Scrap Vomit

I did get the top done on the scrap vomit quilt.  I was thinking about adding another row but the DS #2 said we really didn't have any square quilts so I should leave it.  Well, that was good enough for me to call it done.  I quilted swirls on it and it looks good now that it is done.  I have a hard time starting and stopping and then I get some skips or jumps in my stitches.  I still really need to work on my stitch length.  Once I wash this you really won't notice.

The back is an oldie and not really calling it a goody either.  I have bought lots of pretty fabric this month so I used a piece I had in the stash from the early nineties!  Mauve and fushia together not so much but from the front I do like it!

 This one was on both my Lovely Month of Finishes and the Q1 Finish Along.  I did not make all of my goals but I did pretty darn well on finishing things up. So go over and see what everyone has finished up.

Also linking up over at Crazy Mom Quilts for finish it up Friday!

Progress

The past weekend did not provide as much opportunity for sewing as I would have liked and the free time I had was instead used to plant my butt firmly on the couch and watch the first season of....



I know behind the eight ball on this series but since we had Netflex I watched.  Now I am hooked!  and have to figure out where I am going to watch Season 2 and 3!
Officially on Bloglovin.  Not sure on this techy stuff but claimed my blog.

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Here is where I am at on my current projects


1.  Scrap Vomit-Have just the 5 scrap blocks to do and one more with the black in it since I miss counted.

I had to rip one out since it looked like this. I was wondering why I didn't have enough matches.  Just wish I would have not miss counted.

So now only 6 blocks to go and I can assembly it, hopefully over the weekend.


2.  Moda Club Monthly blocks - done but forgot to take a picture.  Fun colors and fabrics with grey.  Liking them so far.

Status on other projects:

4.  Easy Street - picked out borders and need to put them on and then quilt.

5.  Shine-QOV quilt - bought borders so need to get them on and quilt.

6.  I am also planning on making a quilt like this one from Don't Call me Betsy for a wedding gift.  I have bought some fabric sketched out my plan since I want to make it bigger a lap size.  I am excited to start it.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced and Let's Get Acquainted.

Finally, the quilting is done!

I started this quilt in 2009 and the top has been done since 2010 and I was practicing FMQ just to finish this quilt.   This quilt is big too at about 85" square so doing this all on the home machine really wasn't too bad.  I have a large collection of civil war prints and have made several different quilts with it.  Here is the the full picture of the quilt on the floor.  With the weather we have been having it has been hard to get photos outside.

In the snowball blocks I quilted circle feathers.  Those scared me the most as I am lazy and don't like to mark but could not do them freehand do I had a stencil and I used the blue Dritz pen and drew them in.  There were 24 of those blocks!  Yikes!  I had 8 of them left on a Sunday and the feather borders and that took me all day!  I started at 7:30 am and finally finished at 4 pm.  I took a couple of breaks but that was a lot Free Motion!

Each of the pieced blocks were all quilted differently as well but used the same thread through out the whole quilt except for the border I used brown and the one pieced border it is red I used red thread.  I wanted the quilting to blend.  Some of them I thought they would stick out but when you look at it in a whole you can not see it.  I used Aurfil thread 50wt on all  of it.  I love that thread!

I liked the corners - thought those turned out pretty.  The brown borders had feathers that I did freehand and I love doing those.  I was happy on how they turned out.  I just thought it was really hard to see the quilting from the front so the picture of the feathers is from the back.

You can see some of the quilting on this one.  A couple of things that I learned along the way.

You really can't see your mistakes once you are done.  When you are quilting it and your nose is 4 inches from the quilt, I see every stitch that I don't like.  You wash it and hold it up or even in your lap I have no idea where they are.

I had read somewhere to slow down the speed of your machine.  So I did that.  I find that is really helpful.  I had less of those pulls when I started and stopped the machine.  I felt I had a lot more control.

I really like Free Motioning in one area and then moving on opposed to an all over.  I like knowing I won't get stuck in a corner or cross over a line when I shouldn't.

