September NewFO

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date.  Actually, I was very late in getting my September NewFO started, like so late that I only had four hours to work on it before it was October!  But, start it I did, and I have most of the cutting done.  I'm linking up to Cat Patches where you'll also find what others started in September...some of whom are over-achievers and have already finished theirs! :)

My selection of FQs for the project, with the pattern shown.

My background & borders selection.

Bundled after cutting.   42 strips from that back bundled set have been removed and further cut and re-bundled.

The pattern is Grandma's Scrap Bag by Carrie Nelson for Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  It's a scrappy (duh) quilt made from 1930's repros, which I've been collecting for eons awaiting just the right pattern.  I had purchased this pattern a number of years ago, and decided it would be the perfect one to get started on.  While it's easy enough, it took me a few times of reading parts of the instructions to really comprehend what was being said...maybe I should be worrying about my comprehension skills these days!

My 1930's repro collection is still good-sized, but this does use up 23 FQs.  

Why did I bundle the pieces with paper?  OK, well if you did ask this, here's why.  Since I started this so late...8:00 p.m. on 9/30...I figured it'll be going straight to the UFO shelf for a time as I'll need to get started on an October UFO...and I don't want to wait until the last minute.  This way, the components are cut, counted, bundled and labeled, and the instruction sheet is marked.  The only additional cutting that will be needed prior to sewing is with that smaller bundle of 3" white background squares.  They get cut into half-square triangles and I didn't want that bias edge to be exposed, plus it's a whole lot harder to bundle a triangle than it is a square or rectangle.  The borders will have to be cut too, but that of course will wait upon the center being finished.  I'm anxious to sew again, so it may NOT go right on the shelf...we'll see, and I'll keep you posted.

And now, why did I wait until the last minute?  Between "home" stuff with Marty's 24/7 presence & his surgery last Thursday, chores, financial evaluations, Nick's dental appointment, restarting my meetings with my Padawan (quilt student), a few bouts of depression and self-pity and finally getting back into the quilt room, of which the latter just took more time and effort than I thought it would.  The room is 'workable', and I'm trying to make it as efficient as I can while I'm 'forced' to do without the much needed cabinets and drawers...it's challenging, and I'm already thinking of re-arranging a few of the present things as I think it will be best to have the sewing machine set up on the SewEzi table all the time, so that I can use the desk area both for cutting and for my genealogy paperwork.  I'll keep you posted on that process too.

The Hurrier I Go, The Behinder I Get

Does that sound like a familiar refrain?  Frankly though, I don't know that I ever do much hurrying, I pretty much just poke along doing what I do.

So let's see, I'm behind on Sunday Stash Report.  I'll skip it this week since there's nothing in nor anything out. 

I'm behind on Design Wall Monday.  It's completely empty as I haven't worked on any project, so I'll skip that post this week too.

I'm behind on Get It Done 2013 for May, though technically today IS the first of May, so I have till midnight right? I'll add that as a separate post.

And last, I think, and certainly not least, I'm behind on my posting about my NewFO for April and linking up at Cat Patches.  I'm trying to think what I actually did in April.  It seems I was constantly busy with fabric, and I think what was mostly done was cutting up scraps into future projects aside from one finish :).  But I DID give one of those sets of pre-cuts a project number, which that and being kitted was as far as I got on it.  So, that qualifies it as a NewFO and here is April's NewFO project:  a 'duplication' of project #029 shown in my gallery  

Project #029 ~shown for affect~

My new project is #039 and the colors will be pretty similar as most of the logs are cut from the same scraps as the first one.  An entirely different gold is being used for the centers and stars, and a different blue is being used for the sashing and borders.  Can I just say I wish I had a lot more of the original blue, I really liked it for this project.  The photo doesn't really show it very well either.

