Whooping it Up for FONF, a lot of FMQ and a WIP Gone!

 It's time for "Finished Or Not Friday" but I also need to shout a big "Whoop Whoop"!  Why is it the supposedly "easy" ones that give you the most trouble?  

I my last post, I was here with this project:

Then earlier this week, I finally got to here:

The quilt I call my "Civil War Strippie" is D-O-N-E!  This was a squirrel moment project that started back in September because I've been obsessed with Edyta Sitar's Laundry Basket Quilts designs since last year's pandemic.  This one is her quilt design called "Cinnamon Stix".  I've also made these:

"California" 2020 Mystery Quilt (top), "Lidia", "Snow Day"

"The CW Strippie" is a queen topper made up of simple Uneven Nine Patches and Rail Fence blocks with wide and narrow sashing strips between them.  I saw the design and loved it!  Then I saw the brown stripe (with enough for the back too!) and the coordinating large pink leaf print and thought this would be an easy, quick quilt to make to use up more of my Civil War repro stash.  So of course the piecing took many more weeks than I thought (helped by the fact that I was working on multiple other projects at the same time).  When I finally had the top done in mid-October, I thought I'd baste it quick and quilt it even quicker when we returned from a trip at the end of that month.  Yeah right!  I didn't start the basting until late in November (those other projects again) and spent almost three weeks pinning and re-pinning when the continuous border/backing I decided to use would just not lay flat!

The fabric I had purchased was pre-washed and I had decided that rather than piecing a separate front top border and backing, I would leave it as one continuous piece.  I won't do that again!  Fortunately, after starching the backing and re-pinning it again, I managed to get it smooth enough to start the quilting.  In fact, I only managed to pick up one very small tuck in all of the back quilting, not bad considering where I started with this.  

And fortunately it is hard to find in the sea of brown stripe!

At this point, it's time to talk about the quilting, so I'm also joining in with the "FMQ Mavericks" over at Muv and Andree's at Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing!

I had come up with what I thought was a simple quilting scheme about mid-way through making the top.  I used my usual threads too:  for pretty much all of my CW projects, Aurifil #5011 blends in perfectly for the lighter fabrics (and was used here across the whole top) and #2370 for the darker ones (used here for the back and "binding").  I am still trying to get back to the comfort level I once had when it comes to free-motion quilting.  I figured I'd employ some help to get there:

I used the "Line Tamer" straight-line ruler with the channel when I needed to make sure I hit the corner block intersections when stitching across the Uneven Nine Patches and the side rails of the Rail Fence blocks.  After trying free-form waves on a quilt earlier this year, I decided to get some rulers for those times when I need the waves to be even and precise.  I used Angela Walters "Elvira" ruler  to stitch them over the wide pink sashing.  For the grid quilting in the top "border", I used a regular straight-line ruler by Accents In Design which I've had for years (this is the only link I could find to one and here is a great review of it).  It has markings that allowed me to evenly space the grid lines without having to mark the lines in advance.

In the centers of the Rail Fence blocks and the narrow tan and pink sashing, I relied on a narrow fill stitch (#4 in the picture above) that I've used before and love.  Dawn Cavanaugh wrote about them in the article "Bitty Border Quilting Ideas" in the March/April 2012 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting.

Edited To Add:  Good news!  If you don't want to buy the whole magazine, APQS has posted a copy of that same article which you can pick up here.

The rulers both helped and didn't:  it took a bit to get the stitching smooth especially when I was trying to stitch backwards from the bottom of a column back to the top.  There is also something to be said for taking breaks.  At least two times after struggling with lots of thread breakage, I came back to it the next day and it was smooth as silk.  Go figure!  Once the quilting was finally done, the finish for this was simple:  backing turned to the front using the Quick Easy Mitered Binding Tool as always when I do this kind of "binding" and then machine stitching it down.

This was at the top of my WIPS-Be Gone list for this quarter as I considered it the closest to being finished.  I am glad to see it done and I think I'll take one more "Whoop!" before moving on!  

Linking up with:

Alycia at Alycia Quilts for "Finished Or Not Friday"

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for "Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?"

Muv and Andree at Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing for "Free Motion Mavericks"

December Is Now Underway!

