Category Archives: Challenges

April UFO Challenge Quilt

May 4, 2011 2:00 pm ⋅ Pam

The number for April was 4. On my list to get to the top stage was my Red, White and Blue quilt shop sampler.

On my to be quilted list was this Thangles quilt.

But given I was going to a retreat, I think I said I was going to work on Mom’s 4-patch Stacked Posies, which was March’s pick.

None of these quilts made it to the top stage or got quilted. But have no fear, I did complete two UFOs in April.

The first was my Dresden Plate which I’m calling Metamorphosis since the fabric came from my old skirt. This was #10 the pick for February. It took all of February, March and a couple of days into April to get it completed.

As of 4/3/11

The second quilt I finished was my Miniature Ohio Star. I finished this up in time for the quilt show. It’s not on either of my Challenge lists, but it was on my Quilts in Progress tab at the beginning of the year.

This month Judy picked #9. That’s my Green and Cream quilt that I’m working in a Quilt-As-You-Go method.

I’ll say it right now. This quilt won’t be finished by the end of the month.

That’s not to say I won’t be working on my UFOs.

On the piecing front I have the crossword puzzle quilt. I started this last fall, but couldn’t begin putting it together until my sister’s latest grandbaby was born. I’ll also be working on the binding of “Summertime” – a Venetian Glass Turning Twenty Again. Between now and the end of the month I have 4 days reserved on the longarm. All of the quilts I’m planing on working on were on my To Be Quilted tab at the beginning of the year.

The good news is Judy’s challenge has gotten me focused on my UFOs whether it’s from the list I put together in December or my master list. Since the beginning of the year I’ve competed 6 7 quilts — all UFOs and I’ve only started 3 – 2 of which are tops just waiting to be quilted. Not bad if do say so myself.

Check out the link over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing on their UFOs.

Posted in: UFO Challenge 2011

What’s on my Design Wall

May 2, 2011 12:15 pm ⋅ Pam

This week I have my Turning Twenty Again that I’m calling “Summertime”. Several years ago during a FQ sale at my LQS I picked up a bundle of Venetian Glass. At the time, I thought “What was she thinking, some of these are ugly.” I LOVE how they all work together. I guess it’s true you need some “uglies” in your quilt to make it sparkle.

I finished the quilting on this Sunday afternoon.

I’m not sure how well you can see the quilting. It’s pretty basic quilting — wavy diagonal lines. I was having the worst time finding something to mark the quilt that I could see. Then I decided to use painter’s tape.

I put several lengths on my cutting mat, then cut both sides using my wavy ruler. Then I put it on my quilt top and quilted around it. Worked like a charm — and no marks to wash out!

Now I’m working on the binding. I normally machine stitch my bindings down, but this one simply wasn’t working — so at the moment I’m stitching it by hand. No telling when I will finish it, except it will be before June 18th. This is one of my 7 10 by June quilts.

So, up next is the quilt is the crossword puzzle quilt.

I bought a few more reds at the quilt show yesterday. Since it was right before closing, they let me pick the FQ from two different bundles. This is what I have so far:

Not all of those fabrics are FQs — some are just barely F8s. I think that piece on the far left of the bottom row is going to have to go. Other than collecting the reds, I’m at a standstill on this one. My friend V is letting me borrow her Go! and I’ve ordered the 7″ Drunkard’s Path Go! die, but it hasn’t gotten here. I don’t want to start cutting the fabric until I have an understanding of the die. I’ve got a great visual in my head of this quilt, so we’ll see how it translates to fabric.

Don’t forget to check out the other great design walls by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Challenges, crossword, designwall, Summertime

Year of the Pig – Question #8

April 20, 2011 3:48 pm ⋅ Pam

Jill’s Year of the Pig Question #8 is —

What part (or parts) of the process of making a quilt are your least favorite? The part (or parts) that you just dread and that make you throw your projects back into the dark recesses of your stash closet? Have you found any tricks to break the cycle of being held up on the parts that aren’t your favorite?

This question got me thinking. Is there any part of making a quilt that I dread?

It’s not the binding. Once I get a quilt quilted, I want to get it bound. I don’t sew the binding down by hand, so that is probably why this doesn’t bother me.

I used to hate sandwiching the quilt. It’s hard on the knees crawling around on the floor. But I’ve figured out how to get it done on my big board ironing board (I generally make twin size quilts or smaller these days).

One could argue that I must not like the process of quilting itself. Putting stitches through the three layers which makes the quilt top a quilt. I say this because I have around 40 quilt tops waiting to be quilted – three from September of 2006.

