Showing posts with label quilt along. Show all posts

Sign Up for Everything

Hi. Hope you are well. Glad you are here. 

I've switched my email feed from FeedBurner to Mailchimp.  I apologize to those of you who got duplicate emails the other night. I published a guide outlining the steps I took to make the switch and failed to actually remove the FeedBurner feed. Ugh. How embarrassing. My guide is now updated to include disabling FeedBurner--it's the post directly before this one if you're interested. So...if you'd like to receive emails each time I post, there is a "Follow by email" sign up window located in the right column on desktop or in the pop up menu on mobile.

Moving along, I keep signing up for quilt alongs! This might not be a great thing since I don't seem to find myself sewing much at all at the moment. But I have hope/optimism that I'll find the time.  Here's what I have going on currently.

The Macaron Mystery Quilt is starting soon. I'm providing a free quilting prize again! Cheryl's patterns are always top-notch and the pace of this mystery is so easy to keep up with. From Cheryl:

This is the seventh annual, free quilt along hosted by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs.  Instructions are posted to the Meadow Mist Designs blog on the Thursday of each month with a reveal parade with tons of prizes in the spring.  There is an active Facebook group to quilt along with and even a sneak peek option for those who would rather the design not be a mystery. Visit the Macaron Mystery page for more information about the quilt along, schedule, sponsors & prizes, Facebook group, and un-mystery option. 

I also signed up to participate in Art East's #Trending quilt. We (my family) thought this one looked like fun and it will be interesting to see what each of the nine blocks looks like. It starts in September.

I also have this testing project in the works. My son helped me pull the required amount of fabrics from my stash.

Meanwhile, I still need to work on my OMG--sewing all the Bonnie Hunter Grassy Creek blocks.  I haven't even started yet because...remember this quilt from last week? i'm obsessed with getting it done and donated.

I have started to create a backing using only fabrics I already have. I pulled things from my stash that went with it. There are also four blocks that were supposed to be corner blocks for the front. Here's my frenzied fabric pull.

I decided to sew the blocks together to make a strip for the center of the backing.

Then I did a little math and determined that I'd need 16 fat quarters to make the backing the correct size.  I got this idea from Gyleen X. Fitzgerald (hands down the best speaker I've been honored to hear), though I'm modifying it to fit what I have. 
I need to trim all my FQ to be the exact same size before sewing. This is my rough layout. 
I also have a few small projects I completed this week.  I can share them next week.

And of course there are quilts!

Carol's quilt, being quilted with Pretty Paisley.  This quilt is so beautiful. The colors are amazing and Carol is donating to a fundraiser, Purrfect Paws Cat Rescue. You could own this quilt. 😉

And here is where I've spent the last three days.  Brenda made this Hunter Star and we decided to use Merge as it's for a young man.  In order to keep everything lined up properly, I needed to baste the vertical seam lines.  It was a lot of extra effort, but the results are worth it. It looks really good, if I say so myself.

Not gonna lie, I was really happy to see the end of the quilt yesterday evening.

That's more or less my week. I spent hours with Q-Tips, cotton balls, and toothpicks cleaning the used 430 I bought on eBay. Once I used the machine for a few hours and everything got loosened up inside the machine, it seems to sew appropriately. I got an email last night telling me my 440 is fixed and ready to be picked up, so I'll go get that in a bit. Last I knew they thought maybe it was the pressure sensor for the presser foot and they had a call in to Bernina. I don't yet know if that's what they determined was wrong.

We've had muggy, rainy, cicada-filled weather. (Totally not a fan of these cicadas.) Last I checked my veggies, there was virtually no lettuce.  Less than a week later, it has grown and mostly bolted. The critters have discovered the strawberries. It looks like I'll have quite a few dill plants, but though I replanted cucumber seeds, I still have no cucumbers. The rest is growing but not producing yet.

Here is my clematis that fell off its support. It's filled with blossoms this year and the robin's nest with eggs does appear to have been fully abandoned now. Nature is always interesting.

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.

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August OMG Complete!

This past week has been full of hurry up and wait moments.  We've had many appointments.  Driving to and from the appointments has taken longer than the appointments themselves, but collectively I've  spent quite a few hours in transit.  I am thankful that the majority of the long waiting room waits have been eliminated during this pandemic.  I hope that change continues when we are finally past this.

 We are still getting into our new school routine.  Both kids are online right now.  There have been a few technology hiccups.  My daughter's first college class ever was unable to meet due to Zoom being down Monday morning.  It looks like the local school district is changing things again after Labor Day.  We want our son safe at home for the first semester, so I hope that will still be an option. Masks are so necessary, but I also feel like asking kids to wear them all day is asking a lot.  Mask breaks defeat the purpose of wearing the masks. As a trained teacher, I know that the best place for them is in the classroom, but I also feel that we are experimenting with our teachers and kids.  I don't want my children to be experiments. This has just been such an exhausting year.  

 I have managed to get the central portion of my For the love of geese quilt finished.  I ran a few inches short of fabric and luckily found some more--the line I am using is an older one and most of the fabrics are no longer available.  In hindsight, I wish I would have used one of the teal shades for this round instead, but I did not have enough fabric left and haven't seen more in my hunt for more of this line.  The color I did use is various shades of deep purple and pink, kind of into the maroon shades.  It is reading more brown to me after piecing.  Maybe I can quilt over it with bright pink to lighten it up.
I have just the outer ring left to piece.  I am looking forward to seeing the quilt in its entirety, but most definitely not looking forward to removing all the papers!!!!  Any tips for that?
Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - August Finish Link-up

Progress is being made in my Water Drop quilt (pattern by Maeberry Square).  I have all of the half-square triangles pieced and trimmed.  I wish I could get a nice picture of my colors.  They are so much more rich and vivid in person.
My daughter is sewing along in the Water Drop QAL as well.  She tried to work ahead a little since she knew she'd have classes and homework.  Here is her progress so far.
I'm still waiting for my IntelliQuilter to show up.  I'm trying to be patient, but it is so hard.  I have quilts piling up again.  Don't get me wrong, I'm totally thankful for the work and the ability to purchase the system. Just the waiting on top of everything else is really starting to wear.  I'm in week eight of waiting.  My last estimated delivery date was changed to the second week of September, about a month after the best case scenario wait.  I know it will be worth the wait, but still.

 Now that all my fabric is organized, it is time to use it!  I'm seriously considering sewing with Fat Quarter Shop's Sewcialites program that starts in a few weeks.  I will probably make the blocks but make my own setting.  I think I want to mix the block sizes.  Here is what I've pulled so far.  I feel like it needs a little something, but I don't know what.  And I need a background fabric to pull it all together.  Suggestions are completely welcome and encouraged.
My garden is still producing like crazy.  I made hamburger dills at my husband's request.  We are running out of small jars (because I have canned so much this year), lids, and mustard seed.  I found reasonably priced mustard seed on Amazon, but the lid prices are ridiculous online and I refuse to pay that much.  Not sure what I'm going to do with the remaining produce.  I might start forcing the extra produce on my neighbors!
I'm having a hard time being positive this week (I have a serious case of the grumpies), so I'm trying to look for things to be positive about.  One big one is that all our defective windows have now been replaced.  We finished the last two over the weekend.  I'm looking forward to the day when all the inside trim is replaced on them.  Another thing to be thankful for is that the new washing machine is functioning well so far.  No more endless loop in the rebalance/refill cycle.  Maybe my water bill will be lower next month.

 I am looking forward to the next clue in the Morewood Mystery.  It will release next Thursday I believe.  I think it's time to sew some of this!
I also finished a huge, not very pleasant, behind the scenes task last night.  Woo hoo!

What things are bringing you joy this week?

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




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August Goal

My August goal is to finish at least one more round of my For the love of geese quilt.
Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal August Link-up

I will also do all the cutting for the Morewood Mystery quilt.  You can still join in the QAL. Cheryl writes great patterns, there is a very active Facebook community, and best of all, it is free!

