August UFO Challenge Project

WaaHoo! August's UFO Challenge is finally marked off the list. 

This is Hawaiian Sunset 1845.

This pattern is still available as a down load from Quilters Newsletter.

It really was a fun quilt to make.

I was so afraid to quilt it so I put it away for 6 long years.

How sad.

When I pulled it out of the bin, I was stumped as to what to quilt.

And then it came time to choose thread.

I decided a nice gray was perfect. 

I can't wait to wash it and see if the gray hides a bit more 

but if not, I'm happy with it.

While pin basting, I decided it was so busy it only needs a meander.

I was shocked that it only took 1 day to get it quilted. 

I sure do love my Sweet Sixteen.

It is now trimmed and ready for binding which was in strips in the binding box. 

That will happen today. 

When Ernie asked who it was for I told him I had no clue and

 that I really wanted to keep it for myself.

You can read all the stories about it here.

Perfectly Imperfect Easy Street

I'm sew excited to have the quilting finished on Easy Street.

This is April's UFO from Judy L's challenge.

Today the binding will go on.

Why Perfectly Imperfect?

When I basted the quilt, I had the back the inside down instead of up.

I noticed it when I had it about 3/4 quilted.

I am not a perfectionist.

I just kept on quilting. 

No big deal, it's going on my bed.

Here is how embarrassingly far behind I was on my UFO Challenge projects.

Now I can remove the top 2 sticky notes. 

Today is stay home and have a binding and basting party day.

Doggie cuteness.

Just like kids, one will not give up her favorite spot

so the other makes do to get what he wants.

Win, win.

Welcome To The Family Sweet Sixteen

I've been wanting to upgrade my beloved Brother 1500 machine to a 

Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen machine.

I've wanted one for a few years and lately started looking seriously.

I looked at new, 

I looked for used.

There are not many used machines on the market.

I looked in 3 states and recently found one 3 hours from me.

Yesterday we took a road trip to north western Washington to test drive one.

Who am I kidding, I knew I was bringing it home with me.

She is now set up in the living room.

I played with her for quite a while last night.

I watched videos and played some more.

I'm confident in my free motion and I'm ready to start quilting.

Today I had to put off quilting to get a couple of quilts basted. 

I am so behind on my UFO Challenge list that I pulled the 

March and April UFOs off the pile and basted them.

I'm about ready to wind a couple of bobbins and 

be brave and start quilting. 

I hope to soon be moving these and several others to the finish page. 

9pm Update

The learning curve is quite curvy but I'm having so much fun!

Lucky #7

Finish #7 for 20 Finishes Before 2010!!

It was fun to revisit these fabrics.

Lots of my favorites are in here.

If you make spirals and they go array, 

you name them wonky. 😉😃

I took this picture after putting the walking foot on for the binding.

This one is a small size couch quilt.

I just searched the blog and found out that this has been marinating since 

October 2009. 

Oh My! It didn't seem like it was that old.

I used scraps from a few backings for this one.

It's quilted with wonky spirals.

Hooray for Lucky #7!!

Design Wall Monday

It's been a busy week in the sewing room.

After finishing last month's UFO, 

I decided this beauty was next.

The binding is sewn down and 

it will soon be headed to a special girl in Texas.

Shhh, she doesn't know it's coming.

Finish #4 for my goal of 20 Finishes Before 2020.

Next up is Sanctuary from Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Beauties book.

It was started in May 2013 at a retreat.

It's done with flannel from strip swaps with friends.

At the next retreat, I won 5 yards of red flannel that was used for the border, back and binding.

There is a small piece left that will be cut up into more strips for the flannel box.

WaaHoo for Finish #5!

Trying to get a picture of this was a joke.

Daisy dog plopped herself right down and

Tony had to come and show how to sit pretty.

Little Dog took over the middle of the dog bed.

Saturday morning, trying to be quiet and clean up my messy binding box,

I started sewing the leftover binding hunks together.

After sewing 7 or 8, I realized there was no top thread.

Duh!!! So I put some thread on, threaded the machine and started again

only to realize the bobbin was empty!

While stitching down binding on the Dresden Plates quilt, 

I discovered where I had run out of bobbin thread.

7 Inches from the end and I didn't even notice!!

Joke's on me I guess.

So now I have my binding box nice and neat again.

I like having the black bindings all together.

The red on the right is all the same fabric. 

My heart sings at all those leftover pieces. 

I can't wait to use them.

The others are for specific projects and each are labeled.

This is why so much quilting is happening.

I'm perfectly content to stay inside and 

make pretties happen while we wait for round 2 of this "5 part weather event".

Check out the fabulous design walls at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

Another January UFO Report

WhooHoo! Quilting is finished, binding is on.

I'll stitch it down in the evenings while watching tv.

I'm going to call this one a finish.

I'm not the best free motion or straight line walking foot quilter

 but I'm not the worst.

I have fun.

I'm a firm believer in Done is Better than Perfect!

Life's to short to be a perfectionist.

Last night I laid the quilt down on the floor to see if I really should 

quilt in the black half square triangles.

After the quilt inspectors report, 

I decided I should.

This was started in my first Bonnie Hunter class in June of 2014.

When the top was finished, 

it went straight onto Mt ToBeQuilted

where it marinated for a few years.

This will be sent off to a special girl as soon as it takes a trip through the washer and dryer.

I love sending quilts to my special people.

Since this is our day,

I'm going to go in a start quilting another one for a different special girl. 

Design Wall Monday

Quilting Mojo has arrived at my house.

I hope she stays for a while.

After finishing the Gypsy Rose Quilt last week,

I basted 3 more big quilts.

Then I went right in and started quilting.

Cathedral Stars was last month's UFO Challenge quilt.

After ignoring it all month, I got it basted on the 31st so I could report that I made progress on it.

