A Quick Finish of a UFO

December 30, 2022 6:47 pm ⋅ Pam

As mentioned in my Countdown Day 1 post, I took a class back in April 2009 on free-motion quilting on my sewing machine. Managed to get the center done in class and simply didn’t finish the piece. This afternoon I sewed a couple of FQ to the top and bottom so I could load it on my longarm.

Originally the intent was to do free-motion on the long arm, but I decided the piece was too small to mess with, especially since I had cool triangles I could drop into the corners.

I sewed an envelope closure and used an 18″ pillow form.

Posted in: Final Countdown, Machine Quilting, pillowcase

Day 2 – The Final Countdown with Prairie Moon Quilts

December 30, 2022 8:48 am ⋅ Pam

Today’s task is:

Clean out a storage area

My Quilt Studio doesn’t have any closets, so everything is out in the open, albeit it storage totes. So, I’m going to first focus on this tote and project box.

The tote on the left is the leftover fabric from Frolic – the 2019 Quiltville Mystery. Although I finished the top in the middle of 2019, I knew I needed to make the backing wider and wanted to make additional blocks to piece down the middle. I had both a project box and this tote with the top in it. Once the backing was complete, I put everything “away” into the tote. I finished the quilt this past summer so now it’s time to really put this fabric away. The project box on the right contains the leftover fabric from Shimmer and the 2021 SQG BOM. Those fabrics need putting away as well. There is another project waiting to go into the project box and I’m sure I have enough fabric laying around to fill up the tote.

The 2nd area which needs worked on is the Sunroom AKA The Studio Annex. Although I won’t be able to move the pile of quilts in the corner, I do need to get the books back on the shelves.

Here’s an update on yesterday’s task.

Option 2 – the Faux Applique.

I found the floss — and it was in the first place I looked! Many moons ago a couple of friends and I took an applique class and we had matching sewing baskets. Apparently a few years later when we went to the Faux Applique class we took our baskets because that’s where I found my floss. Now if I could find my hoop.

Option 3 is the log cabin quilt.

One log was added to all of the blocks and I started stitching the second log when I ran out of bobbin thread. So I called it a night.

Posted in: Faux Applique, Final Countdown, log cabin

The Final Countdown with Prairie Moon Quilts

December 29, 2022 3:25 pm ⋅ Pam

I have sporadically participated in The Final Countdown with Prairie Moon Quilts over the years and I’ve decided to do it again this year.

Today’s task is:

Choose something you can finish quickly and do it

This past year I’ve been working hard to knock my UFOs out. I finished all 12 of the UFOs on my 2022 Brandon Quilters UFO Challenge list, plus another 5, so there’s not a whole lot left that is a quick finish. After going through my UFO list these are my options:

On the left is the Machine Quilting Sampler from a class in 2008. Free motion quilting on my sewing machine is not a skill I ever became proficient at and at this point it is unlikely that I will. However, my free-motion skills on the long arm could use some practice. I could add some fabric to each end so I can load this on my longarm and finish the quilting there.

On the right is another class project, this one from May 2012. The first thing I need to so is sit still, in good light, and do the embroidery, then I can decide how to finish the piece. Maybe I need to pull my notes and thread and set this by my chair to work on while I’m watching TV in the evenings. Currently I’m re-watching The Librarian — both the moves and the TV show.

A third option is to simply finish these blocks. I think there are 26 or 27 blocks that each need 2 more logs. Once that is done I can start on the quilt top. This quilt is on my 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO Challenge. It is what I’m working on until the next Quiltville Mystery Quilt clue comes out on Friday I want to have this quilt completed (quilted, bound, labeled and washed) by mid-January, so I can’t procrastinate on this quilt.

On my 2023 UFO list5 is the Pizza Block quilt. I plan to have finished by mid January as well. I haven’t decided how it will be quilted, but I can make the binding so when it comes off the longarm I can finish it.

Finally there is this quilt – Princess and the Pea.Also on my 2023 UFO list, I threw it on the long arm and the computer quilted it earlier while I was working on the log cabin blocks. Then I realized that I have no idea what I’m going to use for binding.

