Busy little beaver!

I've been a busy little beaver lately and have been doing a lot of sewing and sewing related things, but haven't had time to post about it all.

First up-- quilting.  Lots of it!  I spent a few days at my parent's house and quilted 3 quilts in 2 days! Speedy! Needless to say, I didn't do any complicated quilting!  All three quilts are charity, so the plan was quick, simple and hold the layers together.  I've got a lot of binding in my future and I'll post more/better pictures when I get these finished.

While at my parent's, I found out the Racine quilt guild (Lighthouse Quilters) was having their show that weekend.  I've heard about this every other year show, but have never been able to go to it.  It was impressive!  I ran into all kinds of friends that I know from my January retreat and many of them had quilts on display.  Here is a sampling:

Because I've been such a good quilter and have finished up quite a few UFO's lately, it was time to start a new project!  Last year, I did a pull from my stash to make Angela Walter's Variable Star, but never found the time to get it started.  The fabric was waiting patiently in a project bin, so now is the time to get it going.  It's a relatively simple, quick pattern and I'm almost done with all the stars! There are just four more partial stars for the corners and it is ready to assemble into a top. BUT-- I'm not thrilled with the orange star.  ☹ I might make something else for that spot.  And as long as I'm doing that, I might swap out the small blue/green one in the upper left, too.

Last, but not least-- I co-hosted another Late Night Sew Party at Blue Bar Quilts this week!  Wooot!  Sew.much.fun! This is the second party and I didn't take any pictures during the first one.  Next time I will do better and try to capture more of the action.  Notice a little somethin' somethin' on the wall there?  😊  It's my lion!!  We had pizza and raffles and I demoed paper piecing to several people.  This month's Mad Mod Block Lotto is paper pieced (shoot-- no pictures of the blocks!) and some people haven't ever done this technique before.  Next month's party is on Black Friday! Can't wait!!

xoxo,

Kristin

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Mondays and Lorna's Let's bee Sewcial and Cynthia's  Oh Scrap!!

Another rainy Saturday-- Hooray!!!

Wisconsin has been stuck in a cool, rainy weather pattern for what seems like forever-- and I'm not complaining!  What better weather to spend all day in your sewing room??!??  I took advantage of my Saturday to piece more backs and work on some UFO's and even tidy up some!

Next weekend I'm planning to quilt both of my bright scrappy charity quilts.  Last weekend I pieced one backing and yesterday I finished the second back.  Some of the chunks of fabric are leftover from other quilt backs and some of the fabric I bought for a song (Thank you, Thousands of Bolts!).

As long as I was prepping for quilting, I needed a back for Galaxy of Stars. I bought a bunch of bright blue from Thousands of Bolts.  I don't recall if I was planning on using it for this quilt, but it is perfect-- except for the amount.  I'm short about 8-10" width-wise.  I pieced the 4 (?) yards together and I'm ready to add in strip of red to make it wide enough. This is the first time I'm looking at this quilt "not on the design wall" and I'm loving it even more!

Lastly-- I *almost* finished my Legendary top.  One-More-Seam!!!

But I was out of energy by this point.  And I made the executive decision that my iron has run it's course and needs to be replaced.  It's been hobbling along for over a year.  It doesn't like to turn on when I want it to, the steam burst button stays in the down position and it is peeing out water faster than I can iron.  😡  Amazon to the rescue!  I picked out another Rowenta and I hope we have a long life together.

xoxo,

Kristin

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Mondays and Lorna's Let's bee Sewcial and Cynthia's  Oh Scrap!!

UFO progress

Yesterday was rainy, windy, overcast and all around yucky.  In other words-- a perfect day to stay in and sew! I was able to make progress on a few different UFOs--hooray!

First up was to correct the corner squares on my Hekla.  I thought I had this top finished last week, only to realize as I was blogging that I used the wrong fabric on the corners--doh!  I couldn't let it stay like that, even though it was not too bad.  I pulled out the seam ripper and fixed it. It's ready for quilting, which means I need a backing.  As it turns out, Blue Bar Quilts still has yardage of the grey-woot!

Next up, time to piece backs for the charity quilts I want to quilt this month.  I bought several yards of brights online at a bargain price.  I'm cutting them up and adding to other leftover bits that I have to make fun, improve backings.  I got one complete and started on the second one.