 Another project I will work on during August and September is Maeberry Square's Water Drop pattern.  This is a great project to join in on if you want to perfect your half-square triangle game and/or try making 32 HST at a time.  The pattern releases tomorrow!  There will be a QAL starting next week as well.  Sign-ups start tomorrow.  

 There's a few behind the scenes projects too. Meanwhile, I'll still be quilting as much as possible. I'm really hoping my new robotics shows up SOON. I've been watching all the training classes in preparation.  

 Last week I got to quilt Annie's Unity quilt.  As you may recall, the Unity quilt was a quilt along hosted by Bonnie Hunter earlier this year.  Annie and I started at the same time.  She got hers done.  I stalled after the central unit--aka the first block!  Anyway, check out this beauty!  She had me quilt it with Knit One, Purl Two, and it is just beautiful.
My friend had a birthday last week. I made her an ultra-tiny mini, a 6" mini, and included a wooden ruler box and a seam presser my husband made, a charm pack, Wonder Clips, and threw in some food goodies as well. It was so much fun to put together a surprise and sneak it onto her porch, though I wish in-person get-togethers were an option. 
I have my closet mostly under control now.  There's a lot of large bins I need to go through, but all the quilting fabrics are sorted by color and/or projects. The kids and I sorted my scraps into baskets by color. Based on what was there, I use shades of blues and whites the most. We also sorted all the batting scraps into totes by our best guess at type (not pictured, but stacked up on the right side of the closet).  I need to make an effort to seam and use them on smaller projects.
Switching gears, we've had several smaller green bean harvests.  We had a sizable one the other night and I thought this picture was quite attractive.  My husband thinks it's weird that I take pictures of food from our garden. I think the veggie pictures are pretty. 
Finally, in the weird category, I happened to look out the window at just the right time to see this crazy chipmunk.  Chipmunks have been wreaking havoc in the flower gardens this year and now this one has discovered the oriole feeder.


Next week I'll be discussing scrap management, so be sure to stop by and see some of the crazy things I've tried.

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

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Chaos in the Workspace

I've been pretty busy this past week, and my sewing room is showing it.  There is stuff piled everywhere.

 I quilted my Dash Along churn dash quilt over the weekend.  I made the top during a quilt along in 2018.  I originally was planning to custom quilt it, but didn't have the time or the plan figured, and I was itching to stitch out this new pantograph I got.  I wanted the scale to be very tiny, so it took eight million years (or so it felt like) to stitch it out.  In reality, the actual stitching time was around nine hours, plus the time to set it up, line up rows, change out bobbins, etc.  It took two days of work to complete the quilting, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  I just need to find the time to make and attach the binding.  The churn dash blocks are 12".
While Dash Along was being stitched, I was planning out my borders for the Frolic quilt.  I use planning in the loosest sense.  It was more of a "let's sew this together and sew this here and see what happens" kind of thing.  I think it's working out well, but I have a few other things to complete before I can get back to it.
The central part of the quilt top, trimmed and stay-stitched.
Joining the HST into flying geese units.
I made the inner border wider than was suggested.
Strips of flying geese border units.
Meanwhile, I am contemplating my color choices on For the Love of Geese.  I had a layout planned and then inadvertently switched some of the pieces while sewing.  I'm debating whether I can live with it or need to redo some.  I think the answer is that I need to redo some.  No one else would probably notice, but I think it would drive me crazy over time.  It's shown on the design wall, along with the lone part of the Bonnie Hunter Unity quilt I sewed.
I am also working on a client's quilt.  The quilting is nearly done, then I will make and attach the binding for her.  Her work takes precedence over mine, so this is what I will be working on for a few days before getting back to my stuff.
Here are a few other views of my sewing room this morning.
So that's where I'm at.  What's new with you?

 PS--My Blogger homepage or dashboard has a new look.  I'm not a fan.  While it is more visually appealing, the functionality and ease of locating things is seriously lacking.  Boo.  Bad choice, Google.

