fortunately I have more fabric.
Category Archives: Challenges
Well Before Midnight
Yes, it’s well before midnight and Victoria’s Rose is now quilted. Whoo Hoo! Only one more to quilt*. Of course then there is the binding, thread trimming and labels.
- Dragonflies – completed back in early April
- Miniature Ohio Star – completed late April
- Crossword Puzzle – need to fix (missing letter & fullness), quilt, bind and label
- Summertime – completed in May
- Neutral Strip Twist – need to bind and label
- The Chain Event – need to bind and label
- Victoria’s Rose – need to
quilt the border,bind and label - BQ2 Peacocks – need to label
- Kansas Spirit – need to quilt, bind and label
- Ribbon Candy – need to bind and label
* Crossword Puzzle will be quilted in July.
Another One Quilted
As crazy as this sounds, I quilted the center of the quilt (and a couple of the others) on the long arm, then brought them home to quilt the borders.
I’m making progress on my crazy challenge. Here’s the current status:
- Dragonflies – completed back in early April
- Miniature Ohio Star – completed late April
- Crossword Puzzle – need to fix (missing letter & fullness), quilt, bind and label
- Summertime – completed in May
- Neutral Strip Twist – need to bind and label
- The Chain Event – need to bind and label
- Victoria’s Rose – need to quilt the border, bind and label
- BQ2 Peacocks – need to label
- Kansas Spirit – need to quilt, bind and label
- Ribbon Candy – need to bind and label
What’s on my Design Wall
There are a couple of things today on my “design table” First is the Neutral Strip Twist. Frogging part of the border only took about 30 minutes last night and I was able to finish up the quilting and trim it. It’ s now ready for the binding. The strips are sewn together (at least I think they are) but they need to be pressed. I’m working on a new name — something with “sand” in the title.
Next up is The Chain Event, which I’ll probably rename as “Memories of Home” since the Magnolia is the state flower of Mississippi. I quilted this yesterday on the long arm at Rocking Chair Quilts. I’ll get better pictures after I finish the quilting. I still need to quilt the borders.
Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see what others are working on.
Year of the Pig – Question #11
This week’s question from Jill is:
“Your guild has challenged you to complete the PIGS that you least want to work on. What project would it be and why?”
I’m not sure I can limit myself to a single project, so let’s take the top 3 which are on my Quilts in Progress tab.
#1 – the Jeanne Kimball Christmas BOM published by Oxmoor House at least 12 years go or longer. – I started work on this quilt in 2003. I really want to finish it, but always put it off because:
- I want to make it big enough to fit on our king size bed and haven’t figured out exactly how I’m going to do that.
- I’ve made most of the pieced blocks and all that is left are the applique blocks and the really big blocks.
- This is for me, so everyone else quilt get’s done first.
#2 – the Hancock Fabrics star BOM from 2004/2005
- I’m doing this Quilt as you Go.
- I’m making the quilt big enough for the king size bed, and my plan to enlarge the quilt isn’t working as expected, so I’m designing on the fly.
- I”m not sure I want this quilt King size anymore
- It’s on my challenge list at Patchwork Times so my guess is it will get done, or at least looked at closer this year
#3 – True Friends – a kit I won. Started it in 2006.
- I’m not excited about the quality of the fabric
- I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do for borders and I can’t find matching fabric.
- It doesn’t have a destination
- It’s on my challenge list at Patchwork Times so my guess is it will at least become a top before the end of the year.
As for the quilts on my Tops to be Quilted tab it’s pretty easy.
- I haven’t figured out the quilting motif
- I don’t think I can do it on my home sewing machine
- I want more experience on the long arm
- Need to gather the money for backing, batting and rental time.
I’ve found that Judy’s UFO challenge is working well for me – sort of . I picked 20 UFO’s (some tops, some QAYG and some still in pieces) that I knew I would keep putting off and I’ve finished 4 so far this year. One I finished before the challenge started but after our lists were turned in. Additionally, having a destination and a hard date works well too.
June’s UFO – #8
Judy has pulled the UFO # for June, so now it’s time to report if I finished May’s UFO.
May # was 9. That’s the Cream & Green quilt as you go project that was on both the “to complete the top” and the “get it quilted” lists. Needless to say, given that I’m in full swing on my self imposed challenge, I didn’t bother to open the box this quilt is in.
However, I did finish two quilts – the BQ2 with Peacocks and the Turning Twenty Again that I’m calling “Summertime”. Both of these quilts were on my ‘To Be Quilted” tab on January 1st, so I’m counting them as my UFO completion for May.
#8 is the pick for June. Not that it matters what #8 is, I have 5 more quilts to finish by the 22nd – all but one were on my lists January 1st. So, look for me to complete the Crossword Puzzle top, and finish Victoria’s Rose, The Chain Event, Ribbon Candy, Kansas Troubles and the Neutral Strip Twist (not technically a UFO) in the next couple of weeks.
When July rolls around I’ll may set a new challenge for myself — get caught up on the quilts I skipped over!
The Binding is Finally Done
Just pulled this quilt from the dryer. I finished the last 3″ of binding last night. It even has a label! The top was finished in 2007 and I finished quilting it at the beginning of the month. Normally I stitch my bindings down on the machine — I want to know they’ll stay down — but I was having issues and figured I’d just stitch it down by hand. I won’t make that decision again unless I have no other choice.
This is one of my challenge quilts, so only 6 more to complete in the next 28 days. I best get a move on it!
What’s on my Design Wall
We interrupt this quilting marathon ( Complete 10 quilts between March 16th – June 22nd) for a new quilt top – Candy Sunflower Seeds (I’m using the pattern The Chain Event by Dorothy Young).
Say what?!!
After the disaster I created quilting this quilt a few weeks ago, I had to back up and punt.
