October Mission Accomplished

My October One Monthly Goal was to get the final borders on my Mrs. Billings top.
 I got one border done at home and the final three were finished at the first retreat I attended this month. I'm thrilled to finally have this one done!!!

I have to admit that instead of cutting my background into pieces, I used it as an applique background so I didn't have to make a bazillion more hexies. Also, it's a stripe, so there's that issue--lol!  I've been so ready to be done with this project and couldn't face making all those background hexies. Instead, I made a template from hexagon papers to use for placement of the wedges. 

Confession:
Can you tell I machine appliqued the shapes?
I left the papers in the shapes, glued them in place with basting glue (avoiding the papers), and after sewing down, cut away the back and removed the papers. I used Medeira Monofil thread (it's wonderful!) and a very tiny zigzag.

It's a huge quilt--wish I could get a better picture. This is Mrs. Billing on the floor of the retreat center. Now to decide how to quilt her!

Linking with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal HERE 

A Few Accomplishments

I got a few things finished at my second retreat. 

After I put together Step One of Temecula's Secret Santa (sorry, no photo), I started on Twilight. I managed to get all the stars done on the first day, and finished the whole quilt on the second day of camp. 

This little quilt is so cute--it measures approximately 25" x 33" and the pattern is from Buttermilk Basin. 

My 4" x 5" Anthology Quilt so far.
Maybe I should have made this my first project to work on at camp, but I was too excited about digging into my new Twilight quilt.  I got some of the Anthology rows sewn at the earlier retreat and now all of the vertical rows are done. The rows have all been numbered, so it's just a matter of sewing them all together to complete the top. First though,  the plan is to cut out the Secret Santa Step Two 9 patches to use as leader/enders while I sew the rest of this quilt. 

This is going to be the extent of my Sanjou from the Humble Quilts SAL.
I wanted to make mine a bit bigger and intended to do the final border with square in a square blocks to look similar to Lori's inspiration quilt. Last night I came to my senses and just added a plain border. It now measures 28"square. Next decision: Red binding or scrappy? Or maybe scrappy red?
Linking with Humble Quilts HERE

A Little Update

Just checking in before I leave for my second retreat this month. 

I needed to get a couple Christmas stockings completed before I leave home again. Our guild makes up kits from donated fabric that we can pick up at meetings. After we turn them in, they are filled with goodies and distributed to children in crisis. I was able to get two stockings out of one of my kits with a little tweaking. 

We also make place mats that are given out on Christmas by Meals on Wheels. This one was made from a second stocking kit that I just couldn't figure out how to make without the directional fabric going different directions. So.....I pieced the two fabrics to place mat size and added my own rickrack and binding. 

I also wanted to get the latest Patches of Blue quilt along block, Blue Barn, finished before I forget about it. I'm sure this would have been a challenging block if I hadn't just made all those 6" houses for Town Square. This one is 10"--huge--lol! 

Since Lori of Humble Quilts's latest sew along was a pretty small project (and gave me an excuse to  use some of my French General fabrics) I decided I would make a version of Sanjou. After seeing Lori's inspiration quilt, I think I will keep going on this one for a couple more rounds.  

I've resisted several Temecula Quilt Co. sew along's (except for Summer Circles), so I am joining in on the new Secret Santa quilt . There was almost no cutting for step one since I raided my boxes of scrappy squares. I will work on these at the retreat this coming week. 

I've had this Buttermilk Basin pattern, Twilight,  along with the fabrics, sitting on my cutting table for ages. I got everything cut out last night to take to retreat. I already have several projects still to work on packed in my car from this last week's quilt camp, but I don't want to be in danger of running out of things to do--haha! 

I hope you find some time to do some sewing too! 

October Goal

My One Monthly Goal for October is to get this pile of stuff made into a border.
I guess I've procrastinated long enough on this one!
This will be the final border on my Mrs. Billings top. I've had the "parts" ready to go for a while, so it's about time to just get it done. 

But.....before I started on that, I wanted to get my "First Flakes" block sewn from the Patches of Blue quilt along. I was dreading doing this block, but I followed Edyta's instructions carefully and it all fit together without a hitch. Whew! 

This is the reason I didn't start on my September goal until the last minute. Once I decided to make this little quilt, I just couldn't stop. I love how it turned out but I will have to think for a while on how to quilt it--lol! 

I have two quilt retreats to attend later this month, so no side-tracking allowed for October! 

Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE