Rail Fence Charity Quilt

Clever name right?  Really can't come up with one for it but I finished it!  I didn't start this until about the 15-16th of the month and I finished it up on Sunday the 24th.  That might be one of my quickest finishes.  I made this using Crazy Mom Quilts tutorial for Margaret's Hope Chest.  So this will be in the mail tomorrow along with this quilt I made a couple months ago.

The pattern was easy and I already had most of the strips cut that were left over from another project I had to add a few  more strips in since I didn't use all of the colors.

I quilted it in all over swirls and I as I went on they were looking better.  I did quilt this on my new Juki (which I love) and it was so much easier with the extra throat space.  I still have to work on my curves and going to fast and the stitches end up a little to big.  The tension was great a small adjustment and on my practice piece I could not tell the front from the back!

I used to have an issue with starting and stopping and getting those little jagged lines on my old machine with this one that really only happened once or twice.  Not sure what is different but I don't have them each and every time.

I used a dark grey Auril thread on the top and in the bobbin.  I used a 90 needle first time of that I have always used that size for FMQ.  I normally use an 80 and even a 70.   I thought the hole was bigger but really it seems fine now.

Next up is the Badger quilt,  Sam did want to know why I finished this one prior to his I liked that this one was smaller and it was a warm up for the bigger one.

I also have made progress on my Moda Friendship I have one block to finish and sew on the ends and then to get the back together which is not too much piecing!  Yeah!  Really excited for this one too.

Linking up to Let's Bee Sewcial, Crazy Mom Quilts. I will be linking up for some Friday Finishes as well and this was on my Q3 list too so this is the first one to be completed.

Quick Update

Just had to post this quick.  I am done with Sam's quilt and just needed to pin and quilt it.  It is big 87 X 87!  I am anxious to see how it works under the Juki with the bulk but pinning it is my least favorite part.

I really don't have enough room at home with out moving furniture so I thought I can do it on the tables at work on night after work.  So even better I asked a group who lunches regularly if they were up for helping.  There are two ladies who had done it before but the majority said I don't know how.  It is easy and I will show you. They said yes!

How awesome is that.  That quilt took a total of 30 minutes but it would have been less had I not messed up on one of the ends.  It was short on the back.  Yep the side I was responsible for.  Didn't matter they helped undo and redo it.  A few had to get back to work lunch was over but a few new people came in and helped finish it up.  It most likely would have only taken a total of 20 minutes. That project would have taken me at least an hour or more and I would have done it on the floor.

 Look at all those busy hands!

This week at work has been being hectic and stressful and this just made the whole week better.

I work with a great bunch of people that really normally is not too difficult to come to each day.  All I know is that you never know what will happen when you just ask for a little help.

I also am almost done with this quilt too!  So hopefully this weekend I will have some finishes to share!

Linking up with NTT and Let's Be Sewcial.  Thanks for stopping!

WIP Update

I am trying to get a few things done this month and have been trying to sew during the week as the weekends are yard work and then time with family and friends on the lake.  I know real rough.  I love it and it is fun but it has mostly been time with friends since the weather here has not be very warm here.

I have the top done for the Badger Quilt!  Now to figuring out the back and start quilting it.  Not sure yet on the quilting.  I am thinking all over meandering but might do straight lines.  Thoughts?

Close up:

Yep I love that fabric "Sam I am" or "I am Sam"  since it is for Sam!  Lots of scraps with Badger fabric thrown in there.

I also started another quilt with the Crazy Mom Quilts and the Scrap bag Rail Fence Quilt.  This one will be donated to Margaret's Hope Chest.  I had the strips set aside after I cut a scrap batik quilt up (haven't started that one yet) and thought it would be good for another quilt.  I started on the blocks and have about 80 out of the 99 done.  I am trying to limit the colors to black/dark blue, greens/light blues, yellows, orange, lights.  So it is coming together quickly.  I was excited to start on a different color scheme.

I am hoping I can get both of these two pin basted this weekend as we will be hanging around home and heading to a graduation party.  Then get them quilted.

Linking up this week to WIP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced, NTT with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation, and Let's Bee Social with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Q3 Goals

We are through half of the year and I am definitely not through half of things I wanted to make this year. My list of what I want is growing faster than my finishing list.  Isn't this every quilters dilemma.  I have been carving out time weekly to sew and I am really excited about a few of these.

