Scrappy Saturday

Yellow blocks with accidental shadow

I got my 6 log-cabin blocks done for the month. I think this is it for me for yellow scraps. 

I went to my guild's quilt show this weekend which was fabulous. So many gorgeous quilts. I took lots of pictures of great scrap quilts that I might want to draw inspiration from for future projects. 

I am linking up with Scrappy Saturday at So Scrappy and Oh Scrap! 

WIP - 1/24/2024

In progress this past week:

• I prepped the pieces for hand applique on the 3rd block of my Jacobean quilt.
  
  
• While I was set up with the light-box I also traced a small stained-glass fish pattern for an applique  technique I want to try. 
  
  
• I traced just over half of the leaf applique shapes for my tropical quilt, and realized I need to get more fusible to finish that up. I ordered it so it should arrive soon.
• I got started on the green scrap quilt for RSC24-January. 
• While I was looking for lining for a dog coat I found a pile of cute flannel scraps which I think will be enough for a baby quilt for my Guild's charity quilt project. I started working on that this past weekend. 

Finish #4 of 7

Flower Boxes Quilt

I am continuing to make progress on my goal of finishing 7 of my in-progress quilts by the end of the year. This quilt was made from a Moda jelly roll (Sew & Sew by Chloe's Closet) which I won as a door prize at a guild retreat a few years ago. I added the lavender fabric for the border but otherwise this is just the jelly roll. The pattern was super quick to put together, though as is often the case arranging the blocks in a way that I was happy with took longer than actually making the blocks. This quilt will be donated to my guild's charity quilt project. 

Finish #3 of 7

 My guild does a Mystery Quilt each year, and it is usually designed by one of our guild members who does a fabulous job creating beautiful quilts for us to make. Back in 2019 or so I decided that I needed to participate in this activity and assembled all the fabric I needed for the Mystery from my stash. I have finally finished that quilt. I quilted it with lots of circles, which looks good but took forever.

Finish #2 of 7

I set it as a goal to try and finish 7 in-progress quilts by the end of the year. This is the second one completed. I didn't do the lovely English-paper-piecing (EPP), someone in my Quilt Guild did, I was just charged with quilting it. It will be donated through the Guild's "A Quilted Gift" project. 

Finished Quilt (on a cloudy day)

I used an overall stipple pattern in neutral thread (I didn't want the quilting to overwhelm the piecing) and the same quilting in green thread to blend into the borders. I had never quilted EPP before and there was a bit of a learning curve to keeping it all flat and unpuckered as I went along. 

Detail of the stippling

Sunday Stitching Post #16

Since my last update I have done quite a bit of sewing. I finished my August OMG and have been working on baby quilts from my scrap bins. I'm going to try to complete a top for a baby or lap-size scrap quilt each month and ideally quilt one as well. All the finished scrap quilts will go to my Guild's charity quilt project. I have made 2 tops since the beginning of August so am on track so far. I have been collecting ideas from instagram (the hashtag #scrapquilt is great for this) and various blogs in an effort to try some new patterns and to use up fabric. 

My very next project is to try out some new machine quilting patterns. I borrowed some quilting books from the library, picked out new-to-me designs to try, and have a pile of squares layered and basted. This week I hope to get the machine set up for quilting and dive in. I also have quilting to do for this month's OMG. 

My most recent scrappy top

I have also been considering starting an applique project so I have some handwork to do. Quilting at the Cro's Nest posted a super cute quilt called Farm Girl Vintage which led me to Lori Holt's website Bee in My Bonnet where I found Let's Bake. Both are adorable and might be good projects for me. (probably smaller versions using some of the blocks). I was also considering a Baltimore Album project but after reading some books I borrowed from a friend I think that is more ambitious than I am ready for at the moment.

I am linking this post in Oh Scrap!

Scrappy Baby Quilt

A Finished Top

I have been trying to work through my stash and have been playing around with scrap fabrics. This project is a baby quilt that began with a balloon print that I got in a kit from my Guild's donation quilts committee. It had a red print with it. I added orange, blue, and green scraps and ended up with a fun, bright quilt top. I pieced a backing from larger pieces of an orange, blue, and green that I used in the blocks and will use the original red fabric from the kit as the binding. When it is quilted it will go to the Guild committee to be donated.

