Tackling a UFO - Paganini

In October of 2010 I cut out enough fabric to make two Paganini quilts.  I completed the first one right on time for my entry in the "Le Petite - A Year of Small Projects".  The second one has been sitting in a small bin ever since, so I put it on my UFO list for this quarter.  When I opened the bin to work on it again I found that I had a lot of cut triangles and some sashing.

I am please to say I now have a lot of Half Square Triangles with black corners attached

and a bunch of tiny one inch half square triangles for another project. Oh my! Where does the insanity end?!?

The top is coming along nicely. Even with cat tail interference.
 If I work hard at it I might have it done in time for Halloween night.

Check out Sheen on my new humongous ironing board!  I built it last month with wire shelving and a pine board.  It has a lot of padding under that gray fabric so I think Sheen has claimed it as his new napping spot. He is laying on top of another project I am working on, my mini quilt project for the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap.  I have plans to finish that one up early next week.

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Halloween Quilt

I have a new Halloween quilt in the works for the Halloween Haunts Blog Hop.
The hop starts this Friday and I get to help kick it off by showing off a couple of my Halloween projects.  I am loving how the quilt is turning out. More about it on Friday!
 

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Pastel Dresden Plates

I finally got back to my sewing machine.  I finished up my Black and White Plus One Quilt and then didn't sew anything for weeks. Now I am back at it and have been working on my pastel dresdens.  

I found a new layout I want to use for this quilt which uses 18 dresden blocks.

 I only had 12 so I had to make six more. 

I didn't have enough of the same fabrics I used in the first 12 dresden plates, so I improvised.

When it is all together I doubt anyone will know I have a few different greens and yellows.

I also put together another lined drawstring bag.

I initially made this to deliver some cookies, but I all the cookies didn't fit,

so I will save this for another gift giving occasion.

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ALYOF April Goal

I will be spending the first half of the month finishing up my guild challenge quilt, which has to stay secret till June so I am picking a smaller goal this month to make sure I have a good chance of finishing it. My Guild challenge quilt will be a finish in itself, but I want one I can show off at the end of the month.

I have been working on the hand embroidery on my "We Support You" quilt.  I got the rest of the hangers completed a couple weeks ago.  Now it is ready for a blanket stitch around the bras.  After that it will be ready for quilting.  For April's goal I am aiming for finishing only the blanket stitching.

If I finish my guild challenge early I may get to the quilting, but for now I am committing to completing the blanket stitching.  

Head over to the link party here to see all the other April Goals

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Sashing and Cornerstones

I am diligently working on getting my Christmas Dresden quilt top done by the end of January.
Not quite sure how this month got away from me so fast, but there are only two days of January left.
Getting the top done by the end of January is my ALYOF goal so I will be spending the rest of tonight in the sewing room.

The sashing is already sewn together and  I sewed a little bit during my lunch break today and got most of the 9 patches finished.

Tonight I will make the red red centers to cover the holes in the dresdens.

After that all I need to do is sew the rows together.

Lets hope all goes well in the sewing room tonight!

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Charity Quilts Basted and September Goal

Not much purge progress this week, so I didn't get to be part of the link this time around,  but I am still slowly chuggin' along.  This morning I basted the three boy charity quilts.   Since I expect these to get washed frequently, I plan on doing a simple  meander. They should quilt up in no time.

I also need to post my September goal for  ALYOF.

This month I am going to work on my left over reunion quilt. 

I used all the leftover pieces from my strip tube quilt to make this top.

I'm not happy with the red sashing so I am thinking about taking that out and redoing it. 

Unstitching isn't always the best part of quilting and I think that may keep this project in the UFO pile for a long time, so to make sure it get done, I am making it my September goal for "A Lovely Year of Finishes". I want to redo the top and have a new finished quilt top to add to my pile.

Here it is with me testing the borders and this is where I last left it in May of 2012.

Time to finish it up.

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Purge Progress 3rd Link Party

Before I left for beach week, I cut up some pink scraps from my bins. Enough to make three more brick quilts and some extra squares for some other scrappy quilts.


Then I raided my 3 inch bin and mixed some prints with the the pinks and the blues I cut a couple weeks ago and started a small half square triangle quilt.

I'll be linking up here with all the others who are participating in The Purge.
Go check them out.

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More Purge Progress

I spent a week at the lake last week.  It was so much fun I wasn't ready to come home.  This is my favorite picture from our trip.  It captures the whole trip perfectly. We were on Lake Jocassee in SC and I definitely want to go back.  The lake is so clear and pretty and cool to swim in. 

The forecast had called for rain all week, but we never had any fall on us other than the first night while we were sleeping.We strategically avoided the rain at our campsite by visiting waterfalls in the area during the afternoons.
 

Brasstown Falls - Cascades section

Brasstown Falls - Veils Section

 Luckily the showers were scattered and we picked the right falls to visit and had sunshine almost everyday.

Another view of the veils Section

Riley Moore Falls

Station Cove Falls

When we got back I jumped right into my purge projects.

I finished up the second Brick top...

Then I cut out some white squares from my white scrap bin to go with my newly cut animal scraps...

And then I started a new charity quilt.  This one is simple squares with white sashing.  

I used up most of the left over 4.5 inch scraps for this one.

The white is Kona Cotton in Snow.  I like using snow since it isn't such a bright white and is a little more forgiving when it gets dirty.

Next on the purge list is to use up some of the 2 inch squares to make a checkerboard quilt. Then I want to go through my left over bins and get some pink fabrics out for some little girl quilts.  I really love the brick tops and think they would look lovely in some girly pink and purple flower fabrics.

