Thursday, December 28, 2017

Finish! Galaxy of Stars

Happy News-- Another finish! Galaxy of Stars!!  Wooot! ★✷✴✹✦


There was a little bit of drama with this quilt that happened while I was hand stitching the binding.  I had the quilt in a bag with a water bottle, but I didn't have the lid on tightly and some water spilled out and some of the red fabrics were bleeding onto the white!! =O 

The internet had all kinds of advice to give me! The photo above is prior to fixing the bleed. I went with the directions that Vicki Welsh shared and it worked like a charm!  Four cycles of super hot water in the laundry sink with gobs and gobs of Dawn dish detergent and the red has stopped bleeding and isn't on the white anymore!  I ended up using a tool for mixing drywall paste to agitate the quilt in the hot water.  It worked out great! It's like a giant potato masher.


The quilt is fully washed and dried and is all crinkly.  I usually gift my quilts without washing, so this is different-- I love it!   And so does Finn!  He has been a big fan of this quilt all along!


I will be donating this to the Lutherdale auction.  Hopefully it will fetch a good price.  And-- this was one of my goals for Finish-A-Long Q4.  Hooray!

xoxo,
Kristin

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday

editing to add link to my original FAL goals post

Monday, December 11, 2017

On Ringo Lake - Clue #3

Clue #3 was released last Friday for On Ringo Lake,Quiltville's Mystery Quilt.  I wasn't even halfway done with Clue #2 and intended to stop working on those units and dive into the new units.  Nope-- I really wanted to finish #2.  I got close, but not quite all the way there.  To spice things up, I started feeding in a few of #3.  And by spice things up, I'm being a bit tongue in cheek!  Piecing these is an exercise in focus and dedication for me!! I am motivated by seeing my quilts take shape.  I like to assemble a block early on and work on a bit of this and a bit of that.  Making hundreds of units all at once-- not my normal style!


This song has been running through my head and it summarizes how I think I've been doing... Falling Slowly.  Because I'm sloooooowly falling behind.  But as I've just listened to it for the third time, it occurred to me that the first few lines are appropriate for this mystery, too.

   I don't know you
   But I want you
   All the more for that

I know that it is not a race and I have ages and ages to do my piecing, but I want to keep the momentum going each week.  Much of the cutting is done for Clue #3, but I haven't been keeping a tally like I did with #2.  I am just going to sew for a while and count as I go.

In other mystery quilt news, I got a few more fat quarters of fabric to mix in and add to the spectrum. Woot!



xoxo,
Kristin

Linking up with Bonnie's Mystery Monday PartyDesign Wall MondaysLet's be Sewcial and Oh Scrap!

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Finish! Charity Chop Quilt


It's always happy news to report a finish!  Especially when it is a long time UFO.  This is a charity quilt (destined for a Dane County foster teen that is 'aging out' of the program).  Many years ago, while sifting through my stash for a project, I realized there were some fabrics I didn't care for anymore.  I had used them a lot and wasn't too excited about them any longer.  The solution I came up with-- make large (15"?) nine patches and then cut them up in the 'disappearing' fashion.  Well-- I made those 9 patches right away and then they aged for several years.

About 3 years ago, I took the blocks to my January retreat and did the 'chopping' and re-assembly.  The top languished in my closet until this year.  The Finish-A-Long has really helped motivate me to complete some UFO's.

I did a little photo shoot of the quilt last week with my new frame.  Overall it worked out ok, but I need to fill the sandbags they sent, because even though there wasn't much wind, the quilt acts like a big sail!  After several pictures, the frame blew over-- but I thought the draping looked pretty cool and artistic!


Here is a close up of the quilting.  I did a free motion all over pattern that was pretty fun: big loop--outlined then a halo of loops around the original. 


This is part of my Q4 Finish-A-Long and I'll be linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday

xoxo,
Kristin

editing to add link to my original FAL goals post

Sunday, December 3, 2017

On Ringo Lake - Clue #2

Clue #2 of On Ringo Lake, this year's Quiltville Mystery was released a few days ago and it is a tremendous amount of flying geese.


The first thought I had was that I did a big quilt of only flying geese a few years ago and it took me forever...how will I completed a million of them just for this step??  Well-- they are going together pretty quickly and I've got about 1/3 complete and all of the parts are cut out.  I know that it's not a race, but I'm trying to keep up each week.  Both this week and last week, I spent quite a bit of time starching my fabrics.  For the rest of the clues, I should be able to dive right in and cut and sew right away.  Woot!

Scrap quilts are tedious to cut out, good thing I had some help!

I can't wait to see what this pattern will look like.

xoxo,
Kristin