Happy New Year and 2018 Finishes

Happy New Year

2018 was not a super productive year but I am surprised there were more more finishes that I remembered.

These first 2 are the first ones I finished in 2018 they were for a new great grandson who was due the end of January but arrived in early November.  He is doing well now.

The Second Fancy Forest 

Drag Around for Caelen

The rest are not in the order in which they were finished.  They are pretty much the way they uploaded and I am taking it as it is.

A few of many potholders

Dresden Rings

Windmill Baby Quilt

Pinwheel Baby Quilt 

Autumn Wall hanging from a panel

Baby Quilt from First Heartbeat pattern

Quilt for Jamaica

The blocks for the yellow Jamaica quilt were made by someone else and I put it together.T

Quilt for Jamaica

I made the blocks for this red,white and blue Jamaica quilt

and finished it.

8 Hexagon Christmas Luncheon Mug mats

This is one last piece that I finished yesterday. My DIL wanted a Christmas topper for a small chest.

I had a lot of  srips from a few years ago when our group at church made string pieced Christmas stockings. I stitched strips of various widths to a rectangle of Warm and Natural batting and added a backing and turned it pillow case style and stitched 1/2 inch around the outside. 

So that's it for 2018.

I hope for everyone that 2019 will be a good year. 

Potholders

I haven't been idle since I finished the "Heartbeat" baby quilt. It seems as though everything takes twice as long to do anymore and I don't find the time to post.

I made some potholders for the boutique at the women's Christmas luncheon at our church. Our quilting group members made several different things so I didn't need to make a large number myself.

I used the tutorial for the Hexagon potholders from SewCanShe blog: it is a good tutorial.

These are the fronts and backs of the 3 different kinds I made. This time I purchased fabric for the potholders but I have also made them in the past using scraps.

I make the backs with a seam that I leave open for turning so I don't have to deal with hand sewing the edge closed. Hand stitching is getting harder all the time for me.

I layer the fronts with Insulbrite and quilt in the ditch then add a layer of Warm and Natural and the back and stitch all around and turn. I stitch in the ditch around the center hexagon to hold it all together.

I made some with 3 fabric strips like these first 2.









The rest are made with 2 fabrics for the strips. They all have the red candy cane backs which is fabric from our quilting closet at church.

I brought some other fabric home from the closet but decided it is large scale print and won't work as well. I will put it back in the closet for another project.







Our quilting group met for breakfast Saturday and then took a road trip to 2 quilt shops. I had been waiting until then I buy fabric for the next "Heartbeat" baby quilt.

This is the focus fabric; I wanted something that was not gender specific.

This is the fabric I will use for the 3 rows of blocks.

It is washed and ready to cut and I
am ready to get started.





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A Finish and a Refinish

I Finished the "Heartbeat" baby quilt yesterday. I waited until today to get photos of it because daylight is always better, even coming through the windows.

Front after quilting.

 I quilted in the ditch around all the yellow squares and through the center of them as well with a matching thread.
I had quilted across the diagonal of the Heartbeat blocks with a running zigzag stitch using variegated  thread.

 I marked and quilted a square 3 inch grid over all of the brown bubble fabric using the same running zigzag stitch.  I like that stitch for  children's and whimsical quilts because it is usually forgiving and adds a bit of fun. I frequently use a bright variegated thread as I did here.

 The green blocks were in the center of the quilt and the least easy to maneuver through the machine and there were some problems in that area. I debated about whether to try and fix it and I decided I needed to remove the stitching
across the green and do some"refinishing".

It is better (a little better) but in one area my running zigzag stitches are stretched out. I redid that area once more but I had the same problem and I decided it would be better to leave it and not try again..











The quilt back.

The small shot of the back  shows the quilting best but it really doesn't show up well in real life either.

I like the quilt for the pattern and fabric choices but I am not so happy with my quilting. I am reminding myself that this is a baby quilt which will be used and washed often and I know it will be appreciated. It won't be a wall hanging (at least I hope not).

For now I will go over the quilt and look for any toe catchers and clean off any loose threads from ripping out those seams.




If I make this pattern again (and I think I will) I will skip the third band of Heartbeat blocks and make it according to the original pattern. If I quilt it the same way it will probably be easier with only 2 bands of blocks and I am aware of a couple of reasons I might have created those problems for myself.

Autumn Panel

I finished quilting the Autumn panel and sewed the binding to the front but have not finished sewing it down on the back. I wanted to block it first because it did not appear perfectly square. I am not sure why I had a problem as I trimmed the panel all around and it was square and the 2 borders were square after they were sewn on. It is pretty densely quilted and maybe that is where the problem lies. I outline quilted all the leaves, maple seeds, tree limbs, the bird, and all the lines between the light rectangles and the dark background.  The veins on the leaves are quilted and the light rectangle areas are free motion quilted with echo quilting and some pebbles where they are distinct. All the dark area and the borders are quilted with straight parallel lines about 1/2 inch apart.

