Monday, July 23, 2012

A Little Help...

Progress on the HS quilt is slow. I tire easily with the fussy cutting of the 9-patch squares and have become bored again.  So, I moved on. I'll come back to it, but I needed to make some visible progress on a project.  So, I finally finished the binding on this:


Yeah! So, I'm continuing at least one finish a week and I feel good about that.  I'm working on a couple nameplates for Christmas stockings.  Those should be completed this week too... if I have time.  We have company coming.  A lot of company.

Anyway, I would like your feedback/opinion on what to work on next.  I need a wall quilt to switch to when July is done (but have no idea what it should be - should I continue with the summer theme or go for an autumn look?), I also have a couple Halloween projects to work on, and an anniversary wall quit (or four) to complete.  So where do you think I should go with my next project?

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

WIP Wednesday - HS Project

 As you probably know, I am working on a project I began more than 20 years ago in high school.  After taking it out of the box and realizing that much of it was cut out and some even stitched together, I initially just put it all back in the box and tried to figure out what to do about it.  In the end, I decided to deconstruct what was already sewn together, square everything up, sew it together, square it up again, sew the blocks together, and finally sew on the borders. 

I've deconstructed the blue and white blocks, re-squared the green blocks and sewed those together.  


Then I squared these blocks up.


They're all nice and pretty now.


Then I began work on the blue and white squares again.  Some of these were right on and some were way off.  Luckily, I've only had one that couldn't be trimmed to the new dimensions.  I just set that aside for now.  


I'm also lucky to have a sizable amount of leftover fabric so if I have to recut some squares, I'll still be OK.


Monday, July 9, 2012

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Tedious Work, That.

I finally decided what to do about that quilt top from the 12th grade.  I spent most of Friday ripping stitches and taking apart the pieces that had been sewn together.


There.  That's done.  But BOY! was it boring!


Now that everything is in pieces again, the plan is to iron it all and square it up before trying again.  I have faith that it will work better after using the acrylic rulers to square 'em up.


Friday, July 6, 2012

Friday Finish - 4th of July

Wednesday I showed you this block as part of a larger project I was working on.


I indicated that there was more to it than just that bock, but not much more than that.  Last weekend, we took a little trip to Sioux Falls.  The hubs wanted to shop for beer brewing equipment.  We had heard that there were a couple stores, but we were supremely disappointed.  If we need brewing supplies, we're going to go back to Minneapolis, I think.

Anyway, the hubs surprised me by looking up a few quilting shops to take me to! AWW! While shopping in the first store, he saw this project and loved it. I mean LOVED it. The kit was reasonably priced at $19.50 including the backing!  Wednesday morning we got up and walked the dog and then after a shower, we went to our separate shops and worked on projects.  It wasn't long and I had another block done.


Before you knew it, the top was done.  By 4pm, the whole thing was complete!  Look how nice it looks on the entry table:



You can't really see it, but all three fabrics have gold pattern on them, but you hardly notice the color, right? Crazy.

So that's my 4th of July projects. :)


Wednesday, July 4, 2012

WIP Wednesday - 4th of July!

I'm working on another Fourth of July project.  I've gotten one block completed (10" square) and hope to have the others done this afternoon.






Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Fourth of July Finish

I finished this wall quilt this morning - just in time for the fourth!


Last week, I pulled together reds, whites, and blues from my stash to create this fun holiday quilt.  I have been very neglectful in my decorating and in creating fun holiday-themed items, but have made a minor resolution to correct that.  So this is the first of two items for the Fourth of July that I've been working on.  The other is not quite finished, but all cut out.  So I'll post tomorrow with a WIP.

I had the Henry Glass fabric for the light inner border and the navy blue with stars on it in my stash, but had to run to the fabric store (oh darn) because the red I was going to use turned out to be too busy and there was already a lot going on with the words and stars ... and when the hubby says "you should buy a different red tomorrow" what's a girl to do, I ask?? Go to the fabric store, of course!  I just bought a half yard of a red I had used in the stars so, it looks good. The light fabric of the inner border has the Pledge of Allegiance written in blue ink on a cream background.

I'm really happy with this one!