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.

pq 13.5 and a new project

Last week, challenge five for Project Quilting was announced to be "Rhythm and Repetition."  And I kinda drew a blank.  (Of course, after I'm done, I'm thinking of a dozen good ideas - partly due to seeing other finished projects and also, probably, because I'm no longer under the gun to think of something!)

It all started with looking at a quilt book on my shelf.  I had an idea, but quickly decided that wasn't going to work for me.  I had limited time (my own fault) and wasn't that into the idea once I really evaluated it.

But right next to that book was the book "Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix & Match" and I decided to flip through it.  I bought it because it intrigued me and had grand plans of using it someday.

Well!

First, fabrics...to the stash!

I debated about doing just black and white, but decided that would be boring.  (As I look at the finished project, though, I kinda wish I had...)

I also did a little research.  The challenge stated at least three repeats, but I had an idea to do four.  Make it square.  But the Google tells me that in Japanese culture four is not a very lucky number.  And three is.  That made it super easy!

Cut a LOT of tiny pieces and sew, sew sew,  Press carefully because skinny pieces can easily warp, but I think I did okay.

They went a lot faster than I anticipated, but would have gone even faster if my machine hadn't decided to stuff edges into the feed dogs about every third start.  (I have no idea what its tantrum was about - I had JUST cleaned out all the fuzzies before I started.  Oh well, count it as added fun?)

Obviously, these needed a border to set the characters off so you knew where one started another ended.

I opted for a vertical setting.  It just seemed right.

And in the bins of goodies that came to me from the cat rescue group were threads that matched each fabric exactly!  (And I didn't feel bad about using them, as I've sewn through a few spools of my own thread making hammocks over the last few months...also, the gal who gave me the stash of goodies (including fabric) told me it was okay if some of it was used for personal stuff.  I get that not ALL of it, or even a larger portion, should be used for personal stuff, but a little thread?  Eh, should be just fine.)

And just like that - finished!

It looks pretty stark here, sitting on the white table behind my longarm, but I was struggling where to put it that it looked nice.

What's on the back?

Pretty perfect as far as colors go, and also from the stash!

To make sure I remember which side is up, I added corner triangles at the top for future hanging.

The finished project measures about 8x23".

Oh, and the characters?  They mean good luck!  (So good luck characters in a group of three should be lots of luck, right?)

Finn supervised...

Thanks to turning in some cat hammocks, a spot on the shelf opened up - sort of (I still have more fabrics to sew for the kitties, but I'm working on it!) - and Finn found it.  I moved the other little quilts after he got up because they don't need any extra furs, but the hammock fabrics...well, they'll get furrier with use, so I'm less worried about those.  (I do clean them up, but these hammocks are truly the first project I've done without significant worry about the amount of furs on the fabrics!)

So the new project?

When you come home from retreat with three projects in various states of not being done, what could make more sense than to start a new project?

Every day I get to sew, I have set a goal for myself to sew one cat hammock fabric - however many hammocks that makes - and then I can work on this quilt.  Though I have other projects half-done, I'm really excited about this one and want to strike while the iron is hot.

So far, I've gotten a good start, though the harder blocks are yet to come...

And today, when I'm done blogging and eating lunch and making the self-assigned cat hammocks, I will work further on these:

(I did not intentionally set those up to match my (getting worn and dirty) ironing board cover!)

This quilt is intended for another high school friend.  I have had her in the back of my mind as needing a quilt for a while, but wasn't sure what to make.  She posts little on social media and we aren't really close any more, so it's been hard.  I saw this quilt and immediately thought of her and off I went.  (Quick, before I talk myself out of it!)

I'm making a smaller version than the original - it was fairly huge, so smaller blocks are in order.  You know I can't just do things the original way, right?

Happy quilting!

Katie

pq 13.4 and more

Once again, I've been sewing and not blogging.

I've sewn a lot of things.

But we'll start with Project Quilting again, since my title indicates as much.

