Moving Right Along

 

Some days are really productive; some have a lot of distractions and interruptions. I was gone all day Tuesday, but I made up for it yesterday and worked my way through a lot of pending projects. I cut and sewed enough binding for 4-5 quilts. 

I put a customer quilt on the frame, and while it was quilting, I sat and wound all these bindings onto the rolls. The customer quilt got finished, but I still need to trim it.

Later, I went back to the sewing room and got the borders put on the vintage log cabin quilt. It didn't take long as I already had them measured and cut.

It still doesn't lie flat.....I'm pretty sure it's going to be a challenge to machine quilt. I could hand quilt it, but I think I will have a better chance of keeping it square if I do it on the machine. Plus, I am not fast at hand quilting. 

My Christmas table runner now has a binding.

The coolest part is the size--I didn't make it any particular size--I just used up the charm pack, and let the size be whatever it was. It just fits the top of the hutch in the family room:

Now, I can work on my Christmas decorating. 

Today is the quilt guild Christmas party. Instead of exchanging gifts, we’re each bringing something to donate to Gabriel Project. I had intentions of getting a baby quilt finished and bringing that, but I forgot about it. I will leave a little early so I can stop at the grocery store and get a box of diapers. 

To-Do-List Tuesday 11-28-23

Happy Tuesday! My need to stay busy over the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend paid off for me. I knocked out most of the list plus more.

1) Put the binding on Star of Bethlehem quilt. This is the one item I really needed to get finished and I did! 

2) Finish piecing blue quilt and get fabric for the border(s). Yes! 

And, lucky for me, Quilter's Patch was having a 20% off sale on Saturday, so I was able to get the border fabric.

3) Quilt two more customer quilts. I got one done…..I don’t trim hers because she does fold-over binding.

4) Quilt another charity quilt. The one I had picked out to quilt wasn't very wide, and I was using a 108" backing fabric, so I was able to do two of them. 

5) Put borders on vintage quilts. I got one done, but I think I will need to re-do the borders. I’m not happy with them.

6) Make some more blocks from 2” squares. Yes, I got a few done.

For this week, it will be focusing on borders.

1) Replace the border on the vintage trip around the world.

2) Put borders on vintage log cabin.

3) Put borders on blue quilt.

4) Make more bindings for charity quilts.

5) Bind Christmas table runner and placemats.

6) Put borders on two charity quilts.

I think that’s enough for now. I may try to get some more charity quilts quilted, or maybe one of the vintage ones once the borders are done. It’s going to be a busy week. Today I’m taking stepdad to Lake Jackson, and Thursday is the quilt guild Christmas party. 

I am going to link this to Quilt Schmilt. I hope you have a wonderful week where ever you are reading this!

Two for One Special

I hope everyone had a good holiday. If you’ve been reading long, you may remember I lost my husband last year on thanksgiving day, so it’s a difficult holiday for me. I chose to stay home by myself—I was too emotional to be around other people. I did leave around noon to pick up a hamburger from Whataburger, but I mostly spent the day on the couch watching movies. Other than that one day, I tried to stay busy. 

I really wanted to work on some charity quilts, and I had these two that were very close in size.

The top one is 52” wide and the bottom one is 42” wide, so they both fit on a piece of wide backing. They are both around 60” long.

I’m happy with the way these came out—mostly. The quilting design I chose was quite a bit denser than I would have liked, but one of the quilts wasn’t laying flat, and I needed something that would hold all the poofs down.

It’s pretty flat now. They will be pretty once they are bound. My friend Betty is supposed to come over and help with the binding so I don’t get too far behind on it.

I finished a couple of other projects—I should have pictures in time for To-Do-List Tuesday—and I caught up on some laundry and vacuuming. I need to do some mopping today after church, so I will have to vacuum again. It needs to be done every day because of the dogs. I got ready to run the dishwasher last night and discovered I am out of cascade. I will need to stop somewhere on the way home from church and pick up some. 

