Happy Christmas!
I managed to get several things done in the past week, including cleaning my house! 😂 I finally got the binding on the mini churn dash quilt. This is one that I quilted at the beginning of December before I began the intense custom quilting job that I shared last week.
The quilting on this is a combination of computer- and hand-guided. I learned how to use QCT to place a block and sort of how to lay out a border. I filled in some with some free-motion quilting as well. I was disappointed to find out that I do not have the Borders portion of the program included in my setup. I was extremely disappointed to find out that if I do want access to it, it is $200 per year. What!?
Anyway, it was a good learning experience. I need to remember not to use the tie/cut function when doing custom or blocks because it leaves loads of giant thread knots on the back that are very unattractive. I already used what I learned when I quilted the custom quilt immediately following. I also was reminded why some battings really aren't suitable for long arm quilting. The chunk I used in this was an inexpensive variety that was a leftover from something. With cheap stuff, no matter how much I fiddle with it, the tension never looks good. It's just not dense enough to stand up to the quilting. At least the front looks good.
So, this mini was my One Monthly Goal for Elm Street Quilts. I also had it on my extensive list for 2019 Finish A-Long Q4. I do not feel bad about multi-tasking either. Since the year is nearly over, it is pretty unlikely I'll get anything else finished (though I will try). As of right now, I have 33% of my Q4 goals finished.
Check out Elm Street Quilts here.
Switching gears, I completed the two Chewbaccas I was working on. My husband helped me with the vinyl pieces on the belts. The pattern is by drawpilgrim.com.
I also made this wine tote bag. I received the kit at my guild Christmas party and it is a gift for my sister, who thought a wine tote bag seemed fun. I'm a teetotaler; she is not. She laughed at me because I called the white wine yellow. It is yellow on the fabric! Side note, I finally found a thread that my Bernina doesn't like. It was a 40 wt long arm thread. Oh well.
I have now completed the first two clues of Bonnie Hunter's Frolic mystery. That means I'm two weeks behind still, soon to be three! You should, of course, head to Quiltville.com if you want the patterns for her mystery.
I spent Sunday making a bunch of goodies, including fudge and my grandma's cookie recipe. I was only going to make the fudge and the pretzel candies, then decided I couldn't live without the cookies. 'Tis the season for nostalgia?
Oh, and remember how last week I said I was done with FLL coaching forever? Not so fast. The team got invited to the Razorback Invitational in May. So I will have some more to do, but not as much as for the regular season.
If you are interested in long arm quilting services, be sure to head over to my business page, www.quiltingbyanne-marie.com, and sign up for my newsletter. I send it once per month or less, and I am planning some fun promotions in the new year, including one for the Frolic quilt.
I hope you are having a peaceful holiday.
Linking with From Bolt to Beauty and Elm Street Quilts.
I have a finish! I started this purple flower chain quilt in 2005. I got the top done and into a box it went. I bought backing for it some time in the past year. Thankfully I had plenty of the original fabric left for binding. For some reason, when I first started quilting I never bought enough fabric for the binding.
Anyway, I tried a new quilting design on it. It's called Sweet Pea by Julia Quiltoff. This one takes forever to stitch out! This quilt is approximately 49" square and each pass took over an hour! That being said, I think it complements the quilt nicely.
I even made a nice tag for this one. I'm not great at labelling my quilts. Often I just write my name and the year on the back with a Micron pen.
Be sure to click on my 2019 Finishes tab. I finally got pictures of all the quilts I've finished this year and updated the page.
This quilt is one of my Finish-a-long Q4 quilts. As you may recall, I had a list of 15 proposed finishes for this quarter. This is my third finish, number 12 on my list. Hey, now I'm 20% done and there's less than a month to go! LOL
Linking with For the love of geese and My Quilt Infatuation and Clever Chameleon.
Here's one for the finally finished category. This is the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery Block of the Month from 2013. Yes, 2013. I made all the blocks that year, but then dragged my feet on piecing the borders. I pieced them at a retreat in 2016, then put the thing away until I felt like quilting it.
I pulled it out this summer to quilt after I added the robotics to my long arm. At that point in time, I paid my son to rip off the borders because the top was really wavy. After redoing the borders, I quilted it. It was one of my first robotics projects so it's not the greatest quilting job. I recall that I was thinking I could have quilted the thing by hand a lot faster than it went on the robotics. It took hours and hours. On the plus side, just a few months later, I can totally see what I should have done to make it turn out better.
So, anyway. I quilted it and sewed on the binding in June and didn't start sewing down the binding until October. I got the binding done pretty quickly and finished it up late on November 1.
Fabrics are Avalon by Fig Tree Quilts. Blocks are by lots of people, courtesy of Fat Quarter Shop. The quilting is called Garland. The finished size is 70" x 84.5".
This is #2 on my 2019 FAL Q4 list. I have 2 of my 15 projects (13.3%) finished.
Linking with For the love of geese.
Yesterday was the last day of my kids' fall break. We hadn't done anything too exciting over the four-day weekend, other than attend a talk/solo cello concert in a cemetery about bugs that are decomposers. So we decided to do a quick road trip to Casey, Illinois, home to many of the world's largest items and other big items.
Since I had a lot of car time, I took along the NASA quilt that needed to be bound. My family patiently waited an extra 10 minutes in the car when we arrived so that I could sew down the last of the binding because I thought it would be fun to get a picture of the finished quilt with something that is the world's largest.
So, without further ado, here is the NASA quilt in the "World's Largest Mailbox." In case you're wondering, you can actually place stamped mail in the largest mailbox to be mailed. :)
The NASA quilt measures 55" x 61.25". It is essentially double-sided since I used panels on the front and the back. All fabrics are from Riley Blake. I quilted it using the Sweep pantograph. This one is for my son, who currently wishes to become an aerospace engineer. This is #14 on my 2019 Finish-A-Long list.
I got a souvenir while we were in Casey. I found this crimper/pleater in an antiques store there. I have always been fascinated with the one that's at a museum near us, and now I have my own.
Finally, if you've been following my smelly and stained antique block saga, they have been soaking in a vinegar and water solution for a week and a half now, mostly because I've been lazy and haven't taken care of them. They seem to no longer smell, though some still have black spots all over the feed sack backing. I'm going to hang them to drip dry in the tub and go from there.
Linking with For the love of geese and mmmquilts.
I thought I'd try something a bit different to help me finish some of my WIP. I seem to be much more productive when I have firm deadlines. So I looked through my pile of works-in-progress and made a list of some I'd like to try to finish in the next few months and I'm linking up with the 2019 Finish-A-Long Q4 to try to get more done.
Here is my list of proposed finishes for Q4.
1. Pink Grapefruit quilt
I am taking a class with Coleen Merte in November. Everything for the quilt needs to be pre-cut before the class, so surely I can finish a quilt top in a short amount of time, right? It will just be the quilting and binding that will take some time. But definitely doable.
2. FQS mystery BOM
It just needs the binding stitched down.
3. Kimberly Einmo class quilt
I want to do custom quilting on this one. I just haven't worked out what exactly yet. The goal is to quilt and bind it.
4. Polar Bear quilt
I was planning on quilting this last week until I noticed that it is super wavy and crooked. So it needs to be ripped apart and re-sewn. Then quilting and binding.
5. Lucky charm quilt
Another that I want to custom quilt but can't decided on a design.
6. Cross quilt
This one needs to be quilted and bound. I'm not in love with the backing fabric I bought, but can't find anything to coordinate with the top. I do have a quilting plan already, so that's a plus.
7. Strawberry quilt
This one is for my daughter and she wants custom quilting, so I've been dragging my feet for a very long time.
8. Summer book club blocks
I started making some blocks this summer but got busy doing other things. I need to make a ton of blocks and then figure out from there what to do. It's unlikely this one will get done this quarter, but a girl can dream, right?
9. Churn dash mini
This one needs borders of some sort and then quilting and binding.
10. Range kit
Cut, sew, quilt, bind. I can't wait to make this, but I've been holding back because I feel like I need to get more things finished first.
11. Antique blocks
If you've followed my blog recently, you have read about these several times. I think they are now sufficiently cleaned and the smell has gone away, so I will need to tear some apart and re-sew the center seam, then create a quilt top with them. If I am going to do this one, it will need to be done before February, so it seems like a great one to add to the list.
12. Purple flower quilt
Quilt and bind.
13. Crabby mini
Fabric has been pulled and pattern prepared forever. I just need to do it. I find so much of paper-piecing to be so intimidating. Not the sewing itself, but the figuring out the right way to put the fabric and then removing all the paper at the end.
14. NASA quilt
The binding needs to be sewn down.
15. American Jane Cupcake Mix 3
There is no way this will get done since one of the fabric lines I want to include doesn't come out until February. I am listing it here because I am currently working on it and am intending to continue working on it throughout quarter 4.
Clearly I have a lot of quilting to do. You can see I'm great at making tops, but not so quick at turning them into quilts. Let's get quilting!
