List of intended finishes for 2d Quarter of Finish-Along

Apr 122013
 

Time to list my second quarter intended finishes for the Finish-Along. I’ve got a list of 10 here, plus a couple not yet started that I want to get done in the same time-frame. Unfortunately, I will have even less time to sew than I did for the first quarter, so I’m sure I won’t get them all done, but I never know ahead of time which ones I will or won’t finish.

1. Vertical strips charity quilt. This one is a simple QAYG method that is both tedious and boring. I thought it would be fast, but I’m not convinced it is fast enough to be worth the tedium. But, I want it done and out of here! It is about a third done.
2. An entry for the Twenty contest. All assembled, needs some quilting and binding etc.
3. Ugly 4-patch squares. I took some really ugly 4-patches (made by someone else) and added frames to make wonky blocks. I plan to quilt these QAYG style, they still need layering and basting.
4. Scrap-centered blocks for a QAYG style quilt, these are basted and have started quilting, lots more to do.
5. Kaleidoscope quilt, wallhanging. Basted and I started quilting. Again, lots more quilting to do.
6. Basket quilt, wallhanging. About a quarter quilted.
7. “Corral,” wallhanging. Started quilting.
8. Pink and green thing. About a third quilted.
9. Quilt for our guest bed. Top is in diagonal rows so I can quilt it row by row, starting in the center and adding rows as I go. I have not started quilting yet.
10. Almost forgot another charity quilt (lap size). I thought I would have it done by now so didn’t put it on my initial list, but it isn’t done. It needs a bit of border to reach the desired size, which will need quilting, and it needs binding.

You may notice a lot of “started quilting” in this list. Some have just enough to stabilize the piece, others have a little bit more done. It depended on what designs I wanted to try out before turning to the next project.

 April 12, 2013  Posted by Abby at 9:03 pm Uncategorized No Responses »

First quarter finishes 2013

Apr 012013
 

Wow, end of the First Quarter already, how did that happen?

I’ve managed five finishes (#1 through #5) of my intended seven for the Finish Along over at shecanquilt. Two I already blogged about here and here.

The other three are:

Split Bits – 25 X 32 inches. Finished March 22.

Spawn – formerly referred to as Stepchild. 20 X 24 inches. Finished March 22.

A Quilter’s Muse – formerly Quilter’s Nightmare. 33 X 43. Finished March 22.

Yep, all three on the same day – I went on a binding binge. I worked on a lot of other quilts during the last three months but only a little bit on #6 and none on #7 on my list. I’ll have a nice long list for the next quarter, but maybe not as much time to sew.

 April 1, 2013  Posted by Abby at 4:53 pm Finishing 1 Response »

Announcing the UFOs4Charity Project

Mar 232013
 

Okay crew, listen up! It’s time for the great announcement! I’ve alluded to this a couple times, but this is the formal (or not so formal) Launch. Officially called the UFOs4Charity Project, you could also call it a Clutter to Quilt project. It’s all about turning your sewing room clutter, most especially those languishing UFOs, into finished quilts for charity – any charity.

You can read all about the project here, and those quilts I told you I was working on here and here? Yep, they are my current batch, I’m quilting them now. I’ve set a goal of 100 charity quilts made from UFOs, leftovers, orphan blocks and the like – all the clutter in my sewing room. I’ve finished 12 since I set the goal, so I’ve got aways to go. Plenty of time for you to make even more – go ahead, show off. Make me look like a loser. I’ll go cry in my scrap basket.

 March 23, 2013  Posted by Abby at 5:42 pm Uncategorized 1 Response »

From Clutter to Quilt, Part Two

Mar 212013
 

I had so much fun throwing together the first couple of clutter quilts I had to keep going. This time I reached for some old UFOs. These really were objects, not quite full projects.

First up was a set of four blocks with a cat print in the center of the block.

I made these so long ago they are almost vintage, at least under Etsy’s definition (20 years old). And my stash was a lot smaller than it is today, which partly explains the boring choice of color. I had set them aside when I could not figure out what to do next. I took the easy route – a few rounds of wide strips and I had blocks big enough for a lap quilt. This one took me one afternoon, at most.

Okay, I admit, not the most exciting of quilts, but I sure was excited to finally put those old blocks to use! The next set I grabbed was a double handful of mini-courthouse steps I’d made from lots of skinny scraps. 

You’ll notice they are courthouse steps in construction, not shading. I set them aside over 10 years ago when I ran short of strips, and there they sat. I added a little more red to complete the last round (shown), then added wider rows (light, dark, light) and used 9 of the 10 blocks for another lap quilt. This one may need a border to reach the desired size, but I’m quilting it first.