Now that Halloween and Thanksgiving are behind us, it's time to embark on the final stretch of the holiday season!  As I move towards the end of the year, it's also time to once again re-organize my plans and priorities and figure out what I think I can get done.  

New Ironing Board Cover and Shop Hop Stash Dive

Well, one thing that has already gotten done is to replace my ironing board cover.  The old one was pretty dingy and what better way to head towards a new year than to make your ironing board cover new, shiny and pretty!

Much better!  The old cover had been made up four years ago so it was definitely time for a change.  This little project was helped by the Shop Hop I attended in NC when we visited my MIL back in October.  I had purchased a pretty collage print on the sale rack at Cary Quilting from the MODA  "Sew & Sew" line by Chloe's Closet from a few years back.  

My plans were to use it to make a "sewing/quilting themed" collage-style quilt by fussy cutting some of the sections with sayings on them and surrounding them with other coordinating fabrics.  The additional prints shown here were also purchased at Cary and I picked up a few more at some of the other stops on the Hop.  

However, when I lay the fabric on my ironing board, I realized that a couple of the sayings panels would also fit perfectly on the tapered and wide ends of it and a plan was hatched!   Then while shopping the web for fabrics for another project (more about that later), I came across another "sewing sayings" print by Timeless Treasures.  I thought it would make great inserts in the collage quilt but also realized that it could be used to complete the ironing board cover plans too! 

From this....

....to this!

Definitely brightens up the quilt space!

Blue and White Christmas Decorating Is Ready To Start

Now that December has arrived, I'm pulling out what I have so far for this year's Blue and White Christmas decorating. 

Normally we buy a small natural tree but given the problems we had last year and the new color scheme, I decided an artificial tree was in order for this year.

After some assembly, we'll be good to go!

The plus is that I've now decided to do a red and white scheme for next year so this tree will work for that too!  

The only problem now is that I haven't been able to get the lights I want for it.  I want blue or blue and white lights on a white string.  I've checked a few stores locally and so far haven't found any in that combination.  Also it's only a four foot tree so I really don't need a long string of lights -- only a 50 count set or smaller.  I have a few more local places to check and then to the web it might be!  

WIPS-B-Gone and the CW Strippie

It took two weeks (!) to get this one basted and has taken another week to get it on the sewing table but I'm finally getting to quilting this.  The basting took so long because of my "design decision" to use a continuous length of fabric for the top border in the front and the backing.  That made it a lot harder to baste than expected!  The first two times I tried basting this, I had so many significant  pleats on the back, there was no question that the basting had to be re-done.  

I chalked it up to the fact that the fabric I had purchased had been pre-washed leaving it very stretchy when trying to secure the layers.  For the third round of basting, I decided to starch the backing fabric and now have a new appreciation for those that do that with their fabrics.  This step was also helped by another NC purchase:  when my MIL's guild friend had helped us with our "By Annie" bags, she had also recommended using starch and dispensing it out of one of those beauty supply misters.  My MIL already had her starch in one so I purchased one while down in NC and now transferred my Best Press to it.  

Ironically, I already had one of these for dispensing water when ironing but it does work great with the starch too!  The starching helped a lot on this round of basting -- this time there was only a small section on the upper right side that still had some pleats.  I distributed the remaining excess by unpinning just that section and adjusting only the backing, forming a tuck near the top of the back.  After it was whipped stitched down you could barely see it.  

I called that done and have now moved on (albeit interrupted by the Thanksgiving holiday) to the quilting!  Note to self:  There's a very good reason for using a separate backing!

A New Gift Project

Earlier I noted that I had been shopping for fabrics for a project.  A few weeks ago, I had a watch party with a friend of mine.  We both enjoy a lot of the same popular shows and she had been telling me about "Bridgerton" which aired earlier this year and thought I'd enjoy it.   We finally got together and had fun watching the whole season.  She also gave me an early Christmas gift:

She knows I quilt, had seen my quilts at this summer's Art Exhibit and I had worked with her some years back when I provided my Featherweight for an event she held in her building.  So sweet of her!  For right now, I have it displayed in my quilt space but it will have a prime position on the tree for next year's Red and White holiday!

