What's up for this week

I had a fabulous time sewing with my sister and other friends at a retreat this weekend.  I made some progress on both some older projects and a new one.

I put these blocks together.  I have blogged about this quilt when I started it after Christmas.  I don't want this project to get forgotten.  I am ready to cut the border pieces and put them on.

 This is a older quilt that I worked on at Shipse several years ago.  It is ready for borders now also.

I wish I could credit the designer, but it was from  a blog post long ago and I have looked and looked for the original post.  It is a great pattern and it is cut from 2" strips.  The white stars get finished in the first border.

I also finished putting the blocks together from a really old lodge quilt.  I didn't take a picture this quilt, but I am deciding if I need to put a border on it.

This is my new project that I recently started.  I am using light blues and Kona Snow.  I used it as my leader ender project at the retreat.  I have lots more blocks half finished that I hope to work on this week.

My goal for this week is to quilt 3 of my larger quilts that I pieced the backings for last week.




I have one finish to report this weekend.  I moved this table topper to a new home.  I decided it was just best to abandon this project.  I am sure it will be loved where it went.  This makes 11 finishes for me in January.  I am energized by the UFO progress I am making.

I have already declared February as the month of B's.  I will be working on BORDERS AND BINDING(s)

I hope to are off to a great start on your goals this year.  Stop over to Judy's to see what others are working on this week.

Chevron Quilt Photo Session

I wanted to share some photos of my chevron quilt with the binding on.  I had perfect weather to take the photos.  I love the contrast of the garden behind the quilt.  I went a little heavy on the photos.

This quilt is on its way to Colorado in time for the new addition to the family.  This was a new start for 2013, but the good news is that I finished it in the same year.

Finishes from 2012

I just remembered to update my finishes page tab on the right side of my blog.  I was extremely excited to go through my UFO parade and look at all the quilts that have been completed.  I am up to 22 finishes!!  My goal for the year was 20 finishes from the list.  I have finished 1/4 of my UFOs in the first 7 months of the year.  I still have a long way to go, but this is encouraging.  I hope to have 1/3 of my UFOs done by the end of the year.  

At this rate....It will only take me 3 years to get caught up.   Come to think of it, that seems like a long time.  

Nautical Baby Quilt

I am doing terrible at making finishes from my UFOs this month.  I still have my Farmer's Wife blocks on my design wall, so I had to put up a second temporary design wall to work on a baby quilt.  I haven't had much time to sew, and most of my time has been used to make baby quilts for upcoming baby showers.  I am really pleased with how this quilt turned out.

I started this quilt at a retreat last weekend.  I had it mostly together, then I didn't like how it looked.  I was making up the pattern as I went.  Last week, I worked on taking it apart.  On Saturday morning, I was determined to make plan "B" work.  I quilted it on Sunday, and bound it completely by machine also.  I used this tutorial as a guide.  I still need some practice, but I am pleased with how it turned out.  I tried several different feet on my machine.  I am still deciding which one I like best.




I had an idea for a much more elaborate quilting plan, but I opted for a simple (and quick) plan instead.  I didn't want the quilting too dense.

 The weather was so nice this afternoon that I couldn't resist taking the quilt out among the spring flowers for a few photos.

Just for the record, since I have been mostly labeled the UN-finisher.  I started and finished this quilt complete with binding in one weekend.  This is a record - Perhaps it should go in the history books.

Stop over to Patchwork Times to see what others are working on this week.

Design Wall Monday

I finally made it to the sewing studio and turned on the machine.  All that exposure with the UFO parade made me want to finish something.  If you missed the parade, there is a tab at the top to see all my unfinished projects.  I did find a few more yesterday that I forgot to photograph, so I will be adding them so my list is complete.

I saw on several blogs people picking a word of the year.  I thought this was a great idea, and my word for this year is "FINISH".  This applies to lots of things in my life, not just sewing.

On the January goal list was to quilt my Valentine Spicy Spiral.  It is now quilted on the design wall.  I have several other things on the goal list for January, but I am happy to check this one off.  I also found a home for one of my UFOs.

I quilted my second Spicy Spiral pattern with a pantogram.  This wasn't on the goal list, so this is a bonus completion.



















This is a customer quilt that I took in recently.
The quilt is made of all different ties that belonged to the customer's Grandfather.  It is a gift for her Grandmother.  I thought it might be troublesome, because none of the ties were stabilized, AND they were all made out of different fabrics - from tweed-polyester-silk.  To add to the assortment, the backing was some type of ultra suede.

I am happy to say I had no mishaps and I had perfect tension.  I did light custom on it with minimal SID

I also quilted a baby quilt.  It was quilted with an all over pattern.

I also wanted to post about a fabulous Christmas gift from my husband.  I had briefly talked to him about one of these long ago, and much to my surprise, he pursued finding one.  This is much fancier than the one I would have purchased, and I love it!!  Since you saw my dark side of UFOs, this is my organization tool for 2013.  I love how each project is easily reached.  The trays are large enough that I can keep all the pieces organized.  It was such a thoughtful gift.

