Off to Paris!

Well, in spirit, anyway :)  Paris fabric is the theme of today's quilty finish.

I think I'm doing a pretty good job crunching through my UFOs. This quilt was started in November at a retreat - in fact, the top was finished there, so it's been in my "to be quilted" pile ever since.  The block pattern seems to be floating around the internet, but I didn't like the way it was put together. So I redesigned the instructions to make the block simpler to assemble, with fewer small pieces to mange. And then I realized that there was a big patch of open space in the corner, just crying for something to fill it. One of the original treatments I saw put applique there but I wasn't interested in doing that.

However, I had a lovely Paris-themed fabric that I picked up earlier lastsummer, and some coordinating solids to go with it. So I decided that this was the perfect project to highlight those fabrics.  I had only bought a little - 1 yard of the print, and 1/4 yard of each of 6 coordinating colours. So I had to get a bit creative with the colour placement, in order to stretch the fabric as far as possible. Twenty-four 12" blocks turned out to be the answer. And with careful placement, all of the Paris scenes are upright.

When I pulled this quitl out a couple of weeks ago to finish it, I needed a backing for it.  I didn't have quite enough of any of my white fabrics, and I was completely out of the solids I used on the top.  But I decided that I could make a giant block for the back of the quilt, if I could find some suitable pieced in my stash. Luck was with me - I found a very similar shade of each of the 6 colours, in tone-on-tone in my stash.

Happy to have one more UFO off my list, but that doesn't mean I'm not starting anything new. I was asked to make a sample for a local shop, so I put aside some other projects and  put this together this week.  It just needs binding and it's off to the shop on Saturday.

WIPs be Gone

I have a finish this week, of a fairly old UFO.  I made this quilt a couple of years ago.  I originally designed this pattern back in June of 2011 and made my first top from it.  Eventually, I decided that I wanted to publish the pattern, and that of course required making it a couple of more times, to test the instructions. Two tops were finished in May of 2012. I finished the second quilt in Feb of 2013, but the third has been hanging out in the "to be quilted" pile since it was completed.

Finally last weekend I got it on the longarm. I wanted to play with some new feather techniques, and it seemed like a really good choice for that.  Finished binding it this week, and now it's done!

I particularly love the way the back turned out - almost like a wholecloth quilt in two colours.

And the center of the star came out better than I expected.  It's one of the few places I did not feather - the segments were too small for that to work. So I did a simple curved design following the piecing, and this is what the back ended up like.  A (happy) surprise).

Here's a closeup of some of the feathers around the borders.  And the backside of that. Again, no feathers in the blue sections, but I love what came out. All of this quilt was freehand quilted, with no marking at all.

 My stash report for this week is pretty simple. 
4 yards - backing for Paris
1/2 yard binding for star quilt

4 1/2 yards out this week.  A little bit came in, because I won the draw at guild when I showed this very quilt.  The prize was a little bucket of 6 fat quarters.  So that's 1 1/2 yards in.

2016 totals:
65.25 yards in
68.25 yards out
Total: 3 yards out

And would you look at that - I'm officially in the black!
Head over to Patchworks Times today for more stash reports.

I'm also linking up at WIPs be Gone today.

UFO Challenge, February

It's time to own up to our progress (or lack thereof) on Vicki's UFO challenge this year. I'll start with the summary, for those who don't want to read the nitty gritty details at the end of this post.


At the beginning of January, I had these projects in the works:
16 in progress
7 planned but not started
20 to be quilted
4 to be bound

As of today, I have
10 in progress
7 planned but not started
30 to be quilted
3 to be bound
4 completed this past month

I'm not sure whether to consider that progress or not :)  Fewer in progress quilts, but a pile more to be quilted. Fortunately, 5 of them are tiny so I should be able to get them all quilted in one go before my next guild meeting, I hope.

This is one of my completed quilts for this month. It started as a side project with a block party group about a year and a half ago.  I provided fabric to anyone interested and promised that the finished project would go to a charity. Well, it's finally finished, and will be donated to Victoria's Quilts next week, assuming I get the presentation bag made before then.

I'll be linking up with the 2016 Finish Along when the time comes, as this quilt is from that list as well as Vicki's UFO challenge. My Q1 plans for the Finish Along can be found here. 