So my list in the order I am hoping to finish:

1.  Badger Quilt - Son #2 is waiting for this one and I am almost there so this one will get done.  One border on and the other almost ready to go on.  Yeah 1" strips - love the look but that's a lot of strips to fit across an 80" quilt!

2.  Moda Friendship Quilt- This one has been on the list for a while now.  However I received an email this week that my long armer is offering 15% off in July, and this one is really big so that may get me to get this one done!

3.  I also want to make the Rail Fence for Margaret's Hope Chest that Crazy Mom Quilts is hosting by August 1st.  I have extra strips cut from the batiks and then that would use all that up!

4.  The Stitch n Flip I started in April at Paducah for my niece for Christmas.

5.  Tula Pink last year's Summer Sampler  Have about 45 more blocks to go.  Nice to be able to finish this summer!

6.  Batik Scrappy Majestic-this one is cut and ready to go and thinking it will be a donation quilt or someone at work.  (I just found out one of co-workers is making a granny square afghan for me!)  This one she might like.  So we will see.

7.  String Quilt-I need to use up some scraps and I love string quilts I really want to just do one with all the light fabrics but I have so many!  My plan is just use the lights but we will see how it goes.

8.  Aviatrix Medallion Quilt-I love this quilt and a few quilting friends are making it and I want one of my own. I am going to cut into my Botanics bundle I got for Christmas.  No need to save it!

I am loading this one up.  This way whatever strikes my fancy I can work on and hopefully finish!  I am linking up at Q3 Finish Along with The Littlest Thistle.

Happy Sewing Everyone!

A Lovely Month of Finish Goal

I am linking this one up in the last hour as I am sewing on the last two borders.  My plan is to have this one completely finished by the end of the month.  I am thinking I will have more sewing time this month and have many goals for the month.  So here is to lots of sewing time.

Linking up to Lovely Month of Finishes.

Q2 Update

Here is a list of what was on my list and what did get done.

1.  Badger Quilt for son #2- Worked on it but not done.  Here is the top almost done.  I have two rows to sew on the top and bottom of very skinny strips.

2.  X and Plus Quilt - That was a finish!  Read full post here.

3.  Moda Friendship Quilt- nothing done on this one!

4.  Kids Charity Quilt-Complete- Full post here.

So I made it to 50%.  Not so good.  I thought focusing on one thing at a time and a shorter list would help get closer to 100% but not so much.  Oh well!  I did get lots of sewing done just not in the month of June so let's see what can get done in the 3rd quarter.  That is crazy how fast the time goes!

I will be making another list and giving these and a few others projects another attempt to make it to the done pile.

Linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday.

Happy Sewing!

Hand 2 Heart Finish

One of the things I wanted to do more of this year is sew up some stash fabric and make a few quilts for charity.  Last year I was not able to make any charity quilts so this year I wanted to make a point of trying some new things and sewing some of the novelty fabric I still had in my stash.

Here is "Around the World"

I had bought this panel a couple of years ago with the intention of sewing up a baby charity quilt. The fabrics that are also in here are from a quilt kit I won years ago and this is quilt number 3 from that same kit.  Here is the first one, the second one.

I kept it simple with large 3.5 in cut strips made into 4 patches and then added some red Kona to make it just a little bigger.  This is the first quilt I completely did on my Juki.

I did some FMQ on it and tried a few things out to get use to the new machine.  I like the dogwood in the four patch.  I do like them better when I kept them bigger than thin ones.

In the red area I did a square spiral.  That was a little more difficult to evenly space them going in and then coming back out.  I did mess with the tension a bit as the red thread can be seen on the back side.  It was fine when the thread was the same color.

Then in the map area I went around the big areas did spirals on the land mass and just meandered in the water.

I can tell that the FMQ on this machine is much easier and works great compared to my old one.

I used Aurfil on all of the free motion and it worked beautifully.

This quilt is going to be sent to Quilts of Compassion through Hand 2 Help.   They make and collect quilts for a wide variety of people that have suffered from the after-effects of tornadoes.  They recently had a quilt drive and distributed 1600 quilts in the Oklahoma area.
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This was also on my Q2 Goals and linking up the finish at The Littlest Thistle