Yesterday was the beginning of the Hands2Help blog fest/challenge at Confessions of a Fabric Addict .  The guest blogger was Katie from Katie Mae Quilts and she shared a quick and simple to make quilt top using charms.  I wanted to play along, and after a few hours had a cute sized square laptop quilt.  I started with a stack of novelty fabrics most of which were the remains of a layer cake.  I added in a charm pack of Kona solids and voila!  There are still enough squares left from the layer cake to make another, they are more pastel colors.  Maybe next week, or tomorrow or today, my calendar is wide open.

Today I am going to work on the Unity quilt clue.  There are flying geese and a square in a square blocks.  I am hoping that I can use my Accuquilt to cut some of the pieces.  I think I have a square in a square ruler around here somewhere.  I really need to make a list of all the specialty rulers and templates I have.  I did that with my Accuquilt dyes and it has proven to be quite helpful.  Right now all my specialty rulers are in a drawer, stacked in no particular order or category.  The ones I use the most, like the easy angles and the bloc-locks are in a rack near my cutting area.  I also hang most of my straight rulers on the wall with command hooks.

I made a bunch of face masks Friday, for friends and family.  I keep saying that I’m done making them, but someone always seems to need one or two.  I have made 40 so far, most have been with ties, but the first ones were with a small amount of corded elastic I had on hand.  I wore one last week when I went grocery shopping, it started to chafe the backs of my ears.  Can’t imagine wearing it all day, no wonder people are coming up with extenders and such to keep the straps from their ears.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

I finished the quilting on the Bee hive quilt.  It is just a simple end to end pantograph  called Vintage tufts.  Boring, but effective .  I started quilting the Heart quilt, also an end to end pattern, but a bit more interesting, with circles/orange peels and hearts.  The thread broke six times while quilting out the first row.  Extremely frustrating, I tried a bunch of things, tension, needles, lowering speed.  I struggled to finish that first row, saved and shut it down.  I oiled the machine, just for good measure.  After some rumination I think that the sandwich was a bit too tight on the frame.  I couldn’t loosen it during that row, as it would mess up the spacing on the pantograph.  Today I’ll start with it a bit looser.

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Got the borders put on the Glorianna’s Dream quilt, and I thought of a new name, Turkish Delight.  I have this yellow check fabric in my stash that I think I may use for a backing.  There is 5 ½ yards, maybe enough, math is involved, so it can wait a bit.  The ‘To Be Quilted’ pile is large, so there is time.

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I’m happy with how the center block for the Unity quilt came out.  I would like to use up the pile of left overs from Estrella too.  They all play nicely together, and I kinda like medallion quilts.  I made a Sue Garman quilt, called, uh, Coxcomb Medallion.  I blogged about finishing the top back in January 2016, but I don’t remember when I quilted it in April 2018.  It was on my bed this past January.  I still have to appliqué four blue circles in the corners, does that make it a UFO?

Started a new sweater, “Nieve” by Coco Knits, I’m using a cotton silk blend yarn with a loose twist.  It’s turning out okay, I just hope that it doesn’t get too saggy, as cotton sweaters can.

I spent some time gardening, pulled a can full of weeds, and cut the grass.  Hardly made a dent, but I found some pretty flowers to look at and saw a monarch butterfly go by.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down #45 today.

Another week is gone by in the current SIP situation.  I have one complete finish and one top almost done, but for the borders.  And I am going to start Bonnie Hunters “Unity” quilt.  I picked out a bunch of fabric that just happened to be near my sewing table.  The scraps from the Estella quilt seem to be a good amount from which to work.  Bonnies colors are blue, red and aqua.  Mine are going to be red, tan and pink.

I kinda wanted to do the Laundry Basket Quilt’s QAL, but it’s almost half way done and I don’t want to rush to catch up.  I’m saving the pattern for next week when I’ll have nothing to do.  Ha Ha, like that’ll ever happen.  I haven’t been over to the long-arm in a few days.  I might go in today, and spray everything down with lysol.  We had a guest stay over in there, and I doubt he was infected, but better safe than sorry.

In the almost finished category is the Gloriana’s Dream quilt, which still needs a better name.  It kinda looks Spanish/Moorish to me, like tiles or wood carving, not very dreamy.  I got the center together, on point placement, so I didn’t web it.  I have to cut off all the squares that are protruding from the edges, then add borders.  They are just the red print, I may miter them, just for fun.

