FQSQA Finished!

Last night I put the last stitches in my Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along Quilt.
This quilt was my July goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.

I started this quilt in September of 2011 when I joined Moose on The Porch Quilts' quilt along.

Every couple weeks a new star pattern was released.
I got all my stars done each week and even got my top done on time.
But then it sat in the quilting pile until now.

I used an orange fabric for the background.  I bought a fat quarter of it for the blocks and when the bolt went on sale, I bought more for the backing and the binding.

I had to have some pictures ready to post on the link party before it closed last night, so I took it out on the porch in the dark last night hoping to get a good photo. The porch light gave it an interesting look.

Then I got the idea to turn the quilt hoping more light would shine on it, but It didn't work out like I thought.

I got a good shadow of my quilt holder though. 

This is also a finish I can knock off my third quarter list for the 2014 Finish A-long.
Yay! This is my third finish for this quarter.

=^..^=

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.

=^..^=

Just the Ladies- The Dimensions

I got an email a bit ago asking me where to find information on the pattern for my Just the Ladies quilt, the one I made for the She Who Sews blog hop, but I didn't really use a pattern. It was more of a sew as I went sort of project.   Since I didn't use a pattern I decided I would post the dimensions here on my blog for who ever would like to have them. 

 

First, I started out with the ladies.  I used 6 different ones.  But I only scanned in one for the picture.
I cut them to be 7.5 inch square so they finished 7 inches.

Next I worked on the sashing. 

They are made from three 1.5 x 7.5 strips, (Two yellow, one black).
When sewn together they  finish as a 3.5 inch x 7.5 inch rectangle. 

The quilt uses 17 of these sashing rectangles.

The cornerstones are Shoo Fly blocks that finish at 3 inches.
(They will measure 3.5 inches before you sew them into the quilt)
There are 12 of these in the quilt and they use the red and yellow fabrics.
About.com has dimensions for a three inch shoo fly block here. Scroll down a bit for the right size. 

Sew the sashing, cornerstones, and ladies together in rows to get the inner part of the quilt.
Then just add borders.

The first inner border is cut 1.5 inch x the length/width of the quilt top dimensions so far.

The red outer border is cut 3.5 inches x the length/width of the top so far.

The thin yellow border is actually part of the binding.
Marti, of 52 Quilts gives a great tutorial on how to make a two colored bidning.

You can find it HERE.

I used yellow and black for the binding.

You can use this method with any large print you want to showcase and change the sashing and border colors to fit your print. It is a simple and fast quilt. The part that took the longest for me was the shoo fly blocks.  Once those were done the top went together fast.  I think I spent more time quilting around the ladies than it sewing up the the top.  :)

=^..^=

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!  :)

=^..^=

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.

=^..^=

Another Christmas Quilt Finished

This is my second finish for the third quarter of the 2014 FAL.
When I picked up this quilt yesterday to work on it, all the straight line quilting had already been completed, So all I had to do was the free motion quilting and add the binding.

I started this quilt in December of 2012.

Last night I finished the quilting and this morning I added the binding.

I have made three Christmas quilts this year so far.

It feels good to use up my Christmas fabric and know

that I have three quilts ready to go for December.

I am linking up to Handmade Christmas.

This link party encourages us to make our Christmas gifts through out the year.

This quilt started out as 2.5 inch strips. I cut a couple from all of my Christmas fabrics then

I sewed one red and one green strip together to make a 4.5 inch wide long strip.

After that I cut a 4.5 inch white strip and placed it on top and sewed down both side making a tube.

I used A Bright Corner's tutorial on how to cute strip tubes and then had lots of fancy HST blocks.

I played around with the layout and took pictures of a few,

but finally ended up with what you see at the top.

Stripe tube piecing is a quick and easy way to make a Christmas quilt.

I just may make another and use the pinwheel layout.  I am really liking that one too.

=^..^=

Mondo Bags - Done!

After I made my Q3 FAL list yesterday I hit the sewing machine
and spent the afternoon finishing up these three Mondo bags. 

I decided to use darker fabrics for the lining this time around and it makes the bags look totally different from the other mondo bags I made, which had yellow/orange on the inisde. 

These will be going out to these three wonderful women.

I didn't tell them I was making them for them, so hopefully it will be a nice surprise for them.

I still need to make one more. Next time I head to the beach I'll pick up that last interfacing.

The bag can made without it, but it makes it so much easier having it.

These bags are my first finish for the third quarter of the 2014 Finish along.  

I am glad to have them finished and I am hoping their new owners will love them just as much as I do.

Linked up at Freemotion by the River and Quilt Story's Tuesday link parties.

=^..^=  

Q3 Goals for the 2014 FAL

I completed three of my twelve goals last quarter.  With me finishing up college and the start of summer, I didn't spend as much time at the machine as I normally do. This third quarter will be during the rest of summer. I know I have lots of summer plans this quarter, but I am still going to put twelve projects on the list.  I like having options to work with.

I am keeping the ones that didn't get finished and adding three new ones. 

Here they are...

Mondo Bag x 3

Started Summer 2013
 Made some progress on these last quarter,
they are number 1 on my list this quarter.

Christmas Quilt

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

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

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.

Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along

Started September 2011

The three new projects making their debut are:

Pythagoras' Lute Quilt
Started March 2014

One block wonder
Stated June 2014

Polk-A-Dot Dresden Quilt
Started September 2012

I'm itching to sew and have grand visions of finishing the whole list this quarter.

 Ha, I always feel that way when I make my list. 

Let's see if I can keep my momentum up and get at least half of it done this quarter.

=^..^=

ALYOF June Completion and July Goal

Phew, finished this at 11pm last night, just in time to post my finish for the ALYOF for June. I took a quick picture last night, so I had something to post on the link party,  but I had to use the flash and the quilting didn't show up so great.  This morning I was able to get some better pictures.

I basted this quilt yesterday Morning around 9am.  

I was lucky to get it all quilted and bound in one day.  

The blocks came from a swap from the old IFQ (International Friendship Quilters) group.

The first six blocks came from:

Me -   Pamela M.  - Beatrice M.

Pauline G. - Tarnyia S. - Carole B.

The last six come fromL

Me - Val D. - Karin F.

Maureen M. - Ann M. - Nancy N.

I had to sign up for two groups to get 12 blocks.  That is why there are two done by me.

This quilt is also on my second quarter finish a-long list.  

That gives me three finishes so far for Q2.

I still have until the 6th of this month to finish more projects on my list.

Let's see how much sewing I can cram in this week.  :)

AS for my July Goal for ALYOF, I plan to finish my quilt from the Fat Quarter Star Quilt Along.

It was on my Q2 FAL list, but I know it will be moving to my Q3 list for the 2014 FAL so putting it as my July Goal should help get this one off the UFO list.

=^..^=

Progress on Mondo Bags.

Finally made some progress on my three Mondo Bags. Most of the month of June has been busy with traveling and game playing.  I did sew a few minutes a day, and when I say few I mean one seam a day sometimes.  That makes for some slow progress, but I finally have all the sections sewn together and all the inside fabric cut and ironed onto the fusible fleece.   I have to travel again this weekend so I might not get these done in time to be added as a finish for my second quarter Finish-A-Long. 

I also still need to finish my goal for A lovely year of Finishes too.  Egads, I only have three and half days of the month left. I might not make my June goal for ALYOF.  Ah well, too much playing around in the month of June I suppose. I have been enjoying the summer.

=^..^=