September Finish

Maize and Blue
(pattern by Laurie Simpson)
My One Monthly Goal for October.
I put off quilting Maize and Blue for so long that I almost ran out of time to finish it by the end of the month. The large zigzags that I had intended to quilt with feathers ended up with some "point to point" quilting and looks a lot like orange peels. I never really know exactly how I will quilt a top until it's loaded on my machine and this is just what happened--lol! 

Willow was pretty helpful....not!
I float my tops when I quilt them on the HQ16, which means the batting and top drape down to floor creating a doggy playground. Willow tore a huge piece out of the batting, resulting in the need to hand tack a new corner of batting to finish the quilt. Then, as I approached the bottom of the quilt while quilting, I discovered a nice naughty little bite out of one of the gold border squares.

Miraculously, I managed to find a piece of the same fabric in my 2" square scrap box. I had to hand applique a little patch over the damaged corner while it was still on the machine. Yeesh! 

I hate changing threads, so I quilted all the blue parts and then rolled the quilt back up as I did the gold areas. My thread was Glide--a very slippery thread that I avoid using, but were the right colors. The thread likes to pop out of the  tension discs, so I wrapped the thread around them twice and loosened the tension. That worked out great until I switched to the gold thread. It would not stay in the tension spring, resulted in major eye-lashing (loops) on the back. Lots of ripping and re-quilting--I'm so glad to put this quilt in my rear view mirror! 

This is the back--mostly flannel which I can see already is going to be a dog hair magnet! 

Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE

Half Way Mark Already?

I boggles my mind that we are already in the middle of September. Mostly because I have done nothing to complete my monthly goal--too many distractions!

My set-in seams for the latest Patches of Blue quilt along went together great and I'm really happy and relieved it wasn't too much of struggle!

This is my latest distraction--it's been on my bucket list for ages and when I came across the large print fabric in my stash, I just had to make at least one six inch house--so cute! I've seen lots of the red French General versions, but, you know--I had to do blue! 

I posted this quilt on Instagram, but I don't think I've written about it here yet. This was my second finished quilt in August, in an attempt to use up my  LeMoyne Stars.

I had a big chunk of the Three Sisters fabric in my stash--enough for the entire back. I try to remember to stock up on large or interesting prints when I find a good sale. 

Again, I used the Easy Peasy Baptist Fan panto--love the texture.

As I said on Instagram, this isn't staying on the sofa until Willow is done with her chewing stage--which I hope will happen soon and I worry that will never happen--lol! 

I've meant to replace my Saw Tooth Cats quilt on the wall for years. I'm not even sure how long it's been hanging there--more than a decade for sure. 

And you can see a peek of my Pat Sloan applique quilt in the adjacent hallway. 

This was such a fun project from years ago. A lot of it is changed up to make it my own. Pat said this pattern was her version of a Baltimore album quilt. 

I think I was in my "dotty" phase then and I could never use too many dotted fabrics. 

I added lots of extra birds, bees and butterflies just for fun. 

I had my heart set on using a piece of brown floral I'd had for the border, but, of course, I didn't have quite enough. This may have been the first time I used my "make-do" powers and subbed a closely matched brown to finish up the border. That looked a little odd, so I added some applique flowers to tie in with the floral print. And more dots--haha! 

I remembered being worried about being called out for doing this at the time. Now I love how it turned out--I think it was meant to be. 

No time for napping--I've got to get to work on my September goal!!!

September Goal

Well, I went deep into the UFO archives for my September One Monthly Goal and came up with a top that I barely remember making.  I'm pretty sure I meant it to go on our bed, because I changed up the borders to make it a king size quilt. 

The Maize and Blue Quilt is from Laurie Minick's book Modern Primitive Quilts.
The binding and the backing were packed away with the top and all that needs to be done is the quilting. I vaguely remember thinking that the streak of lightning setting would need some awesome feathers, and that's probably why it never got finished (not my forte). I don't know if my feathers will be awesome, but better to be done!
I do remember the backing--a flannel sheet from Target that Mr. Moosebay detested (too hot!), so it makes sense to use it for a quilt backing.

While working up the courage to quilt those feathers, I took some time to put together the latest Patches of Blue quilt-along block, Shining Star. Now I have to work up the courage to tackle those set-in seams for the star background.
Maybe tomorrow! 

Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE