Early June Update on Quilting Progress

I worked on finishing my Granny Square quilt. It will make a nice baby quilt. I added three inner borders on the Granny Square and an outer border. It has been mailed off to the quilter.

I worked on piecing the rows for my Argyle Quilt. These blocks were left over from a quilt I made my niece Lauren several years ago and were just waiting to made into a top.  I still need to finish this one and figure out a border for it, but I have moved the quilt forward which is always the goal.

I also finished the top I was making using my leftover 9 patches from a past quilt. I set them on point, added sashing, and set them on point and did a narrow inner border, along with another border of the white and a wider outer border of the sashing fabric which I love. This is also mailed off to the quilter.

I included a few other quilts in the box for her to quilt for me and have put the pictures below.  We enjoyed our cruise and are now busy packing up the living room so that my husband can strip the popcorn ceiling, then we will paint. While he is busy stripping the ceiling I plan to hide in my sewing room and work on moving other projects forward, as I am not helping him with that part of the project.

Memorial Day Update

This week I spent time working on things around the house, like getting my living room ready to pack up as we are planning to strip the popcorn ceiling and paint starting next month.  I also spent one day at the quilt shop sewing with a friend who was up from the lower 48 to take care of her house and visit her son and daughter-in-law. She lives in Oregon, maintains a home in Alaska, and travels the lower 48 in her motor home spending time in Arizona and Florida each year.

I am also working on booking hotels for my son and me for this August when we drive down from Alaska to the lower 48. He is moving down to attend grad school.

As I posted on Friday, I finished the second memory quilt top and quite a few blocks for my Gypsy Wife quilt, so I moved on to a few other projects. On Friday I pressed four quilt tops to send to my wonderful quilter.

I pieced the backing for one quilt and added borders to my Buggy Barn Hearts bed runner.

I also found/purchased sashing and borders for a couple of other quilts and started putting them together.
I started with these 9-patch blocks that I had set on point. They were left over from another project and sitting in my UFO orphans box.

I picked a bright pink to sash them. I discovered in the process that the blocks were not all the same size so I set them on point again and trimmed them all to 13.25".

 Then I sashed them and set them on point.

I like how the quilt has turned out and need to find a backing so I can add this one to the box of tops I am sending my quilter.

I am deciding if I want to add borders or just finish it as is. Currently, it is about 40" square. I am debating if I want to add an inner border of pink and an outer border of the white or just a pink border.

I plan to use my time this week to make a few more blocks for my Gypsy Wife quilt and to move some other projects forward, including binding a few more quilts. I will be offline for a couple of weeks and unable to do any quilting, but I will try and get some hand work done during that time. I will post an update again next week before I go offline.

What I’ve Accomplished This Past Two Weeks

This past week I have been busy finishing the second memory quilt top.

I’ve also been busy working on my Gypsy Wife Quilt blocks and have made several more blocks to use as fillers. I still have some larger blocks to make as I am enlarging the quilt, then I can begin putting my top together as I plan to vary the layout of the blocks some and am still thinking about the layout.

I’m having fun with this quilt, choosing from my scraps left from other projects, and Fat Quarters that I had laying around. This is a great quilt for playing with color and design ideas. I have made several changes to the setting blocks and added a few blocks to the quilt that were ones I liked, I only eliminated one block front he quilt as I did not like the design. I may still go back and add it in before I layout the top. I plan to make extras of a couple of other blocks that I really liked in different color ways of course as this will help me with enlarging the quilt.

Stay tuned for more progress on the Gypsy Wife and I would love to read your comments on my colors and block choices.

Have a wonderful quilt week!

The Second Memory Quilt

I’v spent more time in my sewing room this past week and have actually gotten further on some projects than I thought. I made progress on a UFO and on my Gypsy Wife quilt blocks.

This last weekend was devoted to UFOs, one of which is the second memory quilt. This one is for my friend’s younger sister. It is also made with the pajamas. I started with the extra block I had from my friend’s quilt that I went around log cabin style. Please excuse my toes peaking out on the left side.

I am added a border of four patches all the way around the quilt. I then added a border of the background.

The inner border is another knit from the pajamas and the outer border is from my stash. 

 I want to thank my neighbor for holding the quilt up so I could take a picture. THat’s her feet peaking out on the bottom of the quilt. The wind kicked up out on the deck last night when I was trying to take a picture, and I hope to get a better one later this week.

