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!!

National Quilting Day - 2017

Yesterday was National Quilting Day and I celebrated by spending most of the day in my sewing room.  Cleaning and errands be damned--I wanted to sew!!

I'm happy to share that I finished the improv back I've been working on for my Charity Chop Quilt,  I thought I had enough put together, but it needed 2 separate extensions.  I'm happy to report that this is now big enough and is 'done'!  

After finishing that up, I needed to focus on some tidying.  My sewing room was pretty much a disaster and thankfully, is in better shape now.  Along the way, I knocked over the boards that were holding the parts to my Goodnight Irene leader/ender quilt.  What better time to revisit this project than when it is spilled all over the floor?!? I have 36 16 patch blocks and 31 blue x blocks done.  I lined up the remaining blue squares with bright squares and have them next to my machine, ready to sew.  I would love nothing more than to have a finished top by the end of the year!  

A big goal of mine for the past few weeks was to assemble the top of the XO Pink/Purple quilt.  Last weekend, I finished sewing the blocks together and this weekend planned to border the quilt with a thin bit of grey and then a wider bit of pink.  But now that I'm at the point to put another border on, I'm not sure if it needs it.  Or should it be purple?  Borders are not fun, so I'm tempted to call this good and use either of these fabrics as the binding?  I'm open to hearing your opinions!

Lastly-- I can't make this much progress on UFO's without starting something new!  I loved the Green/Grey Thousand Pyramid quilt I did in January.  It was so quick and turned out super cute.  There are more babies being born all around me, so I decided to make another of the same pattern, but use pink instead of green.  Most of my triangles are cut and I'm itching to get this up on the design wall and start stitching!

xoxo

Kristin

ps

linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts and Patchwork Times

Stormy Saturday Sewing

Yesterday was a windy, stormy day and it was perfect weather to stay inside and sew!  Unfortunately, before I could start on anything, I needed clean!  My sewing room was a mess!  I tidied for a while and the room is functional again.  I could probably clean and organize for a full day to get it where it needs to be, but I wanted to create!!

The first thing I worked on was re-grouping on an old, old, old project.  It's Goodnight Irene.  This has been a leader ender project for me since the beginning of time.  Well, Ok, February 2014.  I've been making the 4 patches for much longer than that, but in 2014, I started turning them into this pattern.  The end is in sight!  The number of completed blocks is growing and the number of blank 'X' blocks is dwindling.  I prepped a bunch of this to be handy as leader enders and freshened up my supply of 2" squares (they get stale, you know!).

Next up was to make another zippy earbud case to gift to a co-worker.  She did a random act of kindness for me and I have been wanting to surprise her with this as a small thank you.

After that, I pulled out the Strawberries that I started at the Lutherdale Gala weekend.  The blocks were all complete, but the sashing and borders weren't yet cut.  So cut them I did! And sash them!  By the time I got to the longer pieces, the natural light was fading and I didn't feel up to cutting and measuring them.  One thing I would like to do for my sewing room is improve the lighting-- especially at my cutting table.  

The last thing for me was to start another 'Little Lady'.  Doesn't this navy make the most adorable dress!!??!!

All in all, this was a very fun day!  Oh-- and I got my toes done, too.  They match my strawberry quilt!!

I need more stormy Saturdays!! 

xoxo

Kristin

Linking up with Patchwork Times and Sew Fresh Quilts

Lazy-ish Saturday

The way things are in my life/schedule right now, I can pretty much only sew on Saturdays.  I had grand ambitions to sew tons and tons of X's for my Goodnight Irene quilt this week.  The way my Saturday unfolded, it wasn't looking too promising...

First thing on Saturday morning, I tackled some chores.  I couldn't avoid it!

Then at 10 am, I went to an awesome local indie craft show - "Ritz Crafters".  This is the 2nd time attending and it didn't disappoint! 

I did my best to support the artists. =)

 

This mug is made by my fellow Mad Modder, Nicky Ross of N*Star Studio!  I can't wait to use it!

 

After shopping, brunch was in order.  Lazy Jane's!! Yum!

 

And this brings me to the laziest part of the day.  When I got home, I didn't feel revved up to start sewing, I instead needed to nap.

 

 

You see, it was March 1st.  We've had a particularly brutal winter in Wisconsin.  I'm rather tired of it.  And Mother Nature decided to give us another snow storm.  This picture doesn't capture my view as well as I would like it to.  But this snow was very 'snow-globey'. 

 

 

After some much needed lounge time, I finally made my way into the sewing room.  At this point, it was after 4 pm!  The outlook for several X's wasn't looking good...

But I persevered and made a bunch more.  The quilt is starting to take shape!

In addition to the Irene X's, I finished the 4th X O block lotto block that was in the works.  I think this is officially a new UFO and can't be called a block lotto (the drawing was last month)!  I'll call the quilt 'X O' for now.  It might change to something like Ring Ding? Ring Toss?  Who knows.

 

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall at Patchwork Times and Lily's Small Blog Meet Up

Goodnight Irene!!

I've seen this pattern before, but never knew it's name, Goodnight Irene!  I love it!  What fun!



















A few weeks ago, I had an a-ha moment and knew this was the pattern I would use with the leader/ender 4 patch brights I've been accumulating for ages.  Immediately, I started putting the 4 patches together into 16 patches. I had several yards of different solids in my stash. After a bit of auditioning, I selected a bright royal-y blue.

This weekend, I was able to start on the 'X' Blocks.  It took some experimenting with scraps to find out the X-blocks are made using the same size square as my 4 patch!  Did I mention I'm not using a pattern?  For some reason, I thought I would need to add 1/8 of an inch to the corner pieces (like when making 1/2 square triangles).  Nope!  This is a big win, because I bought a Go Baby! cutter specifically to make cutting 2" squares easier. 

This cutter is fantastic and it makes cutting up my scraps a breeze!  It's been a little while since I've cut my scraps into squares, so I spent some time making squares yesterday.  It's super fun!  I would never say that about cutting with a ruler!

Terry is doing a QAL for Goodnight Irene. I'm just a tad bit late to the party. Fashionably late!!

Also, I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday with Judy at Patchwork Times. I'm hoping to have many more X's for next week's link up.