What am I work on this Wednesday??

This has been a busy week in the sewing studio! I found my groove and spent quite a bit of time sewing and quilting this week. Saturday I loaded and quilted this Autumn Visitors UFO. It was an unloved UFO the Sarcastic Quilter sent me a couple years ago. I love the fabric, but wasn't sure who it would go to, so it sat untouched. However we are going to a wedding next month and I needed a gift. I'm not sure if this will go to them or not, but that's what I'm planning to use as the gift. I'm just not sure of their tastes, so I'm kind of on the fence. I trimmed it up on Monday night and put the binding on. Last night I stitched it down by machine. Just wasn't feeling like hand sewing it down, too many other handwork projects going on right now.

Saturday late night I loaded this Autumn Star quilt on the frame. I fully intended to quilt it, but the tension was off and I was really struggling, so I put it away and didn't touch it until Monday night when I got home from work. We had leftovers, so I had a chance to quilt it. I ended up adjusting my bobbin tension and then I was able to get it to an acceptable level. My top tension has been running between 1-2 for quite a while and you can only go so low, so I knew I needed to adjust the bobbin. Luckily the adjustments worked. I read online, but it didn't really help me to know which way to go. The backing on this one is pink batik. It's from the same piece I used to back mom's pink ribbon quilt back in 2009. So glad I was able to use up some of my stash.

Here's a close up of the quilting. I used a variegated King Tut and pink Bottomline.

Yesterday I got the email about getting our class samples in for photos next week and I realized I hadn't even made this sample. It's a new class I'm teaching in the next quarter. I just love these purple fabrics. I wish I could find something to make with the whole line. I worked on this for an hour last night and when I was doing more unpicking than necessary I quit. On something so simple I think the seams need to match better than I had them, so I am fixing a couple spots. This one is a bit of a challenge, but I think it will turn out cute in the end. It's made with 4 fat quarters. I just wish one of the many hexie rulers we have in the store would have worked to cut these out. I ended up using 2" hexie EPP's.

Yesterday I finished #18 Ahhhh, Aunt Mollie's Umbrella. My goal for August was to finish 3 Ahhhh's, which I was thinking was really unrealistic considering all the other handwork I have been doing on other projects, but this one went together so fast I started another one.


Today I finished up #12 O' Matt's Lantern. I realize I need some lighter fabrics in these, so I'm going to have to incorporate more next week when cut out a new bunch. I have 3 left to piece before I need to prep more. I started the 3rd one and with a wee bit of luck I should be able to finish it before the end of the month.


We are off for a camping adventure over the long weekend, so I'm planning to take a few EPP projects to work on. If I get the hexie table topper done and quilted I'll have some binding to finish as well. This has been such a productive month. I hope to get as much done in Sept. when I am off school for 3 weeks!

What am I working on Wednesday? Week 44 10.31.12

The last two weeks have been very busy! Although it doesn't seem like I got a lot of sewing done, I actually did quite a bit. Last Wed. night I finished up the Briar Rose Quilt top. It looks gorgeous and I am so excited to quilt it. I have the backing fabric already and I just need the frame set up again.

I also sewed together the strip sets for my star quilt. I pressed them on Thurs. night. and cut them out. It was still early so I started sewing them together. I got half of the star diamonds done.


Monday night I put the rest of the star diamonds together and sewed them into a top.  Last night before I got home, Paul finished the flooring in the kids room! Now he just has to put up the base and we can start moving the furniture around. I'm so excited! I can finally set my sewing machine back up.
Last night I added the setting triangles and then it was still early, so I put on the borders. The borders really finished the quilt for me! 
The borders are from my mom's stash. I had only enough of the final border to make it 4.5", but I love it. Mom used this same fabric for the background of her star. I have some of the first border that I will use in the backing. It's going to be a pieced back with a lot of scraps! I'm definately using up mom's stash.

This is my center point. It's not the best picture, but I was trying to show how my seams met perfectly! I didn't baste or re-sew it, it came out perfect the first time.

This is mom's star quilt that she did back in 2009. I gave it to my brother.



