Do you ever weigh a quilt?

I've been working on that pineapple quilt- sewing down the strips on the back from the quilt as you go method I'm using. The quilt is HEAVY!!!And it's big! It is close to 100" square.

Before I started working on the binding his morning I got my husband to get on the scale to weigh it. The quilt weighs a whopping 7-1/2 pounds! I know that does not sound heavy but when it's sitting on your lap or when you are wrestling it under you presser foot , it is heavy.

The binding is now sewn on. All I have left to do before enjoying it on the bed is to finish sewing it down by hand. I am going to spend a coupe days with my dad this week so that is what I will bring with me!

By this time next week I should be sleeping under it!

Happy Stitching!

Another UFO in progress!

I don't know why I didn't get this quilt done a long time ago.

I did add one more row of black hexagons to make the edge a bit wider. 

I didn't want the one row of black to get lost in the binding. 

My little 3/8" hexagon quilt still needed to have the basting stitches taken out and then the papers. I spent my snowy afternoon today sitting at my cutting table, watching Harry Potter getting it started. 

First I gave the whole quilt a good pressing from the front and the back too. The back is important because once I start taking the papers out I want all the folds to lay back down. I makes for easier quilting later on.

My most important tool for this- my lint brush! 

And I could not live without my seam ripper and a curved end awl!

I got quite a pile of basting threads! 

The curved awl makes it really easy to reach in and pull out the papers!

I am almost done!

This week I have a bit of time at home so I will finish getting the papers all out.

The next step after that is to give it one more pressing, first from the back and then the front. Then I'll get it basted and ready for quilting! 

This is going to fit perfectly on my coffee table and I can't wait to start enjoying it. 

Happy Stitching!

Lesson learned from UFO's

MAKE NOTES!

That is the lesson. I stopped quilting the pineapple quilt months ago because my old machine's tension and stitch length were all over the place but I didn't make any notes for myself.

The first thing is I often lightly and sometimes more heavily spray starch the backing and top if I am going to machine quilt. I just was so excited to jump back into basting that I didn't even stop to think if those steps had been taken. As I was quilting the first panel I realized no... I could tell by the stretching of my backing that it was not starched enough. Then I had to decide...do I take it apart and re-baste? 

Nope! This quilt is for my bed. It will be used and jumped on and abused and regardless if things are a bit wavy here or there or stretched out a bit that is OK. I am still going to love it. It was never meant to be a masterpiece. 

Then I got the first panels all put together and the strip on the back hiding the seam sewn down, flipped it over and realized the quilting doesn't look the same in the centers where the blocks meet. That was another note I should have made. Obviously looking at it I decided to add one more line of quilting in the corners of each block and only managed to do a few of the blocks that way. 

I will have to go back and add a few short quilting lines after I give those seams a good pressing.

The quilt is close to getting finished and I can't wait to sleep under it!

Then I started thinking about the next UFO. I had pieced together a bunch of tumbler blocks from my favorite Aunt Sharon and I had a vision. Make them into a strippy quilt. Well time has changed my mind quite accidentally. I was laying a few strips out on the floor to look at them and measure them to get a sense of size. 

I thought, I like that. So plan B was born- I took 5 tumblers off the end of each strip. That will give me 2 more rows of tumblers. Sew them together as is lining up centers and add wide borders to top and bottom only to make a nice lap size/ napping quilt. 

That will be the next UFO I tackle. I want to piece the top but the actual quilting will wait until after Christmas. I have a couple small projects that will take up my time. 

I wonder how many people make notes if they put a project away for a while? 

Happy Stitching! 

Pineapples UFO

My scrappy pineapple is on the go again! It is Thanksgiving weekend here and we were supposed to be visiting my Dad but my mister had other ideas. The common cold has kept us home. So... I thought I had better take advantage of such an opportunity and start work on that UFO pile! 

I piled up all the sections from the pineapple quilt- only 2 sections left to quilt now. This is my first and LAST quilt as you go...at least using this technique. Yes it is certainly easier to wrestle the quilt in the machine but it seems that it is never ending. And then I still have to sew all the pieces together.