 Linking with For the love of geese and My Quilt Infatuation and Alycia Quilts.
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Lots of Quilting

I quilted two small quilts over the weekend.  I upgraded my quilting software so decided to make another Quilts for Kids to test out the program.  I had several larger pieces of fabric I'd bought especially for this purpose, so I went into the fabric closet to pull out some coordinating fabrics.

 And then realized that I did not purchase enough yardage of either piece.  Giant sigh.  

 On to plan B.  I dug through my stash trying to come up with enough yardage of anything.  Side note:  I don't usually buy yardage of anything except shades of white.  I found a huge piece of yellow fabric that would work for backing plus enough to mix in with the front fabrics.  Kept searching, came up with a yard+ piece of mouse fabric.  I'm pretty sure I've had this piece of fabric for over 20 years!!  But it is still cute.  Came up with gray polka dot that was left over from a quilt backing.  Okay, this can work.  It's a little offbeat, but all good.

 As I assembled the top, I realized that I really didn't care for the piece of fabric I'd pulled for the inner border.  Back to the closet I went, and came up with a coordinating color.  Bonus, it had cats on it!

 I decided to really try out the software upgrade by stitching an orange peel design.  Orange peel is notoriously hard to line up from row to row with the software.  It did pretty well, so I'm pleased.  The only change I would have made is to use white thread instead of the gray, because I don't love the gray on the yellow fabric.
I've accumulated quite a few quilts for the Quilts for Kids charity now.  This is a stack of eight that I've done over the past year.  They are closed through at least May 15 due to COVID, so I can't send them in yet.  These will all need to be washed and dried before sending.  Can you imagine how big and heavy this box will be?
Since the trial quilt went well, I decided to load another quilt.  This one is from the Primrose Cottage Quilts spring box and is 36" x 36".  I have loads of batting remnants, but couldn't find one the right size for this quilt, so I made a "Frankenbatting" for the first time.  It was no big deal and I would do it again for sure. It might even help me tame the giant batting avalanche in the fabric closet. Here's a picture of the batting while I was zig-zagging it together.
I quilted it with the Pretty Posies design and I love how soft and feminine it came out.  While the kit came with binding, I wanted a different fabric, so ordered it and am waiting for it to arrive in order to complete this one.
I'm ready to start quilting my Dash Along churn dash quilt along quilt from a few years ago next.  After a good month of not much sewing or quilting, suddenly I'm ready to quilt all the things.  My sew-jo has returned. Woo hoo!  Do you need a top quilted?  I am ready.  Click on the circular "Quilting by Anne-Marie" logo in the sidebar to head to my quilting services page to order quilting.  Sign up for my once-a-month newsletter while you're there in order to receive special offers/codes.  Your email will not be shared.  :)

 I was on a Zoom call last night with the larger quilt guild I belong to.  One of the ladies shared her finished Frolic top and I love how she did the border.  I had been dragging my feet because I didn't love the original border and felt like it would need another after that.  However, I loved how Marita's looked. I am totally stealing her idea and will probably finish that top next, no extra/additional borders needed after. I already have the quilting design selected for that one.  I'm still working on my For the Love of Geese top too.  We won't talk about the Unity quilt.  ha.

 Things are coming along in the gardens.  Some of the irises are starting to bloom. I ventured out in the rain yesterday to snap these photos.
I have loads of milkweed coming up in the lower front garden, so maybe this year we will get monarchs that can take advantage of them.  

 The allium looks nice this year.  We have hummingbirds now too!
The veggies are mostly doing well, minus the beets.  The onions look limp, but since this is our first year trying to grow them, I'm not sure how they should look.  They are in the hanging boxes in the picture below. My husband has added three strawberry beds outside of our fenced vegetable area.  He build protective frames for them with pipes and netting.  We'll see how that goes too.  You can see two of them in the back of this picture.  The other one is on the other side of the garden.
School ends for my kids tomorrow.  2020 sure has been a strange one so far.  Hope you are all doing well.

Linking with For the love of geese, My Quilt Infatuation, and From Bolt to Beauty.
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