To Do Tuesday - Two Days Late!

 I missed  the last two weeks of checking-in with Carol over at "Quilt Schmilt" for "To Do Tuesday".  Now due to technology problems,  I'm two days late to review how August finished up and to set up the agenda for September!

The past couple of weeks were as productive as the weeks that started the month but as always when they were done, there was still more to do!  

I also had a slight interruption as I decided at the last minute to sign up for this year's Free Motion Quilting Summit hosted by Mary Davis of Mary Go Round Quilts.  I had enjoyed last year's summit and picked up quite a few new stitch pattern ideas so joined in while the early registration discount was still in effect.  I'm glad I opted for the "All Access Pass" as I still have some videos from Day 2 and all the ones from Day 3 still to watch.  

So the things I was able to accomplish since my last To Do Tuesday report were as follows:

1.  Add the borders to the QOV top by adding "filler" to the strips sent in the kit.  That got done although it took way more days, time and thinking than planned!  

Then last week there was more to do here as I seemed to have messed up that lower right corner of the borders as you see in the picture.  I don't know why but that was the only border section like that and it was pretty wavy so had to be be opened up, trimmed and re-done.  I also pieced together the binding strips that were provided in the kit which was an easy enough task.  

I contacted the guild's charity quilt coordinator for instructions on where to send it and checking the tracking, see that it arrived in North Carolina on Tuesday.  Next it will be passed on to the guild's longarmer for quilting.  

After it's quilted, my MIL will probably put the binding on it unless they can wait until we go down to visit her in early October for me to add it myself.  The guild's QOV presentation event is in November.

2.  Continue the "Alaska" BOM block making.  

Did well on that too!  As before, I continued to sew up the blocks as I worked on the QOV top.  The good news is that I got them all done for the second month of this self-directed BOM!  

I also sewed up the four scrappy blocks I also cut out.  

So looks like I made the month-end deadline ahead of time for a change!  

3.  Focused on getting the QOV done and on the "Alaska" blocks, I'm not sure if the "Gathering A Garden" backing will get a push this week.  

Well contrary to expectations, once the QOV top was off the design wall, I did finally make  the backing for the "Gathering Garden" top that had been completed in July . 

I basically mimicked the front layout using strips to create the pieced backing.  The light strip will also serve as my label area.  I also already have a simple quilting plan for it.  However, I don't know if it'll move any further forward since I now have two deadline projects I need to work on.

4.  I have now gone back to working on my "New York Skyline" cross stitch project. 

Definite progress on that:  I now have two pages of the pattern completed on this one!   

I still have three more pages to go and figure each will take at least a month.  This means I should get this done by the end of November and then hopefully can display it before the end of the year.  

Speaking of which, I also did some more shopping at my local "At Home" store that is closing and was lucky enough to find the perfect size frame for this!

A $10 score that I'm hoping to mount the finished piece onto the board in the frame.  What I'm not sure at this point is whether I can do that and still have it under the glass or will have to remove it.

So moving forward for the start of September:

1.  I now need to get September's "Alaska BOM" blocks cut and ready for leader/ender sewing.

2.  I will resume stitching on my "New York Skyline" cross stitch project.  However, once again I won't be "monogamous stitching" this month because I have something new I've decided to add to the cross stitch rotation.... 

3.  Continuing work on a new holiday cross stitch project.

The Fat Quarter Shop had done a Quilt and Stitch Along for "Christmas In July" called "Up On the Rooftop".  While I downloaded the free patterns, I hadn't planned to do either since I already have two Christmas quilts that need quilting and had finished last year's "Letters To Santa" cross stitch for CIJ this year.  

However, thinking now about how things will be displayed, I realized that another piece that could go along with "Letters" would help fill the space where I want to hang it.  I also plan to incorporate the "Patchwork Bow" I had made for Melva's "CIJ Blog Hop" into the display as well.

What pushed this to the forefront was that the "called for" fabric was the same used for "Letters" and I had enough of it left over to make up the new one.  Once I saw the finished design, I liked that it seemed like a relatively quick and easy stitch.  I also liked the look of the Classic Colorworks "fancy floss" it was stitched up in.  I like hand dyed flosses but since they are more expensive than DMC I need good reasons to stash them.  Needless to say, this seemed like a good enough reason, LOL! 

Once the threads arrived, I got started on it during the last few days of August and did a little more on Labor Day.  

4. Make a quilt to raffle at the community garden Art Show.  

At our monthly meeting two Saturday's ago, the President of our community garden announced that they'd like to try to hold another of the garden's Art Shows and want me to participate.  A date hasn't been formally set yet but I've thought about my display theme which will be "Fall Quilts".  