It’s not that I don’t like this step, it’s more a case of not knowing what to quilt on a top. Until last fall, all of my quilting was done on my sewing machine. I’ve tried free motion quilting and I need more practice, but don’t want to do it on my “good” tops and mess them up. So, I’ve been limited to straight line quilting and soft curves — especially on anything bigger than about 40″ square.

But last fall I discovered Rocking Chair Quilts in Butler, Missouri rents time on their longarm. It’s an hours drive, but well worth the time. My oldest completed top was from 2005. I think it was 96″ square — no way for me to get it done on my sewing machine and not “good enough” to pay someone to quilt it. I took it down to Butler and quilted it in an afternoon. It won’t win awards, but that’s not why I quilt.

Hard and fast deadlines also get me going. I’ve got a stack of 5 quilts w/backing fabric which need to be quilted by the middle of June. All of them have been waiting to be quilted for at least a year or more. A couple I’ll quilt here at home and a couple I’ll take down to Butler. I have a rough idea of how I’m going to quilt at least 4 of them. The fifth one is giving me fits, but I’ll figure something out.

Click over to Jill’s to see how others get past their least favorite part of quilting.

Posted in: PIGS

Not Quite Halfway

April 19, 2011 12:15 pm ⋅ Pam

Small as they are, I can only fit a dozen stars on my scanner bed. Seven more done last night. I’m not planning on doing any yard work tonight, so maybe I can get two sets of 7 done tonight. Of course, I’m thinking about two other quilts and I’m itching to play in my fabric.

I’ve gotten the last name I need for the crossword puzzle quilt, which is really more of a Scrabble quilt, and now I need a “theme” for the rest of the fabric. I’m leaning toward red — which is probably the color I have the least of! I wonder if it’s an unconscious decision so I can go fabric shopping?

The second quilt is one more that needs to go on my 7 by June, which would make it 8 by June if we hadn’t already added another quilt which means the count is up to 9 now! At least the other quilt just needs quilting and I’ve been thinking about that as well. But back to the second quilt. I’m leaning toward using Bonnie Hunter’s Strip Twist and doing it in neutrals – scrappy of course.

My EQ drawing looks so elegant. I hope my stash delivers. (Yes, shopping is required on this one for the border and backing).

Posted in: Challenges

The Year of the Pig – Question #7

April 6, 2011 7:26 am ⋅ Pam

No, I didn’t get questions #5 & #6 answered. Perhaps I’ll go back at some point and answer them.

What do you do when you have no desire to sew?
Do you ever get bored with your fabric and look for a different direction?

My youngest nephew will be 8 this summer. It was when I made his baby quilt that the “Quilt Pox” really caught hold. Over the past 8 years there have been a few times when the last thing I wanted to do was quilt. I think once I went nearly 3 months without sitting down in front of my sewing machine! Fortunately the other times it wasn’t quite as long.

I finally figured out when the melancholy hit me. It was after I had a big finish, especially if I had spent several intense weeks at the sewing machine. At the time, I simply walked away from the sewing machine and then read and read and read and read some more. Reading is another favorite thing to do. I finally either ran out of books, or heard my sewing machine calling and resumed quilting.

Since that first dry spell, it’s happened a couple of more times, but no where near as intense. I recognized it for what it was — I wanted to READ. So, I did, but only two or three books, then I was able to get back into the sewing room.

It’s been a while since I’ve not spent at least some time each day either at the sewing machine, picking fabrics for my next project or playing in Electric Quilt, but I think the reason is because I’ve found Books on CD. I pop a CD into the player and can enjoy both of my interests — reading and sewing/quilting. That’s not to say I don’t read paper books, but I since I don’t feel deprived, I don’t spends weeks trying to catch up.

So, I guess the answer to the first question is to let yourself walk away if you need to and try to figure out why you don’t want to sew.

On to the second part of the question. Sometimes. I’m a scrappy quilter, so I don’t have a whole lot of yardage. It’s mostly FQs or what’s left from yardage. Generally the purchase of a FQ or two will get the sparkle back into my stash. I will say I don’t have a lot of batiks in my stash — until recently only one or two pieces. So, I went shopping in a friend’s stash and came home with two dozen batik FQs. Originally they were intended for a specific quilt, but I don’t know if that’s where they’ll end up. Regardless, they’ve added a new life to my stash.

See how others answered these two questions by following the links over at Ramblings of a Fabric and Yarn Obsessor.

Click here to see the answers to the questions I’ve answered.

