Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Must Have Lost My Mind

March 16, 2011 11:44 pm ⋅

I started off the year with a bang, but here we are a bit over 10 weeks into the new year and I have 3 quilts completely cut out — 2 with the borders!  This is cannot be good for the UFO count.  To further illustrate that I’ve lost my mind, I’m planning on taking all 3 of them with me this weekend to a sew-in.

The bag on the left is Bonnie Hunter’s Fun With Bricks.  This started innocently enough as a leader/ender project in January.  The bag on the right is the Dragonfly quilt.  The middle is a red, white & blue scrappy twin size version of the Mystery Quilt I wrote for the April retreat.

Add to this that my husband has just convinced me that I need to quilt and bind six quilts before the end of June and now I know I have lost my mind. This does not include anything which is on my UFO list or any other project I want to finish sooner than later.  At least four of the quilts are completed tops.

Here they are:

Pattern - BQ2

Quilt #1 – 54 x 70.  I have enough fabric to make a second identical quilt and bind them both in the purple.  I may use the fabric to make the backing.  No idea on the thread color or quilting motif.

Pattern Old Tobacco Road

Quilt # 2 – 70 x 100  When I started the quilt in Purple, Green & Yellow, I was thinking “Mardi Gras” and purchased either 1/2 yard or yard of Mardi Gras frogs.  I may look for some more Mardi Gras fabric for the back.  The purple binding is made and tucked in with the quilt and frogs.

 

Pattern Victoria's Rose

Quilt # 3 – 68 x 86.  I have a  piece of the border fabric left in the stash.  The floral, pink and green fabrics, along with a stripe and a small floral print were part of a bundle.  I found more of the floral on-line, but don’t think I there is enough for the backing.  My spreadsheet says I have ‘binding fabric’.

Oh, my.  I just thought of something.  I really want pillow cases to go with each of these quilts.  Have I mentioned I’ve lost my mind?

 

Pattern - The Chain Event

Quilt #4 – 74 x 88.   I thought I had backing fabric for this quilt top, but when I inventoried my quilts tops and UFOs last year, I discovered I only had binding fabric.

 

Pattern - Disappearing 9-patch Variation

Quilt # 5 – 60 x 76. It’s a variation because I’m not making 9-patches and I’ve changed the size of the pieces.  It just worked better for the size quilt I wanted to make.  Fortunately I have the backing fabric – a great dragonfly print I found on-line and the binding has been cut, just not made.  So, if I finish piecing the top this weekend, this will be the first quilt I get done.

 

Pattern - Crossword Puzzle

Quilt # 6 – size unknown.  The size is unknown because this is still a work in progress.  I have about 1/2 of the letters made.  This one is going to the April quilt retreat.

I think my husband wanted to suggest a 7th quilt, but quickly left the room before I could throw something at him. Good thing I put the following qualifier in my UFO Challenge rules:

There will be occasions when a quilt will need to get moved to the top of the line regardless of the # pulled for the month. In those instances, I’ll either swap the #s if they are on this list, or if the quilt doesn’t have an assigned #, but is on either tab as of January 1, 2011, I’ll substitute it for the current # drawn. After all the goal is to get quilts off the UFO list.

Posted in: 2011 Mystery Quilt, BQ2, crossword, Dragonflies, Fun with Bricks, OTR, The Chain Event, UFO Challenge 2011, Victoria's Rose

What’s on my Design Wall

March 14, 2011 12:50 am ⋅

There’s all sorts of things hanging about today on my ‘design wall’.  First, I’ve finished the center of the Dresden Plate. It’s UFO #10 which was February’s UFO in Judy’s UFO Challenge.

Then there’s a single block from Fun with Bricks.  This the leader/ender project I started in January.  Last week I got impatient and started working on the quilt so I could mindlessly piece.  I’m currently sewing the light squares to the pairs of bricks.

Not pictured is the border and binding which I cut for both the Dresden Plate quilt and the Dragonfly quilt.  I’ll work on the Dragonfly quilt and Fun with Bricks at this weekend’s sew-in.  With luck I’ll finish the Dragonfly quilt so I can get it quilted in the next week or two.

The big news is that I finished a UFO!

A friend gave me the quilt top (sans border) at a retreat two years ago.  I didn’t know how I was going to finish it, so it sat on my Quilts In Progress list.   I finally decided  I wanted Easter Egg fabric for the border, but couldn’t find any that I liked.  I bet I had a dozen bolts of fabric pulled out trying to find the ‘perfect’ fabric before settling on this light green with tiny white butterflies.  I got my Easter Eggs though — it’s on the back.  You can see a scan of both fabrics here.