Next up was a basket block I’d never done anything with.

I had fused the flowers (cut from prints), then wasn’t sure what to do next so I set it aside. (Noticing a trend here?) I pulled out the invisible thread and did a tiny zig-zag around all the fused flowers, as I am not confident of the fusible’s reliability. Then I added borders, having a little fun with wonky trimming. This one is destined to be a wallhanging. I could make it lap quilt size, but I don’t trust the invisible thread to stand up to actual use, especially washing. Can’t wait to get this one done, it’s been in my “waiting for attention” bin for way too long.

 March 21, 2013  Posted by Abby at 3:16 pm In Drydock No Responses »

From Clutter to Quilt, part one

Mar 202013
 

I’ve been on a piecing binge lately. I should be finishing, not piecing more tops, but I’m on a roll and can’t stop. I’ve been tackling the clutter in my sewing room by turning it into quilt tops! You know the stuff, not quite UFOs but the odds n ends – from lone blocks to half-done sets of blocks to quantities of scrap strips – which you have been ignoring for years or decades.

Now it’s all old fabrics, dull colors, nothing inspiring, not the stuff you work with today. But still usable, just not anything that excites you any more. So – use it up, quickly. Make quilts big enough for lap or bed quilts and donate them to an appreciative charity, and you’ve cleared your sewing room of all that old energy.

And quick, no fuss tops are fun to make. Here are two I made to use up a pile of poorly cut strips:

The first one started with some not-quite-charm squares, or rather, charm not-quite-squares. Then I added the strips until I ran short. I had a little bit leftover but not enough for another round. Because I had 16 blocks (no, I didn’t count them before starting, that would spoil the fun) and wanted to make a twin-size quilt, and wanted to add a little color, I found some green and blue fabric I wanted to use up and cut wide strips. I added those to the top and bottom of each block. Now I could set them in a 4×4 layout and get a rectangle suitable for the center of a twin quilt. Plus the top and bottom strips allowed me to trim the blocks during assembly to make them fit, as they were not the same size (because of my casual sewing).

Then, to avoid ironing many seams over, I decided to use a bit of sashing to assemble it all. Rooting around in my “fabrics for charity quilts” stash unearthed a roll of dark 6 1/2 inch wide strips. I cut 2 inch strips from them (the approximate size of the initial strips that started the blocks). I assembled it four blocks together into four sections, then those put together the same way. After that, a border strip for stability, which will end up an inner border once the quilt is done. I am going to quilt it as is, then add (and quilt) the borders.

 

But I had a few scraps left. So, starting with the trim from the green and blue used to lengthen the first blocks, I sewed more strips around. First I used up the 2 inch strips, then I dug out the slightly larger golds from my strip basket (which holds trimmings from slicing up yardage). For speed, I wanted wider pieces for the next round, and cut up a bunch of browns (I seem to have a lot of brown fabrics).

Once up on the design wall, I liked it! But it’s square. Could it be a lap quilt? I went and checked the Hopes and Dreams site and yes, the minimum size is 35×44. It was just 40×40, a border would make it big enough, so I added one. I think I like it better without, but I want to donate it so it has a border (not shown).

 March 20, 2013  Posted by Abby at 10:38 am Charity Quilts 1 Response »

Three Finishes So Far This Week

Mar 072013
 

Okay, I admit they are small. No way would I finish three bed-size quilts in two days even if all they needed was binding. Which is what all three of these needed, plus labels. I finished two small art pieces for AAQI, and if I’m on the ball I’ll get them mailed out tomorrow. The other is for me, still needs a custom label but it’s hanging on the wall in my office until I get around to it.

The first AAQI quilt was a test of an idea for using up triangle scraps, in this case some very small scraps. As I quilted it, (trying out the potential texture of one of the few fancy stitches my old machine has) the little white triangles reminded me of cabbage moths. So I found a fabric with cabbages on it and cut them out and appliqued them on. I’d have liked them bigger but that’s what I could find in my stash. They’re fused, then free-motion stitched around the edges.

 

 

 

 

The second AAQI quilt used some strips leftover from cutting the pieces for the cabbage moth piece. I added some scrap almost-white (it looks white in the pics but is a very pale Fossil Fern print), but the end result was pretty boring. What to do? Add more. Spirals are fun to cut out. Fuse down and free-motion stitch around the edges, and it’s done. Rather, it’s done now, after adding a binding.

