Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Challenges

The Year of the PIGS – Question # 2

January 19, 2011 6:00 am ⋅

Jill’s Year of the PIGS Question #2 is:

Give some stats on your PIGS!

What is your oldest and how old is it?

Light Up The Holidays – a kit for a table topper that I purchased in October 2007.  I think this is one of those “What was I thinking?” purchases.  One of these days I’ll get it put together.  It is not high on my priority list.

Do you have a list of your PIGS and is it current?

Yes.  I have a spreadsheet which lists all of my UFOs/WIPs, PIGs, Quilt Tops, Purchases, and Fabric Usage.  There are 11 PIGS on it.

  1. Light Up the Holidays
  2. Cotton Theory Table Runner
  3. Maypole Charm Purse and wallet
  4. Tulips baby quilt
  5. Wildflower Serande Gallery of  Stars
  6. Cranberry Wishes Bag
  7. Janelle Turning Twenty (or Crazy 8s)
  8. KTS 4-Patch Stacked Posies
  9. The Night Before Christmas
  10. Magnolia Table Topper
  11. Laurel Burch Christmas Wall Hanging

How many PIGS and UFOs do you have?

11 “true” PIGS – projects I haven’t started.

36 UFO/WIP – 9 of them are inherited, found at estate sales, or otherwise not started by me.  Click HERE for the full listing.  Pictures and more information about my three oldest UFOs can be found in this post.

39 Quilt Tops – only one of these was found at an estate sale.  Click HERE for a listing with links to pictures of the tops.  My oldest pieced quilt top waiting to be quilted was completed in September 2006.  It is my Christmas Crazy 8.  I have the backing and binding fabric, so it’s just a case of getting in gear and getting it quilted.

Posted in: PIGS, UFOs

The Blocks are Finished

January 18, 2011 10:58 pm ⋅

This will stay up until this weekend to let it simmer.  I keep swapping blocks around to try and distribute the dark blocks and keep the 5/4 peach pattern.    I really hope the dark border fabric I ordered doesn’t overwhelm it.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

A Solution

January 18, 2011 2:32 am ⋅

All month I’ve been working on UFO # 6 for Judy’s UFO Challenge.  This quilt was started back in 2008.  One of the reasons it got set aside was because I made two wrong cuts – messing up 4 of the 9-patches.  Normally this would not be a big deal, but since I was working with a charm pack and had no more fabric it brought me to a screeching halt.

When I resumed working on the quilt, I had to figure out how to deal with my bad cuts.  My first attempt to resolve the problem was to rip out my original piecing and take narrower seams.  I even double stitched them for added security.  But the more I thought about it the more I got concerned that it would rip out.  The narrow seam allowance can be seen in picture 1.

So I came up with another solution.  I ripped the stitching out – again.  Picture 2 shows how much smaller the pieces are from what they are supposed to be.  Then I put a piece of Lite Steam-A-Seam2 on the edges (3).  The fabric was then fused to a thin piece of muslin (4) and trimmed to the correct size (5).  1 5/8 inches by 1 5/8 inches.  Picture 6 shows how I’ll sew the block back together.

I’ll sew the block back together with 1/4 inch seams, but only 1/8 inch of fabric will be caught on some edges. I hope that the extra layer of fabric, along with the fusible will keep fabric from unraveling.

 

Posted in: Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

What’s on my Design Wall

January 17, 2011 2:22 am ⋅

Eight more blocks and I’ll have all 96 blocks done.  Then I can start sewing them into rows and ultimately a quilt top.  I’m going to have to temporarily clear the hearth off so I can get the last two rows up on the design wall.  Those blocks on the right really go on the bottom of the quilt.

For a border I’ve decided on three narrow inner borders  – 3/4- inch green, 1/2 – inch peach, and 3/4 inch green — this will use up the remaining peach and green fabric.  The final  outer border and binding will be a 4 to 5 inch wide  brown print.  I finally found two different brown prints from the collection on-line and ordered one of them last night.  Since Shangri-La is an older collection (2008), I’m thrilled that I can find anything in stock.

Since I’m off from work, I’ll spend a good bit of time working on this, hopefully finishing it up – well as much as I can with out the border fabric — and then get started on my next project.

Follow the links over at Judy’s to see if others are making progress on their UFOs or working on something new.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, designwall, UFO Challenge 2011

Fun Mail

January 10, 2011 4:42 pm ⋅

Last week I participated in the Final Countdown Challenge at Prairie Moon Quilts.  I took my 3 oldest UFOs and have a plan for them (including ignoring one until a later time), I cleared ALL the flat surfaces in my sewing room (not that they stayed that way, but that’s another story) and I dealt with the scraps uncovered by clearing the flat surfaces.   My name was drawn as the winner for day one.

So, today even though there’s snow on the ground (and it’s been coming down all day), my mailman delivered this wonderful package from Shelly.  Right now I’m looking for a place to hang/set the Quilting  Queen sign.   I think I’m going to hang it.  I’m out of flat surfaces…..