The prompt for challenge four was "Mining for Diamonds."  I was really hesitant to use a diamond design because that was just too obvious.  And I was struggling with a diamond shape because of all the bias edges.  Really, though, I was struggling with making ANYthing.  I just wasn't motivated and I had given up the first few days of the week to work and other things, so it couldn't be too large of a project.

And then, while cruising through Pinterest in a rather desperate, unmotivated mood, I came across Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  Those guys were miners, right?  I mean, we've seen them whistling and heading to work with their pick axes and lanterns and stuff, so maybe they're looking for diamonds?

A little more searching (mostly for a good representation of their clothing colors, if we're being honest), I came across a fairly stylized graphic that finally got the ball rolling.  I could do a very stylized design that would represent them - in a pincushion form.  Not only would it be small and take not too much time, but...oh man...paper piecing again?  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?  Seriously.

Yeah, I just drafted that myself.  No biggie.

But do you see that ruler there?  And notice the cutting mat?  I truly HAVE LOST MY MIND!

Really, it wasn't too awful.  The tiniest pieces gave me the biggest fits, but I got it done.  It only took a few hours of piecing and I wasn't too worried about perfection.  (And if you are, you're at the wrong blog!)

I used some deeper shades of fabric than normal, but every photo I saw did not have them in rainbow bright colors...it's okay...I have a stash of "ugly" colors, too.

(Okay, okay.  They're not ugly, they're just not what I would make as my first choice when buying fabrics.  You can like them all you want.  I'm going to call them dwarf colors for today.)

I quilted them just a little bit -  mostly to make sure this qualified for the PQ rules.

Turned and stuffed and sewn shut and there you have it!

If you click on the link above, you'll go to the site with all the entries for this challenge.  You'll see a lot of actual diamonds and a lot of diamond piece shapes.  But there are a few of us who got creative!

On to the other things!

I finished up the tiny machines and took them to a sew-in for my guild last Monday.  They were well-received, and the two oranges were snatched up right away - the two orange girls were there that day!

In all, I think I've made 24, which I hope will be enough, but I can make a few more if needed.  (Please, don't be needed!)

Then, while I was waiting for PQ inspiration to strike, I decided to make a Sew Together Bag.  Thanks to the magic of the interwebs, I found a sew-along that did a really fantastic job of explaining how to make it.  (For any of you who have seen the printed pattern...well...)

The fabric selection was actually guided by my hasty zipper purchase a few weeks back.  I just grabbed a few fun colors (the stock was fairly depleted to start with) and figured I have a sufficient stash to make this work.

As with face masks and cat hammocks, I tried to choose a darker color for the outside - the far left fabric - so that any dirt it encounters is camouflaged nicely.  Though I couldn't have asked for a better accidental zipper combo because holy cow does it match so well.  (And the stripes at the bottom also...wow!)

Day one of sewing was a fairly long stretch, but this is where I had things when I went to bed.  There may have been some swearing involved (mostly at the multitude of pins I needed and then stabbed myself with when trying to add more...), but I was pretty excited to have something that looked so promising already.

The hardest part was probably getting those little zipper end tabs attached to the bottom of the bag.

Please don't look close.  Again, this blog is not about perfection.

I'm excited this is done since I'm leaving later this week for a quilt retreat - the real motivation for starting this when I did.  This will help keep a lot of my non-fabric stuff nicely organized.

It went fairly well, too, so maybe these will be on the list to make for Christmas?  They do take a fair amount of work, what with interfacing and zippers and such, but it is a nice bag...

Once this was done, I had to figure out a third project for the upcoming retreat.  I've shared with you the fabrics and some cutting for the first two, but I know better than to put too many eggs in one basket.  You just never know what is going to go wrong (or right - sew like the wind!) and you'll need a backup project to be safest.

I decided to try to work with some of the precut bundles my mom keeps giving me for holidays.  She does not always choose what I would choose, but she also shops the sale/clearance racks, so...

This fat quarter bundle has won:

This is called Calico Crow and has some real doozies in there.