I used quick triangles to serve as a sleeve and added the label the same way, so once bound they were done, but of course I didn’t bother to take a picture of that part.

 

 

 

The third finish was a quilt I’ve been working on for myself for about a year. Off and on, of course. I kept it in my office and hand quilted it in small bits while watching videos online in the evenings, something I do occasionally. I could have finished it off a lot faster quilting it on the machine, but wanted to put more of myself into it. The words are from an exercise in The Artist’s Way, which I worked my way through last winter. Now that it’s done and hung, I need to dig out another hand-work project.

 

 

 

 

One more bound today needs a sleeve and label, two more waiting for binding, then on to basting a growing pile of tops and back to quilting. I’d like to get a few more quilts finished this month, before garden fever gets me.

 March 7, 2013  Posted by Abby at 11:12 am Charity Quilts, Finishing 1 Response »

Should you donate ugly quilts?

Feb 172013
 

I watched an old episode of The Quilt Show the other day, I’m not going to say which one, and a well known quilter (which I will call BNQ for Big Name Quilter) said (I paraphrase), “You don’t have to finish every project. And don’t give them to charity, they don’t want ugly quilts.”

WTF? I was shocked! Not give your “ugly” quilts to charity? How can she presume no one will want what you don’t want? Granted, there are some charities that are fussy about what they receive, but there are plenty of others who will gladly take your quilt no matter how ugly you think it is. After all, “ugly” is in the eye of the beholder. I’ve made plenty of quilts I thought were ugly, yet others who saw them thought they were lovely. Ms. BNQ made her comment while sitting in front of a prize-winning quilt she’d made (and I assume thought was lovely since she was proudly showing it off) that I thought was damned ugly. Ugly is a matter of opinion.

There are some quilts that you shouldn’t donate – such as, if they would be hazardous to children or will fall apart with the first washing. And not every quilt will suite every charity, because needs vary. Some groups collect quilts for cheering up young patients. They will prefer colorful quilts that are soft and cuddly (flannel backs are nice). Others collect quilts to distribute after disasters. They want anything that will keep people warm and stand up to hard use. Ugly is fine, as long as the quilt is warm and durable (they often prefer polyester battings for warmth). And some collect art quilts to auction off – sure, they don’t want ugly, but we’re back to who decides what is ugly?

If you have an ugly quilt, there is a charity somewhere that will take it. Or wait for the next disaster, they seem to happen every year or two, somewhere in the world. But ferchrissakes, don’t throw away anything that could keep someone warm. They will love it no matter what it looks like.

Now the other part, not finishing every project, I sort of agree with. You don’t have to finish the project you started. But that doesn’t means toss it if you can possibly make something else from it. If you didn’t ever put those swap blocks together because the size differs? Add a wide frame around them and trim to size, make it wonky if you like. Sew them together and add borders until you’ve got a bed-size quilt. That one fabric faded badly and you wonder if it will last? Cut up the rest and use it in a scrap quilt. Never quilted that top you made in a mystery quilt because you didn’t like the result? Someone else will love it.

Get it done, donate it, and you’re rid of it. Throwing it away wastes not only the earth’s resources (wait until I get ranting about what cotton farming does to our topsoil), but your time and effort. Maybe you learned something from the experience, that’s fine but it doesn’t mean it’s okay to toss it. Cut it up, sure. Learn to free-motion quilt on it, or give it to a new long-arm owner to practice on. But finish something and by all means, donate the result. Just pick the right charity.

 February 17, 2013  Posted by Abby at 10:34 am Uncategorized 2 Responses »

I succumbed to shiny object syndrome, and other progress

Feb 062013
 

I should be focused on finishing UFOs, but I got sidetracked by a shiny new project.  I made the mistake of watching a Quilt Show episode where Ricky Tims demonstrates his Kaleidoscope technique, and I took notes. It looked like so much fun – and simple and easy. Why is it I think “simple” and “easy” are synonyms for “quick”? They aren’t.

Next morning I had to try drawing the pattern, before I forgot what I’d seen and couldn’t understand my notes anymore. Here it is; the lines are a little hard to see, but those funny marks are to keep track of exactly how the pieces fit together.

Fifteen minutes and I was done. After that I couldn’t resist pulling fabric. And then cutting strips, which are shown here laid out on my table roughly divided into five piles.  At that point I left them overnight, and next morning I rearranged a few. Then I realized that with strips all over my layout table, I couldn’t work on the strip-QAYG project.  And that project was using my other machine (with a walking foot), for which I don’t have a 1/4 inch foot and have trouble controlling the speed.

