Back In Black

I'm finally feeling that I'm accomplishing some progress in my UFO's.  No quilts are finished but I feeling I have been moving forward, at least.

I had decided to work on two different UFO's.  You had seen the Sunflower quilt from the last post.  I have appliqued all the sunflower on the body of the quilt.  I have just received the fabrics for the borders and once they are sewn on, I can continue with the appliqueing.

I've got a pile of sunflowers ready.

One good reason not to leave your UFO's unfinished for a long period of time is that it becomes difficult to find the same fabrics you may have used.  I've had to substitute the black fabric in the border for a solid black because I was unable to find it anywhere online or at my local quilts shops.

And you know that I can't work on just one quilt.  I have been avoiding this quilt for a while.  Although I still love this quilt, it is a very complex and tedious one.  But I think it will be all worth it once it is done.  Here's a sneak peak!

I hadn't planned it, but black is predominate in both of these quilts.

Jane

Working On The Next Quilt

After setting the hexagon quilt aside, I pulled out my Sunflower quilt to work on.

Once I had gotten to a point in this quilt, I was thinking that it missing something.  Nothing said "wow" to me.  So I had decided to add more sunflowers to it.

Here is a photo from about a years ago

                                                                     Here is the same quilt from today

Do you notice the additional flowers that were added to the cornerstones?  I'll be adding more along the border once they are placed.

I'm having to make about 40 more flowers for the borders.  That make makes 360 petals to be cut out and appliqued.   Whew!!

Jane  <3 p="p">

Tedium is My Medium

 I've going through my unfinished projects.  Some of them have been so long ago that I don't remember precisely how I was going to finish them. 

This is my sunflower sampler quilt that I think I'll call Sunflower Daze. I have appliqued 52 sunflowers on it.  At the time, I had given myself a headache and was so relieved when I stitched that last sunflower.  And guess what?!  After looking at it again, about 4 months later, I have decided to add about 50 more sunflower!

I don't know why I do this to myself!  I guess it's just the quilt addict in me.  I just can't help myself!  I have cut so many flower petals and centers and now the tedious chore of appliqueing them to the quilt top!!

I'm still working on the Henrietta Whiskers applique.  It is taking me a little longer than I wanted because I am also cutting out the borders.  It's close to being done so it should happen soon.

Now back to more appliqueing!

Jane   <3

Time Out from Sashing Work

 I have been diligently trying to finish the last sashing strip for my Reminiscence quilt.  But it seems such grueling work when I'm this close to being finished with the top.  I've had to set it aside for a short while.

I had recently looked over my Sunflower Sampler quilt.  I still love the applique sunflowers I had put on it, but I still feel that something is missing (besides the borders)...?

upper illustration: quilt as it is currently

lower illustration: added more sunflowers

I had drawn up the quilt on my computer so I could experiment when the layout once again. Will adding more sunflower solve the problem but it that TOO MUCH!? 

This what I ended up with.  Borders and binding included.  I'll let it stew a while since I have to go back and finish with that sashing.  Can't you tell that I ready to move on?

Please leave a comment or some suggestions on what else I may try!!

Jane  <3

A Good Morning Hello

Every morning, I take my boys to school.  But this morning, I had a bit of a surprise in my little garden. 

The sunflowers I had planted are now about 5 feet tall.  Two of them had finally opened up and was showing their bright faces.

It reminded me of a sampler quilt I had been working on a while ago.

It got me thinking about how I want to finish this quilt.  I'd like to add some more appliqued sunflowers around the outside on the border.

But I need to get going on the Reminiscence quilt.  I've got all the blocks finished now and need to combine them with the pieced sashing.  I'm anxious in seeing how it comes together, so photos will be up soon!

Jane  <3

Recent Fabric Venture

Today, I went ahead and made that long awaited trip for more fabric. I can't wait to get these finished so that I may be able to work on some other WIPs.

I had gotten some more fabric for the Sunflower quilt. I wanted to use some to the fabric I had already. I don't know how I had gotten so much. This quilt had started out as a "Southern Indiana Shop Hop "quilt and I may have gotten the extra fabric to complete all the sampler blocks that were available. I had to purchase more blue and black for the sashing (on the left side). The rest is an idea for the border and binding (on the right) that I may use on the quilt.

Another purchase was more fabric for the "Quilt Making 101" sampler quilt. I had chosen the turquoise for the border and the stripe for the binding. What do you think of the border ideas?

And more batiks for the McKenna Ryan "Storybook Farm" quilt. I have just a little more of the fabric to search for.

My younger son will be going on field trip tomorrow and I will have the whole "school" day to myself. I am planning on making a photo tutorial on how to make a "continuous binding strip." With a submission of how you make your own "continuous bias strip," Brye Lynn from sewstitchcreate.com is having a giveaway for a bias tape maker. I will be posting on how I make my "continuous bias strip" for tomorrow's post.

Honestly, I just love Brye. She has a fabulous podcast on her website, very much worth the listen. She resides in Florida and my mother-in-law also lives in Florida. We try to visit the in-law each year so that the boys have an opportunity to visit them and to visit the beaches. Brye and the mil don't live too far from each other, so I'm hoping that I may be able to get a visit sometime! Who knows?!

So, that's all for now. Gonna work on photographing the bias strip method.