So, in summary the plan for my ‘quick finishes’ are

loading the machine quilting sampler on the long arm to practice my free-motion quilting
gathering the thread and working on the embroidery on my Faux Applique in the evenings
finish the last of the log cabin blocks so I can begin assembly
make the pizza box binding so it will be ready to go when when the top is quilted
decide and make the binding for the Princess and the Pea quilt.

I won’t get them all done before the first, but I should have significant progress on all of them by the 9th.

Posted in: Final Countdown, log cabin, Machine Quilting, Pizza Box, Princess and the Pea

Design Wall Monday – Christmas Weekend

December 26, 2022 5:56 am ⋅ Pam

First, I hope you had a Merry Christmas – and stayed warm! I can’t say I’ve not been in cold weather like we had before, but it was further north!

First up for the weekend stitching is my Quilts By Hearts Desire Pizza Box Challenge quilt. I was able to finish the quilt top. Later this week I’ll get it loaded on the longarm to get it quilted. This quilt is on my 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO list and I would like to have it done by January 16th QBHD meeting.

Next it was time to work on the Quiltville Mystery Quilt – Chilhowie. These blocks went together quickly. I can’t wait to see what our next step it.

With both the Pizza Box done and the Mystery caught up, it was time to pull something else out. I pulled out the Log Cabin quilt which I started in September and haven’t worked on since I got back from the quilt retreat in September. I just have the last 2 dark logs to add to the rest of the blocks before I can start assembling the quilt top. I’d like to have this one finished by mid-January as well.

Posted in: 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO, Chilhowie, designwall, Pizza Box

A New Dress for Betsy

December 21, 2022 9:07 am ⋅ Pam

I don’t remember how old I was when I got my Betsy doll for Christmas. I have her original pink dress, plus a couple of dresses that I wore when I was her size. A red cotton dress my maternal grandmother made me and a light blue dress that my mother made me. I felt she needed something more festive for Christmas, so I went shopping and found this velvet and taffeta dress. She wears a size 2T.

I have a few more pieces of sashing and corner stones to make then I can start assembling the quilt.

Posted in: Pizza Box

What’s on My Design Wall

December 19, 2022 9:33 am ⋅ Pam

Over the weekend I finished both Clue #3 and Clue #4 of the Quiltville Mystery Quilt Chilhowie. I saw some grumbling about folks running out of orange fabrics and I think I know why. Although 2 yards is mathematically 1/2 yard more than is needed, when working from FQs and needing matching sets, if the orange squares from Clue #2 were not evenly distributed from each FQ and not cut along the width of the FQ I can see where you would run out if you only purchased 8 FQs. I had 13.

My current Leader & Ender project is Rivanna. I think I have 30 different fabrics, so I’m about 1/4 of the way through the HST. This is a quilt for my guest bed, so there’s no rush.

After finishing Clue # 4, I worked on the sashings for my Pizza Box quilt. The units for the inner portion of the border sashing is done and now I’m working on the outer portion. I hope to have everything pieced before the next clue comes out.

But I’m already planning my next quilt – or rather how to finish a quilt on my UFO list. I pulled the fabrics on the left from my stash, but naturally I don’t have enough fabric, so a trip the LQS was in order to see what I could find. The fabric on the right came home with me. I love the that diagonal stripe as a binding. We’ll see if I use it or not. My plan is to have my decorating Christmas Quilting done by July this year as the guild program that month is Christmas Quilts by our members. I have 2 Christmas quilts on next years UFO Challenge list. The list was complied and turned in prior to knowing what the program was going to be. I might have added a 3rd quilt had I known.

Posted in: 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO, Chilhowie, Christmas Star Swap, Leaders & Enders, Pizza Box, Rivanna

Did Someone Say Rulers?

December 16, 2022 7:26 pm ⋅ Pam

Yes, I seem to have duplicates. I found all of these because I was looking to see if I had something to help me trim the hourglass units from Part 3 of the Quiltville Mystery – Chilhowie. I can attest to having recently purchased an Easy Angle Ruler. I couldn’t find mine — or my Essential Triangle Ruler. Then I found the small one which worked for whatever it was I was doing. I just opened the new ruler last weekend….

