More UFOs finished

UFOs seem to be my September focus, and I can check off 2 more. I had these 2 pillow covers quilted by The Pin Cushion and then I got the envelope backs added. The ribbon bows need to be sewn on yet, but otherwise these are done. The camper pillow is a gift and the Valentine one is for me. The camper pillow will need a custom size pillow form which I’ll get made this week. 

Signature quilt

In late June 2018 my husband's extended family had a BIG reunion and my husband was the organizer/host this time.  His mother was one of 12 children (all passed now), with the oldest 3 born in Sweden and the remaining 9 born in South Dakota after the family immigrated to the US.  Most of their descendants attended.  I had made a ton of Ritzy Cracker blocks to have folks sign as they registered.  This is the result - 95 blocks signed by attendees, plus one empty block to fill out a row. 

There were actually about 150 people at the reunion, but we had couple sign together. And we had families put their children together on a block. There are 3 of them that I'll need to trace over the signature again to make them stronger.  As I laid these out yesterday I found signatures of 3 people who have passed away since that reunion a year ago, which was sad.  We don't know exactly what will become of this quilt. I plan to give it to my husband and let him decide if he wants to keep it himself or donate it as a raffle item for the next reunion. 

And ironically I still have a pile of about 30 blocks that will be added to the newer ones I've been making. Those will eventually become children's quilts for either gifts or donations. 

A bench pillow - ready to quilt

The top of the Valentine bench pillow is done and ready to quilt. It's long and narrow so it will require a special size pillow insert that is 16" by 38". And once it's quilted there are ribbons for big bows above the hearts.

Kimberbell released a design for every month and they are all so cute.  I did find the October kit for this pillow and it's definitely some fun Halloween fabrics. Now I need to find the December one - pattern or kit - not sure which I bought.  

Pumpkin runner

A challenge was made by the leader of our Sew Vintage group to make something using the pumpkin block in the new Farm Girl Vintage 2 book by Lori Holt.  I went home and just had to play with both sizes (12" and 6") of blocks and this was the result.  I was going to just use some fall fabrics but it ended up with a subtle Halloween theme.  Guess I have that holiday on the brain lately.

I bought the orange fabric, but everything else was from my stash, including the batting.  I pulled a couple of black Halloween prints for the border and the centers of the pumpkins.  The matchstick quilting that I did on the map pillow was repeated here, but not quite as successfully.  And on the back I used unbleached muslin, which wrinkled in a couple of places.  But if it's laying on a table no one will see the back.  

More UFOs to finish

On my UFO list was this Kimberbelle bench pillow kit.  I had actually started working on it when I first bought it, but then it became a UFO.  Note: I don't have an actual bench to put this pillow (or the other seasonal kits that go with it) on. But it will look great on the couch. 

The letters and hearts had the fusible already on and the shapes had even been cut out.  The word "Valentine" was even fused onto the center fabric.  So . . . there was a good start.  After some Sunday morning fusing and stitching, there is progress.  The hearts are fused and blanket stitched in red thread. Part of the wording is also blanket stitched and the rest shouldn't take very long. I'm NOT going to change the thread in my machine until ALL of the blanket stitching is done. That way I won't be able to sit down and distract myself with other sewing.  

When I finish this one I need to find the Christmas kit and the Halloween kit for these bench pillows.  The Christmas one might be only a pattern, but I won't know until I find them will I?

Check out more Design Walls on:  https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

TGIF

Thank goodness it's finally Friday!!  My pink hydrangea was one of the bright spots in my week.  You can see a fading bloom on the left, which was the only one that survived wildlife nibbling this summer. But then suddenly we got a nice new bloom popping out - in September - and there are 3 more tiny blossoms trying to grow.  My big white/lime green hydrangeas have never bloomed again in the fall, so this is exciting to see. Maybe it's just a fluke because of the heavy rain and heat we've had in the last 2 weeks. 

Some weeks are just not as productive as a person would want.  I have wasted so much of my week fighting with my computer, which is trying to die a slow death.  All day Tuesday was spent trying to get it to reboot properly and actually allow me to open programs. What a waste of time!!  I finally just went down to my sewing room and put on that binding on the OBW quilt. That was a good stress reliever, but I haven't gotten very far in hand stitching it down. Next week the IT guru will have my new laptop ready for me - hopefully.  And in the meantime, I'm slowly figuring out "work arounds" to some of my work tasks - and NOT getting any more sewing done.  

