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

Galaxy of Stars - Progress!

Thanks to September Sewing Month and my goal of sewing 15 minutes a day, I am making great progress on my wonky red/white/blue star top.  I've decided to rename it "Galaxy of Stars" and it makes me think of this Coldplay song. It's stuck in my head and you can join me! =)

I introduced this block to my friends at the Lutherdale January Retreat and asked people to bring scraps of red and blue.  We made about 30 blocks and I have made nearly 30 more!  I like the smaller sizes and the nestling stars really add visual interest to to quilt.  I've been calling nestled stars either kissing or hugging!  When I make 2 stars together and can use one of the 9 patch corners to be part of the other block's 9 patch it's kissing and when I take an existing star and build another one around it, it is hugging.  😃

Here is my galaxy.  I would LOVE to finish the top by the end of September and have it quilted and bound by the end of the year.  I will be donating this to the Lutherdale auction on behalf of the January Quilters.  It would be fantastic to have it 100% complete by retreat.

xoxo,

Kristin

ps

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday and Lorna's Let's be Sewcial

Sew 15 Minutes - in September

A local friend invited others to join her in finding a minimum of 15 minutes to sew per day in September.  Why not?  I'm giving it a whirl.  It might be just the motivation I need to move my projects along.  Those blocks aren't gonna sew themselves!

I'm going to attempt to add a picture to instagram each day, but there may be days where the 15 minutes aren't too interesting or different from another day.  We shall see.  You can find me as @kristingumdrop on Instagram.

Day 1- I kicked off with adding binding to my rainbow strings quilt.  I want to finish this for Q3 of Finish-A-Long, so I need to get crack-a-lackin'.

Day 2: I set a timer for 15 minutes and when that finished, promptly sewed for an additional 2 hours!  It was lovely!  I had several chores to do, but I let them all fall by the wayside.

I need to get this Wonky Star quilt together.  It has been patiently waiting for progress while pinned to the design wall.  It is amazing what you can accomplish in 15 minutes!

Exciting news-- I was able to apply the partial seam lesson from Mary Fons to this project! Check out the before and after pictures.  This improv setting is going to be possible thanks to partial seams!  So cool!!

Day 3: Hand sewing binding on the string block quilt. (no pictures)

Hopefully I can keep this momentum going all month!

xoxo

Kristin

Finish-A-Long Q3 2017 - My Goals

Summer is my favorite season of the year and announcing that the 3rd quarter of 2017 sounds crazy to me!  How did half of the year go by already?  As long as summer holds on for many, many, many more months, I'm ok.

Setting quilting goals for this time of year is tricky.  I don't spend as much time indoors, because there is so much to do outside.  I do have things that need quilting and by adding them to this list, perhaps it will help motivate me a bit more to find some time to quilt and bind?

To start, I might as well list out what didn't get done on the Q2 list:

1- Pink Purple XO Quilt
I was sooooooo close to finishing this in the last quarter.  Just a few more hours of hand stitching the binding and I would have made it.  Oh well.  This will be a slam dunk for Q3.

2- Charity Chop Quilt -- This quilt didn't make any progress last quarter.  It would be fantastic to quilt this up and add it to the finished column.

Front

Back

3- Wonky Stars for Lutherdale: This top is not going to make it to this year's auction (bummer), but it did make it further along.  Just like the charity quilt above, it would be great to finish this up and move it to the 'done' column.

4- Elephant Parade-- This poor top is languishing in my closet, just waiting to be quilted.

4- Whirly Star Bonus Quilt-- Speaking of languishing in my closet.  While tidying up, I found this top.  I put it together in January 2016 from leftover bits from one of Heather's quilts.   It won't take much to finish this up and then it can go to our guild's charity project.

'
5- Legendary -- And now it is time to be ambitous.  This top isn't done, but it isn't too far from it.  I might use some flannel for the backing and then it will be my new 'couch quilt'.

6- Hekla-- More ambition!  This wallhanging needs another border and then it will be ready for quilting.

Can I finish all 6?? Probably not.  But I can accomplish some of this!  And it doesn't hurt to try!  Just like last quarter, I'll ask for you to wish me luck!

Linking up with Ella at Throw a Wench in the Works. 

xoxo

Kristin

Lutherdale 2017 Gala Quilt

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending time at Lutherdale with the goal of assembling quilt blocks into a top to be auctioned off in August.  The weather was perfect, the food was great and the company was lovely!

I asked the new camp director if we could be given a tour of the gardens, chickens and beehives.  The beehives are scattered around the grounds, but we did get to meet the chickens that provide us with the eggs used in our meals.  They have one handsome rooster, too.

 

In March, I spoke to the folks that attended the Gala Luncheon and explained this year's block.  Then we gave them kits of pre-cut houses and sky.  It's always a challenge to find a pattern that is forgiving for a group to sew and will still be stunning to motivate people to bid high!

On Friday, we were certain we would have this top assembled before going to bed.  Well-- we did assemble most of it pretty quickly, but then things slowed down.  We had all the rows together before bed and held off to put the borders on in the morning.  It was a good thing, too!  Looking at it with fresh eyes, we decided the proportions were a bit off and we needed to add another row to make it longer.  Some of our houses were...ahem... a little short.  We grouped the short houses together into the same rows, so they could get along.  But-- with multiple shorter rows, the length was sacrificed a bit.  No worries!  We zipped out another 14 houses like nobody's business.

