Category Archives: Frolic

Finish It Friday

November 11, 2022 9:09 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅ Pam

On this Finish It Friday I have 2 quilts to share. First up is my Atomic Starburst, shown here hanging in my foyer on the new hanging rod.

This is one of three quilts I made with the FQ Bundle of Radiance + 10 ‘solids’. I’ve finished Shimmer, and still need to quilt Bauble ‘n Beads.

In each of the diamonds I placed a motif from a Double Wedding Ring Melon, then morphed it to fit the diamond. I did ruler work in the sashings and the starburst blocks.

My other finish this Friday is my 2019-2020 Quiltville Mystery quilt, Frolic.

I enlarged it and changed up the borders. It measured 118″ x 118″ before I quilted and washed it. Here it is hanging on my 12-foot quilting frame. I opted to do an all over Edge-to-Edge design called Fresco Feathers.

I only have 8-foot ceilings, ~~so I don’t~~ wait a minute, I have vaulted ceilings in my den, I might be able to get a straight on picture — if I had something wide enough to hang it on. I’ll have to think on that for another time. Here it is on my driveway before binding.

I bought a wide backing, but it wasn’t wide enough, so I added in a strip with ‘extra’ blocks. In reality I made those specifically for the backing.

Posted in: 2022 Brandon Quilters UFO, Atomic Star Burst, Frolic, Machine Quilting, Ruler work, Uncategorized

A Quilting Challenge – Really?!!

January 10, 2022 10:24 pm ⋅ Pam

I’m living in a house which has NO room completed, so naturally, I’m going to participate in my quilt guild’s UFO Challenge. I’ve picked 12 quilts which need to be completed and shown by December 5th, 2022.

1- Hand Quilted White Work. This is my oldest quilt “top” from sometime in 2005. I took a hand quilting class in preparation to quilt my DWR.

2 – QIAD Green & Cream Swap from the fall of 2006. It’s my 3rd oldest UFO.

3 – Johnny’s Strip Twist. I started this at a quilt retreat in 2016. I had problems with my 1/4″ seam, so started over. I have enough sections to make at least 2 quilts.

4 – Pink & Black Auction Crazy Strings. I bought the blocks at an auction in 2018. This will be the 3rd quilt I’ve made from them. I pulled the fabrics when I thought I was going to a Sit-n-Sew in December so I’m counting it.

5 – Christmas Wall Hanging. My SIL and I purchased the fabric for this quilt at the same time — July 2018. Hers is finished, I have part of 1 block done.

6 – Frolic the 2019 Quiltville Mystery Quilt. This looks like it just needs to be quilted. But I need to make the backing bigger, so I’ll be making more blocks.

7 – Baubles ‘N Beads – I made this top in August 2020 and just need to quilt it.

8 – Shimmer – I’m using the leftover fabric from Bauble ‘N Beads and Atomic Starburst to make this quilt. I started it August 2020.

9 – Atomic Starburst – the top was completed in March 2021, which is why it’s listed after Shimmer.

10 – MQA BOM – I finished the quilt top the end of September 2021 – so it is possible to piece with the house torn apart.

11 – Ruby’s Sampler – I started this the New Year’s Eve 2020. I still need to write up the patterns for the blocks and of course finish making the top. I need to make 4 more blocks.

12 – SQG BOM – The first block came out February 2021. I made 3 blocks before I stopped sewing last year to start packing. I didn’t get a picture of the 3rd block.

In addition to the above I’m participating in a Pizza Box Challenge – one block a month with one of my guilds & I’m considering a mystery quilt with the other guild. The retreat usually has a lotto block – I’ll try to make one; a swap block – I’ll probably skip this time; and a mystery quilt – which I may not do either.

My goal is to not start anything new, but now that I think about it, there’s a pot holder and possibly a sweatshirt jacket in my future.

Posted in: 2022 Brandon Quilters UFO, Atomic Star Burst, Bauble 'n Beads, Christmas Cardinals, Cream & Green Swap Sampler, Dancing Strings, Frolic, hand quilting, MQA BOM 2020, Ruby's Sampler, Shimmer, SQG 2021 BOM, Strip Twist, UFOs, Uncategorized

Chicken Bobbin

August 4, 2020 9:51 am ⋅ Pam

As I was finishing the last row of quilting on my SIL’s Frolic I thought I was playing Chicken Bobbin. In reality I was playing Chicken Cone. I ran out of cone thread, but not before I had finished the quilting.

I still need to trim the quilt, then I’ll send it back to my SIL to bind.

While the computer was quilting, I finished my first Starburst from Atomic Starburst. This one will be used for quilting practice when I get that far as there are two spots where I didn’t catch the fabric.

This is my first “real” one as there are no missed seams. The piecing went faster tonight, so I might get this done sooner than I thought.

Since I’m paper piecing I haven’t tried to do any leader/enders, but now that I have a better understanding of what I’m doing, I might be able to do them. My Easy Breezy count currently remains at 39.

Posted in: Atomic Star Burst, Easy Breezy, Frolic, paper piecing;

New Month – New Projects

August 2, 2020 11:50 pm ⋅ Pam

I suppose technically the title of this post would have been more apt for Saturday, but I couldn’t figure out a better title given the various topics of today’s post.

