Good Grief it is November!

Where on earth did September and October go?

I know that the first few weeks of September were lost to painting the house and taking kids to soccer practice but where did the rest of the time go?

I did complete my September UFO I just never posted it anywhere but on Instagram.

I completed my Bingo quilt.  It uses Figtree & Co Chestnut Street fabric.  I wanted a fall quilt.  I started this on a year ago but completed it this fall.

I then started and came close to getting my first Christmas present quilt completed.  I did get it done in October.  This one the bright fabric was selected by my grandson and I decided to put it with the Wilmington Essential charcoal.  I am not crazy about the boarder but is was what I had.  I am backing this with Minky.  It is being quilted now.

I  then started my second Christmas present quilt.  I am to the laying out stage.  Number two grandson wanted a neon quilt.  Sorry kid that is not going to happen but I can make it bright.

However, last week I realized that we were almost to the end of the month and figured that I better get my October UFO completed.  So I hopped on it and got all the block sewn together yesterday.  I almost walked away from the last boarder because I needed to go work at our Church's Fall Family Fun/ Pumpkin Slam party.  I was working the espresso bar so I was not in the carnival area.  I just got to caffeinate all the parents.  I decided that I just needed to get that last boarder on and the party could start without me.  All of these squares were left over from a project that my daughter made several years ago.  She had gone really overboard on cutting squares and adding sashing to the bottom of the blocks.  I needed to do some but not all.  I only cut a few more blocks, maybe 10.  All I had to do this week was lay it out and sew the sashing between the block and join the rows.  I am sure this sat in a box for at least 8 years waiting to be done.  Since my daughter gave away the first quilt she made she has claimed this one.  Now I just need to come up with a back.  Sorry for the bad picture, I was in a hurry to take it before I left the house.

This month I need to finish quilt number two for Christmas and start and hopefully finish quilt number three.  I am giving a quilt to three of the oldest grandsons.  They have not had a new quilt in several years and they are all getting very tall.

I will also look for a new UFO.   I have already completed all of the UFO's that were on my list from last December.  I did some early and added a few alternates in those spots.  That is also the case for the last two months those have already been done.   The Christmas quilt was the last one from my original list.  Believe me when I say I am sure I can pull out a few others to work on.

August Progress

My UFO for the month of August was a rag quilt that I had started many years ago.  The main fabric is from the Bonnie and Camilla line called Bliss just to give you an idea of when I bought the fabric.  Rag quilts were very popular at that time and I thought it would be fun to make one.  Little did I know that I would not really enjoy the process.  But I dutifully cut all my fabric and batting pieces from left over batting.  I sewed a few of the bigger blocks and put it away for a really long time.  And I got so close to having the darned thing completely done this month.  I got it all sewn even after I ran out of the right color thread and had to go buy more.  I then began to cut the seams.  And cut and cut.  I discovered that after about an hour of cutting I could no longer feel my little finger so I would have to stop.  I have gone back and cut more several times now and have it 2/3 of the way cut.  As soon as I get it all cut I will need to locate a laundry mat to go wash it in.  I don't think I want to wash and dry it in my machines.  I am expecting a lot of lint.

My second goal for August was to get the Stars and Strips quilts quilted and bound.  Both are quilted and one is bound.  My daughter is on a road trip this weekend and is binding the other one on her trip.
I still need to get a picture of this.  

The last goal I had was to also work on the Bee-utiful embroidery block.  I got the next block completed.  This one was actually suppose to be done in July but after I re-injured my shoulder in did not happen.  I have a picture but it is not downloading onto the laptop for some reason.
Well that was frustrating.  I had downloaded several and then for some unknown reason the blue tooth turned off.   Technology it was suppose to make out live easier.

This is one I almost forgot about.  My grandson asked be to put together some blocks for the mother of a friend that started Chemo.  All the kids on the Water Polo team had signed blocks.  I added sashing from my stash and got it quilted.  I got the blocks last Friday and delivered it in time for the game on Tuesday.  She was thrilled with the thoughtfulness of the kids to try and encourage her and stay strong in her battle with cancer.

I am feeling pretty good about what I got done.  I am actually hopeful that once the grandkids are back in school that I will be able to pick up my sewing some more.  I have some Christmas presents that I need to start on.  Since I have already completed the number for the month of September, I either have to select a new item of complete a Christmas present.  That is the way that I am leaning at the moment.

