Unquilting

 
Did you have a nice Christmas? I did. My niece and her family came for dinner and presents on Christmas Eve. Just mom and me on Christmas Day...and lots of leftovers.

No sewing was done last week. But I did do a lot of prep work.

All of the units for the Aunt Daisy blocks were laid out on the design wall. They are now all grouped together and are ready sew. Goal is to finish them by the end of January.

Got the borders cut out for the flannel quilt. Not sure about the cream pop border but that was what was in the kit.

Donna made the utility bin. It still needs the raw edges finished. The binding is made. I'm hoping to attach it this weekend. Machine sew one side then hand sew the second side.

Found a thread color to finish the estate sale Christmas placemats (color matches better in person). I probably won't work on them until next Monday at my guild meeting.

And then there is the unquilting...

This is my thrift store find from May 2023. I have spent a lot of time slowly taking out the little itty bitty quilting stitches. I've probably worked on this about six hours already and have only removed about a quarter of the quilting. Please don't hate me for removing the hand quilting. I love this quilt and really want to turn it into a finished quilt.

I hope you all have a very Happy New Year!

Are You Ready?

 Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

I still have to wrap my gifts.

Mom and I have been baking cookies and making candy.

We've also done a good job of eating it.

Around a bazillion trips to the grocery store I have been able to get little bit of sewing done.

This is one of the estate kits that Angela brought up. It included the pattern and was already cut out. It was supposed to be a leader-ender project, but it was so fast and easy to put together I just went for it. I still have to add the borders. There was enough fabric cut out to make three quilts, I decided to double the size of the original pattern. The fabric is Woolies flannel by Maywood Studios. Soooo soft! 

I also made a little table topper with my leftover Ginger Belle 4-patch blocks. 

Measures about 16 x 22.

Tomorrow will be lots of cooking and family, then Christmas Day should be very quiet with just mom and I.

I hope you all have a very Happy Holiday!

Lots of Binding

 I made the binding for Ginger Belle and it is put away until it's needed.

I made the binding for the quilt from H E double hockey sticks (don't want to owe the cuss jar more money).

As I mentioned before this is a "cheater" fabric. You buy it by the yard already pieced. The seams are serged and thick. My thread kept breaking in the minky areas. I noticed after I finished quilting it that there were some very large stitches...again only in the minky areas. I carefully removed the large stitches, and after adding the binding, went back over the areas that I removed with my walking foot.

I have three more of these "quilt tops" to quilt...not looking forward to it. 

I was able to load another quilt sandwich and finish it.

A little drab, but I'm sure there is a young boy out there who would love cuddling up with mountain lions. I used a new pantograph that I think gave the quilt lots of texture.

When Angela visited she brought me a cat puzzle. I put it together a couple of weeks ago but keep forgetting to show a picture.

Want to make an easy puzzle difficult? Don't lose a piece, add in an extra piece. It's not a duplicate piece either. Thanks Angela, it was fun to put together.

Almost Finishes

 The baby quilt is off the frame, trimmed, and the binding cut. I'll show the finished quilt next week. 

The Ginger Belle top is done, the binding is cut and the red wide back I bought a couple of weeks ago will go on the back.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. It is 80 x 80. I'm not sure if I will attempt to quilt it myself or have someone else do it. It will fit on my frame, but I'd really be pushing its limits. 

I had a few 4-patches left over. I think I'm going to turn them into a little mug rug or table topper.

My leader-ender project is also almost done.

Scrappy quilts just make me happy. This isn't the final layout, I just wanted to get an idea of how it is going to look.

I also got my Christmas tree up.

Whew! it was a lot of work taking it out of the box and plugging it in. ;o)

Getting Closer

 Nothing new or exciting...we did have a nice Thanksgiving at my niece's house. Lots of food. Lots of leftovers.

Made progress on Ginger Belle.

I've been adding the pieced border as I go. I have one more row to add - it will take longer as it has the final pieced border added to each block before the blocks are sewn into a row. Probably takes longer that way but I know I will have a good distribution of colors.

Slow going on getting this quilted...mostly because I'm avoiding it.

Probably the worst quilting I've ever done. All the passes are left to right so taking a little longer and still having thread breakage. I think I have four more passes to make. The cuss jar is overflowing.

This is Bella's current favorite place to be.

Notice the heat vent above her...it's been cold here. Isn't it a law that you have to constantly complain about the weather...was too wet, now too cold...hate the heat.