Finished this week:
Briar Rose Top
Star Quilt Top
Ongoing projects: Sign Language Diaper Clutch, baby blankets
Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt - Need to make backing
Confetti Top
Twisted Heart
Merry Go Round
Autumn Star Quilt
Briar Rose
New Projects: NONE!
No progress:
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt
Dilly Dally Baby Girl Quilt

WIP Wednesday Week 42 10.17.12

This week has been another crazy one for me. The floor is still not finished after we spent the weekend at dad's helping him. Paul's making slow progress on it, a box or so each night. So my machine has not come out of the bag. I am seriously going stir crazy!
Last night I taught a UFO class. I had a really great lecture, ideas, etc. planned and one lady was sick, the other two I know really well and they just wanted to sew and visit, so that's what we did. I was really surprised with no one wanting to take the class, as Christmas is coming soon. It's a great finish it up kind of class. I did help both of them figure out how to get a UFO gone wrong finished. Kay Lynn finished all her blocks and is ready to lay out and sew her quilt top together next time and Heather laid out, basted, and quilted her quilt top. She even got it squared up. On the other hand since they were both content with what they were doing, I laid out my Briar Rose Quilt. I had no intentions of doing it, but it was a UFO I brought to talk about. Once I had it ready to sew, I used a class machine and sewed it together. It's turning out great and I just have to sew rows together now. It really helped to do some machine sewing and I feel like I accomplished a lot! We had a great night talking about UFO's and they did learn a few things. Next week we're going to make project bags.
So this is how far I got on Briar Rose. LOVE it! Can't wait to finish it.


Finished this week:
Mikaela's scrapbook - does that count?? Not much sewing here.
Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Sign Language Diaper Clutch
Batik Scrappy Quilt - Laid out and sewn into rows
Hugs & Kisses Batik quilt -
Hugs & Kisses Scrappy Quilt
Swoon -

Quilts Needing Hand sewing on Binding

Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks- worked on binding.

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt - Need to make backing
Confetti Top - At the shop
Twisted Heart - At the shop
Merry Go Round - Needs backing made.
Autumn Star Quilt - needs backing

New Projects:

No progress:
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt
Dilly Dally Baby Girl Quilt

This week's stats:
Completed projects -0
New projects -0
Currently in progress -5
Finished this year - 55, 12 Samples

I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

WIP Wednesday Week 41 10.10.12

I am going stir crazy this week! We tore out the carpet in the extra room on Saturday, so all of my sewing stuff is packed up and in numerous places around the house. Paul is putting hardwood laminate down in the room and it's taking longer than I expected. Luckily I had most of my stuff gathered for class tonight so I didn't have to dig too much. I haven't been able to sew all week and it's driving me mad, especially since this was the last weekend I didn't have homework to do. Class started again and now I'm swamped with getting several papers done before Sunday and we're going to be out of town.
This week I am working on the binding of the Mocha Meringue quilt. I have about 1 1/2 sides done.I left it at work, thinking the floor would be done on Sat. and I'd get to sew on Sunday. I didn't get to do any sewing!  It's been cold, so we've stayed inside on breaks, so I did get a bit of handwork done on it. Still a ways to go though. I did finish the Blush quilt binding, so I feel at least a small bit got accomplished.

Thursday night while I still had the sewing machine up I worked on block 3 of my Swoon quilt. I feel like I've gotten lots accomplished on this quilt since I made kits up for it last week. I did have to unpick a few seams and re-do a few blocks for this one, but it turned out nicely. The picture was taken with my phone and lighting isn't good, but the block is done!

While I haven't been able to sew this week, I thought I would use the time to be productive and "scrapbook" Mikaela's first year. I use the term loosely because my friend made me like 50 pages and ALL I had to do was cut out the pictures and glue them on. My hand hurt so bad after about 25 pages and running out of glue that I quit on Sat. I nursed my sore hand all weekend and can finally use it again. I've used the last few nights on the computer to pick through my pictures and organize them by month, started writing on the backs with the dates taken, and uploaded somewhere near 400 pictures to Walgreens.com to print when they go on sale a bit cheaper. Almost 100 of those were quilt related pictures to put in my quilt journals, which I have seriously neglected the past year as well. I finally uploaded all my July-Sept. pictures to my external hard drive as well. I feel like I'm making headway, but need to get more glue and get back to work on the scrapbook. I'm really irritated with Webshots and the changes they've made, so I need to figure out how to manage my pictures better so they are still easy to blog with. 

