Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

January UFO Challenge

January 1, 2011 7:37 am ⋅

Judy has drawn # 6.

That means this month I’ll be either get my Charm Challenge into a top

or quilt my Scrappy 5-Patch.

Now for a bit of history on these two quilts.

For several years, my LQS, Heritage Fine Fabrics, issues a Charm Pack Challenge.  The rules are pretty simple.  Create a quilted object containing  a recognizable piece of every charm in the package.  In 2008 I  think the charm pack was a Three Sisters line.  I decided to make 9-patches using the ‘quick pieced’ method where you start off with two squares of fabric and end up with 2 9-patches.    I hadn’t thought past that point, and when I didn’t finish the 9-patches and the contest deadline passed, the pieces were set aside.

The Scrapy 5-Patch is a quilt top I completed in 2009.  It just needs quilting.  The backing and binding are folded up with the quilt top and I’m sure there’s a piece of batting big enough in my batting box (or I can piece one together).  I  just have to decide how I’m going to quilt it.  That’s where I frequently get stuck – although generally, I don’t get as far as making the binding and having the backing ready.

My brother and sister and their families are coming to dinner tomorrow, so I won’t get much quilting done this weekend.  Good thing I  have Monday off!

Good luck to all of the participants in this challenge.  I’m sure we’ll finish lots of quilts by the end of the year.

Posted in: 5-patch scraps, Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

2011 Quilting Goals

January 1, 2011 6:05 am ⋅

A new year, new quilting goals.

I’m going to try to keep it relatively simple this year.

There are 4 quilts on my “must” complete list:

  • Double Wedding Ring – this past November
  • Miniature LeMoyne Stars – Mid April
  • 2011 KWQF Mystery – Early April
  • Crossword Puzzle – Late Summer

I’m participating in Judy’s UFO Challenge 2011.  I’ve picked quilts to be quilted and quilts which need to get to the top stage.  There are 4 which I’m doing using some sort of Quilt-As-You-Go method, so they are on both lists. The UFO Challenge 2011 tab at the top of the page lists my selected projects.  It’s my goal to cross off at least one of the two projects each month.

Posted in: goals

Review of 2010 Quilting Goals

January 1, 2011 5:51 am ⋅

Happy New Year!

It’s January 1st and time to review my 2010 quilting goal.


Tracking the goals here on my blog made me accountable, and helped me meet most of my goals.

  • Keep up with the Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler block of the week. This is a quilt I started in 2007.  With 140 6-inch blocks this is not something you whip up over the weekend.  I finished 21 blocks in 2010 before making the deliberate decision to take a break from the quilt in October.  I have a total of 69 blocks finished for this quilt.
  • Clear my scrap basket.  I no longer have a scrap basket, but boxes of pre-cut strips, bricks and blocks.  I finished dealing with my scraps back in May.  Since then for the most part I’ve kept my scraps dealt with as each project was finished.  Last night I cleared the small pile which had accumulated in the last couple of months.
  • Finish New Starts.  Mixed results.  There were 13 new starts.  4 quilts are quilted.  Three got as far as becoming a top. That leaves 6 which I’m still working on. This includes an embroidered project which I haven’t started cutting fabric for, a block of the month which won’t finish until sometime this year, a shop hop sampler from May, a quilt which needs borders, a mini quilt due this April and a quilt-as-you-go strings project.
  • Complete the top of  the Carolina Christmas Mystery Quilt. I used my blocks to make a twin quilt top, and two baby quilts.  One is still a top, the other was completed.
  • Complete 4-Patch Stripy.  Completed this quilt in April, along with a matching pillowcase in May.
  • Complete my  Double Wedding Ring Quilt.  If there is one goal I’m disappointed in not completing it is this one.  This quilt was started 21 years ago.  A couple of years ago I decided to get on the ball to finish it for our 25th wedding anniversary.  In January I finished piecing the quilt then I spent the rest of the year working on the hand quilting.  I’ve completed the quilting on 37 of the 56 blocks, so I’m well on the way to finishing this quilt.  This  link is to the posting when I finished the 4th row of quilting in October.
  • Complete the Music Quilt.  Music Lessons, as we ultimately called the quilt was completed in January.  My husband loves that it’s long enough he can tuck it under his feet and still pull it over his head.
  • Complete the Green & Cream Swap Quilt. This is another quilt that is further along due to being on this list than it would have been with out the list.  Not finished, I am working on the hand stitching from sewing together the first two rows.
  • Complete one baby quilt.  There were three new babies in the family this year.  Each one received a quilt.  There is Lucy’s Pink Carolina Christmas and  Miah’s Tree Farm.  I also finished a Bright Tossed 9-Patch and a Modern Tossed 9-Patch.  The third baby – Eleanora received Spring Breeze, a quilt I finished several years ago. It’s blue like her big sister’s quilt.
  • Quilt one of my Bonnie Hunter Designed Quilt tops. Since I found Bonnie’s website  Quiltville.com I’ve become a fan. Over the past couple of years I’ve made several of her free patterns and a couple of the mystery quilts.  When I started the year I had 3 quilt tops completed:  Orange Crush, a black and white Strip Twist, and  Old Tobacco Road.  Oklahoma Backroads was my current leader/ender project, the Carolina Christmas Mystery was underway and I knew I would be taking at least one class from Bonnie in May. I completed Oklahoma Backroads in September.
  • Complete Dancing Flowers. Dancing Flowers is an applique project which had been languishing for about three years – primarily because it was applique.
  • Attend a Quilting Workshop.  The Kaw Valley Quilt Guild invited Bonnie Hunter to be our guest speaker in May.  She also conducted two workshops – Texas Braid and Blue Ridge Beauty. Now I have six Bonnie Hunter designed quilt tops!
  • Enter a Quilt in the Guild Quilt Show.  I entered Music Lessons and Springtime Flowers.
  • Move a UFO to Top or a Top to Quilt.  I completed this early on by completing my Ladder to the Stars quilt top.  Row Quilt, the Red, White and Blue Chain of Stars, and No Blue Geese in my Tropical Garden all became quilts in 2010.