Everyone would like me to sell quilts but it's too short notice to think about making something for that.  However, I can make another "9 Fat Quarter Disappearing Nine Patch" to raffle off like last time.  It just so happens that I already had a fall themed FQ bundle that I purchased on a Shop Hop back in 2023.  This design is quick to make and hopefully to quilt with tips from the Summit so I could be ready for when a show date is announced.  

5.  Start work on the Children's Tumbler quilt for the North Carolina guild's donation efforts.  

I had picked up the set of pre-cut tumbers shown above from the Charity Coordinator back in February.  While down there I also got the backing (on the top right).  I had also purchased a light fabric to make more Tumblers and another for a coordinating border fabric.  Unfortunately, I decided to use those in another project so then had to purchase the replacements shown.  

I have the same Accuquilt die that was used for the pre-cuts so plan to cut more out of the light fabric and work out a pleasing arrangement in EQ8 while I work up the raffle quilt on the design wall.  I want to get this one made up and quilted so I can take it down with me in October completed and ready for donation.   I feel like it's a doable project but it means I have to plan it out in order to be sure to stay on track.

So with a list slightly longer than in the past few weeks, I'll stop here so I can amble back over to Carol's Quilt Schmilt and check out the plans everyone else has more promptly posted for "To Do Tuesday" for the coming week!

To Do Tuesday: End of the Month Plans

As July draws to a close, my design wall is full and yet there's still a few more things to try to get done as this month ends!  So with that I'll join in with the others over at Carol's Quilt Schmilt for some "To Do Tuesday" planning for the rest of the week!

Alaska and Other Kaleidoscope Block Designs - Month 1

I'm posting an update on yet another project undertaken this month!  Despite a lot of focus on "Christmas in July" cross stitching and then participating in a Blog Hop, I also managed to squeeze in a little time to finally get this long desired project underway!  

My original plan was to focus on starting work on the Red, White & Blue version of Edyta Sitar's "Alaska" design during "Red, White & June".  However since I didn't get that done,  I've decided that now I will do this project as another of my self-styled "Block of the Months".  I will note this hasn't gone all that great in the past but you know the old saying:  "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again"!  

I'm pleased to say the blocks (on the upper right) for the first month are all done!  I am using Marti Michell's Kaleido-rulers to cut the pieces for the blocks.  As I've pulled out all the information I had gathered for this project, I am also now taking a look at other Kaleidoscope designs.  

In her book "Kaleidoscope ABCs", Marti explores many different designs for Kaleidoscope blocks.  

Since the blocks I made this month are the simple ones with just plain triangles, I picked another design using the same type of block to try making.  Those are the small scrappy Kaleidoscope blocks under the "Alaska" blocks.  I'm doing them as inspired by this design in Marti's book:

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  I am ALWAYS looking for blocks or designs that will use up scraps!  I had decided to make these 5 inch finished as the strips needed for cutting the triangles is 3 inches and I already have a lot of scraps of that size in my Scrap Users box.

Initially, I thought I could then have the option of teaming the blocks with my other overflowing box of scraps:  Charm Squares (5" cut) which would give me more design options.   Unfortunately I had to check myself when I remembered that a five inch finished block means unfinished it's 5-1/2" so actually won't work with the Charm Squares after all.  

No matter, I'd still love the quilt of just the scrappy blocks.  Since I also have a big box of scraps sitting in my space that I need to process,  now I know to also try cutting some 5-1/2" squares that I can try teaming with these blocks.  So this will be another ongoing scrap project.       

A Long Overdue Flimsie Is Now Also Done

While piecing the "Alaska" blocks (as well as the project I made for the Blog Hop),  I was also able to finally put together the top for my "Gathering A Garden" quilt project that has been laid out on my design wall since May --- that's it on the left in the picture at the start of the post.  I used piecing the rows of blocks together for that top as a "leader/ender" for the Kaleidoscope blocks and the Blog Hop project piecing.  I am glad to finally move forward on this project.  I had worked up this design all the way back in 2010 and now can finally get around to completing it.

Plans for the rest of the week:

1.  Recently I spoke to my MIL and found out that the QOV kit to make for donation that I took when I joined the guild back in February is due back to the guild in August!  Uh oh!  

This is another project I had thought I'd work on during "Red, White & June" but didn't so now it's crunch time!  Fortunately it looks to be pretty easy so I'm hoping I can get it made up over the next two or three days so I can get it in the mail ASAP! 

