Leap Day and March 1 Sewing

Thank goodness for Leap Day!  Having spent most of the month working on the donation quilts, I didn't get much time to spend on the Patchwork Times February UFO pick (#1) which for me was my Double Wedding Ring quilt. The last time I had worked on it was in the Fall of 2010.

Back then,I had started working on the layout of the center blocks but the had to put them away in favor of other projects.  When I recently pulled them out the box they were stored in, I see I didn't do a very good job of putting it away in an organized manner.  Fortunately,  I had the blog pic to guide me and I reworked the applique block placement.

I had already put pieced rings on one center and got another one done on Monday.  But then I was waylaid by an injury Monday night and Parent Teacher Conferences at DS2's middle school on Tuesday so Wednesday was the first chance I've had to get back to this.  Unfortunately hampered by the injury (to my thumb), it's hard to do any pinning so I spent all day and only got one more done:

But with the ring centers up on the wall, I am getting real excited about this one.  With limited hand mobility and all the curve pinning that needs to be done, I probably can't get much more than one done a day.  So since Judy announced the March UFO Challenge project yesterday, I've come up with a new plan.

The March project is #8 which for me is my "Bouncing Colorblocks" swap quilt that needs to be quilted.

Since I am already 0 for 2 on the UFO Challenge, my plans for March are to not only complete the quilting for the March project but to play catch up on the projects from the first two months as well.  I'd really like to go into April completely up to date.

But since "detour" has been my middle name since last year, of course I already have an adjustment to the plans:  for the next few days, I need to focus on my Crumb blocks:

Jo's last "Crumb Along" reveal day is this coming Monday.  The great thing is these blocks are being freezer paper pieced and don't need any pinning so they are perfect to work on while my thumb is out of commission.  So I'm putting my nose back to the grindstone to try to get something done for March!

NewFOs, a UFO and a Donation

Two finishes this week and both for a good cause.  Back in August 2011, Victoria Findlay-Wolf of BumbleBeans, Inc. and quilt designer Pat Sloan put out a call for more quilts for the BASICS organization that helps transition the homeless to new housing.  I've contributed before and knew I wanted to send another donation.  I had a top on hand that I was willing to donate so figured it would be a cinch to get it quilted up by the late November deadline.

Best intentions aside, that didn't get done.  So I promised Victoria that for the next distribution event, I'd send two quilts.  Of course, then the challenge was what to make.  Fortunately Joann's had a big Winter Warm-up sale in mid Januay at which I found a 2-1/2" strip set of mottled solids and some coordinating background and backing fabric perfect for a new project.  It also helped that right opposite the fabric display was the quilt book display and I was able to find a pattern I liked and even better, it was in a book I already owned.  That resulted in my NewFO for February:  Spinning Tops & Flowers!

It is my variation of the "Spinning Tops" design from Pam & Nicky Lintott's book "Two From One Jelly Roll Quilts".  The Lintott's design had the blocks set right next to each other but I had to add sashing to mine to make the variety of colors I used work.

The second part of the promise was the top I had on hand (the UFO) called "Flowing Silk".

It was a Connecting Threads kit for their "Sweet & Sour" line that I had purchased in 2010 to re-purpose one of the orignal kit fabrics for use in another project.  The replacement fabric, the one in the dark purple columns, and the backing were purchased at Hartdale Fabrics and worked perfectly with the CT fabrics. 

So I feel good:  a NewFO, a UFO and a quilt donation -- it's a triple play!  I had to work right down to the wire because the distribution day is Friday.  I finished up the binding on both and had to launder the quilts on Wednesday and just barely made it to UPS to ship them off for delivery today.

In other NewFO news:  one of my January NewFOs is also finished and has been placed in its designated spot.

I quilted the Civil War Mini Twister quilt on the Sunday before Valentines Day and hung it up right away.  The other January NewFO mini "Pink Ginger Lemonade" is still awaiting hand quilting but hopes are it will also get done and get to join its pals soon. 

Hopefully now I can get back to what I really need to be working on: the PHD and Patchwork Times UFO Challenge projects!


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February NewFo is a Flimsy!

Once again, I have another project for the NewFo list at the end of the month. 

I am supposed to be working on UFOs but this time I have a good reason for this diversion:  this top is going to be quilted and donated to the BASICS Quilt Gather for the upcoming March distribution day.  Last summer Victoria Findlay-Wolf of Bumble Beans, Inc. and quilt designer Pat Sloan teamed up and put out a call for donation quilts for the BASICS organization.  At the time, I already had this top (pictured below) pieced and had planned to quilt it by the November deadline. 

But then I didn't meet the deadline and to make up for it pledged to Victoria to donate two quilts this year as they approached the final 100 quilt goal.  Victoria recently posted an update about the project and an upcoming distirbution day.  Fortunately, the post came just as I was finishing the new top.  So the goal over the next two weeks is to get the two tops I have quilted, bound, washed and mailed out.  For once, going off course has its advantages!

Uh, oh, February's UFO is #1!

Judy posted the number for February today.  And that means, I've got to get back to work on this....

my Autumn Double Wedding Ring that I stopped working on back in December, 2010.

Right now it is here:

Needless to say clearing this box out would do wonders for the top of that bookcase.  I would love to get this one done but am already behind for the year.  Can I do it?  We'll see.........

Pink Ginger Lemonade

I have always wanted to participate in one of Lori's doll Quilt-A-Longs.  Up until now my CW stash was tied up in other projects.  But last year I finally got those projects done (well, to the flimsie stage anyway) and now have stash to spare.  Here is my version of Lori's "Pink Lemonade".  With my deeper pinks and darker gold alternate squares, I decided the taste of mine would be closer to "Pink Ginger Lemonade" and so it is named.

I made my blocks smaller, finishing at 3" because I already have a place to hang the quilt when it's finished and needed it to be smaller than her original design.  I had a choice between two background pinks in my stash and choose this darker one because the other one was directional (a stripe) and I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with that with these blocks.  I also liked that it went with the two charm squares I had of the even darker pink that I also used for some of the blocks and I liked the way the two looked together.  This gold was the only one I had in my stash that worked with the dark pink.  I stretched my churn dash colors a bit using brown, blue, black, burgundy and purple prints for those blocks.

Trying out border choices

When I finished the top, I swore the gold was also the perfect binding fabric but hanging it up along side it, I wasn't as thrilled.  I tried the striped pink background fabric, liking the way the stripe Lori used for her binding looked--but mine was only o.k. and I felt it would add too much pink to the finished quilt.  I also tried the lighter gold fabric, which at one point I liked then later I didn't.  So I have since ordered another gold print with a little white in it that I hope will work for backing and binding.

I'd love to hand quilt this one like Lori did (and use the newly learned skills I gained in 2010), but we will see if that happens.  This was fun and quick and I hope to get to do another in the future!

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NewFOs for January

Although I posted about Barbara's challenge here, I didn't expect to be doing any since I DO have UFOs and am in TWO challenges to finish them!  But a three week stint of jury duty muddled my brain enough to sap my UFO focus and energy and I didn't work on my other challenge projects much.  So what's a girl to do?  Start new projects of course!

My two NewFOs are minis because I figured that they would be quick to make. They were started on Thursday, right after my jury duty stint was over.  By then I only had five days to make my UFO deadlines and with errands to run and other obligations, I really didn't see myself  getting much done on them in that time.  So instead I worked on these babies and over three days, picked out all the fabrics cut and sewed up both.

So the first one is this Mini Twister made with Civil War reproduction fabrics.

It was inspired by the ones made by Jo and Janet.  I have the Large and Small Twister templates from CS Schoolhouse.  I have used the small one to make a doll quilt and helped my MIL make a gift quilt with the large one (sorry, I don't have a picture of that one).   I used the templates as a guide to mark a 2-1/2" square acrylic ruler with the angles (using glow line tape) to cut the blocks for this.  So the finished blocks here are 2" and this top right now measures about 15-3/4" square.  I already have the backing and plan to bind it in the border fabric.  I just have to decide on the quilting.

*Updated 2/1/12
The second one?  Well I hate to be at tease but I can't show you it just yet!  I succumbed to the siren call of Lori's "Pink Lemonade" Quilt Along.  The reveal is tomorrow, so once I've posted there I will update this post with a picture of mine.

I can tell you that I made my blocks smaller than hers--mine finish at 3" and the top right now stands at 12-3/4" x 17".   I'll give you more finishing info after tomorrow's reveal.   You can read more about it here.

The purpose for making these?  I have a featherweight machine displayed in my dining room which is next to my sewing area.

When we moved last year I set this display up to replace the one I had in our old apartment.  There, the small quilt that is now behind the machine, lay on the sewing machine bed.  But now I need to hang it on the wall and it looked too lonely there by itself.  So I decided that I now had a great place for miniature quilt projects and a reason to make some!  I am hoping to do some more in the future and definitely on that list is the "12 Days Of Christmas" mini from Temecula Quilt Company.

Linking up at:

Time To Regroup

Well it's the end of January and I should be showing my challenge finishes on this post but alas have none to report.  I realize that I need to once again adjust my expectations and figure out what I need to do different to get from here to there. The three weeks I spent on jury duty ended up throwing me for a loop more than I had anticipated and I should have planned better to work around it.  While corresponding recently with another quilter I realized something:  last year, whatever I did get done, happened when I was able to FOCUS on a particular project.  Many quilters choose an operative word for the year, and I think this one needs to be mine.  So here are the project updates:

Myra's PHd Challenge

I had intended to to work on the Denim Blue Lagoon quilt project (see item #1 in this post) for my sons to fulfill the first finish of the PHD projects.  I thought it would help even more to join Brenda's (of the Scraps & Strings blog) new String Thing Along.  However, I still haven't worked with the boys to sit and sew the strings for me, so nothing was done on this one.  So next month will be a new chance to try.

My back-up plan was to finally start quilting the UGRR/Pioneer samplers.  But I was still unsure about how I wanted to quilt them.  I've since had a chance to review my "Quilt Whisperer" coursework from 2010 so I feel a little more confident to start "staring my quilts down" and come up with a plan.  This is why I need to have a plan C for when A and B don't pan out!  Perhaps February will be more productive.

Judy's Patchwork Times 2012 UFO Challenge

Judy's number for January was #5.  My projects were to be to quilt Safari Stars and to make the WAK Triptych.  This is the project I most wanted to get done so I am really surprised I didn't do much work on it.  Again, I wasn't prepared for not having the kind of time I usually have to focus on a project.  I did get the first two borders attached around the fabric photo transfer pictures for the Triptych but that's about it. I think the other issue is that the spots these were supposed to hang in when finished have been temporarily taken up by these:

Maybe after the Superbowl on Sunday, I'll be a little more motivated to try to get back to these and get them done.  Meanwhile, I'm really anxious now about what February's number will be since I already need to do so much catching up.

Chronicles BOM

Some of the fabrics for the last Chronciles BOM kit came in but the main red fabric is still MIA.  However, Homestead Hearth is expecting it in in February, so now it is not nearly as long a wait as it was when we were first told this before Christmas.

NewFOs at Cat Patches

I hadn't planned to participate in this since I have UFOs to attend to.  But it turns out the way to get me back to the machine is to throw a new project at me!  Fortunately the two (!) I chose were minis so it took a quick three days to bring them to the flimsie stage.  The first was a mini Twister in Reproduction fabrics:

You can read more about it here.

*Updated 2/1/12
The second, I can't reveal until tomorrow:  I couldn't resist Lori's new doll quilt-a-long called "Pink Lemonade".  I already have my post made but the reveal is tomorrow so I'll update the link when I post it. 

You can read more about it here.  The good news is that when both of these are completely done I can actually check a decorating biggie off my list:  I've wanted to make a few mini quilt projects for display behind my Featherweight machine.  I've been collecting ideas for the last year but these two sparked me enough to get me moving and I am happy about that.

I am looking forward to getting into a better groove in February!