Showing posts with label UFO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UFO. Show all posts

Sunday, December 31, 2017

4th Project for 2017FALQ4 Finished!


They are done - my two sew together bags are finished!  I think I cut them out two years ago, but they had no specific destination so they wallowed.   This is a big way we get UFOs - we find a new fabric and make a plan but no destination, no deadline.  For this year, however, they were part of my APQResolution and my 2017FALQ4 resolution.  I think these bags are so useful for EPP, hand sewing, cords or makeup. 


As you can see they are very similar.  I just swapped the lining and inner pocket lining for a way to mix up the fabrics.  I think it is nice to have some differences between the bags, even when making multiples.





As I write this, I am thinking of a person who might need at least one of these!

I have one more project, but it won't get finished today.  I am missing a bead I need, and need to make dinner for our quiet New Year'e Eve celebration.

Happy New Year!





Sunday, November 19, 2017

Finish #2 for the quarter, Free Fall QAL




It was a terrific feeling to finish this quilt.  I wanted it ready for our quilt show, in the middle of October and it was.  It was part of my goals for this quarter for the 2017FALQ4; you can see them all here.  We had a family death and so I was unable to be at the show, but was out of the country.  In my hurry to get things done and delivered to friends, I forgot to take pictures of this quilt.  As I have a quilt made of these fabrics on my bed, I felt as though this deserved to be in someone's home that loved it.  It found a buyer a the show - I was thrilled.


The quilting was pretty intense for me.  It was all straight line, and I used a darker thread in the green leaf and a light thread in the the background.  I loved the effect and was pleased that I stuck with it. 





Here's the way we label our quilts at the show  We get to write a little description to tell people about the quilt.  Of course we could go on forever, but we are limited to 50 words or so.



This pictures shows my label.  I had this fantastic aboriginal print, that was just lovely for the background.  I often do my labels the same way, framing them, and you can see more about that here.




Thanks to my quilting friend, Sandra at MMM! Quilts for designing a great quilt and hosting a fun QAL.  

Here's how the end of the year list is looking:

2017FAL4Q List:  3 to go!!!!
1. Free Fall Quilt Along 
2.  Alphabet Quilt
3.  Sew Together bags
4.  Petal Play Loon 
5.  Organized sewing room

All people quilt UFOs   (so 7 out of 12 are done!!)
1.  Grey batik flying geese
2.  Petal Play Loon
3.  Raw Edge Tree Runner
4.  Row by Row #3 (is this for real, one more??)
5.  Sew Together Bags

Here's hoping for a stellar finish - I think the Sew Together Bags will be done as well.  An organizer is coming Tuesday to help with #5 the Sewing room,  as the Raw Edge Tree Runner and the others just depend if I get any momentum.  I really didn't expect the move to last so long or the disruptions to be so pervasive but the are!



Sunday, October 29, 2017

One finish (actually 2, but the second will be a later entry)



set a goal for the 2017 Finish-Along 4th Quarter to finish 5 things, 2 are done.  Today, I'll share a little more about my quilt called "Alphabet Fun"; you can see my list of 4th quarter projects for the 2017FALQ4 here.




This is the second version of this quilt.  I simply loved the colors and the animals that were depicted in the panels.  This was a little simpler and someone bought it at Rising Star Quilters Show, earlier this month.

I decided to stipple quilt.  It wasn't really for anyone special and I knew that it would get done quickly, that way.  It was good practice and on the whole I was pleased with it.  Maybe it was a little more quilting than I normally do, but it made me happy.  


Here's the label.  I no longer live in Somerville, but the house wasn't yet sold, so it is one of the last quilts that will say Somerville on them. The other
secret to getting this done quickly is to have binding on hand!  I keep some black binding available for quick quilts and I do bind a few in black every year.  


Have to post this picture.  Percy is always helpful when you are trying to get a shot.  





I am not so sure how the end of the year will go, but here are some of my goals.  


