Fresh Sewing Day March

February may have been a short month, but with all this cold weather, I was very productive. I finished three quilts!

My Grandma's Quilt. WIP doesn't get much older than this, the quilt top was pieced sometime between 1930's-1950's.

Red Window Quilt. I made this quilt to learn how to use my new Baby Lock Tiara

Charming Squares Quilt. I had a lot of fun with this photo shoot at a local playground.

Linking up with Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day March!

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

WIPping it Up!

Well last week I finished my Grandma's quilt and this week I finished my Red Window quilt. I like the red binding. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get some good pictures of it for a Friday finish post.

And since I have taken two quilts off my WIP list in the last two weeks, you know I have to put a new one on. I started a 2014 Pantone quilt challenge quilt in radiant orchid. I'm pretty excited about this quilt so far.

The bottom two blocks are 28" x 28", so I will only need six blocks in total.  It's going pretty quickly, although it would have been quicker if I had used a Jelly Roll. I think before I'm done it will take about 84 - 2 1/2" WOF strips. LOTS of cutting, but a very graphic effect.

Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (5)
Express Your Love
Charming Squares Quilt
Humphrey's New Bed
Casserole Carrier
Mod Ovals Quilt
 
New projects: (1) 
Pantone Quilt 2014

Finished (1)
Red Windows Quilt

I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Wrapped in Grandma's Love

What better than to show the finished pictures of my Grandma's quilt on Valentine's Day. My Gramma Luke was one of the "Craftiest" women I've ever known. She could knit, crochet, tat, sew and do just about any other craft fad of the day. Although, I learned to sew from many in my family, including my mom, it was Gramma Luke who spent the hours helping practice sewing when I was really little - she had endless patience with me.

I found this quilt top folded among my mother's quilt stash. I knew it was my Grandmother's (my mom's mom)work. Originally, I thought it was made in the 1940's or 50's, but it make have been pieced as early as the 1930's. I was sure that my Gramma would love me to finish it.

Although it's hard to see, I used a swirl flower quilt design down each pink row and stitch in the ditch around the little squares.

I used Aurifil 50wt cotton, beige #2000. Love this thread! I used Quilters Dream low-loft cotton batting.

I chose this fabric for the back, somehow it just works. I think I did a pretty good job piecing it (straight up the middle).

It's a bit of an odd size 68" wide X 78" long and it's pink, not really my color, but it does feel like I'm wrapped in love when I cuddle in it.

 Today, I'm linking up with FMQ Project Friday, TGIFF, Link-A-Finish Friday, and Finish It Up Friday

Happy Valentine's Day! Wrap yourself in a little love today!

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

WIPping It Into Shape

So close and yet so far. I am making lots of progress on my WIP, just a lot of binding left to do. I did finish binding my Grandma's quilt with the binding all hand stitched down.

I also finished quilting my Express Your Love/Goddess quilt and even washed and blocked it so that it lays flat.

 I really would like to just turn the edge and not put a traditional binding on this quilt. I'm not sure exactly how that will make the back look. Maybe I will add a piece of fabric to cover the back and cover the turned edge. Guess I will have to think about it for a bit.

I have continued FMQ my Charming Squares quilt.  I decided to keep quilting every other block for the border, but quilt an ongoing feather in each block.  I think it works.









Sew all-in-all, a pretty productive week. Hopefully I will be able to get out and take some pictures for some Friday finishes (which isn't going to happen right now, since it's -7 degrees F, BRRRR).


Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (6)
Express Your Love
Charming Squares Quilt
Red Windows Quilt
Humphrey's New Bed
Casserole Carrier
Mod Ovals Quilt
 
New projects: (0) 

Finished (1)
Grandma's Quilt

I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

The Wonder of Wonder Clips

The other day I purchased a box of Clover Wonder Clips. What a wonderful thing to use to hold your binding while sewing instead of pins - no pricks!

I'm quite pleased with how well this binding blends in with this 60-80 year old quilt. You can check out the story behind the quilt here. I think my grandmother would be thrilled to see that I'm finishing her quilt.

 I'm linking up with a Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday and Free-Motion by the River for Linky Tuesday.

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

More Playing Than WIP Work

If cleaning, organizing and setting up a new machine in your sewing room counts towards WIP work then I'm good, otherwise not so much.  I spent part of last night learning how to wind a bobbin on this contraption. It's the bobbin winder that came with my new Baby Lock Tiara.