I need to find a backing and send the quilt off to the quilter. The quilt is roughly 60” finished. A nice lap or throw size. 

Memory Quilt

I received a huge box of pajamas from my best friend in May of 2018, after her mother passed away. I had told her to send me some shirts and such and I would make her a memory quilt.  She also requested one for her sister, which I am working on currently.

I had a pile of pajamas of all different fabrics; knits, fleece, satin, and such. I picked the Cozy Quilt pattern Circle Back as it reminded me of the circle of a mother's arms and love.

I started with deboning the pajamas so I could cut them into sections.  Then I began pressing interfacing to each section and that took a long time. Once I have the fabric section prepped so they were roughly the size of a fat quarter I began cutting strips and sub cut them into pieces so I could begin stitching them the background pieces. That took the most time.  Then I started sewing and there were like 168 pieces of pajamas and roughly the same for background pieces to sew together. It took me quite a while to get them all together. Once I had that done the blocks went together fairly quickly in sections and then the sections were sewn together to make the 16-inch blocks. I trimmed them to 15.5 inches as they were not perfect due to the fabrics being used which often slipped, especially the satiny ones.

Once the blocks were together the top center when together easily. I then had to start with interfacing the fabric that I choose for the inner border. I had to piece it in sections and sew them together to get border lengths so there are quite a few seams in that border.

Once the three borders were attached and the quilt was pressed I boxed it up to send it off to my awesome quilter Shirley Jackson for her to apply her magic to the quilt.

When it returned home I trimmed and bound the quilt so I could have it done to hand carry to Los Angeles to deliver it to my oldest and dearest friend when we embarked on our twelve-day cruise to Alaska.

I know she will love it and be surprised when I hand it to her as I wanted to deliver it personally, rather than mail it to her.

You might think there is a lot of red in this quilt and there is for a very special reason. Red was her mother's favorite color.

Here is Theresa with her quilt. She was surprised and she did love it! She loves it and is very happy to have gotten it.

Now I will continue to work on her sister's quilt, which I am using a different pattern, or rather a variation of two patterns to make.

Saying Good-Bye before I was dropped off at 3 terminal for my flight. She was at terminal 5.

Finishing Off a Few Things

I am finishing off a few things this week so that I can mark them as done!  One group I am in has been doing a two week finish things up the challenge of sorts to get us motivated to get-er-done.  I have finished two quilt tops and am working on finishing more before Monday, including the memory quilt for my best friend from high school.

I discovered that some people were finishing pillowcases and post them as finishes so I threw in a couple of those that I needed to finish as well.

I am working on binding a few more quilts while I am at it and hope to top off my rain gauge soon.

Busy Week of Quilting

Crazy Anne 2

This week I have been busy in my quilting room. I finished binding one quilt, worked on my Gypsy Wife and started binding the memory quilt, while also working on the second memory quilt.

I finished binding Under Cover in Houston early this week and started in on the binding of the  memory quilt, which will be revealed next week.  Under Cover in Houston is a quilt I started in the 1990s or early 2000s when Debbie Caffery was still living in Alaska. She designed the pattern and taught the class. I love her patterns and she is a wonderful instructor.

 I took it as mystery class.  For those that are unfamiliar with quilt mysteries, you know what fabrics and how much, but not the pattern design, just the name. In this case, we needed a light, a dark and a couple of medium prints if I recall correctly with set amounts of each. Prior to the class, you are given cutting directions and sometimes some pre piecing directions as well. You show up to class with your fabric cut and any pre-piecing completed and are given the first step or if there was pre-piecing the second step and you go to work stitching away. As you finish each step you are given the next step and this continues until near the end of class or until someone is near the point of finishing. Then there is the big reveal. The instructor then brings out their finished quilt to show you.  Every quilt is different since no one knows what the quilt will look like. My quilt is different even than the designer’s as I decided to set mine on point, rather than in rows.

I picked my fabrics to go with my background fabric as I wanted it to be fun.

One of the things I always like about mysteries is that no one could copy the instructors color way. Too often in quilt classes, there are multiple people who copy the instructor's colorway and all the quilts look the same or very similar. There was only one time I came close to that and it was because the colors were the colors of the person I was making the quilt for.

I attached the binding to the front of the memory quilt and have been working on hand stitching it down off and on this week. I have about one and a half sides done. The label is on and I hope to have it finished before I head down to Los Angeles for my cruise on the 22nd.