Here is our quilt, pre-borders (the borders are simple yellow that matches the background):

And here are some of the people that worked on assembling the top:

L-R: Jim, Janine, Me, Kitty, Yvonne, Heather

I had a inkling that would would be able to finish that top up pretty quickly, so I brought a few other projects with me.  This is the project I started with the other January Quilters.  I want to assemble this into a random, non-traditional layout.  Janine did this arrangement and I started to sash some of the smaller stars together this weekend, but that's all the further it went.  Hopefully I can finish this up in time for the auction?!?

Insted of getting the stars assembled, we focused on getting this string block top together! I started these blocks several years ago. I had a lot of blue and green scraps and thought this would be a good scrap buster.  I don't know about that?!?  Every time I would work on it, the volume of scraps seemed to increase!  For quite some time now, I had the scraps I wanted to use for this in a small bin.  But it was overflowing, so I had to keep it on the closet floor and was starting to be a bother to me.  Now I'm thrilled to report that it is a top!  Of course there are still some scraps left over-- oh well.  Time to find another scrap project to mix them into.  I had about 2/3rds of the blocks done prior to this weekend and several people helped cut, press, and sew. Janet and I sewed the blocks and rows together. I might add a skinny white border and maybe some blue?  Not sure yet...

 xoxo,
Kristin

ps
Happy to have Judy Hansen  at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts take over the Design Wall Monday Reigns from Judy LaQuidara.  Thank you to both Judies!! =)

Finish-A-Long 2017

I've read about the Finish-A-Long for a while now and have followed many people that are participating.  Because I have several quilts that are either finished tops or not too far from finishing, I thought this might help motivate me to bring them to completion.  So-- I'm joining in on 2017 Quarter 2 Finish-A-Long!  Woo-hoo!

The rules are: I post a list of what I want to complete in Q2 to my blog this week and at the end of the quarter, if I've completed any of them, I post a summary and link it up to the Finsh-A-Long hosts.  Every finish qualifies for a prize!  It's worth saying again--Woo-hoo!

Here are my goals:

1- Lion Quilt: it's at the quilter's waiting for its turn.  I would love to get this back and have it bound by the end of the quarter.

2- Charity Chop Quilt:  The top and back are complete (Finally!!).  Can I find the time to quilt and bind this?

3- Pink Grey Triangle Baby Quilt x 2:  There are some babies in my world and I would like to complete 2 Thousand Pyramid quilts in pink/grey/black/white and gift these to friends.

4- Wonky Stars for Lutherdale: I would like to submit this quilt to the August Lutherdale Auction.  Can't do that without completing it!! =O

5- Elephant Parade-- this is where i get ambitious!! This top has been complete for a while.  Do I quilt it myself?  Or have it done by a professional?  It would be lovely to finish this up.

Oops!  I forgot an important top that I want to finish this quarter.  Editing to add the Pink/Purple XO top.

I'll be linking up with Jess at Elven Garden Quilts.  Wish me luck!!!

xoxo
Kristin

Retreat Wrap Up

It's been a few weeks since I've been home from retreat and it's been hard to find the time to write a summary.  Instead, I've been using any spare time to keep on sewing!

I'm fuzzy on which year was my first at Lutherdale-- it was either 2010 or 2011.  Either way, I've been going there in January for quite a while and it is a highlight of my winter.  This year was just as enjoyable as all of the others. My focus this year was on starting new quilts.  Often times I use this week as an opportunity to finish what I've started, so this is slightly different for me.

The first quilt I worked on was 'Legendary' by Elizabeth Hartman. She blogs at Oh Fransson! and I absolutely love her graphic style.  I was warned in advance to be very, very careful with the organization of the cut pieces and how I sew them together and that was good advice!  The size differences of the pieces from branch to branch is very subtle!  My little forest of trees took 2 full days to cut and piece.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to make the sasquatch block at retreat,  I was ready to move on to something else!

And that something else was to make a baby quilt for my co-worker!  This was so much fun!  In about 1 day, I cut and pieced this entire top!  They don't know the gender of the baby and are decorating the baby's room in grey and mint.  I've been hoarding stashing black/white and grey fabric for a while and found a great inspiration on Pinterest.  This is the first 60 degree triangle quilt I've made and I love this so much, I think I might do another version in Pink!  My quilt guild is doing a challenge this year with a black and white fat quarter.  It fits PERFECTLY with this quilt!
 

 

All throughout the weekend, I demo-ed how to make wonky stars to the other retreaters.  I had already made several of these blocks and the plan is to assemble all the blocks in an improv setting and donate to Lutherdale's auction in August.  As a group we made a ton of blocks and now I have my work cut out for me!

Speaking of donations for the auction-- I brought my finished Strawberry Quilt with me and after showing it off to everyone, I left it there.  I had a good chunk of fabric left from the backing and Janet graciously turned it into a pillowcase! (forgot to get a picture)

Here's Janet in the Elvis apron she made!

That about sums up my 2017 retreat.  As usual, I didn't want to leave and as soon as I did, I started counting down the days until next year!

xoxo

Kristin

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts - Let's Be Sewcial and Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish It Up Friday