More binding to do

I was very excited to get a call this morning to say my One Block Wonder was quilted and ready to pick up.  Before noon I had picked it up and by supper time I had the orange binding attached. Now for some hand stitching.

Saturday Sampler blocks

My September blocks for Saturday Sampler are done. These were very fast to make.  And again the light difference just baffles me. The background is the same in both blocks, but the color is more accurate in the second photo. And the crazy thing is I took them about 2 minutes apart in the same location from the same angle.  How is that possible? 

Design Wall Monday - Cutting up a charm pack

Lots of sewing time on Sunday.   I was looking through a small container and found several charm packs that have been languishing for who knows how long.  There were 4 of them in there that I can't remember any specific project they may have been purchased for.  So I pulled this one out to use for Ritzy Cracker blocks because there were 2 of every charm and they are all bright and happy colors and prints. 

I cut the whole charm pack into the needed parts - one is cut in half diagonally and the other is cut in half vertically.  I sewed a few and the others will be Leader and Ender pieces.  I'll keep going through my stash of white backgrounds and pull out pieces big enough to use for these.  Having blocks ready to sew into a quilt is much better than just having the charm pack in a drawer or bin. And these make good "mindless" sewing when I only have a little bit of time. 

Check out Design Wall Monday - https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Farm Girl Vintage 2

The sequel to Farm Girl Vintage has come out, and our Sew Vintage group is going to play with the fun designs.  Our challenge for October was the Pumpkin block. I’ve been playing.

This n That

I had planned to post this picture early this morning to show that my binding is all done on the Christmas quilt.  But - we have had crazy weather the past 2 nights and evidently it had a huge impact on our Internet service in this area.  Access was finally restored this afternoon in my neighborhood although it's still really slow. 

In the past 48 hours we've had about 11 inches of rain. 7.5" fell last night and this whole region is suffering from major flooding.  Main Street literally had a river running down it last night and the nearest river is a couple of miles from town so it was just from the heavy rain.  I'm personally lucky as I had only a little seepage in the basement and right now my sump pump is keeping up - barely. Lots of homes and businesses have feet of water in them.  The interstate is closed west of town due to water over the road and several other area highways have the same.  

The night before we had about 4" of rain and wind - and that storm moved east very rapidly. Three tornadoes hit the city of Sioux Falls from that storm.  My daughters' families were all safe with just a little tree damage thankfully.  

This has been a crazy wet summer already, so we didn't need half a year's worth of rain in 48 hours on top of saturated soil.  But that is what Mother Nature has given us. I just hope we have some dry weather in the forecast. 

US map pillow

I love a finish!! Even when it's a small item, it's so satisfying.  My 22" pillow has a grey print envelope back and a "binding" around the outside edges.  You can zoom in to find your home state. Each state name is unique. 

Update: This panel is called Metropolis and is by Moda.  I bought it at Heart and Hand in Sioux City but was able to find it online by Googling it.  It also comes with a black background.  And there is a Canadian version. 

Other projects close to finish line

This small panel of a US map was one of my purchases on the Iowa bus trip back in June. As soon as I saw it at Hearts and Hands in Sioux City I knew I wanted to make a pillow out of it.  This was another project laying around with just a little progress.  It had been sandwiched with batting and a plain muslin back, but then I wasn't sure how I wanted to quilt it.  But I saw an "art quilt" last week (thanks Brenda) that was quilted with simple straight lines about a half inch apart. I loved how it looked and did just that on my map panel.  I need to find a fun fabric to use to make the envelope back for the pillow.  It will be about 20" square. 

I picked up my Christmas quilt from the long arm quilter on Saturday after guild.  She used a pretty gold thread which works great with the fabrics. I have enough of the green backing to make binding for this one.  Maybe I'll get it bound this week.  

Design Wall Monday- pineapples

Since I've been finishing some things lately I rewarded myself with a new project. It's a small project but is mostly paper pieced so it might be a slow one.

