Quilters Accountability Report 4/28/10

 Checking In.....let's see how I did this week:

Last week's goals were:

1. Finish quilting and bind the Stashbuster Quilt.  Done!
2. Make up the blocks promised for Bumble Beans House Gather -- the deadline is April 30 so got to get moving on those. Done, but less than planned and harder than I thought!
3. Work on at least two UGRR/Pioneer blocks (one from each).  Nope, but maybe I will work on these after posting.
4. Work on two Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks (might be a long shot).  Nope, knew it was a long shot.
5. If I get the Stashbuster done as quickly as I hope, continue the quilting on the Vintage Treasures BOM and (maybe?) have the quilting completed by the next post.  Extra time spent on the house blocks nixed that!

So the good news is that I did get my Stashbuster quilt finished and I am very happy about that.  It is my first Spring Finish finish and another completed project for 2010.

                         Front                                                                                                               Back

This was a project that started as a stashbuster challenge by Judy Laquidara at the Patchwork Times blog (2/23/09 post).  While I do like the quirky funkiness of my finished quilt, I've got to say that it looks quite different from her original design (which is now available on her site as a free pattern called "Out of the Bag").  Judy works only in tone-on-tones and designs her quilts the same way.  Her finished quilt and most of the ones by the quilters who participated in the challenge reflect that.  My stash has mostly prints so that's what I worked with.  My fabric choices and the limitations thereof forced me to eliminate the float for the center blocks and the inner border that were features in the original design.  But in the end it got done and all but the backing and binding fabric from stash.

This top had been finished since last year and was also on my list for last year's Spring Finish challenge.  So this was long overdue to get done.  My hope at the time was use it as quilt stitch practice and since that goal is the same this year, I still got to do that.  I did freehand Fans (on my DSM) for the first time.  A great all over fill (that's why it's a classic stitch pattern) and not that hard but I will say that if I use it again, I need to use a smaller repeat -- I used an 8" repeat which made it hard to keep the arcs evenly curved and spaced as they got to the larger half rounds.

                          Quilting Detail

The other thing I got done this week was to make the blocks promised for the Bumble Beans Basics House Gather.  I thought this would be a simple block to do so I didn't rush even as the deadline (April 30th) was looming.  Well, it's a good thing Victoria posted that she will still be accepting blocks even after the deadline (the deadline is for a chance at a give-away) since these took me waaayyy longer to do than expected.  I seemed to have a complete block (no pun intended) when it came to doing these.  The first block I did was 1/4" too narrow (they are supposed to finish 10-1/2" square).  I made adustments to some of the cutting specs but still managed to sew the next block too small, sewed parts together wrong or decided to change elements at the last minute.  I wanted to do ten blocks but I admit I reached the limit of my perseverence, so will mail these five out tomorrow.  The good news is that these blocks, along with those submitted by others, will be made into quilts that will be donated to a housing charity in my borough (which is why I refused to completely give up although I was tempted to many, many times).   The other good news is that she is arranging with the organization she is working with to agree to accept completed quilts for future donations (for details see here) and I have a top and back ready that I hope to quilt and donate.

The three other blocks I made that "weren't quite right" went into my "Orphan Block Bag" so will one day become part of a scrap quilt or journal cover and won't go to waste! 

So for next week I need to.....

1. 
   
   Finish the quilting on the Vintage Treasures BOM, get the clamshell binding made and finish the quilt.
2. 
   
   Work on four UGRR/Pioneer blocks (two from each).
3. 
   
   Try, once again, to work on two Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks.
4. 
   
   Restart my sons on sewing strings together for their "Denim Blue Lagoon" quilts and cut string pieced and denim triangles for the blocks.

And when you are finished here, check out what everyone else has planned for the coming week at Bari's Quilter's Accountability Report --- or even better post your own!

  

Quilters Accountability 4/21/10

Well, as promised I'm posting to Bari's "Quilter's Accountability" linky.  I have lurked the site before and admired the fortitude of everyone who has posted each week.  I'm hoping to gain some of that resolve -- I signed up for Jacqui's "Spring to Finish" challenge again this year and this time I'd like to make the FIRST deadline since last year it took until the SECOND deadline for me to get anything done!  We have six weeks (until May 31) to finish whatever UFOs, pending projects or interesting "new loves" we wish to get completed.  I know that keeping a weekly "To Do" list will help this process and perhaps insure that I will have something to show when we hit the May 10 halfway check-in.

Ironically, the first project I am working on is one that was on my list last year!  It is the quilt that I made when Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times had her first Stashbuster Quilt-A-Long (the quilt design is now called "Out of the Bag" and is posted on her site here).  It was also my introduction to blogging since you needed to post your finish to participate in a finishers giveaway. The quilt has been layered since last year so I'm hoping this week to get the quilting done.  This was originally meant to be a project to practice my quilt stitching so I am finally getting to do that by trying my hand at free-form Baptist Fans.

So my goal list for the next week is as follows:

1. Finish quilting and bind the Stashbuster Quilt.
2. Make up the blocks promised for Victoria's House Gather -- the deadline is April 30 so got to get moving on those.
3. Work on at least two UGRR/Pioneer blocks (one from each).
4. Work on two Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks (might be a long shot).
5. If I get the Stashbuster done as quickly as I hope, continue the quilting on the Vintage Treasures BOM and (maybe?) have the quilting completed by the next post.

I'm already feeling like there will be finishes this Spring!

Stashbuster Finish!

On February 23 Judy Laquidara issued a challenge to her blog readers to try a project made completely from stash. She also added an incentive -- a a chance to win a pair of Gingher "Glory" scissors for all who posted a completed top.

One of my goals this year is to try to work more from stash (well, actually to work from stash and "Hussies" (HSYs: Haven't Started Yets) since I've purchased quite a bit of fabric and have compiled quite a few potential projects in the last few years. Also I want to try to make more "quick" projects to have on hand to practice machine quilting. So this challenge was right up my alley. This is Judy's design for the project: http://www.patchworktimes.com/2009/03/04/stash-project-revealed/

And here's my finish:

O.k. so I strayed a bit (?!?!) off the design course. One thing I realized early on in my quilting journey was that I like shaded (black tinged) fabrics and the fabrics used for the blocks bore that out. When I put the blocks together, I found the colors to be very rich which made it hard to choose background fabrics. I liked both the red and rust used here so decided to use both as alternating setting triangles! That meant I had to figure out how to incorporate the floating corner patches -- I chose to just make blocks that followed the alternating sequence.

Then the challenge was to find a border print to go with all of this. The print I used was in with fabrics for another project but I liked the way it looked with these blocks. I had to add the inserts in the border since I only had a yard of the fabric and it is directional so I had to make it stretch.

This was a challenge but also a lot fun to do. And it gave me the incentive to start a blog so two for one!