September Update

The blog has been quiet but the sewing machine has been busy! I finally got this quilt, which is a secret gift for my neighbors, to a top.  I need to get this finished because I have a lot of other things besides this to finish up for the 3rd Quarter Finish-A-Long finale that will be linking up at the end of the month.

The quilt I'm making for them is Rochelle Martin's "Morning Catch" from her book "Man Cave Quilts".  Here's what's been happening all month:

Starting the layout and choosing fabrics for the sections (it's all batiks):

 

Establishing the final layout:

Adding the  fish appliques and "fish words" (I changed the pattern's words to ones that represent what people fish for in our area).  The word fabric is a hand dye leftover from another project, the fish are various cotton and batik prints and all were fused on with the edges finished with zigzag stitching:



 

Adding the final border:

The rod applique and the fishing line (couched pearl cotton) are part of the original pattern design.  I added the bobber and tackle box which I got from the "Summer Star" quilt pattern in the book "A Star "4" Every Season" by Kansas Troubles.  Some of the solid fabrics used for these are more of the hand dyed project leftovers, the rest are from a couple Cherrywood "Grab Bags" I purchased at a quilt show a few years back.  The tackle box fabrics are from my flannel leftovers/stash: 

 

 

Finished top viewed from either direction.



 

I already have backing and batting in house so hope to get this layered and maybe even quilted this weekend.  There is also a market bag that's going to be given with this gift which should be quick to cut out and make up as well.  I also need to go through the batik leftovers because I have another quilt (this time a surprise for my DH) that I hope to add some of these fabrics to. 

 

It is chilly today so feels good to be able to stay in and sew.  Hope you have plans for a very quilty weekend too!

August Update, On to September!

The Design Wall is finally EMPTY!!!

With the long weekend, I finally got the borders on the two lap quilts so now all the Civil War repro projects are flimsies and I've managed to whittle down a significant portion of that stash:

Kaye England's Re-Piecing the Past:

Kaye England's Civil War Legacy:

and the CW mini quilts:

Top left:  Inspired by Judy Rothermel's "Hummingbird" in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting. March/April 2004 but using the piecing techniques by Sue Bouchard of Quilt In a Day and the Lazy Angle Ruler.
Top Right: "Reproduction-print Table Topper" from the American Patchwork & Quilting website.
Bottom:  Kathleen Tracy's "One Patch Doll Quilt" from her book "The Civil War Sewing Circle".  I've also got more scraps cut to make the "Soldier's Cot Quilt" from the same book which after displaying it for awhile, I hope to be able to donate it to the Home of the Brave Quilt Project.  
 
When I had finally cleared the wall, I also took an opportunity to throw up the blocks I have accumulated towards my "Scrappity-Do" scrap quilt.  I was encouraged to do this when I saw that Deb of the Stitchin' Therapy blog is also using up her scraps right now to make these blocks.  I been using up my stash and scraps to do all of the recent repro piecing but I've also tried to put some of my scraps towards other projects.  I managed to add a lot of additional blocks to what I had already pieced and these blocks made great "leader/enders" along the way:

Hmm, compared to hers (and the pattern sheet I'm using) mine are really looking a little dull!  The good news is that this lets me know that I need to try to add more color and bold fabrics to my blocks as I go forward and use stuff from other projects.  

For now, I plan to take a break from the repros for a short while before trying to finish them all.  I have a project that I had hoped to get done last week (because the repro projects were supposed to get done much earlier in the week).  It is a project from my 3rd Quarter Finish Along list and is a gift for my neighbors.  I'm hoping to knock it out and then get to quilting all the repro projects.

Speaking of the Finish Along, we're in the final month before reporting and I haven't gotten anything on the list finished!  After such a great second quarter, I'd hate to completely flame out for the third.  So September had better be a big finishing month or I'm toast!

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend and are ready to get back into the swing of things and the start of school for those of you with kids still at home.  I think the Fall is going to busy for me and not just quilt-wise!  Here's hoping that I can continue to whittle down the Phd (Projects Half Done) list and still get some big finishes done by year's end.  Geez, thinking about year's end already?  Where has the time flown?   Happy quilting to all!