2.  Before we went camping over the July 4th weekend,  I made up another of the Fat Quarter Gypsy - Sew Organized Design "Stacking Pop-up" buckets to use in our tent as a small garbage bag holder.  It's the second one of these types of bucket that I have made, the first one was for my Juki machine's travel kit.  

I have another set of fabrics to make one for my Featherweight's travel kit.  They are pretty easy to make so I think I'll try to get that done this week too. 

3.  Lastly, I need to cut out the next set of "Alaska" blocks as I really want to try to stay on track with this project.

That's it for me!  Once again trying to see if a short list means I can actually get what I plan done!  If you want to see what is populating other crafters "To Do" lists this week, head on over to Carol's Quilt Schmilt for the "To Do Tuesday" linkup and check out all of the fun things that will be going on in crafting spaces this week! 

Quilting Travelogue - Part 1: Piecing, Shop Hop and Cross Stitch

We came back from visiting my MIL in North Carolina last week right into another busy week at home!  My community garden was scheduled to host the annual Fall visit of the Fifth Grade from one of the local elementary schools.  So that meant going in the day before to set up for the visit and back in the next day for their visit.  Then on the following day, staff and volunteers from Bronx Green-up, the community garden outreach program of the New York Botanical Garden came to help us get more of our new garden bed builds built and in place.  We've gotten a lot done since the start of the season back in March!

Then and Now!

After that I needed to recoup from the hard work of the garden days, do some food shopping for the house and follow up with relatives regarding our return which all managed to kill the rest of the week.  

Over the weekend I did pull out a few of the things from the trip and ordered a few things in follow-up to projects or purchases from the trip.  After a few appointments to start off this week,  I am finally, slowly getting back to what I had been working on before I left! 

The trip itself was also busy but very productive.   Here's what I did while we were away:

Piecing

I finished up my "Rainbow Log Cabin Heart" blocks.  These had been started to participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge all the way back in 2021.  I had brought with me the blocks sets for the Turquoise, Orange, Red-Purple, Black and Grey blocks that had been on my design wall since the Summer:

Those done, I realized I needed one more block for the layout.  I had considered a number of options but decided to raid my MIL's scrap stash and made a Brown block:

I also came up with an idea for what to do for the alternate squares so will try to work on that now that I am back home.

My "leader/ender" project for this trip was to start my blocks for Bonnie Hunter's "Shoo Fly Shoo".  This was her annual Leader/Ender project from back in 2019 and I got a few done while making the "Heart" blocks.  

I had liked Bonnie's quilt that was made up of "oodles of blocks" but this past weekend I spied a pattern at Quilting Daily  (they are having a $5 sale until 10/31) that I might prefer to do:

I like this one because it would mean making a whole lot less of the "Shoo Fly" blocks!  After finishing up the "Scrap Vortex" top back in March (and the backing for it is one of the post-trip purchases), I really wanted to continue working down my "string scraps stash" and this would give me another opportunity to use some of them.  Additionally, I've always wanted to make one of these string pieced Lone Stars which would then use up even more strings.  So I think I see a project-pivot developing!    

I did do another bit of piecing but will talk about that when I report on the "Long-Arm Quilting" portion of the trip.

Shop Hopping

We almost completed the whole East Central Region of the All Carolina's Shop Hop.  I've still got to mail in my Hop "Passport" so I can be entered in to win some prizes.  My MIL won a fabric bundle last year after submitting hers!  

We didn't find out until right before we went down that Rocky Mount in North Carolina where my MIL lives also got hit by a tornado during the Hurricane Helene storm period.  The damage while intense wherever it did touch down was no where near what was suffered in Ashville in the Western part of the state.  I was sorry to learn that many of the quilt shops in that area, a few of which I had visited in 2022 while camping along the Blue Ridge Parkway, were greatly impacted by the storm.  

Needless to say I picked up a lot of goodies and we went to three stores I hadn't been to before.  One of them was a store recently opened by a woman I discovered when I attended the virtual Summer Quilt Camp back in July.  

My MIL and I both purchased fabrics to make up the bag patterned in this year's issue of the Hop magazine.  

My MIL plans to make hers out of the fabric designed for last year's Hop.  She already had a few pieces in her stash and found additional prints while we shopped this year.  Mine will be made out of the ones for this year which I purchased while Hopping.  However, neither of us will be making them using the fabrics the same way as patterned in the magazine!  We never got around to working on that project so I'll be keeping this packed up for our next trip back down which is tentatively scheduled for February.    

I had also made this pop-up bin to pack in the bag with my Juki sewing machine prior to us leaving on this trip.