This is a photo of it up on my design wall. I pinned it and sprayed it with water until it was damp all over and then worked on pulling it square and flat. I reworked the upper and lower right  corners again after I shot this photo.
I am hoping for the best. I am pretty confident that it is going to hang flat. If it is not square the inner border will likely draw attention to that. At any rate, for better or for worse, it is going to hang right across from  my front door where it will be seen by all who enter.

A Finish and a Start

I finished the Kitty Pinwheel baby quilt.The quilting went quickly as it was simple and didn't require many stops and starts. I am loving my new strip lights on my machine more and more, everything is so much easier now that I have better light.

This measures 34 inches square and the back of the quilt is the same as the background fabric.













This is my new start. I bought a panel that I am going to use as it is, only trimmed  down to fit a space inside my front door. I added the narrow green and orange/black borders to lighten and brighten it up a bit.  I have something else in mind for the space where this will hang but it is still in the planning process and it is not going to happen soon.
Once in a while I use a panel as is when I like it as it is and want something without spending a lot of time piecing and agonizing over details. I don't consider these "cheater panels" I consider them "smart panels. This will give me some practice doing free motion quilting , which I haven't done much lately.

I  usually go into overkill when it comes to pin basting and this is more than most and might turn out to be a pain in the neck.  I wanted to be sure there was no shifting with the quilting, especially around the edges. I made the backing before I did anything with the top and changed my mind about how much to trim way and then added the inner border. I had to add an extra strip in the plaid fabric and a strip at the top. I barely squeaked by on the width, If worse comes to worse with the quilting I will trim the border a little bit.

I pieced the backing using odd pieces from my box of black with color fabrics. I think the Debbie Mumm strips are from way back  (over 25 years). Jack asked why I  fuss about the back since it doesn't show anyway. Why not use  something else or why not just go and buy a bigger piece of something.  Well for one thing I am happy to be using up some of my odd pieces since I seem to be unable to just get rid of anything. Beside that I like the back to be fun, JUST BECAUSE!

Two Finishes and a Purchase

Yesterday, I finished 2 more quilts for the church youth group to take to Jamaica.  The blocks for this one on the right were made by someone else and I put the top together with the sashing and border and quilted it. all of the fabrics, including the backing came from our donated fabric in our
quilting closet at church.

The red, white and blue quilt is one I made completely from donated fabrics as well.
 

 Here is a close-up of the folded quilt with the corner turned back to show the back; you can see the orange binding.

Close-up of the folded quilt with the corner turned back to show one of the backing fabrics.















This shows the center panel fabric on the back; it is the same as the sashing and border fabric.
I had to use two fabrics for the backing on this one.

This is my latest purchase. An adhesive strip of LED lights fort he arm of my sewing machine.
I love it! I had a very nice LED light on my machine but it was damaged when we moved 3 years ago. The movers put the machine on a dolly and bounced it down the stairs and  I discovered the light shattered too late to claim it as damaged. I didn't replace the light at the time but struggled along with other lighting. I got this from Amazon and I think it is even better that my original light and it cost $22 instead of $100 plus from Bernina.

I can even see black on black with my old eyes.

A Finish

The Friendship Churn Dash is the second quilt I listed to finish for this quarter for the 2018 Finish Along. did simple in the ditch quilting in the blocks and sashing. In the borders, I did feathers; I used black thread on the front and variegated thread on the back and it doesn't really show up at all. All I can say about that is it flattens the border and gives texture and doesn't add any more straight lines. I used black thread top and bobbin when I stitched the sashings and I didn't like the way the straight black stitching looked on the back so I changed to a variegated thread in the bobbin when I quilted the blocks and it blended in much better.

I used a mottled green for the binding and sewed the binding completely by machine. I stitch it to the front in the usual way and then press it toward the binding and then again over the edge to the back. Instead of pinning, I use narrow strips of fusible web to hold it in place making sure I have covered the stitching line. I stitch from the front in the ditch with thread that matches the binding.
Below is a close up of the binding on the back of the quilt. (The pin in the corner is holding up the back of the quilt which is on my design wall for the photo shoot.) Some of my feather quilting shows up so this must be before I changed to the variegated thread again.  Once it was stitched there was no going back and taking it out; black on black is more than. my old eyes are up for.

This  section is across the end of the back back. I think the green binding was a  good choice for the front and back, better than the black I thought I would use.

Be sure you check out the other quilts in the Finish along

Fancy Forest 2018 Finish Along

This is the first quilt I finished for the 2018 Finish Along. I didn't have a photo of the finished quilt because my camera was not working that day. My daughter took one with her phone the day she picked it up; she forgot to send it to me until I reminded her. I finally got it 2 days ago.

