Quilting is in my Blood

I am joining the weekly To-Do Tuesday Linky Party hosted by Chris at ChrisKnits. 

To-Do for the week of April 27th-May 3rd:

1. Quilt and bind my Triple Stars Mini Quilt. √ Done
2. Bind my Blakely-esque Sunset Quilt. √ Done
3. Finish my current paper-pieced project that celebrates the accomplishment of one of my family members. √ Done

To-Do #1

I quilted Triple Stars with diagonal lines and then machine stitched the binding down on both sides. It sure is quicker than hand-stitching the binding and for a project that I’m going to keep where the back faces a wall, I don’t feel like the binding has be perfect. I haven’t taken a photo of it yet. I had hoped to get one on Monday, but it was a dreary, rainy day—though in the Southwest, we like dreary, rainy days as we are going to be in drought-like conditions again if we don’t get more moisture.

To-Do #2

I asked Jessica at @sugarmillquilts to do the longarm quilting for me for my Blakely-esque  Sunset quilt because she offers a quick turn-around and does lovely quilting. We put this 55” square quilt on the lounger in living room, and the cats have given it a Paws Up. Below is a photo of Weebles enjoying the new quilt.

To-Do #3

My great-niece, Rachel, who lives in Michigan is getting her RN on May 14th. I decided to make her a 14” x 18.5” mini to celebrate this awesome accomplishment. I found a paper-pieced vintage nurse pattern on Etsy. Most of this pattern went together easily though there were two Y-seams required that weren’t mentioned in the pattern description and the instructions for the red cross on the bodice were confusing and I ended up needing to fudge that part to make it work. I also did some simple embroidery on Nurse Rachel’s face. The quilting is also simple. I used a white Chaco liner to mark the straight quilting lines on the purple fabric but decided to try using a Hera marker for the quilting lines on the dress which worked really well. Below is a pic of the front of the quilt and the second photo is the back of the quilt made with a cute Nurse fabric I found on Etsy.

To-Do for the week of May 4th-May 10th:

1. Bind ombré baby quilt for Baby Harper.
2. Take a photo of Triple Stars mini quilt.
3. Do some organization of my quilting space.
4. Spend some time with EQ8.

Linking up to Chris Knits: To-Do Tuesday .

I am joining the weekly To-Do Tuesday Linky Party hosted by Chris at ChrisKnits. 

To-Do for the week of April 20th-26th:

1. Finish my Indigo Mini Quilt.
2. Work on a paper-pieced project to celebrate another family member’s awesome achievement.
3. Spend some time doing Tech Know Quilters lessons (learning to use my EQ8 program).

To-Do #1

I did finish my Indigo Mini Quilt and wrote about it in my Indigo Mini Quilt Finished post.

To-Do #2

I have made progress on the paper-pieced project that celebrates the awesome accomplishment of one of my family members. I plan to finish it this weekend and will share about it next Tuesday.

To-Do #3

I spent some time doing several Tech Know Quilters (TKQ) lessons. This month is focused on learning about using the fabric and color libraries as well as importing photos, scanned images, and fabric manufacturer’s JPGs. One of features I like is searching for a fabric by notecard. I recently decided that I want to put my Summer Sampler 2017 back on my bed. I will hang Random Intention which is a baby-sized quilt on the wall behind my bed (incidentally Roseanne did the lovely free-motion quilting on this quilt), but now I need a mini quilt to go on the adjacent wall! So I did an EQ8 mock-up of a simple and quick-to-sew 24” x 24” quilt using Kona Berry, Cerise, and Coal. I’m calling this project Triple Stars and got it sewn up over the weekend.

To-Do for the week of April 27th-May 3rd:

1. Quilt and bind my Triple Stars Mini Quilt.
2. Bind my Blakely-esque Sunset Quilt.
3. Finish my current paper-pieced project that celebrates the accomplishment of one of my family members.

Linking up to Chris Knits: To-Do Tuesday.

I am joining the weekly To-Do Tuesday Linky Party hosted by Chris at ChrisKnits. 