This one has won the ugliest fabric of all time award.  Though it is a nice quality, the print reminds me of the flat folds they used to have on a table at Wal-Mart for like $1.00 per yard that the registration was off and were basically printed on cheesecloth.  Maybe you like it.  Good for you.  I do not.  It is in multiple colors in the bundle, but this is probably the worst.

And a runner up is this print.  It reminds me of the 80's when you could get similar prints in polished cotton in lovely mauve and country blue.  Before designers realized that we quilters like more than pin dots and puppy paws.  (To be fair, I think those are crow footprints, but still.)  This one also is in a variety of colors, though this reddish burgundy wins the prize for worst among second place.

There is one cute one.

And since I needed all but one of the fat quarters, this one has been set aside for me.  But before you get all cocky, this one also came in multiple colors, making it stand out as terrible again.  (This is actually a pale grey background, though maybe not reading as such here.)

There were also two focus prints - this is one that isn't bad:

In multiple colorways.

Also there was a multiple colorway print that had recipes and recipe cards all over, highlighting pumpkin recipes, which I suppose explains the color scheme.

So this will make a nice charity quilt.  I can use the fabric (make mom happy) and donate the finished product (make someone else happy) all while making a quilt (make me happy).  I suppose I'm winning too much here, so something has to go wrong.

What shall I make now that I have decided on fabrics?

Another interwebs search led me to this Instagram post which led me to a quilt along where I was able to find the pattern, "Seeing Stars."

But it says I need 5 yards of background fabric.  FIVE?

To the local quilt shop and her sale room!  That had nothing that would work.  Okay, okay, to the not-sale room.  I found a nice brown with little (not pin) dots in an orangey tan color.  I'll get a photo eventually.

Wanna know where stuff went wrong?  When I cut wrong and had to buy another yard (which, to be fair, will be enough for the mistake AND binding).  UGH.

But it is cut and ready to go to retreat.

Whew!

Once ALL of that was done, I am allowed to sew hammocks for the kitties again.  I got ten done yesterday and six the day before.  I hope to get a few more done yet today, but we'll see how the day goes.  I have a few other obligations, but tomorrow my volunteer will be meeting me at work to pick up whatever I have done for hammocks as well as a bunch of cage mats I made using ironing board innards (thick batting) a while back.

No photos there.  Sorry.

Not many kitty photos again this week, but Toby did snuggle me a little while I was sitting next to his poof (that he loves having on the chair in my sewing room...)

He may still be a bitey little turd, but I love him so much.  (I love all of them.)

Happy quilting,

Katie

pq 13.3 and more

I've been doing a lot of things (sewing among them) lately, but just don't seem to want to sacrifice the time to blog about it.  Today I'm going to make that effort and catch you all up.

First up, as promised in the title, is my most recent Project Quilting project.  Our project was to be "kitchen inspired" and I struggled a little, but of course, asked the interwebs for some advice.  In desperation, I went to my board of quilt inspiration on Pinterest.  I didn't really think I'd find anything, but then I did...

Oh lordy, look what I've done.  Paper piecing again?

What will it be?

Peeps!

More peeps!

Rooting through my leftover bindings, looking for something appropriate...

And a finished little quilt.  It's about 6x11".

And the back.  A very aged piece of Easter fabric.  It was the back of a baby quilt ages ago and this is left over.  Back from before I prewashed everything, so it's a bit on the stiff side.

The next, and much bigger, in number at least, project is nametags.  I may have mentioned my guild having a rather vague discussion about nametags for our upcoming show at a recent meeting.  Maybe not.

But I decided I would make nametags for all the members.

Or at least hopefully.

I had seen a cute tiny sewing machine on Pinterest a long time ago and decided it was just time.  I had some issues figuring out where to find the pattern (turns out it's not as obvious of a pattern as I expected), so I went after a different one.

Nopety nope nope nope.

Back to the drawing board.  Or rather, realize that there is a pattern out there, just not what I expected.  The original is here, but the link goes basically nowhere, so the above link actually gets you the pattern.

Let's try that again.

Ah, much better!

But good lord, it's paper piecing again.

What.

Is.