The details from the above list:
4 to be bound were completed
4 in progress moved to "to be quilted" and
3 in progress moved to "to be bound"
5 new quilties to be quilted (3 disappearing hour glass, 1 disappearing 9-patch, 1 Kaffe stripes)
1 new quilt to be quilted - Glorious and Free
One new "in progress" project, for a class I'll be teaching in the spring.

The current list:

In progress:

1. Reflections of the North
2. Scrappy pineapple
3. giant scrappy swoon
4. Row by row 2015
5. Edge of 17 shop hop quilt
6. Kaffe stripes
7. Patchwork Year 
8. Gardener's Alphabet
9. Merry Mayhem
10. Giraffe Abstractions by Violet Craft

Planned (fabric bought and/or collected)

1. recipe wall hanging
2. drunkards path variation
3. Christmas wreath
4. Christmas reindeer
5. two cityscapes/panels
6. ombre flying geese (leftovers from Spectrum) 
7. Jeans quilt

to be quilted

1. Building Blocks - 2012
2. Easy Street - Bonnie Hunter 2012 mystery
3. Turquoise Trails - 2013
4. Labyrinth - 2013
5. Starburst - 2013
6. Rainbow Explosion - 2014
7. Brights baby quilt - April 2014
8. Tell it to the Stars - Judy Laquidara 2014 mystery
9. Flowers in my Windows - 2014 New Year's Eve mystery
10. Block of the Week
11. turquoise &; brown rectangles
12. turquoise & brown diamonds 
13. turquoise & brown baby quilt
14. One Block Wonder #2
15. Border Creek Station mystery (started Oct 2014)
16. one-fabric quilt
17. Houses - Done
18. Paris
19. baby twister
20. baby reflections 
21. Mexican star
22. Allietare - Bonnie Hunter 2015
23. About.com  mystery
24. quiltbug.com mystery
25. Glorious and Free
26. 3 disappearing hour glass quilties
27. disappearing 9-patch quilty
28. Kaffe stripes quilty

to be bound

1. Stonehenge
2. Yahoo group mystery
3. Yahoo group #2 

Done this month

1. Chain Reaction - Done
2. snowball/9-patch - Done
3. scrappy quilt - 2013 - Done
4. Disappearing hour glass- Done

Stash Report - Jan 17

I still don't have Allietare finished. Distractions abound, but I did get the latest customer quilt off the machine, and have one of my own queued up to go.  That accounts for most of my usage this week - the finished top (which I can't show, unfortunately) and the backing.  Plus binding for the couple of finsihed quilts I showed earlier this week.

I also put the last stitches in binding on my house quilt, in time to take it to guild this past week. The fabric isn't counted (never counted in, because it came as a kit I won at retreat), but the quilt is a finish for this year.

It's time to stay focused. Let's see if I can get Allietare finished this week, and the binding on the 2 quilts piled in my sewing room.

Bindings - 3/4 yards
backing - 5 1/2 yards
top - 8 1/2 yards
total: 14 3/4 yards out

2016 totals:
62 yards in
36.25 yards out
Total: 25.75 yards in

Head over to Patchworks Times today for more stash reports. 

I'll be linking up with the 2016 Finish Along when the time comes. My Q1 plans can be found here. 

Another finish

My second finished quilt for 2016!  This one just needed binding, so I took care of that during my binding blitz over the past few days.

The pattern is "Chain Reaction" by Jen Kingswell. There are a TON of Y-seams in this thing, and it is a really busy pattern, which isn't really my style. I had thought by using a single fabric for the triangles and hexagons that it would calm down, but I guess using a busy print in those sections kind of defeated that purpose :)  And proof that scrappy is not my thing - there is actually a plan/pattern to the placement of the green and purple 9-patch blocks.

I'll be linking up with the 2016 Finish Along when the time comes. My Q1 plans can be found here. 

Design Wall Monday - Jan 11

My design wall today is still my design floor with borders for Allietare.  I think this combination is the final decision. 

The borders haven't been attached because I decided I needed to get some of the binding UFOs out of the way. Particularly since one of them is due on Thursday.

Of course , the one which is actually finished isn't the one which is due :)  I did get the binding attached to that one, but I'll be hand sewing it down to the back this week.  This quilt got a machine binding so that I can avoid having a growing stack of bindings to attach by hand.

The good news is, one quilt off my UFO list and the first quilt towards my Finish Along Q1 goals is complete.



