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Monday, December 31, 2018

18 in 2018 Final Report

I think the 18 in 2018 list really helped me stay focused on my projects. I was able to prioritize and get many projects finished. I updated my original post as I went along. You can find the original post here.

Here is the final report.

1. Halo Medallion Quilt - designed by Sue Garman. This was the 2017 BOM from The Quilt Show.


Finished March 13, 2018. 
Hung at AQS Show in Grand Rapids, Michigan, August, 2018. As of this date, my Halo Medallion has also been accepted in the AQS show in Daytona in 2019.

2. Audubon's Christmas Quilt - designed by Kathy McNeil. Not finished, but well on its way.
https://shop.americanquilter.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1200x1200/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/u/audubon-640r.jpg

The flimsy of this quilt is hanging on my design wall. I came to a stop because I wanted to get a 1/4" platform foot for my long arm before quilting this one. The platform foot allows the quilter to to use all sides of the foot against a ruler without the shank getting in the way. I have now installed the foot. You can see the flimsy here. I have decided to finish off the final sashing with beaded detail (per Bethanne Nemesh), not prairie points. This one is top priority on my 2019 list.


3. Wanna Build a Snowman? by pattern by Dana Michelle.
Finished 1/16/18

4. Double 9 Patch from Fat Quarter Shop.
Finished 1/15/18

5. Double 9 Patch Table runner - using left over blocks from project above, I created a table runner.

Finished 1/16/18
You can see the post for #'s 3, 4, and 5, here.

8. Red and Cream BOM from Fig Tree Quilts


Finished April 22, 2018. Finishing details here.

9. Red and White - 2017
Not finished. I will be taking classes from Linda Hrcka in March. I am hoping I will get some inspiration for the quilting design from those classes. The Kentucky State Fair will have a special division for two-color quilts in 2019. I plan to get this entered. This is definitely on my 2019 list.

10. Finished. Star Crossed from Fig Tree Quilts. Sewn in 2017
I bought this as a kit from Fig Tree Quilts.


Find finish details here.
Completed September 23, 2018. 


11. Sherbet and Creams by Fig Tree Quilts
This was a mystery project from Joanna. I made some changes to the pattern. I made smaller circles and squares at the intersections. I preferred to have more of the curves visible.  


Finished 11/27/2018
Find finish details here.

12. 2015 Designer Mystery BOM from Fat Quarter Shop


Finished May 26, 2018. Gifted to granddaughter. Finishing details here.

13. Vice Versa BOM from Gen W Quilters
 I think this was from 2014. I never quilted it because I was not confident enough. This really needs a modern quilting plan.


Remaining steps: design quilting plan, load on long arm, quilt, trim, bind, label, add hanging sleeve.
Not finished. I got some quilting ideas from friends in the Kentuckiana Long Arm Quilt Guild. This will also move to the 2019 list.
 
14. Twirl Quilt by Fig Tree Quilts


I didn't take a picture of the assembled flimsy.
Remaining steps are: load on long arm, quilt, trim, bind, add label.
Not finished. I haven't been inspired with a quilting design for this one yet. It will also be added to the 2019 list.
 
15. Wild Card
Believe it or not, I still have many additional tops that need to be quilted. I will allow myself to chose one that I feel inspired to quilt.
Steps: load on long arm, quilt, bind, label.

 I didn't pull out any of my additional tops to finish. I did, however, participate in several Fat Quarter Shop Quilt Alongs:
Wild Geese Straight Furrows: here
Coffee Koozie: here
Fat Eighth Fruitcake: here, and here

Other Off the List Projects: here

16. Diamonds in the Sky - by Tula Pink Not finished.

I discovered an iQuilt class taught by Karen K. Stone called English Paper Piecing by Machine. I used her method to complete the assembly of this top. Details found here.
I don't like the way the kit is finished. I spent some time searching for the right fabrics to finish this off. I found the fabrics at the Fall Paducah AQS show. This will move to the 2019 list for completion.




17. Zoo Nouveau by Ann Myhre. This was a summer sampler project from The Quilt Show. 

This one now hangs in my family room. Finishing Details here.
Finished 2/18/18

18. Pumpkin Patch Lane - 6 installment BOM designed by Arlene Stamper and Melissa Harris.

 

Finishing details here.
Gifted to granddaughter.
Finished 4/14/18

Monday, December 3, 2018

Fat Eighth Fruitcake

I posted some preliminary pics on Instagram about this project. It is the Fat Eighth Fruitcake quilt from Fat Quarter Shop. I love that you can get such a cute quilt with a fat eighth bundle.

I chose to use Winter Village from Basic Grey for a Christmas-themed throw. I love that this collection isn't 'slap-you-in-the-face' Christmas.


First block: You can see the happy little village design in the fabric. Love it.



The Fruitcake block design left lots of fun spaces to fill with quilting. 





Here are the finish photos.



Thanks, Fat Quarter Shop, for another great project. So much fun!

Thanks for stopping by.


Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Sherbet and Cream Finished!

I have completed another project from my 18 in 2018 list. Sherbet and Cream is #11 on my list. The post can be found here.

I have posted progress pics on Instagram, so this will be familiar to some of you. Pictures were pretty hard today. It is cloudy and we are getting snow. I finished it off with a scrappy binding.


Here is a pic of the back. It was a pretty tedious quilting design so I am happy that it is done.


Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Audubon's Christmas Progress

Yesterday was a bummer. I was making great progress adding the sashing between blocks on the Audubon's Christmas project when I hit a major speed bump. The top row was .5" shorter than the already assembled blocks below. Do you see the difference on the design wall?


I was so pissed off that I stopped sewing for the day so I could attack the problem with a fresh mind this morning. I had to take sections apart and do more trimming to make the bottom part match the size of the top row. So many opportunities for math errors. I am sure that math errors is what got me into this mess in the first place. Here is the result.


If you look closely, you can probably see the places that were trimmed. No matter. I am satisfied with the result and am moving forward. I think this will marinate on my design wall while I decide how I will finish this off. Kathy McNeil put prairie points on every side of the project. I have never been a fan of prairie points. I need to think about how I want to finish this off.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

October Progress on 18 in 2018

I am working on the seventh block in the Audubon's Christmas project. I am getting there. I have all four cardinals attached. Just the feeder to go.


Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Star Crossed is Finished

I have another finish on my 18 in 2018 list. Find the original list here. Actually, I finished this quilt on September 23. I didn't post about it then because we were having rainy, dreary weather and I just couldn't get a good picture.

Here are a couple close-ups of the quilting. I used Bethanne Nemesh's method for quilting sampler quilts. You can find it in her book Sampler Smack Down. I am pretty sure I didn't get it done in 12 hours, but her procedure makes good sense to me.



I did whirly-twirly feathers in the center of each block and Bethanne's no backtrack feathers in the star. I still need practice to get the little q-tip end and not just a u-turn when I change directions. I really do love the way these look.


Pretty backing fabric from Fig Tree.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Clear the Decks!

I have been busily working on the Audubon's Christmas applique project. I haven't posted about it for a while. I have started the last block, the cardinals. It is the center block and the focus of the piece.


This project includes applique, fabric painting, embroidery, and trapunto. Every horizontal surface in my sewing room is full of parts of this project.

Ironing station

Cutting table

Countertop

Table adjacent to sewing machine

I needed to bind a quilt that has been waiting for a long time. I couldn't even begin to work on that until I cleaned off all of these surfaces. Oy. What a pain.

I finished binding the quilt, so now I can make messes again.

Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, September 17, 2018

Juggling Multiple Projects

It has been a busy summer. I retired as of July 1. We made two round trips to Pennsylvania to pick up and return grandsons. They spent 10 days with us. We made two round trips to Michigan. The first to help our son after back surgery, and the second to attend the AQS Grand Rapids show. My Halo Medallion hung in that show. It was a trill to see the quilt hanging in a national show.

I picked the quilt up after that show because I stupidly did not enter it in Paducah or Virginia Beach. I intend to enter it in Daytona, Lancaster, and Spring Paducah. I also discovered that judge's comments are only given at Paducah, not at any of the other shows. My main purpose for entering was for comments. That was disappointing.

I took four classes from Bethanne Nemesh at the GR show. She is a fantastic teacher. I have lots to practice. I purchased her book, Sampler Smackdown. Her goal is to complete the quilting in 12 hours. I used her method to quilt my Crossroads quilt. I lost track of the time, but I don't think I made the 12 hour goal.







It is now hanging on the machine because my sewing room is completely filled with my Audubon's Christmas project. My binding is cut, but I don't have space to work on the binding. My ironing station, cutting table, countertop, and sewing table are filled with various parts of the project. When I worked on the owls and blue jays, I kept putting materials away. I found that I was wasting a lot of time because I was just putting away at the end of a session and taking things back out at the beginning of the next sewing session. I have allowed the mess to take over.


I have all of the chickadees sewn. Three of them are attached in this photo, and the other three are pinned on. I had to paint the leaves in order to get a good shade of green. I had fun getting various shades to look like light and shadow. The leaves are pinned on.



I thought that the two birds with black beaks looked more menacing than cute, so I removed the black beaks and replaced them with tan. When I have finished appliqueing all of these pieces, I will embroider tiny berries. This will look much prettier with the red berries.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, August 24, 2018

New FQS Project

Here is a sneak peek at the next FQS project I will be working on. This one is called Fat Eighth Fruitcake Quilt Along.

I chose a Fat Eight bundle called Winter Village by Basic Grey. I will be using Moda 'Bone' solid for the background and the cute, cute snowman print for the binding.

The big reveal is currently scheduled for October 23. I will put work in progress pics on Instagram.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

First Chickadees

Just a quick post to show the first two chickadees in the Audubon Christmas wallhanging.

I know it looks like I stabbed them, but they are just pinned to the design wall.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Audobon's Christmas project


First block in the Audobon's Christmas. This is item number 2 in my 18 in 2018 list. The original list can be found here. I think I have a pretty good start on this project. This is the owls block. I might add more embroidery on the faces. When I look at Kathy McNeil's version, there is a lot more embroidery around the eyes.



Blue Jay Block. I am pretty pleased with the way this one turned out. I actually individually pieced each part of the three largest pine cones. For the two smallest cones, I found some fabric that I could use to applique.



Close-ups of the jays. Male on the left. Female on the right. I am pretty pleased with how these turned out. I could have used some additional shades of blue for more differentiation, but I am pretty limited on fabric that is available locally. I painted the shading on the female's tummy and the white tips on the feathers of both.

I still have to cut the blocks down to the exact size. I will wait until I am ready to begin assembly of all of the blocks.

Now, on to the chickadee block.

Thanks for stopping by.