Today I went to my quilting student's home for her lesson.  She is such a very creative young woman.  For her second quilt she found something online she liked as a basic idea and created her own blocks for a quilt for her young son.  The quilt has a space theme using primarily reds & blues, mostly starry and space fabric along with some plaids - she learned all about those plaid brushed cotton type fabrics that shift a lot.  For the back, she decided to piece it and in piecing it - completely her own design, ended up with a dilemma as she realized that she's going to lose some of the parts she pieced.  Her solution, after we discussed a number of options and possibilities, is to make two quilts since her son has two twin beds in his room, and just use a solid/solid-read fabric for the backs of each.  

I also showed her the basics today of straight line, stitch-in-the-ditch, and free-motion quilting, the latter of which I'm not proficient at and consider myself as a novice and she realizes that's going to take awhile to learn.  She has a little bit of another dilemma with then doing all straight lines, as four of the blocks in the original quilt are large squares featuring a cartoonish space ship - different in each block, and she doesn't want to quilt through the space ships.  The blocks need to have some manner of quilting in them.  She's considering hand-quilting around the ships and a few other objects within the block but she'll ask another person to show her how to do that as I've not hand-quilted, though I could probably teach her some basics from having seen it demonstrated frequently and via internet & book resources.  Time ran out, so we'll see where we are next week.  She already has fabric and a pattern for a third (or fourth given that one turned into two) quilt.  She's having a ball, and I am really enjoying working with her - we inspire each other and I am truly blessed to also grow in friendship with her and the children.  I knew her husband from a creation outings group I was involved in back in the '90s ... oooh, that sounds sooo long ago.

NewFO

My NewFO for March was this little wall hanging that I began at a quilting class on the 16th.  I've posted more details about it here.  

It has joined the ranks of many another quilting project - that being the status of UFO.  Before putting it away though, it will be worked on some more over the next few weeks.  The tree will be outlined in a zig-zagged satin stitch, and of course all the blocks will be sewn together along with the center medallion.  The tree outline will be in green and I thought I had green thread but it isn't out in the open.  I may have it tucked away with another UFO project that I had begun to quilt and didn't finish.

Here is the current progress picture, and I'm linking this up at Cat Patches.

Blocks and medallion pinned to design wall. 

I need to read and find out at what point to remove all that paper in the boy, girl and star blocks, whether before sewing them together, or after.  Using the fusible web to adhere the tree to the background was a piece of cake!  I will also have to select a backing and binding.  I would love to find a candy cane stripe for the binding, or both. 

February NewFO

I didn't get started specifically on a NewFo in February.  However, I did work at cutting logs from my scraps for any future log cabin quilt(s) I may decide to make.  I also worked on cutting the pieces from scraps for spool blocks ala Bonnie Hunter's leaders and enders.  So, in a sense, these are NewFOs.

So here's my February NewFO contribution.

My tub of 1 1/2" strips.

Cutting station with log cabin logs and spool block sets.

Zippered bags with 40 sets each of spool block components; one bag has less as I quit before cutting enough.

I barely made a dent in that tub of 1 1/2" strips, and would have kept at it for a bit longer, but other issues made me realize I needed to put it away for awhile.

Linking to Barbara's Cat Patches for the NewFO. 

January NewFO

I'm taking part in the NewFO Linky party over at Barbara's Cat Patches.  I figured since I enjoy piecing more than quilting, this would be perfect for me, but then I'll have to address my UFO problem ... some where... some day.

For January, I've been working on two different NewFOs, not to mention working on Easy Street during that time.  Easy Street is at the 'finished up to but not including borders (opt.)' point and that's where it'll stay for a good long while.

#1:  I've posted snippets before on this project:  

From the pattern: Bella Luce by Pressed For Time Quiltworks (Pattern designed exclusively for Pincushion Boutique, Davis, CA. c.Mary Hubka May, 2008)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this picture, you are seeing the full size of the main body of the quilt sans borders other than the strips on the left which are the correct width for the borders.  I've mentioned in a previous post that I'm not happy with gold border selection and will be scouting for a new fabric choice, but currently have nothing in my stash that works.  Note in the upper photo that there is an additional fabric that I pinned up this morning - bottom half of the gold border - it is an FQ that I have in a 'kit' for another project, but that's all I have, one FQ, I need 5/8 yard, and I have no name or other identification for it - I would be very happy with that one! Don't you think it looks better than the gold at the top? Oh well.  The main section measures 36.5" x 45.25" raw.  When finished with both borders all around, it should measure 53" x 60".  

