Finally in the Mood

 Took a while but I'm finally back in the mood to sew / quilt. 

After almost two months on the quilt frame, the contemporary quilt is finally done. I have a like / don't like feeling about the quilting.

The most important thing is it is done! I have the next relaxing on the frame; I need to make a back first. I plan on keeping the quilting on it very very very simple!

I finished the Block Step top. I've already purchased the backing fabric so this may get quilted sooner than later.

My guild had a Mischief Makers challenge last month that was due today. 

The challenge was to use the colors from the sock to make something quilted. I thought my pouch turned out cute. The ladies at the guild were going on and on about the fabric and how amazing it was. I thought it was kinda weird...the black and white doesn't look that much like the sock, then one of the other guild members explained that everyone thought the color splashes were part of the fabric print. Ha ha ha ha ha, I cut those out and fused them down, nothing amazing about that.

Angela made and sent me some Halloween goodies.

She has been making everyone fall and Halloween bunting. 

And table runners. I love mine!

Next up are the Side Hustle bags Donna and I started when I visited. I found a very good tutorial that shows all of the steps to make the bag. Hopefully they will finish a lot easier than the start was and no broken needles will occur.

I didn't do too good with my quilting numbers:

    September started with: 29

        Added: 2 (Block Step and a top donated to Q4K)

        Quilted: 1

    Ending with: 30

Hopefully, with my sewing / quilting mood back that ending number will go down in October.

Not Much to Show

 JoAnne is making a quilt for a silent auction benefit in October. She's a little rusty quilting wise (her words) so I said I'd make the same quilt and help her with some of the tricky parts. It's actually a very easy pattern and she hasn't really needed my help.

Here's mine laid out on the design bed.

The pattern is Blockstep by Robin Pickens. This is 100% a stash quilt. Hopefully the top will be finished by the end of this week, I'm getting behind on my Wensleydale blocks.

I finally bit the bullet and worked on this quilt for a couple of hours yesterday. It's been on the frame for over a month and it needs to go. I changed the needle - that seems to have helped with the skipped stitches. I'm also only quilting from left to right - that seems to have helped with the thread breaking.

I'm custom quilting it - so it is slow going.

That's it. Like I said, not much to show.

Busy

 It's been busy here but not with sewing. 

To start, lets looks at my quilting stats...pretty sad.

August started with: 30

  Added: 0

  Quilted: 1

Ending with: 29

One of my Aunt Daisy quilts is finished - almost, you can see the binding in the picture. But I didn't quilt it.

Donna quilted it. The blue quilt below isn't included in my count as I gave this quilt to Donna years ago. She recently quilted, added the binding and gave it back to me.

 Love how both turned out.

I did try to finish a quilt.

Stopped when the thread kept breaking and I noticed a bunch of skipped stitches. 

I had the opportunity to get away for a week and visit friends. My grand-niece stayed with my mom and I did a LOT of driving. First to Idaho to see Donna for a few days. Then I broke up the trip to California with an overnight stay with an old friend who lives in Reno, Nevada. I went on to Palo Alto to spend a few days visiting Angela, then a quick overnight visit in Hayward with Stephanie before heading for home.

Visiting Donna and Angela is dangerous. I never come home empty handed. Donna cleared out her UFOs and I ended up with seven more projects. All cut out and a few partially made. Plus at least three kits and two fabric bundles that she decided she didn't like. Oh, and she decided she didn't like quilting with So Fine thread, I got a huge box of thread also.

Angela had two projects that she had picked up from her guild free table and a ton of fabric.

Here is some of the haul

I know, these are all good things, and I really shouldn't be allowed to complain but seriously trying to find a spot to put everything has been a challenge! (hehehehe)

WARNING: keep lilies away from your pets! Seriously, the whole flower is very toxic!

Bella spent the last two nights at the emergency vet hospital after possibly eating a bit of lily from a flower arrangement my mom received. She is fine, however she is not a very nice kitty, so along with fluids she was given some really good drugs to calm her down. She came home this afternoon and has been sleeping all day.

Progress

 Not a lot but I'm taking it ... see numbers below.

Off the long arm in the last couple of weeks were three donation quilts. Two tops from my guild and one from Q4K.

Simple meandering.

A boxy pantograph.

Lots of ruler work and in the ditch.

I also had a new one to add.

I have a little wire mini-quilt stand. I have lots of fall and holiday mini's to hang but not much for spring and summer. This block is made up of some pieces and parts leftover from one of Stephanie's quilts.

So what are July stats?