It worked pretty well, but it was a bit intimidating. Winding a bobbin allowed me to work on my Grandma's quilt. I got another row of quilting done.

 I also did a little playing around on a practice piece.

 I also stitched out a section on my "Express Your Love" goddess quilt.

I still have a long way to go to get used to this new machine. Luckily, I have a lot of WIP to learn on.

Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (5)
Express Your Love
Grandma's Quilt
Charming Squares Quilt
Red Windows Quilt
Humphrey's New Bed
 
New projects: (0) 

Finished (0)


I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

WIP Wednesday

I love it when I can cross stuff off my WIP list. As I said I would last week, my Layers quilt is complete! Click here to see the final pictures.

Since my last quilt was so intricate, I decided to pick up working on my Grandma's quilt.

 When I was taking this picture, I realized that I hadn't shared my new little Mighty Bright light. I picked it up at Keepsake the other week and it really does help. The lighting in my sewing room never seem bright enough, but this little light that sticks on the side of my machine does the trick (at least for sewing). I still would like better light for cutting and pressing.

Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (3)
Express Your Love
Grandma's Quilt
Charming Squares Quilt
 
New projects: (0)

Finished (1)
Layers quilt

I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

WIP Wednesday

Well at least I've done enough quilting this week to share my progress on WIP Wednesday. Maybe I am getting back in the quilting groove.

I now have all nine blocks for my Layers quilt basted, ready to quilt (QAYG).

I also got half of Grandma's quilt quilted.

It may be slow progress, but it IS progress. And after all, it IS summer.

Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (4)
Express Your Love
Layers quilt
Grandma's Quilt
Charming Squares Quilt
 
New projects: (0)

Finished (0)


I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Plugging Along on Grandma's Quilt

I seem to be a bit lazy about quilting this summer. It's hard when you live on a lake and you only get about 3 months of summer, people gravitate to your house leaving little time to quilt. And of course I do work full time. Okay, enough whining, on to quilting.

I have been quilting on my Grandma's quilt, but it's a bit repetitive and difficult to show on line.

 I've got it about half quilted. The rows of flowers take about 45 minutes or better to quilt and I'm also quilting the cross lines on the squares.

The back, showing the squares.

I'm linking up today with Leah Day for FMQ Friday, can't wait to see what everyone's been up to this week.

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

WIP Wednesday

I'm not quite sure why some quilters are so afraid to FMQ. Just quilt on printed fabrics, you'll never see your mistakes. You'll never see your quilting for that matter!  I just started FMQ my Grandma's quilt. I had thought how cool it would be to quilt this flower design from Lori @ the Inbox Jaunt on the rows, but it's really hard to see it.

The design is not just a swirl, it's actually a flower. I know it's hard to see in the pictures, it's hard to see in person.

You can see it a little better from the back.

Well, I guess that's why I love solids! But I do love Grandma's quilt.

I did finish up my Charming Squares quilt top late last week.

Now this will be a fun quilt to quilt.

Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (4)
Express Your Love
Layers quilt
Grandma's Quilt
Charming Squares Quilt
 
New projects: (0)

Finished (0)


I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Storms and WIP

I don't think I've ever gone this long without posting, exactly a week. But it has been a bit of a hectic week with work and family and a few spectacular storms. On Sunday afternoon, I finally sat down at my sewing machine and an amazing storm blew up. Needless to say, we lost power for over four hours. So much for getting any sewing done.

The creek next to our house that outlets into the lake normally has dried up and closed off by this time of year.

We got over two inches of rain in just over an hour, which got the creek really rocking and rolling and seriously muddy

 I did get to play with some more FMQ samples for my layers quilt. I think I'm going in the right direction, but just not quite there yet.

 I wrote a poem a number of years ago, that I thought would look cool on this quilt. So I practiced writing on the quilt. I started by writing in chalk first, but it's really hard to follow.

 Then I just tried writing with no pre-marking. It worked much better. Now, I just need to decide if I want any other quilting. I see more samples in my future.

The one thing I do like is quilting with orange. I like it on the top and that the writing on the back, blends well. It's hard to tell it's backwards writing.

 I also finished stitching in the ditch on my Grandma's quilt.

The quilt is now ready to FMQ down each open strip.

It does look like another crazy week coming up, but hopefully I will get a little sewing time.

Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (3)
Express Your Love
Layers quilt
Grandma's Quilt
 
New projects: (0)

Finished (0)


I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat