Finished Early

.......the wedding quilt that is, with 10 days to spare before the wedding, yippee.   View one of the quilt.

 More of the front of the quilt. Will get a better pic when I give it to my niece.












Back of the quilt and the label.   Used an extra wide print I had in my stash for the backing.

 And the "excitement", aka finding several tears in one 4" square on the quilt when it came home from the quilter a couple of weeks ago.  Needless to say I was not happy with myself for not having caught them as I was making the quilt.

 So because I couldn't take out the section, I cut 4 hearts out and using fusible applique added them to all four corners of the quilt, and then used a buttonhole stitch to stitch them down.

Fabric count for the project -

Approximately 230 different fabrics were used to make this quilt.  Bringing my total for the year up to 387 fabrics used.


Gratitudes:
1. For being able to fix the problem with the quilt

2. For more houses slowly coming onto the market these days

2020 by 2020 - March 2018

There is a challenge being hosted by Pintangle to use 2020 different stitches, fabrics, embellishments (buttons, beads, threads, etc) by the end of December 2020.

I rarely do CQ anymore because of my hands, so I decided to make the challenge for myself to be to use 2020 different fabrics by the end of December 2020.  To that end I'm counting the number of fabrics in a project when it leaves my hands as a gift/donation or when it is finished if it is for myself.  I am also counting the number buttons, zippers or other miscellaneous stuff.

I'm not counting any interfacing or fleece/batting that I may use in making the projects.

Catching up on my totals for the first 2 1/2 months of the year:

*******

Cross-body Purse 1 (scrappy silks) - 18 fabrics, 1 button

Cross-body Purse 2 (scrappy batiks) - 17 fabrics, 1 button

Passport wallet prototype - 3 fabrics

Commissioned passport wallet (Peggy) - 2 fabrics, 2 d-rings, 2 clips, 1 button

Scrappy charms quilt top (given in trade for a handmade journal) - 66 fabrics

Baby Wall hanging - 9 fabrics, 2 buttons

Kitchen accessories - 11 fabrics, 1 button

Project for publication - 5 fabrics

Commissioned potholders, set 1 - 2 fabrics

Potholder - 2 fabrics

Art challenge quilt - 5 fabrics

Totals for the years -

Fabrics - 157
Buttons - 7
Zippers - 1
Other - 5

Gratitudes:
1. A stash that has most anything I need in it.

2. Working sewing machines!

Weekend Finishes

The Aurifil designer block of the month for March caught my eye and I took a detour this weekend to make one.   It is paper-pieced and if you're interested the pattern link is given in this blog post on the Aurifl website.   For those that make a block, you can post a picture of it and enter to win a 12-spool assortment of Aurifil thread.













My finished block will be going with these three blocks.   These were all block samples from several years ago.  The top one was published by QuiltMaker in one of their 100 Blocks issues, the middle one was submitted to them, but not selected.   And the bottom one was a design I used in the quilt I did for the Michael Miller challenge I took part in.

Also over the weekend I worked on sewing the binding down on the wedding quilt.  I'm almost 25% of the way complete on it at this point.















Final project I worked is this flannel quilt top.    The center of it was from scraps I had picked up at my local quilt store.  The floral is a Marcus Brothers flannel that I picked up as a precut at Tuesday M Morning (have also found some Benartex jelly rolls, charm squares and FQ assortments at it as well). Both were bought independently but work so nicely together.  Saturday I went back to the store for border fabric and ended up with fabric from the same line. 

I've already pulled fabric for a backing for this and it will be finished and sent off as a donation for the Hands 2 Help challenge this year.

Gratitudes:

1. Being able to help others as I've been blessed in the past

2. For beautiful spring weather.

New beginnings.....

Several new projects are either in progress or have fabric pulled for them.

First new project in progress is the purse that I need to make myself.  The exterior pockets are made and attached to the sides of the purse.  The top of the zippered pocket came out crooked, but it'll work and it's for me.   So I'm not going to worry about it.   This is the pocket where I'll keep my pens.  Also done is the upper pocket where I can slip papers into.  This needs to be done by the trip to the wedding.

Had to run to Joann's this past Friday to get fabric for a skirt for the wedding I'm headed to in a 12 days.

