Project Quilting ...Birds in the air

This post is going to have to be short...  Yesterday was my planned day to work on this week's Project Quilting challenge... Birds in the air quilt block.

I was chatting with my younger daughter online day before yesterday, I think, and telling her that we make plans and then God laughs.  As an example, I said I would NEVER EVER live in this county... then we moved into it thirty years ago and I'm very happy here.

That being said, I was going to make a doll quilt using the Birds in the air block yesterday... then, when I got up yesterday morning, hubby informed me he had blood in his urine ( TMI, I know).  I called the doctor's office and left message letting them know what was going on and asking what should we do...

While waiting to hear back from the doctor, I did make one block.... (and only today do I notice that two of the birds are headless - sigh)

When the doctor's office called back, they said to take him to the emergency room.  Both of us kind of dreaded going because last time ( in Dec) they admitted him to the hospital for almost a week.

But we had a great doctor in e.r... a younger one who took the time to ask lots of questions and to explain things to us... he used the C (cancer) word too often for my liking, but he was be honest and thorough.
Well, it worked out that it was a massive urinary tract infection and that with a course of antibiotics, he should be fine; no need to be admitted to the hospital.

So, after making a quick stop at Arby's to pick up sandwiches for our dinner last night, we came back home and I was able to finish what I thought was going to be a doll quilt, but ended up being more the size of a large rug mug... headless birds and all.

There was one more 'mistake' that you can see... when I was laying the top and the batting onto the fabric I was going to use for the backing, I forgot to flip it  so that it was wrong side up ... sigh... oh well, it will still serve it's purpose.  I got it done and that's all that matters.

take care....
ttyl.......

Three day catch up and that darned squirrel!!

On Sunday, I decided to start another quilt top...imagine that!   It was something that I could use scraps for... I did open up a couple of fat quarters for the dogs and the black came from yardage.  The background was from a yard of fabric that I'd bought at Walmart over a year ago; the border fabric was left over from when I did the birds on a wire quilt top.

I used a new to me product that I'd ordered sometime last year but hadn't gotten around to trying until this project.

According to the man - darn! forgot his name... Mark ?? - once the stabilizer is wet, it will poof up just slightly.  I have to wait until it's quilted to find out for sure.

The pattern (by Chris Malone can be found in her book Quilted Cats & Dogs) calls for buttons to be sewn on for the nose and eyes.  Well, this is a baby quilt so I wanted something different than buttons.  I did consider them, but couldn't quite wrap my head around gluing and sewing them down and I knew I wasn't going to do just sewing - or gluing.  There had to be something better!!  Then it dawned on me - I used my Inktense pencils.... and not just for the eyes and noses; this puppy got some colored dots ( measles) with them, too.

I couldn't find my aloe gel right off, so I stuck with using water to set the ink - worked ok except for on the green dog... his nose bled a little and I ended up having to enlarge it a smidge.  That's ok; I'm sure not all dogs have the same sized noses lol.

.

Then, as I was cleaning up the fabrics used in the last two ( or maybe three) projects, I came across this pattern...

It's in a Fons and Porter Scrappy Quilt magazine.  I'll have to look later to see what issue it is.  The large one is something like 90"x 100" or some huge amount and the smaller one is 49 1/2" x 49 1/2" which is smaller than I'd like it to be so I'm going to try enlarging it to 16 blocks which should put it close to 60" x 60" - which is my preferred size as of late.
The pattern calls for fat quarters - at least 9 and also a couple of fat eighths, and that's what I was going to use until it dawned on me that this would be a great use for more of my scraps. I have a couple of bolts of white fabric so I started cutting out 14" squares for the backgrounds and then started raiding my scrap bins... starting with yellow.  These flowers and their centers are going to be entirely from my scraps - it could clean out my yellow/orange/gold scrap bin and should at least make a dent in the blue and green ones.  The red scrap bin doesn't have much of anything in it - if you were to call out Hello, you'd probably hear your own echo but I think there's plenty of pink. 

I checked my wonder under lite bolt and I have a feeling that there's not enough for this entire project so I went over to http://smileamazon.com and ordered a new bolt - kind of pricey, but I have a gift card and it's free shipping ... and it will probably last me for most of this year.

Well, guess I'm going to call it a night here... there are clothes waiting to be folded while I watch some tv.

take care....
ttyl.......

Thursday through Saturday....another top

It's Florence Flamingo designed by Elizabeth Hartman.  I've been wanting to do this for awhile but other projects kept coming 'first'... this past Thursday was finally it's turn.

Cutting out the pieces for the crib size background took most of Thursday and got r e a l l y boring, but I finally finished the cutting on Friday and was able to start cutting and piecing the pieces for the first flamingo.

