Done!

Had to buy the Base

I could not use the doll on any spool pin on my sewing machine. So I broke down & bought a base. It works SWELL ! (If you ever watched "Lady & The Tramp" (Disney movie) You'll giggle at that "swell" !!


M

Bindings!

I spent ALL DAY Sunday sewing down the binding on the Wild & Goosey Quilt. I watched movies on Netflix. It was binding or housework. You see who won???

Next up is the binding on my Everlasting Wreath Quilt. 368 inches.

Normally I machine sew the binding to the back & flip it to the front & hand sew it down. But because I had these custom quilted, I'm doing it the opposite (normal I guess???) way. I decided to use up the left over scraps from the backings & make the bindings the same as the backing. They are both scrap quilts, so it' certainly does NOT look odd.

This little jobbie is a "Binding Baby". It works well enough. Probably better on smaller quilts that require less binding. All it has to do is keep the binding from twisting and it does that fabulously.

M

Wild And Goosey Quilt

1 year in the making

Pattern by Quiltville - Bonnie Hunter. (Layout is a Pinterest hack)

In this post, and the last, I was trying to get pictures of the quilting. I hope you can see it all.

Everlasting Wreath Quilt

6 years in the making

Laundry Basket Quilts Pattern

Quilting

My next posts will be brag posts.

During my lunch today I went & picked up 2 quilts that I left with the long arm quilter early last month. let me tell you: she did an ABSOLUTELY STUNNING JOB !!

I can't wait to get the binding on these beauties!

One is the Everlasting Wreath Quilt (I'll NEVER make that one again!) and the 2nd is the Wild & Goosey Quilt. Both will have black as a binding. the Wild & Goosey has solid black cornerstones & the Everlasting Wreath has black triangles in the center of each block. Both quilts have dark (& busy) backs, so black will be a perfect ending to them.

M

Checking In / NO SEWING

I have been volunteered to work vacation relief. If they had let the girl that resigned work out her 2 weeks, I wouldn't be doing it. But, I am. This is week #3. 11AM to 7:30PM. It truly sucks. Can't get anything started in the morning & too late getting home to start at night. Tired all the time. But maybe that's my attitude. Big crybaby. No sewing going on & everything I do with Prince Charming has to be done on the weekends. I had already scheduled 8/16 off & we went camping with the kids. It was fun. But ended up EXPENSIVE. The park we stayed in had something wrong with the hookup & fried our 12 volt system. New battery. New microwave. New inverter.

Light

I took these pictures at night, so they seem an odd light, but really, they make a huge difference. Especially with frog-stitching, or choosing color! I think they were like $22 for 4. At Lowe's. Get you some.

Progress

I added 2 more rows & it turned out TOO BIG !!!

Finishing Up Another Project

I started this project 2 years ago, so getting it back out & getting it done in THAT time period is pretty good for me! Paper Pieced flying geese Pineapple variation at it's best. This is from Laundry Basket Quilts - pattern is On Eagles Wings. I think I have used these blocks for 3 (maybe 4) different projects. For this project I am setting the blocks on-point & no borders. 3rd finish in a row with no borders. Also 3rd quilt in a row with black in it. Lots of black in this one.

First picture is where I stopped in 2017

This past weekend I added 3 more rows.

I am 3 rows away from being at the half way point! The next 2 rows are already sewn into rows & will bring me to the other corner of the quilt. I just have to sew the rows to each other & then to the big finished piece. It's coming along nicely - Prince Charming said it looks like pastels. Um....Ok. I guess so. They are all neutral fat quarters. All presumably light colored Civil War Reproduction "shirting" prints - but all too dark to be used against a medium. I was going to gift them away - but honestly? I had so many of them! So I started THIS project!

Good news though: I only have 96 more blocks to make to be completed! YAY ME!

Talk To Y'all Later!
M

PS - I'm calling this quilt Ravens Wing. Black flying geese units & all....you know....

My Go-To Easy Quilt

 

 

I put this together in under 4 hours last night! But...I ALREADY had the chain blocks done & everything else cut into strips. It measures 59x71 and it's for a brand new baby. Good thing they don't stay little! If I had made it smaller I would not have been able to use the fabric for anything else...since I already had it cut.

Wish me luck, I'm going to try & quilt this on my regular sewing machine. I need to have it done by this time next week & there are no long arm quilters with nothing to do! Imagine that! I'm just going to do straight line quilting on the diagonal through the yellow chain & alternate blocks. Also going to use a flannel sheet for the backing.

