To-Do for the week of Nov 23rd-30th:

1. Finish my Reindeer mini quilt and write my November 2021 OMG finish post. √Done
2. Finish my Christmas Present Dresser Runner. √Done
3. Work on a squirrel project that I started a few days ago. √Done

To-Do #1

I finished my Reindeer mini quilt and wrote about it here.

To-Do #2

I finished the Christmas Present dresser runner and on Sunday decorated a table-size metal Christmas tree with the runner underneath and a Christmas Baubles mini quilt behind it. It definitely looks festive but also busy (which is usually not my style, but I make an exception for Christmas because of all the fond memories associated with the various ornaments).

To-Do #3

And for my squirrel project (for anyone not familiar with squirrel in the context of quilting, it is a project that one had not planned on making but all of a sudden jumped to the top of the to-do list), over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I finished two Little Llama mini quilts (pattern by Elizabeth Hartman), each measuring 15.5″ x 20″ that I took to my office yesterday. The ugly tan paint on the wall isn’t the best backdrop for photographing them, but they still make me smile every time I look at them. I named them after my parents. The first one with the turquoise Christmas Carols background is Cleo, and the second with the red background is Jack.

To-Do for the week of Dec 1st-7th:

1. Finish my Turquoise and Grey Sashiko squares and make them into a set of five coasters for my stepdaughter, Alisha.
2. Finish my Black and Gold Sashiko squares and make them into a set of five coasters for my stepson, Drew.
3. Write my December 2021 OMG post.

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal: To-Do Tuesday.

 To-Do for the week of Nov 16th-22nd:

1. Bind my Northern Lights Wonky Stars quilt. √Done
2. Work on my Christmas Present Dresser Runner. √Done
3. Work on my Reindeer mini quilt. √Done
4. Restitch the first Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread that I stitched initially with variegated maroon thread, and stitch the dashed box box around the fourth Sashiko square. √Done

To-Do #1

I did finish my Northern Lights Wonky Stars quilt that measures 36.5″ x 55″. It will go on the lounger in the living room. I love how the Primitive Stars quilting with variegated thread done by Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting mimics the wonky stars.

To-Do #2

I finished the Christmas Present Dresser Runner flimsy and plan to take a photo of it once it is quilted and bound, hopefully in the coming week.

To-Do #3

I also made a little progress on my Reindeer mini quilt and also plan to take a photo of it after it is quilted and bound. Again I hope to get it done this week.

To-Do #4

I stitched the dashed box box around the fourth Sashiko square (top square below) and restitched the first Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread that I stitched initially with variegated maroon thread (bottom square below). I plan to get these finished in early December.

To-Do for the week of Nov 23rd-30th:

1. Finish my Reindeer mini quilt and write my OMG finish post.
2. Finish my Christmas Present Dresser Runner.
3. Work on a squirrel project that I started a few days ago. More to be revealed next week!

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal: To-Do Tuesday.

 To-Do for the week of Nov 9th-15th:

1. Bind the I Spy quilt for a special child in my life who will turn one in December. √Done
2. Start another quick project for my Christmas decor this year. √Done
3. Stitch a fifth Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread. √ Almost Done
4. Spend some time figuring out how I’m going to quilt my Reindeer mini quilt. √Done

To-Do #1

I did finish the I Spy quilt for the special child in my life who will turn one in December (her parents are not comfortable with any kind of specific online reference to her, so I’m respecting their wishes). For info on the pattern, please see this post. Below are the inaugural photos using the mounted curtain rod on the shed. I like the back (second pic) almost as much as the quilt front that features the Robert Kaufman A to Z Animals panel. Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting did her usual lovely job quilting this toddler quilt (41″ x 46″) using the Splash quilting motif.

To-Do #2

I am making a runner for my dresser using the Christmas Present Table Runner pattern by Primrose Cottages on Etsy. Below are the five Christmas Present blocks.

To-Do #3

Here is the fifth coaster almost done with black floss on the gold speckled background. I still need to stitch the dashed box around the design in the middle.

To-Do #4

After pondering for a couple weeks how I wanted to quilt my Reindeer mini, I started simply by quilting mostly straight lines on the outside borders slightly varying the distance between lines. Then I got a little more adventurous, and I hope to share a finished mini next week or at least an in-progress photo.

To-Do for the week of Nov 16th-22nd:

1. Bind my Northern Lights Wonky Stars quilt.
2. Work on my Christmas Present Dresser Runner.
3. Work on my Reindeer mini quilt.
4. Restitch the first Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread that I stitched initially with variegated maroon thread, and stitch the dashed box box around the fourth Sashiko square.

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal: To-Do Tuesday.