    Started with: 32

    Added: 2 (dragon and the above mini)

    Quilted: 4 (3 donation quilts and the purple panel)

    Ending with: 30

August is going to be a busy month. I'm not sure how much progress will occur, but some will, I have another top ready to load - hopefully tomorrow.

I did a major clean-up and partial purge in my sewing room. 

How many different types of pins does one person need?  I also went through one bin, and most of a bag of scraps and cut them down to my favorite scrap sizes. That felt pretty good.

What didn't feel good was going into the Goodwill today and seeing these:

This was such a pretty quilt.

It had a price tag of $19.99

This was an old quilt. No batting, flannel scraps on the back, surged edges. 

What would you do if you found one of your quilts in a thrift store?

Odd Assortment

 JoAnne from Q4K is trying to get her quilt mo-jo back. We've gotten together twice to sew. Sew Fun! I haven't had someone to sew with in a long time.

She is making Blockstep by Robin Pickens. 

I decided to make it also with the batiks below. 

I'll probably save this for when JoAnne and I get together to sew. My primary focus is still on Wensleydale. 

I finished my dragon and I'm in love.

He's going to have to wait his turn to be quilted, but hopefully it will be soon.

I think I have a problem...I'm a fabric glutton. Both my guild and Q4K have free tables every month. I rarely come home empty handed. This was my haul from last week's Q4K meeting.

No pattern, partially pieced, with two charm packs. I figured out the pattern was a Missouri Star pattern called Super Easy Hourglass.

Some of the seams were over an inch and some were barely two threads. I took everything apart. I'm remaking the blocks as a short term leader ender project. 

I also picked this up along with some solid red fabric.

I know what I want to make, I just don't know when I'll get around to making it.

This is what I picked up at June's meeting.

I think I need an intervention.

I finally, finally finished quilting the purple quilt today. It was on the frame for over month.

I liked how it was going until I did the meander background filler of the panel. I should have done something else, although don't ask me what.

I loaded a donation quilt this evening and made good progress on it.

With any luck it won't sit there for a month.

Zero Progress?

 

Well, June was a bit of loss quilting wise. Sewing wise I did great, but quilting, not so much.

The table runner below (on my new to me dining room table) and the jelly roll quilt I showed in my last post were the only two items that were quilted.

The table runner binding STILL needs to be hand sewn down. I'm taking my car in for service tomorrow so hopefully I'll finish it while I'm waiting.

Unfortunately, the runner was another small item that I never added to my UFO spreadsheet. Plus, I took in two more donation tops to be quilted. 

June stats:

    Started with: 32 (adjusted number)

    Added: 2 (donation tops from Q4K)

    Quilted: 2

    Ending with: 32

June was busy with a lot of little things. Including this little thing I babysat for four days.

Don't be fooled...that is not fur, it is Velcro.

Tilly and Bella mutually ignore each other unless there was an occupied lap that the other thought belonged to them. Can't tell it from the picture but Bella is actually larger than Tilly.

As I mentioned I have been doing a lot of late night sewing.

My dragon is almost done. I also made more Wensleydale blocks - I'm almost half way done with them.

I expect July will have two more tops added to my total. Cross your fingers that I can get two (or more) quilted.

It's Been a While

 A lot has been going on here including some sewing / piecing / quilting. In no particular order...

This handsome guy is back again.  So funny, Bella went to check him out, he jumped up about a foot and move to the edge of the patio. He then proceeded to hiss and stamp his foot at Bella until he determined she couldn't get near him. Then he laid down again.

My first feathers on the long arm. This is a table runner that I got off the guild free table. I'll show all of it once the binding is sewn down.

This guy was walking across the patio and just plopped. Guess he was trying to cool down his belly.

Quilted a top that was donated to the Q4K group.

Table toppers with binding machine sewn.

Did a different design on each. They were fun to do. I got them from the Q4K free table and gave them back to JoAnne to use for her monthly raffles.

Lots of progress on the Wensleydale quilt. I already want to make another one.

I thought this was a great idea! And I have lots of old prescription containers. I hate throwing them away but I don't know of any place where they can be recycled.

Bella loves her boxes.

Next top to be quilt. Donna made it and hated it. I have no clue how I'm going to quilt it. Can't use a pantograph as she has a flange border around the center panel.

I had to go with Plan B fabric choice after the first quilt-along tutorial was released. The eye and claws would not have shown up on the black background fabric I wanted to use for the body, it is now the spike fabric. It took two days to cut out all of the little pieces. The pattern is not beginner friendly. You really have to pay attention to each step... but I love how he is turning out. I'm already planning on making another one.