Linking up with Oh Scrap!

Sunday Stitching Post #15

I spent this past week with my niece, much of it at the beach, so almost no sewing got done. (It was a great week though!) I managed to miss the deadline for posting my OMG finish for July. I did complete my goal several weeks ago which was to finish my bargello quilt. The UFO challenge project for July was my Guild Mystery Quilt which I got out, selected quilting thread for, and began quilting it. Not much progress, but some.

Bargello quilt finished and hung up

Getting Ready for Retreat

Baby Quilt finished and ready to deliver
to the Guild's Charity Quilt Project coordinator

This weekend is quilt retreat and I have gathered my projects and am packing my supplies. My goals for retreat are:

• hang out with my friends
• finish all the units for my Streak of Lightning Quilt 
• quilt my log cabin lap quilt which is basted and ready to machine quilt
• make progress on piecing the green and pink bargello I started at retreat last Fall
• maybe work on my AQG Mystery quilt



Finished Ballerina Bears Quilt

• turn in the baby quilts I quilted for the A Quilted Gift project

I have work to do on the Madness T-Shirt Quilt, but I am not taking that with me as retreat involves communal irons and that quilt has a lot of potential to gunk up an iron. It will probably be the focus of my 15-minutes of daily stitching for the rest of the month. 

Sunday Stitching Post #1

One of my plans for 2019 is to participate in 15-minutes-to-stitch at Life in Pieces. The idea is to stitch for 15 minutes each day and track your success rate. I have defined "stitching" as anything that involves a sewing or needlework project, selecting fabric, prepping scraps, actual sewing, or working out a design all count.  My goal is to get this habit to at least a 50% success rate this year. I plan to do a check-in post every few Sundays. 
So far I have managed to stitch at least 15 minutes on 9 out of 12 days in January (75%).
I have worked on the T-shirt quilt, my January OMG which is the Carolina Streak of Lightning Quilt, and basting tops for several charity quilts. I am going on retreat with my Quilt Guild at the end of the month and would love to have the charity quilts done by then so I can deliver them to the project coordinator at retreat. 
I have also been visiting quilting/sewing blogs this month including all the posts for the Strip Quilt Secrets Blog Hop. I got an email yesterday telling me that I won a copy of the book from Val's Quilting Studio which was wonderful news as I really wanted a copy of this book.

Retreat

This coming weekend is the Amoskeag Quilt Guild's fall retreat. Once again I will be going along with several members of my bee. In addition to eating, drinking, relaxing, and hanging out with my pals here is what I hope to get done at this retreat:

• Finish quilting my rainbow string quilt.
• Work on making some more flag quilts since Urban Quilter is currently sold out of them. 
• At least begin my September Forward Progress project.
• Baste, and possibly start quilting, my NY Beauty Bird Quilt.

I am also taking along a few other odds and ends in case I am inspired to do something with them and may help Lisa with the Cross Winds Quilt she is trying to finish before Saturday.

Retreat Next Weekend!

This coming weekend is the Amoskeag Quilt Guild's winter retreat. Once again I will be going along with several members of my bee. In addition to eating, drinking, making #timetoread, and lots of hanging out with my pals here is what I hope to get done at this retreat:

• Quilt the tessellation quilt which I got finished and basted this weekend. If I could get it bound as well that would be great, but space to square it up properly at retreat could be an issue.
• Paper piece at least one and maybe four circles for my Tropical Whimsey paper piecing project. 
• Quilt the Schnibble I pieced at the last retreat. I finished it up and basted it this weekend so it is ready to quilt. 

Retreat Report

The Amoskeag Quilt Guild retreat this past weekend was excellent. The weather was beautiful (and warm) and I got a lot done. 
I finished the quilting on William's quilt next I need to sew the 3 sections together and get it bound. I forgot to pack my quilting gloves, which I really can't machine quilt without, but with loaner gloves from Amanda and Heidi I was able to get a my quilting done. I got one of the purses done except for the handwork and the other one is almost there. I finished one Flag Quilt top and assembled rows for a second one.

William's Quilt in Progress (photo by Lisa North)

Retreat Weekend!

