Tuesdays until Thanksgiving I am working on my Sew Scrappy quilt as part of Jo’s “finish a UFO before Bonnie’s mystery quilt starts challenge”. Sew Scrappy is from Evelyn Sloppy’s book 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts. I don’t think I have any Bonnie Hunter quilts in pieces, but I want/need to finish this one and I’ve been stalling for 3 years. Monday I got it washed and hung to take a picture. These days it is too late to take pictures outside after work, so I hung it on my shelves. It has also been delivered.

The quilt measures 69″ x 83″ after washing. All of the fabric is Kansas Troubles, including those really light pieces. As I was working on the quilt, I’d pick up a light piece then go check the selvage to make sure it really was KT fabric.

The batting is Hobb’s 100% Cotton Tuscany and I used Cairo-quilt in Military Gold thread in both the top and the bottom. It blends so well, I had a hard time telling where I had quilted! There was one spot that I added a bit of quilting to after I got home.

The quilting was done free-hand – just a loopy flower that I do. The picture above is before I washed the quilt, the one below, after.

This quilt will link up with Jo’s Country Junction, Aunt Marti’s UFO Parade, the UFO Busting – 2015 over at Field Trips in Fiber, the 4th Quarter Finish Along (list is here) and of course my Crazy Challenge II.

I nearly forgot. Yes, there is a pillowcase to go with it.

Posted in: designwall, Finish-A-Long - 2015, goals, Sew Scrappy, UFO Busting - 2015, UFO Parade - 2015, UFOs

Sew Scrappy Challenge Quilt – Week 6

November 18, 2015 12:15 am ⋅ Pam

Well, the end is truly near. The binding is attached and I’ve started to stitch it down. Since I’m finishing it by machine, it won’t take long — but I got a late start last night. It’s the middle of open enrollment at work and since I was out on vacation last week, I didn’t start to look at the options until last night. There’s more personal computer work on the horizon for tonight, but I expect I’ll finish the binding. Then it will be time to trim the threads, label and check for spots that need more quilting.

See how others are doing on their project over at Jo’s Country Junction.

Posted in: Challenges, goals, UFOs

What’s On My Design Wall

November 16, 2015 1:24 pm ⋅ Pam

I am happy to report that Sew Scrappy is quilted! It’s amazing what can get done if you stay focused. I found out Tuesday or Wednesday that I would be able to use the longarm Saturday afternoon, so I scrambled to finish up the quilt top — then changed my mind about simply binding it, opting for a 3 1/2″ red border. Then the challenge was to get a backing ready.

I cut 9″ squares from my FQ (they had already been chopped into) and used a length of fabric given to me by a friend. But changing horses in the middle of the stream, I decided I needed a bit of the backing fabric for a matching pillowcase, so I pulled the blue fabric in to get the backing large enough.

Here’s a look at the quilting from the back.

Now to get the binding on the quilt.

See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Challenges, designwall, Sew Scrappy

Sew Scrappy Challenge Quilt – Week 5

November 11, 2015 1:01 am ⋅ Pam

As it turns out, I’ve been puttering on this quilt now for a little over a week. (I’m now stalling on a different project.) The blocks were finished up over the weekend, so all that is left is to sew them together. The plan is to go borderless and bind in red.

These days I sew my quilt tops into quarters so there is only one long seam. As soon as I get these pinned blocks sewn, they’ll be attached to the top section.

It will be a bit more than half the quilt, as there are only 10 rows. The last 4 are up on my design wall.

I’m off from work this week, so I should be able to focus and knock this out, but all those things which get put off while I’m working are taking up my day, so I’m not getting much more time to quilt than I do when I’m working.

Hop over to Jo’s Country Junction to see how other’s are doing with their challenge quilts.

Posted in: Challenges, goals

What’s On My Design Wall

November 9, 2015 8:16 am ⋅ Pam

Sew Scrappy, from Evelyn Sloppy’s book 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts is what I’ve been working on the past couple of days. What can I say? I really didn’t want to swap out my walking foot again. I still have a few of the really light lights clumped together, but I don’t know that I’m going to worry about trying to spread them out. It looks much better than it did last week.

I hope to get the top together today or tomorrow, then it will be back to the Green & Cream Swap blocks. Although something was said about cleaning the front gutters…

See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Challenges, designwall, Sew Scrappy

UFO Busting Report

November 6, 2015 7:40 pm ⋅ Pam

It’s the first Friday of the month and time to report in on October’s UFO Busting progress. I’m thrilled to say that I finished 4 UFOs. The Blue & Brown Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler Swap from August 2009; Aiming for Accuracy from August 2013, Orange Crush from Spring 2008 and the Green Disappearing 9-Patch from May 2015 — hardly able to classify it as a UFO.

In addition to finishing these 4 quilts, I started and completed a quilt top.