 

My finish this weekend was the binding on my Frolic quilt.  I changed the sheets on my bed and also changed out the current quilt for extra credit.  It’s bright and cheery, doesn’t really match my bedroom, but I don’t mind.  I used Warm and Plush batting, it is a bit heavier than the regular Warm and Natural cotton I use.  My newest roll is Hobbs 80/20, we’ll have to see how I like it.

Finally, I was reading FB the other day and someone was applying binding to a quilt and had their miter join come up exactly on the edge point of the quilt.  I can relate to this, as it used to happen to me frequently.  It’s very difficult to make a nice looking corner if all that joining seam is inside it.  What I do now is, before I start sewing the binding on, I find the first seam join, then I place it with a clip six or eight inches after the first corner. This way the first corner is sure not to have a join on it, then I place the rest of the binding on the edge until I have a six inch tail, (for joining later) and start stitching.  About 90% of the time this ensures that the rest of the corners will be seam free.  I does happen though if I use strips that are of various lengths, but it’s pretty reliable when I use 40 inch (WoF) strips.

The orange clip is where the first join is and the red is at the first corner.  Hope this is some help.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

The current verbal exchange around here:

Family member: Watcha doing?

Me: Cuttin’ stuff up and sewing it together.

Everyday I have been sewing, I am making progress on the Gloriana’s Dream kit quilt.  There is a whole lot of  cutting, piecing and chain stitching going on.  Make 96 of these, make 48 of these, cut 192 of these, I’m up to the sashing, which is also pieced.  The instructions are really well written, which I’m thankful for because sometimes, especially with kit quilts, this is not the way.  I do, however, modify most quilt patterns to use the easy angle and companion angle wherever possible.  I never had much luck piecing HSTs and QSTs with the cut a square on the diagonal method.

I have been keeping up with the EQ8 online classes I signed up for last year, in fact I re-upped for another six months.  Kari Schell at On Point Quilter runs/makes them.  They are a combination of videos and PDF’s (downloadable) that change from month to month.  The topic I chose for this month is ‘Specialty Rulers and Dies’, I have been working on learning to create blocks/quilts using my Accuquilt Qube dies.  There is also a Facebook page for members to share projects and monthly live question and answer sessions.  I don’t do the live sessions, but watch them later, because someone usually asks my question.

There is a mystery quilt-a-long going on at Laundry Basket Quilts blog.  It’s a block a day, well, it’s more like 4 or 6 a day.  I have been downloading and keeping the patterns.  I still have a bunch of the Sequoia fabric line from them, could look pretty in these blocks too.  Although, I really want to make three of her other patterns, including Alaska.  Its good to have options.

I am almost finished with the 5th Avenue shawl.  I need to finish it and get it in the mail Monday.  I have about 6 more rows, the beads slow me down a bit, so a row takes about 25 minutes.  I am already getting start-itis for a new project. I really *should* do the Fox-Paw scarf, I started it last year (?) and it took me a while to get the concept of the increase/decrease pattern. The learning portion of it looks kinda wonky and the gauge is all over the place until I got the hang of it.  I also found a video of how to do it, which, as a visual learner, is worth it to me, to watch.  The photo below is from Bluprint.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese today for ‘Put Your Foot Down”

I have made some progress this week.  I finished the Estrella top, even ironed it and carefully folded it up with its backing fabric.  I still have to piece that, but it’ll be a while until the top gets its turn from the to-be-quilted pile.

This week I am focusing on a bunch of kits I bought at the end of last year.  They were clearance priced, so I figured I could whip them up for my Etsy shop or use the fabric for something else.  This heart quilt was made from two charm packs and about three yards of solids.  The charms it came with were aqua, pink, and grey.  Kinda ‘meh’ in colors, I switched them out for spring colors.  Much better.

I have been working on my 5th avenue shawl too.  I try to do at least an hour a day, now that it’s getting bigger, those rows take longer.  The finished size is 70 inches on the long side, it’s a scalene triangle, all sides are different lengths.  Yay geometry!

I started a new kit last night, it’s called Reverie Gloriana’s Dream.  The colors in this picture don’t do the fabric justice, in fact I almost didn’t buy it because of the photo.

I was pleasantly surprised though, they are really pretty, the red is a rich raspberry and the brown is a golden tan, the teal is a bit more greenish and the print is a lovely floral.  I have the first block part cut out, a snowball with a base on it.

Frolic is still waiting on the last row of pantograph to be sewn.  Maybe today, it shouldn’t take more than an hour.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down today.