2017FAL4Q List:  3 to go!!!!
1. Free Fall Quilt Along 
2.  Alphabet Quilt
3.  Sew Together bags
4.  Petal Play Loon 
5.  Organized sewing room

All people quilt UFOs   (so 7 out of 12 are done!!)
1.  Grey batik flying geese
2.  Petal Play Loon
3.  Raw Edge Tree Runner
4.  Row by Row #3 (is this for real, one more??)
5.  Sew Together Bags

Next up - Free Fall QAL finish





Sunday, September 24, 2017

2017 Quilt Bloggers Festival



Amy is sponsoring once again the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  You can read all about it here.   Please visit some of the quilts that strike your fancy and leave comments for the quilters!

This little quilt I finished a few weeks ago.  I honestly just love it.  It was a Row by Row from 2016 from Alewives Fabrics in Nobleboro, ME.   The trees are all Dr. Seuss like and it is so much fun.  I often use this size on an island near my dining room, but this one I got a little carried away with the borders.  It finished at 15" x 40".


This little squiggle of quilting in the inner binding makes me happy.  For quilting threads, I used three different threads:
  1.  YLI Machine quilting in Green to Tan 
  2. Superior Mono Poly to go around the trees
  3. Mettler 50 weight, #678  



This is the second time I have used this binding technique and I really love the pop of color you get.  Also, it's all done on machine, so it couldn't be easier.  


Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the festival!



Monday, August 28, 2017

Back to Quilting!



I've been on a quilting hiatus.   We are selling our Somerville house and have already moved into a 3 bedroom apartment.   Here's what my sewing room looked like 15 days ago (I have since set up my machine where the computer is).  Before it is really done,  two cabinets will come from the house, which probably won't happen until late October.

Note the scissors on the chair - not ready for sitting in!


You can see there are quite a few projects in plastic storage containers, fabric is on shelf - not organized.


But, we were planning on spending much of August in Maine, before the move was to happen.  We found a place we liked and as there are few 3 bedroom apartments, we jumped on it a bit early.  The good thing was it got the process going.  The bad thing was, it was earlier than I envisioned!  So, we moved contents and left some furniture to make it all work for the showing, but that furniture includes two storage units for fabric and files.  

However, here comes the good news:  I put together a quilt top - oneof my UFOs for 2017.  




So fast, and as I type this, I am planning to sandwich today as another border is already on, but I really wanted to get a blog entry on this quilt.  



Thursday, July 6, 2017

Alewives Row by Row 2016, almost done!




Isn't this row just so much fun!  Rhea at Alewives Fabrics designed it and I just love it.   I was hoping to quilt it this weekend, but didn't have enough batting.    So, as I have been a little behind in my quilting, I thought I would post it anyway.

I had a couple of choices for the border, but this one is truly lovely with a speck of that green in it.  Here's some pictures of possible borders....

I liked this a lot but only had a tad left.  I wanted to save it for another project. 




I liked this one but it was a bit too busy.





This one won.   It has those dots of blue and green.  I just love it and have enough to do a binding with it, so it is the border.  Thinking of doing a binding with the blue sky or green inner border as a piping.  I have just enough fabric to do that!  

Linking up with Inquiring Quilter's Wednesday's Wait Loss.
Inquiring Quilter's Wednesday's Wait Loss.



Monday, May 1, 2017

2017 New Quilt Bloggers Introduction Post

Being a part of the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers has been a gift and today is the day I am one of the featured bloggers in the Blooming Quilters Hive.  There are plenty of new quilt bloggers debuting today and you can check in at the Queen Bee's pages where you can meet other new bloggers and register for prizes:


A little bit about me:
My sewing career began early in life; my grandmother, Petronella, taught me how to sew so I could make doll clothes.  The thimble in the picture below resembles her thimble, which I still have.