Thanks to S for ripping the quilting out. Anyway, I decided I needed to use a template on my curves and quilting in the setting squares and triangles. Since I hadn’t done that, I figured a “test” quilt was in order. Thus the new quilt top.
Of course, now I don’t think I need a test quilt. Yesterday I quilted the Neutral Strip Twist and I did half way decent considering I hadn’t done any template/ruler work previously.
Since I’m reporting, here’s the status of the marathon quilts.
1 – Dragonflies — Completed 3/29
2 – Miniature Ohio Star – Completed 4/19
3 – Crossword Puzzle – Still piecing – need at least the top 6/3
4 – BQ2 – Needs label, otherwise finished 5/14
5 – Summertime – 8 inches of binding left to stitch down, label attached
6 – Neutral Strip Twist – needs border quilted, etc
7 – The Chain Event – needs quilting (appt on 6/5)
8 – Victoria’s Rose – needs border quilted, etc
9 – Kansas Spirit – needs quilting (will do on DSM)
10 – Ribbon Candy – binding attached
There’s still a lot to do, but I’m confident that with the three-day weekend coming up I’ll be able to get it all done by my deadline.
Follow the links over at Patchwork Times – I’m sure you’ll find great inspiration and quilters who aren’t as crazy as me.
Neutral Strip Twist Top
When I picked up thread at Jo-Ann’s the other day, I thought I saw the fabric I wanted for the border of this quilt – a beige speckle that I had used in the center of the quilt. When I went to buy it Thursday night I discovered the color was off. What I used in the quilt was from my stash and I bought it at least two years ago. So, I had to figure out something else.
I really like what I ended up with. The outer border is a mottled honey color. The inner border is a light yellowy beige with darker speckles/lines.
Now to get it quilted.
Year of the Pig – Question #10
Jill’s question this week is:
How do you save time and money while quilting?
#1 – Shop my stash first. I don’t have a huge stash – especially not of yardage, but I can generally put together a scrappy quilt from my fabric bins (stuff larger that a F8) or my pre-cut bins (strips, brick & blocks).
#2 – When I have to buy – fabric, batting, or thread, or anything really – I do my best to get it on sale. I can’t think of the last time I paid full retail price for something. Even if it’s not on sale, I typically get 10% off because I’m a member of a quilt guild.
#3 – Shop for fabric where you don’t normally think to look. Check out thrift shops. I was in one the other day and there were two different 4 yard cuts of quilting cotton for about $8. Since I didn’t NEED any Hogs on Hogs or Bears on Hogs, I left it at the shop. Which is a good segway to the next point.
#4 – If it doesn’t have an immediate purpose LEAVE IT AT THE STORE. That’s not to say that if your selection of red fabrics is low and you find a great red that you love you can’t bring it home. That fills a purpose – filling out your selection of red fabrics. But it does mean that if you found a great fabric, you love it, but have no idea of what you are going to do with it, or when you plan to use it it can stay at the store.
#5 – Buy only what you need plus the little extra that you always want to have for cutting mistakes. If the pattern calls for 1/2 yard, buy the 1/2 yard or maybe 5/8 — not the whole yard. The exception of course is if the sale price is only for 1 yard cuts or more — but if purchasing the whole yard will cost significantly more than getting just what you need on regular price – buy what you need.
#6 – Just because you have a coupon doesn’t mean you have to use it. I just got a postcard for my birthday at a LQS. It’s worth 25% off my purchase during a two week period. Unless it’s good on long arm rental, I think the only thing I’m going to use it on is pre-wound bobbins for the quilt I’ll quilt on the last day the coupon is good.
#7 – Similar to shopping the stash, work on your UFOs. Most of my UFOs I have everything I need to finish them. Borders, backings, bindings and occasionally sashings tend to be the exception.
Ok, I guess that about sums up how I save money on my quilting. So what about time savers.
#1 – I’m a big Leader/Ender fan. Bonnie Hunter has a great tutorial about Leaders & Enders here. So, while I’m piecing a project that I needs to be done “now”, I’m also piecing a project that can be done “whenever”. My current leader/ender project is Fun with Bricks.
#2 – I’ve never been one to be able to pick up an entire quilt off the floor or design wall and sew the blocks together and have them in the right order. On the other hand, don’t like getting up after one seam to get the next block. So, I’ve taken flower head pins and put numbers on them 1 – 2- 3- 4, and so on – I think up to 8. When it’s time to sew a row together, I stick pin #1 in the top left corner of the 1st block on the row. I flip block #2 over onto it and then stick a straight pin through both blocks where they will be seamed together. Flower pin #3 goes in the 3rd block, and I go down the row. Now, I can take the entire pile of paired blocks (don’t forget to bring block # 7 with you) and sew them into pairs and then the pairs into 4’s, without turning a block up side down or putting block 1 & 2 after block 3 & 4.
#3 – Get a design wall. It is so much easier walking up to a wall and arranging blocks than trying to arrange them on the floor and having to get up and down, or on the bed. The bonus is you don’t have to worry about the cat rearranging them for you.
#4 – Change and/or sharpen your rotary blade. I can’t tell you the # of times I fuss with a blade not cutting all the way through and keep messing with it. Then I’m amazed at the speed in which I can cut fabric with a new blade.
#5 – I used to belong to a group that sent out a reminder to wind your bobbins once a week. It take the same amount of time to wind 10 bobbins all at once as it does to wind one bobbin 10 times, but you only thread your machine once instead of 10 times. Also, the project goes faster once you start sewing if you don’t have to stop to wind another bobbin. (I tend to piece everything using gray thread).
I’m sure there are other things I do which speeds my quilting along, but since I do them all the time by habit, I don’t necessarily realize it’s saving me time.
Check out the link’s over Jill’s to see how other same time & money when they quilt.
