Talk about long gestating quilts. These quilt blocks have been in my possession since 2007, and there are still more where they came from. They were part of a challenge I put out the the Sunshine Quilt Guild and I think these make 15 quilts that I have made so far from these blocks. I received over 1000 blocks – all different colors, fabrics and styles – so the challenge was to try to put them together in combinations that were appealing. It’s amazing in a project like this what the right border can to to corral the colors and pieces.
One of the projects for this weekend really needs to be to get that drapery bar up in the sewing room so I can try to get some better pictures of the quilts than I can by putting them on the floor and standing on the sofa!
Last weekend I had 5 charity tops that were through the quilting machine and just needed binding.I even had the bindings ready to go, hanging in the sewing room. During the snow day on Wednesday I was able to get the one side of the bindings machined on while working on other projects.
So how long does it take to flip the bindings and stitch them down? Too long.
I know that hand tacking bindings can be time consuming, but I always forget how long they take by machine too.
I have got to figure out a better way to photograph quilts. I bought a drapery rod for the quilting room that I thought I would hang on the blank wall, but it hasn’t happened yet. So I am struggling to get a good picture.
This is showing a queen sized quilt draped on a twin sized bed, but I think it gives the better overview of the whole quilt.
Quilt #3! Ok, I’m not going to make my quilt a week (overly ambitious) goal, but I’m making progress and a third quilt done in the first month of the year is still good. (It was close to getting done in 2009, so I can’t claim that much credit.)
This is a very overdue “thank you” gift for a colleague. The fabric was a FQ collection I picked up at shop hop a number of years ago and it is the Yellow Brick Road pattern again. (Looks far different than the one in Red White and Blue, huh?)
I’ve made 9 more kids/teen pillowcases for charity, but those will have to come in a different post. (It’s been an unpredictable week.)
Well, as usual, I overestimated how much I could realistically get done over the weekend. I had thought I could get 20 made and instead I completed 9 and have another 10 in progress. But I love some of these! I liked the fabric when I bought it, but a lot of it has been sitting in my stash for 5-6 years. It was time to make it into something useful. And who wouldn’t love almost neon kittens,
blue and brown pupppies,
and a tank full of Nemo’s relatives.
Now I have a good reason why I didn’t get as much done as I had planned – I learned history. I’m a huge fan of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series and I’m listening to the latest book in the series, An Echo in the Bone. As the characters discussed General Burgoyne’s plan to defeat the Continental Army, I decided Saturday was a perfect day for a roadtrip to the Saratoga Battlefield for a refresher in Revolutionary Era history.
Visiting more of National Parks in the area (and museums and other historical sites) has been a recent goal of mine, so I can almost say this is a step toward a New Year’s resolution. And I can say even with the tour road closed to cars for the season, I enjoyed it far more now than I did when my parents took me as a child.
I went digging for a specific piece of fabric in my stash earlier this week and realized that the yardage of kiddie prints I own might better be used for pillowcases for the challenge.
I contacted one of my LQSs and they have a place lined up to donate them once they are finished.
So instead of simply putting the stash back into the bin, I started washing pressing and cutting to make pillow cases this weekend. I was thinking I could clean out about 20 yards out of the stash this weekend (each pillowcase uses a yard of fabric and with the 3 day weekend I figured this was an ambitious, but realistic goal.) But I’m a little disappointed that some of the fabrics I pulled don’t play well with others. While I have enough pieces cut for almost the whole 20 pillowcases, I can’t seem to mix and match more than 15 into combinations that I like. I may have to go rummaging through other bins of stash (not that this is a bad thing….)
A couple folks have asked how I am making pillowcases. There are patterns being posted on the challenge site that I expect to try before the year is out, but I am using the “sausage” method. Judy with Quilts of Valor has posted a GREAT tutorial. In ten minutes, you too can be making pillowcases.
Hopefully by tomorrow there will be pix of bright colorful kid pillowcases (and I will have more space in some of my bins.)
I am hooked on making pillowcases! I’ve seen some of the ladies at sew night making them, but while I had heard the directions, I need to work through something on my own before I really “get” it.
VT had passed off some leftover fabric from a quilt that she had made for her mother, and it seemed perfect for a pillowcase (even if it had to be pieced to make one.)
Then as I was cleaning out I found the leftover fabric from an Ohio Star quilt I made a few years ago. More coordinated pillowcases! I probably didn’t need to make 6 of them (2 each of 3 combinations), but the fabric was there and I expect the quilt will far outlast any number of coordinating pillowcases. They don’t take up much space in the linen closet.
American Patchwork and Quilting is sponsoring a 1 million pillowcase challenge – with the pillowcases to be donated to charity. I can see myself making quite a few of them this year.
I am happy to report quilt #2 of the year is done. At first glance it suggests that I may be able to keep to my (unrealistic) goal of a quilt a week. Realistically I would be happy with 2 per month, which means at this point I am good for January.
Though this technically meets the criteria for the UFO challenge (it was in a state of partial completion on 12/31), I don’t get to count it because my registration for the challenge has not been received. Dang.
This is made from a layer cake of Moda’s Wildflower Serenade and coordinating fabric. The pattern is “Ashley’s Journey” from Piece of Pie: 10 layer cake friendly quilt patterns. (www.pieplatepatterns.com)
The first week back to work after a break is always a zoo. I swear it means trying to do the equivalent of the current week’s and the vacation week’s work in one week. And this week was no exception. Which is why I never even tried to post an entry this week.
But in the early morning before work and the hours before bed I did have a new quilting tool – track lighting in the quilting room. I wasn’t sure when it was being put in that I was going to like the directionality of the light (the corner edges of the room seemed dim), but the benefits are far worth the inconvenience and that’s why I have a crafting lamp in that room.
Before I was largely limited to when there was natural light coming in to add to the overhead lighting to really be able to see easily what I was doing. I could so some of the project in the after/before light hours, but if anything went wrong or was a challenge, then I had put it on hold until daylight. And let’s face it, during January in NY, some days don’t even produce much daylight. (Ok, I admit, the optometrist has hinted that bifocals might be in my not too distant future….)
I’m loving the bright light in there! This should help the process of getting some of that backlog of tops quilted.