So I swapped sewing machines. Before I could start sewing the Kaleidoscope strips into strata I figured I’d better get a little more free-motion work done, since the darning foot was already on the machine. I finished the quilting on the project formerly known as Nightmare, a sort of flame design.

Then I grabbed a small flower thing which I had used years ago to try free-motion for the fourth or fifth time and filled in the background. It’s been wanting some stitching on the leaves and flower ever since. Now that’s done. It measures about 7 by 15 inches, a little too long for an AAQI donation, so I may trim it down before binding. I think it needs a new back too.

That out of the way I switched feet and set about sewing strips together. Great opportunity to use up the bits of thread on half a dozen almost-empty bobbins, so I did. I never seem to have enough bobbins. No matter how many I buy, I run out. I’m also trying to use up some old spools of Coats and Clark thread that are 10 to 20 years old. I’ve tossed at least 3 empty spools in the trash recently, so that’s progress. Here are the strips about half done, I’m now down to the last two seams but I needed a break.

That’s my WIPS and free-motion work for this week. Maybe next week I’ll have some finishes to show off.

 February 6, 2013  Posted by Abby at 5:07 pm Free Motion Quilt-Along, Weekly Review 1 Response »

UFO of the week #3

Feb 032013
 

I started work on two UFOs this week (that’s finishing, not starting). The first one was a “calendar” project, where I sewed one strip on each day. That was all the sewing I had time for while in law school, which means I sewed it no later than 2005. Instead of one long pieced strip I started a new one with each quarter, so I had these four long strips:

Instead of adding background and calling it good, because it wouldn’t have been all that good, I cut the strips up into 2 1/2 inch wide strips, cutting them short wherever it seemed like a good idea. Doing that kept the pieces manageable and allowed some correction for the crooked parts in the original (which were 8 inches wide).

Then I sewed them all back together, using  2 1/2 inch wide scraps ranging from about 4 to 10 inches long. I sewed them all into one Mother Strip. Meanwhile I had cut strips of a red floral, long enough to use as alternate stripes on the final quilt. I’m sewing it QAYG style – directly onto batting and backing.

Meanwhile, my next handwork project is this applique block, which has languished for years. At least ten years, if memory serves (some days it doesn’t serve very well). At the rate I’m stitching, it may take another ten to finish it. I’m adding leaves to the outside (green) portion by cutting away an inch or two ahead of my needle as I work, a cut-as-you-go technique. It’s also design-as-you-go; I visualize the leaves slightly ahead of my scissors.

That’s it for this week, if I’m lucky I can finish the strip thing by this time next week. It may depend on how many doctor appointments my husband has, since he can’t drive. Though if I remember to take the applique along I could make some progress on that one.

 February 3, 2013  Posted by Abby at 2:39 pm UFO of the Week 3 Responses »

Progress report Feb 2, 2013 – more quilting and a craft fail

Feb 012013
 

I’ve now got a small pile of quilted projects ready for binding. One project needs a little more free motion work, but I set it aside to work on a QAYG charity quilt. When that one is done the entire batch will get bound.

I did have one craft fail when I accidentally quilted two small projects together. After considering tossing the whole mess, I carefully cut away the back quilt, leaving a sort of trapunto under the area where I’d quilted through both.   It happened to be tree trunks so a little extra thickness won’t hurt. I even salvaged enough of the underneath one to add to the side (not yet attached). After finishing the quilting (all free-motion) it looks like this (the black thing in the corner is a strap on my camera):

  Can you see the Cat Cough-up Hairball quilting on the lighter triangles? I love this filler! So quick, so easy.

Two other little projects (under 9×12 inches so I can donate them to AAQI) are waiting for binding. Spirals II is not entirely free-motion, the zig-zag portion is one of the stretch stitches on my machine. The white areas are free-motion as is the stitching on the appliqued (raw edge fused) spirals.

And this one, with the light triangle confetti, reminded me of cabbage moths so I added cabbages. They’re a little small, but all I could find in my stash. The spirals are free-motion quilted while the vertical texture is a decorative stitch.

I also did more walking foot work on a quilt I covered last week, which I was calling Quilter’s Nightmare until I realized, while quilting it, that it was my Muse! So I now call it A Quilter’s Muse, and will hang it in my studio when done.

 February 1, 2013  Posted by Abby at 7:59 pm Free Motion Quilt-Along, Weekly Review No Responses »
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