Thanks for stopping by.  Stop over at Judy's to see what others are working on.

Inspired!!

Bringing out these old projects and working on them is very inspiring to me, yet I still can't focus on doing one project at a time.  I am excited to be getting to know these UFOs once again.  This is where my wheels started turning, and my excitement started building.  Wouldn't it be fun to have sort of a fashion show/parade of all my projects that I have hidden away in containers?

I thought this could have a multi-effect.

1. I could count all my unfinished projects so I knew exactly what I had
2. I would get reacquainted with what I needed to do to finish them
3. I could decide if I wanted to finish them or donate them - perhaps there is some stuff in my studio that I don't want to finish
4. I could prioritize and set some goals on what I want to finish in 2013 - which will once again be focused on finishing 
5. I could put binding fabric with each of my projects so I don't use it for something else

Binding was one thing that really hindered me this year.  When I put most of my projects away, I did not put the binding fabric with it.  Don't make this mistake!  Once fabric sells out, you are generally out of luck, or you will waste loads of time looking for the perfect binding to match.  Is there anyone else that would like to join the UFO parade?

I do realize - this is going to cause a huge mess in my currently clean studio.  And readers- don't judge me when I get over 50 (and I don't mean years old).

A Finish

Ok, I am a little giddy here.  Well, more than a little.  I have a finish to report!  This is a long forgotten project, that I wanted completed...alias to mean off the studio floor.

Don't get any ideas!  I am not cooking dinner tonight.

 This is another recent completion (thank you so much binding fairy)!  I just love this quilt.  I think I posted about this quilt earlier.  It is from this book.  It was made with scraps and one Moda scrap bag.  The line is from Kate Spain.

It now resides on my dining room wall to help control my little noise boxes.

 On the other wall in my dining room I hung a vinyl saying and cleared out the clutter.  I am very pleased with how this turned out.










In my determination to finish a few things, I put my spare sewing machine on the dining room table to capture additional snippets of time.  I am sad to say that my family no longer has a table to eat on.

To border or not to border....that is the question

I  actually have a Wednesday update.  I finished putting the blocks together.  I think I like it better without a border, but the jury is still out.  I love the colors and how they blend together.  Thanks so much Ellen for charging me up with grey and yellow.  Perhaps I will be able to move on to a different color combo soon.

 This was my next dilemma.  My 50 year old state of the art house had an intercom system.  When we replastered the bathroom, my DH asked if I wanted to keep the speaker.  At the time, I still used it occasionally so I said we should leave it.  Fast forward 5 years, we never use it.  I removed it when I was painting the bathroom.  My husband asked me what we should do with the hole, and I said not to worry about it.  I had an idea.  (sorry, I don't know why blogger turned my photo)  I measured the hole and I set to work.


It is all quilted and the binding is ready for hand stitching.  It will look lovely hanging right above the light switch covering the hole that I should have removed when I had the chance.  I made with with the twister template that takes the 3 1/2" squares.  I think this is a nice size for table mats and hole hiders.

This quilt is to hang in my dining room to help control the noise of my children who can't take turns talking.  When they were younger, we had to have a talk stick.  The kids were only allowed to talk if they held the stick.  At this age, they would probably just whack each other with the stick. 

I have been trying to pick the perfect binding color.  I had tried at least 10 colors from my stash, but none of them seemed to fit.  Today when I hung the quilt, it spoke to me.  I have the binding attached to this quilt as well, so I have plenty of hand stitching to do. 

 After a little work, it was time to clean up the scraps.  I had pictures of the "in process", but it was just too embarrassing to post.  Wow is my studio messy.

Flu has left the building!

I wasn't sure if I was going to make it thru. It took over a week before all of us caught the virus and recovered. The weather has been extremely snowy and cold here.


Here is a picture of my first finish of the year. These were the remnants of a large quilt a made a few years ago. I sewed the bining on completely by machine and I am pleased with how it looks. I haven't tried this in several years and I can tell I have really improved. I think the key was to pin the binding all the way around the edge before I started.

I also managed to get the binding sewn on the front of a Christmas quilt that used up some of my "uglies". These fabrics had been hanging around for way too long. I love how the red binding brings it all together. Hopefully I can get the handstitching done before Christmas. I won't move it to finished until the binding is stitched down. I will post a better picture when it is completed. I love how the sun shining thru the window shows off the quilting (even with the shadows).

During the sickness, I did manage to quilt one customer quilt. It is a cute panel quilt, and I am pleased with how it came to life with the quilting. Oh yes, and behind the customer quilt is the infamous bow tie quilt. It is on my list of quilts to finish this year as well. Perhaps someone will chime in with a great quilting plan for me. I have the FINAL border on the design wall so I can stitch the squares together.