To-Do for the week of April 13th-19th:

1. Work on my 4th ombré project in the last month and a half. √ Done
2. Quilt my Indigo project. √ Done
3. Write a post and link up with Sarah Goer’s Show Me Something Orange linky party. √ Done

To-Do #1

Last month I saw that Meghan with Then Came June came out with a new pattern named after her new niece, Blakely. (Read the back story in her post Blakely – the Namesake One.) I sent an email about this quilt to my Aunt Lois, her daughter, Sally, and her granddaughter McKenzie who are quilters and who are all Blakely descendants like me. My mother, Cleo, and her sister, Lois, along with 13 other siblings were born to Sandy and Rita Blakely. You may remember me sharing about Aunt Lois celebrating her 90th birthday last May. She is the youngest of the Blakely children and is the only one still alive. A week ago Sally texted me that she decided to make a Blakely quilt because of the connection to our family. That got me inspired to make one too, and I looked in my stash and saw this beautiful ombré fabric I recently bought from the Etsy shop ArtFabricStudios. The name of the fabric is called Meet Me in Paradise Sunset Hoffman Spectrum Digital. I pulled out my Accuquilt and quickly cut some 2.5” strips. I texted Sally back and suggested that we should see if her mom and her daughter want to join us in a Blakely Blakely Sew-Along. They responded that they do, but they need to wait until September after they’ve taken care of some other projects. I decided to go ahead and make this quilt top but altered the pattern by using five ombré strips in every block instead of only three in some of the blocks with bigger pieces of the sashing fabric. So I’m calling my quilt Blakely-esque Sunset. I do plan to join my aunt and cousins in making a true Blakely quilt in September, and I may do a 180 in the colors that I choose. I really like Meghan’s Black & White version and have wanted to make a black and white quilt for awhile, so this might be the perfect opportunity. The photo below shows a portion of the quilt top that quickly sewed together in just a few days.

To-Do #2

I finished quilting my Indigo quilt top that used indigo fabrics from my mom’s stash in the 1990s. I just quilted straight lines with white thread in the sashing and one straight line with navy blue thread on the blue border that is barely visible in the photo below.

To-Do #3

Below is the mini that I shared about in my Orange Sashiko Kitties post. 

To-Do for the week of April 20th-26th:

1. Finish my Indigo Mini Quilt.
2. Work on a paper-pieced project to celebrate another family member’s awesome achievement.
3. Spend some time doing Tech Know Quilters lessons (learning to use my EQ8 program).

Linking up to Chris Knits: To-Do Tuesday.

I am joining the weekly To-Do Tuesday Linky Party hosted by Chris at ChrisKnits. 

To-Do for the week of April 6th-12th

1. Work on my Lotus Bloom project. √ Done
2. Make progress on my Indigo project. √ Done
3. Do some stitching on the Two Cranes Sashiko project. √ Done

To-Do #1

After the graphite confetti ombré fabric arrived, I was able to cut another strip and get the my Lotus Bloom quilt top sewn together and sent off to Sew Shabby Quilting for quilting. I will hand appliqué the lotus when I get this project sent back to me:

To-Do #2

I finished sewing my Indigo quilt top. Here’s a sneak peak:

To-Do #3

I did a little more stitching on my Two Cranes Sashiko project and have changed my mind about using the orange variegated thread. It is just too light in places. I’ve ordered some other thread to try and will put this project aside for a short while. Sorry for the horrible photo!

To-Do for the week of April 13th-19th:

1. Since you all were so positive about my ombré projects, I’m happy to report that I have started another one with more beautiful ombré fabric! It’s kind of like my friend, Wendy, at Pieceful Thoughts who can’t help starting another improv project, that’s me with color gradients 🙂
2. Quilt my Indigo Mini Quilt.
3. Write a post and link up with Sarah Goer’s Show Me Something Orange linky party.

Linking up to Chris Knits: To-Do Tuesday.

I am joining the weekly To-Do Tuesday Linky Party hosted by Chris at ChrisKnits. 

To-Do for the week of March 30th-April 5th

1. Start yet another ombré project! √ Done
2. Make progress on my Shoal fish project. √ Done
3. Start stitching the Two Cranes Sashiko project for my brother’s 75th birthday in July. √ Done

To-Do #1

You’d think I’d be sick and tired of ombré projects by now, but that’s not the case! Several months ago I downloaded the Lotus Blossom Quilt Pattern from Wefty Needle and really liked the ombré metallic dots confetti version, I so bought a quarter-yard bundle along with ombré metallic confetti graphite and dark grey quarter yards. I wish I’d bought more of the graphite (second strip down) because I want to insert another strip either in the 4th or 5th position and also will replace the dark grey strip that is above the orange section. I found a remnant of the graphite on Etsy for a good price so I’ll have to wait until it arrives to finish putting this simple quilt top together, though I can get the bottom two sections sewn together while waiting for the graphite remnant to arrive. I will send it off for quilting, and then when I get it back, I will appliqué by hand the lotus blossom on the quilt.