By last night, I had it almost all together...it only needed the  feet.  and some filler background which I struggled with this morning... actually, it was the knobby knees that gave me such a fit... I know I ripped out and restitched where they met with the legs ( top and bottom) at least FOUR times.  Usually, I'll go three times at most, but I was just so close to getting it spot on that I had to keep trying. 

sigh... it just wasn't meant to be....

close but no blue ribbons 

next came Florence's sweetie... shall we call him Fred ... or Frankie?

By 5 o'clock, here they both were.... top done.

I had accidentally cut two of the top border and thought that I could make the quilt bigger by adding the extra one to the bottom, but my friend, Katie, said "No".... so, I cut the extra one into strips for the binding.... Yep, binding and label are done.  Now, all I need to do is find a backing fabric ( something Floridy) and get some other quilts onto and off of Mo'e so that this one can have it's turn.

There's a hexi table mat that I think I'm going to work on next... it's been hanging around my sewing room too long.  Then, once that's out of the way I'm going to grab my bin of fabrics & pattern(s) for a couple of dresden plate quilts and get to working on one of them.  The one I have in mind to do first is  black and white print dresden plates on a white background with circles of solid color scattered here and there.  I fell in love with it the minute I saw the pattern and spent several months trying to collect the b&w fabrics and it's been waiting for at least a year.

OOPS!  I got sidetracked by something ( SQUIRREL!!) oh yeah, I went looking online for backing fabric - flamingo themed; didn't find anything I liked.  Still plenty of time.

and now it's off to bed... after 8 and Buddy's not nagging me... hmmm

take care....
ttyl.........

Saturday through Wednesday

It certainly seemed longer.... I decided that I'd do this cupcake mix recipe, thinking ... paper piecing and precuts ( well, I did have to cut the white 5" squares)... easy peasy... 

Yes, it was pretty easy, but it took f o r e v e r.  I think I had all the paper piecing stitched by Saturday evening but it took all of Sunday, Monday and I think a little bit of Tuesday morning to cut the pieces and sew them into blocks.

I wasn't sure how I wanted to arrange the blocks so I started placing them on the design wall before I had even finished making all the blocks...

My friend, Katie, spotted the naughty block here on the lower left... I didn't catch what she was talking about until it was in this next shot.

Yesterday, hubby had a doctor appointment and then had to go back to the hospital ( where he'd been the day before) for more blood work.  After that, I dropped him off here at home and I went over to Walmart to look for fabrics to finish out this quilt.

Found the lavender for the setting triangles...

this white came from my stash

and this floral print also came from my trip to Walmart.  There was only about a yard and a half left so I bought it all... I used 12" by WOF for the borders so there's enough for me to use for the backing and there's enough lavender left for the binding.

This will make a pretty lap robe/quilt for someone in a wheelchair... and I have a person in mind.  I won't see her again until April so I have plenty of time to get it quilted and bound.

While I was getting the fabrics for this quilt, I picked up a couple of pretty pinks and a couple of beautiful blues that I plan on using to make a flamingo quilt.  The smaller size only requires two birds so I'm going to make one boy and one girl :).

Tomorrow, I'm going to try and get some more quilting done with Mo'e.  My rack of quilt tops isn't going to get any emptier if I don't get to quilting them.  I realize that I'll probably only be able to stand there for a few minutes at a time... I can deal with that - just let me get some of these tops made into quilts!

I would try it tonight but hubby is already in bed and the head of his bed is just on the other side of the wall from Mo'e.  AND I like to have music when I quilt.

Calling it a night here....

take care...
ttyl....

Tuesday through Friday

Since I was able to finish my challenge for the Project Quilting 11 on Monday, Tuesday morning I allowed myself to start on a new project... but first I had to make a run down to the local quilt shop for fabric - of course.  Now I can't remember whether I got the fabric on Monday or Tuesday, but it doesn't really matter as long as I got it.

Here, you can get a glimpse of what I was working on.  I did the tracing onto fusible and then applying the fusible to the fabrics and then cut them out and fused them to the background.  That was Tuesday.

 Wednesday...See that spool of thread?... BAD BAD SPOOL of Smoke Monopoly!!  It would have been my first time trying it, but it didn't happen because when I tried to unwind enough to feed it through my machine, it came off in BUNCHES... kind of like my hair started falling out when my thyroid decided to quit working like it should.  Somehow, I ended up with like three strands of thread coming off the spool and no matter how much I unwound, it was still three ( or more) strands.  So, I had to chuck that idea.   

Thursday, my machine decided that it was going to keep sewing without my help - which normally means that it's insides are dirty and needs cleaning.

Now, mind you, I KNOW that I cleaned it out last month.... guess I've got proof that I've been sewing up a storm.