Not all UFO's are quilt related

July was a super busy month. 

My first UFO of the month was not even quilt related.  Last year I talked my daughter into buying glass tile to add to her kitchen back splash.  It was time for that to happen.  I enlisted the help of my friends to help me.  They had all the tools.  We started on the second of July.  My friends husband had a wet saw and cut all the tile while my friend and I put it up.  It took a good portion of the day to get it cut and on the wall.

The next day we added grout.  It did turn out beautiful.  I am glad we did it but I hurt for days.  I arm was killing me for the next several days.

When I started to feel better I added a boarder to a quilt I did not get finished in June.

This is the 4 patch lattice quilt from Missouri Star quilting.  The tutorial is a few years old as is the fabric, which is Be Creative from Moda.

Then it was time to start working on my UFO for July.  That was the Be My Neighbor quilt.  I had a little over half of the block done.  I started this last year with a quilt store but I was unable to attend all the sessions because of house commitments or needing to take grandkids to soccer.  I did not follow the assembly instructions that I found for this on the internet.  The quilt would have been long and narrow so I added some sashing between the house blocks to make it a little wider.  I also added a colored outside boarder.  I had to get a little help from my daughter on that.  I re-injured my shoulder last week and she needed to cut the fabric for me.  The fabric for this is all from Moda.  It includes Sundrop, Sommerset and Chestnut Street.  It is being held up by two of my grandsons standing on chairs. 

All in all it was a fairly productive month.  Last month as my son was helping my husband with a project I had two of his sons make pillow cases.  The boys are wanting to learn to sew.

And since it is summer here are a couple of pictures from my yard.  The first is a star gazer lily that we planted late last year.  The second is a plant we actually moved from the old house.  It is a upright fuchia that originally came from my inlaw's house many years ago.   When the bed at the old house were being dug up for some foundation work that had to be done me moved the plant to the new house otherwise it would had died before the work was done.  It did not do well last year since it was moved at a bad time.  This year it is doing great.

This went on this month also.  My husband hated these trees.  They were extremely messy.  He was alway racking up needles.  This month they were removed.  I miss the shade but not the work.  Who knew evergreens shed so much?

June has come and gone

I am sure that others feel this way -but where did June go?

I did complete three quilt flimsys.

The UFO for June had been completed earlier in the year so I added a new one.

Stars and Strips has been on my list for a while to complete.  I did not one but two.  One follows the pattern using all the same reds in each block and the other I mixed the reds up to make it look scrappy.  I can't decide which one I like best.  The one with the all matching reds went together more quickly as it took less thinking.

 I also completed another top that I had actually started in March before I got sidetracked with other quilts.  This one is X's and O's.  I used the Missouri Star Quilt company pattern.  It is worked in The Good Life by Bonnie and Camilla.

Gotta Run-

Bee-utiful Quilt Start

I have been meaning to post all month.  I have actually worked on several items but at this point nothing is done. 

I did start something new this month.  I began to embroider some blocks for a quilt I have wanted to make for some time.  It is from the Moda Bake Shop.... I believe it was posted during the summer of 2016 about the time we decided to move from our old house.  That project was put on the back burner as I purged and packed for the next several months.

After the move it was work, commute, fix up the old house and unpack in the new one.  Not a lot of sewing got done.

The block I embroiders was the first of the Bee-utiful quilt along. The quilt was designed by Pamela Morgan. (Bee-utiful Quilt Along) If I remember correctly Moda release two patterns a week all that summer. I loved it so I bought the fabric to use with the quilt at the time it came out.  I have held onto it all these time.  I bought the Bee Creative collection by Deb Strain.  Now I have finally completed stitching the first block and have traced the second one.

Too bad I waited until dark to take a picture.

I do have some other quilts in the works I am hoping to have them all done by the end of the month.

Earlier this month we had some guest move in.  

Hard to see but we had some black cap chickadees build a nest and hatch three babies.  By the time I realized they had hatch they were already pretty large.  I was really worried that my hanging fushia would die for lack of water but I was able to watch for the mom to fly away and water around the next without getting the babies wet.   We did not get to see them leave the nest but that happened rather quickly.   From hatch time to fledge is about 16 days.  

The Hurrier I Go

I completed the top for this months UFO just under the wire today.  It is not perfect.  I took a lot of short cuts to get it done and some were not very successful.  My quilter is not going to like my boarders.

