pq 13.6 and not much more

The last Project Quilting challenge for this year was announced just over a week ago - Flying Geese.  Ugh.  I had been making some in the Rise Above quilt (that is still ongoing, but got set on the back burner a lot for this latest challenge), but they are still not my favorite.

So I went to Pinterest and searched within my pins for flying geese.  I had no idea what would turn up, since I just save things and don't rename them.  I was at the mercy of what others had left there.  Surprisingly, I got a lot of hits.  And that maybe made it worse?

I kept going back to this one quilt - Star'd - and I couldn't get it out of my head.  So I went looking for further info.  It's not too large.  And if I really look at it, not really that difficult.  Except for the geese.  And those aren't THAT bad.

So what's a gal to do but just dig in!

This was Monday, so I had plenty of time, but was worried about the behavior of my longarm.  This is too big to do on my little machine, so if the big one throws a tantrum, I'm in big trouble!  (What's a little more stress added to a one-week deadline, right?!)

The geese sewing went...well...about as fast and well as I anticipated...

I was on such a tear, I failed to take any after photos, but I did take time out to add some googly eyes to the small pile of trimmings from the geese! (Priorities.)

He's not a very colorful little guy, but he sure looks friendly.

And then on to the other parts and a layout.  I was sewing between shifts at work, making meals and chores, and, of course, sleep and kitty snuggles.

A little tricky to make sure everyone was where they should be, but even if it's a little wrong, who is gonna know?  Just the colored parts need to be aligned correctly.  But I THINK I got it all correct!

Add in some background pieces...

...and it is looking pretty good!

I wasn't sure about the grey background.  The original used something close to this, but I kinda had in mind something darker.  Time was of the essence, so you use what you can find.  And it seems like it was doing just fine here.  Yay!

Somewhere along in here, I managed to pull a groin muscle.  I have no design wall and the dancing around what was already there and up and down to get everything where it needed to be was tricky.  I guess next time I use the design floor in this manner, I'll have to stretch first!

But, by Wednesday afternoon, I had a top!

It looks wonky here, but trust me, it's flat.  I just didn't have it in me to straighten it out better.  (And let me tell you, the next day at work was rough...every time I stopped moving, the muscle froze up, so I looked like an old lady gimping around!  The boys - my coworkers - had fun teasing me, though.)

I also pieced the back and made the binding before calling it a day.

That left me a few days to get the longarm behaving.  I worked a short shift on Thursday, so decided to come home and dig in.  My plan was to do something simple (though this could definitely benefit from some amazing echoing, ghost geese, and straight-line quilting) that would not only go fast, but wouldn't strain the machine too much.

The machine behaved well - only one thread break the whole time - and I was done in just a few hours.  (Some of that time was spent prepping the machine, too, so hooray!)  I headed right up to sew the binding on and prep it for hand-sewing the following day.

But that had to wait just a bit - my guild had a quilt show this weekend and I had volunteered to hang quilts.  There are few of us young and agile enough to do the ladder portion, so I took my pulled groin and the rest of me down to the local library and spent the better portion of the morning climbing and moving said ladders.  (It was probably better for me than sitting around - keep those muscles moving!)

We were done by lunchtime, so after a quick meal, I dug into binding.  Before dinner, I had the whole quilt finished!  Hooray for me!  Days to spare!

Quilt stats:

Name: Star'd

Designed by: Kristy Daum

Size: 50"x60"

pieced and quilted by me

What's on the back?

(Just a quick shot of it hanging over the longarm pole, but you can see the quilting here, too.  I think I love the back more than the front!)

I will probably donate this.  The Hands2Help quilt drive is starting now and this looks to be a good size for one of the groups looking for quilts. (I have a few others I'd like to finish for them as well, so I guess I'd better put on my big girl panties and see if the longarm is going to continue to behave for me.)

I've gone back to cat hammocks and the Rise Above quilt, but haven't gotten far.  This past weekend, in addition to the quilt show, there was a used book sale (again!) at the library at home, so Saturday was spent with family.  We had a good time and I got a bunch more books, but all this family stuff sure cuts into quilting time.  Sunday I was home more, but quilt show tear-down also happened.  There are always many people showing up at the end, wanting to claim their quilts, so that goes quickly.  (I wish more would volunteer for the setup, but we did realize that a smaller crew was better able to communicate and things did go fairly quickly.)

Today I feel like I've run the gauntlet of chores and errands, but am finally sitting down to chill a little.  Once I finish here, I'll eat some lunch (leftovers from the family get-together on Saturday - yummy!) and then plan to sew.  I'm hoping to get the remaining Rise Above blocks done (almost there) and then we'll see where the wind blows me.  I need to vacuum my design floor - the cats are shedding like nobody's business - so layout is not likely today.  I only have three other quilts in progress, though, and a pile of fabrics still remains for hammocks, so it's not like I don't have something to sew!

Happy quilting!

Katie

PS Here is Finn definitely not helping me make a hammocks.