Before I could go any further on the current project, I needed to clear off my freezer top/work space.  While doing so, I found some blocks that I had 'inherited' from a guild member who passed away almost a year ago and decided that I was going to do something with them right now - not put them aside to be forgotten about AGAIN.
I had cream fabric left from the previous project - the sea glass matchstick quilt top so I cut 1 1/2" strips to use as sashing.  I have two strips left that I could use for the top and bottom of the quilt top, but nothing for the sides, so I'm going to donate the remaining strips to a scrap bin instead of using them here.
This is still hanging on the wall because I knew it wasn't a good idea for me to climb that far up on the ladder today.  Common sense told me :).

Finally got the freezer top cleared off enough that I could lay out backing, batting and then the top and pin baste them together so I could quilt it on my domestic machine.  I just stitched closely around everything ( horses, sun and dust) with the same clear monopoly that I used for the applique stitching and left the rest...  it's a wall hanging ( and I used warm n natural batting) so it should be fine.

And here it is... DONE!!  I think my adult grandson who lives in Wyoming might get this for his birthday this year.

EDIT: I forgot to give credit to the designer of this beautiful pattern... The pattern is called Sunset Run and it was designed by Doris M. Deutmeyer.  I purchased the pattern and the background from a booth at the Grand Rapids AQS show this past August.

Now, on to the next project... maybe tomorrow I'll try working with Mo'e and see if I can get that quilt finished.

take care.....
ttyl........

Project Quilting 11.3

When I heard that this week's challenge for Project Quilting Season 11 was going to be Hearts, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do other than make a doll quilt using hearts as the theme.
This morning, I found some ideas online... this is the one that caught my eye.  I have some white faux chenille and some pink, also... ok  I can do this!

I went diving into my big bin of pinks and reds and quickly realized that I didn't want to use red...  this pink isn't just pink - it has very very pale hints of oranges and blues along with darker and lighter pinks... I grabbed a red & white print fat quarter that was close by, went out to the other room and found a large enough piece of scrap batting - layered the three together then pin basted.  

Next up was tracing a heart ( or two) and stitching around them with a machine backstitch ( I don't know what it's really called, but it goes forward, then backward a couple of times and then forward a couple of times and repeats).  I wanted to be sure that the stitching gave dimension ( not that it mattered after all since it's pretty well covered by the faux chenille strips I stitched down next).  I used white on one heart and pink on the other.

After I finished the faux chenille stitching, I went around the two large heart twice with my walking foot.  Then decided that I didn't want to quilt everything else... I wanted it a little 'poofy' for the doll, so I traced four more smaller hearts and then stitched the pink faux chenille around each one.

Once all that was done, I did something I don't usually like to do... I machine stitched the binding to the front of the quilt and brought it around to the back where I hand stitched it down.  I also used the binding as my label - writing down info on the binding before I stitched it all down by hand.

Then, it was simply a matter of spritzing a little water on the faux chenille and then rubbing until it 'bloomed'.. I found a coffee stirrer stick close by and used that by running it back and forth across the chenille... easier than using my fingers ( and I didn't want to walk to the other end of the house to get the chenille brush).  Finished quilt measures something like 16" x 18".

Oh!  Before I go... that new project that I posted about on Saturday... well, I finished the top last night...  I'll have to find something for the backing before I can quilt it....

Sea Grass Matchsticks Quilt Kit

50" x 52"

I did a quick run down to the quilt shop after I finished stitching the binding for the doll quilt.  Needed some fabrics to go with what I had for my next project which I hope to start tomorrow.  

I'll show you what it is in my next post.

take care....

ttyl.....

RSC -Orange and new project

I'm continuing to combine my RSC2020 with my fatcatpatterns.com BOM.  RSC color this month is orange and I had several bits and pieces of different oranges.  The polka dots on the cat's body are blue, green, yellow, red and white which is why I pulled the blue and yellow scraps along with a bit of orange scrap to make the flowers .

Then, it was on to a new project... a kit that was sitting in my sewing room along with three or four others.  It's called Sea Grass Matchsticks from Craftsy.com ... such beautiful colors

It takes two full charm packs along with yardage of white cut down into 2.5" x 5" blocks that are then sewn to the charm blocks, cut in half to make the matchsticks.... a LOT of matchsticks!...

 So much that it makes me wonder why I would need this much for a 50"x 52" quilt top....

Ok, ONE row complete and hanging... 22 more to go... then the side borders.

Quilter friend, Katie, moans about doing long seams... she'd do more than moan is she were doing these lol.  BTW: she thinks the pattern looks like tuning forks :).

Project Quilting  releases a new challenge today AND I still have my BOM from The Quilt Show to do for this month and  I'd LOVE to find myself working on the quilt that's been on Moe for over a month now.  ..... I think I'd better get on the ball here.... and, yes, I already have another project picked out for after I get the matchstick quilt top done.

Enjoy your day

take care....

ttyl.....