This was the Patchwork QAL from the Fat Quarter Shop last year.  Because of the move and working on getting to house sold I got behind and never caught up.  I feel lucky that I had gotten all the patterns for it.

This is it yesterday afternoon.

This is it this evening.  However today I had to do some ripping.  I had not pinned...another short cut, when joining the rows and the sashings had not lined up.  The hurrier I go the behinder I get.

The reason I was so far behind is that I finished sewing the quilt for the family that lost their quilter in April.  Here it is finished.  My daughter and I had to make quite a few design decisions to get this together.  She had only completed the first row.  She also had 5 other stratum sewn together.  We sewed the others and hoped we choose the fabric correctly.  We attempted to follow her inspiration photos.  The granddaughter graduates next Wednesday.  We will be giving it to her Grandfather to present to her.  I really hope that she likes what we did.  We tried to follow the pattern and statements of what she had said she was making.

I love the way my daughter quilted it.  I hope you can see the wavy line quilting.

Just because I had this sitting around and needed something quick one day while I waited for my daughter to show up so we could discuss the above quilt, I made this little baby quilt.

I also completed one more block for the Be My Neighbor quilt.

April UFO plus some

I have to admit that I did not immediately start on my April UFO.  I had other things that I was working on.

It was an interesting month in that I acquired two additional UFO's from someone else's sewing room.  It is a sad story, but it is giving me the kick in the butt that I need to motivate me to get stuff done.

My daughter received a call from the mom of her son's good friend.  Her mother-in-law had passed away at the end of March and they ask my daughter if she would finish the quilt that grandma had started for their oldest daughters high school graduation.  As my daughter said, when she ask for my help, How could she say 'no' to someone that had just lost someone so close.  What my daughter did not realize at the time is it is not exactly a traditional quilt.  It is pieced traditionally but the quilter had just made a lot of different design choices to the quilt pattern.  The daughter-in-law brought us what she could find in the sewing room.  We are taking her pattern, fabric and inspiration picture and doing the best that we can to complete it by June.  We are hopeful that we will have it they way it was intended. 

The other project is the repair of the quilt that the quilter had given to her son for his 21st birthday.  It has been well used.  My daughter did not realize they were bring that one also.  I have had a lot of practice lately fixing quilts so I will work on that one after we complete the graduation quilt.

Why am I the one doing it you ask.   Because dear daughter already has two jobs, three if you count the long arm quilting plus taking care of husband, house and kids.  I keep telling her the kids can do more for themselves than she thinks.  She is just so used to doing everything.  And I have apparently become her official seamstress.  This month I sewed two tops for her for gifts

The first was one that she wants to give to her son's teacher for the teacher gift.  I know, who gifts the teacher a quilt at the end of the year?  She cut it out of her stash and I pieced it.  She will get it quilted after she gets a customer quilt off her machine.

I also pieced a baby quilt for her.  My 7 year old granddaughter laid it out, I pieced it and my daughter quilted it, we got it bound and gifted, all in the space of 5 days.  I had to grab the finished picture from her IG feed with granddaughter holding it up.

For the other teacher gift, she is going to use one of my quilt tops that I did not have actual plans for.  I had finished it earlier this year.  It was on my original UFO list and I did it early. She got it quilted this last weekend and I attached the binding to the front today.  I wanted to add the picture here in case my daughter decides to have her husband finish the binding and I do not get another chance to get a photo.

I also made some spring dish towels for all of us.  I think I bought this to do last summer but did them last weekend as I waited for my grandson to come over to work on a project with me.

And last week I completed my April UFO.  It was a quilt that I started in the fall.  It is the pumpkin quilt pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I had put it aside because I needed one more fat quarter of orange.  Even though I had found that I had never gone back to it.  Now the top is completed.  I hope that it will get quilted before the fall.

I almost forgot I also made some kitty blocks for @Chistypugh.  She lost her daughter in February and is making kitty quilts for all the children in her daughters class.  She asked for help from the Intragram community #emmasplan

I also fixed the Christmas quilt that I had done several years ago and when my daughter looked at it had told me I needed to turn a block.  I un-sewed it and put it back in after giving it a half turn.  I had had three strong reds right next to one another.  I had probably turned a block as I was sewing the rows.  The second picture is after I turned and sewed it back in.  I can live with that.