We've done watch parties before and when we do we plan a menu.  This time around we decided on having chili for the main dish.  She's a big fan of Stagg's canned chili which she gets at Costco.  I made cornbread to go with it and had brought some additional fixings thinking it might need to be punched up a bit but no, it really was delicious straight out of the can!  I took some home to DH and we both agree that we need to get some and add it to our camping chuck box food list.  

When we heated the bowls of food in the microwave, she noted that she had to remember to be careful because sometimes the bowls are hot to the touch once heated.  Bingo, Quilt Gift Alert!!  I knew immediately what my next gift to her would be:  Bowl Cozies!!  Next to Mug Rugs they are the hot quick gift item in the quilting world these days.  Of course, that made me wish I had the space for an Accuquilt Go! Big so I could use their die:

Accuquilt Die #55208

Fortunately there are also many tutorials on the web for making them that don't use die cutters.  I'm going to try the one by Vanessa the Crafty Gemini.  This one works for me because I was only able to get a "tumbler cut" (9" x 14" and a new-to-me pre-cut) of one of the fabrics and that is just the width I need for her method.  And what fabrics will I be using you ask?

Material obsession for all the shows!

I've got fabric related to all of our favorite shows:  "Downton Abbey", "Game of Thrones" and "Bridgerton"!  We also like "Call the Midwife" but so far I haven't seen anything for that translated into fabric --- well other than the usual nursing themed prints.  I already had the DA fabric in house as I had picked up a fabric bundle waayy back in 2015 (!) to use for a BOM project I wanted to do at the time.  I guess that's been curing for a good while, eh?!?  I will have to figure out which prints in addition to the logo print I will use and how I'll incorporate them into the bowl cozy design.  

Our next watch party is going to be for "Sanditon" which I've seen and she hasn't and is pretty much along the same setting and thematic lines as "Bridgerton".  Once I get these made up, I'll set a date with her for that viewing.  Hmmm, maybe I should wait until March 2022 when their new season starts?

Bonnie Hunter's 2021 Quiltville Mystery Has Started

And last but not least, this year's Quiltville mystery began last week!

It's called "Rhododendron Trail" and reflects the colors of the spring and summer flowers that Bonnie sees when she hikes to see the wild ponies near where she lives.  Much like last year, since I have so many prior mysteries that still need finishing, I'm not going to make this one up --- yet!   What I will do after I download the weekly instructions is continue work on the last of the mystery tops I have in progress. 

I started on Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll (Bonnie's 2010 mystery) all the way back in November, 2018.  In the time between, it's been leader/endered with more than a few other projects and I have Parts 1, 2 and 4  completed.  I have the pieces for Part 5 cut but they still need to be sewn.  Over the last two years I have foundation pieced more of the string squares for Part 3 (also leader/ender) but need to trim, sub-cut and re-piece them to add the resulting block to the pile of blocks I already have made for that part.  Even then, I still need to make more! 

The mystery instructions drop weekly and I look forward to seeing the link-ups of people posting what parts they have completed for the new mystery.  I'm hoping that checking in on those will be the perfect prompt for me to give some focused attention to my own project during this mystery season.  The goal is to try to get RRCB to a top by the time "Rhododendron Trail" finishes in January.  

As always, so much to do and so little time!

WIPS-B-Gone Update, Trip Review and New Flimsies

On Monday, Leanne of the Devoted Quilter blogged that as of today, the WIPS-Be-Gone Challenge is at the half way mark!  Yikes!!  

I won't be posting any finishes for this quarter unfortunately.   November is well underway but I'm still unpacking and getting re-settled after our two week trip to North Carolina at the end of October.  My DH and I went to visit his mother for the last two weeks of that month and using up the last of DH's vacation time for the year before the holiday shipping rush starts.  

As I've noted before, my MIL is also a quilter so for me, when I visit her it is also functions as an unofficial quilt retreat!   DH knows that when she and I get together he should be prepared to do a lot of chauffeuring and cooking.  He doesn't mind because when we're in the midst of quilt activities, he is free to binge watch his favorite TV shows and movies which is his favorite way to spend a vacation anyway!  

