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

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