Talk to y'all later!
M

Never Ending Wreath Quilt

Well I did it. I FINALLY finished the Everlasting Wreath Quilt. I told my friend Donna that I started it FIVE years ago. Um....that's not correct. I looked back on my blog & I'm afraid it was SIX years ago that I started it. Dang. That's cruddy. I finished a lot in between that though...

The first picture is the pattern from a Google search, it’s 4 or 5 rings wide. Mine is 7 complete rings across.  2nd picture is my schematic. You might be able to see my modifications. I spent 4 hours last night picking paper off  (only lack getting 1 side done!) & one of my fingers is so sore. Thank goodness for spellcheck...I'm barely hitting any keys with this finger. Why so sore? Hmmm. It's because, in my infinite wisdom, I used blue painter's tape on the edges of the paper. It worked great. The paper was getting so fragile - disintegrating as I was sewing the blocks into rows. If you have ever made one of these, the blocks are hexagons. No straight row sewing. Every single seam is set in, like a "Y" seam. You don't sew off the edge, you stop at a 1/4 inch, pivot, rearrange & sew again. It was tedious.

My quilt measures 87 by about 97. Maybe a little longer. I measured it while it was on my bed. I'll need to measure it when it's flat. I already have backing ready too! Just have to buy batting. I had originally thought I would put a solid black narrow border around it to give it some width & length. It doesn't need it. It's plenty big enough. Any larger & it will look like  a king sized quilt on our bed. Though, I'm sure...., this quilt will spend more time on a wall or the guest bed. So I can look at it more!

There are 3 reasons why it took me so long to finish this quilt. Well ...Not including boredom, or distractions!
#1 yes, it's paper pieced - However, the blocks are hexagons
#2 I had to "improve" the pattern by modifying the blocks to make the wreaths "complete". the pattern just has them running off the side edges. I couldn't do that
#3 Similar to #2 I modified the blocks on the side edges & made 1/2 blocks for the top & bottom.

It took me 13 hours of sewing non-stop to put just 27 "wedge" side blocks on & 6 "half" blocks on. But it's DONE! yay!

Expect pictures soon.

See Ya!
M

PS- Up next? I'm finishing Raven's Wing. A variation of Laundry Basket's quilt "On Eagles Wings". All the triangles in Raven's Wing are black. I am slightly less than half way done.

Wild & Goosey Resurrected

I'm not sure where my sewing Mo-Jo went, not really sure I found it. I don't even have a REASON why I am not sewing. Yes, I have been knitting & crocheting - but that has been only during my lunch times & late at night when watching TV. Not when I would usually sew. And sleeping. I am tired ALL THE TIME. Even went to the doctor to see what may be wrong. Can't find a thing. I just have the BLAHS I guess.

Anyway - I started this quilt last year, maybe the year before, I'm not counting them anymore. I got half way done & just got preoccupied on other things. I have been working on it this week because #1 I had all day Tuesday off & my friend came over just before lunch & we sewed until 9PM #2 She just finished a Wild & Goosey Quilt & made WAY TOO MANY blocks, so she gifted them to me. Several sub-units more than I need to complete the remaining 36 blocks #3 It was time to get some of my UFO's done so I can start another quilt!

I was originally going to put an inner border of little flying geese on my Wild & Goosey but have changed my mind. I believe I will just make it the muslin from the body of the quilt to the edge. I am planning on having the talented Bridgette Long of Gr8t Quilting custom quilt it for me & I want FEATHERS, FEATHERS & MORE FEATHERS in it! That's really why I set it on point & used so much muslin. It's actually Kona Cotton "Natural".

I have loads & LOADS of scraps cut for Wild & Goosey blocks & I'll do another one. Considering using black instead of any other color (see last photo)

As Always - Talk At Y'all Later!
M

My Hair

I have had long hair all my life. Well I cut it off. It's been, conservatively speaking, 50 YEARS since my hair was this short!