Soon, I wanted to know more and a neighbor taught me how to make dresses and, for many years, I made my own clothing.  Eventually, I worked in a fabric store that sold clothing and designer fabric. The store was frequented by Amish women who lived in the area.  Once in awhile, I would see their wonderful quilts.  I am sure that this began my love affair with quilting.

Fast forward a few years...and I am in graduate school in Boston.  There was a quilt store in Harvard Square and when I was out of grad school a few years later, I took a quilting class.  I was hooked! Like many, I began learning by hand.  Soon, I began making quilts by machine.  I joined a guild and later worked at my local quilt store, Cambridge Quilts (almost 18 years!!).

I am fortunate that my quilting has spanned many years.  My other crafts come and go but this has remained a constant.  I have become an avid quilter and teacher.  I enjoy learning new techniques and am always eager to find new projects that either challenge my design sense, encourage a new skill and then hopefully I can share the skill with someone else!

MY QUILTS:
First:  My first quilt was all done by hand.  It took 15 years.  Someone convinced me to make those little starts in the lattice!  I love this quilt and still use it on my bed.  You can see that LESSON LEARNED:  Fabrics see that the muslin has a bluish tint - the fabric bled!!!  I was all my fabric and if I am not sure, I wash it again.






A Middle Quilt:  This is a quilt I am really proud of - also mostly done by hand.  The pattern was Les Fleur de Jardin by Lisa DeBee Schiller.  I don't know if I will ever do another appliqué quilt this large, but I did love doing it. I met some good friends in the class that started this project.  I joined my guild, Rising Star Quilters, as a result of this class!  This may be as close to making a Baltimore Album as I ever get.  




New Skills: I learned to feel confident about machine quilting on my new Bernina 440 QE by making this quilt.  It was a mix of using a walking foot and free motion quilting and the pattern was called Quilt-As-You-Go Machine Trapunto by Keryn Emmerson.  I am not expert at machine quilting but can do most of what I need on a domestic machine up to a twin size quilt.  





Recent Finish:  This quilt just plain makes me happy.  I love the way it came together and that a wonderful baby received this quilt.  I purchased the pattern, Fancy Forest by Elizabeth Hartman with no plan to make the baby quilt.  I could not get the quilt out of my mind and then I thought about a baby that will love this quilt.  Her parents both worked on my house in Maine (he the carpenter and she the landscaper).  I was on a mission and it was done before she arrived.   I have already made a second one with some changes and should be quilting it in the early summer (future post).



MY TIPS FOR QUILTING:
Here are a few tips I always try to impart to my students:
  1.  Quilt what you love and love what you quilt.   
  2. Keep moving ahead. If there is a mistake that will not stop your progress, let it go and return to it when further along. Fix it then. if you still need to, rather than getting hung up or putting the quilt away for a future date. 
  3. Challenge yourself to learn something new with each project.  
SOME OF MY QUILTING GOALS FOR 2017:
This year I have set a few goals for my quilting.  Blogging helps to challenge me to pay attention to these goals.
  1. 2017 APQ UFO resolution which challenges you to complete one project a month.  You can see my list here for this year and a slideshow and list of what I finished last year here.
  2. To use EQ7 to design a few quilts which will use fabrics that were collected for a quilt, but I don't  have a particular pattern in mind.
  3. Make a Modern quilt, entirely my own design.  
  4. Continue to reduce my stash.

So tell me, what is are your quilting goals this year?

Thanks for stopping by, 

Sunday, April 23, 2017

A finished table runner from scraps!

I finished this table runner (at least I think so) and I am so happy. It was from some leftover flying geese which I  made for another quilt.

Like most of the time, I quilted this on my Bernina 440QE.  I mostly used my walking foot but also my ruler foot for a very small piece.   As I worked, I found it was easier to do each side of a "goose" rather than twist around each one.  Here's a picture of the back.  


I am finding more and more I love my "in the ditch"  quilting foot.  Its a new plate for my Bernina 440Q walking foot.   Also, it made it easy to go around the edge of the quilt with stitches by moving the needle a few "dots" either left or right of center. 

But I still wanted to do some  ruler work on  the inside of the stars.  It was so much easier than marking it!  I'm glad I did it.  Speaking of marking, I wasn't sure about doing the shadow geese in the solid fabric, but I finally did it and am glad that I did.    I think it help completes the table runner.

This pattern was adapted from "Elegant Runner" by Terry Albers in Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts, Fall 2012.   I saved it knowing I had these flying geese to use up.

Another UFO finished for 2017!







Wednesday, March 29, 2017

March UFO #APQresolution



This is a pillow I made from a sample block for a large quilt.  The quilt was being made from a limited number of French fabrics, so I wanted to be sure my changes made sense and worked. The fabrics auditioned like the real ones and I continued with the quilt.  I thought I'd use the block for a pillow.  It uses the same border fabric and the cornerstones are some of the French fabric leftovers.





The pillow form is a little small but it does still make me happy.  I also love that this fabric was waiting to join the rooster on the front! I'm sure a chicken lover will love this pillow!
 

Friday, March 17, 2017

Scrap quilting


This is a project from the UFO list last year.   I had  some leftover flying geese and scraps from a Block of the Month quilt I made a few years ago.   I am making a table runner with it. I saw a pattern called "Elegant Runner" by Terry Albers in Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts, Fall 2012.  I put it in the bag with the scraps and this uses her pattern.  Of course, the dimensions are all different, but the idea is Terry's.

                  

Some lessons I learned:

  1. There is never enough fabric in your scraps in the colors you need
  2. Thangles can help you squeeze half square triangles ⬕ out of fabric that is too short to do it the normal way.
  3. Keep on working with what you have
So far I have:
  1. Flying geese assembled into four pieces with some border fabric
  2. 4 stars made with thangles and
  3. more scraps
The plan is to make the the 8" block be surrounded by some of the leftover fabric and maybe a black inner border to finish the table runner.   

Friday, February 17, 2017

UFOs for 2017

This list took much longer than I expected to finish.  The good news is that finishing the list helped me organize in so many ways:

1.  My fabric storage is more organized

2.  I realize that my stash needs some work
                 a.  Cull fabric that is too small to really do anything with it
                 b.  Group fabrics that will play well together and come up with a plan.

3.  My sewing desk is more organized.

I carried over a few projects so January's finish was a from 2016...as are a few others on the list.  I am still very happy with what I completed as many other projects come up besides the ones on the list.

Snow days have been very helpful for getting to this point and I am thrilled.

So, here is my list.....






Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Planning for the New Year

I admit to falling behind in 2016, but I am set to approach 2017 with new energy and commitment.



I did a massive reorganization of my lists and am entering them into the planner.  I found that there are probably not enough quilt planner pages, so I may need to add in a few more as the year goes on.  Another approach is to only use those for the original projects, so I stopped entering and turned to this....


Shorter Term/Actionable Goals
Join the #APQResolution2017 (2 carryovers from 2016 will join this list)
Plan one quilt a every 3 months with EQ7 - using up 4 stash fabric piles
Post weekly on my blog
Post one tutorial in even months
Attend on major quilt show
Work with 1-2 patterns to produce or submit in the fall
Quilt the Antique Grandmother Flower Garden

Big Picture Goals
Adventures with the new retiree-my husband
Let go of quilt/craft tools I am not using
Learn some new skills in social media/publishing
Get to some of the household organizing projects

Here's what my desk looks like in this process - planning tools, sewing project and nail polish and remover.  A lot of things taking up a little space.  I thought I'd be quilting this week, but again too many things have gotten in the way.  I'm grateful for some of them and saddened by a few others.  I am learning to carve out time again for me and this is a big help scheduling all the quilting plans and some other organizing plans too.

In January, I'll catch up my blog with a few of my projects that I did accomplish while not paying attention to my blog.  I never expected having my son back from college and my husband deciding to retire to take up so much of my time!