Quilting and other Things

Yvonne at Quilting Jet Girl is holding a planning party again for the coming year.  While I haven't done a lot of quilting in the last 6 months, I've done some and am getting back to it.  So am participating again.  The goals will be similar to last year. Quilting: 1.  The Motivation Monday worked really well in the first half of the year.  As I stopped and planned what was realistic to accomplish for each item for the week, I found myself accomplishing what I wanted to.  Until I got distracted by trip planning, hiking and a messy sewing area.  The Sewing area is now cleaned up, the trip is completed and there's only the photo book left to finish so I've started sewing again.  I did finish some of the twelve items I had picked and moved others along.  I think for 2018, I'll just continue to work the 2017 list and move items along or finish them.   This is one of the blocks from Common Bride.  Some of this is hand work and will ...

In April I wanted to get the rug I made in a workshop quilted but never got around to it.  I would like to get it finished this month.  I've started to quilt this evening and it shouldn't take long to quilt.  Then to trim, wash and face.  I think I'm leaving the circular bits unquilted. In May I worked on a Canadian Flag quilt.  Its needs a final adjustment then a good press to fuse the pieces in place.  I'd like to have this finished for Canada Day but I'm not sure if there will be enough time this month. The guild BOM is a top and was ready for show and tell last Thursday at our final meeting. Joining up with Patty's One Monthly Goal  

In November 2015, I went to a guild workshop taught by Al Cote to make a quilted rug .  Its been waiting for me to quilt, wash and face for a while.  It was on my goal list last year and didnt get finished.  This month, it my goal.  We received the last two parts of the guild mystery instruction last night.  Getting caught up and staying caught up was my goal in January so this month I have that top to finish and some slab block to make for the CQA Quilt Bee as well.  Linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal

The goal was to atleast complete the top which I did do by mid month.  I ended up with a quiet weekend and made wonderful progress then completing the top.  It now looks like this The strips for binding are cut and ready to be stitched together and pressed.  I haven't purchased the backing yet so it is still waiting to be quilted.  I did a search for gravity quilts and most of the ones I found are very densely custom quilted which I don't think I want to do.  I see hearts in all the shapes and am considering something heart related.  I don't think I want to do a pantograph for this one.  I think this is the only sewing I've done this month.  I got a new computer and have spent a bunch of time getting it setup, tidying some photos, learning a bit more about photoshop and some time colouring a calendar which has been fun.  March is almost over and the March page is 2/3 done.  Linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal

I finished the centre blocks last weekend and even remade some of the ones I had made originally as I didn't like them in the setting. I had misunderstood what was going on with the outer ring. After staring at the blocks for a bit I decided they would bug me and they need to be redone. Fortunately they are fairly easy to do. This week I've been working on cutting out the background so I can start stitching those blocks. Tonight I finished that and laid the first three background blocks out for stitching this weekend. The yellow flower pins have letters written on them to remind me which fabric is which. For the most part it's easy enough to tell but the darkest two are very close in colour. I'm looking forward to being able to assemble the top. As I look at it on the wall I see six hearts and am thing some heart shaped quilting in those sections would be good.

The note book and task master list that Elaine described here and here is working well.  I haven't been colour coding my lists but I may try that for a bit and see how I like it. In February I finished the binding and labeling of the tulip blocks.  These were made in our Swap a Block group in the late 90's I think.  It was the perfect piece to try quilting from the front on the long arm. Before quilting the little top, I had played for a bit with some flannel, batting, insulbrite and fabric.   These got turned into thermos covers for hiking.   Two tall ones for Tea (in cold weather) or Lemonade (In warm weather)   I had meant to make the tops a bit differently on these ones than on the original one I made last year but forgot.   There’s enough room though to wiggle a finger in between the Velcro so it will work. In February I went to the guild retreat over Family Day weekend.   It was Friday to Sunday so I took a...

Just a quick post to link up with Patty's February omg post. I wanted to at least finish the top. It got finished at my guild retreat and on Saturday I went out to Whirls and Swirls to quilt it. The binding is almost finished and then I need to add button eyes on 4 snowmen and stitch down the sleeve. Should have more detailed photos shortly.  Looking forward to cuddling on this one.  Its flannel on top and plush on the back.  So Soft!

For many years I've had an old paper bag sitting beside the cutting map to throw trimmings, scraps and threads in while I'm working. This weekend I went to the guild retreat at Elm Hurst Inn & Spa.  It was a very good weekend.  As part of the weekend, there was an optional gift exchange.  I missed the actual exchange as I had an appointment at the spa but when I came back there was a bag with a pop-up catcher pattern complete with a fat quarter on my chair.  This morning I opened it up and spent and pleasant hour or so putting it together. Here the two are together. I'll retire the paper bag and just leave the pop up out. If I ever decide I want to remove it from the table and store it, there's a bit of elastic to hold it squished down and a little loop for hanging. Very tidy! A very pretty and useful gift.

Patty at Elm Street Quilts has one monthly goal open for February for just a few more days.  I had to think a bit about which project to work on this month.  There are several to choice from.  But in the end Flakey Friends, from The Quilt Patch , won.  Its been a year since I worked on it at the guild retreat.  There were 12 snow flakes left to stitch.  Friday night I stitched two of them.  It took about 35 minutes each.  The snowmen and stars at the top also need their stitching.  Then once the top is assembled there are some additional stars to be added and the bottom snowman needs his other arm. When I first started the stitching I played with some stitches on the machine to see which I liked best on this scrap from the quilt.  I pinned a note with the stitch number, width and length that I liked.  Fortunately it caught kept with the project.  (Although last year when I blogged about this quilt after the retreat, I did ...

January has been a very productive month.  Earlier last year, I took a bag of 6" fabric squares from the Community Outreach table at guild to make into a quilt.  At retreat last year, I was using these as enders and leaders to stitch into  9 patches.  Late last year, I finally dug them out from the bottom of the table, finished piecing the 9 patches (while piece 6" blocks for the 365 quilt!) and then did a disappearing 9-patch with them.  The top is now ready to take to the guild meeting this week. The 365 quilt got quilted and bound.  It still wants a label and hanging sleeve which I should finish shortly.  There were some bonus blocks that I want to make to use in the label.  For the binding, I wanted the colours to change as it went around including some changes in corners.  A google search  lead me to Cheryl Arkinson's wonderful tutorial on how to do this.  I actually found the corners much easier to deal with than the u...

At the end of 2015, I posted a list of goals for my quilting and photography for 2016 .  The list for 2017 is here . Quilting: I started 5 new projects last year and finished one of them completely.  Six of my quilts (5 old ones) got completed as well so the Spreadsheet ended up with 52 items to complete. 1.  Use the prepurchased hours and finish tops.      I quilted 5 of my tops and 3 of Mom's at the quilt studio.  There was also one of Mom's tops that I finished hand quilting.  With the small quilt I started and finished at home, there were 10 quilts completed last year which I think is a record for me. 2.  The 365 Challenge quilt    This went really well.  For the most part I stayed up to date although by December I was getting tired and fell behind.  Still by New Years Eve, all the blocks except one corner block were made.  The top was assembled except the last border.  About 10...

My goal for January is to get caught upon this years mystery quilt that is the block of the month program at my guild. Step one was picking fabric. This is the selection. Now onto the October to January steps. Linking up with OMG at Elm Street Quilts