What I’m Working On…

I have a lot of quilty emails that came in.

I had a sweet blog reader work out the math for the Floribunda quilt border.  I have that quilt on my UFO list and have been putting off getting to it.  Hopefully, I’ll pick it up when it’s called as part of my UFO challenge.  I’ll share that with you all when I get to that quilt.  THANKS, Julie!!  She offered that I could share it here on the blog and will once I make the quilt.

I had another blog reader want to know if I wanted to do a swap with my fabrics for Oregon or Bust…another quilt on my UFO list.  I need to pull that out and check to see if I have some to share.

I had another blog reader reach out and send me the link to the first installment of Primitive Gatherings Oh Say Can You Sew Quilt Along.  You can find it HERE.  If you are thinking of sewing this, NOW is the time to print it and save it as the PDF should already have been taken down.  I had told you about the free quilt pattern in an earlier blog post but couldn’t find the first printout.

So, what did I work on this week?  Not as much as last week but still a good chunk of stuff.

I bound a quilt that will be donated sometime in the near future.  Kayla’s students made this quilt top.  I machine quilted it some time ago and then Kayla tacked the binding down but doesn’t like to machine stitch it down.  I offered to do it and did.

From there I clipped the raw edges…

..and washed it.  I’ll show you the finished quilt in another blog post.

I had Carver and Gannon here one day.  They were playing so I decided to start working on getting more hourglass blocks cut out.  I had a bag of scraps here that a blog reader sent to me some time ago.  I’m finally using them.

I ironed them all first and then cut 2″ strips.  I’ll be using my Companion Angle ruler to cut them into hourglass pieces.

While I did that, I cut every piece of this bunch either for the hourglass project or for my scrap bins.  I forget to take a picture of the scraps.  I’m so happy to have a refresh in my scrap buckets.

Here is how far… the hourglass quilt is.  If you remember, this is a project on my UFO list that a blog reader sent to me.

I took a little time and did the first pass of sewing on the hourglass blocks that I cut out. I didn’t bother ironing them at this point.  I have grandkids here all week and will likely iron them one day over nap time.

You might remember that last week I finished a baby quilt and did the machine quilting.  All that was left was to do the binding so I tackled that.

This has a Minkee backing so I used 2 1/2″ binding strips on this.  Typically I cut my strips 2 1/4″.

Kayla brought a couple of projects that she was no longer interested in.  I decided that it would be easier to just finish this rather than find a home for it in my sewing room and forget it.  So I sat down one afternoon and started sewing.

In no time it was a top…

I had a great sheet to use for the backing so I decided I would just load it and keep going with the momentum I had.  Being the quilt is basic, I did some simple straight line quilting.  Many thanks to Mary at Country Threads for ever suggesting straight line quilting.  I love it!

Then it was time to bind.  Kayla made the quilt with mostly shot cottons.  I didn’t have any but I did have a black polka dot.  She had a few polka dot blocks in the quilt so rather than overthink it, I went with it.  I used my third hand binding tool.  I still love this thing so much!!
I did a little video to show how to use it.  I’ve shared it before but am adding it here again in case anyone missed it.

Heather at Purple Hobbies has offered a coupon code to my blog readers.  Anything in the store at Purple Hobbies is 20% for my blog readers if you use the code JoSentMe (all one word).  HERE is the link if you are interested.

I ended up going on and finishing the binding.  I’m trying to talk Kayla into writing a free pattern for this that I can share here.  I figured if I went to all the work of finishing it, maybe she could write a pattern.  We’ll see.

Remember the two awesome packages that came from a blog reader that were filled with UFO projects?  This was in there.

The quilt is batiks…I decided to add a border to it to make it bigger.  These were border options.

I didn’t like the one furthest to the right…I like the one on the left a lot but ended up using the one in the middle.

My reasoning…I had the perfect sheet for the back and it was a great match with the middle one.

I needed to put white borders on and then the outer border.

Here is how it ended up looking.

I loaded it on the machine right away.  I’m really trying to check off as many projects as I can.  If I don’t do things right away, they just sit and I don’t want that.

Another reason I am trying to get this one done is that this week Kalissa asked me for a quilt for a benefit.  The husband of her co-worker has cancer and they were having a benefit for the family.  I figured donating a quilt was the least I could do.

I like to have a couple of quilts on hand for situations like this…so finishing this one up and having it on hand is a perfect idea.

I was really happy with all that I accomplished.  I know this week and likely in the weeks to come, there won’t be as much accomplished.  I have lots of family stuff coming it.  More about that another day…

Before I go, I want to leave you with a treat…Mary at Country Threads Chicken Scratch blog shared this video.  It’s of the new book Connie and Mary have releasing in September.  Oh my.  It looks like I’m going to have to buy another book.  Just push play to watch the video.

Mary said if you are looking for an autographed copy to watch he blog for ordering information that will be coming out in September.  She isn’t doing pre-orders.

If you want pre-orders, you’ll have to do that through Amazon HERE.  I can’t wait to get my book!!