I’m pleased with my results for 2010.


Posted in: goals

2010 Countdown Tasks Complete

December 31, 2010 10:37 pm ⋅

Prairie Moon Quilts set up three tasks to help us clean up our sewing rooms and prepare for the new year.  I have now completed all three tasks and there’s still another 1 1/2 hours left in 2010.

Task #3 was to deal with some scraps.  This was my pile which I gathered up while clearing my flat surfaces (from Task # 2).

I sorted through them and decided some could go into my fabric buckets and then cut the rest into 3 1/2″, 2 1/2″, 2″, 1 1/2″ strips, strings and bricks and blocks.

My sewing room is now ready for the new year.

Posted in: Challenges

2010 Final Countdown Task Three

December 31, 2010 9:10 pm ⋅

Task #3 of the  Prairie Moon Quilts 2010 Final Count down challenge is:

Deal with a bunch of scrap

But before I can begin Task # 3, I have to finish Task # 2.  I’m happy to report that Task # 2 is completed.

1 – the ironing board

Yes, there’s a pile of fabric on the ironing board, but that’s what I uncovered clearing the flat surfaces and what I’ll deal with for Task # 3.

2 – guest sewing table

 

3 – the cutting table

 

4 – my sewing table

I did not just shuffle the stuff around.  The batting was put up into the appropriate bins, the quilting patterns and magazines filed, the paperwork sorted (filled up my under-desk recycling bin), stuff which doesn’t belong in the is room hauled out (and put away), quilt parts and pieces gathered and folded together.

Now, off to deal with that pile of fabric on the ironing board.

Posted in: Challenges

2010 Final Countdown Task Two

December 30, 2010 11:50 pm ⋅

Task #2 of the  Prairie Moon Quilts 2010 Final Count down challenge is:

Clear off a flat surface in your sewing area

I need to spend a couple of hours on the flat surfaces of my sewing room.  There are four of them – not including the floor or my desks and chest of drawers 🙂

1 – the ironing board

It’s not too bad — but then I had just dumped a bunch of stuff on the floor so I could play with some fabric.

2 – guest sewing table

It’s a flat surface, so what can I say, we come into the house from the garage and dump everything here.

3 – the cutting table

I recently cleared the guest sewing table and ironing board by dumping everything on to my cutting table.  When I need to cut something I pull out a mat and put it on the ironing board.

4 – My sewing table.

Ignore the open binder.  That’s a rolling cart with a work binder on it.  The pile of stuff on the right is a combination of personal and work papers I haven’t needed in a while.  Mixed in are parts and pieces of at least one quilt, and a windbreaker.

So what did I do instead of clearing these flat surfaces?  Made the pillowcase to go with No Blue Geese in my Tropical Garden.

It should count toward cleaning up – the fabric needed to be put up and  I needed a pillowcase.    Actually, I’m working on the  areas and have made progress on three of the areas.  Look for pictures either later tonight or tomorrow.

Posted in: Challenges, finish

2010 Final Countdown Task One

December 29, 2010 11:52 am ⋅

Prairie Moon Quilts is doing 2010 Final Count down challenge. Nothing elaborate, just simple tasks to get us up and in gear.  Here’s task # 1.

