UFO SEW DOWN 2011 Comes to a Close!

October just seemed to fly by and I really felt like I didn't get anything done. I was starting to feel funky and crabby and I knew I had to clean up my sewing room and start over. Sat. I pulled out the backing I had started making a couple weeks before and finished it up for the BQ2 quilt. I got food poisoning 2 weeks ago, just after starting and had just thrown it in a pile. I got the backing finished and had the batting out, so I loaded it on the frame. Shonna was having a 31 Gifts party, so I went to that Sat. night. Do you know how hard it is to buy bags when you have a gazillion? When I got home I put the thread on the machine and started quilting. Mikaela was sleeping and I got it quilted in just about 3 hours before she woke up. I figured with the extra hour, I should use it at night.

I'm not a green person, but this one looks good. My mom had started this and I hope to donate it to the Terra Sancta project.

I did an all over meander with lime green Isacord on top and dark purple Bottomline in the bobbin.

I cut the binding on the bias so the stripes would go around the quilt.

This is the backing. The blue goes down the back. My mom didn't have many yardage pieces but I was able to make these work.

Sunday after I got my homework done I worked on the Wolf for a while. I got the eyes, nose, and part of the face done. I already have the ears done, so it's slowly but surely going together.
Sunday and Monday nights I worked on this notebook holder for my MIL's co-worker. I embroidered her name on it since I have the embroidery machine at home this weekend.

I used up scraps from mom's stash for this project and I think it turned out pretty good. She wanted blues.

I did slight corners instead of one big round front.

Last night after I got home from class I made this fabric book for Mikaela. It turned out so cute and is all sewing related, but each page counts. I bought this back in April on the shop hop. I made one just like it for Molly, but wanted one for Mikaela. This will be her church book.

I embroidered on the back of it so she'd know when I made it for her.  I have two others I'd like to get done by Christmas, but I'm doing a bunch of commission work this year, so we'll see. She'll never know if she gets them for her birthday instead!

I also received Trish's block for the friendship swap, so I have all my blocks and can figure out if I need to make more now. I think it turned out cool.

Last night I taught my Schlep bag class, but while I was at the store I pulled these 8 fat quarters to make a baby quilt. I'm going back to my favorite Happy Hour quilt. I've made several of this 9" block pattern and just love it. Anyone want to take a guess at my favorite pattern from the Happy Hour book by Atkinson designs? I'll draw a name from all those who are right and send a little gift.

 The UFO challenge has come to an end and even though it was just Jacque and I, I feel like we were both productive. I finished 3 UFO's and worked on 2 others that I really wanted to work on, so I feel like I did better than if I hadn't had the challenge. Jacque finished at least 2, so when I know a final number I'll be sending her a little something for each of those. Thanks for joining me Jacque!

Wanna Be A Cowboy Quilt - Quilted

I finished the quilting on the Wanna Be A Cowboy Quilt Tuesday night. I'm loving how it turned out. I used a fairly tight meader and random stars wherever they fell. I sped up the quilting machine a bit, so I could go faster and it worked great. I'm loving this machine and all I can do with it.

I used a pink/brown verigated King Tut, which worked awesome, with pink Bottomline in the bobbin.

The pink is the rolled up backing on the frame. You can't even see the pink bobbin thread. I'm so excited to have this quilt, quilted. After I get the binding on, I'll probably take it to work and keep it there to look at for a while.

I'm off to finish the shop hop this afternoon! Anyone wanna take bets on if I buy more Wanna Be a Cowboy fabric?? I'm hoping to find the 4.5" 60 degree Creative Grids Strip On Ruler.

Sunday Sewing

Today I got lots of sewing done! I felt so productive after feeling like I haven't done anything all month. I finished the backing for this tablerunner and quilted it up. I put the binding on and started hand sewing the binding down while I was watching Amazing Race tonight.

I put on the final round of the Wanna Be a Cowboy quilt. I took my mom's advice and kept the browns together like a traditional log cabin. Then I put the strip on as the inner border on the top and bottom and then the center fabric is also the top and bottom border.

This is the bottom of the quilt. It ended up about 59"x79" which I think is a good size for a twin bed for my amazing niece. She's getting ready to go to a twin bed, so by the time her birthday rolls around in June I'll have this ready for her. I'm hoping to get a pillowcase made to go with it.

Here's a diagonal vision to show the top and bottom are the only sides with borders. I really love how quick and easy the pattern was, so I'm going to make a baby quilt out of the same fabrics.

I got the backing pieced and hopefully I can load it on the frame tomorrow night. I love how it turned out!
While I did spend a majority of the day quilting, I also spent several hours studying and doing my discussion posting for my graduate class. Usually I tend to leave the studying till the end of the day, but today I did it while Paul was napping, so I got lots done and rewarded myself with sewing after I was done.
Several have asked about the EZ Bob and while I was quilting today I took a few pictures to show how to use it, so I hope to do a post showing how it works tomorrow. Anyone with a Bernina or a frame machine with a metal bobbin case would love the EZ Bob.

Wanna Be A Cowboy Quilt

Last night I stopped and picked up a couple more pieces of fabric to add to the Wanna Be A Cowboy quilt so I could get it to twin size. I put the final two rounds on it and this is originally what it was supposed to look like.

This was originally to be the top and bottom borders. There are no side borders, just a thin strip and then a widered scalloped top.

But the more I looked at it, I like this combination better. When I cut it out I wasn't really thinking and it was quite some time after I had bought the fabric and I bought more than I needed, so I had trouble remember where it was supposed to go in order. So maybe this would be better, but I still needed it bigger. I'm increasing it from 41"x59" to twin size.

So I picked up a couple more fabrics that I hadn't seen before, and more of the red paisley and red flowers, thinking I could add another two to four rounds. The top fabric is the backing, but have plenty, so I could put it in another row on the front.

So I layed it out to see how it would look. What do you think? I'm not crazy about it and I would like to change it up somehow but I'm not sure. I was originally thinking I would just add an 8.5" round, 9.5" round, 10.5" round, and 11.5" round, but then I got to figuring it in my head and it's going to be like 80" wide which is way too wide for a twin quilt. I was hoping to get it about 72"x85-90". My other thought was to do 4 additional rounds, but keep them all at 7.5". What order would you put the additional 4 rounds in? or would you just do two rounds? Which fabrics would you use?

I really would like some opinions since I'm struggling with this quilt.
I have a feeling I'll be doing a baby quilt just like this with the leftovers since I love this fabric so much.