Several people commented that they couldn’t see the problem on my Blue Ridge Beauty. Pictured here it is the before (left) and after (right) I fixed it. Still needs borders, but I’m pretty sure that’s going to require a run to the LQS.
What’s on my Design Wall
Very little quilting was accomplished this weekend. After working all night Friday night/Saturday morning, I didn’t get going good until, well, I’m still not going good Sunday evening. I did get out of the house Saturday afternoon for the quilt show, then when I got home, we turned around (after a 2 hour nap on my part) and took my niece to dinner. Sunday we were out all day – church and then shopping — at a MALL. And I had new heels on. That’s a story for another time. Anyway, we finally got home about 3:30 and I put my feet up.
I worked some more on the on Double Wedding Ring, but I still have a melon, two arcs and the cornerstones and before I’ll be done with the 4th ring on the 5th row, with three more rings to get done before Wednesday. Check back Wednesday to see if I get it done.
Briefly I worked on the Cream & Green blocks — the first row is put together and I’ve got two blocks on the second row together, the backing just needs stitching down. Before long I’ll have to make a border decision.
When I bought the sashing and cornerstone fabric, I bought enough for borders and binding. I just don’t remember if I was planning on design #1 or design #2:
Option # 1
Option # 2
Both of these options makes the quilt a full size quilt. However, if I leave the borders off and just bind it in green, it will be twin size — not to mention I’ll have enough of the sashing fabric to make the body of pillow case (probably have enough to make the cuff if I go with a larger quilt).
Option # 3
This quilt doesn’t have a destination — yet — so I can’t use that as my guide. Right now I’m leaning toward no borders, but that may be because I’m tired. At least I don’t have to make that decision immediately.
Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see what others have on their design wall.
Stash Report
Three quarter yard cuts followed me home after I went to the Lee’s Summit Quilters’ Guild Quilt Show Saturday afternoon. Since I was on the far side of town I drove on up to Rustic Yearning to check out their Civil War Reproduction fabrics. It’s tough to locate fabrics which will work in tiny quilt blocks. I’m not positive these will, but will give them a shot.
There were lots of great quilts at the show. I tried to take pictures w/my phone, but they didn’t turn out well. I didn’t have my camera since my DH went to the Ottawa, Kansas Veteran’s Day parade. My nephew marched with the Cub Scouts and my niece marched with the school band. I slept, as worked all night.
Not much fabric was used this week — just enough to make a cute little duffel bag early in the week. I spent my time working on Blue Ridge Beauty, the Cream and Green swap blocks and the DWR.
Here’s the report:
Fabric Added this Week: .75 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 154.761 yards
Fabric Used this Week: .342 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 88.518 yards
Net Stash for 2010: 66.243 yards
Check out how others are doing over at Patchwork Times.
Progress and Procrastination
This week I wanted to get 4 of the Cream & Green swap blocks quilted, 2 rows of Blue Ridge Beauty assembled and finish quilting the 5th row of the Double Wedding Ring. Here it is Friday morning and I’ve finish assembling the center of Blue Ridge Beauty (admittedly I need to do a bit of ripping to fix it, but still…) and I’ve done the quilting on not 4 but 7 of the Cream & Green swap blocks (bringing my total to 12 of 20).
The good news is that the Cream & Green quilt is on my list for the New Year’s Eve UFO Challenge Finn is hosting, but all this work does mean I’ve been procrastinating on the Double Wedding Ring. But I have figured out what part of the reason is.
A couple of days ago I opened up a new package of needles. I’m not sure if it’s the older needles or the newer needles, but my fingers on the left hand are getting beat up this week — which is odd since I’m quilting with a stab stitch. Regardless of my stuck fingers, I need to get on the ball and make some progress this weekend. Check back with me next week to see if I get this 5th row quilted by Wednesday.
Oops
This week I wanted to get two more rows of blocks sewn together. I got on a roll and finished up all the rows and started sewing the rows together. I even turned the two center blocks on the top row. Once I sewed the last seam I hung it up to photograph it.
Oops! That doesn’t look right.
Took me a minute but I figured it out. I had the top in two halves — that center seam was the last seam sewed. Apparently I sewed the top to the middle. Ugh! I see ripping in my future.
Upon closer look, the last block on the 3rd row appears to be turned as well. Fiddlesticks.
Does anyone see anything else?
QA Wednesday
No pictures today, but I can report that I completed everything that was on my list and then some.
- Get at least two rings on Row 5 quilted on the DWR – Done!
- Quilt at least two blocks on my Cream & Green quilt – Done!
- Rip out the quilting I’ve already done on the Cream & Green quilt – Done!
- Write up entry for Amy’s Creative Side – Blogger’s Quilt Festival– Done!
I’ve nearly completed 3 rings on the 5th row – so I managed to quilt 4 rings this past week. The Cream & Green quilt is coming along nicely — I ripped out all of the previous quilting, quilted 4 blocks for a total of 5 and have the batting prepped for the remaining 15 blocks. Finally I wrote and posted my Blogger’s Quilt Festival entry early last Friday morning.
