At last, I have finished something on time! {I was unable to complete my goal in November and December.} My goal this month was to make a donation quilt from start to finish. It was not entirely without bumps. I assembled the interior of the quilt and when I laid it out for a photograph I realized something wasn't quite right.
 |
| Something is wrong here. |
A little seam ripping and re-sewing, and now it looks better!
I'm so pleased I was able to finish my quilt. This is also my first finish of the year. I quilted it with In the Swirls and did a zig-zag stitch over the binding since this one will be donated to Quilts for Kids. The zig-zag helps make sure there isn't anything to catch on wires or IVs.
I spent a couple days fiddling with the layout for my Board & Batten quilt. I think I'm going with this. I'm sure it could be arranged better, but it's one of those things where you move one thing and then have to move a bunch more and it just never ends.
I had posted my progress on social media and someone contacted me about an issue with one of my fabrics. Joanna told me about her experience--her fabric ran when she washed her finished quilt and she couldn't remove the excess dye. I had pre-washed my fabric and hadn't noticed any bleeding at the time, but since she'd had such a bad experience and was kind enough to warn me, I figured I'd better double-check. This is after an hour or so in the water. 😳 It looked like intense Easter egg dye.
As soon as the edge of my fabric hit the water, I could see dye running out into the water, but I left the sample in there for a day just to see. This is what the fabric looks like when it's dry. It's actually a brand name batik--Hoffman Indah batik Snippy in St. Paddy Gold. It's beautiful, but I can't recommend it.
Anyway, I had to order some dark green fabric to replace the running fabric since I didn't have anything suitable in my stash. Once that arrives (Ruby Star this time), I will need to replace those HST and squares and assemble my quilt. I am planning to assemble what I can in the meantime and just kind of work around it since this week's task is to assemble half of the blocks.
I've quilted lots this week. I'm kinda buried in quilts at the moment. That's a good problem to have, but it also makes me feel like I have to work a bunch to compensate.
The first one I did was Katie's quilt, quilted with Champagne Bubbles. This is the one that I pattern-matched the backing on last week. The quilt pattern itself is called Blowing Up Bunnies by Art East.
Then I quilted Carol's t-shirt quilt with Diagonal Plaid. If you're a frequent visitor here, you know I love Diagonal Plaid on t-shirt quilts.
I finally got the binding on Pat's quilt.
Next up was JoEllen's quilt, quilted with 60s Mod Butterfly.
Then one of Cindy's, quilted with Flirtatious.
My little quilt, quilted with In the Swirls.
And then another of Cindy's, quilted with Starry.
IKEA got in a few more of the parts we needed for our closet makeover and we were able to pay in advance for part of it to guarantee it would still be there by the time one of us, my husband this time, made the drive Sunday to pick them up. I had a partially successful trip the week before. Eight more pieces--four drawers and four shelves--to go. We started buying pieces last April.
Meanwhile, pears were, well, I don't know if I'd call it on sale, but they were in stock. My husband brought me 10 pounds (18 pears) and I spent quite a while Sunday afternoon peeling, chopping, and canning 10 pints. He did help me peel some of them because it takes forever. Canned pears are one of my most favorite foods. They are very labor intensive, so we make them last. If I had tons of money, I'd love a chef who continually canned pears for me. :) Oddly, I don't really care for fresh pears. Eh, we all have our quirks.
The chickens are still laying eggs and we still don't know which ones. One lays in the corner, one lays in front of the door to the ramp, and a lot of times the rooster Henry ends up sitting on them. No one uses the nesting boxes. My daughter made herself an omelet with five of the eggs. We used two in a box of Jiffy Corn Muffin mix and the muffins were less grainy than normal and rose like popovers. Strange.
Henry is still pretty gimpy. He does venture down into their yard occasionally. We found out that he hobbles out the door and then kind of leaps and flaps his wings and has a hard landing. He can't really go down the ramp and he for sure can't get back up, so he has to be put back in the coop at night when he does come out. The other day my daughter was feeding him outside the coop and the chickens were so jealous! Agatha is staring at Henry from the corner of the coop.
Two of the girls, Beaker and Peanut, always try to escape if any of the doors are open. They all come running if they hear us outside because they think they are getting food! Here they are staring at my husband--Peanut on the left, then Smoky, Agatha, and Peanut from top to bottom.
Linking with My Quilt Infatuation, For the Love of Geese, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
I don't know, I think the mistake was kind of interesting, and I might have been tempted to leave it that way, though it does look very nice the way it ought to be. You really did do a LOT of quilting! I'm hoping to be well enough in a couple of months to have my longarm cleaned and a little problem fixed on it, then actually have enough energy to walk up and down in front of it for a few passes! It's been 18 months since I could, and I miss it. I liked seeing your choices for quilting, too.
ReplyDeleteSusan is right -- the mistake was interesting but sometimes you want the quilt to be what you were planning not where it wandered off by itself. It does look great all finished. You are doing a lot of quilting and yet have time for some of your own projects. Impressive. Your chickens seem to have such personalities.
ReplyDelete