The Truth

While at the retreat, I stayed mostly focuced on the tasks at hand.  I did sew something new.  I found the cutest print that was begging to become a baby quilt. 

I used the Quick Strippie pattern from Mary Quilts.  She has lots of great patterns for free if you haven't visited her site.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.

I am determined not to let projects left unfinished and compound my UFO problem.  I went ahead and pieced the backing.  The orange, blue, and brown are all flannel, yet, still no noticable change in the Flannel mountain.

 

Thank goodness it is Friday!  I am hoping for some quilting time this weekend.

 

 

scrappy swoon QAL

I was searching for a picture of the fabulous Swoon quilt pattern when I came across a great online quilt-a-long.  I thought maybe my excitement was because it was 11:00pm and I was sewing at a retreat.  Nope, I still felt the same way in the morning.  The best part is, I am not too late to the party.  There is still time to join in.

Check out this blog post if you are interested.  I plan to use a bin of 2 1/2" squares, so mine will be considerably smaller.  I would love to have some of my readers join in.

Yes, I know I have 80 some UFOs, but I have had 3 finished from the UFO list in January so far.  As one blogger commented, mine are MFOs (mostly finished objects).

January Retreat

I had so much fun sewing with my sister, niece, and friends at the library.  It was also a productive weekend for me.  I sewed the binding on 2 spicy spiral runners (from the January Goals list) and another quilt that isn't from the parade.  I also finished the log cabin blocks for this quilt (parade part 2).  I can't remember where I found the pattern, but I really like it.

 Sue worked really hard on a Kindle case most of the weekend.  Several people were finishing up the Bonnie Hunter Easy Street mystery.  The group project for this weekend was an X-block runner.  Several people finished it, but I didn't remember to take pictures.  Surprisingly there were no shopping adventures.  We talked about a road trip, but we all remained focused and sewed.

Eleanor worked all weekend on Easy Street.  She took the time to press all those seams open.











Check with Judy to see what others are working on.

Weekend Progress

I had a lot of fun in my studio this weekend.  I worked on my January goals and remained focused.  Maybe there is hope for me yet!  I added both the borders to my twister quilt.  I am very pleased with the red border I chose.  I decided to also piece the backing so it would be ready to quilt.  I haven't made a quilt this large in a long time.  I used up a large piece of black fabric and some of the fabric that didn't work for the border.


All I have left on my January goal list is 10 Farmer's Wife Tutorials.  I hope to get those done this weekend at the library quilt retreat.

Stop over and visit Judy and see what other people are working on.

No Show Quilt Binding

I did a little demonstration last night at quilt group on No show quilt binding.  This was new to me because I am not a garment sewer.  To those that do garment sewing, you probably call this facing.  I basically used this super fabulous tutorial with great photos.  I quilted this quilt last year and it has been waiting for me to figure out the binding.  It is all ready for hand stitching and a hanging sleeve.

I plan to hang it in my studio to add a little color.

Right is sometimes wrong

 When I started this quilt, I didn't think I had anything in my resource center for the border.













 I found this fabric and I thought it would be just perfect for the border. As I got ready to cut the borders for this quilt, I thought I would hang it on the design wall first.

This is what I saw when I hung it on the design wall.  Yuck!  I didn't like it.  I am not sure if it is because it is too busy or if there is too much white.  Either way, I knew right away it wasn't right so I didn't cut it.

Back to the drawing board I went.  Funny thing is, the first thing I did was go to the computer and look for another one of those perfect pieces of fabric.  I found a few that I thought would work, but I decided to go to my studio and look before I made the purchase.   I found this piece, and I am much happier with how it looks.  It is red with a subtle black pattern.   It is all pressed and ready to cut this weekend.

It looks like the white will become part of the backing or used in another project.  I love the fabric, but it just wasn't right for this project.

Addendum to the Parade

I guess these projects were late to the parade, but I found them so I wanted to add them to the list of unfinished.

 80. Postage stamp blocks.

 81.  Lodge Quilt - Debbie Mumm pattern

82.  Raggy bricks pattern

 83.  Raggy Squares pattern

84.  Twister wall hanging (just needs borders)