Showing posts with label UFO. Show all posts

Pumpkin Pillow

I can share one of my secret projects with you today. This is my pumpkin pillow, made using  Yellow Umbrella Quilts' Homegrown Harvest pattern. 

I quilted it using Simple Orange Peel. I had a bit of a miscalculation on the size. I was trying to get the circles to be about 1.5", but they ended up much smaller. Best I can figure, I had the wrong grid scale set up on my screen and didn't notice. I saw that it was stitching out tiny, but since there was quite a bit of overstitching on it, I didn't feel like ripping it out and just went with it. It looks cute. It's pretty stiff, which is probably good for a pillow.

I made the front using things from my stash, but I did have to buy some backing. I ended up getting this cute little Moda print. I'll be sending this to my mom when I get my act together.

I'm attending a daytime sewing retreat for several days this week, so I've been working on getting things cut to take with me. I have all of my Malted Mystery quilt cut, so technically I'm 1/3 done with my OMG. However, there are a ton of HST to sew and trim in the September clue, so that will take some time. The October clue comes out tomorrow.

I finished cutting the Log Cabin Star (Emily Dennis) quilt. Here is a grayscale picture of one of the shapes. I was trying to decide if I had enough contrast or not. I am only using stash for this one, so I've exhausted the majority of my options, other than adding more black.

I've been quilting a ton trying to clear my schedule enough to take off the extra day this week for the retreat. Here's what I've accomplished so far.

Linda's next IU quilt, quilted with Stipple again.

Linda's mom's quilt, which is entirely HAND PIECED, quilted with a smaller-scale stipple.

Sara's KC Chiefs quilt, quilted with Diagonal Plaid Bias Cut.  I felt so on-trend working on this one as all the Taylor Swift stuff was hitting the news. 😆 This quilt is very big and ended up being really heavy when I was done.

Hannah's first quilt! She requested Denali and orange thread. She did such a nice job; it was very square. I also bound this one.

Lauren's quilt. This is the first larger project she's done. She used a lot of African prints and we decided on Triangle Meander for the quilting, which ended up adding really nice texture without competing with her blocks and fabric. I also bound this one. She provided me with scrappy binding and it was so fun! The background fabric is black; I probably should have tried to adjust it to better reflect that.

Jess's quilt, quilted with hand-guided loopy meander. This one has a fleece back and Warm & Natural Plush batting, which is thicker than the normal. It should be really warm. I need to get this one bound today and then I will be done with my planned work for the week.

While I was working on all the binding, I threw my little Buttercups quilt on the frame and quilted it with Knit 1, Purl 2. Now to find time to make and sew the binding on. I think I'll do hand binding to finish this one since it's small.

We went out and saw Starlink go by last week. I think it was Thursday night. We tried the night before but it was cloudy and sprinkling. It was interesting to see it go by this time, but not anywhere near as exciting as it was the very first time my daughter and I saw it (video link in the linked post). This time it was all unlinked (is that a word?), so it was just a band of widely spaced lights going by. My son grabbed my phone and took a picture of the moon while we were out there. 

Clearly I haven't had time to do much else. The kids and I went and got our Covid boosters Friday afternoon and I loafed about and then slept part of Saturday too. Once I recovered, I quilted and quilted and quilted. 😄

I heard someone speak and they were talking about copyright. They claimed that you could take someone else's pattern, write your own instructions and take your own pictures while you are making it, and then sell it as your own--and that was okay. I don't think that sounds right. Maybe it's allowed under a legal definition or interpretation, but it doesn't seem the least bit okay morally to me. What are your thoughts on it? 

Linking with My Quilt Infatuation, For the Love of Geese, Alycia Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and From Bolt to Beauty.


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Piles of Stuff

I can't say I've accomplished a whole lot in the last week.  I kind of just took it easy.  Sometimes you just need to do that, right?  I feel like I washed a lot of fabric though.  Ha.

 I am currently completely up to date on the Frolic mystery.  It was nice to take my time and spread the work over several days on this clue.
I'm hoping that we are near the end of the cutting because most of my piles are really diminished and this last clue wiped out the entirety of many of my fabrics.
Here's a fun thing--Bonnie Hunter herself commented on one of my posts!

 Last week my friend and I went to a sale at one of the local shops.  I didn't really need much, so I got a backing for one of my UFOs.  

 Here's a view of my long arm frame with a few quilts laid out that I need to make backings for.  The pile of fabric on the floor is what I bought for the UFO backing.
On my ironing table is another pile of fabric.  This is the base fabric for the string stars from last week's post. The stars themselves are under that.  I have a lot of ironing to do!  I could say pressing, but let's be honest, I always call it ironing.
Near my sewing machine is another pile.  This is one of my Cupcake Mix sets.  I really dislike removing all the papers.  I finally decided to bring them upstairs and tear out the papers while watching TV in the evening. After I trim the dog ears they will be ready to sew into blocks.

The new fabric bins are still in a pile and I have not even begun to tackle that project yet.  

One more fun tidbit:  Corey Yoder liked my quilt on Instagram!  Well, not my quilt, but my friend Denise's quilt that I quilted!  It's always fun when someone "famous" likes something you post.


 Until next week, happy quilting!

 Linking with For the love of geese and My Quilt Infatuation.

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Churn Dash Mini

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.
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Why I Should Sew Alone, or, Don't Sew When You're Tired

I had high hopes for the amount of sewing I'd get done over the last week.  I was going to put the borders on the Gracie Girl quilt, make at least a top during the quilt retreat, and start putting together the Sewcial Bee Sampler top.  Plus I thought I'd quilt Gracie Girl too.  Ha!  Big HA HA!

 I put the borders on Gracie Girl yesterday.  I really wish there would have been a bit more fabric included in the kit so that I could have either 1. cut the borders the length of the fabric to avoid seaming, or 2. been able to match the pattern better for the seamed borders.  The border fabric has a pretty big, bold pattern and it is pretty noticeable to me where all the seamed parts are. They are only little chunks, under 12", so I feel like it's just a bit odd looking.  But it is now ready to quilt.  I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt it yet, but it is ready.  I have backing fabric.  It's not a super huge quilt, nor is it something that's going to be used a lot, so I think I'm going to try to piece some batting remnants together on this one.  The plan is that this will be a decoration or lap quilt as needed in our office.  It has similar colors to the blinds I made several years ago.  My husband thinks it's strange that I'm making a quilt for the office.  I think that every room is improved by having a quilt in it!
As far as the Sewcial Bee Sampler, I went back to JoAnn to find more of the background fabric I used.  The one they currently have is much more yellow that the original and the dots are slightly different.  Bummer.  So I got a background fabric that has similar base fabric coloring even though it has a different pattern.  Hopefully it will look okay.  I haven't done anything further yet.

 I packed two quilting projects and a knitting project for my guild retreat over the weekend.  Most of the time I just go on the Saturday, but I paid for the whole weekend this time.  What I didn't anticipate  when I signed up is that we would have a lot of things going on at home.  Or that there would be a big snow storm.  So it was pretty hard for me to relax.  I went to the place on Friday evening.  I worked on my cross quilt.  I got a very fitful, poor night's sleep.  I was really cold, there was a light outside shining in my window, and it was hard for me to block out noise from other rooms.  I got up and kept right on working on the quilt top.  By mid-afternoon I could barely keep my eyes open.  I kept working on the top.  I was down to pressing the sashing strips and adding the two outside sashing strips.  I got up to use the iron, decided I'd rather press it at home, and that I was just done.  So I just packed up and went home.  And slept 10 hours that night!  And nine the next!  So even though I really enjoy my guild mates, I think I'm better off just going for only Saturday in the future.  Tired, cranky Anne-Marie is not very fun.