I have been working on the second memory quilt, which is for her sister. I am doing it in a variation of a log cabin. I started with a center block and have been adding logs around the outside. I have several more to add before I will be done, though it will be a smaller, lap size quilt. I have to interface almost all the pajama fabric as it is knit and then piece the logs to the centers, so it takes more time than just cutting and piecing.  I am not sure if I will finish it before I head out in a week. Please forgive the toes, but with all the interfacing because these are knit fabrics it keeps curling up on the edges.

Today I wanted to relax so I pulled out my Gypsy Wife blocks that I had previously cut out and also cut out a few others to go along with them.  Over this last week, I pieced the From the Heart block, two Crazy Anne blocks, the star block, and a couple of other blocks I am adding to the quilt as I am enlarging it to fit my bed. I believe I have most all the blocks pieced for the quilt, except for the filler blocks, though I may add a few more blocks to enlarge the quilt once I start playing with the layout and piecing the sections together.

Crazy Anne 1

Heart Block

My Extra Star

The Star Block

I also have pictures of the infinity scarves I made last week. This is a gift for my friend to keep her warm when we are at the glaciers.

I apologize for being late getting this out. Life got in the way and I forgot to transfer my pictures until now, so I could post.

Wishing you a quilty week,

Wanda

This Weeks Quilting Report

This week I subbed four days so did not get as much done as I would have liked, but I did make progress.

I completed one quilt, almost finished binding another, and got the binding attached to the front of the memory quilt as well as the label.

I finished the binding on my July Mystery.  This quilt is one I designed and shared as a mystery with a group of friends last summer. I also have a mini quilt or table topper that I shared from the scraps. I still need to border and quilt it.  This quilt was quilted by my wonderful quilter Shirley Jackson.

I also finished the two infinity scarves I started last week.

My goal for next week is to finish the binding on Under Cover in Houston and work on binding the memory quilt and my Gypsy Wife quilt.

March Wound Down and April Sprang into Being

March was a slow month for me quilting wise as I was gone for a week and subbed about three full weeks so my quilting time was minimal.  I did make some progress though.

I completed the memory quilt top for my friend Theresa and sent it off to the quilter. It returned and trimmed it and cut the binding.  No pictures until I deliver it later this month.

I worked on binding Under Cover in Houston, an old Debbie Caffery Mystery, that is not quite done but will be done this month.

I also trimmed eight other quilts and cut binding for five of them.

I bound "No Such Thing as Too Much Fabric" and added a hanging sleeve to it.

I also pieced and pressed the binding for another quilt and started to attach the binding to it.

I made two infinity scarves using the leftover minke backing from trimming one quilt.

I have to pick the binding for the four other quilts that I trimmed and get to work on binding them as well as the rest of those I trimmed. Since I only completed on binding in March I have to complete three in April to stay on track as my goal is to get two bound a month so I can move the ones I have waiting into Donesville.

Progress over the Last Week

This week was very productive overall.  I did a ton of work on the house with regard to decluttering and getting stuff organized for our trip over spring break.

I finished the binding on  Barbara's Antiques, my second finish for the month, fourth for the year.  It is bright and colorful and was fun to quilt to make. It was an old UFO from, many years ago. I took the mystery class from Debbie Caffery in the 1990's

I also pieced several blocks for my Gypsy Wife quilt.

This is my second ColorWheel block. I really like this block so decided to incorporate a second one into my Gypsy Wife quilt.

This is my hatchet block. 

This is the Pershing block and it is a little oversized, but I think I can make it work. If not I can always make a second one and still incorporate this one into the quilt, even if it is on the back.

There are several square-in-a-square blocks in the Gypsy Wife and this is just one of many I will be making.

I also made several pinwheels 

 

 

  

I also completed two triangle blocks.

 

I made a few filler blocks as well. I am changing things up a little on the filler blocks, as I do not want 23 square-in-a-square blocks as I want some variety in them.

 

I ordered backing and borders for the Memory Quilt. I have the center of the quilt done. I used pajamas that belonged to a very dear friend's mother.  She has not seen the complete center of the quilt yet. I am debating sending her a picture or wait until I put on the borders or even better wait until I finish it and deliver it to her. I will post a picture of it later, as I don't know if she reads my blog or not.

I also ordered a couple of other Jen Kingwell patterns that I would like to try. 

I have had a nice quilty week. This week I am picking out two quilts that need a binding for the month of March, and planning to work on more blocks for the Gypsy Wife.