Red String

I hope to be getting a lot of this done in August. Get that stack of basted quilts whittled down.

March UFO Challenge

March UFO Challenge

My UFO for Judy's challenge for the month of march was the spool quilt. My goal for each month would be to get the quilt done that month. Or at least move it to the next step, or work on it a little at least.

So

January--- Broken Dishes Quilt--- finished the UFO

February--- Star BOM---- made a couple blocks pieced the blocks and sashing got it ready to quilt. Hoping to quilt it by the end of the year.

March----- Spool quilt------- made the back and basted the quilt so it's ready to quilt. Afraid to start quilting because I not sure how I want to quilt it. Tomorrow I will start.

So I'm falling a little behind but, at least making some progress. Now to go dig out April's UFO.

Last of the Basting

Here are the last 3 quilts I basted before I ran out of pins. Guess I have a few quilts to quilt now.

A Little Basting Challenge

A little Basting Challenge



Since I was going to baste the star quilt I thought I might as well make it worth it to dig out all that stuff. So I'm challenging myself to use up all the batting I have stuffed away here and there. Yes even all those pieces. I hope to do at least 2 a day. I have pieces of time through out the day and will have to push to keep making progress on the basting. So yesterday I got 2 done. The Dresden plate and the snails tail quilt. The Snails tail quilt was started at least 10 years ago and I've probably had the top done about 5 years. It's an oldie. Today so far I have one done the green one with the crazy strip sashing. I get these out after so long I can't believe how nice they are why haven't I finished these up. I report agine when I have a few more done.

Making Progress

Making Progress

First here is my goal UFO quilt for the month. I started it about 2 years ago. A few months ago I decided to give it to my one and only granddaughter. She is going to be 3 in March and is going to move to a twin bed from her toddler bed. She needs a real quilt for her bed right. I finished the quilting on this one last weekend and I have one side of the binding done. Should be right on schedule to get it done by the end of the month.

Today hubby took off to ice fish for the day so I had a free day. I basted this quilt and got it ready to quilt and started quilting it. It's a scrappy string quilt. I love to look at other peoples work space. So here's a peek at mine.

Binding

This quilt has been on the bed in the guest bedroom for a month. I finally brought it out and I am going to get the binding sewn down before the end of the year. Other then that not a lot of quilting going on here. Guess you need a break from it now and then.

Flying Days

Work, work, work, what can I say the days have been flying by. Our spec house sold after being on the market for 1 week. But we have to finish off the basement. So coordinating electricians, plumbers, and now making sure the drywallers and tapers don't make to big a mess of the upstairs. Yes the whole house is already covered with sawdust from the framing so a little drywall dust will just blend on in. And my main thing this week is to get a garage full of woodwork finished. So I can paint the walls next week. On the quilting front I try to get a little quilting done in the morning and maybe a half hour before I go to bed. I pulled the green nine patch out of my sewing machine last night and trimmed the edges this morning. I love this quilt I'll post about it when I get the binding on it.

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And I hand stitched the last of the binding on scrap angels while I watched Biggest Loser on TV last night. Might of been the only time I
sat down yesterday and relaxed.
It has a nice cozy flannel fabric back.

Getting them done in September

It's been a month since I reported on stash busted. I have been avoiding adding it up. I hit a very good quilters yard sale and made some fabric purchases. Yes almost 33 yards all wonderful very good brand name stuff that I am still drooling over. But I'm not touching it till October. I'm going to quilt up quilts this month. So my busted fabric for the year dropped down to an even 29yards busted. (and lots of turn over )


As for my September challenge....

After doing a couple blocks on this quilt I changed my mind about the quilting design. Had to think about it a few days then I ripped out a bunch of stitches and after a busy weekend gotten back to quilting. I am quilting a circles in the center of the blocks that get bigger and bigger each ring. My problem was when I reached the edges of the blocks with the circles I had to do something with the corners. I didn't like what I had done on the first 2 blocks. I decided to just do meandering quilting and fill in between the circles. I like the effect allot better. If you click on the photo I think you can see the quilting on the blocks. Hope to get this one done by tomorrow.

Getting them done in September

I just completed all the quilting on the scrap angel quilt. And the first thing I did next was grab another quilt from the tub and stick it in the machine. I had time to quilt 2 quick blocks. Tomorrow I am going to sew on the binding on scrap angels and my majestic mountains quilt that only needs binding. I guess I will be sewing binding and quilting this month.

Scrap Angels

I need to get some quilts quilted. So I pulled this already basted quilt out and started in. I would guess this quilt has been in progress since 1999 wow 10 years. I now have the center third already done. I guess my favorite part of quilt making is piecing. But what's the point of all that piecing if I never get them quilted. So I am for the month of September declaring it machine quilting month. How many can I get done? ?

Scrappy Mountains Majesty

After a couple of weeks of quilting and putting off quilting I have it quilted. I just love the way it turned out. I think I will dig into my stash and see how mush of these fabrics I still have and make a companion quilt same fabrics different pattern. It's for the camper and I could put 2 quilts on the bed in there.....