I also did another UFO from my list.  I mended my youngest daughters quilt that her dog had chewed a hole in.  This is embarrassing since it took me eleven years to mend it.  I was going to rip out quilting and replace fabric after I had found some of the fabric, that took at least 5 years before I ran across that in my oldest daughters scraps.  But my youngest daughter asked me a couple of weeks ago, "Why don't you just patch it?" So that is what I did.  It is hard to find on the front, the fabric is just a little brighter.  I never found any of the fabric to match the back so it is really visible.  But it is done.  This quilt was made by my oldest daughter and given to her sister.  This is before she became a long are quilter so it had to be at least 17 years ago since she got her machine at the end of 2001.

I worked on one other quilt this month.  My daughter had quilted a top I had made several years ago.  I can't remember how many years.  It was a Christmas quilt that I had planned to give to my best friend one year but because it didn't get quilted at the time it languished.  It was quilted in March and I got it bound this month.  My girl friend was over the other day and I gave it to her forgetting to take a picture.

I also worked on catching up with the block of the month that I signed up for this year.  I know I said I was not going to do that this year, but I signed up for 'The Flock' with the Hummingbird Highway.  The are all pieced bird blocks.  Not paper pieced.  The kits are laser cut which is great because if I had to cut all those pieces it would not be happening.  They are amazing. I still need to make March and April's blocks but here are January, a bonus block and February's block.

And what made me kick it into high gear this month?  Everyone who talked to me about the quilter who passed made these statements.  'She was about your age'  and 'She wasn't even sick.'  That is what kicked me into gear.  We do not know the time or the day that we will leave this earth.  But I need to not leave a room full of unfinished projects.  I still have more to finish.  And I am not even counting the projects that I have never done more than buy fabric for or the mountain of fabric in my stash.

Now to move into May and keep the momentum going.

March was a productive month.

I am pretty amazed at all I accomplished this month. 

Instead of getting to work on March's UFO I did get a little crazy and grab a totally different project off the shelf.  It was cut out and ready to sew.  I had started it a while back....Although I can't remember exactly how far back that might be.

The quilt is called Summer and it uses Little Ruby Scrumptious (I realized I had that wrong after I posted, of course) fabric by Bonnie and Camille.  That will give you a little idea of how old it is.

After I completed that one I actually started on another new quilt.  I just needed to work with spring and summer colors as we were having a bunch of rain.

This one is made following the Perfect Ten Pattern by Swirly Girls, the fabric is Florabunda by Benartex.  Bought before the move.  

Sorry for the bad picture.  It was the first day of spring and the sun was actually shining.   But it was highlighting that one spot on the quilt as it came in the windows.  This took 10 fat quarters.  The aqua around the blocks and a boarder.  I actually pulled it all from stash.

At this point my daughter reminded me that I still needed to do my March UFO.  So I pulled it out.

This is called the Triple Barn Star.  It was a workshop on Craftsy by Amy Gibson, many moons ago.  The original pattern did not call for a boarder.  But the quilt finished at 72 x 72 without a boarder on it.  I had bought fabric to put on the back and had added additional fabric so that I could use the same thing for the boarder.  The fabric is Birch Lane by Joel Dewberry.  I think the reason I signed up for the workshop was because of the fabric.  Again I have no idea how old this project is.  I got stopped at the boarder.  Once I got the boarders cut it only took me a few hours to finish the top and make a back.  

So that was March 23rd that I finished this one.  The month was not over yet.

What should I work on next?

I decided that I wanted to do something quick and easy.

I had bought some Lily & Loom last year because I wanted to check out the fabric.  I was going to make a little quilt to give to a friends child but with the move that did not happen.  I decided that it would be a quick quilt and pulled it out.

It was quick but I noticed that the charm pack was cut a little differently than the ones I have from Moda.  The pinked edges are a little deeper, if that makes sense.  Also they were about 5 and 1/16 to 1/8 in size.  So before I cut the block that needed to be cut I trimmed them to 5 inches.  I did wish that I had remembered to trim the squares but by the time I realized that I hadn't I had already started sewing.  So I guessed on where I should be sewing.  As my mom used to say, I did them 'by guess and by golly'.  But they worked out.

I do have some more of this fabric that I have for another little quilt.  It was pretty easy to work with and if feels pretty good.  I am not sure I will buy precuts again but I do like the fabric and Craftsy does have some really good sales.