Find your oldest UFO and do something about it

I guess it depends on your definition of UFO.  I think generally, quilters think of UFOs as projects which are tossed aside, never to be worked on again unless someone prods  you to.  So, with that definition I guess the “honor” goes to my Christmas BOM which I started August 21, 2003.  For some reason, I’ve kept detailed notes. I can tell you when I made each block that I’ve got completed.

Why is is still languishing?  That’s easy.  I finished all the pieced blocks and all that remain are the applique blocks.  Ok, that and I thought I wanted to make it bigger, so I needed more blocks. I used my perfect “reindeer fabric” on another quilt — it was a perfect brown — and I stole my friend’s stash of the same fabric to finish something else.  And finally, there’s always another project calling my name.

So, what am I going to do about this UFO?  Put it back on the shelf and go with a different definition of UFO.  I’m going to use the simplest definition of UFO — UnFinished Object — meaning the quilt that is the oldest that is not finished– I just happen to be working on it so some might say it’s WIP – Work-In-Progress.  That honor goes to my  Double Wedding Ring  which I started in September 1989.

At the moment it’s stuffed in the basket and tucked behind the table — had to get it out of the way when I cleaned up for Christmas.  I’m sure everyone is tired of reading about this quilt. I missed all of my latest sets of deadlines – Nov 29th our 25th anniversary; Dec 22nd the last day to turn in a  UFQ project at the LQS and Dec 31st the last day to turn in  UFO on my on-line challenge (hey- no way I can quilt 20-21 rings and bind it by midnight Friday).  So, since all my “deadlines” have been missed, I’m simply going to work on this quilt with the intention of finishing it sometime in 2011.  Maybe I can get it done in time to hang in the Guild quilt show in April – wait -that’s another deadline.

Seriously though, my 3rd oldest UFO — one that is stuffed in a corner and not being worked on – is a BOM from April 2005.

This one got set aside for all of the usual reasons. – found something else to start, not excited by the setting, etc.  This one I have a plan for in 2011.  It’s quilt #12 on my UFO Challenge for Judy.  It’s on both lists — needs to be pieced and needs to be quilted since I’m doing it quilt-as-you-go — so there’s no getting around it when she calls # 12.

Well, I hope this listing of my 3 oldest UFOs – regardless of definition meets the challenge issued.

 

 

 

Posted in: Challenges, UFOs

No Blue Geese in My Tropical Garden – A Finish

December 28, 2010 4:42 pm ⋅

Early this morning (2 AM?) I finished sewing down the binding on No Blue Geese in my Tropical Garden.  I used the pattern Geese in my Garden by Mary Honas.   My quilt name reflects that there is no blue in the quilt top. At the time I started this quilt it seemed like every quilt  I made had blue in it.

Last month I took it down to Rocking Chair Quilts and rented time on their HQ16.  I loaded the top in sideways so I would have a good run for the feathers I did down the print and black strips.  The quilting is not award winning. At the time, I thought it horrible.  But once it was off the frame and washed, it’s not bad — still won’t win any awards.

The feathers in the top and bottom strip were done starting and stopping as I rolled the quilt up.  I obviously need to practice more with that concept.  Here are a few detail pictures. You should be able to click on them to see them larger.


 

It measures approximately 58 x 80.

Now to send an e-mail to Finn and let her know I have another finish for the year!

Posted in: finish, No Blue Geese

What’s on my Design Wall

December 27, 2010 12:38 am ⋅

This is the last Design Wall post of the year.  There’s nothing on the wall, but on my cutting mat I have No Blue Geese trimmed and ready for binding.  Who knows, I might just have another finish for Finn’s New Year’s Eve UFO Challenge and I’ll need to find another quilt to put on my UFO Challenge 2011 list for the challenge Judy is sponsoring.

I can live with that.

See what others are working on this last week of the year, by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall

Stash Report

December 26, 2010 10:46 am ⋅

Last stash report of the year. All in all I’m pleased with my results.  I used in excess of 100 yards of fabric.  My fabric purchases were kept to a minimum – 94 yards, although  I inherited or was gifted another 81 yards.

The pincushions above are the results of my last-minute sewing.  I read about the pincushions on The Cozy Quilter’s blog, which in turn led me to the Moda Bake Shop.  The pink, black and white pincushion at the top is HUGE.  It really needs some more stuffing.  I ended up using 45-degree diamonds cut from 2 1/2 inch strips.  They finished at about 4 1/2″ in diameter.  I stuffed my pincushions with about 1 1/4 cup of crushed walnut shells.  I finished it off with button from my button box.

Now the final numbers:

Fabric Added this Week:  0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 175.955 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1.14 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 103.593 yards

Net Stash for 2010: 72.362 yards

Check out other results by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

 

 

Posted in: Stash Busting Report