The pattern and directions I followed exactly from Bonnie Hunters Quiltville HERE

Now looking at her quilt mine is about the same colors she used greens and blues I used blues and browns/creams. Most of the fabric is from used clothing and a few quilt fabrics thrown in to get the right color scheme a couple ugly fabrics too. I used a few shirt pieces and some odd blue fabrics for the back.

And there was the batting deal. I had this batting and it was the same size as the quilt. I knew it would be short, but I didn't want to buy one when I had one that would almost work. So I dug into that over flowing drawer where I put all those left over batting pieces I keep almost all of them. And just added them in when I needed them. Now I need to trim it and put the binding on before we go camping.

9 patch Cross

This one makes 5 weeks in a row I finished quilting a top. Whew!! After 5 I think I can take a break. I'm going away this weekend and next weekend. I want to do some Dear Jane blocks and Judy's BOM. I also now have 5 quilts that need binding.
I had trouble quilting this one when my machine hit the printed muslin it would skip stitches. I tried adjusting the tension changing needles and nothing seamed to help. The Dolly Madison quilt I made with some of the same muslin and didn't have a problem but, the batting is thicker on this 9 patch. The printed pattern on the muslin is sort of a rubberised paint or dye that is on top of the fabric not woven in I think that was causing the problem. So after a lot of frogging(stitch removal) I gave up and made a change of plans. I didn't quilt the muslin and tied those blocks instead. I like the finale result. I think I could make another quilt using this pattern I really like it.

Dolly Madison Star

I did get this one finished on Wednesday. That makes 4 weeks in a row I finished quilting a top. This quilt was all from scrap. I used my yellows, odd pieces of printed muslin and even scrappy pieces for the back.

Machine Quilting

Will I get it done today so I can count 4 weeks in a row I finished quilting a quilt. 2 blocks to go.

Rail Fence

Week 3 Wednesday finishes I did finish on Wednesday but just got around to posting. It's been three weeks in a row now that I got a flimsie quilted. I need to start on some bindings or I'll never get them done. Binding is not my most favorite part of quilt making.
This is a rail fence pattern I liked it because the rails were smaller then the ones I usually see. I think it makes the overall pattern really stand out. The quilt is 54 x 54 inches. A rather small quilt I should of added a few more rows to the bottom I didn't do any figuring just sewed up some strips cut them and pieced them and this is the size I ended up with. Oh well it's done. The rails were made from 1 1/2 inch strips. It feels so great to be getting some of these quilts done finally!!!! On to the one for next week.

HST Quilt

Week 2 Wednesday finishes. I have two weeks in a row now that I got a flimsie quilted. I started this quilt in June. I was looking for a way to use up scrap triangles. I am surprised this quilt sewed up so quick. It measures 52 x 63 I am going to put a binding on it using the same fabric as the border. I have to show the pieced back. My machine quilting is improving but far from perfect yet.

Judy's 1 hour a day Quilt

It's been a busy couple weeks and next week will be too! I am getting far behind on my dear baby Jane will I ever catch up with the group. I did a count of flimsies that I have it's 22 a big number. I am going to see how many weeks in a row I can finish quilting one. Not put on or finish the binding just get it quilted. So week one's Wednesday quilting finish is this quilt. It was one of Judy's I hour quilts.

5 by end of July Challange

Peg at Happy In Quilting has issued a //////Challenge\\\\\\\ a challenge to complete 5 quilt tops (or flimsies) into completed quilts by the end of July. I've decided to join in. Here is a pic of my flimsies collection numbered at 35. Oops scratch that picture. It would take me too long to stack them up for a picture. Then I would get side tracked. I did find this top and have been machine quilting it like a mad women for the last three days and I finished it just now. Thanks!!!! Peg for the motivation. I've been putting off machine quilting on my sewing machine for a month and a half. Now I've got some motivation going.

I started this quilt at lest 7 years ago. The top has been a flimsie at least for 5 years.

What I've Been Up To

What have I been doing? I finished this applique top. It's a smaller quilt 52" x 52" for a wall hanging and plan to hand quilt this one. The pattern is from Kim Diehl's book Simple Traditions. I'm going to add buttons in the flower centers and dark binding.
I dug out these string blocks and started in on these again. One pile is done and the other pile of blocks is now 3 to 4 strips from being done. After 2 days of working on them. I almost have to finish these be fore going on to any thing else it's not worth cleaning up the mess from the strings at this point. I used pages from the phone book as my base to piece on. So far it's working ok they are very easy to tear off when I'm done. Just hope my husband doesn't need the yellow pages until the new phone books come out. I may be in trouble.

It will be hard to explain to him were they are. I'm machine quilting using a walking foot. My first time with the walking foot and only my 2nd machine quilted quilt. I'm about half done. We don't use this table in the basement for any thing so it works nice to machine quilt on.