And while working on those projects, I finished the last X blocks from my Goodnight Irene quilt.  This has been a leader/ender project for YEARS! I looked back through my photos and the first time I have it documented seems to be Feburary of 2014, but I was sewing 4 patches together way before that. Here is one of the earliest photos I could find:

Oddly enough, this photo of the units has blocks from 2 other quilts I finished up this year.  Apparently my scrappy quilts are on a 3-4 year completion cycle?  I still have some of those improv log cabin superhero blocks in my UFO containers!! Maybe I need to work on those this year, too??

Anywho, I finished the last blue X block.  I'm out of blue and can't make anymore, so it is time to start assembling!  This makes me very, very happy. I wonder if a border of another color and some more 4 patches would be nice?  I'll wait and think about it more once I have this put together.

xoxo

Kristin

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Mondays and Lorna's Let's bee Sewcial and for the first time-- Oh Scrap!!

Sew 15 Minutes September - Wrap up

I had such a great September in terms of sewing.  By challenging myself to sew every day, even if just a little bit, it really got my mojo going!  There were just a handful  of days that I missed and I sewed some really, really long days throughout the month, that I think I'm covered.

Thanks to all of that dedication, I got my Galaxy of Stars fully assembled!  WooooHooo!!!!!!

I started assembling the top on September 1st and on Saturday--the 30th, the end was in sight!  I pushed through and kept plugging away, because I really wanted to have a completed top in the same month I started it.  The final assembly was a bit tricky, but I was up for the task!  I used some more partial seams that I learned from Mary Fons and voilá!  There is one bit that in hindsight I wish I could re-work, but to quote one of my early quilting instructors, "Done is good!!"  This top is now in the queue to be quilted and I have it listed as one of my Q4 Finish-A-Long goals.  I want to show it off in January to the retreaters that contributed blocks.  

The best part about finishing the stars?  I have my design wall back!  I could sew on the borders to Hekla!

AAAAAACK! I was so pleased with myself last night that I got this sewn on nicely, but not until just now, did I realize the corner squares are supposed to be orange and not grey!!!!!  Grrrrr.  Harumph.  I thought this was done and ready to be quilted, but I guess not.  Taking pictures and stepping back are really important ways to gain perspective on your quilts!

Oh well-- back to the seam ripper this will go.

xoxo,

Kristin

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Mondays and Lorna's Let's bee Sewcial

Finish-A-Long Q4 2017 - My Goals

Sliding in to the last part of 2017-- I have lofty goals!  It would be grrrrrrreat to quilt up a bunch of tops that I have waiting or close to completion.  Yesterday I spent a fair amount of time daydreaming about what I have to do and thinking about how I can complete it.  Finish-A-Long has been a big help in keeping me motivated to keep moving on my UFO's.

Here is my list:

1- Charity Chop Quilt (this quilt needs a better name!)
Right now, this is my top priority to quilt.  I'll do something simple on it, like a panto or an all over improv design.  Easy-peasy.  Before I can quilt it, I need to piece the back.  It seemed that everyone I showed the backing to said it needed to be it's own quilt.  Fine.  But now I need another backing!!  I will do something MUCH simpler for the back, but it will still be bright and a bit improv.

2- Kitchen Sink Rainbow Quilt
This is what was going to be the back of the above quilt.  Guess what?  Need to piece a back for this one, too!! =O

3- Galaxy of Stars
I've been working hard on finishing this top in September and I want to have it complete prior to my January Retreat.  Setting a goal for completion in Q4 would make sure it is done by January!

4- Hekla
I don't have a current picture, but the borders are pieced and waiting to be sewn to the center.  Finishing the top won't be hard-- can I get it quilted, too?

5- Legendary
This poor quilt was in time out.  I followed the instructions and used a slimmer vertical sashing in the Sasquatch row and then the row is 1/2" short!  Grrr.  I checked the website and didn't see any corrections for this.  At the late night sew night, I looked it over with some friends.  The fix is going to be to rip out the sashings on either side of 'squatch and add some wider sashings to make it the correct length.

6- Elephant Parade
I want to finish this quilt and I'm wondering if the best solution is to have someone else quilt it?  That would make finishing it this quarter realistic.  We'll see...

Six goals!  I've had that same count each quarter and each time I finished 3.  What will happen this quarter??

Linking up with Marci at Marci Girl Designs.

xoxo
Kristin