Quilt Show Sampler Store

 Most of my Saturday consisted of this:

Isn't that a beautiful quilt? it is one of four that Rhonda dropped off last week -- or was it the week before? I think I have lost track of time again. When I wasn't quilting, I was trying to think of things to sew for the Sampler "Store" at the September quilt show. I thought I knew what I was going to do, but someone at the guild meeting had mentioned that table runners do well, especially if they have a holiday theme. Okay, I can do that. I know I had saved a photo somewhere of an easy table runner, but I couldn't find it in my files, so I just started sewing from what I can remember. I am making six of these blocks:

I couldn't quite remember how they go together, so I looked some more and finally found the picture in my phone.

My strip measurements will be a little different, but that will be okay. I also looked through some unfinished projects I had stored away and found this runner.

I don't know if I will quilt and donate this one, or make another and keep this one as a prototype. Anyway, I at least have a start on it and should be able to get two quilted by the end of August.

What I’m Working On

Lots of activity going on here—some of it productive; some not so productive. Hubby is back from Arizona, and the dogs are ecstatic. I’m pretty happy too, but more time is spent on cooking and cleaning up. I also spend the evenings after supper in the family room with him instead of retreating to the sewing room. 

Thursday was quilt guild, and we had an all day workshop on sewing rope-covered bowls.

I did not finish—not even close—and I’m not sure when I will. Maybe never. LOL. 

I also did some brainstorming on what I can make for the quilt show “store”. I have started a few things, but I think I will go ahead and make some holiday table runners as well. I just need to dig out some holiday fabric and see what I have. I know I have some table runner patterns here on the blog that I labeled as “Free Patterns”. 

The plan for today is to finish the quilting on this one:

It’s the Candy Land quilt that was last month’s UFO goal. All my extra quilting time has been dedicated to charity quilts lately, and I decided to load one of mine and get it done. I probably need to make a point of doing that more often.

Yippee! I got both of the three-yard quilts pieced yesterday!

The red one just needed the borders, so that was a quick win. I know I say all the time how much I don’t like doing the binding, but my other not-favorite step is putting on borders. I have let projects sit for months because I was procrastinating about borders. Sometimes it is because I can’t decide what type of border I want; sometimes I want an elaborate, pieced border and don’t want to invest the time; other times I just don’t want to do all the measuring and cutting the long pieces. 

Anyway, I am happy to have these ready to quilt. The weekly and monthly goals keep me semi-accountable on getting things finished. Do you have that one quilting task that will keep you from finishing, and if so, what is it?

To-Do List Tuesday 7-26-22

Did I finish everything least week? Not totally, but progress was made. My number 1 was to finish four customer quilts, and I actually finished two. I wrote about it here. Number 2 was to piece and quilt charity quilts and get binding and pillowcases done for the others. Here’s what I got done:

I still need a pillowcase for the last one; I just need to see what I had left over from the piecIng.

Number 3 was to clean up the shop. I did do some cleaning but I kept messing it up again. I will need to put this one back on the list.

For this week:

Number 1: At least two customer quilts.

Number 2: Finish quilting the two quilts I left on the frame

and get them trimmed. It would be great if I could get them bound too, but not sure that will happen.

Number 3: Piece the quilt kit I bought last week. I got all the pieces cut over the weekend.

Number 4: Finish piecing two charity quilts. This one just needs borders 

and this one needs the blocks sewn together and borders put on

Number 5: Clean my shop, especially the sewing room.

I am linking up with TexasQuiltGal for To Do Tuesday.

Weekend Happenings

It was an uneventful weekend which left plenty of time for sewing and quilting. Bill is still in Arizona, and I ended up watching church on YouTube. On Saturday, I loaded up two charity quilts and did another two-for-one quilting.

It comes down to finding two that can use the same backing, making sure I have a 108” backing in that color, and trying to find two that don’t vary too much in width and height.

Not quite the same length but within and inch or two. I used a yellow backing for these. I didn’t finish the quilting. I needed to get back home and still had a couple more rows to do. I will try and finish it when I get back to the shop, which probably won’t be until tomorrow. Maybe I can go later today; I’ll have to see how it goes.

I also cut out that quilt top I bought Friday, so that will be easy sewing to add to my weekly to-do list. The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning house and cutting out a couple more three-yard quilts. I am still working with some of the reject fabrics. This is one I struggled with:

The color is a little off—it’s a dark blue with light blue and red.

I ended up pairing it with a light blue and a red because of course, red improves everything! These were not reject fabrics:

They are some I bought at Walmart. They are really prettier than the picture; the lighting in my house is not conducive to taking good pictures. I got both quilts cut (from the same pattern), and did some sewing on Sunday—mainly strip sets.

Happy Saturday

 I don’t plan to do a whole lot today…..I was pretty productive the last few days, and that kind of took the (self-imposed) pressure off. I got two customer quilts done.

A crib-sized horse quilt and a king-sized horse quilt. Here’s a shot of the backs:

I spent part of yesterday cleaning up in my shop. This is what the floors look like after three days of quilting:

Fuzz and thread and dust bunnies everywhere. I didn’t finish with the cleaning and may need to do a little more tomorrow. 

I went by the quilt shop to take a box of donuts to the girls, and they only had one of the shop hop quilts left—at a reduced price. You can guess what happened. 

I might have some kind of problem; if fact, I’m pretty sure I do. I haven’t finished the last kit I bought or the two before that, for that matter. I don’t know why I keep doing this. FOMO, I guess. 🙄

It is an easy pattern, so it should go fast, but it will be one more to add to the UFO pile if I’m not careful. There is another kit that I want that I will have to order. I guess I might as well go ahead and order it.

Simple Stars

Here’s a free pattern that uses one layer cake plus 2-2/3 yards of background and makes a quilt that is 64” x 80”.

I really like this one, and the fact that I can use a pre-cut is a bonus for me. Find the pattern here.

Making Binding

I have been working on getting some of the binding done on the charity quilts. I started making binding yesterday and continued today. I find I like using my triangle tool to mark the 45-degree lines where the binding is joined.

I like the 2.5” binding when I am doing them by machine. I tend to use 2.25” if I am sewing the binding down by hand, but for the machine technique, I need a little more wiggle room. I got enough pink made for two quilts and enough red for two more quilts. I use the dual feed on my Janome to do binding which means I have to change the feet. Look what I found in the machine drawer:

It’s a dual feed foot with a quarter-inch flange. I had no idea I had this. I have been using the standard dual feed foot and using the markings on the throat plate to estimate a quarter inch. I couldn’t wait to try it out, but I wasn’t too impressed when I took the quilt off the machine and measured the seam allowance.

Well darn it! That looks more like 3/8” than it does 1/4”. The good news is that I was able to move the needle over to the right enough to get a better seam allowance.

Happy Wednesday

 I really didn’t get that much done yesterday. Our new A/C was getting installed and I was stuck at home until they finished. I did cook some spaghetti sauce since I had all morning to let it simmer on the stove.

I tried to use the rest of the time to cut some more three-yard quilts. I got two cut out, but I am stumped on this fabric:

The problem with these older fabrics is that nothing matches it. The golds and purples that I have are slightly “off”. This is a possibility though:

 

It doesn’t thrill me, but it is okay. I found a sort of a fuschia, but it is pretty obnoxious with the yellows.

I’m not too sure, but I will need to quit trying to get it perfect and just get it cut.

Oh, I did get a customer quilt started this afternoon. It’s 99” x 108”, so it took a little bit to get it loaded and basted. I hope to finish it up and load another one tomorrow. 

To-Do List Tuesday 7-19-22

It was a good week sewing-wise, but not too good goal-wise. I did get five more charity quilts quilted:

Unfortunately, they are not bound and no pillowcases made. I know there are four in the picture; two were identical (the pink and turquoise). 

I also pieced three more.

My other two goals were a big ole "nope". It's okay though. I feel like I got quite a bit accomplished.

I don't know about this coming week. Bill will be out of town, so I should have more free time, in theory at least. I know I have customer quilts starting to stack up, so that will have to be number one.

Number 1: at least four customer quilts.

Number 2: finish piecing two more charity quilts and bind as many as possible of the quilted ones and see if I can get at least a couple of the pillowcases made. 

