Saturday Sampler - A New Age

 

OK - the photo isn't very good due to a grey snowy day, but it's still proof that I have persevered in finishing this quilt top.  It's called A New Age, from Nancy Rink Designs. The instructions were excellent, but I had some issues with getting those pieced borders on correctly. Purely my own errors and I can blame it on not double checking which border I was using or paying attention to matching the colors in the corners.

 

The fabrics were unique and called new age muslins (Marcus Fabrics), which were an over-dyed muslin. So crisp and nice to sew.

 

The finished size on this flimsy is 82" x 98", and I still toying with the idea of adding one more border to make it slightly bigger.  We'll see if I can find something appropriate for that final border. In my imagination I'm seeing a paisley with these colors.

 

Some quilts give you a bigger feeling of accomplishment than others. This is one of those. And so I think this one needs some custom quilting done to show off the design.  

I can't believe it

 

Can you see my latest mistake? 

 

I can't believe that I keep making mistakes in getting these pieced borders onto my Saturday Sampler.  This was the 4th and final side - and I sewed it on upside down!!!  Why did I not see this when I pinned the border on?  Luckily I could just take off the 2 corner sections and switch them around.  So it went with me in the car yesterday as we did a short road trip. Note to self - don't wear navy blue corduroy pants while holding a quilt in my lap and ripping out a seam. Fuzz covered my lap.

 

I'm beginning to have big doubts now that I'll be able to still put on the final 2 solid borders onto this top before the Saturday Sampler session on Saturday morning.  Oh well . . .

Starting a new project

 

Our guild had a class on Saturday for a project called the Bread and Butter table runner but I didn't stay for the whole class because of the basketball tournament. However, I had done all of the homework of cutting the pieces for the runner and I finally got the chance to work on it a little bit this morning.  I'll post more info later in the week about the pattern and a new ruler we learned to use.

 

It was fun on Saturday morning to walk around and see what beautiful colors everyone had selected so now I'm looking forward to our April guild meeting to see how they all turned out.

It's that time of year

I always kind of hate seeing the end of high school and college basketball because I do love watching these games. We have season tickets to South Dakota State Jackrabbits basketball and when we're not there we also love following the Dakota Wesleyan University teams, plus some local high school games. 

Well - it's tournament time! March Madness!  We're currently at day 3 of the Summit League tourney watching our Jackrabbit men's and women's teams play. Both team have made the semi-finals today. Not only do we get to see some good basketball but we run into friends and family at the arena between games. 

Hoping to get a little sewing time on Tuesday finally - before going to the finals games. And of course we're hoping our Jacks are playing in those championship games!!

Making friends with my seam ripper

I was being so careful. I measured my quilt top across the middle and both ends to make sure the pieced borders would fit. And then I sewed a top/bottom border to the side of this quilt.  I pinned every 4-5 inches because I couldn't figure out why it needed so much "easing" after all of the measuring I did.  Well, now I know why.  

So I'm making friends with the seam ripper.  It will take me a while to remove 68" of border.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get these 4 pieced borders on . . . The right way.  

UFO Challenge update

The March number drawn for the American Patchwork & Quilting UFO Challenge is #12. That is ironic, considering those 2 baby quilts are at the long arm quilter as we speak. So when I get them back they will need binding to be finished.

	UFO/WIP Project	Status Before	Status After
1	Valentine Bench Pillow	Needs blanket stitching around applique, then sandwich, quilt, and add envelope backing
2	4 Seasons Cats	Finish hand quilting, bind
3	ABC kid quilt	Machine quilt, bind
4	House Warming Party	Finish blocks
5	Circa 2016	Finish making blocks
6	Easter Sunrise runners (2)	Applique, quilt, bind	DONE in January!
7	Batik Stars Saturday Sampler	Finish blocks
8	2016 2015 Saturday Sampler	Finish blocks, need to cut out setting pieces Quilt and bind	DONE in February!
9	Reindeer 60-degree runner	Quilt and bind
10	2015 Friendship Exchange	Blocks are made, need to determine a layout
11	Beach cross-stitch piece	About half stitched only
12	RSC16 Crown of Thorns	12+ blocks finished, need to determine layout

The funny thing is that February's number was 8 and I posted about my 2016 Saturday Sampler and how I needed to make the final block and cut out the setting pieces. Then the very next day I posted about my 2015 Saturday Sampler as if that was my #8.  And I did finish that 2015 Saturday Samper in February, so I guess one finish is as good as another.  And my 2016 Saturday Sampler quilt top is seeing wonderful progress so I'll just keep working on it until my baby quilts come back from the quilter. 

Time flies and new goals

I really wish I could slow down time just a little bit.  But here it is March and some new goals need to be made because I have so many things I want to accomplish.

The Sew Vintage group had a Valentine's exchange, and I got this darling mug rug and a new coffee cup. This cup has been on my desk pretty much every day since.  I made a little hand quilted heart mini quilt, and Sandy received it in the exchange.  We've been working our way through the Farm Girl Vintage book, and will soon have all of the blocks finished. Two of my March goals involves that book.

So - my March goals, but not necessarily in this order . . .

• finish the top to the 2016 Saturday Sampler
• use my 6" Farm Girl Vintage blocks for a quilt top
• make a wall hanging using the pear and/or cherry blocks from Farm Girl Vintage
• complete the UFO selected for March (All People Quilt)
• bind 2 baby quilts (Crown of Thorns blocks) 
• finish the Bread and Butter table runner (guild class on March 4)

I hadn't posted my stash report in January, so it's time for an update.  Ironically I haven't purchased any "frivolous" fabrics for stash building so far this year, but I did purchase some backing, and some generic background fabric.  Guess it adds up quickly.  And I haven't had many finishes yet. Plus only one of those finishes was a full sized quilt.  And the tops had already been counted, so my "out" numbers don't look too impressive. 

In this year to date:  22 yards

Out this year to date:  8.5

My stash is WAY AHEAD as usual!!!  Time to get busy!