 To-Do for the week of Nov 2nd-8th:

1. Bind my North Stars quilt for my sister-in-law, Sharon. √Done
2. Work on my Wolf Abstractions Project. √Done
3. Stitch another Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread. √Done

To-Do #1

I did get my Christmas North Stars quilt done which is primarily for my sister-in-law, Sharon, but it’s also my brother, Bill’s Christmas present. We recently had our shed repainted, so I thought the quilt would look nice against the bright terracotta background. You will probably see more shed-as-backdrop photos as I bought a black curtain rod that extends up to 120 inches that has been mounted at the top of the shed to be able to more easily photograph quilts outside. I’m going to write a blog post later this month that shows some close-ups of Christmas North Stars and the minky backing.

To-Do #2

I also finished the Wolf quilt top quilt that measures 60″ x 65″ for my friend, Laura’s 50th birthday in January using Violet Craft’s Wolf Abstractions pattern. I mailed it off to Rebecca@Rebecca Grace Quilting yesterday for her to work her quilting magic on it. This is the first time I’ve sent a quilt top to Rebecca, and I’m really excited to collaborate with her. Below are a couple photos of the finished quilt top. In the first one, the wolf’s face looks wider because of the angle of the camera shot. The second pic was just a quick snap that shows most of the wolf and more accurately depicts the shape of the wolf’s head and the background grey fabric (Kona Grizzly). I promise to take much better photos when the quilt is finished!

When emailing Rebecca this past week about the progress of my Wolf Abstractions quilt top, she asked me to share a little more about what I meant when I said that I use a basting stitch to help align paper-pieced units or sections that are being sewn together that have odd angles. I use the largest stitch length on my sewing machine which is 5.0 (first photo below), and I fold up the seam allowance to check to see if the pieces appear aligned (second photo). Sometimes the edges align just fine but two seams in the middle aren’t meeting quite right, so I take out the basting stitches and shift things over and sew again which can mean that now one of the edges is a little off. I then decide if I can live with it, and if I can, I sew the seam with my normal paper-piecing stitch of 1.6 and sometimes trim a little from the edge to even it up. A downside of sewing both a 5.0 stitch and a 1.6 stitch on the same seam is little pieces of paper can get stuck between those stitches which I sometimes have to pull out with tweezers and sometimes I leave the itty bitty paper fragments alone.

I’ve gotten much better and faster at sewing together the sections of paper-pieced projects, but it can still stress me out! For me, it’s a task I do when I’m fresh in the morning and have no interruptions. One other tip I can share to make sewing paper pieced sections together easier is to tear out the papers of the inner units that no longer have a seam edge. It reduces the weight and bulk of sewing sections together, which was particularly helpful with this ginormous wolf! Three years ago I wrote a post about paper piecing tips (linked here) that may also be of interest.

To-Do #3

Here is a third coaster done with black floss on the gold speckled background.

To-Do for the week of Nov 9th-15th:

1. Bind the I Spy quilt for a special child in my life who will turn one in December.
2. Start another quick project for my Christmas decor this year.
3. Stitch a fourth Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread.
4. Spend some time figuring out how I’m going to quilt my Reindeer mini quilt.

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal: To-Do Tuesday

Something is wonky with this post. Basically it is repeated in some kind of Edit mode. I tried to fix it, but it became clear after a few minutes that it wasn’t going to be a quick fix. I’ll probably email Word Press sometime soon to see if they can help me out. Now onto more Wolf paper piecing!

 To-Do for the week of Oct 26th-Nov 1st:

1. Work on my Wolf Abstractions project. √Done
2. Stitch a Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread. √Done
3. Write my November 2021 One Monthly Goal post. √Done

To-Do #1

I’ve made some good headway on my Wolf Abstractions project. Overall it’s going well, but I’m glad I’m using basting stitches to first join the pieces together because quite a few have had to be ripped out (or “unsewed” LOL) and re-positioned before trying again.

To-Do #2

Here is a simple Sashiko pattern that looks nice with the black floss.

To-Do #3

 I took a short break from doing large-scale paper piecing and made the reindeer below this past week using significantly smaller paper piecing. You can read more about it in my November 2021 One Monthly Goal post here.

To-Do for the week of Nov 2nd-8th:

1. Bind my North Stars quilt for my sister-in-law, Sharon.
2. Work on my Wolf Abstractions project.
3. Stitch another Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread.

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal: To-Do Tuesday.