To-Do-List Tuesday 11-21-23

Hello Tuesday Friends! I hope you are ready for Thanksgiving. Our weather has turned cool again, which helps me get in the holiday mood. Today, I am going to Yorktown to pick up the jacket patterns for our quilt guild January workshop. I had a few delays on last week’s to-do list, but all in all, it wasn’t too bad.

1) Finish Star of Bethlehem quilt. This one is turning into a have to do as I have poked around long enough. The quilting is finished.....I still need to bind it.

2) Bind charm pack table runner. I am going by the quilt shop today and look for some binding. I haven't been able to find anything here I wanted to use. I found some fabric for the binding, and got it cut and sewn, but I didn't have time to attach it to the runner.

3) Quilt two customer quilts. I only got one completed since I had the Star of Bethlehem on the frame longer than expected.

4) Quilt two charity quilts. Yes. 

They are turning out so nice. I'm trying to make the binding as soon as I trim them and put it with the quilt so it can be done when there is a little bit of time available. 

5) Put borders on vintage quilts. No.

There is always plenty to do, and I need to have a list in order to stay focused. I decided on a purpose for the blue layer cake quilt I started. It will be a perfect Christmas gift for my mom. That means it’s now a higher priority. Here’s the list:

1) Put the binding on Star of Bethlehem quilt. 

2) Finish piecing blue quilt and get fabric for the border(s).

3) Quilt two more customer quilts. 

4) Quilt another charity quilt.

5) Put borders on vintage quilts.

6) Make some more blocks from 2” squares.

Well, today I’m going to Yorktown, and of course, Thursday is Thanksgiving, so we’ll see how it goes. Any progress is good, so I won’t feel bad about not getting everything done.

I am going to link this to Quilt Schmilt. I hope you have a wonderful week where ever you are reading this!

Weekend Update

It was a good weekend! Most of my time was spent on house cleaning and laundry. I’m not sure how one person get so many clothes dirty, but I do. 

I got the quilting finished on the vintage quilt.

I still need to trim it, but the binding is made and ready to be sewn on. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I started on the layer cake I bought at Quilter’s Patch open house. 

I got everything cut and all the sections sewn together. I still need to finish putting the blocks together, and then I will think about a border.

It’s a quick and easy pattern. I hope to get the blocks finished and joined together this week.

Last weekend I sewed 2.5” squares, and this weekend I switched to 2” squares.

All my scrap management, haphazard as it is, generates a lot of squares, and I am feeling a little anxious about using them. I have an idea for the 2” ones, but it will take some effort. It may become a long-term project.

The weather was overcast and rainy after church yesterday, and I ended up taking a nap. I later spent some time looking through these books:

The wedge book has some interesting projects….I thought about buying a 9-degree ruler, but it is a little over $30, and I decided to wait. 

Still Not Finished

I had a delay on finishing the vintage quilt.

There was a pleat on the backing that got quilted down. Of course I didn’t realize it until I had rolled a couple of rows and the pleat was visible on the roller. And, it’s 100” wide, so that’s a lot of stitching to rip out. Julia and Betty helped with the ripping, so it’s done, and I can re-start on the stitching today. I’m anxious to get it finished and move on to other things. 

Betty came over yesterday to drop off some donation tops (and stayed to help rip stitches). I hope to work on the donation quilts soon.

My local quilt shop had their holiday open house this week. It was really nice. 

They had lots of things on sale, plus some freebies. I won a door prize—a quilt book. I wasn’t planning to buy anything, but I couldn’t resist temptation and ended up buying a layer cake to make this:

I have no clue when I’ll get around to making it, but hopefully soon.

Finally on the Frame

Remember these vintage blocks I have been working on for the last month (or maybe longer)?

I finally got the top together, and then I couldn't decide on a border. 

I have a pretty good selection of things that might work.

I like the bright yellow because it really makes the yellow in the blocks pop, but it makes the overall quilt a lot brighter than I wanted it. Still, I could use the yellow as an inner border and maybe a binding? I asked three different friends and got three different opinions, so that didn't help. I finally went with my gut and used the Kona snow for a 1-1/2" inner border, and the pink floral in the front as the outer border. I cut it 5". I would have a liked a wider border, but the top was already 91", and I didn't want to go too much bigger. With both borders, it ended up being 100" square.

Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the border colors match the blocks really well. I'm using Glide mint to quilt it.

I may have breathed a sigh of relief when I got in on the frame and basted down. I'm so relieved to be making visible progress on this, and I really want to get it back to Sue before the holidays. I ended up using that coral Bee Gingham for the back. It is the same pink color as the floral border.

I have a new kitty living under the portable building at my shop. He/she seems to be feral, or maybe just scared. I got a picture through the window while he was enjoying the sun.

My windows aren't clean, so it's not very clear, but he sure is a pretty color. I am back to putting out cat food and water, and the cat food is disappearing pretty fast. He already looks fatter.

Here's a plug for Aldi. I like their tomato parmesan bisque soup, but they were out of it this week. I got the vegetable instead.

It tastes like the tomato, but full of vegetables. Really good, and it's 215 calories for half a jar. The only problem with Aldi is that they don't stock all the things all the time. If it's a seasonal item, they won't have it year round. I guess I could stock up, but I'm not really into that. 

To-Do-List Tuesday 11-14-23

Another busy week.....I knew I had an ambitious list that I wouldn't be able to finish, but as long as the customer stuff got done, I was okay with it. Here's the lineup:

1) Finish up on the Star of Bethlehem quilt. No. Uggghhh....this is taking me forever. I finally chose some fabric for the borders and got them cut, but nothing is finished.

2) Bind charm pack table runner. Another no.

3) Keep plugging away on charity quilts. Yes. I kind of changed direction with what I was working on, but it's all progress. 

4) Quilt two customer quilts. Yes.

5) Bind a customer quilt. Yes. 

6) Put borders on vintage quilts—maybe. No.

And, now it's a new week and time for a new list. I have a feeling my new list will look a lot like my old list. 😉

1) Finish Star of Bethlehem quilt. This one is turning into a have to do as I have poked around long enough.

2) Bind charm pack table runner. I am going by the quilt shop today and look for some binding. I haven't been able to find anything here I wanted to use.

3) Quilt two customer quilts.

4) Quilt two charity quilts.

5) Put borders on vintage quilts.

That's enough for now. I'm feeling the push to get things done as I know next week is Thanksgiving, and life always gets super busy after that until the end of the year. I'm hoping for the best! I am going to link this to Quilt Schmilt. Have a good day where ever you are reading this.

Weekend Update

 

Our weather went from warm and humid to cold and rainy, and now it seems to be stuck in winter mode. We had a dry summer, so I’m sure the rain is needed, but man, is it ever gloomy outside! It’s great weather for sewing. I worked on some of my customer orders on Friday and Saturday. I finally got the binding on Karen’s quilt.

It’s the one that I had to rip out two rows of quilting and change the batting, so I’m glad to have it finished. I still need to use the lint roller on it at least another time. 

I got the quilting and binding done on this charity quilt.

It’s one of the ones I added borders to, and I’m really happy with it. I couldn’t get a good picture because of the dark, gloomy weather….I’ll try and get a better one later.

I also sewed extra borders to this one:

I’m anxious to see how it looks quilted. 

On Sunday, Our Lady of Lourdes had their annual turkey dinner, so another lady and I went over to the community center and ate after church.

I picked up two extra plates for my neighbor and dropped them off on my way home. Once home, I wasn’t in the sewing mood so I changed the bed including the sheets, blanket, and quilt. I put the new vintage quilt on, and it’s a nice change.

I did a load of laundry, ran the dishwasher, and swept and mopped all the hard floors. The dogs had the family room and kitchen all tracked up from the rain. I still need to dust and clean bathroom fixtures, but I ran out of steam. It happens. I managed to get another load of laundry done before I went to bed, and I sewed some 2-1/2” squares together. I made some four patches and some 16 patches.

I don’t have a plan for these yet, but it was something to do. I’ll figure out something to do with them.