So what’s on my list for this coming week? — More of the same.
- Finish quilting Row 5 on the DWR
- Quilt at least 4 blocks on the Cream & Green quilt
- Piece at least two rows on Blue Ridge Beauty
These are the minimum it will take for me to make my monthly and yearly goals. — Well really need to move faster on the DWR, but again I don’t think it’s realistic. I’ve bumped up the count on the Cream & Green quilt, because I need to have time to put the blocks together and then quilt the borders. I’m off from work the week after Thanksgiving, so I hope the 11 day stretch gives me a concentrated time to make a chunk of progress.
Check in next week to see if I’m as successful as I was this week, the links on Bari’s blog to see what others are planning to accomplish.
A Little Duffle
Tonight, because I clearly don’t have any projects to finish, I dug through my stash and found a couple of fabrics to make this little bag.
I used Karen West’s pattern A Little Duffle Do It, available at www.lovethefabric.com or your local quilt shop.
The pattern calls for a 20″ zipper on the large bag, but I only had a 14″ zipper. I made it work, but I definitely see where the longer zipper would make things easier.
What’s on my Design Wall
When I’ve not been working on the DWR or Cream & Green quilt, I’ve been sewing blocks into rows on Blue Ridge Beauty. The rows still need sewing together, but I think I’ll wait until I get all of the rows sewn. I ended up swapping two rows because I ended up with the same fabric next to each other when I got the last row on the wall. I think I’ve also spotted a flaw in the design with the center two blocks on the first row.
They are just like what we (my DH did the final layout in EQ7) had in EQ, but when I started to draw the quilt larger I was having a tough time extending the pattern. I think the top center two blocks is why. I’ll play with it more before I get to the last row.
To see what others have on their design walls, follow the links over at Patchwork Times.
October Recap/November Goals
- Continue quilting the Double Wedding Ring — can I get 3 rows done by Halloween? –Yes & No
- Make the September & October KVQG BOM – No
- Prep backing for quilt* – Yes!
- Bind quilt*- Yes!
- Make progress on Cream & Green quilt – Yes!
A mixed month, but lots of progress regardless. No, I didn’t get three rows quilted on the DWR, but I did hit the halfway mark (total of 4 rows quilted) and I’ve got two more rings quilted on row five. So I’m plowing ahead full speed as long as my wrist holds out.
Another month and I’ve blown off the Guild BOM. Maybe I’ll get caught up in December. (Yes, I’m already planning on blowing off the November block.)
Prep the backing and bind a quilt — Yes! That’s the row quilt I took down to Rocking Chair Quilts and finished on the 18th.
Make “progress” on the Cream & Green quilt. – I ripped out all of the quilting I had done previously (6 blocks) and I have 5 blocks quilted uniformly. There are twenty blocks so I’m 1/4 of the way through. Still need to figure how to quilt the sashing and then exactly how I’m going to put it together. I have a rough idea, but I need to think it through.
So all of the specified goals have been accounted for. Additionally, I completed the Star Struck quilt top, have sewn 1/2 of the Blue Ridge Beauty Blocks into rows, started working on a mini quilt and started a quilt which needs to be done by late Spring.
All in all, I’m happy with what I accomplished this month.
NOVEMBER QUILTING GOALS
- Continue quilting the Double Wedding Ring – how much can I get done by the end of the month?
- Make progress on Cream & Green quilt
- Complete center of Blue Ridge Beauty
- Finish quilting center of Compass Lone Star
Just a few things on the list this month – three of the four are on my list to do by the end of the year so I want to focus. I think the reason I’ve not been able to pick a leader/ender project is that I really want to finish these quilts. So, check in with me throughout the month to see how much progress I made on these quilts and if I end up starting something new.
Stash Report
This week I worked on projects for which the fabric is already counted.
These are 4 of the blocks I ripped the quilting out of to redo (one I had not previously quilted). I really like how it’s coming along – and it’s not taking me that long to do. I wanted to quilt at least two blocks this week, so I’ve met that goal.
Another goal involved quilting at least two rings on the 5th row of my DWR. I’m into my second ring – but no fabric to count. I did mail off some strips of music fabric to a friend, so although I didn’t use it, it is out of my stash and I get to count it.
Saturday afternoon and evening my husband and I went to a marching band contest. He has several bands he wanted to see since he taught kids in those bands when they were younger. As a happy coincidence I got to see my alma mater, Shawnee Mission South perform.
On the way home we drove by an outlet mall which at one time (May 2009?) had a quilt shop in it. I guess it’s a sign of the times because the mall was nearly deserted. I think there were only 4 shops still open in the strip. Bottom line no fabric came in.
Here are the numbers:
Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 154.011 yards
Fabric Used this Week: 1.275 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 
88.176 yards
Net Stash for 2010: 65.835 yards
Check out how others are doing over at Patchwork Times.