This was a particularly retreat-y visit for a number of reasons.  We had two planned activities:  first was that it just so happens that we would be down in NC just in time for this year's "All Carolinas Shop Hop"!!  The only other shop hop I've done is "Row By Row" back in 2016 (and which is now called "Quilters Trek").   The "Carolinas Hop" is a two month event that is still going on so if you are going to be in North or South Carolina this month, you can still participate.  We did the first day on Friday of our first week there and a second day the following Thursday.  Needless to say that was a blast!

We limited ourselves to going to shops in what was mapped out in the Shop Hop guide book as the "North Region" and only going to the shops within an hour's drive of where my MIL lives.  Unfortunately that meant that I didn't get to go to Pineapple Fabrics this trip although they are a participating shop.  I wish we could have also gone to some shops in South Carolina too --- maybe next year?  We visited five shops on the first day and four the following week.  There was one shop (Cary Quilting) that I had been to the last time I was in NC and one (Broken Needle) that is the favorite shop of my MIL's guild.  

Who could resist visiting a quilt shop with THIS painted on the side?!?

Every shop we visited was a delight and it's really encouraging to see that all of them are family-owned and headed by women.  Along with a bunch of other great finds (that will hopefully be revealed as I make them up), I picked up kits for three projects featured in the Shop Hop magazine that use fabrics designed specifically for the Hop.

The second planned quilty activity was for my MIL and I to get a coaching session by one of her quilt guild members who is a huge fan of the "By Annie" bag and accessories designs.  She has made most of them (some more than once) so is considered the "go to" person in the guild if you need advice or tips about making any of the patterns.  I had met her when we had visited back in August when I went with my MIL to her guild meeting on our last day there.  

My MIL already had one bag in progress and wanted to make another.  DH and I are strongly considering getting a particular RV which I've learned has a storage space that will accommodate my Featherweight machine.  It also has additional cubbies in the dining area which is where I would sew.  I was interested in making a bag to fit one of them and that I could use to store the machine's supplies.  I decided on making Annie's "Double Zip" bag.  Prior to the trip down, I found the perfect theme fabric for it and purchased all the additional supplies needed to make it.  When I got to NC, I cut the fabric and prepped the bag parts and my MIL's guild friend came by to answer any questions we had about finishing our projects. 

Now all I need is the RV!

The bag wasn't all that hard to make and I used some great advice the guild member gave me on starching my fabrics and how to finish the inside binding for the bag.  It turns out she and her husband are also planning to buy an RV so we had a great conversation about that process too!   This is my first "By Annie" bag and I'm pretty pleased with it.  The "Handmade" leather tag is from Flamingo Toes and I also purchased a Camper Needle Minder to go with it after seeing both on a Pat Sloan video right before the trip and had them mailed down to me in NC.

The bag was a new project so doesn't count towards the WIP list.  However, also while down south I did get a few more WIP things done:  I've FINALLY finished the top using the blocks I made for the GE Designs Hey, June! quilt along from back in June.

This picture is before I sewed on the final borders.

Just like with my MIL's blocks back in August, I tried a few different layouts at home before we headed down south:

In the end, I liked the right-pointing diagonal one (Layout #3 of 5 in the pattern) the best.  Surprisingly when we did my MIL's blocks back in August that too had been one of the layouts we tried (left, below) but ultimately we went with the "Trip Around the World" variation (Layout #4 in the pattern) for hers. 

I also FINALLY made my "Box Trot" top early in the morning on our the last day there (and seen here on my design wall at home).  

I've had this kit since 2015 so technically it's not a WIP but a "Hussy" - HSY - "Haven't Started Yet"!  However, I had brought it with me on the two previous visits to my MIL and now finally got to cut it out the day before the second shop hop day.  I was so tired after that second shop hop round, that I went to bed really early and then woke up at 2 AM the next morning wide awake!  Rather than trying to fall back to sleep, I decided to take up the challenge the kit pattern presented which is that it can be made up in 2-1/2 hours.  I timed it and excluding breaks for "design decisions" and pressing, it took me three which is still not bad.  Afterwards, I still had time to go back to sleep before we headed out on a trip to an Amazon/Target Liquidation Outlet in Raleigh that day.