Enough whining! 

I am going to love it when its done and on my bed. It will be cozy and warm with the wool batting and I am enjoying the quilting process. 

Each corner I turn has another fabric that I remember and still love!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Stitching! 

Dear Blog

Dear Blog, I am very sorry for the neglect of the last 6+ months. 

It all started with a sewing machine that was giving me a lot of trouble. It went into the repair shop because it had a burning smell. They could not find anything so they did a cleaning. It came back with horrible tension. I have been sewing a long time and I know my way around my tension. I tried all my regular needle types and all my regular thread. It went back to the repair shop and they said the tension was fine. It wasn't. It was a bit better but still not even good.  After a lot of frustration I found a thread wrapped around the arm that feeds the thread up and down and was able to get tweezers in there and unwind it. After that it was better but my tension never got great and the motor was whining every time I used it.

It was well used...more than a lot of sewing machines. 

Finally one day I had enough...and brought home a new baby. 

I love it! No tension issues and sews like a dream! 

Hopefully it will give me many years of happy sewing!

At the same time as this, I have been just taking a bit of a break from the internet in general. But I have been missing this blog. I enjoy sharing and it is a wonderful record of all I've done. I have also been missing the blogs I always have followed so I am back to reading those as well.  

That whole adventure got me out of my sewing room a bit and got the UFO's piling up.

There are 11 UFO's on this pile and that does not include the Dear Jane quilt I started and I am sure I will find a couple more hiding.

Now that I have piled them up I am going to start working on each one until it's finished. A few are longer term projects so I will focus on the short term ones first.

I did finish this little knitted toy for a Christmas gift! ( Yes I am already making Christmas gifts)

This is McHenry- a pattern from Susan B. Anderson It is about 6" high and so cute! He even has a spot on his back and a little tail.

And this sweet little bunny was a pattern from Julie Williams. 

It was a birthday gift for a very little girl. 

The first thing she did was put it in her mouth so I think it was a hit.  

I finished a baby quilt- this was a kit from Moda. The flannels are so soft. 

There was enough left over from the kit to make this quilt below that I sent to the baby's grandmother to have while her first grandchild visited her! 

I have made several of these heart quilts from a free pattern on line. I have not been able to find the link again but if I do, I will share. 

And finally, I had some extra time so I basted the last 3 sections of my pineapple quilt. Here are two of sections. I was wanting it done before the snow came but I am too late. We have already had snow twice here in Saskatchewan. 

This was the project that broke my old sewing machine!

So Dear blog, I hope that explains a little bit of what I have been doing!

Happy Stitching everyone! 

Basting and basting and basting!

I was heading to my dad's the other day for a visit and winter made me turn around and come home. There was near zero visibility at times. I have been lucky this winter that the weather has co-operated up until February. 

So this unexpected time at home made me think it was the perfect time to start some quilt basting.

I set up my tables and got busy. I pin basted the next three sections for my pineapple quilt ( I still have two sections left but ran out of safety pins.) 

And I thread basted my jelly roll nine patch for big stitching. The picture does not do it justice! It is going to finish close to 60" x 72". It almost didn't fit on my table!

After I had it basted I previewed a couple of quilting stencils I had. I am wanting an all over pattern in the center and a different border. Here is one idea but I'm also thinking feathers may be fun. I'm not sure with big stitch if the pattern will be effective with feathers though. The feathers will probably have to be a bit larger.

I also finished sewing the tumblers together in long strips. I'll be alternating them with solid strips. I have to play in my stash a bit to see what color I would like. 

And I started a new pair of socks. I've been knitting almost every morning lately while I have my morning coffee. I am finding it quite relaxing and enjoyable.  This colorway is beautiful- it looks like  stormy day. 

Now I have to go find my thimble and big stitch needles!

Happy Stitching!

Falling back in love with the old!

The last couple years I have been trying to use up older fabrics and supplies- in other words try to use what I have before buying what I want. There will always be something great and new around the corner and I live in a condo so I don't have unlimited space! 