So that has been my March.  Tomorrow we will have grandkids all day because they are starting their spring break so I don't think I will get much more sewing done this month.  

It feels really good to empty a few project bins.   I am hoping to be just as productive in April.  We will need to start working outside soon on the yard so my productivity will depend on the weather.

I have been working

February was a good month for getting things done.

I completed my UFO for the month early in the month.  Since it was only the 6th by the time I completed the top I made a little heart quilt.  I blogged about those already.

When the Olympics started and I wanted to watch several of the events I started binding a quilt.  I got it done and given last Sunday.  It was the first Reflections quilt that I made for my youngest daughter.  It is a king size so it took a while for me to get it done.  It was really hard to get a picture of it.  It was a dark rainy day and the thing is huge so very hard to lay out.  I draped it on my stationary bike.  That is the most action that bike has seen in awhile.

 This picture was taken with it folded on the couch but even with a light right next to it it turned out dark.  Much better light in the sun room but it is crowded in there.

I also moved on to another of my UFO's.  I was working on a Christmas quilt but got stopped when I needed to lay out the blocks and did not have room.   So instead I pulled out an easier project and repaired a quilt that had been damaged by our dog, Moose. My husband had tossed it across the top of the dog kennel and he had pulled an edge into the kennel and chewed a hole in it.   I had worked on getting that done several times but fixing a quilt is just not something I enjoy doing.  The first thing I had done is take out a bunch of the quilting and replace a part of the back fabric and a section of the boarder.  After doing that I noticed that I missed a few holes further out so decided to applique a patch on to cover them.  That is what I did yesterday.  It just needs to be re-quilted now. Not cutting up my fabric right away paid off this time.  I still had some of the boarder fabric and I was able to visit the store that the backing fabric came from and buy more.  This is the second quilt that I have repaired that Moose chewed up.  The first time I was covered with a quilt and he was laying at my feet.  I did not realize he was chewing on the quilt.  We no longer have Moose but it was not the quilt chewing that had us rehome him.  We did that after he broke my leg in three places and I could not take care of him while I was non-weight bearing.  Shoot I could hardly take care of myself and I could not get out of the house or walk him.

Here is the applique I added.

I basically cut out some leaves and did needle turn applique to cover the holes.


The second quilt that I need to repair is a quilt belonging to my youngest daughter that her dog chewed a hole in.  I plan on just putting a patch on that one.  I have found a couple of orphan blocks but I am not liking how that will look so am thinking of going with something different.  I am a good mom.  At least her dog has never chewed on another quilt.  I don't know how many more quilts I would be willing to repair.

Since I worked ahead on my list when I come to that number on my list I will just add something new.  I have plenty of projects I can add.  I need to get some items completed and out of my room.

I have continued to sort and purge as I unpack and put fabric on the shelf.  I also used my label maker to label all the project bins.  Once I have a full list I will have to make decisions on the ones that I no longer love and will very likely never complete.  Right now the number of project bins is overwhelming.  My husband says at this rate I have to live to be a thousand.  I thought about starting one of them this month, we will have to see if I do.  When I thought about it I was having trouble choosing one.  That is a bad sign.  One day I was having a lot of trouble coming to grips with everything I have.  Before and during the move I did a lot of purging but it was really not enough.  We still have to much stuff for our smaller house.  However, I had already got rid of the easy stuff to let go of, now I have to make the tougher decisions.  I have been told that I will have to go thru the stuff three times to be effective. 

The other list I should be making is my list of quilts that need to be bound.  My oldest daughter completed the quilting on four more quilts this month of quilts I made in the past.  That adds to the ones I already have.  Luckily my son-in-law is completing the binding on one of them.  He actually likes binding and since it gives him a good excuse to 'watch' TV in the evening he will sit and bind.  He also gave up Twitter and Facebook for Lent so he has more time.  Right now my daughter has number two of the Reflections quilts on her machine.  That one happens to be for her so maybe I can get her husband to bind that one also.  Even after that one she has more to do.  When she quilted for customers mine always got put on hold.  Now she is attempting to get everything quilted.  I am not even sure how many of mine she has.

This month I will also be making some backs for some of her quilt tops.  I think she dropped by five for me to make backs for.  

Looks like March will be busy also.  Since it is still raining I should have plenty of indoor time before I need to work in the garden.