Sunday, June 16, 2019

Squirrel Strikes Again

This post is definitely not about Star Wars (Squirrel, not Empire).  Hah!  My Connecting Threads order arrived Friday, so I pulled out that layer cake. I made two test blocks of “A Formal Affair” mentioned in my last post. Easy peasey.  Then suddenly I had made thirty blocks. Thirty?!

Squirrel! And just like that I have a new project. 

I didn’t neglect my other projects, though. I made one more Double Delight block and finished FMQ on the Farmers Daughter quilt. Well, just the middle. I will solicit help from my friends at a quilt guild meeting tomorrow night. I want suggestions on how to quilt the border. Do you have any ideas?




Thursday, June 13, 2019

Sew Speedy---NOT

Quilting bloggers triumphantly display quilt after quilt they have finished. After all, that's sort of the reason why we blog about our sewing projects--to display our masterpieces. I get so many ideas for patterns, color combinations, alternate border designs and quilting motifs. Thank you to all of you who post pictures of your projects. I truly enjoy them!

My finished quilt volume is not nearly as high as most of the popular quilting bloggers. I have a full-time job and lots of outside interests, so I usually finish only five to seven quilts in a year. But I do enjoy the process.  This year I gave myself permission to work on multiple projects at a time, hopefully leading to me completing more quilts with the leader-ender method. Right now it just feels like I am forever making blocks.

I do not have a finished quilt to announce, so I will just tell you what I am working on.

1. Block of the Month projects

Pat Sloan's Out of this World Block #6 - DONE

June's Blue Rainbow Scrap Blocks - DONE

2. Double Delight - more blocks completed for a cumulative total of 14 out of 50.

3. Autumn Stars / Farmers Daughter fabrics - FMQ done in blocks, need to work on sashing and borders. Once that is done I will post a pre-binding picture.

4. New "Squirrel" is Tri Love Triangles, a 1000 Pyramids style quilt. I found a sale on Moda solids which saved me nearly 50% the cost of the fabric bundle that was no longer available anyway from Birch Organic Fabrics.  The only tedious part of this quilt is all the cutting; I am only halfway done. The stitching will hopefully go quickly so I can present this as a wedding gift for a friend. In between sewing Tri Love, I will finish a few more Lady in the Lake blocks and hopefully add borders to a couple almost-finished flimsies so they can go in queue for FMQ on my midarm.

Do you have a wish list of quilts to make sometime in the future?  I certainly do. My wish list is usually inspired by quilting blogs. There are a few designs that have been on my wish list for several years. One of these was Double Delight by Bonnie Hunter which I finally decided to start late in 2018. Today I noticed FIVE quilts on the list featured plaids, so Plaids are likely to be my theme for 2020. There are also three Christmas themed quilts plus a couple string quilts on my list.

Recently I added another quilt to my wish list.  Connecting Threads had a sale on precuts recently, so I bought a layer cake to make "A Formal Affair" by Creek Side Stitches. Nancy at Grace and Peace Quilting blog made a lovely version HERE. This will probably be my next "Squirrel" project. 

What quilts are on your wish list?