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Purge Progress

Rachel over at Stitched in Color is hosting "The Purge".  She is encouraging us to do something with our un-loved fabrics, fabrics that we once loved but have fallen out of love with for one reason or another.  Well, a couple of months ago I already did a purge by taking all my unwanted fabric to my quilt guild meeting and let the ladies pick and choose from what they wanted. What ever they didn't want went to goodwill. So I don't really have unloved fabrics for this project, but I do have 12 bins of odd sized scraps that needed purging.

I still love all of these fabrics, but they can definitely use a purging in a good way.  They are a mix of left over pieces from quilt backings, scraps given to me by friends, and leftovers from my own craft projects. Some are slightly bigger than a fat quarter, others are extremely long 5 to 10 inch strips.  Because of their odd shapes, there isn't a spot for them in my fabric storage system and since I don't want to cut them up into smaller strips they get folded and put into these bins and shoe boxes.

I have started to organize them by color and have even pulled out some and placed them next to my color yardage, but a lot of them are novelty fabrics from when I was making cutesy baby quilts and bags to go with them and they don't seem to fit into a specific color category, so for my purge I am going to dive into these bins and make some charity quilts for the kids in our community. Hopefully by the end of the purge I can throw away some empty shoe boxes.

I started out by pulling out anything that would look good in a boy quilt.  I ended up using all animal prints and decided to use the Color Brick pattern that Rachel used for her beginner Quilt a long.   

I used a smaller brick dimension so I could keep the quilt small for a little boy.  My bricks finish at 4 x 8 inches. My sashing measures half an inch and the borders are 1.5 inches.
I had enough brinks to make two small quilts.

The sashing is a purge also. It is a Kona Solid that I bought for the Kona blog hop I participated in, but I ended up not using it for the hop. Luckily it has turned out to be the perfect color for my brick mortar.

 I cut out two more bricks to finish the second top and then I cut up all the leftover animal fabric into different sized squares ranging from 4.5 inches all the way down to 1.5 inches. I cut up every bit of blue and green animal print from those bins.  I didn't see much dent in the bins, but it still feels good knowing that I have used up several pieces of fabric and that I have scrappy squares already cut for another quick quilt.

Check out the link at Stitched in Color to see how everyone else's purge is going.

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Quilting in Progress

I got my Jewel Box quilt under the machine this weekend.
After a couple hours I took a break and stretched it all out to see what it looks like so far.
It is fun to see the top transform as it is being quilted.
I am copying a quilting design I saw on Tamarack Shack, - I love her work!

So far it is looking fabulous!  :)

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Jewel Box Borders and Basting

Yesterday I added the borders to my Jewel box quilt, a small inner white border and an orange flower print from the same fabric line as the outer border.  Last night I also prepped the backings for all the completed tops on my third quarter Finish A-Long list and picked out the right size batting for each one.

So this morning and afternoon, with the help of my daughter, the pin closer, we basted four quilts:
the Jewel Box
the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt
Baby Cakes
and my Strip Tube Top

Momentum is good and going strong for this quarter's UFOs.

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WIP Wednesday - Slide Show

I am almost done with the quilting on my slide show quilt.
I have one quadrant left to go.

I decided to quilt an all over meander since I have plans for this quilt to be used and washed frequently.  This one should be ready for binding by tomorrow afternoon.

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May Goal for ALYOF - Slide Show

I started out with this in November 2011

(It was a kit I won from the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway day in May of 2011.)

Two days later it turned into a top without borders.  Then it sat... and sat... and sat...

Till February 7th, 2012 when I got the borders sewed on.  (unfortunately no full pic of borders)
Then is sat... and sat... and sat...

Till December 2012 when I basted it. 

But then it sat again... and sat.. and sat...

Till I put it on my Finish along list for Q4 of 2013. 

Which it still sat till it got moved to first quarter of the 2014 Finish A-long...  

Which it sat till it got moved the the second quarter of the 2014 Finish A-Long...

So I think it is time to get this one finished.  I've noticed that projects with deadlines always get finished first, so I figured the best way to get this one finished is to give it a deadline.

By the end of May my Slide Show quilt will finally be finished!

To see all the goals for May head on over to the link Party at Fiber of All Sorts.

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Goals for Q2 Finish A-Long and April's ALYOF

I did pretty good with my list for the first quarter of the 2014 Finish A-Long.
I finished six on my list of twelve.  I wanted 7 but I got busy with school and the community play, so I am happy with 6 finishes. You can see which ones got done here.

For my Quarter Two list I moved over the ones that didn't get finished in Q1 and add six new ones.

Here they are...

Christmas Quilt

Started December 2012
This one is so close to being done.

Slide Show

Started November 2011
This is its third appearance on a Finish along list.
I do believe it is time for it to get finished.

Mondo Bag x 3

Started Summer 2013
Third time on the list as well.
These need to get done since they are going to be gifts.
I don't want to be waiting till Dec 20 to finish these.

Jewel Box Quilt

Started November 2011
Border fabric has been picked out so I am good to go on this one.

Baby Cakes Quilt

Started April 2012

Christmas Dresdens

Started December 2012
These I am uncertain of the layout I want.
Perhaps this quarter inspiration will strike.

The six new UFOs for this quarter are:

Floating Pinwheels

Started January 2014

I am also making this one my goal for April's A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Colorful Lone Stars

Started January 2014

Stripe Tube Quilt
Started April 2012

Do something with this top. 

Started May 2012

I am going to change the sashing.

I don't like it so much and that is why it became a UFO.

Butterfly Quilt

Started April 2008

Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along

Started September 2011

I have listed almost all my big quilt tops.

I have couple left, but I will save those for next quarter.   :)

Click here to see everyone else's goals for Q2.

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