Design Wall Monday

This is my UFO #3 from Patchwork Times 2017 UFO Challenge.

The blocks aged for 10 years, the quilted blocks for another 2 years.

After being upset with myself over procrastinating so long, 

I just giggle because I have so many great memories of receiving these blocks,

the friends that made them and the smiles they bring to me.

So no regrets, just smiles.

A few days ago, I posted my progress.

Saturday morning, I trimmed all the blocks.

That bag of trimmings bothered me for a bit.

There was so much in it, 

but nothing was wide enough for the string bin

and I not going to start making pet beds.

 I gave it to the garbage man without guilt.

The fact that all the batting used in the added sashings came from 

the trimmings of Tumalo Trail may have helped with the no guilt.

Then I set about joining my blocks. Thank goodness for Craftsy classes from Marti Michell called Piece By Piece: Quilt-As-You-Go-Techiques and Dot To Dot Quilting with Angela Walters.  I highly recommend both of these classes.  I learned so much from both of these ladies! The fact that I can take notes for the steps I don't want to forget and can go back and review just that part might be my favorite feature of these classes except the fact that I can re-watch them whenever and how often I want.  I learned the glue trick from Sharon Schamber  (you can find almost anything on you tube!). Isn't the internet amazing!!!

The status of this quilt right now is Rows A and B are joined together, C and D are complete rows ready to be added and Row E is laying on the sewing machine to start being made into a row.  Binding strips are all cut. Cross your fingers for a finish today. We still have plenty of snow and ice and the rain is coming in ready to create more chaos and I am happy to stay home and out of the way. I have my own work to do.

See fabulous projects at Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

UFO Progress

Like Jo of Jo's Country Junction, I set my En Provence aside to work on my UFO for the month.

The blocks were all quilted and put away almost 2 years ago!

I bought sashing and joining fabrics.

It's sad to admit that I didn't have enough of anything to do this step.

But I don't feel bad about buying new fabric to finish a project.

Action is being taken on my big plan!

Strips of fabric and batting were cut into appropriate lengths.

All 20 blocks were ready to sew.

I joined the batting to the seam allowance of the sashing and block with some interfacing strips.

A trick I learned from a Craftsy class with Marti Michell.

I love those classes!

I did some quilting and now

I have 7 blocks to do.

 I will trim them all to size and join into rows.

After revisiting the blog post from 2 years ago, 

I have decided to not add an outer border.

I feel really good about the progress on this project.

It's fun to revisit these blocks and remember the friends that made the blocks.

I feel a UFO about to be marked off the list.

Design Wall Monday

There is nothing on my design wall but a mess of threads. It's time to test out my new lint roller and get those cleaned off. I have all my rows pinned together for Cathedral Stars. I'm hoping to work my way into the sewing room today to make some progress on this. I haven't been in there for several days and I miss it.

We are going to have a few hot days this week so when the sewing room gets too hot, I plan to pin baste this quilt top. I want to play around with what I learned from the Craftsy class Dot To Dot Quilting. I printed this photo in black and white so I could play around with the block designs. I think this is going to be fun to quilt.

All this will happen after I cruise around Blogland for a while. See what's happening on Design Walls all over at Patchwork Times.

UFO No More

My oldest UFO is no longer this one. This one is my latest finish. The blocks were from an internet swap years and years ago. One day they were set into a top and then stacked on Mt. ToBeQuilted where it got buried by loads more quilt tops.

I started this one on my longarm but I've been having lots of trouble with arthritis in my lower back and standing at the longarm is painful.  I invested in a Brother 1500 sewing machine so I can go back to sit down quilting. I've been reading a lot about this machine and once Denise at Justquiltin with Denise Russart bought hers, I really started looking at them. I love this machine and used it this morning to finish up the last row and do the binding.

I bought 2 Craftsy classes on free motion quilting, one with Angela Walters and one with Leah Day--both are excellent. There is always something new to learn.  This block was done using Dot To Dot quilting which I found to be so much fun. There is some serious work to do on my free motion straight lines but right now I'm just happy to have this finished.  I love how crinkly the quilt gets after washing. It has flannel on the back so the shrinkage of that makes it extra crinkly and cozy. I can't wait to give it the cozy test.

Next up is the quilt for the hunting club. Nothing like a new machine to get some quilts finished.