To Do Tuesday #31

 

Hello everyone!  I'm checking in at ChrisKnits with my to-do list. It's a great place to see what others are doing and to keep yourself accountable.

To-Do list for next week March 9 through the 16th. 

1. Work on OMG for March. "Heartland"   ✔

2. Work on 2nd border for Spool Quilt    ❌

3. Take binding off the cross stitched Noah's Ark quilt to prepare of backing  ❌

4. Find a home for these counted cross stitch Angel patterns. And continue to sort through counted cross stitch patterns and fabric.    1/2 Done

 I’ve posted it to my messenger account. If I don’t get any takers, I’ll  save it for the boutique at the NEW Quilt Show in October. 

Instead of my list:

I worked on a Dreami! I made a vinyl fronted project bag. I had a 12 x12 patchwork that I put together awhile back to try to get rid of the lime green chicken fabric. I thought I had taken a photo but I can’t find it. So here it is in use. 

The backing I made with various black squares and the infamous chicken fabric! 

This is the front with vinyl. The black floral is the inside. The bright green is the zipper facing. I bound it with some scrappy black on white. 

I used this pattern from Moda Bake Shop! I don’t usually have trouble sewing with vinyl. But I do use the paper that comes with the vinyl between the throat plate of my machine and the vinyl! 

Next week’s list

1. Take the factory binding off this quilt! 

Because it is cross stitched on a printed image on a pre-quilted top, the stitches are exposed on the back side.  I have learned how to put a backing on this kind of quilt. I will remove the white binding. Cut a piece of flannel to make a backing. Bar tack or tiny zigzag with my machine, much like you would tie a quilt, then bind it as I would a pieced quilt. This will be given to my youngest granddaughter when she starts her family. 

2. Finish my 4 Seasons Chick mini. 

3. Write Table Scraps Challenge post. 

4. Make fabric stitched greeting card(s). 

Wish me luck!  I wasn't very successful last week!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

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A U-turn and a different road to meet a challenge!

I’ve signed up or at least committed to a number of challenges this year. It’s been fun. You can check out my progress, at least some of it. by clicking on 2019 Challenges tab at top of the page.

One of the challenges that is not on the challenges page is my local guild challenge. We select 6 projects for the year. Every 2 months, a die is rolled and that number's project is due in 2 months. In March the #3 was rolled. On my list: 8 Covered in Love Block ( the May-June blocks selected by Kat of Kat and Cat Quilts) were due to be shown. Not a problem usually. But this time, Kat is taking a break from asking for blocks and wants us to support a charity like Jack's Basket, or Mercyful Quilts, or others.
Yikes...how am I going to get a quilt done in 15 days, to show to my local  guild and meet my challenge. I followed Nancy at Grace and Peace Quilts last year and she committed to 52 quilts in 52 weeks!  She selected to support Jack's Basket and made a baby size quilt from a pattern called Simple Gifts . This pattern was from a little book called Fat Quarter Love from Modern Quilt Studio. (no affiliation, just pointing you to the book)  I ordered the book, but had not made a quilt yet. So I got busy. I did not have fat quarters that I wanted to use, but I did have leftover baby fabric - Winnie the Pooh. I fussy cut from chunks of fabric, selected 2 other coordinating stash fabrics and a strip of contrasting fabric for the dividing strip. Here is what it looks like on the design wall.

I don't have a long arm machine, but I'll  piece a backing from some extra fabric and another Pooh chunk. I will piece an appropriate size batting too. I'll contact my favorite long arm quilter and see if she a time to "whip out a quick stipple". I should have it ready to reveal on the 19th. Wish me luck!

 Some left over fabric from the front, and another Pooh fabric should be good for the back.

The red with white polka dots is the contrasting strip and I will use it for the binding too!!


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Final So Scrappy Saturday of April

So Scrappy Saturday hosted by Angela at So Scrappy!

I decided to put all my April Aqua blocks and projects on the design wall. I am disappointed because I am running out of Aqua strings and scraps to make more string blocks. A couple pieces are large enough to cut the length needed to go on the diagonal, but the rest are too little or they are over fat quarter size. ( I find it hard to cut into those) 😞

I have one string block and another under my needle. 6 bowtie blocks, 6 scrappy sprout blocks, and 3 Tiny Tuesday blocks. I did not get the one from last week, made yet.  And hopefully there will be one more, 5 Tuesdays in April. Also at the top of my design board are the first 25 blocks of my April row on my Temperature Quilt. It reads Aqua also.  There are a couple of green signifying warmer weather, but mostly April has been from 35 degrees to upper 60's.  There were a couple of days that we reached 71.