Finished this week:
Blush Quilt

Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Sign Language Diaper Clutch
Batik Scrappy Quilt - All the blocks and edge pieces sewn!
Hugs & Kisses Batik quilt -
Hugs & Kisses Scrappy Quilt
Swoon - Sewed 1 block and kitted 6 more.

Quilts Needing Hand sewing on Binding

Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks- worked on binding.

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt - Need to make backing
Confetti Top - At the shop
Twisted Heart - At the shop
Merry Go Round - Needs backing made.
Autumn Star Quilt - needs backing

New Projects:

No progress:
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - Started sashing - Need to get a move on, he's getting married
Dilly Dally Baby Girl Quilt

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 1
New projects -
Currently in progress -5
Finished this year - 55, 12 Samples

I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

WIP Wednesday 10.3.12 Week 40

This was a big week for us! We on a whim Saturday night moved my sewing room out of its current location downstairs and moved the frame up to the kids room. In the process I set up a temp sewing space in the kids room until we get the flooring finished and worked on my Briar Rose quilt. I had completely screwed up the last step, so Monday I ripped out all the corner pieces, re-cut the edge pieces, and re-sewed them all. It took me all of Monday, but I got all the edging pieces done. Last night I sewed the X blocks together and then put the pieces on my design wall to see how it would look. I just have my artist canvas design wall, so no edging pieces yet. I think I'm going to love it. I haven't ripped or re-sewn that much in years, but it had to be done.

Thursday night I pulled out this Bargello table runner mom had made. I squared it up, which is this picture. Friday night, I added snowflakes and binding and while I was waiting for the teachers preview party Sat. morning, I sewed the binding down on the runner. It is now done, unless I decide to stitch over the snowflakes.

I got quite a few finishes done, just because I spent a lot of time hand sewing. I put the binding on the Mocha Meringue quilt and worked on the Blush binding. I have 1 side of the Blush quilt yet to finish the handwork on. 
Finished this week:
Bargello Table Runner
LHeartT Table Topper
Cre8tive Swap w/Jen

Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Sign Language Diaper Clutch
Batik Scrappy Quilt - All the blocks and edge pieces sewn!
Hugs & Kisses Batik quilt - sewed a couple stratas
Hugs & Kisses Scrappy Quilt
Swoon - 2 Blocks done - Going to start cutting this one out and working on it again. Going to make kits for each block and re-write the directions so I can sew them quicker.

Quilts Needing Hand sewing on Binding
Blush Quilt  - quilted!
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks- needs binding

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt - Need to make backing
Confetti Top - At the shop
Twisted Heart - At the shop
Merry Go Round - Needs backing made.
Autumn Star Quilt - needs backing

New Projects:

No progress:
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - Started sashing - Need to get a move on, he's getting married
Dilly Dally Baby Girl Quilt

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 3
New projects -
Currently in progress -5
Finished this year - 54, 12 Samples

I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

WIP Wednesday Week 39 9.26.12

This week simply flew by! I tried to jam pack a lot into it with Dad's wedding on Friday and then catching up at home during the weekend. We're getting ready to move rooms around for the new baby, so my quilt frame has to come down. I decided I wanted to finish up a couple more quilts. Monday night I quilted this Mocha Meringue quilt that I plan to use in the nursing room at work. 

I'm preparing for a UFO class I'm teaching in Oct. so I sorted all my UFO's out and gathered them together in the closet my grandpa built me. This is about 36" high and 12" deep by 24" wide, so it has room for about 20 UFO's which are my most current ones.

I also quilted up this little table topper which is a UFO of my mom's. I plan to give it to my dad. Nothing fancy, but it's his brand and it's done.

I did a gold/maroon/green King Tut on it with a simple meander.


Last night I started taking the frame apart. It was a lot of work! I got the right side taken down and I think we'll leave it like this for now. It will be a lot less hassle. I washed all the leaders for it and it's ready to be moved when we get ready. The machine is all packed up in one of the Tutto's on the floor.


Sunday was my SIL to be's baby shower. She's having a boy the end of Oct. and so I gave her the Trucks baby quilt. She really liked it.