And I found a remnant this fabric in the remnant bin.  I thought the print would be perfect for some passport wallets.   I'll use it for the outer fabric and then make the lining, binding and pockets our of a coordinating print.  Will put them up for sale once finished.

These two fabrics are what I'll be using for the next commissioned passport wallet.  Outer fabric is the frogs, lining and binding the polka dots.  Polka dots was a remnant that I found and that happened to be perfect for this project because my customer loves polka dots and loved the prototype wallet i made with the frogs.   The frog print was a remnant and scraps that I had from a long ago scrub top that I'd made several yrs ago.

Gratitudes:
1. Fabrics that inspire creativity.

2. For the knowledge that God will provide a house for me, after having to terminate the contract on the one I'd hoped to buy.

Finished Commission

Finished the first commissioned passport wallet this week.  and at lest from the pics, my customer likes it.   And it was a hit with coworkers as well, netting me another order if I can find the right fabric (she's a Mickey Mouse fan).

Back of the wallet showing where/how the detachable strap works.   This one is not adjustable in length the next one will be.

Front of wallet with cell phone pocket and button w/elastic loop for closing.

Inside of wallet with credit card holder pulled out.   RFID fabric is in front cover and the credit card case.  Credit card case goes into the upper right pocket.

Gratitudes:

1. An early day off of work yesterday which meant I could get some errands done on the way home.

2. Warm weather

Quilt Qwazy Queens - UFO's

When I stop to look at the accumulated stacks/totes/etc of UFO's that are around my place I can really tell what my favorite steps of the process are - Design, piecing the top (both piecing and applique), and binding. Without my midarm quilting frame/machine set up I struggle to get things quilted unless they are smaller quilts.

 This is the first tote of UFOs that I've got.   Filled with finished quilt tops and finished cross-stitch pieces, this is what I look through first when I need a quick project to finish for someone.

 The stack of finished tops that I've got downstairs.   Two of these need to be shipped off to American Heros with one of the ones in the tote above.   Others are ones that I pieced to finish off and sell or use for future gifts.  In the immediate future I need to either send these off to where they need to go or put them into a tote as I get ready to move.

Another huge tote, this one filled with UFO blocks.   Most of these are from swaps that I've been in over the years.   Enough of these have been pulled and/or used to get the remaining ones into just this tote.

There are several other small totes around the house as well with more UFO blocks in them that I'm slowly working on doing something with.  I'm working on getting them into quilt tops in between other projects, and most of them will be donated to various projects.

And these two UFO's have been hanging up on my design wall since September of 2017.   They were the sum total of my Christmas decorations last year.  They are part of a triptych that I  have planned - both for myself, and for release as patterns.   These two need to be quilted & bound.   The manger scene needs to be designed and made.   Then patterns written up for the shepherds and manger.  This entire project will be the next UFO that I work on this year.

But more importantly, I want to finish this series so that I can hanging them in my new house this coming holiday season.  =)

However, working on any of them is going to have to wait until I get moved into the house that I'm in the process of buying.  And yes, I'm still finding more UFO's as I go through them in order to get everything packed up.



There are two Rafflecopter giveaways today that you can enter.  The first one is for a $150 gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop.  Click on the logo below to open up the Rafflecopter giveaway.  This giveaway will end on March 22nd.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The second Rafflecopter giveaway for today is for a set of X-Block Rulers.  This giveaway will end on Friday, March 16th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


To see what else everyone else is posting about today and during the rest of the blog hop click on the links below.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

 | Quilting Queen Online | Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats |
| Melva Loves Scraps | The Quilted Snail | 

Friday, March 16, 2018

| FunThreads Designs | Elizabeth Coughlin Designs | Quilting with Vanda |
| Life in the Scrapatch | Thrift Shop Commando |

Monday, March 19, 2018

| Just Because Quilts | MooseStashQuilting | Pumpkin Patch BC |
| Quilting Affection Designs | Ms. P Designs USA |

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

| Words & Stitches | Sew Many Yarns | Quiltin’ Grandma’s Blog |
| Books, Hooks, Sticks, etc. | Adventurous Applique and Quilting |

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

| Kathy’s Kwilts and More | Seacoast Quilter |
|DesertSky Quilting | Seams To Be Sew |