Some Show and Tell Before I Take A Holiday Break

Now that my commitment to the Blanket Ministry has been met, the rush to complete my other projects before the end of the year is on.  This past weekend was a productive one and I must have been still working off of the adrenalin from completing the six baby quilts from last week.

It's great to have another quilt cross the finally finish line and in time for the holiday. I sewed the binding for the quilt made from this past summers 12 Days of Christmas QAL hosted by Sarah Craig of Confessions of a Fabric Addict,  you can read the post here.  Jan, my longarm quilter, again did a wonderful job. While I was making the top, we were experiencing crazy hot weather with lots of rain and now the weather is still sort of unpredictable, cold, rainy and cloudy.  I think the days of taking photos outside when it's sunny are going to be few and far between. 

This is one of the few quilts I've made which has a pieced backing and I used scraps from this project and from stash.  I think the reason why I don't like to piece my backs is the time it takes to make a backing to fit the top; it's like making another quilt top. My son, who held the quilt up for me while I took the photo, does not have the same knack as his father who has earned the title of Master Quilt Holder because father knows how to lower himself so his shoes doesn't show, made the comment that he liked the back of the quilt better than the front of the quilt.  The son also does not have his father's knack for knowing what to say about my quilts.  

The quilt is already hung up in the family room  thanks to father and son who knew I was taking their photo to provide some beefcake to liven up today's post.

The sewing and layout for the Splash of Color QAL blocks, hosted by Myra of Busy Hands Quilts,  you can read about it here was also done this past weekend.  I still have to decide on the sashing and once the top is made, I can write more details about the making of this quilt.  Just to give you a heads up, this quilt was supposed to be pinwheels.

Last month in early October, I attended a Kaffe Fassett workshop and the blocks have been hanging on my design board since then.  I finally sewed the blocks together and added the border and cornerstones.  I needed the design board so I could lay out the Splash of Color  blocks and also was afraid that someone or something was going to knock the blocks off. Here's a sneak peek of the top with the luscious purple Minky which I'll be throwing together and will write a future post about my wonderful Kaffe experience once the throw is completed.  I was tempted to finish it yesterday when the Minky arrived and do a late nighter but decided not to push it since I had to get the house ready for the holiday.

And speaking of taking a holiday break, here is my precious granddaughter who is providing the cupcake to this post to sweeten it up.  Micah will be occupying most of my time when she and her parents arrive this weekend for an eight-day visit.  I don't think I'll have too much time to sew, and if I do, it's probably be something for her.  With this sweet face she's going to get pretty much what she wants.  As you can see, Micah already has the pout down pretty good.

I hope you have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving  next week. I am grateful that I will be spending the holiday with family and friends and am thankful for the many things life has brought me this year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation, Thursday Needle and Thread, Crazy Mom's Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday, and Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

12 Days of Christmas in July--Quilt Top Finished

It sure wasn't a beginning to feel like Christmas mood amidst the ring of fire heat wave, intermittent power outages, torrential downpours, flash flooding (some water in my basement studio because the sump pump went out, but not bad enough to stop me from sewing)  that occurred during the past twelve days but I'm glad my top is finished and is completed on schedule.

I love this top and that all of the fabric used came from my Christmas stash which I've been wanting to use up.  The fabric is all from different Basic Grey Christmas lines with the exception of one print which is from Sweetwater's Cookie Exchange line.  It just took me two auditions before I was happy with the fabric placement or "rhythm" like I call it.  I wasn't happy with the first audition and while I was walking the dog, the rhythm came to me.  When I worked at a quilt shop and was putting together a bargello type kit using five fabrics, I came up with a "rhythm"; Shocker (Accent), Light, Dark, Mush, Mush (medium value fabric)--you can dance a Salsa to this. I realized that since I had sixteen fabrics, four each of red, light, green and teal, I could use the same rhythm, just eliminate the last mush and then after rearranging the fabrics to this rhythm, I was happy.  

The suspense of wanting to see the way this quilt was going to turn out and not waiting until all four panels were sewn, (also couldn't figure out in my head how the four panels and the center square were going to be sewn together) I took a photo of the first panel sewn and then did a four square photo collage on PicMonkey, rotated the panels in each square and was able to preview the quilt and see that the center square involved a partial seam.  This felt like reading the ending of a mystery/suspense novel before finishing it because you had to know the outcome--which I don't do, but that's what it felt like when I was sewing the strips together.

Also, as I was sewing the strips, I was thinking that the word "Trip" in the pattern name can have dual meanings.  When you follow all of the directions and tips, your "trip" will be nice and enjoyable.  When you go off course which I did when I decided to split all of the seams of each strip sets for each panel all at once, and not one at a time like the direction, I did "trip" and stumble and became totally confused when one seam was split wrong.  I did "trip" several times--it probably didn't help that I was watching TV while splitting.  I did pay attention while sewing the strips together and always made sure I was sewing on the correct side so I did not "trip" then.  And, just as important, I pressed, according to the directions.  For such an easy pattern, it is so easy to sew wrong.  I've made several Trip Around the World Quilts before, but Sarah's (Confession of a Fabric Addict) directions were the best.  I've never made one like this one before and my strips laid nice and straight and sewed together very nicely (there were some spots where the seams didn't nest but like Sarah said, the pattern is so busy you won't notice them.

Now that this top is done, I am ready to join  the I Wish You A Merry Quilt Along which starts August 1st, (details can be found here).  I'll be using my Christmas Cotton+Steel stash for this quilt.  Of course, I needed buy some green fabrics to add to this mix and I might as well confess now, I also bought some more Christmas fabrics to add to the never-ending stash.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop. ( Be sure to visit each blogger's site for wonderful holiday ideas and be eligible to win some great prizes), My Quilt Infatuation Needle and Thread Thursday;

Thank Goodness for Christmas QALs during the Summer

We're experiencing a heat wave this week, a "ring of fire" as the meteorologists are calling it and, of course, our central air has decided it needs to be fixed.  It's days like this I appreciate that my sewing studio is in the lower level, i.e, basement.  Also helping me to stay cool is the Quilt Along that is happening along side the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop.  Today is Day 6 and I am on schedule with my quilt.  I'm loving this Quilt Along because it only lasts 12 days, the helpful tips which were provided and also because I am using mostly several collections of Christmas fabrics from my Basic Grey stash which meant no new fabric was purchased.  What also is very nice are the tools which are helping me stay on task:  my die-cutter used for the sixty-four  2-1/2" strips needed for this quilt and made them nice and straight, my two big basting boards to keep my strips in order and my big Shape Cut Ruler Pro which made cutting the 2-1/2" strip sets an absolute breeze. (changing the blade on my rotary cutter helped too).

Please be sure to check out the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop,  (you can see it here) where twenty-five bloggers will be sharing their hand-crafted Christmas ideas.  Sarah is doing a great job with the blog hop and I like that the new links and the next quilt steps are posted each day after Midnight so I guess I'll be staying up late tonight just to satisfy my curiosity.

And once the July QAL is done, I'll be ready to start another one on August 1st.  I'm looking forward to participating in the I Wish You A Merry Quilt-A-Long,  and reuniting with some of the bloggers I met through the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop.  Eleven of these quilt bloggers will be releasing every other Tuesday, a new Free 12" quilt block pattern and tutorial.  (More information can be found on Quilting Jet Girl's blog, click here).  My plan for this one is to use my Cotton+Steel Christmas stash and to have a new wall hanging for the holiday.

I'm linking up with the fortnightly Sew Stitch Snap Share link up hosted by Linda of Kokaquilts.  I am honored and thrilled that Linda has mentioned me in her post today.  Please be sure to visit and join the link up to see Linda's lovely work, I love her fabric mashups, and to check out some of the other bloggers.

Here's hoping your quilting is keeping you cool!

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June Doings Done in July

My quilt top for the Crazy Mom's June QAL is done!  I'm a little bit late seeing that this quilt was suppose to be done by the end of June but I had to finish some other projects first coupled with a visit from my granddaughter. This is one of my favorite quilts from Amanda Jean Nyberg's "No Scrap Left Behind" book and I wasn't planning on participating in the QAL but decided to since my two quilt friends in Iowa were going to make this quilt.  Imagine my surprise when I found out several days ago that they decided not to do it since they didn't like how their first blocks were looking which is understandable  because I wasn't sure how I was going to like my quilt. Once all of the blocks were sewn I really like this quilt made with a collection of feedsack and 30's scraps from many past projects.

I started picking out the fabrics during the last week of June and sewed the block strips this past weekend.  I had the black and white check in my stash and the green dots, which is the same green fabric used in the quilt in the book, was given to me by my two quilts friends in Iowa so I couldn't be mad at them for dropping out of the QAL.  I will admit that I do not like making quilts with blocks set on point (it's those setting triangles) and considered doing an alternate layout with the blocks going just horizontal but I realized that would be too boring so I toughed it out and stuck with sewing the blocks on point.  I did a 4 x 4 layout which made this a 67" square quilt but, to me, it felt like I was sewing a king size quilt.

Like previous projects using scraps which always result in a messy aftermath, I've created makings for another scrap project.  I definitely should make a pin cushion with one of the leftover blocks but that will be for another day.  I was gifted with some beautiful feedsack squares from my quilt blog friend Wendy and when I received them I was surprised they were prints that I did not have in my stash so I'm looking for a pattern to showcase them. Since I've now made at least six quilts with the same feedsack stash,  it'll be nice to work with different feedsack prints.

From one QAL to now another one, I plan on making the quilt featured in the Twelve Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop and QAL (you can read about it here) which starts today.  My Christmas fabrics have been chosen so I'm ready to start the QAL on time and thankfully the blocks are not set on point.

I'm glad that I didn't machine quilt the Ardently Austen top, (previously posted here) right away because thanks to Susan Snooks, PatchworknPlay, (you can see her beautiful Rollercoaster quilt here) I discovered the serpentine stitch on Hazel, my new Juki F600 sewing machine which I'm still not as comfortable sewing on like I am with my old Juki 2010Q.  I'm liking this stitch to use for the baby quilts I make so I definitely plan on using it again.  It's a nice alternative to the straight line stitching and might make me adventurous enough to try free-motion quilting, maybe.

I'm still struggling with my Minus 100 Yard Challenge thanks to Christmas in July sales and never wanting to miss an opportunity to purchase sale fabric for backings. I definitely need to focus on quilting some of the quilt tops on my project list.

Minus 100 Yard Challenge:

Previous Total: - 42.50 yards         
New Total:  -49.125 yards  (this will change for the worst next week when the 8 yards of backing fabric arrives and is factored in-yikes!)

Linking up with:

My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday

Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish It Up Friday

Busy Hands Quilts:  Finish or Not Friday

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