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!