I used the Faux Piped Binding technique from TCL Stitches tutorial.  Who knew I would be able to use it so quickly.  I think the tiny bit of purple sets it off nicely.  I’ll get back to you toward the end of the month to see if I substitute this one for this month’s quilt.  I think I tweaked my rules to allow for this….

In the meantime, check out the links at Patchwork Times to see what other quilters are working on this week.

Posted in: Bunny Wallhanging, Colorworks Dresden Plate, designwall, Fun with Bricks, UFO Challenge 2011

Stash Report

March 13, 2011 11:11 am ⋅

Last night I ran out of gold thread for the Dresden Plate quilt sashings with only a bit over 100″ of stitching left. So, a trip to the store was in order. I pulled out of the driveway and then remembered the little bunny wall hanging that needed a border, so turned around and came back after it. — That explains the purple (backing) and the light green (border). The blue floral American Jane print is a FQ I got by simply walking into my LQS wearing purple on Tuesday.

So, did I get anything done? Well, I finished quilting the rest of the Dresden Plates. They are all attached and I just need to finish sewing down the sashing. Then it will be on to the borders. I know what I want, it’s the how that I’ve been pondering for the last couple of weeks. I think I have it figured out.

One night last week I decided I needed to piece. So, I bumped my leader/ender project up and finished sewing the bricks together. I then cut the squares to go with then and now my leader/ender project is sewing the squares to the bricks. I haven’t reported any of this quilt, so it will all hit the report once the top is completed.

Oh, yes. After getting back from the store I put the borders on the bunny quilt and cut the binding. I’m going to attempt to do a Faux Piped Binding.  I found this tutorial at TLC Stitches.  As soon as I finish making the binding I’ll be back to the finish up the center of the Dresden Plate.

So, here’s the report:

Fabric Added this Week: 2.694 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 8.194 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1.362 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 29.598 yards

Net Used for 2011: 21.404 yards

Check out how others are doing by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Bunny Wallhanging, Colorworks Dresden Plate, Fun with Bricks, Stash Busting Report

What’s on my Design Wall

March 7, 2011 6:00 am ⋅

There are 4 more blocks to appliqué, quilt and then attach to the quilt center (two blocks are already quilted). Then I’ve got to figure out my inner border. I could go buy more gold Dimples so there’s no thinking involved, but what fun would that be?

The quilt is a bit stiff at the moment — at least I hope it’s just at the moment. I don’t know if it’s the batting – Soft & Black, a needled polyester batting by Warn & Natural (no longer made); the basting spray; the amount of quilting or a combination of all three.

I’m quilting a 2″ diagonal grid up to the edge of the plate. I’ve stitched in the ditch around the outer edge of the plate and center and between each blade. The sashing is edge stitched on both edges. If you click on the picture and enlarge it the quilting is visible. I’m using black thread, so any white in the grid is the result of the marking, which will wash out.

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to check out other design walls.

Posted in: Colorworks Dresden Plate, designwall, UFO Challenge 2011

Stash Report

March 6, 2011 12:33 am ⋅

I suppose I really should be showing the back of these blocks, as my fabric usage is primarily of the backing fabric this week.  I cut the backing for all 15 blocks. These six are quilted.  Additionally, I borrowed a friend’s light box and finished tracing off the snowmen for my red work quilt.

No new fabric came into the house.  I did consider buying some Easter fabric to make a border for an Easter quilt, but since I didn’t have the quilt top with me I stuck with my original shopping list of green thread for the sashing on the back of the Dresden Plates.  I also bought a package of needles since my DH was looking for a curved needle to repair his snow boots.

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 5.50 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 4.35 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 28.236 yards

Net Used for 2011: 22.736 yards

Check out how others are doing by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Colorworks Dresden Plate, red work, Stash Busting Report

Three in a Row

March 5, 2011 12:23 am ⋅

Posted in: Colorworks Dresden Plate

Another Design Change to UFO #10

March 3, 2011 11:31 pm ⋅

I tell you, it’s as though I’m working on a new quilt, not a UFO started in 2006.

The Dresden Plate started out as a Quilt-As-You-Go (QAYG) project, originally because it’s so much easier to maneuver a 16″ square than a full size quilt under the arm of my sewing machine. I still intend to make the quilt a QAYG project, but since I couldn’t find the blocks I previously quilted, I was free to make a new design.  I no longer have a full size bed, so decided to scale the project down to twin size.