Drop by Judy's blog for more design wall inspiration today.

Friday Finishes

In honour of TGIFF and WIPs Be Gone, I present to you ... some finishes for this week!

First, my 1000 pyramids quilt.  OK, it's more like 60 pyramids, but you get the idea :)  This was made from leftover fabric from my Gananoque stars project - pretty much every scrap of leftover fabric. I even remembered to keep some of the background fabric set aside for binding.  It was quilted with feathers in all the borders, and a meander in the main part of the quilt.   This was a short-lived UFO, since I started the quilt earlier this year for a demo day at the local quilt shop (demoing the 60 degree ruler).

Next up is quilt from a panel I picked up at a guild meeting - back in early 2014, I think.  There's a second, partner to this one, but the binding isn't on that one yet.  I had the 2 panels, plus I think it was 4 fat quarters and a 1/2 yard of a striped border fabric.  Most of the fat quarters were used on the other panel, and this one got sections of the border print.  The cut was just a bit too short, unfortunately, for the size of the panel, but I did some piecing and made it work out.

I never would have picked that red binding, but as I was trimming the quilt, I found it on my cutting table. I think my cats pulled it off the shelf recently and I never got it put away again.  But when I looked at it, the red was a perfect match for some of the darker reds in the quilt, and I think it makes a nice frame for it now that it's done.

And finally, I have a little quiltie, made from leftovers from my Chain Reaction quilt (which still is not quilted).  It's 24" square, and will be a donation to the children's hospital through a guild, when meetings start up again in September.  I had some purple/blue and some green/blue 9-patches left over from Chain Reaction. But only purple and blue fabric left. I had to add an additional purple fabric, and I left the green 9-patches scattered in there for interest.

I'm also linking up to Link a Finish Friday and Can I get a Whoop Whoop

Finishes

I finished 3 quilts this week. These poor things had been sitting around waiting for binding. Now that I've reconnected with the Victoria's Quilts to donate them, I figured it was time to get them finished.  So I made the bindings and attached them today. Amazingly, the fabric for the bindings was with the quilts and had not been used in a new quilt. That's probably because I'm not quilting as much as I was :)

I decided to machine stitch the bindings down, in an effort to get these done rather than creating a new pile of quilts that need binding hand stitched.  1/2 hour to stitch a binding on the machine, vs 4 or more hours by hand - you'd think I'd learn my lesson about this :)

I seem to be on a red kick.  This quilt was a mystery back on New Year's Day.  Nice simple, traditional pattern so I quilted it with a traditional baptist fan. 

The back is pieced, using up some smaller bits of flannel that I had in the stash.

 This was another mystery from back in January.  I made 2 quilts from this one. The smaller was finished some time ago, and the bigger quilt is now done and ready to donate too.

 And this quilt was made from some orphan blocks that I picked up at a guild meeting from the exchange table.  I had lots of fabric left to make the bias binding to match the bias striped border I put on it this past spring.

Design Wall Monday

Nothing at all is on my design wall today. But I do have a project in progress, all lined up on my sewing table waiting for the next step.

I also managed to finish a quilt this week.  Put the binding on it just in time for my son to sleep under it one night, before he headed off to university.  Last minute Mom :)

Drop by Judy's blog for more design walls today.

A finish!

This quilt was started last November. It was Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery quilt. I stayed right on track until the last couple of clues. Finished up the top in the spring, and it's been languishing since then in my "to be quilted" pile.  Finally pulled it out last week, got it on the longarm during a lull, and even finished the binding. Now it sits in a new stack, waiting to be dropped off for donation :)

3 Down...

3 to go.  Binding is sewn down on 3 baby quilts from my latest quilting blitz.  Three more quilts to go, and then I can move on.  I have promised myself that I will finish the binding on all of these before I start anything else - even if 'starting something' means finishing another UFO.

This is one of two quilts I made from a charm pack and candy that I got as a "bonus" in a fabric purchase last month.  I still have about 1/2 of the charm pack left, so another quilt is awaiting my attention.

I made this twisted log cabin last November, at retreat.  The blocks are made without any paper piecing, and I love the way it came out.  Not sure I have the patience to make a bigger quilt, but I would like to try so it's on the list.

I think the backing for this is just perfect.  I've had this fabric in my stash for a few years, and the colours matched this quilt perfectly.