I expect to do some more work on this one though.  I had changed the patterned layout to one more like the way it was pictured on the original listing for the kit.  However, those changes left me with the extra strip of pieced accent sashing at the bottom right and I'm not sure I like that.  The good news is that despite how long I've had this kit, I was able to find more of the fabric (from the line "Vintage Collection-Lady Claire" by Blank Quilting) that I hope will work for an idea I have for making some changes/additions to the top. 

The last bit of trip sewing I got done (I brought others but didn't get to them) was the last of the CW Scrap Basket handles that needed to be sewn down. 

The plan was to sew them on the drive down.  I had also brought another hand work work project that I was supposed to set up for the drive home.  However, DH and I took turns driving down this time (back in August, he drove the whole way) so I didn't sew on that leg of the trip.  But I did get all the handles done --- when? --- while DH chauffeured us around on the first shop hop day, LOL!  So the good news is that all of the basket blocks are now done and ready to be assembled into a top.  We won't be going back to NC until early next year but I'm already trying figure out what I'll bring to work on when we do!

Soooo, priorities on my list for the next WIPS-B-GONE quarter will be to finish the "Box Trot" top (and maybe even quilt it!), start on some Christmas quilting I still have to do, maybe get the Basket blocks to a top and definitely quilt up the Civil War Strippie top that I finished before we left.

We're not hosting Thanksgiving this year due to the lingering COVID issues so I'm hoping to really plan and focus my quilt work this month and the second-to-last WBG quarter!  Hope you are whipping your WIPS to a finish!!

Design Wall Monday

On the Wall Now: 

I've been working steady on these blocks for the start of October.  The blocks for my version of Edyta Sitar's "Cinnamon Stix" are up on the design wall (and I have run out of design wall space, Lol!).  I have already sewn five of the columns of blocks together so only have three more to go.  They don't take that long to sew together so should be done by tonight.  The sashing strips are cut but I'll need to add just a little more to the ends of the narrow strips.  

I'm also hoping to get the top border/backing fabric pieced together today as well.  I've also already sketched out my quilting plan for it (the paper pinned to the center of the wall) but since we'll be away for the end of this month, it probably won't get quilted until November. 

On the Wall Next:

On the first Monday of this month, I had finished up the last four blocks I needed to make for the GE Designs Hey June! (long-been-over) Quilt Along.  Once "Stix" is sewn into a top, I can put my "Hey June!" blocks up and start figuring out which of Gudrun's layouts to use.  We are headed to North Carolina again next Monday and I'd really love to have it to a top to show my MIL but it might wind up being another project packed to take with us to work on during the trip!

On the Wall Last Week:

I had also finished up my "Wishing Rings" blocks for the month of September the day after I finished the "Hey June!" blocks.  Since I spent September making the "Stix" blocks, all but one of the "Rings" block sets for that month came from the Civil War repro scraps.  I had a few partial block sets (just the center square and corner triangles) for three more sets when I had finished the month so have gone back to digging through the box of scraps I picked up from my MIL in August to complete them.  

The fabric for the rest of the block sets made to bring the October "Daily Blocks" sewing up to date have also come from the scraps box.  I have enough sets ready for sewing through to Monday when we leave.  

When I spoke to my MIL last week she asked me if I needed more scraps.  Of course, the more the merrier!  I'm going to check with her again this week to see how much she has collected.  I need to decide if I should make enough sets from what I already have to take to cover the time we will be away or if I can wait and just use what she has there while we're there.

On the Design Boards:

Speaking of sewing for the trip, I have die cut the last of the "Civil War Scrap Basket" block sets that I had picked out fabric for when I started this project.  It was inspired during last year's quarantine from a project I saw on Cathy's Sane, Crazy, Crumby blog.  I'm sewing up a pair a day this week which will finish up on Thursday.  

The blocks on the right below are all ready for sewing the handles down during the drive down.  The box on the left holds all the finished blocks that have had their handles sewn on other driving trips.  When these are all done, I'll be sewing them into four patches with two squares of their matching fabric just like in Cathy's project.     

I have another project I want to be working on for the drive back.  I'm hoping I can set up at least a block or two before we leave but that may need to be done while we are away.  What's on your design wall today?

