My Small Tumbler quilt is finished! It’s #10 of 10 to be bound and 10 were also quilted during this quilting/binding marathon. This is a UFO that I cut and kitted in GA at our Big Canoe condo in 2014. I didn’t assemble the top until 2016 and it sat for another 4 years waiting for quilting. One reason this one waited so long was I wasn’t sure if I would keep it or not but now I think it’s going to be donated. I’ll hang on to it a little while just to be sure I don’t change my mind. And those straight edges don’t bother me at all. I’m glad I decided to trim them even rather than fuss with binding the irregular edges this time.
It was hard staying focused but I’m in a good place with my goals as we head to Big Canoe. I’ve finished 7 UFO’s this year – goal is to finish 12 each year. I’ve started 12 new quilts and finished 15 – goal is to finish at least as many as I start to keep my total UFO number where it is or lower.
I know a lot of you sew for fun and don’t set goals like I do but for me, it keeps me focused on what I want to accomplish and with all the travel I typically do during normal times, and with having a place in Big Canoe again, I need to stay focused or nothing will get finished!
And I LOVE this one too! Based on a vintage quilt seen on eBay, I fell in love with how the red triangles created the diagonal lines across the quilt and just had to recreate it myself. Pantograph is Ebb and Flow, a favorite of mine to use on Veteran quilts and this one will be donated.
The red fabric I ordered last week came and it will work! That last time I ordered reds online, they were too orange but these are better. I debated whether to take this group of fabric with me this summer but I think I’ve already packed too many projects so I’ll leave these here and will work on the RWB Rails and Friendship Stars later this year.
One more to quilt and one to bind and I’ll be done with my marathon! I’m heading in the sewing room now to piece a back and get Mom’s top loaded on the longarm. It should be a quick easy one to quilt.
My RWB Hourglass quilt is finished. It’s #8 of 10 to be bound during this quilting/binding marathon of mine and I see the end in sight … just one to quilt and two to bind left. This one also happens to be my 5th UFO finish for the year.
It’s a simple quilt based on a vintage one I saw on eBay but I love everything about it! It will be donated.
I decided to participate in Hands2Help this year and chose Quilts for Compassion to send my donations to in large part because they accept quilts of all sizes for men, women, and children, AND they accept crochet blankets. I packed up 6 today, 2 quilts and 4 crochet blankets and will ship them off tomorrow.
The finished quilts and blankets have been piling up around here and I hope to get more ready for donation in the next couple weeks. A few to ship off and a stack to take with me to GA to donate.
I’m having a very lazy day today but I’m hopeful that I’ll rustle up some energy to go into the sewing room later. There’s a quilt ready to load, HeartStrings blocks to piece, and more packing of projects and supplies … I’d be happy to get any of it done today but at least I did get #7 bound! This is a UFO from 2017 and I’m doing better with my UFO goals thanks to the quilting/binding marathon. Goal #1 is to finish as many quilts as I start and I’ve started 12 and finished 12. Goal #2 is to have 12 of those finishes be UFOs each year. This is UFO finish #4 for the year and #5 and 6 just need binding. So I will be all caught up and even a little ahead at the halfway mark.
Fabric for this boxed squares came from a Craftsy kit. I often buy a discounted kit and then use the fabric for one of my own projects. Speaking of Craftsy, now Bluprint. Had you heard they’re going out of business? I’ve done a lot of stash enhancement with them over the last several years including lots of discounted Jelly Rolls and Fat Quarter packs. It’s a good thing I stocked up because I don’t know of anywhere else that sells them for those kinds of prices.
How is it possible that I’ve finished 3 bindings and still have 5 waiting?! I don’t plan to quilt today but I will do some binding and if they finish up with Finn’s grooming and call me before it’s too late, I might get some piecing done.
This is the last of 6 tops I brought from Maine, a 16 patch that I thought was pieced by Jackie but she said no so I’m not sure who pieced it.
And two Strippies are bound one to be donated and one to be gifted to a family member I think.
Shirley’s quilt is done. I don’t have a lot of choice here but the fabric I used for the background and binding on Ruby’s quilt works for the binding on this one too.
Just simple quilting with the walking foot. I don’t do stitch in the ditch quilting at all … I use the edge of my walking foot and stitch along the seams. It’s much easier than staying in the ditch and doesn’t require any marking.
I really like how this one turned out and can see using the idea for a baby quilt.
We started the day off with visitors … I was making masks this morning for Keith and glanced out my window and saw 4 deer in the yard. My photo only caught 3 of them … can you find them all (picture will enlarge if you click on it)? I’ll probably bore you with photos of the deer now …
After finishing the 4 masks for Keith (that’s 30 this week and I still have to make my extra ones), I layered and pinned the doll quilt. I didn’t have any batting or backing here but when I was grocery shopping at Walmart yesterday I took a quick look and found some. Rae is coming tomorrow evening and I wanted to have it finished.
Finn took a nap while I was stitching the binding.
I panicked for a minute or two thinking I was going to have to completely machine stitch the binding down because I hadn’t bought any of my binding supplies but I remembered I had a pill bottle to discard old needles in one of the bins I’d brought with me and I found a needle in it that worked.
I know many of you like to bind by machine but I always sew the binding on by machine and then hand stitch it to the back of the quilt. I prefer the look of a hand stitched binding and it is very durable too. People always tell me they machine stitch them because they hold up better but I’ve never had a hand stitched binding fail on me and my boys have quilts that have gotten rough use and been washed a LOT.
Here’s the finished quilt. Made from leftover bits of the Jelly Roll strips from the puzzle quilt – cut 2.5 inches. Finished size is 18 x 24. I love being able to use these leftovers and little girls love getting doll quilts. Some go to my little girls and some are donated.
Crosshatching was done without marking using the walking foot and my lines are fairly straight. I didn’t do a great job of hitting the 1/4 mark on many of the starts at first but I got better (see the last row in the photo above, the right side lines were done first and the left ones are better placed so that when the quilt was bound, the stitching line ends in the corner where the binding crosses it and not in the seam allowance where the blocks meet.
If you remember, my goal this year is to finish as many quilts as I start … I do include my doll quilts in my UFO number and they count as new starts too so I’m still behind with my current count for 2020 : Started = 8 ; Finished = 5.
I got one waiting for the binding to be stitched down and that will be a quick finish when we get home so I’m behind but not so far behind I can’t catch up.
One last binding done to finish up March. This one was pieced by Mary in Maine and quilted and bound by me. It will go to Maine this fall when I go up for the HeartStrings sew-in (hopefully). Pantograph is Kindle and while I usually photograph quilts outside during the day, I am leaving before dawn and I actually kind of like seeing all the texture from the quilting in this light tonight.
This is a larger 16 patch from a online pattern that I’ve also made several times. The website is no longer active but I found the page in the web archives if you’re interested. It’s perfect for fat quarters!
I did OK for March considering the travel and the other things going on. I finished everything I had on my list to do including completing one UFO of mine and even got a little more than I expected to get done.
pieced the Chisel Star top
quilted 3 tops
bound 6 quilts
made some progress on the pink knit blanket (it’s going slow but there is progress!)