Yes, I really did do that! 😉

I'm doing free motion curves in the star points and half square triangles.

I'm using the walking foot for somewhat straight lines thru the 4 patches.

I'm hoping today this one will be ready for binding.

Tony and Daisy kept me company from the table fort.

Kids and dogs love a good table fort. 

Little dog is cozy on dad's lap.

I really think they are sad when the tables are put away.

Check out the cuteness and the fabulous design walls at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday

 Last week I said I was taking time off my Good Fortune Quilt to work on some quilting. 

This baby quilt has been delivered.

The Flintstones tie dye fabric was from childhood curtains that belonged

 to my great niece's dad as a child.

He had them hanging in every home he lived in.

After his death, my niece held on to the curtains to make keepsakes for their daughters.

Both girls with have a quilt made using the fabrics.

It was an emotional journey for me so I can only imagine what my nieces felt when they saw it.

I loved making this quilt.

Since I was in the quilting mood, 

I decided to tackle this UFO from 2010 that was on top of Mt ToBeQuilted.

The backing was with the top so when I cut batting for the baby quilt,

I cut for this quilt and Garden Party.

 Quilting was simple and pretty quick.

When it got time to choose binding, 

I decided to trim up the excess backing and use it.

I love a scrappy binding.

I also pin basted Garden Party but had to unpin and repin.

I had a huge fold in the back

How did that happen! 

I had trimmed up the excess backing and batting to make less bulky

and was quite surprised at how big the fold really was. 

All better now and ready to quilt.
Since I was basting,
I grabbed 3 more off the mountain.

Now there are 2 on the ready to quilt pile with 

2 more ready to pin baste.

So Thank You Julie for the idea to get a few quilts basted for when the mood strikes.

That  should use up most of my pins. 

Check out all the fabulous design walls at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday

Design Wall Monday

While I'm waiting for the Quiltville mystery to start,

I'm quilting July's UFO from Judy L's Challenge.

 Finally!

My #11 is Grandmother's Choice-Votes For Women Sampler.

I don't know why I was so scared to quilt this. 

I was super excited to get a ruler foot that finally I can use on my machine.

It's a Juki foot but it fits several high shank machines.

Well I did ok for a while but there is a learning curve and I want to get this done.

So I switched back over to my darning foot and got busy.

I sewed and sewed and sewed!

Sunday evening I was done!

Or I thought. 

See the sashing rows above Miss Polly?

I was showing it off and looked down and dang!

I skipped quilting the sashing on 3 rows!

I'll go back in the in the morning and quilt those.

Binding is sewn on so I'll have this finished this week.

Yeah

Check all the great design walls at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts-Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday

This past weekend I was a hunting widow.

My plan was to quilt this quilt.

I started on Friday.

Soccer season is ending.

Some of the kiddos are sick of soccer so they asked to stay at Gramma's house

 Saturday morning instead of going to another soccer game.

I seldom say no.

So  no quilting happened Saturday.

They weren't here all that long but I got sidetracked on other things.

I did work on it for a while on Sunday.

Sunday morning I downloaded a few audio books to listen to while quilting.

This one is called A Spool of Blue Thread.

Hmmm, I'm having a hard time staying interested in it. 

I'll keep listening for a while. 

I hope it gets better.

I love these bags from JoAnn's and have several.

While packing for retreat, I noticed the binding coming off.

So I sat down and sewed all 4 seams.

I can't have my bag falling apart.

I am considering this my mending for the month. 

Halloween was treat day for Bonnie Hunter mystery fans.

Good Fortune is the new mystery.

I pulled some of my reds.

The ones in front are my iffies.

Still not sure even after changing to black and while.

The reds are the only fabrics I've pulled. 

I told myself to get that quilt finished first and then find the remaining fabrics.

I'm trying so hard to be a good quilter!

I'm still working on doll clothes.

This outfit will stay on Clella's doll. 

I need to make a few more shirts before Thursday!

Hmm, quilting and doll clothes.

I can do it! 

So with finishing the quilt and the doll clothes,

I need to get things ready for retreat Thursday.

I can do this.

My string bins are packed, the book and the papers are in the bag.

Everything else is in the rolling cart that houses my Featherweight.

Hop over to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday 

to see whats happening around Blogland.

Design Wall Monday

I'm pressuring myself to get caught up with the 2018 UFO Challenge.

I'm starting to write this blog post Sunday morning.

I am working on the borders today.

This is the UFO for August.

I was so afraid to start quilting it.

But after a heart to heart with myself,

I decided to go for it!

I wanted to use rulers.

My machine did pretty good for a while.

Then we started to struggle.

It was no fun anymore so I took the ruler foot off and went to free motion.

Now that was fun!

Lots of fun.

Not perfect by any means but neither am I.

And this is my quilt so no big deal.

Of course the seam ripper has to come out to play.

The machine has to be threaded right to get a good stitch.

At least it was an easy take out.

Sunday morning the borders have begun.

Can I do it?

Can I get the binding on it so I can take it to the beach to finish?

Not if I don't get back to it....

To Be Continued. 

It's so fun winning the bobbin chicken game. 🐔

I knew I must be close so when I was ready to turn to the next border,

I checked.

I win!!!

This time... 😀😀

and the next 2 times, I was the looser. 

That black stuff...

That's a Teflon oven liner. 

I need to replace my supreme slider so I tried this.

It works great.

I bought it from Amazon last year and finally tried it out.

I just marked the needle hole and made it larger 

and tape it down with painter's tape.

Quilting is done, binding is sewn on.

Waahoo!!

I was going to get the next UFO out to baste today but
a cute little 6 year old reminded me that I said I would make her a new apron.
So a new apron will be made instead.

Visit Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday
to see some fabulous work going on in Blogland!