Next Up

I have been hopping from project to project this summer.  Here is what received the most attention this week:

 I loaded a customer quilt on the longarm.  I am using a pantograph.  The quilt is Fire Island Hosta by Judy Niemeyer.

I showed the Swoon quilt in my last post about unfinished objects.  I got the borders on it to bring it to the required size for a QOV.

Now I need to finish the back. This is the part I tend to overlook, which really slows down my progress.  I have a stack of quilt tops ready to be finished, but if I don’t have a backing, then the longarm sits idle while I move on to the next piecing project.  Talk about a Catch-22!!  If I get the back ready with the top it will speed up the whole process.  Easy enough in theory, let’s see if I can make it happen consistently.

I am using four leftover Swoon blocks for the back, and I have plenty of yardage in my stash to bring it to size.

I did get the two wall-hangings quilted and they are ready for binding.

I am sure I can find something on TV this afternoon for background noise while I sew!  What are you working on today?

Long Term Projects

** Comment on the Oct 24 post to enter a charm square giveaway!  Open until Sunday Oct 26**

Before there were online quilt alongs, local shops would entice their customers with BOM projects – Blocks of the Month.  Many designers still offer these projects, and it’s a great way to tackle a large quilt.

I have been working with some friends on a year-long Bible Study/quilt project called “Women of the Bible” and tonight I finished block 52!  Here are the second half blocks, but it looks like I misplaced one.  ARGH.  That is certainly a sign that it is time for a deep clean of the sewing room!  The other 51 blocks have stayed nicely in their pile, I don’t know what happened to the Shunamite Woman…

Some other BOMs have been patiently waiting for attention for many years.  I have all the blocks done for the 2007 Marti Michell quilt called Hidden Stars…

 All it needs is a border!

A couple years ago I joined the Fat Quarter Stars QAL:

I stalled after putting the sashing on.

And the Block Lotto patterns from this year will make a nice QOV…I have seven months worth done.

How old are your projects?  Would you start with the project that is closest to being done or whichever strikes your fancy?

Summertime and the living is easy

Yay!  I learned Entrelac Knitting from Craftsy.  Here is the cowl that was the first class project.

The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted in the exclusive colorway “Winter is Coming.”  I originally bought the yarn for a Game of Thrones Mystery Knit-Along.  The premise of a mystery knit-along is that the full design is revealed step by step.  I recently began reading the GoT saga, so the KAL sounded like fun.  The pattern turned out to be a hooded cowl.  Definitely NOT something that would get much use in Arizona.  Of course, I could send it to relatives in Minnesota, but then I screwed up the stitch pattern on the lace section and decided to put the whole thing in the frog pond.  To be honest, I was becoming very disenchanted with the variegated yarn.  My tastes are slowly changing to prefer solids…I better get faster in knitting up these stripey sock skeins that are laying about!

Enough about the yarn, let me go back to praising Craftsy!  The platform is awesome.  Purchase a class now, and have access forever, what’s not to like?!?  There are more lessons in the Entrelac class, but I am happy with my first project and now I can dabble with some other techniques and come back to that class when the mood strikes again.

I have to push myself on these quilting projects.  I have one more border for the Irish chain (the purple and blue on the left) and that needs to get on the longarm frame since it is due to the customer on July 1.  Yikes that’s only a week away!  Darn summer vacation when I forget what day it is…And the yellow quilt is for my super secret book project.  That’s ready for the longarm too.  That machine will really be humming when I get off my bum and go quilt!