Posted in: PIGS

What’s on my Design Wall

April 4, 2011 12:30 am ⋅ Pam

Woo Hoo!! I finally finished my Dresden Plate quilt. It was February’s UFO Challenge Quilt.

The fabric for the plates started out life as a skirt my mom made for me in the early 1990’s. I loved that skirt. But an elastic waistband on a longer skirt and a rolling desk chair just don’t mix well. I rolled over my hem and attempted to stand up one too many times. Putting the fabric into a quilt apparently has not solved this problem. As I was binding the quilt, I rolled over the end of it and got tangled up.

This is the back of the quilt.

I’m working on a pillowcase to go with the quilt. Right now I’m leaning toward a black case with alternating blades and a narrow gold trim.

I hope to get this pillowcase, and perhaps one for the Dragonfly quilt finished before I leave for retreat later this week.

To see what others have been up to follow the links over at Patchwork Times.

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

April’s UFO Challenge

April 1, 2011 5:15 pm ⋅ Pam

Judy has announced this month’s challenge number. It’s #4. In theory that means I’ll be working on one of these two quilts:

From list #1 (get the quilt to the top stage) is the Red, White & Blue Sampler. These blocks came from a couple of different sources. Some of them are from a small shop hop I did in May 2009 and some were birthday blocks sent to me last year. I’ve tossed in a couple of extra blocks to get the count up to 15.

These blocks are tossed into my retreat bag to take with me next week. At the moment, I’m leaning toward sashing and quilting the blocks and then assembling them in the same manner I’m doing my Dresden Plate. If I go this way, the completed blocks with sashing will be my “top”.

From list # 2 (quilt & bind) is “Thangles 2”. This is one of the two baby quilt tops I made from my Thangles BOM blocks from several years ago. I picked the “black and bright” theme but didn’t think the brights selected worked well together and made two baby quilts with 2 blocks left over for “back art”. Then there was my piecing. Ugh! Anyway, in theory this is the quilt top #4 which needs to be quilted.

So, what will I really do?

Last month Judy picked # 1, which is the 4-Patch Stacked Posies quilt my mom started several years ago off my list #1. I didn’t work on it in March because I needed something to take to the retreat in April. It is my plan to get this quilt to the top stage at the retreat.

It’s my intention to finish the Dresden Plate quilt (February’s Challenge) this weekend. I’m in the process of putting the borders on, so with luck, I’ll have it done for Monday’s Design Wall.

Also on this month’s list to complete is the Mini Stars quilt; appliquéing the letters for the Crossword Puzzle quilt (one of the “7 by June” quilts), complete two twin quilt tops (pieces already cut out) and get hanging sleeves on any quilt I’m planning on entering in the Guild quilt show. I’d really like to quilt the baby mystery quilt, but think I ran out of month three or four projects ago – especially since I want to get The Chain Event (a “7 by June” quilt) done this month.

Posted in: UFO Challenge 2011

March UFO Challenge is Met

March 29, 2011 11:59 am ⋅ Pam

Admittedly this pink and blue quilt is listed as #7 on my UFO Challenge list, but I did say there may be occasions where if a quilt needed to get bumped up, I’d swap #s. So, I’m swapping #7 for #1. It just didn’t seem right to use my bunny quilt to meet this month’s challenge since it wasn’t list on the UFO Challenge tab — although it was on either the “tops to be quilted” or “quilts in progress” tab at the beginning of the year. Anyway, this quilt got bumped to the front of the line so I could practice quilting dragonflies.

For the backing, I used a piece of vintage fabric I got from my friend S when she was cleaning out her stash a year ago. Come to think of it, the blue & white hearts came from her stash as well.

The quilt is approximately 39″ square. I used Warm & Natural batting, King Tut # 993 (white) in the top and Bottomline in the bobbin. The binding is stitched down by machine — I can’t think of any binding I’ve done by hand.

Now on to the next quilt – Dragonflies.

This is the first of the seven quilts I need done by the end of June. Here’s a closeup of the quilting. My dragonflies were various sized and going every which way.

I opted for King Tut # 978 – Rosetta Stone in the top. I wasn’t gutsy enough to use the bright thread.

White thread in the bobbin. So essentially you can’t see my quilting — which at this point is a good thing.

After washing the quilt measures 57 x 68. I used Warm & Natural batting in this one as well.

Posted in: Baby Fox & Geese, Dragonflies, UFO Challenge 2011

Must Have Lost My Mind

March 16, 2011 11:44 pm ⋅ Pam

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 ⋅ Pam

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