I also liked breaking it up into sections and ticking each one off.  Sunday was the exception, normally, I don't work on FMQ for more than a few hours.  I gave myself a self imposed deadline so it was a lot at the end but it did get done!

It is done and washed and am really glad, it turned out very snuggly.  My husband loves it.  He is definitely not a bright, modern kinda of guy.  So this is perfect for him and looks great on the brown leather recliner that he claims as his own.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hope you get some sewing time! Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and Whoo Whoo Fridays!

This is a finish from the Q1 Finish Along and linking up to She Can Quilt.

WIP - March

Hard to believe it is the middle of March and almost the end of the first quarter so a last push to finish off some things I had marked as goals.  Here is what I have been working on:

I did do the project over the weekend which was a new start but one I had planned on.  I did red, white and blue to do a QOV quilt.  I didn't measure the background and I was a little short.  I worked with Julie and figured carefully cutting in a different order I should be fine.  I did a batch and hated it! The background was all wrong for that so a string of them I ripped late Thursday night and then I went with the Kona eggshell.  Oh so much better!

Wrong Background

This pattern was not good.  Didn't like the way the stars came together and they were all off. They way they trimmed the sides and all the bias edges. This thing waves like the flag.  I like how it turned out and it works really well in the colors but I will not be making this pattern again.  I didn't have the fabric for the borders so those will go on next week.  I already have the back as well.

I was able to make a few vinyl pouches as well.  Here is the one I made with Tula Pink's vinyl.  I figured I should have something since I am going to see her trunk show next week.  I think it is cute and should work for a knitting pouch for new cowl I want to start.

I also worked on a few more blocks for that scrap vomit.  No pictures since I am finding that I am bored of it.  That is a lot of 2.5 in squares.  I have 7 out 13 scrap blocks and 5 out of 12 for the blocks with the solids.  I am still planning on getting that one done this month!

Easy Street did not get borders but planning on buying them Monday night at Moda Club. I think I have a plan.

I am hoping for some sewing time tonight and again this weekend but have a 8K race and St. Paddy's day to celebrate!

Hope everyone is able to get some sewing time in.  Linking up to Freshly Pieced.

Retreat Update

What a fun relaxing weekend!  I love just hanging out and sewing with a group of ladies and one gentleman.  We had plenty of sewing space.  The food was good.  However not as good as what I prepare for our trip in November to my mom's house.  My quilting buds told me I am a much better cook!  Here a few pictures of the sewing space.


My sewing table and my table mates Laurie and Francesca.  Yes, I travel with my chair!

 View out from where I was sitting.

Table behind me with my other roommates-Mom, Robyn and Linda.

 Robyn made us each a hexi pin cushion.  Love mine in Noteworthy.  I didn't take a picture of each of them but she had done one in Lucy's Crabby Shack and fussy cut the bikini tops, a shamrock one, and then a bright orange and white one.  So very sweet!  My plan was to make journal covers for them but it didn't happen.  We get together again in November - maybe then?!

We go to a hotel complex about 40 minutes from where we live but it takes us about 6 hours.  We travel about an hour west of our final destination!  One must shop and eat!  So we went to two quilt shops, and I didn't have much restraint this time either.  We went to Mill House Quilts in Waunakee and I found some nice navy's which was on my list and then some grey, lime green and aqua. Next stop was Stitcher's Crossing in Madison and I picked up three towels and some grey. I also bought some pretty yarn to knit up a new cowl scarf.  I bought Laurie some reds since she couldn't shop with us and she could still participate!

Then on Saturday we went to Ben Franklin in Oconomowoc.  They had a great selection plus there was a shop hop and we scored a 25% coupon so I picked up this piece.  I had looked at this or something similar for awhile and figured it would make a great back with the solid stacks I have been saving(hording)!

Then I picked up a few pieces of novelty prints and some Sew Mama Sew reds.  The one military piece is for QOV quilt for a piece on the back.

Plus I bought a few things from the retreat store!  I ended up adding 8.5 yards to my stash!  Ouch!  I really need to finish the next couple of quilts!

Here is a picture of us just before packing up!  We were missing one this year which was sad but hopefully she will be back next year.