When I visit my MIL,  I set up a little sewing station and wanted to have a handy trash can to use when I come.  I also had brought down my Featherweight machine with me because there was talk of us doing a "Sit-'N-Stitch" session with some other quilters.  I had purchased two of the pop up frames so I could also make one while there to put in my Featherweight travel bag.  

When my MIL saw the first one she immediately wanted to also make one and ordered a frame.  I had one red and black Fat Quarter for the second bin and the plan was to find three more plus fabric for the lining while on the Shop Hop.  However, I only found the lining and two more fabrics I liked for the exterior.  Ultimately, I decided that one of them wouldn't be used to make the can.  Instead I purchased enough yardage of that print as well as another one to go with a panel I already have in my stash.  

And hopefully one day this will become another holiday quilt!

It all worked out since we weren't able to do the quilting get together after all.  I brought the extra frame back home and have since ordered yet another a print that I will use for the whole exterior along with the lining purchased on the Hop.  Since this was another of the projects we wound up not having time to work on, it too will travel back down for the next trip. 

Cross Stitch   

While away, I also got some cross stitching done.  I had taken a few projects with me both to work on while there and during the drive down and back:

Before and a finished After!

These two also traveled down with me....

One was finished and one moved forward!

In my last post, I mentioned that I had finished my latest "snarky" cross stitch piece and hoped to "fully finish" it when I returned.  The good news is I found a great backing print for it on the Shop Hop!

So I am hoping in the days to come to "fully finish" it and get it hung up!

In the next post I'll discuss the quilting part of the trip and a big project that I moved off of my quilty "To Do" list! 

March Recap: Another Month Has Just Blown By!

As my posts recapping the month of February showed, that was a busy month and March has been no different!  

Garden Activities

This year I am taking on the Event Coordinator duties for my community garden's Season Opening/Earth Day event near the end of April.  I've had to reach out to other community organizations to see if they want to participate.  In addition, our garden is replacing all of our wooden raised beds with new (and longer lasting) metal Vego beds so everyone is expected to chip in and help with demoing the old beds and setting up the new ones.  

So the garden has been front of mind this month and will continue to be so during the next one.  

Quilting

For me, with the season opening event now fast approaching that also means I am now back to crunch time on this raffle quilt project:

However, I am once again not sure I will be able to get this (and its companion!) ready in time for this year's opening day event now that I have the event organizing duties also on my plate.    

What I have finally managed to finish is the top for the scrappy strings project I started while away last month:

"Scrap Vortex" is now in the "flimsie" category.  I already have ideas for how I think I want to quilt it but don't have a backing plan as of yet.  Right now figuring that out will not be a priority so this project will probably sit around for a (long) while before it moves further forward.

However, that doesn't mean there isn't new stuff starting!  Having put out a few Blue and White quilts for the change of season to Spring, I realized I could use a few more.  My stash yielded some starter for not one but two projects.  Some filler for one just arrived at the end of last week but the other is already almost a finished flimsie:

This is another American Patchwork and Quilting magazine freebie:  It is the "Roaring Waves" color variation of the "Quake" quilt that was originally published in the Spring 2016 issue of “Quilts and More” magazine.   It's always interesting to see how different fabrics and colors can work in the same design.  

It is a little wider than it is long so I'll be adding small borders to the top and bottom to bring it square using the fabric sitting at the top of it.  Ironically, I had purchased that for use in the other B&W project I was trying to start up.  I may still include some of it in that one too if I have enough leftover.  Since it turned out to go so well with this, I will also use it for the binding.  I also already have ideas for how I want to quilt this but still have to figure out what I am going to back it with.  

Cross Stitch

At the start of March I had three projects going:

I had finished stitching the "Year of the Dragon" in early February so now needed to work on "fully finishing it".  My plan had been to finish it in a lantern design and I had gone through my Asian fabric stash to pick choices for that.

I've gotten as far as deciding on the final fabric and format of it.

The Dragon print in the picture above will be on the back.

And there are plans a foot to finally try making  my own cording and tassels to add to the finishing.

Because things have gotten busy on the garden and quilt front,  I haven't moved forward on that yet.  

For Black History month in February, I had started on two projects.  One was the cross stitch version of the Fat Quarter Shop's "Stronger Together" campaign from last year:

I finished stitching that in the middle of March and now need to think about how I can frame it for display along with the history information provided.

The other Black history month project I worked on was "Harriet Tubman":

Work on this one is still on going and the great news was that it also counted as a March "Women's History Month" stitch.  I've loved stitching on the 18 count Fiddler's Cloth I chose for this.  As a primarily Aida stitcher, I like the way the stitches sit on the weave of this fabric and feel like it gives it a "closer to linen" look.  I definitely look forward to using this kind of fabric for CS projects again.  

