Friday Finish

When I awoke this morning it was with almost a sigh of relief because this monstrosity was finished. That is to the flimsy stage, but that is as far as I have to take it. Ivy will quilt it when it is needed for Habitat. It measures 88 by 104 so it is a very nice queen size top. I really liked how it turned out and it was a joy to have most of the cutting done for me so that I could just sew. Having it cut like that is the only way I could have put this thing together in five weeks. Ivy and Cora cut most of the logs and I had a box of 2.5 inch squares that I used for the flying geese and the center parts of the saw tooth stars. Just about all I had to cut were the rectangles for the flying geese and I had a bunch of light 2.5 inch strips so they just had to be subcut. Yes this one used up a lot of our scrap stash but by no means all of it.

Another project that has taken up most of my time these last two weeks is the placemats the guild it doing for Meals on Wheels. This was brought up at the September meeting and after checking with the organization it is a go. I have been working on different samples and methods to present at the October meeting and I had finished the last of that last night, so that too was part of that early morning sigh.

So what was I going to do today? Believe me there are endless possibilities here in the sewing room so check back later to see just what I got into for the day.

Happy stitching,

Teresa

Placemats

I have mentioned before that a quilt was going to Habitat, that is the charity of choice for the Decatur Quilt Lovers Guild. This is a small group of ladies but with big hearts. We now have more quilts ready than Habitat has homes so we went looking for another project to give. We are going to make placemats for each recipient of Meals on Wheels in Morgan County. That number is 325, which is pretty ambitious for a group of about 22, but I have no doubt it is a goal we can accomplish. February is their primary fund raising month so we plan to have them ready to present at that time. We are also going to ask the ladies at Somerville Stitch Day if they would like to help so I have been working on a few examples to show as an infomercial on Saturday.

Since binding would probably be the most time consuming part this is one that I pieced and then birthed and quilted last. This eliminates the binding.

I have a box of strips so I did this one as a quilt as you go and then sewed the binding from the back and stitched it down on the front by machine. This was a big time saver.

Here is an example where I was short of long enough strips so I pieced the strips before adding to the quilt as you go method. I think it adds interest. Bound this on on the machine too.

When I went to sew the binding on this one, out of habit I sewed it to the front so I hand stitched it down. It only took me about 35 minutes to whip it down so I plan to do a few more to carry to stitch day since we mainly do hand work.

This one I used varying widths of strips, not sure I like it as well. I like to work on 2 or 3 of these quilt as you go style so that I am not getting up to iron so often. On these I have been aiming for darker more masculine appeal, but we will do a variety. 

This was a 12.5 inch orphan block that I added strips to the side. I have a couple of other test blocks this size that I have not done anything with until now. I think this will be a worthwhile finish for these blocks. I also have some smaller orphan blocks that I plan to put together. I'll load a back on the longarm and then float these placemats on top, quilt then cut apart and bind. I'm even thinking about doing some ovals ones using left over bias binding. Just cut the shapes from a large flora print I have and quilt and bind. We have 4 months to get these done but with a little bit of effort and maybe a couple of sew days we will get them done early. Two or three people working together on the quilt as you go can accomplish a lot fast. I showed Carol how to do these last week and we made 3 in less that 2 hours.

This and some quilting for others is what I will be working on this week, what do you have going?

Linking with-----
Oh, Scrap
Slow Sunday Stitching
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Main Crush Monday
Moving it Forward


Happy Stitching,

Teresa







 

Friday Finish

This little pink cutie was on my 12 for 12 list and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to finish and mark off the list. The above picture is how I would display it with the smaller blocks at the top with them getting bigger towards the bottom.

But if I remember the pattern correctly this is how they had it photographed. Which do you think is correct or does it really matter?

2017 Project List

1. En Province-------March finish
2. Jamestown landing in green
3. Black and White disappearing nine patch--------June finish
4. Split Rail ---------February finish
5. 100 patch------July Finish
6. Three inch shoe fly----- August finish
7. North woods - king ----May finish
8. Black white and red rails ---------   January finish
9. Pink 1 x 4 x 16------September finish
10. Rick Rack Nines
11. Oversize Dreams   ----- April finish
12. Blue all around

 Three more months left in the year and I am still on target. Number 12 is out in the quilt shack ready to quilt. It is going to require a little custom quilting and that is something I am not that good at, so that is the reason it keeps getting pushed back, but I am running out of time on it. The blocks are all made on number 10 and it is partially assembled. I think I only have 10 more rows but they are the longest ones since it is set on point and I have worked from both ends. Now I have the middle to go. Last is number 2, Jamestown landing in green, I still need to finish some of the string pieced blocks in neutrals and then the border is string pieced in green. Can't put this off much longer if I want to get it finished before the end of the year. I have a few things to do for others plus the guild has made pillow cases for the Harvey victims and we are now tackling place mats for all the recipients of Meals on Wheels in Morgan County so I will be spending a good bit of time on this over the next 4 months.

What have you finished today?

Linking with----
  
Whoop Whoop
Finish it up Friday
Off the Wall Friday
Finished or Not Friday


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Back on the Wall

One of this weeks goals was to work on one of my 12 for 12 projects. I have three left and I thought they all required a good bit of piecing, so imagine my surprise when I pulled out the pink one and discovered I had all the blocks made and even had the bottom 6 rows put together. It is a small quilt, each unit or block is 4.5 inches or 4 inch finished. So I got the rows put together then sewed to each other last night. I found the perfect piece for the back and this morning I pieced the binding so it is again off the design wall and ready to go to the quilt shack. I would really love to get it quilted tomorrow just not sure if that will happen. When I showed the top to Johnny, his response was "that's different" I think that is code for not really liking it. Probably a little to artsy for his taste. It was a fun little project. I used the same white on all the little 16 patch blocks. I made four patches from 1.5 inch strips and then put 4 together for the 16 patch. It is 10 blocks wide and 14 down.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

The Coming Week

Wow as I logged on today I realized it has been 10 days since my last post. I have not taken time off from quilting in fact I have been very busy. I just didn't slow down long enough to post anything. Some things I don't post, such as when I am working on something for someone else, and others I don't think would be very interesting or is just the same ole same ole. Trying to do better in the future I am not sure what the weather will bring to us this week. You would think we were far enough north here in North Alabama, but apparently not. Our biggest concern here will be possible tornadoes from Irma. I have a lot I need to do so I am making a list to keep me on track, hopefully.

1. Quilt half yard challenge
2. Bind half yard challenge
3. Make label for half yard challenge
4. Quilt both white/off white table runners
5. Bind both runners
6. Work on one of the last three 12 for 12 projects
7. Work on borders and bindings for older tops
8. Keep at it in the sewing room(still have a long way to go )

There won't be any pictures of the half yard challenge yet since it won't be revealed until December guild meeting.

Here are a couple of older tops that I did get backs and binding ready and carried out to the quilt shack.

This sisters choice pattern is made with left over Thimbleberry fabric. I taught the block of the month for four years at Quilter's Refuge and I still have some of the fabric.

This pattern was called Christmas Ribbons. I think it may have been a strip club kit.

Still have lots of older tops that need to move to the finished quilt category.

Linking today with----


Oh, Scrap
Slow Sunday Stitching



Happy Stitching,

Teresa