I've had a pineapple block on my "someday" list for a long time, but just never was quite brave enough to attempt it.  A few months ago the Sew Sampler box from Fat Quarter Shop had all the makings for - yes, a pineapple wall hanging.  Pattern, paper piecing paper, 2 charm packs of bright happy colors.  Everything except the background was included and I had plenty of background in my stash. The white strips are leftover from a white-on-white jelly roll and the centers are a solid white.  

Paper piecing is one of those things that I enjoy in small doses.  This wall hanging has 12 blocks so it shouldn't be too tough.  I've never used the pads of pre-printed paper before. I really liked that these had shading where the colors went so it was easy to follow and not get confused.  One block is done with 11 more to go.

Check out what other quilters are working on this Monday - https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Random sewing

I had a couple of hours yesterday morning in my sewing room and decided it was a good day to clean up some "nearly finished" things.

I finished a coral string block to add to my Rainbow Strings.  This was the color I had chosen to make this month for RSC instead of the purple because I already had made 2 purple blocks.  

I finished the quilting on Woven Stars and attached the binding.  Now I just need to do the hand stitching which shouldn't take long since this is a small quilt.

This Patriotic Stars block had been cut and kitted up and was just laying on my cutting table waiting to be sewn.  These sew up so fast.  And when I cut the star block pieces I also cut pieces for 2 Ritzy Cracker blocks. So those are done too and all of these patriotic blocks are in the rolling crate ready to go to the next Quilt of Valor sewing day.  

Next up - do the final stitching on the One Block Wonder top so I can take that one to the quilter.  And I get to pick up my Christmas quilt this weekend so I need to get some binding made for that one. 

Almost ready to quilt

The top of this One Block Wonder (with panel) is finally put together.  I still need to do some blanket stitching around the points of the hexies extending onto the center panel.  It actually turned out pretty much how I pictured it in my mind before making it. 

I have to confess that I had to use my seam ripper to take off the whole right side section because I had messed up the alignment of the hexies and the panel itself.  

The last finishes of August

Over the long (grey, damp) Labor Day weekend I managed to finish several things.  One complete finish was small and the other was big.  I made my purple blocks for the RSC19, and I worked on a frustrating UFO.  Lots of sewing time because once I hobbled down the steps in my boot I just stayed put for a few hours at a time.  

Hen House Stars is quilted and bound. Those missing star points still bother me and my need for symmetry.  But I quilted it with simple one-way diagonal lines and it may be growing on me.  This is a Kim Diehl Simple Whatnots (session 8) project and is about 16" x 24".

The binding is finally done on the Halloween version of Saturday Sampler.  I am kind of slow at binding, but it does give me some satisfaction.  

A Halloween One Block Wonder using a panel was the next thing I worked on over the weekend.  I'm not sure why I made 2 Halloween quilts in the last year, but they are very different from each other. The OBW quilt required some seam ripping before I made some progress. More on that project later this week. 

I got a call yesterday from a long arm quilter who was quilting one of my other UFOs - a Christmas quilt.  It's ready to pick up so I will have another big quilt to bind and to check off my list.    

Design Wall Monday - RSC19 purple

My purple blocks are done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for the month of September.  The little flower blocks are 6" Lori Holt blocks from her Spelling Bee book. The 12" cat block is also Lori Holt and is from Farm Girl Vintage.  The Ohio Star is in between these in terms of size and just an old traditional block pattern.  

Next thing going on the design wall is my UFO One Block Wonder quilt.  I need to get this top finished. It has been taking up space on top of some project boxes and it's time to get back to it.  

Check out Design Wall Monday at:  https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

September goals

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color was posted a couple of days early and is purple for September - and I've sewed my purple cat block already this weekend. Chilly damp Saturday afternoons make for good sewing time.  Purple flowers and Ohio Star blocks should be an easy goal to reach since I have the purple scraps pulled out and ready to play with.  I already have a couple of purple string blocks so I may just pick some other color for the string block.

And luckily for me, the September UFO Challenge number is 12, which includes my Woven Stars mini quilt. Once I get the binding done later today I can check that off my UFO list. So, I believe I need to set some additional goals for September - maybe another UFO needs some attention.  Oh - and I need to finish the binding on the Halloween quilt.