At this point it looks like this will also be my focus CS project for the start of April.  That said, I also have things coming for a new stitch along that starts later that month!  So I have no expectations that April will be any less busy!!

February Recap: Part 5 - A Little Finished Or Not Friday Reporting

Happy March to all who are participating in this week's "Finished Or Not Friday" session hosted by the lovely and gracious Alycia of Quilty Girl (and Quilts of Valor)! 

I have two contributions for this last report on the things I worked on in February:  one is "Not Finished" and the other is a very important "Finish" for me!  

Almost A Flimsie

In my last post I talked about attending the big Quilt Con show during a visit to my MIL in North Carolina.  Once that weekend of modern quilts and excitement was over, it was time for my MIL and I to get back to our mini quilt retreat and working on some of our own projects.  

In that post about the show, I talked about using scrap strings to make a cover for the little notebook I used to take lecture notes.  The reason I had those strings along with me on the trip was because I brought this project with me to work on.

It is Abigail Dolinger's "Scrap Vortex" design that originally appeared in McCall's Quick Quilts June/July 2019 but can also be purchased as an individual pattern.   I've long liked this design and was encouraged to finally start it in order to try to participate in Emily Bailey's (of Aunt Em's Quilts) strip quilt challenge that had an early March deadline.  

I had gathered fabrics for the dark corner squares and the first two solid fabric borders but had problems finding a fabric for the third border.  Actually, I found one I really liked in my stash but of course it wasn't enough for what I needed and I couldn't find more of it.  So I was hoping to find an alternative at the show.  Luckily I did!  

The medium gray calico was the fabric I had originally hoped to use for the third fabric border but found the replacement fabric below it in the GE Designs vendor booth at the show.  I then hoped to finish the top before we left NC but only got this far with it by that time.  

Still hoping to make the challenge deadline, I continued work on it once we got back home.  Unfortunately I didn't get it done in time and I still have three sides of the last string border to add at this point.  

And of course, as often happens with scrap projects, it feels like I've still barely made a dent in the string stash!!

A Long Awaited Mystery Finish!

As I had talked about in this recap post, the big task for our little quilting retreat was to try to learn to use the computerized Pro Stitcher Lite software on the Handi Quilter Moxie long arm my MIL had purchased during the shop hop we did on our last visit back in the Fall.  You know how they say two heads are better than one?  Well it must be true because we got some done!  We stitched two of hers...

....and I got one of mine done!  

Long arming done and edges trimmed

This is a big thrill since this top, aptly named for the mystery as "An Oldie But A Goodie" is just that!  I made the top all the way back in 2014 for the last mystery hosted by the Planet Patchwork website before they shut down.  It has been sitting all this time and now it is a lovely and bound finish!!

All that's left of the pretty binding fabric.

I did learn some lessons about long arming through this process.  Loading a quilt on a frame is less time consuming than pin basting but you really do need all that excess batting and backing around the edges of the top both to help with tensioning and to provide space to test your stitch tensions and patterns.  

Setting up your desired pattern to stitch out on your top how and where you want it and learning the mechanics of advancing the quilt, basting it for each advancement and resuming a design if the stitching is interrupted or you need to change bobbins, all take practice to master.  

Bonus lesson from the Quilt Con Show:  We had checked out the Wonderfil Threads booth, particularly their DecoBob 80 and Invisifil 100 Weight threads.  Oh boy, those threads are a wonderful alternative to using monofilament thread on multi-colored tops!  

After seeing the quilted samples in the booth, I purchased two spools of 100 wt. in Beige and light Gray and a spool of the 80 wt in a medium Gray planning to try them out on the "Over/Under" quilt I had struggled with quilting using monofilament last year.   

However, I wound up using the Beige 100 wt. for this quilt and thought it stitched out beautifully over all the many colors of fabrics I used in this top.  My MIL had purchased pre-wound bobbins in the 80 wt. which they carry for all different classes of long arm machines and that was used for this quilt too.  

I used about 1-1/4 bobbins to stitch out the Baptist Fan pattern on this 47" x 60" quilt.  I definitely look forward to stocking up on more of it!  Fortunately, they gave us a list of dealers that sell it in NC and at least one of the shops usually participates in the "All Carolinas Shop Hop" in the Fall which is when we'll be returning for our next visit.  I will definitely have a wish list with me then!  

So that wraps up my doings for February and I am thrilled that it coincided with the first FONF report for March.  Now I can head back over to Alycia's to see what everyone else has going on as the Spring rains come in and prepare the way for the flowers we will see before long!