I think I will put out an APB ( All Points Bulletin) for aqua strings at my next guild meeting. I could be sorry!!!

Until next Saturday,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

OMG for April and A Finish!

I am so pleased that I have this platform to commit to a project and see it through. Sometimes I am like a squirrel that gets distracted easily. That is not always a bad thing, but having to be accountable really does work for me. I'm a "pleaser", my counselor trained sister would say!

I am not sure when this project was started. ( I checked the blog, it was 2013). It took me a really long time to make myself put the center of the top together. Here is a post dated 1-13-15, where I wrote about this quilt. Finding the "right" background fabric was a challenge. I think it is a bit light, but it is growing on me. I originally thought I would " tea stain" it. But now I am rethinking that. Anyway, long story, short!  The borders!!!

I finally had traced all the parts and pieces on to Heat and Bond lite. or Pellon Wonder Under 805  Then I started to pick green fabrics for the vines and leaves. Lots of leaves, lots of inches of vine. There is a bird = blue? or brown? There is a scissors = black? gray? or something else? What about the bud?  Pink? or red? purple? or yellow? Decisions, decisions!

This is the only photo I have of some of the vine. The directions say trace 13 of these and 13 reversed! 

So finally I decided to use OMG to keep me focused!  I committed to one border with  finished applique. When I opened the project box, a bit of a snafu!  I had fused some of the vines on the wrong side of a fabric. If using batik, that doesn't matter, no right or wrong side of those. But I had picked a few other green fabrics. The fusible is on the other side. This is the side that will be up in the finished project!

Shoult I re-trace and re-cut? Probably!  Maybe not,  cause sometimes the back of a fabric works just as well. So I tried cutting the vines out and laying them down with the others.  Eureka!!!  It's OK?  So, encouraged I continued and got the layout done and on the border fabric.

The first of the bud and 2 lengths of vine. The upside down fabric blends well!
 Laying on my ironing board. More vine, buds and a couple of hearts.

Then I was gone for almost a week, then there was Easter preparations! The Monday after Easter, I got busy. Selected thread, practiced the zig zag stitch. so I could decide the length and width. And actually wrote it down, because I knew that there would be no way I would get it stitched all in one sitting.

And now it is done. The ends of the vines at the top and bottom are not attached because they over lap the top border piece and bottom border piece. Some close ups of the zig zag. A little rusty, but getting better.

 Above you can see the upside down fabric on the pink buds. It's not bad!

 Stitch #2, Width at 2, length at 1. I used an applique foot for better viewing!

 Hearts and vine and leaf

 More leaves and vines. The bud holders here are the wrong side of the fabric!

 Some "flowers" and below my favorite purple flower.

Here is the border, laying beside the quilt. Not attached yet. The vines hang off the top and bottom edge. When the top and bottom borders are added, they will overlap and get connected. The piece is a tad long to allow for adjustment.

This is the right border! I have marked it with a scrap of fabric basted at the top. I have to make notes on everything these days.  "Senior moments"

And my April OMG goal has been met. Now to continue with the other 3 borders!  Another month maybe!.

I'm linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

April OMG Linking Up

I have many goals for April!  Finish the book I am reading!  Keep up with my Temperature Quilt and get better at posting on Instagram! Do the Tiny Tuesday Block in the current color, an offering from Angela at So Scrappy!  I also signed up for APQ UFO Challenge 2019. And I want to spend at least part of one week with my sister!

But, my OMG for April is to get at least one border done on my Spool Quilt! This project was started a long time ago. I need to research to find out what year! My group exchanged strips for the spools. Then I finally got the center of the top put together. I think it is a little light and so I put it away. I started the tracing of the pieces for the applique border. But again got stopped.  Maybe there was a baby quilt that needed to be done, or a comfort quilt for my brother or something?

 This is the book from Edyta Sitar that has the pattern.  There are a lot of other blocks in this book that call to me!

 This is the graphic showing the spools and the applique border.

And this is on my cutting table this morning. I got out the tote and pulled out the contents. The borders are cut and labeled.  "check"    Some tracing is done! "check" 

Now to begin to cut out, place and fuse down and machine applique. I will be doing the borders one at a time, then connecting the corners. This method was suggested and endorsed by several members that have their version completed. It will make it easier to man handle the bulk through the machine as I machine applique all those vines and flowers.  So there it is: One Border of the Spool quilt! 


Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts.  April OMG 


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

A quilt top finished and donated. Challenge completed.

All People Quilt -  Final UFO Challenge for 2018.  Jelly Jive top - get it DONE!

  This is the quilt top that I finished at a retreat and just could not get back to it. I don't like it! My friends like it, one even offered me some fabric for binding.  So I was determined to "git'r done!"
And these next two pictures are of the completed quilt.

I ordered some wide backing. Never having used that before, I made a math error and so I inserted a bit of the binding fabric to make it work. I think it looks alright!

My friend quilted it for me, in a pink thread and I think that is good too! I decided to donate it to our local libraries "silent auction" in November. I recently received this letter from the library foundation.  My quilt brought $50 and in all, the library received $2,150.50 in proceeds. I am disappointed, that more was not given to the auction. But a UFO is done, someone has a new quilt I hope they love and some dollars were received by our library. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Five more little finishes on a Friday

One of the groups I quilt with has a annual Christmas party and gift exchange.   I received a wonderful bag of goodies. One of the items was a pattern and some fat quarters. The pattern is from June Tailor  and includes a panel of 7 printed inspirational sayings.

 

 Right after Christmas I made two mug rugs with Christmas like fabrics. 

I used scraps from my scrap tub and they both have a gold scroll backing. I posted about these here and noted how I had to use scrap binding and the difficulty I had in joining the short pieces ending the binding.

In February I decided to work on the remaining 5 mug rugs. Using the fat quarters that were in my gift and some of my stash. I pieced this one.

And there it sat, layered but not quilted! As with UFO's, I packed it away in a project box, knowing it was on a UFO list and I would get back to it.

Enter several bags of scraps from some friends that saw me making strip blocks for Covered in Love for donation in February. See my post about these HERE.  I sorted through the bags and started to sort according to color. Then an idea popped into my head. I decided to use the scraps from the four friends to make them each a mug rug. After all it's fabric that they liked!  So I began.

One top pieced for Eileen

 A second one pieced for Carol.

 This little piece is needing some fabric selected from the bag from Lynn.

At my machine with pieces on my small design boards.   This one will be for Maggie

 And now they are finished!  Plus the blue, aqua and green one will go to the giver of the gift, Sandy.  I had so much fun doing these. They each have a backing from my stash and all the other fabric is from each scrap bag.

I am linking this post at Busy Hands Quilts Finished or Not Fridays and also to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday. 


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Chicks Challenge #1 Teal/Black 5 yard quilt

Almost, but not quite!

On March 18th, my local quilt group (Quilting Chicks) had our semi-monthly reveal day and die roll.
I showed the Space Ship Quilt and matching pillowcase that was my #6 challenge. Then Nickie rolled the die for the project that will be due/revealed in May.  She rolled #1.  My number one is a black and teal quilt that is to be ready for the quilter. It is fabric that I purchased in Sheridan, WY in May of 2016. It was still in the bag from the shop with the receipt.

I got the fabric out and the 5-yard pattern. I wondered if I could cut the large motif fabric to highlight the larger medallions. But because they are not quite far enough apart to do it in way that would not waste lots of fabric....I would need more yardage. The selvage was intact, so I hit the internet. Every site I checked was sold out of the large print. It is Isabella by WilmingtonPrints .  Some had small yardage of the coordinating fabric but not the one I needed.  So I cut as well as I could . I don't think it looks bad at all.

But note to self:  If you might want to fussy cut, be sure to buy 2x as much fabric as you think you need.

Then I wondered about the light gray I purchased for the center of the #2 blocks. So I cut fabric for 5 blocks and put it up on my design wall. I even cut some while on white from my stash for alternate frames for the focus block. I did not like the white at all.

Then I was really flummoxed. So I made a special post to only my quilting friends...and they weighed in. The majority of them like the black in the center instead of the light gray. (Sorry for the out of focus pic)

So I went with that.

I am liking it. This one will be for my daughter. She is not really into lots of flowers etc, so I think this will suit her.

Now the top is done, the inner teal borders are on. 

I am not sure about the gray print for the  4 1/2" outside border. 

How about the gray swirls. Does it look too light?  I thought of the black as the binding, but now I think is it too stark. I don't want to buy more fabric and most of this line is sold out on line anyway. I'll have to come up with something completely different for the binding.  Oh Boy!!!  I am frustrated!

Well, so here it is.   Finished or NOT!  I'll link up to Myra's Finished or Not Friday.  
and maybe Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday if her link up  is still open. When I checked just now at 8:15pm Friday, MDT the link up was already closed!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy