Not Completing Anything

So the last few days I've been sewing but not getting anything done.

First up I was working on my Cutting Corners quilt and got the top completed.

I live in a small town and not much is here so it is a drive to Joann's and other stops.  My sister was out so I had her stop and pick up my batting.  I  already have a piece have a piece I was going to use for the backing.

Here is the backing I am going to use.  So I start to put my back together and figure out (should have known) it isn't big enough.  So I head into town to our Quilt Shop for some white to add to the back. They only have 1 3/4 yards of white in the shop.  I take it.  

While she is cutting the white, I check out the Christmas fabric, because I need some for my Christmas quilt.  I pick up the cute stripe, but when I get home, I don't like it with the top.  Should have taken the top with me, but didn't think I would be getting any Christmas fabric. Remember I was only running up to get a piece of white.  

So now I still  need  a backing for this Christmas quilt and I now have some for the stash.  That stash sure does built up fast.

Then I came across this very cute, light and airy fabric from Camelot Fabrics, called The Beach House.  It was so cute, it had to come home with me.  

So now I'm home with nothing to sew.  So I went into my leftovers from Quilt #8 and #11.  I sewed and cut these blocks, now I'm not sure what to do with them.

Well at least I have something to do today.  Ironing and deciding how to lay out for a top.

Quilt #11 Cutting Corners

Well we went to the Morel Mushroom Festival for the weekend, so no progress happened on my latest quilt.  It was rainy, snowy, windy and cold off the lake and no mushrooms were found.  I'm not a mushroom fan, but would have like to have picked some for DH.

Last week, before we headed out, I pieced the strips and cut into 10" blocks.  

Then I made my HSTs and layed the top out.

Sewed the rows yesterday and today is ironing and sewing the rows together.  Then I'll have a top done and need to think about what backing and binding to use.  So I'm off to get busy.

Quilt #11 MSQC Cutting Corners

Ok, I have been able to get a lot of quilting in this week.  It isn't the norm, Hubby has been gone all week and coming home tomorrow.  So then I'll be back to less quilting time.

So before he gets home, I'm starting my eleventh quilt.  I saw the Cutting Corners featured on Missouri Star Quilting Youtube channel and since I love HSTs, decided this would be #11.

I am using Grow.

So off to do some ironing and sewing.  See how far I can get tonight.

Happy Friday everyone.

Quilt #10 Christmas All The Trimmings

I've been wanting to do a Christmas quilt for myself and I found a charm pack on special a month or so ago, so Christmas quilt it is.
I pinned this quilt sometime ago from Helen Philipps Blog.  I liked the simple square and loved the quilting.  Since I am such a beginner, I though this would be a simple quilt to try.

I am using Michael Miller All The Trimmings and Bella Solids in Snow




Here it is all pieced and ironed.  I'm going to add a border, but don't have the right fabric.  I hate to not finish, before I go onto my next project, but the Christmas fabrics aren't really out in the stores I've been to.  Hopefully this summer I will find the right border and backing.

Until then, I'm off to check out my fabric box and find my next project.

Quilt 9 is done!

So thanks to the rainy cold day yesterday I quilted all day and here is my finished quilt.

I think it turned out quite nice.  This was my first time binding with the backing fabric.  It was much easier for me than using separate binding.  I haven't mastered binding yet on the machine, but some day.

So here are my last two quilts.  I  need to Sarah of Hands2Help for the mailing address.

Well I'm off to decide what quilt to do next........

Sandwich is done for Quilt #9

  

Yesterday was a beautiful day finally.  Sunny and low 60's.  My sis and I had planned a road trip to Shipshewanna for the flea market season opener.  We walked alot and enjoyed the weather.  The flea market was a bit to "fleay" for me.  Lots of the same things over and over.  Where do all these vendors buy a package of 10 toothbrushes they can sell for $1?

The we headed to town, had lunch and stopped in to Yoder's Department Store.  Let me tell you they have the best fabric selection.  They may be my new favorite place to shop for fabric, even though they are over an hour away.  I saw so many collections and precuts (which as a beginner I love). All the great collections I see on line they have.  Amazing

As a bonus, they have a great shoe department for casual shoes and I'm a casual girl (well getting to be old lady, but we settle for girl today).

My sister Patti, who isn't a quilter, has been watching me quilt on her new sewing machine she leaves at my house (what a great sister).  She bought some charm packs of Dot Dot Dash, a layer cake of For You and a layer cake of Nocturne with some backing fabric.

So today is a rainy cold day, all the better to start quilting Quilt #9.  Here is my sandwich for today:

So after I get my 10,000 steps in for today, then I can get on with quilting.  Here is to a great day.

Quilt #9 is Started

While I was hand binding my last quilt, my fingers got tired.  So what else should I do, start another quilt.  I  had bought a charm pack from Parade on Main from MSQC.

I loved the HSTs I used in my toppers and wanted to do a quilt with them.  So I paired this charm White charm pack and off I went.

Once I square up all my blocks, I need to make a decision.  Which pattern to choose.  I like each of them, but not sure which way to go.  So I'll think about it today and decides once my squaring up is done. 

I plan to add a red border around the front, not sure of how wide yet.  Might then follow up with a small white border, since I'm going to bind with the backing.  Here is the backing, as well as a navy, which I may throw into a border too.

More decisions, I love to use a pattern, then most of the decisions are done for you.  But this isn't really a pattern, so I'm on my own, which scares me, as I am a newby and don't really trust my decisions yet.

One day I'll get there, but for today, I am off on errands and then spending the evening working on this quilt.

Quilt #8 is Done

This is my eighth quilt, because I am counting my two table toppers as individual projects (stretch in calling them quilts).

I quilted the top by machine.  I would love to say my machine, but it is not.  My sister bought a Viking Platimum 930 and she leaves it at my house.  Not sure why, but I'm not asking any questions or pushing it to go home.  It is very happy here at my house.

After I finished the quilting, I added the binding and hand stitched it.  Today it will be washed and ready to go.  Hand 2 Help here she comes.

Binding my 1st quilt

I finished the quilting of the top this morning.  Here it is.  It looks pretty good, of course I can see issues, but hopefully the recipient will not notice.

That wasn't too bad.  It took me two mornings, but I wasn't in any hurry.  This morning I put together the binding strips, ironed and clipped to the quilt.

So now it is time to start putting on the binding.  

Hope I get this done without the need to rip out.  Positive thinking this will be easy, take my time and it can be done.

Quilting my first top

Over the weekend I started to quilt my tops for Hands 2 Help  It was some trial and error.  Many wonky lines and some tearing out.  

So I decided to try the painters tape way.  Found it on google and gave it a try.

It looks pretty good for a first timer.  Only had enough time to do half, so I plan to finish the quilting today,

What did I sign up for? Hands2Help

Being new to quilting, I spend some time (ok way too much time) browsing the web for quilts, patterns, fabric and lots of other stuff.  So I came across Confessions of a Fabric Addict  and saw some very nice quilts.  She also has been doing for years quilts for charities.  So I signed up for her newsletter.

Well a few days latter I get an email welcoming me Hand 2 Help and thanking me for joining and agreeing to make a quilt.  Whoops!  I did what.

So I had started a quilt and didn't really have a owner in mind so I decided I would give it a shot.  So here is my quilt so far

 I chose Cool Blueberry Park charm pack by Karen Lewis for Robert Kaufman

 I used the She Quilts Alot layer cake coin pattern.  

Once I had the top and bottom part done, I decided to also add sashing between them, since my piecing didn't line up correctly.  The sashing is a great hiding tool.

Here is the completed top.  Now on to the backing.

I had some left overs from the layer cake and some plain white and decided on this for the backing.

So here is the backing all done.

Now it was on to doing the sandwich.

I finished up the sandwich and now need to quilt.  I know it will be lines, I just hope and can do them straight.  This will be the first quilt I have quilted on my machine.  I have sent all other quilts out for quilting.  I've practiced on the table toppers, but this will be my challenge.

So wish me luck.

Table Toppers

So I wanted to try quilting on my machine, rather than always sending things out for quilting.  I've wanted to try my hand at triangles too.  So thought I would do them both at the same time.

Now that I have it all pieced I see that it needs to be a bit bigger for my nightstand.

I added sashing to add to the size.  I kind of like it with the sashing.

Pinned up my sandwich, now on to my first quilting.  

It didn't take too long and it looks great.  I can see a few spots that aren't quite straight.  But overall first time, looks good.

Then I moved on to the binding.  That wasn't fun.  I used store bought 2 1/2" double fold tape.  Sewed it on to the back and folded over.  I attempted to sew the folded over piece on the machine, but that just didn't work.  I wasn't always hitting the back tape and it looked messy.  After about 4 iinches, I decided to do it by hand.  It wasn't too bad to do, although I had sore fingers after.  It worked out great.

Now I'm going to do one more for my dresser top in the bedroom.  Same colors, just going to do bigger traingles.