As I was putting the box up, I looked up through the wires shelf and yes, I found my Essential Triangle tool. I’ve put all the rest of the tools back in the box.

As for those hourglass units, I found a Quilt In A Day Fussy Cut ruler the exact size of these hourglass units. It has made trimming these units so much easier and makes me wonder why I put off working on them. I think I have 1/3 of the sets left to do before I start Clue 4 which was released this morning.

It wasn’t just the dread of making the hourglass blocks which caused me to put them off. I’ve been working on the sashing for my pizza box quilt. I think I have all the sashing cut and just need to sew. I hope to get both Clue 4 and this top finished this weekend as I have decided how I’m going to finish another set of swap blocks and just bought the necessary fabric…..

Posted in: 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO, Chilhowie, Christmas Star Swap, Pizza Box, Quilts

A Weekend of This and That

December 11, 2022 11:18 pm ⋅ Pam

First up is Part 2 of the Quiltville Mystery Quilt – Chilhowie. I’m running about a week behind. When clue #2 came out I was in the home stretch of finishing the UFOs on my challenge list so I barely looked at clue # 2. As when I have a big push to finish something I’m exhausted both mentally and physically. But I rallied this weekend for a road trip.

Last December Ruby and I traveled to Dekalb, Mississippi to visit Village Cloth Shoppe and I purchased fabric for my Pizza Box quilt – 1 yard each of the pink, green, yellow and blue and 4 yards of the black and multi-colored fabric. I’ve finally decided on a layout and I didn’t have enough of the blue or black fabric. Although I could attempt a search of the black fabric as the name is in the selvage, there was no identifying information on the blue. So, this past weekend we headed back to Dakalb. My intention was to simply ask the owner if she had any of the fabric. But as she was with a customer, I walked down the aisle of black fabrics. Lo and behold, there was the bolt. Since I got lucky with the black fabric I circled to around to the blue, and found it! I also picked up the card pattern.

On our way home we took a side trip to Sciple’s Water Mill.

We picked up some stone ground corn meal, fish fry, grits, and wheat.

We stopped for lunch in Philadelphia, MS, which is the home town of Marty Stuart – which reminded us we wanted to go see The World of Marty Stuart at Two Mississippi Museums, which we did Sunday afternoon.

Posted in: Chilhowie, Pizza Box

UFO Challenge #12

December 5, 2022 9:03 pm ⋅ Pam

I said I was done when I finished the SQG 2021 BOM. I was wrong.

This is the Green & Cream or was it Cream and Green Swap Block? Either way, the blocks were swapped in 2006. I don’t have notes to know what group I swapped these in. Since it is that old, I started of doing quilt-as- you-go — not my favorite method as evidenced by it still not being finished 7 years after I planned to give it as a Christmas gift! Normally, I don’t TELL the person I’m giving them a quilt so I can just kick the quilt down the line, but this time, I gave them a piece of paper that looked like this:

In the past 7 years I managed to get the top two rows sewn together and to each other and had part of the 3rd row done. Saturday morning I decided the only way this quilt was going to be finished was if I ripped out all of the quilting and assembled it so it could be quilted on the long arm. And that’s what I did. Before I went to bed, I had the quilt loaded on the machine ready to start quilting it. I stayed up Sunday night after binding it to wash and dry the quilt.

I quilted it with 40wt Glide in Thyme. The E2E design is Fresco Feathers.

Now to decide if I’m going to try and lift the green from the batik block or leave well enough alone.

Posted in: 2022 Brandon Quilters UFO, Cream & Green Swap Sampler

2021 Starlight Quilters Guild BOM – Done

December 3, 2022 11:13 am ⋅ Pam

This is my version of the 2021 Starlight Quilters Guild Block of the Month. I started it, then halfway through I started moving so it was put up in a box to be completed later.

With the possible exception of the background fabric, everything came from my stash. The sashing fabric was purchased years ago when I was looking for a light blue to repair a vintage quilt. The backing fabric was left over from Shimmer.