Posted in: Challenges

What’s on my Design Wall

January 10, 2011 12:44 am ⋅

Today’s wall contains UFO # 6 – the 2008 Charm Challenge.  I found out the name of the charm pack is Shangra-La.  It is a Moda line by 3 Sisters.  I spent most of Friday evening cutting the light fabrics and part of Saturday cutting the green squares for the star points.  I ‘batched’  up 9 kits of 8 blocks each and it looks like I have a few more light pieces to cut and definitely more green squares to cut.  At the moment the plan is to make the quilt 8 blocks by 12 blocks.

This is the first time in a long time I’ve worked on just one project at a time.  I don’t have a leader/ender project going.  I’m not sure if that a good thing or a bad thing.

I hope to get this top finished by next weekend.  I have a couple of current projects which I need to make progress on this month.

See if others are working on their UFO challenges or something else by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, designwall, UFO Challenge 2011

Stash Report

January 9, 2011 2:41 am ⋅

Three hours at the LQS and I still have used more fabric this year than I’ve purchased.

Saturday was the 2010 UFQ Trunk Show at Heritage Fine Fabrics.  I signed up to get 5 quilts either ready to quilt or quilted and bound – I finished 4 of the 5.  Over the year as we finished each project, we received a FQ as a reward.  At the trunk show, we receive one ticket for each finish for the drawing.  I won a $15 gift certificate.  So, there’s more fabric in my future.

My only purchase was some Lite Steam a Seam 2 for the Crossword Puzzle quilt – which doesn’t count in the stash numbers.  I also signed up for the 2011 UFQ (UnFinished Quilts) Challenge.

Ready-to-Quilt

  • 2008 Charm Challenge/Shangra-La
  • Mom’s 4-patch Stacked Posies
  • QIAD Christmas Row Quilt

Quilted and Bound

  • Miniature LeMoyne Stars
  • Crossword Puzzle
  • Blue Carolina Baby Quilt

Sorry for the distraction – back to the stash numbers:

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

Fabric Used this Week: 3 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 4.63 yards

Net Stash for 2010: -4.63 yards

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

Posted in: Challenges, Stash Busting Report, UFOs

A Design is Found

January 6, 2011 10:35 pm ⋅

I’ve been pondering what to do with my 9-patches for UFO # 6.  Today I read this post which Bonnie wrote showing a Sister’s Choice quilt which Clare had made.  It took a while, but eventually I made the connection and decided to turn my 9-patches into Sister’s Choice blocks.

I have 2 yards of the green and a box full of lights, so I should be able to finish the top from my stash.

Now on to cut.  I need a total of 768 – 1 5/8″ green squares, 384 – 1 5/8″ light squares and 384 – 1 5/8″ x 3 7/8″ light rectangles.  I could be cutting a while.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

The Easy Part is Done

January 5, 2011 10:43 pm ⋅

I’ve made all of my 9-patches. The hard part is now figuring out what to do with them.  The truth is, I didn’t have much of a plan when I started this project back in the spring of 2008.  Only a recognizable part of each charm square was required to be in the project.  I vaguely remember thinking I wanted to use as much of the charm squares as possible.  Thus my 9-patches are a weird size. I think they are supposed to finish at 3 3/8″.  There should be 4 more blocks, but I made two incorrect cuts early on and I haven’t figured out what to do about it yet.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

The Year of the PIGS – Question # 1

January 5, 2011 3:30 am ⋅

Jill is hosting a support group for quilters with PIGS (Projects in Grocery Sacks) and UFOs (UnFinished Objects). The idea is every couple of weeks a question will be asked and those participating will post their response.  The first question is:

How do you store your UFOs and PIGS separate from your fabric stash?

The good news is I don’t have that many PIGS.  But as a general rule, I store all of the fabric and generally the pattern in an appropriate sized zip top or other closable clear bag.  There are a couple of exceptions to this.  I’ve got one quilt in the Priority Mail envelope it came in, one is in a Moda “lunch box”, and one is in a Chinese take-out carton (it came that way!)

The bags are then stored either in this milk crate, which is usually buried under another crate and then stuff stacked on top of it.

In my crate of UFOs.

Or for my Kansas Trouble Kits, in the Kansas Trouble fabric box.

My UFOs are stored similarly.  In clear bags in the box above, or in labeled project boxes on the top of my fabric shelves.

The project boxes may contain more than one project, if all I have are blocks.    I also have a LARGE suitcase which contains one of my quilt-as-you-go projects since I’ve got the batting with it.

My finished quilt tops waiting to be quilted are folded up  – with the binding and backing if I have it and are stored in two crates.  The crates are labeled, so when I decide it’s time to quilt one of them, I can tell before dragging the crate off the top shelf if it’s in that crate.

Check out the links over at Jill’s to see how others store their PIGS and UFOs.

P.S.  I guess I should clarify how I use the terms:

PIGS – Project In Grocery Sack – fabric and pattern stored together, but not started.  This list is short only 11 projects.

UFO – UnFinished Object – it’s been started but is not yet a quilt top.  There are 36 of these, which is why I’m participating in several UFO Challenges.

Top – some times referred to as a Flimsy. This is a quilt top waiting to be quilted.  I have 39 of these waiting to be quilted.  There are 8 on my list to quilt this year as part of various UFO Challenges, but the rest will be done when I need a quilt for a specific reason.

 

 

 

Posted in: PIGS