To-Do #2

I’m still trying to figure out what I want to include in my Shoal Fish mini quilt. Getting this mini finished is my April 2021 One Monthly Goal to go over the exceedingly ugly fuse box in my room. I’m now calling it my Indigo project since I’m including pieces that aren’t fish. For example, I traced the lotus blossom image that was included in Wefty Needle’s instructions and then stitched it with white Sashiko thread on dark blue Sashiko fabric. 

I also found a simple paper-pieced fish pattern and so far have made one fish.

To-Do #3

I did a little stitching on my Two Cranes Sashiko project and have decided I like the orange variegated thread. I’ll share a pic when I have a bit more done.

To-Do for the week of April 6th-12th:

1. Work on my Indigo Mini Quilt.
2. Work on my Lotus Bloom project.
3. Continue stitching the Two Cranes Sashiko project.

Linking up to Chris Knits: To-Do Tuesday.

I am joining the weekly To-Do Tuesday Linky Party hosted by Chris at ChrisKnits. 

To-Do for the week of March 23rd-29th:

1. Work on an equilateral triangle baby quilt top with the triangles I cut from a lovely Boundless ombré fat quarter bundle. √ Done
2. Continue spending at least 15 minutes a day playing with EQ8. √ Done
3. Finish my Snowflake Embroidery BOM Month 2 block. √ Done
4. Write my Dumbledore Finished post (March 2021 OMG Finish). √ Done

To-Do #1

I found out recently that a friend who lives in Missouri is due to have a baby girl any time. This past week I designed and made a baby-size ombré equilateral quilt top that measures 36.75” wide by 32” long using the Boundless Fat Quarter Bundle on the right in the second photo below. To the left of the quilt top is a beautiful bookmark that a friend from Michigan sent me. And peaking out underneath is my pretty new cutting mat from my friend, Laura.

To-Do #2

I just finished up five weeks of daily practice with EQ8, and the program makes so much more sense to me. I enrolled in an introductory class called Shoot for the Stars by Kari Schell of On Point Quilter that was really helpful. And I also participated in her Spring Fever Mystery Challenge as a VIP (which meant that I paid $14.99 to watch extra live video help sessions that were also recorded for later viewing, and Kari also provided the paper-pieced patterns for all the blocks). During the final video, Kari mentioned a previous mystery challenge called Foundation Friendly Christmas and offered the Spring Fever VIPs the opportunity to purchase the Christmas program with all the videos and patterns (again for 14.99). Being the Christmas freak that I am, I couldn’t resist. Below is a star that I drafted and then manipulated using Serendipity function. I also made a much bigger financial commitment and signed up for six months of Kari’s Tech Know Quilters (TKQ). I’m not going to commit any more to daily EQ8 practice, but I definitely plan to continue putting in consistent time learning and using the program.  I’ll be sharing from time to time some of what I’ve been doing with TKQ.

To-Do #3

Over the the weekend I finished my Snowflake Embroidery BOM Month 2 block. I’ve decided I’m going to make two Christmas wall hangings from the blocks of this Block of the Month, so I’m sticking with my favorite Christmas color combo of grey, white, red, turquoise, and teal.

To-Do #4

I did get my Dumbledore Mini Quilt Finish post written (where I shared about my fabrics including my hand-dyed hair/mustache/beard fabric) and linked to Elm Street Quilts: March 2021 OMG Finish Link-Up. Below is one of the pics I included in my post. 

To-Do for the week of March 30th-April 5th:

1. Make progress on my Shoal fish project.
2. Start yet another ombré project! 
3. Start stitching the Two Cranes Sashiko project for my brother’s 75th birthday in July. I’m leaning toward using the beautiful orange variegated DMC pearl floss pictured below. But I’ll have to see how it looks once I start stitching. I may opt for the plain white on indigo look which I also like very much.

Linking up to Chris Knits: To-Do Tuesday.