This coming weekend is the Amoskeag Quilt Guild's retreat. Several members of my bee are going and I am looking forward to hanging out with them and having several days for dedicated sewing.
Here is what I hope to get done this weekend:

• Quilt William's quilt--there are 3 basted sections of it to be machine quilted and I hope to get them all done so the quilt sections are ready to join.
• Make progress on the 2 purses left to be done for my Q3 Finish list. Ideally I would like to get everything finished but the hand sewing (which I can do at bee).
• Finish at least one Flag Quilt top

I am also bringing along my Tropical Whimsey paper piecing project and the stuff for a Schnibble I have had in my pile for quite a while and which would be great to hang in the dining room for fall. If the goals get accomplished, or I don't feel like working on them, I will have some other options.

Done: Guild Mystery Quilt

I completed my AQG Mystery Project by the deadline of the April meeting. I was pleased with how the final quilt turned out. I am going to call this quilt Laissez les bons temps rouler because of the Cajun food themed fabric.

Finished AQG Mystery Quilt 2014

I sewed the binding down on the back by machine, which I had not tried before. It wasn't as fast as I thought it would be because I had to do a lot of pinning to make sure it was strait as I sewed from the top side. On a wall hanging where you won't see the back I would use the technique again. It leaves a little flap on the edge of the binding which I don't love and wouldn't want on a quilt that was going to be handled. I did the quilting on this using a fill design my friend Lisa used on one of her quilts recently as well as loops and continuous curves. I like the continuous curve design in the triangles but definitely need more practice at it. I have a schnibble in progress that is mostly these same stars so I may use the continuous curves design on that quilt.

Quilting details from Mystery Quilt

This was one of my Q2 goals for the Finish-Along at The Littlest Thistle.

AQG Quilt Show Next Weekend

My Quilts going into the 2014 AQG show

I spent Saturday afternoon adding sleeves and labels to my quilts so they would be ready to hang in the Amoskeag Quilters Guild Biennial Quilt Show next weekend. The show is open 10-4 on Saturday 3/22 and Sunday 3/23 and is being held at Memorial HS in Manchester, NH. Multi-day admission is $6. There are many very talented quilters in this guild and the quilts (over 200 of them this year!) are always beautiful. There will also be lots of vendors, doorprizes, and the drawing for the Guild's Raffle Quilt (proceeds to benefit the Webster House located in Manchester, NH).

WIP Wednesday

Basting in Progress on the AQG Mystery Quilt

I have been basting quilts this week in preparation for a bunch of quilting. The one currently on the table is the mystery quilt for my Guild. I was going to leave it unquilted until after the big reveal at Guild, but that was moved from March to April, so I'm going to go ahead and quilt this, hopefully before the April meeting. 

I'm linking this up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Quilt Retreat

Heidi's Fabulous Sewing Basket (photo by Lisa North) 

In January I was lucky enough to spend 3 days at quilt retreat with my Guild. Several days of sewing, laughing, and hanging out with your friends is one of the best things you can do with a weekend. 

Besides being really fun it was very productive. I made lots of flag quilt units, made all the blocks for my nephew's quilt, paper pieced the first block in a huge tropical quilt I have been collecting fabric for for literally years, and completed about 2/3 of the quilting on my nieces's purple Syncopated Ribbons quilt. I would not have gotten nearly that much of the quilting done if I hadn't been at retreat where there were cheerleaders to keep me going, people to help me figure out where I was going with the quilting design, and cookies to serve as a reward for sections completed.  

Once again there is no denying that quilt retreat (and my quilty friends) are the best!

Guild Mystery - Step 2 Completed

I completed step 2 of the Guild mystery challenge that I got in November. I am liking the fabric choices I made and think this will make a nice wall quilt. Step 3 was distributed in December, so I can move right along to the next step.

Guild Mystery Quilt 2013

Step One Complete!

Our Guild's mystery quilt this year calls for a medium/large print, a light, a dark, and an accent. I helped my friend Lisa pick out her fabrics and decided if I could find the fabrics for the project in my stash I would do it. This excellent New Orleans food print has been looking for a home for years and this mystery quilt is it. There are several size options and I decided to go with the wall hanging. A few squares cut and a bunch of half square triangles sewn completes step one. Directions for step 2 will be distributed at the November meeting.