 I looked at what I'd sewn at the retreat and noticed how pretty much nothing matched up.  So I've been doing a ton of ripping and reassembling.  It's so frustrating.  I don't think anyone enjoys ripping out stitches.  Lesson reinforced:  don't sew while you are super tired.  You will mess up. I'm not really sure how I want to quilt this or what backing fabric I want to use.  I made one with the same pattern for my mom a few years ago and wasn't really happy with how I quilted it. I attempted to do the same style as the original quilt pattern maker used, but it just wasn't for me. This is the cover quilt on issue 31 of Love Patchwork & Quilting.
It's really wrinkly due to the amount of ripping and resewing I've been doing.
My sewing room is inching along.  My husband has all the trim on the walls and is getting ready for painting.  We also added a new bookcase outside the door of the sewing room.  I think he has that primed and ready for painting as well.  I've been cleaning the floor and have mopped it several times, trying to have it as spotless as possible before trim painting. Anyone have tips on cleaning vinyl plank flooring?  I tried using a vinegar and water solution and a microfiber mop, but that didn't cut the construction mess.  I then mopped twice using Spic and Span, and that looks better, but still not totally ideal.

After the trim is painted, we (my husband; at this point I am basically only helpful in cleaning up) still have to wire the outlets, install one more light, install a drop ceiling in the big closet, install carpet in the big closet, install knobs and pulls on the desk and cabinets, clean all the cabinets and install the shelves inside them, finish the countertop, install shoe moulding along the cabinets, install a smoke alarm and wi-fi booster thing, put on the doors for both closets, install doorknobs, get some glass cut for one set of cabinet doors, finish up the crown molding, finish making the top for my cutting table, break down, move, and reassemble the long arm, and move all my stuff in.  Gosh, is that all?  I'm probably forgetting things.

 What new projects are you working on?  I want to finish up my works in progress.  I'm about halfway through my list now.  I wouldn't mind adding in something new, but I'm not feeling any inspiration either.
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Finally Figured Out

I've had a Sunburst/Gracie Girl quilt kit from Fat Quarter Shop for a long time--like four or five years.  I've had it cut out for a long time too.  The problem was, I couldn't figure out a way to piece together the angled cuts accurately.  I had a lightbulb moment on it last week.  Why on earth this took me so long to figure out may forever remain a mystery.  I'll write it off as middle age mental fog!
I remembered that back when cutting shapes with templates was a common technique, a lot of acrylic templates would be shaped so that the dog ears would already be nipped off prior to sewing.  Plus, the nips in the templates would help you align the pieces properly.  Marti Michell was a big promoter of this technique back in the day.  I was considering going digging in my things to find some old template shapes.  Then I remembered that I had a set of Triangle Trimmers, unused, at the ready, and pulled them out.  These are a set by Fons & Porter that is readily available at JoAnn.  The Folded Corner Clipper by Prairie Sky Quilting will also work.  I'm sure there are other, similar tools available as well; these are two that I own that I know work for this technique.

 Anyway, for these strips, I used the pink triangle in the Fons & Porter set.  Just line up your edges to the template and trim off the dog ear point.
For the opposite angle, rotate the template around and repeat.
When you are ready to sew, your pieces will nicely fit together every time and you will not need to trim any dog ears off either.

Here is what the sewn unit looks like.  I do want to mention that this quilt had you cut templates from paper.  My templates weren't especially accurate since they were print outs, nor was my cutting from said templates.  Still, with the method I ended up using, the pieces were all close enough that I could still get a pretty accurate top.  Don't be afraid to use pins or gently stretch your fabric to make points line up.

 Speaking of working to get your points lined up, I came across a 2013 blog post by Ebony Love of LoveBug studios that I definitely think is worth a read, including the comments.  You can also follow up with her follow up, down at the bottom of her post.
Anyway, back to quilting. Here is half of my pieced top.  I'm still working on the sewing.  Luckily, you can still find Gracie Girl (by Kassidy and Lori Holt for Riley Blake) yardage available on Etsy, so I was able to purchase matching backing yardage. I chose the aqua clock pattern.  :)  I'm hoping to finish off the top this week and quilt it next week.  I have my guild retreat this weekend, so I'll be working on other things then.
We easily finished our National Parks puzzle last week.  Once we figured out that the posters were in alphabetical order it was even easier.  We did start a new puzzle, but realized once we built the border that it won't fit on our table.  So it's in limbo for now until we decide what we want to do.
Have a great week!

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Odds & Ends

I (finally) finished my Astrid/Megan's test quilt.  I don't have great pictures of it because there is no one home to hold the quilt while I take pictures.  Here are the details: 

 1. You can buy the pattern from Tiny Orchard Quilts.  
2.  I used Tula Pink's Spirit Animal and Kona Snow for the top and binding and Tula Pink    
     Free Fall wide back fabric in the orchid color way.  
3.  I custom quilted this top using Superior Thread's So Fine 50 wt in Snow.  
4.  I used rulers from The Quilted Pineapple.

 Things I learned from project:

 1.  It took around 24 hours of actual quilting time to finish the top and I got pretty bored 
     with it.
2.  It seems like I never have quite the right curve ruler for what I want.
3.  I found two areas I'd forgotten to quilt while I was binding.  I need to check more 
     closely as I go along.
4.  Even though I took pictures at the beginning, I forgot exactly what I was doing and had 
     some continuity errors.  Write everything down.
5.  I used a significant amount of thread with quite a few stops and starts and had a 
     significant amount of threads to bury when I was finished.  In the future, I'd consider          
     burying threads as I go along.  It seems like I think I have everything buried and then I 
     find more loose ends.

 Overall it looks pretty good, but there is definitely room for improvement in my quilting.  The pattern itself is great, and very forgiving.  



I've started working on my Devil's Tower cross stitch again.  I'm finally at the point where it's getting less fussy with the colors.
I am still working on the super ugly quilt.  I need to put the outside borders on.  The original pattern calls for mitered borders, but I just went with straight for this. It's a fairly large quilt at 72" x 84" once the borders are on.  I bought white with black polka dot fabric for the back from JoAnn.  They didn't have the yardage I needed, so I have several chunks and the back will have more seams than I'd like, but the price was right.  I'm going to quilt it using a Baptist Fan pantograph that I've been wanting to try.  I will likely donate this quilt when it's done.  The pattern is called Caribbean Nights and was published in Fons & Porter in the January/February 2006 issue. Yup, it's been hanging around for 12 years!
Seriously, what was I thinking with these colors?

Other than that, I finished painting the closets in the sewing room.  I ran out of paint with one coat left in one of the closets!  Between the room and the closets, I used about 4.33 gallons.

 I have a bunch of projects I need to finish (or start!) as gifts.

 We have our state FLL competition this weekend and a school district demonstration one evening next week.  We are in the mad rush of final preparation for the competition, but after that things should be smooth sailing for the rest of the year.  Maybe I'll actually get my gifts done on time! And hopefully we can get my sewing room done by the new year....

 What are you working on?
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Postcard from Sweden Mini Finish

My last week has been fairly stressful--the last bit of preparation for the FLL tournament this Saturday, elections, well...actually that's about it.  Things are falling into place nicely for the tournament.  I had some issues with getting the t-shirts printed.  I think everything is under control there, finally, at the last minute.  Elections.  Not a super great day to be a Hoosier, not that I ever fully feel like a Hoosier, nor do I think I ever will feel like one.  I'm always a bit embarrassed to say that I live here.  Well, on the bright side, the political ads are over for a bit. Just think of all the good that could be done with that money instead of spending it on advertising that no one likes.  Do these ads even influence any voters?  I only ever hear complaints about the commercials.

 On to much happier things.  Last week I was ready to re-quilt my Postcard mini.  I got the quilting done on Halloween and even started binding it.  I finished it totally on November 1.  I decided to use clear thread on the top and a gray on the back (which is gray).  I quilted in the ditch horizontally and vertically and also did the diagonals.  Because I had many attempts at the quilting, I had a lot of needle holes to address.  I ran the finished mini through the steam cycle on my dryer.  That took care of the holes and also made the quilt shrink a bit out of square.  I went with it, happy to have it finished.  Even though it is now a bit wonky, I still am pleased with it.  It's around 18 x 22.
(c) A. Hammond

Last week Monday my guild got together to make a charity fundraising quilt.  We made some improv-like Christmas tree blocks based on a tutorial available from Amy Smart.  Improv is NOT my thing.  I am a math major and a type-A.  I like my things even and as perfect as possible.  I like preciseness and improv is not that.  I went along and tried to contribute a few blocks.  I then got the job of attaching the vertical white borders and the outside borders, along with quilting it.  The quilt top in progress and some fabrics for borders and backing made its way to me on Friday.  I worked on the borders and quilted it Friday and Saturday before passing it along to another member for binding.  Since this required a quick turn around, I chose to do an all-over loopy meander. It is 40 x 60.


Can you find my seam join?  I was pretty proud of it!  LOL

Because this week wasn't stressful enough, the power cord that runs my stitch regulation decided it would be a good time to develop a wire break.  I would be quilting along and my machine would just stop mid-stitch.  We found a similar cord on Amazon that I hope will do the trick.  It arrived yesterday and I haven't had time yet to try it out for compatibility yet.

 Kim of Maggie Magpie Studio sent me a bunch of Bonnie & Camille's April Showers scraps as part of #getyourquiltywishesgranted4.  I feel very thankful for her generosity.  Look at all this beautifulness!  My plan is to make a king size granny square quilt for my bed using these plus the jelly roll and a few other scraps I've managed to buy.

I really have felt the need lately to work on getting more UFOs finished.  I started an EPP mini back in 2015 when Fat Quarter Shop did a quilt-along.  I was new to EPP then, but got it all stitched together well enough.  Then I had to stitch it down to the background and there it has sat, in progress, for almost three years!  I picked it up again this past week to try to finish stitching it down.  I'm getting closer; more than half way.  I just have the top six diamonds left to sew down.  Have I mentioned how much I dislike appliqué?  To clarify, I love how it looks and HATE doing hand sewing of it.  I cannot figure out a good way to get a nice point on the ends.
Let's see.  I finished both pairs of pajama pants I was working on for my kids last week.  No pictures though.  I have almost one side of the Tula quilt binding sewn down.  No progress made on any cross stitch.  I've been focusing on sewing down the EPP and alternating that with binding. Sunday my husband and I will try to get everything in my sewing room ready for my father in law to come in and work.  We have a bit of floor leveling left to do, a bit of drywall patching and then painting in the closets, and painting the window frame if there's enough time. I cannot wait to see my cabinets in there!

 Last Friday, after several days of heavy rain, I looked out into my garden to see an obscene display of stinkhorn fungus.  So gross.  They smell terrible. The only way to remove them is to remove all the soil and mulch around them.  Not worth the effort since they are, um, erect, for a day or two, spew seed, then become flaccid and wither away.  They are sort of funny in a juvenile sort of way.

I have four pink flamingos protecting day lilies in my lower garden.  Lately I've been finding them off their posts in the morning.  At first we thought it was due to high winds, but now I am convinced the deer are pushing them over in an attempt to get to the lily leaves.  Evidence--lots of deer footprints and chewed off leaves.  I did, however, find that one of my flamingoes was host to a monarch.  My picture is rather blurry, but maybe you can see the empty cocoon?  It's circled below.

Well, I guess that's it for this week.  I need to get going on cleaning since we have a dinner guest tonight.  And I have a few more FLL paperwork things to get done.  Until next week.

Update 5/13/21:  Linking with For the Love of Geese.
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