And finally this poor quilt - a true UFO, it was a mystery table topper from sometime last year.  It's been waiting to have the binding sewn down for a long time now - so long in fact that I didn't recognize it when I pulled it out.

These 3 quilts will all go to guild next week, for the children's hospital - exceeding my goal of 2 for this month.

In addition to this, I managed to finish a block for my Gardener's Alphabet embroidery quilt.  I was inspired during embroidery club yesterday and finished the block when I got home.  It was a hard choice to sit down with binding tonight, because I really want to get started on the next block.  But, that falls under 'starting something new' so it will have to wait another day or two.


ADDED:  Many people have asked about the twisted log cabin pattern. I found the block tutorial here.  I'll write more about my efforts soon (I tweaked it a bit), but the instructions on that link are very good.


I'm linking up at Judy's Design Wall Monday today, although this is more of a Display Floor, I guess.
And linking up at Such a Sew and Sew for the March Finishes linky party.

Design Wall Monday - Aug 20

Here is what my design wall looks like today.  Only 3 of the blocks are new - I pulled out the companion blocks to see how things are coming along.  It seems that the Bloggers BOM (the dark backgroun) must be finished next month.

My sew-in Sunday was a rousing success.  I completed the binding on 2 quilts.  Attached the binding to 2 more.  Made 3 blocks from my 2 BOM projects.  And made a backing for my log cabin star and loaded the quilt on the long arm.  Almost completely finishing my To-Do list for the weekend.

I was overly optimistic about how much paper piecing I could do in a weekend, but hopefully I can plug away at the next 3 blocks and be caught up by the time September rolls around.

These 2 quilts will be donated to the local children's hospital, when I (hopefully) manage to attend a guild meeting in September.  I bought 3 coordinated fabrics from a sale bin, added in the brown and a blue on the warm wishes quilt, and made the quilts to practice my long arm skills.  The first is custom quilted in each block & border, and the second one is a pantograph.

Hop over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else has on their design walls today.

And check out more finishes at the August Finishing party.

Black and white and red all over

Happy Thanksgiving, to all those celebrating today!  On days like today, the advantages of working for a Canadian office of an American company become clear.  It's not a holiday for us here, but with the entire US on holiday for 2 days (or more) this week, it's like a vacation ;)  This year, I'm taking advantage of the low activity and taking 2 vacation days myself this week.

I have put the first day of vacation to good use.  The top of my black and white and red quilt is now complete! (It really is a rectangle - just a bad photo below)

I think I can now honestly say that I am done with hexagons.  Way too many little tiny Y-seams in this quilt, so I am quite happy to see the end of them.  Next step - find the backing fabric I bought on my earlier trip to the quilt store, and start the quilting.  I hope I can get that started today, but time will tell.  Tomorrow morning, I leave for a 3 day trip and I'm not quite finished packing yet.  I need to finish that first, then head out for a couple of hours this afternoon   Time permitting, I'll start the quilting tonight.

A Hallowe'en Finish

My Hallowe'en quilt is complete, and hanging in my front window.  A full 2 weeks early, even!

This was a lot of fun. I took inspiration from the block lotto curved rails, and 10 fat quarters I picked up this past weekend when I was out looking for inspiration.  The curved blocks went together really quickly, and used pretty much every scrap of the 10 fat quarters - I cut the quarters into 9" squares, and then cut the curves in those blocks.  Final blocks were trimmed down to 8" unfinished.  The FQs made 40 blocks in total - 10 down the sides of the panel on one side, and the other 30 blocks made up the reverse of the quilt.

I quilted it with freehand loops, and hung it with clips (to keep the 2-sided option) in my front window for the season.  I can't wait for daylight tomorrow, so I can see what it looks like from outside.  The panels in the window will probably interfere a bit, but hopefully people will be able to tell what it is.

This is my first seasonal quilt. And now I'm inspired to do something for Christmas next.

Unnamed no longer

As mentioned in my Accountability post for this week, I finished my "unnamed quilt".  I realized I never posted a picture, so here is "Peaceful Pinwheels" - quilted, bound, and ready to find a new home.

I backed this quilt with fleece (and that is also serving as the batting), figuring it would make a lovely cozy covering for someone on a cold winter night.  The quilting is a combination of wavy lines in the green pinwheels, and echo quilting in the background.  I would probably not use echo quilting in this context again - I didn't really like the finish I ended up with around the edges.