Number 3: Clean up my work room--in particular the cutting table!

That is more than enough for me. I will be link up to TexasQuiltGal, and I'll be looking forward to seeing what everyone else is working on.

Two for One Day

I challenged myself to figure out if I could quilt two of the charity quilts at once. I thought the batting would be the limiting factor as the quilts are all about 45" wide, and I buy the 90" batting by the roll. I figured I could probably using the batting seam tape and fuse a long piece of scrap batting down one side. I measured the batting after I cut it, and it is actually about 97-98" wide. I had no idea! 

You can see I have plenty left on the sides. I floated the tops since they are not the same length. The backing fabric is 108" wide so that was a no-brainer. 

It did take a little longer to load, and I am having to baste the heck out of them to keep them aligned properly, but all in all, it is working out okay. It's not something I would do on a customer quilt, but for these charity quilts where I am trying to get the maximum bang for the buck, it is a good solution. I am also piecing two more while these are quilting, but I don't like to stay away from the quilting machine too long, so that is not going quite as fast.

I finished Karen's donation quilt (seersucker) and got it off the frame and trimmed this morning. I think she will be happy with it.

We got another three or four inches of rain today. Praise God! This is what it looked like driving to the shop today:

You can see all the water pooled up on the sides on the streets. We are all so glad to get rain.

Rain!

We finally got some rain—not a lot, but any is welcome. I was at my shop all day, and this was my view driving home.

It has already cleared up, but maybe we will get some more tonight.

I got a lot of sewing and quilting done today. Yesterday was kind of a bust—I was distracted all day and kept misplacing things then wondering around in circles looking for what I lost. I ended up joining Bill in the pool around 3pm. I think I just needed some downtime, because I was back at it this morning. The guild president asked me if I would longarm a couple of her donation quilts. She is willing to trade for binding, so that is a good deal for me. I am counting hers as part of my quilting goal, and here is the first one:

Unfortunately, she didn’t have much extra on the backing, and I had to sew some to the bottom and sides so I would have enough to attach my clamps. 

I am still challenging myself to use the leftover fabrics. This orange one is from 1998.

It’s past time for it to go into a quilt. The fish one didn’t have a date, but I’ve never heard of this company, so I am thinking it is old also.

I bought pink and purple to coordinate with this floral, but today I figured out there is no purple in it. 

I have some yellow that I could use instead of the purple.

Is the pink okay with the yellow? If you want to leave a comment and let me know which looks best, I am open to opinions. 

The good news is, I got the orange one completed pieced, the fish are cut out and partially pieced, and the blue one is quilted and off the frame. My challenge for tomorrow is to figure out if I can load two quilts on the frame at once and quilt them simultaneously. I’ve done it with placemats, but we’ll see.

Question

Does anyone know the answer? When I reply to a comment, it posts as anonymous. It never did that before. I am logged into my Google account with my user name. When I try to select anything but anonymous, it boots me out. Please leave a comment if you know how to fix it. Thanks!

Mid-Week Progress

 Oh my! I was like a woman possessed today trying to get as much done as I could.

I did get one of the charity quilts quilted, but I didn’t even take it off the frame. Maybe tomorrow. I am trying to figure out how to quilt two at once. I can use the 108” backing, but the batting is limiting me. I will have to to take some time and piece some together. I mostly cut and sewed today. I got one top done.

The picture may not show it well, but the white squares are baseball laces. I’m happy with it. I have been challenging myself to use some of the “ugly” fabrics from the guild…..I paired this one with a purple and a yellow and I think it will work:

The one on bottom is the one from the guild. I am using the three-yard patterns, and I got half of the blocks done.

The other half are shoo fly blocks, and I got part of them cut out. My rotary blade felt dull so I didn’t finish. I will find a new blade tomorrow before I continue. 

The heat is horrible here; I pray daily for rain. In the meantime, I am trying to water enough to keep my plants alive, but I think it may be too late for some of them. I try to keep the birdbaths full as well as the bugs and the butterflies need water as well as the birds. I looked out the window today and saw a grackle enjoying a drink.

The grackles are totally annoying, but I don’t begrudge them the water. The grass is still fairly green from the rain we had week before last, but it is starting to get really dry.