For the past four weeks I’ve been pondering how to put the quilt together, but hadn’t settled on a solution.  Then earlier this week, Fiona from BubzRugz was the guest blogger at Stash Manicure.  Fiona wrote a tutorial on QAYG where she joins her blocks with sashing by machine.  I have seen this style of joining before, but did not realize it could be done completely by machine.  Since I had 4 string blocks I tried it out.  It works pretty well.

Oh, did I mention I finally realized that my 6 1/2 yards of black fabric was not going to be enough for the border, backing and binding for the Dresden Plate and the border and binding for the Dragonfly quilt?  I’m committed to the borders and binding on both quilts, but that still left the backing for the Dresden Plate.  You do see where this is going, don’t you?

Yes, this is the new design.  I have just enough of the gold fabric for the sashing and inner border — if I don’t make any mistakes!    I’ll be able to quilt each block with ease and then join them together.  I dug through my stash and found a fuchsia and purple floral which came from Mom’s stash and half a yard of a mottled green which I’ll use for the sashing on the back.

I can’t wait to finish this quilt.  But first I need to finish the quilting on my friend’s baby quilt.  Her great-niece is two months old and needs her quilt!

Posted in: Colorworks Dresden Plate, string blocks, UFO Challenge 2011

March UFO Challenge

March 1, 2011 1:35 pm ⋅

Judy has announced the # for the March UFO Challenge, and I’m not finished with February’s!  Although significant progress has been made.   It’s a good thing that Judy let us modify the rules.  As a result I have two lists – one of project to get to the top stage and one for tops which need to be quilted. The idea was I would pick one of the two projects and get it done.  January I was lucky and got both done, but February the Dresden Plate was on both lists, so I didn’t have a choice.

This month’s number is 1.

On my “get it to the top stage” list is Mom’s 4-patch Stacked Posies that she started the last time she hosted my friends and me for a quilting weekend.

To be "Topped"

On the “To be Quilted” list is a Red, White and Blue baby quilt.  This quilt top has been around since Spring 2008.

To be Quilted

So, this month, I’m going to continue working on the Dresden Plate – hopefully complete it.  I will also try to get the baby quilt finished.  The Stacked Posies is on my list of projects to work on at the quilt retreat next month, so I don’t think I’ll work on it.  Besides I have a “new” project to work on — Dragonflies —  which I’d like to have done before I go to the retreat – not to mention a few other projects which I need to make progress on this month.

Posted in: Colorworks Dresden Plate, Mom's Stacked Posies, RWB Baby Quilt, UFO Challenge 2011

What’s on my Design Wall

February 28, 2011 1:00 am ⋅

Yes, it’s my Colorworks Dresden Plate – or what I’ve got done of it.  I still lack 5 blocks, but that’s OK.   This quilt is so much further along than it was on February 1st.

February 1st

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see what other quilters have on their design walls.  And check back here after Judy posts the UFO Challenge # to see if I work on this as my UFO for another month, or make it my “current” project and pull another quilt into the mix.

Posted in: Colorworks Dresden Plate, designwall, UFO Challenge 2011

Stash Report

February 27, 2011 1:00 am ⋅

Nothing in this week — well, a friend did just give me a stack of blocks, but that doesn’t count on the Stash Report — the Tops in Progress list, maybe.

As for fabric usage the beginning and ending of the week saw me cutting fabric for the dragonfly quilt. In between I worked on the Dresden Plate quilt. I cut the dark fabrics for the dragonfly quilt early in the week and then put it up to continue working on the Dresden Plate.  By the end of the week I had to cut more background squares for the Dresden Plate.  From each width of fabric I got two backgrounds and a dozen squares for the Dragonfly quilt.  So, I guess I’m committed to the solid black for the Dragonflies.  I think I have 6 1/2 yards left, plenty to do the borders and bindings of both quilts and then some.  And yes, I added the black squares to the bag of fabric for the dragonflies and will work on them at the sew-in next month – unless I finish the Dresden Plate before then.

Of course, in surfing the web, I found a postage stamp quilt that I started drooling over.  I had to give myself a stern talking to about NOT digging into my 1 1/2″ strip box and cutting squares to use as leader/enders.  I don’t want another new project in my life at this point in time — not to mention that I have a stack of bricks to stitch together for a Fun with Bricks quilt, which I started as my leader/ender project last month.

On to the report!

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 5.50 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 4.118 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 23.886 yards

Net Used for 2011: 18.386 yards

Check out how others are doing by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Colorworks Dresden Plate, Dragonflies, Fun with Bricks, Stash Busting Report