2 More Finishes

I've been busy today.   Got to go out for lunch and some quilt-shop browsing with a friend.   I managed to leave without buying anything new (except for some new needles), so nothing added to my stash this week.

But around the outing, I managed to get a lot of quilting done.   Two quilties finished, ready to send to the children's hospital at the guild meeting on Wednesday.

Hearts and Nines is the first one.   My red celtic square, surround by hearts and nine-patches.  The quilting on this one is a meander with hearts interleaved.   In the middle, I echo-quilted around the celtic knot.

The second one is my tic-tac-toe quilt, made from blocks I won in the block lotto.  I posted about the set of blocks here - there are 48 in total, and I pulled 9 of them for this quilt.  The rest will make a few more quilts over the next few months.

These are really fun, bright blocks, so I wanted a fun setting for them.  I think this will make a nice quilt for a child.


For this quilt, I echo-quilted in each of the small blocks, following the lines of the bright tic-tac-toe.  The photo on the right shows the back of one of the blocks (click on the photos to enlarage).

The blocks in this quilt came from 8 different quilters, so I included each of their first names and locations on the label.

Both of these quilts will be donated to the local children's hospital.


And since it's Sunday, here's my stash report for this week.  Nothing in, and nothing out (all the bindings for the above quilts were already counted).

Total in this year - 42 yards
Total out this year - 46 1/2 yards

Net this year: 4 1/2 yards out

Check out Judy's blog for other stash reports today.

One Down ...

Several to go.  But, the first of my quilties is finished.  My goal is to get as many of these done before my guild meeting Wednesday night as a I can.   This one - my yellow celtic square - still needs a name and a label, but other than that it is complete.  I'll label it tomorrow.

Here's a close up of some of the quilting. Outline stitching around the celtic knot, and then a meander over the rest of the quilt.


I've also finished the quilting on one other quilt, so I'll start the binding on that tomorrow, and hopefully start quilting the red celtic heart.

Happy Dance!

It's done!!!  I'm doing a happy dance, because I am so glad to have this quilt finished.  5 years is way too long - especially for a UFO that's out in plain sight, and not hiding quietly in a box somewhere. 

This poor little quilt sat out for so long, the colour in the background faded from off-white to white.  I was going to do a skinny binding with the same fabric as the background, but the colour difference in the quilt and the leftover fabric was really noticeable.   Oddly, the dark blue hardly faded at all, and fortunately I had some leftover.

I decided, as I hunted for a suitable binding, that I had looked at this quilt long enough, and rather than being a wall hanging, it is going to be donated to the local children's hospital.   They want quilts about 24" square, so I added a wide binding to bring this one up to size.  That was an adventure in itself.  I've only ever done 1/4" bindings in the past.   Now I understand better the logic and math behind the mitred corners on continuous binding.  And I only had to rip it out once to get it right.

It's done.  I am happy with the outcome.  But I do wish it hadn't taken me so long to finish that I was sick of seeing it around.  Maybe I'll try another one - and endeavor to finish it in a reasonable length of time.

I've entered this quilt in the Weekly Themed quilt contest (two colour quilts, this week) at quiltinggallery.com.  On Friday voting will open for this week - please drop by to check out the quilts.   And vote for me :)

Edited to add link.  Go here to vote, between now and Sunday Jan 31!

Morning Splash

Morning Splash is Done!  I put the final stitches in to the binding last night, and attached a label.  I really like this quilt that Judy designed.  The quilting doesn't show in this picture (I'm going to have to learn how to take better quilt pictures, I guess).  I used a variegated thread in purple, and a green backing to match the background/accent colours in the quilt.

The quilt's about 50x70, and the perfect size for cuddling under while watching TV.

Quiltathon - Day 1 complete

I'm having a great time with Judy's quiltathon this weekend.  Day one is just about over for me, because it's getting late.  But I'll be back tomorrow, hoping to make even more progress.

The big news for today is completion of the bargello quilt I started last year.  I even got the binding hand-stitched.  This quilt didn't end up exactly as I imagined it, but with a little bit of imagination I think the waterfall effect is there.  For a first attempt at a bargello, which I designed myself, I'm pretty happy with it overall.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters were up to today, at the quiltathon.  And join us tomorrow for more updates.