Guild Quilt Show

Yesterday was my quilt guild's show.  It was at the Hartsville Museum in SC and the quilts will hang all summer, so if you are close by, stop on in.  The theme this year was "A Little Color In My Life"

I entered my Lollipop Orchard quilt in the show.  I had also entered my floating pinwheels, but we had so many big quilts this year that the museum didn't have space for all the double entries so they asked us to only submit one, I picked my smaller one.

There were also a few quilts in the show that I quilted for my guild mates. 

 I quilted June's cat quilt last summer which she entered and won first place for applique. 

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I also quilted Tish's hand pieced Mississippi Wheel of Fortune II Quilt.

The back, which you can't see at the show was made from different shirts. I think that idea is fabulous.

 A close up of some of the blocks.

I actually quilted two of these for her.
One was done in December and the other in April.
Here are both of them on on my fence.

She gave the first one away already,


and after the show this one will be given away.

There were only two special ladies who got to hang two quilts in the show.
They have been long time guild members and definitely deserved it.  

Sara is one of those ladies and I had the privilege of quilting both her quilts.
She named this one "Check the Box"

The quilting shows up great on the back of the quilt

This one she named "Wear Purple"

I also quilted one of Joan's quilts. Unfortunately it didn't get in the show either due to the 1 quilt limit.
She chose to show her smaller one like I did, but I would like to show her large quilt here anyway.

It is a lovely blossoming 4 patch done in beautiful fabrics.

There were lots of wonderful quilts at the show.  I am honored to have been able to work on these.

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The Start of Something New and Old

Last week when I had my sewing machine stuck in a corner due to some sewing room re-vamping, I decided to spend the quiet time in the morning cutting out a new project.  Ever since I saw Carla's universe themed quilt for Project Quilting project done in February, I have wanted to make one of my own.

 I went out and bought the exact same fabric and cut out all my triangles. They are waiting in stacks of 20 for their turn at the machine. This quilt is a one block wonder quilt and I am super excited to start the sewing.  I just need to finish the flooring in the closet and then I can put my sewing room back together and get back to actual sewing.

I also need to list my June Goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.
For June I want to quilt my butterfly quilt top.
This was started in 2008 and you can read more about it and where the blocks came from here.

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Mondo Bags in Progress

After finishing up my Slide Show quilt I went to my Q2 Finish A-Long list to pick a new project to finish up. I decided to go with the Mondo bags.  I have some packages I want to mail out and it would be great to be able to have the Mondo bags ready so they can go in the boxes as well.

Each bag uses 208 squares.  I had most of them already cut so I only had to cut a few charm squares to get the remaining squares I needed for all three bags.  I made some good progress, but finishing them up will have to wait a bit since my machine is shoved in a corner and inaccessible.

I spent yesterday pulling up the old carpet in my sewing room which means the sewing machine has to go on vacation for a bit till things get put back together.  Hubby and I will be laying new floor in the evenings when he gets off work.  It shouldn't take too long... I hope.  :)

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Slide Show Finished!

I finished the binding on my Slide Show quilt yesterday afternoon.
I waited till this morning to get a photo because I wanted to hang it from the back fence where it gets full sun in the morning. Well, what I didn't realize till this morning was that full sun on the fence is only in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees.  

So I draped it over the fence, but I couldn't get the full quilt in the sun like I wanted.

So I asked my daughter, who exempted all her exams and no longer has to go to school, what her wing span was.  She is a couple inches taller than me and she made the perfect quilt holder.

I quilted an all over meander pattern on this one.
I will be giving it away and I want it to be used and washed often.
"Use it up, wear it out, so I can make new ones."
That is how I feel about some quilts.  :)

This is my second finish on my Q2 Finish A-Long list.
This is also my May goal for A lovely Year of Finishes.

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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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Floating Pinwheels finished for April's ALYOF

Not a lot of sewing going on this month but I did finished my Floating Pinwheels quilt just in the nick of time.
It was my April goal of A lovely Year of Finishes.
Click here to see the link party and all the finishes.
Phew, I am still on track for finishing 12 goals for the whole year for ALYOF.

This is also my first finish on my second quarter list for 2014 Finish A-Long.

Not sure what I feel like working on next.  I have 1.5 weeks of college left which is all have been focusing on this month.  Maybe it two weeks the sewing bug will come back.

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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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Wild Thing Quilt Finished!

Friday morning was suppose to be spent doing homework, but my teacher was stressing me out so I decided to drop everything and some something quilty to relax my mind.