There was a great show and tell and lots of good work being done over the weekend.  You can see some of that here on Flickr  I will share where I am at later this week since I have to go through and take stock of what I did get done.  (A lot but not as much as I thought I would).

I am linking up to Let's Get Acquainted.

March-WIP and A lovely month goal

For some reason I missed the first 2 months of the Lovely Month of Finishes but now not I found it need to get something knocked off the list for this month since it has to be one on Q1 list as well.  I know I am not going to get all them done but as long as I make progress it's all good right?!

So my goal for this month is to finish the Scrap Vomit quilt.  Yep, the top, quilted and bind it by March 31st. Pressure is on to stay focused.

Other progress on WIP's and since I am off to a quilting retreat a to do list for the weekend!

Easy Street
-While I am shopping looking for borders.  May be they will get sewn on if I find them.

Shine-Retreat Project

Fabric choice for the weekend project.  Hopefully, the top will be put together by end of the weekend.

Then I pulled a few random things in case I need one more thing like some pouches and place mats.  I am thinking, well I know, I won't get all of it done but I am going to try!

As for a recent finish I did finish my Civil War Sampler.  I am going to try to put together a post on that one since I spent a lot of time FMQ and took several pictures.  But here is one photo of it that I had of the feathers in the border.

I spent some time getting organized and trying to minimize what I take with me this weekend so here is a very bad photo (sorry) of what I am bringing. I have one show and tell, the Civil War Sampler, and I can't sew all weekend with out my chair and two lights!

Hopefully next week I have lots to report of finishes!  Linking up to March Lovely Year of Finishes and Freshly Pieced!

Happy Sewing

New Quilt Project

I spent the weekend trying to finish up a few things before starting some new things this next weekend since I will be at a sewing retreat.  I am always excited to go on retreat but a little sad this year since my friend from Colorado can't make it this year.  This will be her first year missing in like 12 years!  I only get to see her once a year so she will be missed.

So there is a quilt project that the shop hosts and it is voluntary on whether you do that project.  I haven't done the group quilt in several years.  It looked interesting and you could do scraps so with that I thought good plan.  Here is the image of it.  I will be doing this in red, white and blue fabrics and planning on donating it to Quilts of Valor.

The big piece of beige is the background and I think I will be doing a different dark blue for the stars.

I then thought I would raid my mom's fabric as well.  Since I was looking for a few more fabrics with stars to be sure I had enough variety.  Here is a stack I took from my mom's she was happy to have me use up some of fabric but since I only took one strip from each not much is gone!

Along with doing this quilt I think I will use the Scrap Vomit as a lender and ender project and try to get the rest of those blocks done.

Now onto packing my stuff this week but tonight I have the MMQG dinner since last week it snowed and it another storm on it's way tonight into tomorrow.  As long as the roads are clear for Thursday when we leave all is good.  But I am ready for spring now!

Linking to Plum and June Let's get Acquainted.

Happy Sewing!

Fresh Sew Day-February Recap

So I was thinking to myself, what did I get done? All I know is I still have a lot to finish for the 1st quarter with the goals I set for myself.  I really want to get some UFO's and WIP's done but when they seem to take too long I really want to start something new!  So here is what I did get done in February:

Summerville

Easy Street Flimsy

A few Hexie Flowers

Moda Club Blocks

My very first Bee Block

Test block for my Bee Month!  (still LOVE it)

Civil War Sampler - still quilting it!

I also made a few Scrap Vomit blocks but only the A blocks and until I get some B blocks done - just not that exciting to show.

So looks I am getting a few things done and I did get to start something new with both my Bee and the Moda Club blocks.  I guess just writing it down and putting it into a list really is helping me keep focused.  Or least I will keep telling my self that!

This weekend needs to be very productive since a week from today I am going to a Quilt Retreat with my LQS so very excited.  I am trying to be realistic in what I will be able to accomplish so that I don't bring too much so we'll see how that works out.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you come back to visit.  I am linking up to Lily's Quilts for both Fresh Sew Day and Small Blog Meet.  I am off to visit a few sites myself!

Happy Sewing!