A top finished, and a UFO complete!

I am so excited to be able to post some progress so soon. I finished the top from the Planet Patchwork mystery of New Years day. ( Sorry the photo is so bad. This top is currently hanging over the crab apple quilt that has been on my design wall forever!) I am not really crazy about the outer border, but since I cut it during the prep-work for the mystery, I decided to use it and save the money  a new choice would cost.

 

And to top that off, I also finished a UFO from the fall of 2010. And this was one that I was thinking would never be completed. It is a weekender bag from an Amy Butler pattern. I had some trouble working with the thickness of the layers on this one. It was quite painful to my hands trying to pin the layers before sewing. It was so bulky, I just could not get an accurate seam. Even after an extensive tear apart and re-sew, I am not really happy with how this turned out. But, I faced it, and I tackled it, and it is DONE! I even used it this weekend. But, I will not be making another. Period.

A New Year, a New Start.

As you have noticed, I have been inactive for quite a while. Last year brought many changes to my life. We welcomed two new members into our family- our granddaughter, Grace, and our daughter-in-law Crystal.

   Crystal on her wedding day, holding her niece Grace


 And I began watching Grace part-time while her parents are working. This has taken away a great deal of my free time. So quilting has been ignored. That is why my design wall still looks like this.

    Trees on design wall, some rows are sewn together

    But yesterday I was able to participate in the planet patchwork mystery. And this is what I have up to this point. Not finished with the top yet, but almost!

 I am embarrassed to have to photograph it on my sewing table. That tree quilt has been up on the design wall far too long! My goal is to have both tops completed this week. (It could happen, really.)  I hope to be doing much more quilting and posting this year.

If you want to see more design wall inspiration, hop on over to Patchwork Times and check out the links.

So many distractions, so little sewing time

This past month has had so many distractions that I have not really had any time to sew. For one, we had our annual family camping trip with my extended family. I wish I had some nice photos to share with you from that trip, but unfortunately my camera broke, so I have none. But, we did have fantastic weather all week and a good time was had by all.


After our week of vacation, I started watching my granddaughter 2-3 days a week. I really treasure the opportunity to bond with her. I love being a grandma! I am trying to squeeze in a little quilting when I can, but progress is slow.

This is what my design wall looks like today. I have a few days open, so with a bit of luck, this will all be stitched together to this point by the end of the week.

Still Uncertain About this One

On my last post, I showed a picture of my current project up on my design wall. I asked for opinions on my setting triangles, because I wasn't sure about the navy. And several of you were nice enough to comment that you liked the navy. And the more I looked, so did I. But something was still bothering me about the quilt. It wasn't until someone pointed out that she thought the red was overpowering the blocks that it made sense. I was so determined to give this quilt a Christmas feel, that I totally missed the misplaced red. I have been playing around on EQ with some alternate options. This one is speaking to me at the moment. What do you think? Is this better, or is the center now too light?

DWM- June 20

As you can see, I have my tree blocks on my wall again this week. All of the blocks are complete and I am playing with the setting elements. I know I want to stay with the red and gold, as this is intended to be a Christmas quilt. But I am just not certain about the navy. Any thoughts?

Something new for the design wall...wow, has it been a while!

Last post I said I was finally going to be able to do some quilting again. So naturally, the very next day my machine started acting up. I was doing some machine quilting and somehow managed to throw the timing off. I was working on this at the time.

I am fortunate enough to have a back-up machine, but I like the stitch quality better of my main machine for quilting. So I put this quilt aside for when I get that machine back from repairs and started a new project.

Here is what I have so far. Some of these are only partially stitched together. And I still need to make some more blocks.


These blocks are from the Crab Apples quilt pattern in Bonnie Hunter's book 'Adventures with Leaders and Enders'. I am working with my scraps on this one and I can't really tell I have used any from the looks of my scrap bins. Sigh. I guess I will need to try a few more of the patterns in the book.


To see what other quilters are working on, check out Judy's blog.