Jane

Quilt Preview

Well, here it is. I fixed the mistake that I had made earlier and laid it out on the floor to get an idea of what it will look like. There are five horizontal rows in the body of this quilt and I still have the fifth row to sew on. I still have to design the border. I'm thinking of a patchwork style in the border since I still have a lot of the fabrics left.

My older son will be having two big events coming up in Cub Scouts this month, the Blue & Gold Banquet and the Pinewood Derby. Since this is his last year as Cub Scout, his will be in the "Crossing Over Ceremony" (crossing over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts), along with the other boys in our den. As their Den Leader, I am responsible for decorating a table displaying our projects and accomplishments. So, that's what will be taking up most of my time for the next couple weeks.

But you know that I can't drop the quilting. I'll probably do the scout stuff while my son is at school and when he is sleeping, so it will be a surprise for him, too. Most likely, I try working on the gradation plates for now.

Til later,

Jane

Another Quilt Almost Done!

Here is another quilt I worked on since I have to get more fabric for the Sunflower quilt. I have the body of this quilt constructed and still have the border to part on. It looks as if I will have enough fabric to finish it, hopefully by the end of this week. Once the top is finished, I think this will be the first quilt that I'll attempt the machine-quilt--maybe a simple all-over meandering?

This Christmas, I had received a couple of quilty gifts:

One gift was the quilt pattern "Storybook Farm" by McKenna Ryan. It's a beautiful art quilt and it will give me another opportunity to practice machine-quilting. I just love the Hoffman batiks that are used in this quilt. This is just a portion of the fabric. I will have to look for some more when I get the black fabric for the Sunflower quilt.

Another gift was a collection of gradation fabrics. I had an idea for a quilt that used Dresden plate flowers (I seem to be on a Dresden kick!) with tones that faded from dark to light. In my mind, it really sparkled--that remains to be seen. I have constructed just one of the blocks and I have found issues of shadowing with the black background. I will have to make some modifications with that.
And for the Sunflower quilt...I was planning on posting a photo of what I had so far. But I made a booboo. When sewing the rows together, I had stitched some backwards, and the layout was all messed up. I guess I was in a bit of a hurry. I have ripped that seam out and I hope to have it sewn back together tonight.
And don't let me forget, my son had his basketball tournament this last Saturday. Our school placed with second. In the championship game, the score was 21-22, with the other team turning it over at the last 10 seconds! I'm so proud of our team and my superstar son!
Will try to post a quick photo once the Sunflower quilt is fixed.
Til next time,
Jane

It's Me, Again!

I know, it's been a long time. The last post was in November. "So, what happened," you may ask? Well, not that I am using it as my excuse, that time of the year is always busy. Added to the holidays, both my boys have December birthdays. So things got pretty hectic here. And, it's not that I didn't do any quilting, I did. It's just didn't feel motivated to post anything when my to-do list was so long.

Things are now leveling out. My older son is in his last year of Cub Scouts (WEBELOS II, for those who are familiar with Scouting) and as his Scout Leader, I am trying to get our boys prepared for their "Crossing Over Ceremony" (where they "graduate" from Cub Scouting and "cross over" into Boy Scouts). Also, his basketball season is almost over. His tournament will be this Saturday. After both of those are completed, I will have about a month before baseball will start!! Here we go again!!

You might recognize the block in the photo above. I have been trying to complete the rest of these blocks, I'm planning to combine them with some sampler block. Initially, the block seem fairly easy. Then I designed the quilt with 13 of these applique blocks. I realized just how many flowers I was going to have to applique. There are 13 blocks with 4 flowers...each flower has 9 petals...that's 468 hand-appliqued petals. Get the idea? The fairly easy block turn in to a tedious block with all the petals and petals and petals...

The top is going well. I was thinking that I could get it finished by the week's end. But I realized that I will have to purchase more of the black fabric in the sashing. I may have to make I visit to that quilt shop sometime next week.

My New Year's challenge will be to conquer machine quilting and feel confident about it. I don't know if this quilt will be the first one I'll try, but I know that I have to find a faster way, than my usual hand-quilting, to finish my quilts.

I will try to be better in my posting. I will be back soon to show some new projects I have going (as if I really needed more!). : )

Til next time,

Jane

I Cheated

Today, I've been working on my Sunflower quilt. I'm trying to finish the last few of the pieced blocks and I still have to finish about half of the applique blocks.

I feel alittle guilty. Yesterday, I went to visit my local quilt store to show-off on of my projects. I intended to pick up some refill lead for my Bohin mechanical chalk pencil, but I had left the store purchasing more than just the pencil.


My older son will be participating in basketball this year and I will have to something prepared to take with me to practices and games. I had been collecting Gail Pans's free BOM called "Christmas Wishes." I think it would be perfect to hand embroider the blocks while I'm there (the black blanket stitching on the "Be Attitudes" quilt (shown in an earlier post) was done at games and practices, also).

I had told myself that I wasn't going to purchase another new project...was that bad?

Jane

Shop Hop Quilt 2008

I work on a lot of projects at one time. I get frustrated on one and I have to change my focus on something different. Here is one of my quilts that I am currently working on.

The quilt store in my area hold a Quilt Shop Hop each year. Each store is assigned a quilt block and they sell their mini quilt kit at their store. The idea is to get all the the blocks and make a Sampler quilt. This one is from 2008.

There are twelve sampler blocks and I had made some pieced/applique blocks to go with them. Not sure yet how I will coordinate them together.

Will post another photo once it's all together.

Jane