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.

Another Granddaughter has Graced my World

I am thrilled to announce the arrival of my newest granddaughter earlier this month. Here is Grace on her quilt that was designed just for her. I have been too busy playing grandma to do much sewing this month. But I did manage to whip up a little companion piece for baby's room.

I found the instructions for this here. It looks pretty cute sitting on the chair in her room. And it was so easy to make! I have several new projects I want to get started on, so regular blog postings should resume soon. Until then, happy sewing!

I am still alive...

...I just haven't been doing much quilting lately. Until the past few weeks, when I felt the need to get busy on a quilt for my next grandchild, due the end of this month. My daughter and I worked together to pick out the color scheme and come up with a pattern that we both like. This is the end result. I named the quilt Springtime Graces. I can't wait for that baby to grace us with her presence. :)

Oct 25 design wall

I finished my block from last week. I must say, I find this pattern to be a challenge. But, OH! I love the end results. I am still trying to decide if I want to commit to an entire quilt of these blocks. I think this one is best dealt with one block at a time, between other projects. The block is called Mississippi Wheel of Fortune and it is a Karen Stone pattern.

FAIL!

If you follow my blog, you may have noticed that I have removed the UFO challenge info from my sidebar. I joined a challenge to finish 10 projects this year.


I posted my 10 intended finishes and waited each month for the hostess to post which project to complete for the month. This is the final month of the challenge. To date, I have finished only one of my 10 UFOs.


I have a second partially quilted. So I have to consider this a failed effort. Can there be an upside of this? Well, I haven't really created many new UFOs to speak of either, so I feel like I am ahead of the game. Will I ever finish all of my quilts? I doubt it.


I am even considering giving away a few UFOs. Could my tired old project possibly be someone else's fabulous new quilt? I'm pretty sure I will never finish the quilts shown.

DWM-I actually have something new to share

On Friday my design wall still looked the same as in my last post. Those blocks had been hanging on my design wall since June. I finally decided to just put them away for now. When I have a need for a baby/child-size quilt, they will become a finished quilt. Until then, since they have not been speaking to me for months, they need to go away.
This is my new project. It is a Mississippi Wheel of Fortune block. I am using paper foundations to piece it following a pattern by Karen Stone. The block on the left is finished. It was intended to be a table topper to tie in with this at Christmas time. Hubby, however, thinks it should be a pillow. We'll see about that. (This is a 20 inch block!) The block on the right is in progress. I'm not sure how many I will make. I have a good stash of batiks and could easily make enough for a large quilt. But I am undecided on if I want to devote that much time to a foundation pieced project. I will say that I love the colors so far.

To see more quilters design walls for inspiration, check out Patchwork Times blog. Judy L. hosts this every Monday.

Design wall? August 2

These blocks have been on my wall since June 1st. Some of the blocks have fallen to the floor, probably in protest to my neglect.


I haven't had time to do any sewing this summer, with one exception. I did manage to finish this quilt in time to give as a wedding gift.

Where's Jane?

Here she is, camping with her family....

...lots of family!!!

And watching a sunset with her husband...on the shore of Lake Charlevoix



Beautiful!

...at a wine tasting in the Traverse City area during Cherry Festival

Coloring with markers during a visit from her Granddaughter

Here she is during a long weekend trip to Florida to welcome the newest member of her extended family...Adrianna Carmen. Such a little cutie!

And at a celebration lunch after the adoption finalization with the happy new parents!

Nope, she's not in her sewing room. Hasn't been here all summer. ( No wonder there hasn't been any new blog posts.)

Design wall 5/31

Today I am hiding out in my sewing room. It is a quiet refuge in a house full of college kids. My son decided it would be fun to host the annual Memorial Day gathering of his friends. We have a large yard with a pool and a good grill and can easily accommodate a crowd. But the weather is not cooperating. Strong thunderstorms hit this morning, knocking out our power. Fortunately, the power company had it restored around noon. Not that it would have stopped this gang of kids. It has been raining on and off all afternoon, so the kids are all inside my house, broken down into small groups playing cards, board games and video games. I am debating border additions to my lantern quilt top. I would like to make it larger without purchasing extra fabric. This is what I am considering for now. I'm just not sure I like it.

The background fabric would continue behind the zigzag, so that it will keep it's straight edges. To see what others are working on check out Judy's blog.

...and the living is easy

Kick back in a comfy chair on your deck and enjoy your holiday weekend. It is the unofficial start of summer here and the weather is gorgeous! My most recent project is inspired by an episode of Quilt in a Day, featuring projects from the Egg Basket Quilts book . It was soooooooo quick and easy.

Design wall May 24

I am settling on a plain border for this one due to a lack of extra fabrics. This top is only half the size it was intended to be. There was some confusion in the cutting instructions and I cut half of my blocks incorrectly. So, I decided to salvage the project as best I could by making two smaller quilts. This one has the blocks cut the correct size. I plan to start making the rest of the blocks, slightly smaller, today.


Edited: Here are the completed blocks. They spin in the opposite direction, giving this quilt a totally different look. :)

Check out Patchwork Times for more design wall links.

The another update from the sew in

This is what I got done from last night's sew-in. The lantern blocks are stitched into rows and the border blocks are done. I'm trying to decide if I want to add the tassels as the pattern suggests or just omit them. If I leave them off, then I will need to remove some of the background from the bottom to even things out. I am also considering adding some extra borders to make this bigger. I have a bit of extra fabric to work with, but I'm not sure there is enough. I think that will be a good project for tomorrow.

Progress Report

Here's where I'm at with my quilt tonight. The lanterns are taking shape and I'm working on the flying geese units for the border. I still need to play with the arrangement of the lanterns a bit before I stitch them together. Back to the sewing room for me. :)

It's time for another Friday night sew-in

I have been cutting all afternoon so that I can actually sew during tonight's sew-in. It has been a few months since I have been able to participate, and I can't wait to get stitching. I'm going to be making a version of this. It is a free pattern by Monica of Happy Zombie. The pattern features her new fabric line which doesn't hit stores until June or July. So I will be using a collection of Asian prints from my stash. I think these will look cute as lanterns.

DWM May 10

Not much progress to report this week. I struggled with the side triangles on the hexagon quilt and finally settled on this. I don't think I got the sizing quite right, but I am afraid to rip them off again for fear of stretching the edges and making things worse. It is not as flat as I would like on the edges, but I think I can make it work. This is as far as the instructions go for this pattern, so I need to play around with some border ideas this week.

The baby robins in the nest outside my sewing room are getting bigger. I am enjoying watching their progress. And mama robin is keeping her eyes on us all from a nearby fence.

Check out Judy L.'s blog for more Design Wall Monday fun.