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To-Do Tuesday 116 Weekly Progress Update

 To-Do for the week of Oct 26th-Nov 1st:

1. Work on my Wolf Abstractions project. √Done
2. Stitch a Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread. √Done
3. Write my November 2021 One Monthly Goal post. √Done

To-Do #1

I’ve made some good headway on my Wolf Abstractions project. Overall it’s going well, but I’m glad I’m using basting stitches to first join the pieces together because quite a few have had to be ripped out (or “unsewed” LOL) and re-positioned before trying again.

To-Do #2

Here is a simple Sashiko pattern that looks nice with the black floss.

To-Do #3

 I took a short break from doing large-scale paper piecing and made the reindeer below this past week using significantly smaller paper piecing. You can read more about it in my November 2021 One Monthly Goal post here.

To-Do for the week of Nov 2nd-8th:

1. Bind my North Stars quilt for my sister-in-law, Sharon.
2. Work on my Wolf Abstractions project.
3. Stitch another Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread.

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal: To-Do Tuesday.



 To-Do for the week of Oct 19th-25th:

1. Finish my Blakely Sew-Along quilt top. √Done
2. Work on my Wolf Abstractions project. √Done
3. Stitch a Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with another color thread. √Done

To-Do #1

I finished my Blakely quilt top that measures 55″ square this past weekend, actually I mean that I re-finished it. Last weekend I sewed the long sashing strips on and when I thought I was done and had put it on my bed to clip threads and to pick off loose threads and pieces of fuzz, I saw what I thought was a piece of dark fuzz, but it was a HOLE in one of the long sashing strips. So I put it aside and a few days later ripped out that sashing strip, cut another strip (thankfully I had plenty of white-on-white fabric left) and sewed on an unblemished long sashing strip between the third and fourth rows.

To-Do #2

I finished making all the units (not all of them are pictured below) for the quilt that measures 60″ x 65″ for my friend, Laura’s 50th birthday in January using Violet Craft’s Wolf Abstractions pattern. I’m liking how this project is starting to take shape.

To-Do #3

I received my order from the Etsy shop Shiboridragon (link to this coaster kit set here) on Friday so had time to stitch a new Sashiko square. I had wanted to try stitching with a variegated black/grey thread but it didn’t work with the speckled gold background (the grey just got lost in the background), so I used three-strands of plain DMC embroidery floss. I think it definitely has a masculine look which will be perfect for my stepson, Drew.

October 2021 OMG Finish

Yesterday I wrote a post about my October 2021 One Monthly Goal. You can read about it here.

To-Do for the week of Oct 26th-Nov 1st:

1. Work on my Wolf Abstractions project.
2. Stitch a Sashiko square with the speckled gold background with black thread.
3. Write my November 2021 One Monthly Goal post.

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal: To-Do Tuesday.

 To-Do for the week of Oct 12th-18th:

1. Stitch a Sashiko square with the speckled gold background possibly with another color thread. Nope
2. Work on a large-scale paper piecing project that I just started last week. √Done
3. Take the first day of Tara Faughnan’s Small World Quilt online workshop on October 16th. √Done

To-Do #1

Those other Sashiko squares with the speckled gold background have gone missing! I looked high and low for them. Sometimes you just have to take a break from looking for something and see if it decides to reveal itself, but in case it doesn’t anytime soon, yesterday I ordered another set of these Sashiko squares from Shiboridragon on Etsy.

To-Do #2

I am making a quilt that measures 65″ x 60″ for my friend, Laura’s 50th birthday in January using Violet Craft’s Wolf Abstractions pattern. I’m using most of the colorings in pattern cover quilt pictured below but have switched out the blue and green sections. The pattern cover is 9″ x 12″ which provides a nice scale to see how large some of units are. The photo below shows 38 of the 97 units that comprise the quilt top. There is a mirror image of each unit to make up both sides of the wolf.

To-Do #3

I enjoyed Tara Faughnan’s Small World Quilt online workshop on October 16th. I made a couple units using her method that does not involve sewing on the foundation paper pieced template, but for me they’re not as precise as regular paper piecing, so I decide to make one using my tried-and-true paper-piecing method. I plan to watch the recording of the second day of the workshop that will be recorded next Saturday. I know even if I stick to regular paper-piecing, I can learn a lot from Tara especially regarding sewing the units into a completed block. In the pic below the left and center unit are made using Tara’s paper piecing method, and they look just fine, but the one on the right is made with regular paper-piecing, and it’s just a little bit more precise.

To-Do for the week of Oct 19th-25th:

1. Finish my Blakely Sew-Along quilt top.
2. Work on my Wolf Abstractions project.
3. If my order for Shiboridragon arrives in time or if I find my missing Sashiko squares, I want to try stitching another square on the gold speckled background with a variegated black/grey thread.

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal: To-Do Tuesday.