You might remember in a blog post last week I showed you this UFO. It’s my UFO number 5. I’ve had this out on my sewing room island just waiting for me to have some time to finish it up.
Here is something funny. I pulled this one out and decided to work on it for the last few days of September and then once October 1st came around and Mary at Chicken Scratch Country Threads pulled the UFO number I’d decided if the UFO or it if this project, my #5 would get my attention. Serendipity. Mary pulled #5 so there is no having to decide which project I want to concentrate on. YAHOO!! This one is going full speed ahead.
This came to me in a package from a blog reader as a UFO. It was one of my favorite packages that came in the mail!! I’ve had so much fun with this package and can’t thank that blog reader enough.
I had written about this project and was lamenting because I didn’t have more of the red fabric that the blog reader used when they started this project.
Then another package came in the mail from yet another blog reader and she sent the matching fabric to me. She had gotten it in a box of fabric she bought at an estate sale. The fabric was a perfect match!! I was so excited.
You readers take such good care of me and I appreciate it so much!
Early in the week, I told myself that I was going to spend all of my extra moments during the day in the sewing room. I have so many projects that are started and need that last little umph to get them to the finish line.
Many of you reading this are going to think I accomplished so much…and I did, but it was out of willpower that I did it. I was so ready to move on to other projects. I wanted these all done and for me to have a clean slate to pull out something new or different to work on. Plus I had the impending birth of my grandson to give me that extra push.
You might remember that I finished the quilt tops for my granddaughters Lucy and Lilly. You might also remember that I took the centers with the panel blocks out of the original quilt and made a note to myself that I would finish these and use them as baby gifts. Well…I wanted the mess cleaned up and I didn’t want to pack those centers away leaving me with a UFO so…what did I do?? I finished them.
If I have to make another quilt in this color scheme or with nine-patch blocks for a little while, I think I’m going to scream. I was so ready to be done with the nine patches and these colors.
I do have to say that I’m super happy to report that my 2 1/2″ bright fabric scrap box is totally under control. It might look like a lot to some of you but it’s actually really good. Previous to making all of these quilts, I couldn’t get the lid on the bucket!
From there I didn’t let any grass grow under my feet. I immediately picked up my True Blue quilt. I sewed all of the extra blocks I made last week. You might remember I was debating about putting on a border or making more blocks. Making more blocks won out.
Here I am putting on the last row.
Next, it was time to get the iron out and start ironing…Can you believe I had FIVE tops to iron??
Here is True Blue.
There are two of these that I will gift as baby quilts…
There are two of these for my granddaughters.
After ironing it was back to the sewing room. My deadline project needed a little attention. Row #2 went on. Thankfully there are only 10 rows in all.
I keep trying to work on this little by little and slowly I’m making some progress.
Next, time to make some backings. I had several blog readers suggest that I needed to somehow make my granddaughters’ quilts different so they could tell them apart. I already planned two different backings. It’s the same print only in different colors. I was able to purchase mine at Quilted Twins but it looks like it’s no longer available.
I loaded the first quilt on the frame and…
Finished it. I did straight-line quilting and think it was a great option for this.
I get asked all of the time…YES. I just eyeball it. It’s not perfect and I don’t even try for it to be perfect.
From there… I did the other matching quilt. I forgot to take a picture of it.
Then I made a giant backing piece long enough to be enough for both of the smaller quilts.
On smaller quilts, it takes almost as much time to load them as it does to actually do the quilting. This way I only had to load backing once. You can see the space in between the two quilt tops.
Here they are coming off of the longarm. Rosie is supervising.
From there, I loaded my True Blue quilt onto the machine. You might remember my saying that I got a nice blue sheet from the thrift store. That is what I used for the backing. Even though it was a king-sized sheet, I had to add extra blocks to the back to make it big enough.
My shoulder told me that I better give the work at the longarm a rest so I did and then decided to start binding quilts.
About 2 1/2 hours later, I had the four of them bound. I took them downstairs so I could take pictures…but it was way too windy for that.
Picture-taking will have to wait for another day.
…and that friends was my progress in the sewing room.
I am absolutely thrilled to have accomplished so much.
Next week I hope to start my newly born grandson’s baby quilt. That will be a crumb quilt with free from pieced ABCs around the border. In the past, I’ve had so many people ask me for tutorials on how I do the ABC letters. I’m hoping to work on videos showing you how I do that.
I am also going to be pulling out my Smores UFO and will work on that…hopefully a tutorial will come for using the ruler for those blocks as well.
Last week I ended up getting quite a bit of sewing time in. I went back to my schedule of trying to sew for a bit in the morning and sneaking in a little time however I could. I am learning that even though I anticipate having chunks of time, I never really get them.
Then on Wednesday, I ended up with a sick day. I had felt bad in the night and hadn’t kicked it by morning, so I took the day off from any childcare and people contact. I took a nap in the afternoon…something I never do but still had a good chunk of time to sew.
Here is progress…Last week I left you here with the two quilts I am making for my granddaughters, Lucy and Lilly.
I ended up deciding that I didn’t like the panel pieces in the quilt. Well, I like them but I wanted to make the quilts last longer so they could still use them when they are older, so I opted to take the panel sections out.
This is what I was left with. I did it for both of the quilts.
I will eventually add nine-patch borders to the inner sections and save them for baby quilts that I’ll gift when a new baby comes our way.
From there, I was back to making nine patches.
I had 84 to make…and then they had to be sewn together and added to the center of the quilt.
I accidentally made too many and sewed too many together so ended up with this problem.
I took a row out and got it all sewn together so here is where I am at…
I have not one…but TWO completed tops.
Oh, I am so much happier with them.
It was a pain to take them apart and insert the new section in but in my world, totally worth it.
Next up these need backings made and I need to iron them. All doable.
After that, I took some time to work on the True Blue blocks. I am happy to say I got all 52 of them sewn. Whoot! Whoot!
My hope is that over the next week I can get them sewn together and attached to the quilt.
Besides that, I managed to get a lot of pinning done on my project with American Patchwork and Quilting.
This is a pin-pin-pin project. I keep telling myself to keep working on it little by little and hopefully, those little bits will add up to a finished project.
I did work ahead and have one row finished and sewn together…only 9 more to go.
The project is due in-house by November 1st. I should probably set other things aside and work on this but…I really want to get my granddaughter’s quilts finished so they have them when Buck’s house is finished and they start having overnights with him.
Family is always first with me…even if it means missing a deadline but so far, I’m doing okay. I just need to keep plugging along and making some progress.
So that’s what I am up to. What are you busy sewing?
I’ve had a pretty busy week in the sewing room. It wasn’t as busy as I had hoped but still busy nonetheless.
It started with some dreaded work…Patching jeans. I’ve learned over the years not to complain about patching them and to just do it. These were Karl’s. They didn’t get a fancy patch…just the best I could for everyday use.
You might remember that I made a napping quilt for Georgia, my granddaughter, for preschool. You can read about it HERE.
After I learned that my son Buck and Lora were splitting up, I realized that I wanted to make quilts for his two girls, Lilly and Lucy. These would be for their beds at Buck’s house.
I decided to make something similar for them only the quilts wouldn’t have their names on them. That has been what I’m really pushed to do this week.
I’ve been making LOTS and LOTS of nine patches.
I’ve been trying to use up all of the odds and ends that I have. Here I was using charm squares to make some of the blocks. To do that I put two charm squares right sides together and sewed them on opposite sides.
Then at the cutting table make two cuts. Both should be lined up at the 2 1/2″ line. Make one vertical cut and one horizontal.