I've enjoyed working on this quilt.  It's challenges were in matching numerous straight and angled seams.  The other challenge I faced was being accurate in cutting.  I don't mean that necessarily in the sense of cutting was a challenge - it was easy - but there was NO room for error as I'd purchased an already coordinated fabric set of FQs and if you made even one mistake, you'd be in trouble.  My suggestion, would be if anyone were to make this pattern, or if I chose to make it again at some point, instead of FQs, buy yardage and a little extra just to be on the safe side, especially if you're like me and buy project components but don't start it until years later when you can no longer find the fabric without an extensive internet search - IF you even know the name of the fabric you're looking for!  Also, I would recommend, getting your border fabrics at the same time you buy your other fabrics, something I failed to do, but fortunately was able to find the outer border fabric which matches one of the fabrics used in the center, but the gold border fabric is now an issue as shades being produced have changed.

To this point, it has taken 16.6 hours.  (Yes, I'm a 'bean-counter' by nature, thus I track my time spent making my quilts, to the 10th of each hour - every 6 minutes is 1/10 hour.)  So when someone asks me if I 'sell' my quilts and they're thinking $50 I can laugh in their face - I have family and friends who would think that!)

#2  I've also posted snippets of this one.

From the pattern: Circle of Light designed by Susan Dyer & Nancy Raschka-Reeves, Glad Creations, Inc, Minneapolis, MN

All of the blocks are complete except for a minor correction to the corner of two blocks - helps to thoroughly read and understand the directions.

I personally found this pattern to be challenging as to following the directions, mostly in the cutting process.  I'm not sure I could adequately explain why it was challenging or whether it was just my understanding, or the way the instructions were written.  The pattern gives options for both a 72" x 88" quilt and an 88" x 104" quilt.  I did the smaller of the two sizes.  I'm sure the instructions were intended to give the best layout for cutting given the varying sizes of several units, but it just became too wordy for me.  It called for 1/2 yard cuts of a total of 30 different fabrics, which were then cut in half (like an FQ), and since I used from my stash, some of my pieces were either smaller, or larger, or a combination of pieces that were still able to give me what I needed, so I had to figure out some of my cutting.  There were instructions for cutting from your stash, and alternate background cutting, and alternate ways of sewing triangles - the pattern called for half-square triangle paper which I've never used and didn't have. I also found, again for me, that one of the steps should have been placed in a different order, so that the lesser number of a specific set of blocks would have come out right, but then that might have been due to my earlier misunderstanding of the number of blocks needed, hence those two blocks that need a corner remediation.

I like the look, actually love the look, but I'd have to really want to do another one very badly before I chose to do this pattern again.  It just seems it should have been easier to cut and assemble without having to check the instructions every 5 minutes.  I've invested 41.1 hours working time just to this point.

2013 NewFO Challenge

Barbara at Cat Patches is host(ess)ing a little bit of intimidation fun for the new year. (see the 2013 NewFO button on the left panel of my blog) .  I'm behind in posting and presently too exhausted from coughing to create an exhaustive list like hers, but I will post this one item, and I'll call it my January 2013 NewFO :)

My starting point is Belle Luce.  I've chosen a different colorway than what is shown in the pattern.  While pink is nice, I don't use it much, so I'm going with these glittery blacks and golds.  In addition to the fabrics shown here, I'll need a background and two borders plus the backing and binding - hmmm, maybe I'll start 2013 by increasing my stash rather than using it up.  The stash will be shopped first, but I foresee a shopping trip :)