As I am trying to stay on top of things this year, I am finding that Carol's weekly "To Do Tuesday" link up on her blog "Quilt Schmilt" is helping keep me accountable.
So last week, I had made a list of the "Flexible Four" items I wanted to tackle. How did I do?
#1 and #3. Layer, baste and quilt the Committee quilt top (finished last week) and start work on my friend's memory quilt.
Nope, didn't get to either of these. For the quilt that needs to be basted, I was still debating on which batting to use. Fortunately something I did get done this week has helped make that decision (more on that next).
2. Start the next Committee quilt. As noted in previous posts, these are quilts I am making as gifts for the Steering Committee members of my community garden. I did get the top for the next one done.
 |
| Just a peek for now! |
Once again, I am cropping the picture with just a peek for now as these are gifts. The backing fabrics are also picked and I have a layout.
Ironically, this was the project that I was "flexible" about not working on until this week if I was too busy with the others. However, once I started thinking about the fabrics, it grabbed my attention and held it.
In as much as I love the "9 Fat Quarter Disappearing Nine Patch" design I am using to make these, while the sewing of them is quick, choosing the fabrics and where to place them takes far longer than it does to sew it together! As I noted in the first "To Do" post for this year, I usually would lay the potential fabrics out on the design wall and then print out a picture to cut up and test the final layout. With my printer currently out of commission, I instead imported the fabric images into EQ8 to create potential layouts. Since it is essentially a giant "block", I had to format it in the software as such instead of as a "quilt made up of blocks".
It took a long time to choose which one to go with! What I did do after this one was finalized is type up some notes about what I have learned about this process from the now six tops I have made in this design in the hopes that as I make the next one, I can make the process go a little faster.
#4 was a cross stitch one: start my next cross stitch project for decorating. I only got to do a little prep on this one. The plan is to make this project:
And I had already picked out this 16 count Aida fabric for it with the intention being to make the piece to go into this frame.
The fabric was leftover from another project and the debate last week was whether I could reformat the design and stitch it as one vertical piece. Unfortunately while the piece fabric was long enough to create the three images in the pattern, it was not wide enough as a vertical piece to stitch the images as one long, continuous piece and space them to fall within the frame openings. However it was big enough to split it into three separate pieces to fit the frame openings.
They are all prepped including finishing the edges by serging them.
So this week's "To Do" list is pretty much a repeat of last week's:
Quilting
1. Layer, baste and quilt the Committee quilt top from two weeks ago. Now that I have the second top ready and will soon have a backing for it, I've decided to use the Twin size cotton batting I already have to layer this quilt. I will use the cutoffs to start a "Franken-batt" for the second quilt.
2. Finish the backing and make a "Franken-batt" for the second Committee quilt. If I could get it layered too that would be a plus!
3. Start work on my friend's memory quilt. I admit I am a little worried for this one. My friend's birthday is next month and my DH and I are also due to head down to my MIL's the week before it so at this point, I really need to get this in gear! Even if I can get it just to the point of a designed layout that would be a big plus for this project.
Cross Stitch
4. Start stitching "Happy Home" as my next cross stitch project. Now that I have the fabric prepped, I have to review the pattern and work out the centering of the words and images as individual pieces. Once that's done, I can then start on the stitching.
So that's it for me this week. Now that I've reported in, I'll go over to Carol's Quilt Schmilt blog and check out what every one else will be working on this week!
No comments:
Post a Comment