This was one of 2 quilts I listed to finish for the first quarter of  the 2018 Finish Along.  You can read a little more about it here. I really love the Elizabeth Hartman pattern and and the finished quilt but I had construction issues with almost all the blocks. This was not the fault of the pattern but my own inclination to not follow the instructions in the order they are written. I also made some cutting errors. Nevertheless, I think it is a great pattern and the quilt was well received.

I did a little more outlining of the bunny ears because or the low contrast with the white fabric and the icy blue "Grunge" background.

I took the easy way out and stitched in the ditch. My arthritic hands are not up to the challenge of free motion quilting.

Be sure you check out all the quilts in the first quarter Finish Along

Dresden rings EtC.

I finished Dresden rings yesterday It measures 24 x 43, it is nice and straight, hangs, flat and it  ready to hang on the wall. I copied Melissa Cory's quilting although I thought about doing some free motion quilting. The truth is, I really hate marking the quilting lines but in the end I bit the bullet and did the marking with my pizza cutter and tiny dots using a Sewline marking pen. I am happy to say all of the marks a gone and did not reappear when I used a hot iron. I did not use the multi color binding I thought I would, the quilt told me to use the orange fabric that I had purchased on Friday for something else. Good thing I bought enough extra.

Here is a link to Melissa Cory's tutorial. She has many free tutorials and also patterns for sale and there is always something new and fun to see on her blog. It is worth a look around.








This is not one of the UFO's that I listed to finish but when I came across the rings by chance they said SPRING to me and I sure am ready for spring. When I pinned them on the background and showed it to Jack he told me to finish it and hang it by the front door where I had that black thing.


Here are three shots of the "black thing" (I guess Jack doesn't care for this a lot).  BTW it is navy blue, not black.

On the left is a shot showing all three sections. I had to stand outside my door to shoot this so this is the best I could do. The center shot shows a closeup of the Japanese Ikat. I quilted around the flowers and did some sashiko quilting and filled in the background with free motion echo quilting in navy thread.  The end panels are "made Fabric" made with woven strips of fabric, which I fused to a base fabric after I wove it. The narrow fuchsia and yellow strips are faux piping. The piece is 14 x 52. I made this a long time ago and it has resided in a cedar chest all those years. I like it but it never really fit in with anything else. I have a lot of things like that. I am inspired to try a technique or use a particular fabric or group of colors and it has no place to go when it is finished.  So.......every so often I give things to my family, other times I put quilts from the closet or cedar chest up on my design wall for a time.
It is probably time to give some things away again. My cedar chest is full, there are quilts on 2 shelves of a large cabinet and taking up space in two closets.

Another January Finish

So my big list for January has 2 sets of finished Hexie potholders. I found the 4 pieced fronts when I was putting things away after finishing the Fancy Forest and Drag Around quilts. The colorful stripe from the back and borders from those 2 quilts was still laying on my cutting table and I decided to use it for the potholder backs. The one showing the back is like the purple and yellow one next to it. I have been using my Christmas potholders so I was  ready for something new.











The Fancy forest shown here did get a binding; I used the colorful stripe. I had just finished the binding and clipped off any hanging threads and had gone over it with a lint roller when  my daughter called and wanted to pick it up on her way home from work. My camera would not cooperate so no pic with the binding.

Fancy Forest

Drag around

First Finish for 2018

I have a first finish for this year and it is not the one I thought it would be. I finished quilting the Fancy Forest but it still needs the binding.

Here it is folded in half on my table; the quilting is all in the ditch.

My camera will not take any more photos so this is the best I can do for today. I tried to use my old camera but all I can see on the viewing screen is a blur. I guess it is time for a new camera.

This is the one I finished, it is a 27 inch square "drag around" quilt. This is for our preemie great grandson; he went home from the hospital 3 days ago. I think it is about the right size for a 5 Lb. baby.  I want to send both of these with my daughter when she goes to see him this week.

I had planned to use the scraps from the Fancy Forest quilt to make crazy improv blocks but though that is easy, it is not fast. I looked around for something I could put together fast and found these wonky blocks in my "Parts Department" box. I have a bunch of colorful small blocks that I made when the Basement Divas group was planning on making Collaborative Quilts in the style of Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston. We did make one quilt but then the group took another direction, I had forgotten about these blocks and it was really by chance I opened that box. There were 8 blocks and I made the purple block using fabric from the Fancy Forest owl block. I used left over fabric from the FF backing for the border and the purple for the binding.


I sewed the binding to the front and turned it and fused it to the back. I was careful to cover the line of stitching on the back so that the stitching in the ditch on the front would catch the binding.  It takes me forever anymore to do hand stitching with my crooked arthritic fingers.
This photo shows one corner of the back folded up to show the stitching on the binding and the stitching in the ditch on the front. When I get to the corners I stitch out to the point and back to the ditch. I works well and I find it a little easier each time I gain a little more experience.