My aunt gave her a blanket made with jeans from my grandpa, grandma, mom, and dad. It turned out pretty cool and she embroidered their names on the jeans. It's a rag quilt.


Finished this week:

Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Sign Language Diaper Clutch
Batik Scrappy Quilt - Sewed all the 2.5" squares to the corners, now to trim and press
Hugs & Kisses Batik quilt
Hugs & Kisses Scrappy Quilt
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks- needs binding

Quilts Needing Hand sewing on Binding Blush Quilt  - quilted!
Cre8tive Swap w/ Jen - Quilted
LT Table topper

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt - Need to make backing
Confetti Top - At the shop
Twisted Heart - At the shop
Merry Go Round - Needs backing made.
Autumn Star Quilt - needs backing

New Projects:

No progress:
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - Started sashing - Need to get a move on, he's getting married
Dilly Dally Baby Girl Quilt
Swoon - 2 Blocks done

This week's stats:
Completed projects -
New projects -
Currently in progress - 5
Finished this year - 51, 12 Samples

I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

WIP Wednesday Week 38 9.19.12

This past week has been crazy busy! I am so ready for October, so I can slow down.
Oh wait, no sure it will happen then either. I had a couple finishes from last week I wanted to share pictures of since the shower is over. My co-worker Jody's shower was on Sat. and I gave her this little diaper clutch. It's made with the leftover backing fabric from her baby quilt.

I finally finished my dad and Ann's wedding quilt. It will be given to them on Friday. I think it's my favorite quilt so far this year. Maybe in the last 2 years. I simply love how stunning it turned out.
 
I did the label on the embroidery machine. It turned out awesome! So glad I can still make that thing work like I want it to, when I want it to.

This is the baby quilt I made for Jody. It's a panel, but her baby room is farmyard, so  I knew it was perfect!

She loved the baby quilt and I'm so happy I went with this one instead of the one I started for her. She's due Nov. 1, so we'll be overlapping maternity leaves by about 4 weeks.


Saturday night I needed some me time, so after Mikaela went to bed I loaded my blush quilt. It's the one I tried to quilt with the Aurifil thread on Tues. night and cussed it so much that I took it out and started over with my old standby KingTut/Bottomline combo. I was mad too since I had bought both pink and turquoise Aurifil to quilt it with and neither worked. Oh well, live and learn. It was one of those nights where I would say I'll finish this bobbin, then I'll finish the row, then oh I don't have much left to do, so I might as well finish since it is going so well. I love how it turned out!

Here's a close up of the quilting.

Sunday night I had Jen's quilt on the frame and ready to quilt. I quilted and tore and quilted and tore several times before I got it where I like the quilting on it. When it was done I loaded this baby quilt on it. I was just going to load, then just check thread, and pretty soon it was completely quilted! Good thing I did as I found out the baby shower is Sunday night. Last night after I worked late I put the binding on. I'm hoping to finish the handwork during class tonight, but we'll see how it goes.

My dad drives a grader, so that is the picture I took of the quilting. It's for his grandson. So with 4 yards of bamboo batting I was able to complete three quilts, the blush, Jen's, and the Cat quilt. I think they will all be great snugly quilts, well except for Jen's, but it will hang well. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it!

Saturday night we took Mikaela to get her first hair cut. She was so not interested in sitting still, so I had to hold her and try to keep her still. She now has bangs and looks like a little girl. The hairdresser Cathy was so good with her!

It's been a VERY productive week! I don't think this next week will be since we are going to my dad's tomorrow for the wedding on Friday. I'm hoping I can have the baby quilt done by Sunday's shower. Anything else is a plus this week!

Finished this week:
Dump Truck Quilt
Pink/Brown Friendship Quilts - DONE!
Buggy Barn Pink/Brown Extra Blocks -DONE!

Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Sign Language Diaper Clutch
Batik Scrappy Quilt - Sewed all the 2.5" squares to the corners, now to trim and press
Hugs & Kisses Batik quilt
Hugs & Kisses Scrappy Quilt

Quilts Needing Hand sewing on Binding Blush Quilt  - quilted!
Cre8tive Swap w/ Jen - Quilted

Completed tops awaiting quilting:

Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt - Need to make backing
Confetti Top - At the shop
Twisted Heart - At the shop
Merry Go Round - Needs backing made.
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks- borders on - backing made
Autumn Star Quilt - needs backing

New Projects:

No progress:
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - Started sashing - Need to get a move on, he's getting married
Dilly Dally Baby Girl Quilt
Swoon - 2 Blocks done

This week's stats:
Completed projects -3
New projects -
Currently in progress - 4
Finished this year - 51, 12 Samples

I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

WIP Wednesday 37 9.12.12

This week flew by, but boy did I have fun! I finished the top of Jen's swap quilt and I love it if I do say so myself. It turned out just as I had kind of pictured it. I also finished up the hand sewn binding on Jody's baby quilt and made a diaper clutch and changing pad to match the quilt. The shower is on Saturday. I worked more on the batik quilt from last week, but decided it is really mindless sewing and I would be better spent doing that at my sewing club night with friends on Friday the 14th, so I packed it away for then.
Sunday marked the last day of my summer graduate class. I am so excited to be done! Three weeks until the next class starts. This is one I'm worried about since it is a law class, but better to have it done before baby than to try to do it after. I worked on my paper Sunday afternoon, so Sunday night I got to sew. I made the diaper clutch and then it was still early and Mikaela was asleep, so I started this UFO of mom's. It's a baby quilt and it was all cut out. I just added the borders to the panel. I plan to quilt it up for my brother and his fiance. They are having a little boy at the end of Oct. We already have one pretty similar for our little boy when he makes his arrival.

Then with working on the batik quilt, I've also been working on a Hugs and Kisses quilt. It is another mindless sewing project I am taking to sewing night, but I had all these leftover batik strips and I found this Autumn Star quilt that the strips were in. I was afraid to cut them up since I thought they belonged in this UFO of my mom's. Well as I pulled it out, I realized I only needed to finish 5 seams! Really I was shocked that mom had it this close to done and didn't finish it. Last night while I was working on some embroidery, I started piecing it together. There were quite a few seams that were loose, too big of stitches and all pressed open, so I sewed them up and finished piecing it together. There are a couple points I couldn't get to match, but done is better than perfect. I love how it looks and can't wait to quilt it. This one was a lesson in not pressing open (even though the pattern says to) and using a smaller stitch length. Most quilters don't realized they need to shorten the stitch length on their machine when piecing. Machines are set for regular stitching where you would back stitch, however if you don't do that, then they need to have a shorter stitch length so the pieces don't come apart.

Last night we were supposed to have our last live session of class, but due to a family emergency, our instructor couldn't make it and we didn't have class. I pulled out the embroidery machine and did two different designs. One was a label for dad's quilt and the other a special project, which I can't show. They both turned out great though! I love doing embroidery when it all works. I can do it and sew at the same time!
Saturday Mikaela and I went with dad to Keystone to the parade. Mikaela enjoyed the horse and waiting on the road for the parade to start. She is starting to get the concept of picking up candy.

Finished this week:
Jody's baby quilt - Barn Yard Friends Quilt
Diaper Clutch for Jody's baby shower
Autumn Star Top
Cre8tive Swap w/ Jen -Top done!
Dump Truck Quilt top

Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Sign Language Diaper Clutch
Batik Scrappy Quilt
Hugs & Kisses Batik quilt
Hugs & Kisses Scrappy Quilt

Quilts Needing Hand sewing on Binding
Pink/Brown Friendship Quilts -Handwork on binding - 1 left
Buggy Barn Pink/Brown Extra Blocks -Binding- 1/2 done!
Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Blush Quilt  - backing made! - Loaded on the frame
Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt - Need to make backing
Confetti Top - At the shop
Twisted Heart - At the shop
Merry Go Round - Back from the shop, need to add final two rows
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks- borders on - backing made
Autumn Star Quilt - needs backing
Dump Truck Quilt top

New Projects:

No progress:
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - Started sashing - Need to get a move on, he's getting married
Dilly Dally Baby Girl Quilt
Swoon - 2 Blocks done

This week's stats:
Completed projects -2
New projects -1
Currently in progress - 4
Finished this year - 47 , 12 Samples

I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!