Wrong.

With.

Me?

Onward.

I bought some letter stamps to add names for anyone who is not inclined to do their own.  (Some folks have beautiful handwriting...others...well...they have an easy option.)

I added a strap so it can hang around my neck, but attached it with buttons, so it can also come off and I can pin it on if I want to.

And the back has a clear piece of thin plastic sewn in for a pocket!  I'm still working on keeping that from getting crooked.  Pinning isn't exactly an option...

With that success, I moved on to nametags for the two friends (one a current guild member, one a past member who moved away, so membership seems silly) who will be attending retreat with me later this month.  That happens well before the quilt show, so priorities!

Barb loves purple and Colette loves yellow, so these were no-brainers!

Barb's back matches the front.  Colette's fabric was the end of some leftover binding, so I had to improvise the back.  I sent her a photo and she loved it!

And then the real work began.  I'm starting with my bin of leftover bindings, as these do need a stretch of binding.  If that leaves enough for a machine, it's a viable candidate.  I'll improvise with the backs and the little binding along the plastic if needed.

But I'm also trying to do a lot of different colors, so pretty soon I'm going to need to break out of my binding stash and into the real stash.  (No worries, I have smaller pieces everywhere, so I'll be fine.)

So far, I've finished a dozen beyond those for my two friends and myself!

I've opted to not do the strip to go around the neck on these.  That was a lot of extra work and I'm pretty sure I don't have that many tiny buttons!

I also cheated and used permanent markers to do the needle and fly wheel and such on these.  The embroidery was taking as much time as piecing the machines!

Some of them have a little lean to them, but paper piecing this small you can't expect to be that accurate, right?

I'm pretty excited that I've got this many done.  I'm trying to do two per day that I don't have to work (work just takes too many hours already and I have other stuff that needs to be done around the house - stuff that if I neglect, things won't end well) and should have plenty done in time for the show.

And finally, once I finish my allotted two machines per day, I can be allowed to work on cutting for retreat projects!

First up is one I've been drooling over for a while now.  "Easy Addition" from the spring 2016 edition of "Quilts and More," but done in a different colorway.  Jeni, blogger at In Color Order did it with a dark background, and I'm in love!

I may have shared my purchase of some navy fabrics a while back to supplement my stash?  I can't seem to find a photo, so maybe not.  I guess you'll have to trust me...

Next it was to the stash for main fabrics.  I echoed the one in the blog pretty much, but I loved it so much, it would have been hard to do anything different.

I spent time cutting and matching these up for blocks.  It went easier with fabrics that had yardage versus those coming from wonky pieces in the stash, but they are ready to go.  (Sorry, no photo!)

And then I started on project number two: "Tumbleweed Quilt" by Down Grapevine Lane.  Once again, I have deviated from the original and went with a dark blue background.  Apparently I have a thing for dark blue this month?

I pulled the remaining fabrics from my stash.

Originally, my plan was to do a lighter and a darker color for each block, but my stash does not have a lot of lighter fabrics in these colors.  (Not really in any colors...)  So I think I'm going to mix and match and just have multi-colored "blossoms" and be happy with that.

Which means I have to keep things sorted until I'm ready to mix and match.  "Big" versus "Small" is the pattern designation and each block gets one of each.  So I'm pinning sets of fabrics cut (yes, with templates - not much better than paper piecing, but apparently 2022 is the year of making hard quilts?) until the cutting is finished and then I'll see about mixing and matching.  Worst case, I'll do that at retreat.

And that is it for the last, what, week?

The hubby grumbles every so often about my sewing habit, but I've found if I feed him regularly, with an occasional batch of cookies thrown in, he is less grumpy about it.  And I take time off to clean and stuff, too.  It's all about balance.

No kitty photos, though there was some help involved in these projects.  Mostly just Toby supervising from his poof bed on the other side of the sewing room, though.

And with that, said dinner needs to be prepared.  And an early shift at work tomorrow, so probably no quilty magic tomorrow.  That's okay, there's always Wednesday!

Happy quilting,

Katie