One of my latest projects was to use up an old jelly roll from 5 or 6 years ago. I had loved it once but not anymore. I decided it would be perfect for gifting so I just starting making easy nine patch blocks. When they were done I went through my stash and picked out fabrics looked good with the colors from the jelly roll and then I started putting it together. ( It still needs a good pressing!)

I often think about how I am going to quilt a project as I am sewing and this one was no different.

About half way through piecing the top, all of a sudden it hit me that I COULD NOT machine quilt this quilt and I COULD NOT give it to anyone but me! I was smitten...in love...and I couldn't wait to get started quilting it by hand. I decided to big stitch it and with the same idea of using up things, I found spools of old thick Mettler thread which I believe is cotton in my thread stash. It will be perfect for big stitching but I just don't have enough to do the whole quilt in one color so I picked out all the colors that complimented the quilt. I am so excited to get this basted but it will probably not be for a couple of weeks. I am putting in extra hours at work for the next while so I don't have as much free time as I am used to. 

I have also started machine quilting sections of a large pineapple quilt. These first sections are about 28" square. I have 4 of them done. Next I will be quilting sections that are 2x3 blocks. I have 4 of those. I'm using a wool batting that is a little puffier than I am used to but this will be a wonderful cozy quilt for my bed.

I don't know whether it is that it is winter, but I have been knitting more than usual lately. I just finished a new pair of socks. My LWS,  The Naked Sheep Yarn and Fibre Emporium has a fun monthly sock knitting challenge and in February the theme was of course all about hearts. I picked up some beautiful hand dyed wool in a color that was somewhat love like and got going...here they are. 

 The pattern is Diagonal Lace Sock and the wool is from Dye for Ewe and it is so soft. I usually do not not indulge in such expensive wool for socks but I know my feet will LOVE these!

I have 2 days off now so I am going to use them to make backings for all these projects I want to get quilting!

Happy Stitching!

So many projects!

I have been slowly bringing out UFO's to work on and get done. So right now I have 5 projects on the go and soon to be 6 ( I need a new 'going to my dad's project' to work on).

• Dear Jane
• Civil War Bride Quilt
• Scrappy Tumblers ( a story for this one)
• Use up a Jelly Roll project
• Quilt as you go Pineapple quilt

The Dear Jane and the Civil War Bride are both long term projects. I have a few new blocks to show. The Dear Jane has 4 more blocks done and about  12 printed for prepping. 

I am using the Dear Jane software from EQ. 

And one more block is done for the Civil War Bride quilt, with two more blocks started. 

They are still in the prep stage! 

The scrappy tumblers were a surprise from my favorite quilter (aka my Aunt Sharon!) Her and her friends had gotten together and cut a bunch of tumblers with the accuquilt. She sent me a bag full, some were pieced in groups of two and some were just singles still. I have them all pressed and ready to sew! 

It is so much fun playing with other peoples scraps!!!!!

I'm lifting part of my sewing room floor in the next while because I have a major squeak. I don't know yet if it is the laminate or the sub floor. I am preparing for the worst and setting myself up to sew in the dining room for a while. This tumbler quilt will be perfect for working on while my sewing room is mostly out of commission!

I also have an old jellyroll - you know one of those that you look at and wonder "What was I thinking that day!" Well I saw a nine patch variation on Pinterest and it gave me an idea. 

So I am going to start that too! Photos to follow...

 I am also going to start quilting my pineapple blocks. The quilt is going to be way to big to work on the whole thing so I decided to try a quilt as you go. Instead of doing individual blocks , I am going to put them together 2x2 and see how that goes. I plan to use up some old fabrics for the backing so  might have to do some piecing to get large enough ( I need about 32" square).

And finally, my favorite Aunt Sharon also sent me a cute little Christmas project to embroider...it just has to be framed. It was so much fun - all pre-printed!

I'll wait until Christmas though so I can see it there are any cute Christmas frames available! 

It fits into an 8x10 frame.

Happy Stitching!