Hey June, September's Almost Over!! --- Pt 2

In my last post, I talked about when we traveled down to my MIL's in August.  Both before we left and while we were away, I worked on blocks for my other "inspired during the quarantine project" by Cathy of the Sane, Crazy Crumby blog:  the Civil War Basket blocks:

Although the block parts are die cut (using an old discontinued Accuquilt BOB die) and machine pieced, the handles on these blocks are sewn down by hand.  I made up a bunch of blocks before we left so I could sew them up in the car on the drive down to North Carolina.  I then made two blocks a day during the week we were away to have more hand sewing for the drive back to New York.   

I also mentioned in that post that DH and I had gone camping this month.  We found a wonderful little campsite in Port Jervis, NY

The campground is up on that mountain!

Our campsite set-up

In addition to the campground, the park is full of hiking and biking trails.  We managed to hike three of the moderate trails (taking us both below and above the tree line!) and an easy straight trail in town on the site of what had once been an active transportation canal back in the 1800s.  The park has been managed by volunteers of the town's Outdoors Club since 2016.  We had booked a four night stay but wound up leaving on the third night due to an incoming heavy rain storm.  The CW Basket blocks came along on this trip too as they were perfect for working on by the campfire:

Stitching by the campfire

We will be headed down to NC again at the end of October, so I'll be die cutting and stitching together the last of the fabric block sets I have so they are ready for travel sewing by then.  I'm also realizing now that I had drafted a post about this project when I started it but never had a chance to post it.  I'll update that post which has the full back story of this project when I get this to a top.  That is another entry on the WIPS-B-GONE list!   

Another big thing that happened during this busy summer:  my youngest son left the nest!  He and his girlfriend had gotten a summer sublet in Manhattan that was supposed to be for the months of July and August.  Dutiful parents that we are, we had helped with the move-in at the beginning of July.  All was well and good until my son called to say there had been a change:  turns out the building owner had not been aware of the sublet and so they had to vacate at the end of July!  The good news was that my son and his girlfriend were successful in finding their own apartment in a nice area in Queens and were able to close on it right at the end of July!  So we were once again helping with moving duties and got them settled in for the start of August.   And even though my son hasn't taken all of his belongings to the new digs, needless to say there has been some project stash moving into the freed up space in his half empty closet!   I am also eyeing a move of our house computer and office files to his room to gain the space where it now sits.  I can use that for more quilt supplies storage since it is conveniently adjacent to my current sewing space.

With moving, the final resolution of our car repairs and garden activities keeping us busy in July, in Old News:  my "Hometown USA" project is still on hold (and for details on how this got started, see the "...Or Not Finished" section on this post). 

I was never able to really sit down and collect my thoughts and get a good plan for the stitching.  This one won't be part of my WIPS-B-GONE work unless I get a handle on how I want to proceed.  So this one may wind up being carried forward to next year.

However, having a project on hold doesn't stop a "Dreami" project from beginning!  So in New News: yet another CW repro project has begun.  I can once again blame this one on Edyta Sitar (I just can't quit her!!!).  I saw this design and then saw these fabrics on sale on eBay (top left) and Etsy (bottom left).

Seeing that it was a simple Strippy quilt made up of equally simple Uneven Nine Patch and Rail Fence blocks, my interest was piqued!  I still have CW stash that I'm (supposedly) trying to whittle down and then saw another great deal on Etsy for a scrappy bundle of CW repro 2-1/2" Strips to add to what I could pull from my stash.  So this is where I am now:

The plan for this one is that I have enough of the striped fabric for both that top border and the back so I'm planning to use it as a continuous piece and also attach it to the bottom of the finished center for the bottom binding.  After quilting, I'll bring the sides around to the front to create the finished side binding.  The blocks for this have been added to the "Daily Sewing Queue" along with the "Wishing Rings" blocks and finishing this is now another entry on the "WIPS-B-GONE" list.

Another result of working on this new CW project is that the "Wishing Rings" block sets I'm making up for the rest of September have a decidedly CW theme:

So that just about brings me up to date with regards to the summer.  I'll be spending what's left of September this week, bringing the "Wishing Rings" blocks up to date and using what I need to make for "Hey June!" and the "CW Strippie" blocks as leader/enders.   Happy Fall 'Yall!!