Nearly done...

Yay!  I'm nearly done with this quilt that has been lingering around my house for thirteen years.  The top is done; I just need to quilt it.

Yes, I do need a bigger design wall.  Notice that I have the upper right hand taped to the door!  It feels really good to have this top done.  When I started it, I of course planned to hand quilt it.  Back then, I wasn't any good at machine quilting and thought real quilts were hand quilted.  Now I can do machine quilting, but this is such a traditional quilt that I think it needs hand quilting.  On the other hand, I really don't want to spend months more working on this quilt so I will probably end up machining it.  I'm a little stumped on how to quilt it too.

I did mitered corners on the outer border because I thought it would look funny since it's such a directional print.  I had to cut the fabric cross grain so I took some care in piecing the two pieces for each side.  I had dreams of matching up the designs in the miter, but that really didn't work out too well and it was more work than I wanted to do.  I do kind of wish I had taken the time though since I'd never done that before.  

Anyway, another top off my to do list and onto my quilting list!  I need to start quilting really, really soon as I have way to many quilts on that list.

New sunroom

I have been painting for the last two weekends. No sewing done, just painting. First primer everywhere then woodwork, then two coats on the ceiling and walls. It's finally done!

While doing all this painting, I was thinking quilting by listening to to Brye Lynn's podcast.  If you haven't heard it yet, go to sewstitchcreate website.  I listened to about six months worth of podcasts while painting.  Love it!

Determination

I'm getting there on this one. Just 5 more rows of squares to do. I'm getting pretty fast at them too. Then comes the pieced border. Yay!

Challenges...

My guild has a challenge every year. In the past it has been things like black and white quilts or nine patch quilts. That type of challenge. You make a quilt matching the challenge and show it at the last guild meeting and the membership votes on which it likes best. This year's challenge is totally different. It sounded like a really good idea. Identify eight UFOs in October and finish them by June to be entered in a drawing for a set of fat quarters. For each that you get done, your name gets entered into a drawing. I had no problem coming up with eight UFOs. In fact I was so smart I entered thirteen so I could decide later which eight I wanted to work on. My oldest UFO is from 1997. It's an applique and pieced quilt originally published as a series in McCall's Quilting magazine. I didn't have all the issues so I had to order some back issues. I later bought the specially published booklet of the entire quilt just so I could have a condensed copy all in one place. I had gotten quite a ways on the blocks, completing almost all the applique blocks. The last applique block only had a little more to do. And I had two pieced blocks yet to do. I finished the two pieced blocks and here are all my blocks minus the one applique block I am still working to finish.

Don't you love the 1990s dark colors. Notice the top right block with all the little squares surrounding the pieced block. All the blocks get this treatment. Now I remember why this is a UFO.

I have tons of 2 inch blocks to sew together and add onto the blocks. Here's a picture of the completed quilt.

This may go back into the UFO pile yet....

binding, binding, binding, binding

I'm finally finishing up the McKenna Ryan coffee quilts I started over a year ago for my kitchen. They needed quilting and binding and some method for accurately hanging since they hang as a group. So far I have one bound. I discovered that I really need to practice machine quilting. I have a lot of knotty stuff going on on the back and my stitch length is all over the map and my smoothness factor is extremely low.

Round Robin swap

I belong to a mini group that meets once a month. For the past year, we've been working on a round robin. The center square was to be a basket block. Each month we passed our blocks on to the next person who added a border or side or embellished what was already there. This past Sunday we met a Kathy's camp in the Adirondacks to reveal the final pieces.

Jan's quilt

My quilt (I love it!)

Paula's quilt

Mary's quilt

Louie's quilt

Kathy's quilt

Georgia's quilt

Georgia gave us an empty basket hoping we would put flowers in it for her. Instead, we left that as a challenge for her! This is the second round robin this group has done together. The results are always terrific. And finally, here's our group holding our quilts.

To blog or not to blog

I enjoy reading other people's blogs so much. I love looking at photos they post and getting inspired. I even copied a quilt from Stephanie at Loft Creations for a quilt for my newest grandson. My son is going to be visiting so I have to have the quilt done by next Wednesday. Wish me luck on that one!





Funny thing is, I asked what fabrics she used because I knew my daughter-in-law would love the fabrics. After getting them, I just worked from memory to create the quilt. When I got to the border part, I checked back on Stephanie's blog to see what she did with borders and discovered I'd reversed the fabric placement. I like them both! As you can see from the pictures, I'm still playing with border options. I don't think the brown dot is going to make it. I may just put a small border of the white and call it a day.

I also just finished these two dresses for my granddaughters. These are oliver + s patterns.



Finally another project (out of the many projects I'm working on) is an Amy Butler bag that I'm still working on creating the lining for.




So the question is, will I continue to blog or not? I feel like I should return the inspiration others have given me. Time will tell...