I basted my Wild Thing quilt the other day so I grabbed it,put it under my sewing machine, and got to work.  I finished the quilting and binding a little after lunch  on Friday.  This quilt will be used on a regular basis so I did some simple meandering. It will be going on my son's bed and will be washed frequently.

  It is super soft and my son hasn't had a quilt for his bed in a long time.  He is excited about it.

This is my 6th finish from my Q1 Finish-A-Long list.

It is also my March Project for A Lovely Year of Finishes.

You can see all the March finishes here.

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Flags on a Stick Blog Hop

I'm hopping today with the Flags on a Stick blog hop.

The hop is being hosted by Thearica and Mdm Samm.

Today's Hoppers are:

Bumbleberry Stitches

Quilted Delights - Me  :)

Red Quilts

On the Banks of Frog Creek

Words & Stitches

K and S Sweets and Stitching


And now without further ado... I present to you my my flag.

I was definitely thinking spring for my project.

My favorite flowers are tulips and since I have been in a paper piecing mood lately, I went in search of the perfect tulip paper piecing pattern.

I found just the one I needed here and moderated the pattern a bit to create my little spring flag.

It's a little stiffer than most quilts with all the quilting I put in it, 

but it still blows in the wind in the front yard. 

Again here are the hoppers for today.  Make sure you check them out.

March 27thBumbleberry Stitches
Quilted Delights
Red Quilts
On the Banks of Frog Creek
Words & Stitches
K and S Sweets and Stitching

The entire schedule can be found at Thearica's blog.

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FNSI Results - Start of Pythagoras' Lute

I'm a tad bit late showing the results of my FNSI, but I did get to sew that night.

I worked on my final project for Project quilting.  The theme was triangles.  Unfortunately I didn't get the project done on time - it still isn't done - there were a couple of reason why it didn't get finished.

First I had a hard time deciding on a pattern - this time I didn't have trouble with ideas, the trouble was that I had too many ideas and didn't know which one to pick. They were all wonderful in my mind. I finally decided to to start on a twisted triangle log cabin quilt. I even colored my layout and started picking out fabrics, but as I was laying the paper piecing patterns on the wall, I decided I wanted to make the quilt a lap sized quilt and I knew I couldn't complete that that in the amount of time I had left.

So I went to plan two, Pythagoras' Lute.  It has ten paper pieced wedges. I thought to myself, "Surely I can knock that out in two and half days, it's only 10 wedges." I reasoned that the piecing would take the longest, but once that was done I could do some simple quilting and still make the deadline for Project Quilting.

Well, when I got the pattern I found each wedge was made of 16 smaller pieces.  I small snag, but I still had hope. The first part was slow going. I was switching between the ten different fabrics for each tiny piece and cutting small pieces here and there from bigger chunks and trying to line up the pattern to make sure I was doing it right.  Then I realized I printed the pattern wrong (sizing issue) and had to scrap the whole first half of one wedge.  Then I started the same process again with right sized templates. I was beginning to think I had bitten off more than I could chew, but as the clock got closer to midnight I finally had an epiphany.

There are five color combinations, and each color combination is done twice, but the second one is done in reverse.  I realized I could take one color combo and complete all the pieces at once and then move on to the next color combo.  My piecing went much faster after that, but bedtime was looming and I had to get up at 6 am to get to my first day of BIO lab.

--This term is my last college term. I am taking Bio 101, the lab to go with it, and my last business class.  When these classes are over I will finally have my bachelors degree!--

I had planned to sew the rest of the Saturday after my bio lab and knock out the top, and quilt it up early Sunday morning, but my Bio Lab ended early.  You would think that would give me more time to quilt, but that wasn't the case.

My family had planned a trip to visit the in-laws that same weekend, but they had to leave by 1pm in time to get to a planned event. That meant I couldn't go because I wouldn't get home from my lab class till after 2pm or later.  But since my lab ended at 10:30 (that included my lab partner meeting afterward) instead of 12:30, I suddenly found myself free to go with the family.  I rushed home, packed up my stuff and headed out of town.

I didn't get home till midnight Sunday night, so needless to say I didn't get my last project done for project quilting, But that is ok.  We hadn't seen some of our relatives in almost a year and it was definitely worth it to see them.   I am still excited to finish Pythagoras' Lute, but it will have to turn into a UFO for the awhile.  There are other quilty items that are due first.  I don't think I will put this one in a bin though. The ones that go in bins seem to stay a UFO the longest.  I shall keep it on the desk in a corner to remind me to keep it on the current to do list.

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