You may NOT believe this, but I have never colored my hair! LOL

Bad Blogger

Missing In Action! That would be an appropriate statement. I have not done a lot of sewing lately. It seems like I have lost my sewing Mo-Jo. I don’t know. I’m easy distracted, I guess. Last week I even CLOSED the door on my sewing room. But it made the hallway too dark for me to feel comfortable, so I opened it back up. I have a lot going on at my day time job. You know…If you can’t say anything nice, say nothing at all….It’s stressful not knowing where your “job” is going to take you or where the powers that be are going to stick you. So I’ll say nothing more on that subject. I have resurrected an old project. Bought fabric for a new project and got frustrated on a different project. So…one at a time. The resurrected project: Ocean Waves. I started an Ocean Waves quilt in (let’s be conservative here) in 2005, maybe 2006. I used a Bonnie Hunter free pattern. My intention was to make 2. One with blue field & 1 with red. I finished 1 – the blue , cost me my right arm to have it quilted by 3 Sisters Quilting. I love it. It’s so beautiful. The red fabric was been gracefully aging in my stash. Took me 4 days to find where I put it away too! So I dug out the HST’s & started working on them. Washed the red fabric TWICE to make sure it won’t bleed. (normally I do not prewash fabric, but I don’t want pink HST’s !) This time I’m using a Edyta Sitar pattern – well actually I’m just using a PHOTO of her Ocean Waves quilt from her Instagram page. I only need about 3000 HST’s. Each HST finishes at 1.5”. Glutton. That’s it. I’m a glutton for punishment. Bought fabric for a new quilt. I bought 25 fat quarters in Kona Cotton solids to make a Bjorn Bear Quilt. Pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. I think I have had the pattern a year? Maybe longer. Not sure. I have several of her patterns, I like bears best. MAYBE I’ll get it cut out. All I have to do is find a good background color. I was thinking of using a gray, but several of the Kona fat quarters are gray. So…I don’t know now. Maybe a tan? Not muslin. But a Kona tan color? I’ll make a test block & see. Lastly my frustrated project. I bought an embroidery pattern to make a quilt on my embroidery machine. Well….my machine is not cooperating! Not one bit. I’ve made every adjustment I can think of & it won’t play nice. Changed thread, cleaned best I could. It embroiders great on the top, terrible on the bottom. The pattern is from Hoop Sisters & it’s the Jacobean Journey faux whole cloth quilt. Beautiful. I want it! But I can’t have it with a non-cooperating machine! Heavy Sigh….Oh Well.

easy 9 Patch Chain Quilt

Bug print fabric from Hobby Lobby. I used the flange method for the binding. it looks really cute!

M

First Quilt Finish For 2019

 

First finish of 2019! Well for a QUILT anyway! It's spread out on a queen sized bed, so it's not really big enough for a queen. Not "queen" like I like them. I like them to cover the top mattress past where the box spring meets up. It's got plenty of length, not wide enough. My intention wasn't for a queen sized bed quilt anyway - It was to make for our RV trailer. The bed in the RV trailer is a standard sized double. this will be really nice. I backed it with flannel. Well, really a flannel SHEET. I bought a king size L.L. Bean flannel sheet at the Goodwill for $2.50 - that was 50% off. Wide width flannel is way too expensive for me to buy - the sheets work great. I have a stash of them now.

No pattern. I saw a similar quilt on Pinterest & just graphed the block out. the blocks are on-point. It's more contemporary than I care for, but for the RV trailer it will be perfect.

M

Shopping Bags

Ok, so 6 years ago I bought a pattern. I fiddled with it because – being the sewer that I am – I didn’t  like her design. I felt that the bag was too small & didn’t really hold what a regular plastic bag did. No sense using something SMALLER – when I had bricitis in my shoulder 6 years ago, I used some smaller store bought bags – the cashiers complained. A LOT. So I modified the pattern & I have made many , many bags with it. I use like 7 or 8. I made my daughter 6, my sister-in-law 6 & a good friend overseas 6. Everybody likes them, nobody complains. But the bags are lined. They are super sturdy being lined, but I also use denim or duck cloth – so that’s where the sturdy comes in. Since they are lined they don’t dry very well. Nor do they lie flat when folded. Not a problem for me. I like using the reusable bags that I have made because they are easy on my hands & they NEVER break! I am continually asked if I make them to sell????? Being lined they take A LOT of fabric and a LOT of time. Neither of which makes for very much profit. So….I fiddled with my pattern – mine since there are so many modifications from the original that it’s not recognizable anymore! – and came up with an unlined version. Same size. Same handles. The bottom is folded & secured just like a store plastic bag. Still in denim or duck cloth – this pink is duck cloth I had left over from making my daughter’s bags. This came out better than I expected! Will I sell them? I don’t know. But they’re way easier to sew now! I have 17 cut out on my sewing room table!

 

M

Same size as a Publix plastic shopping bag.

 

the little loop on the top is for them to hang on their hook when loading the groceries