The day started off way earlier than I prefer on any day, but especially on a weekend, but I had a go-live for work. As a result there was plenty of time to quilt today. First up my SILs Frolic. It’s nearly finished – I think there are two more passes before I can take it off the frame. While the machine was running, I pulled out a project box from 2019 and cleaned up the scraps.

I finished the pink and brown top back in the spring of 2009. I also did a small wall hanging a couple of years later. The folded “FQs” are pieces which measure at least 6″ x 20″. I fold them all to 5″ tall by 6″ high to fit into my fabric boxes. As you can see I also added to my pre-cuts with strips, bricks, blocks, and strings. The box of fabric from the purple and green log cabin quilt that I recently finished was also dealt with, leaving me 2 empty project boxes. Which I immediately filled up with these fabrics.

I have 3 quilts planned. Atomic Star Burst, Bauble ‘n Beads and Shimmer. The first two will have the blue for background. I think Shimmer will have a light background, but as it is the 3rd quilt, I’ll worry about it later. Anyway, I started on Atomic Star Burst tonight. I will conquer paper piecing, but that first half starburst needs to be redone. One of the spokes didn’t get fully caught in the seam. So, what do you think? 1/2 a starburst a night? 20 starbursts would work out to 40 days. No, I am not going to do do another challenge – at least not one so intense.

Easy Breezy – 39

Posted in: Atomic Star Burst, Bauble 'n Beads, Easy Breezy, Frolic, Pink and Brown, Shimmer

Frolic is a Top!

July 26, 2020 12:14 am ⋅ Pam

At 118″ square, it’s too long to hang off the gutters and I didn’t want to climb the ladder – well the fully extended ladder – to get a picture straight on.

I need to make a few more blocks for the backing, but for now, I’m going to work on something else.

Cascade. Most of these blocks were done prior to me pulling it out Saturday afternoon.

Easy Breezy – 34

Posted in: Cascade, Easy Breezy, Frolic

So Close

July 25, 2020 4:58 am ⋅ Pam

My Frolic has gotten huge! It has become quite unwieldy as I’ve added the borders. Originally, my plan was to just add a matching 1-1/2″ outer gray border, but I decided to make it wider. The first plan was to increase the border so there was 1-1/2″ of gray between the binding and pieced border, but when it came time to actually add the border I was concerned that the narrow border would look weird, so I opted for a 5″ border. I still have one more to add to call this top done.

Of course what I failed to take into account is the top is now 118″ square. My backing is only 108″ wide. I had a plan to add 10″ to the backing, which would have made it tight, but not impossible, but now I need at least another 4″ and 6-8″ would be better. At least the backing will be lighter when I finish piecing it.

The larger quilt has also thrown my binding choices into limbo. My sister gave me a bit over a yard of blue fabric which I have used as the cornerstones, possibly one star block (I simply can’t remember), and the inner blue border. The plan was to bind the quilt in the same fabric. Now I’m not sure I have enough. We think she still has a yard of the fabric, but it’s buried in her sewing room. Naturally she bought the last of the bolt and it was an older fabric. But I suppose I don’t need to cross that bridge quite yet.

Easy Breezy – 33

Posted in: Easy Breezy, Frolic

Progress on Frolic

July 23, 2020 11:06 pm ⋅ Pam

The end is near. That is I can see the finish line for my Frolic top. Today I finished the inner borders and attached 3 of the 4 pieced borders. I practiced sewed the 4th border – pulling pins as I went until I was about 12 – 15 inches from then end. At that point I discovered I ran out of bobbin thread about 12- 15 inched from the beginning of the border. At that point I called it a night.

Speaking of running out of thread, I finished off a cone tonight. It took me about 4 months to use this cone. Yes, I’ve been sewing a lot, but I didn’t realize just how much thread I was going through. It was kind of nice not having to worry about getting thread as I watched it dwindle on the cone, so I think I’ll go ahead and order another cone of thread. It took nearly a month of get it in this spring.

Easy Breezy – 33

Posted in: Easy Breezy, Frolic

The Pieced Borders Are Complete

July 23, 2020 12:15 am ⋅ Pam

This is the 4th pieced border for Frolic. I probably could have gotten it attached if I hadn’t gone off to try to see the comet.

But as you can see there was some cloud cover. I don’t know if I’ll try again tomorrow or not.

Easy Breezy = 32

Posted in: Easy Breezy, Frolic

Will This Border Ever End?

July 20, 2020 10:30 pm ⋅ Pam

I spent maybe 45 minutes at the sewing machine. 5 more and a corner block after I get this one attached.

Easy Breezy – 26

Posted in: Frolic

Then There Were 3

July 20, 2020 8:11 am ⋅ Pam

I spent the better part of the day sewing HST together until I had both side borders completed and 3 of the 4 corner blocks made. By 5 PM I decided to walk away from the sewing machine. The fact that I needed to do a bit of housekeeping had nothing to do with it.

My living room was a disaster. I had setup my extra sewing machine in the room a few weeks ago while my sister was here using the quilting machine and it was time to put it away. I also needed to move the furniture so I could do a thorough cleaning of the floor. I thought I had short hair cats, but you couldn’t prove it to me with the amount of hair floating around. Anyway, since I was moving furniture I decided to rearrange it.

Before: