End of Month Report - October

Last month, I learned the basic of long-arm quilting. This month, I put that skill to use...a lot!

Finished

Swoon / How Charming Twin Boys / How Charming Girl / H is for Henry

I also finished off two Halloween costumes, Yoda...

and a Minecraft creeper...

{More on this one soon.}

I got 90% of the wedding guests to sign my sister's quilt squares appropriately.

Pieced and appliqued this rainbow boat quilt. Will be quilting it next week. {It's my NewFO!}

In life news, not much happened beyond my sister's wedding. We are still waiting for EP approval from Korea. The Dude was home sick for two days, and sweetly shared it with me. I've been running sporadically and hesitating on signing up for the Seattle half marathon.

Oh, and there's this.

Her name is Cookies and Cream, aka CC. She is a pain in the butt sweet little kitten. When she's tired. Which isn't often. The Dude is in love. {Tycho is not.}

Linked:

Nothing But UFOs
A Year of Finishes
Year of the Finished Project

Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts

NewFO @ Cat Patches

Weekly Progress - Bits and Pieces

I had a lot of little progress on a variety of projects this week - trying to balance projects that need to get done in the near future. But since I'm crossing things off the list rapidly, I think it's working okay. For now. Until I realize I can't find the top of my cutting table again.

Finished!

{H is for Henry - Art to Heart}

Worked on:

{Flirt Marks the Spot - McCall's Quilting Magazine}

Pieced all the rows. Now to put them together...eventually...when I have time...

{How Charming - Quilt in a Day}

Pieced all the blocks for the twin boy versions, started assembling.

The second set of blocks - I used the same charm packs but changed the outside of the on-point blocks. They both have quilting scheduled for Wednesday, so I need to get a move on the assembly!

Creeper Costume - started piecing the strip sets

All the blocks prepped for my sister's wedding quilt! Which she doesn't want called the boring "wedding quilt #1." Any suggestions?

Rainbow Boats - pieced the boats/background. The top will be filled with an applique sun and rainbow, but I needed the bottom done for scale. I've got my fusible web ready for sketching in between piecing the twin quilts.

The girl How Charming quilt is quilted, but not yet bound.

{Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Rebecca Barker Quiltscapes}

And finally, finished the baby blue scrap blocks, and cut/pieced scraps from Henry's quilt immediately. This month is grey/black, which is my sashing, so I will probably going to ignore the assigned color and catch up on the months I'm behind.

What's not on the list? St. Paul's Cross. Ugh. I know, I already failed at four blocks a week. I'm trying to get a few deadline things done before my sister's wedding, so it got pushed to the back burner. Hopefully I'll get back to it soon and not wait another two years!

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces
Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times
BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy
Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Weekly Progress - Selfish Sewing Week

This past week was "Selfish Sewing Week" hosted by Imagine Gnats and Made with Moxie. I didn't really have time for true selfishness, but I used it as an excuse to put aside St. Paul's Cross for a week and just sew on whatever other project I felt like.

And after plodding through eight-blocks-a-week, it feels good to post all this.

{H is for Henry - Art to Heart}

Applique finished, borders on, backing purchased, quilting time scheduled.

BOO-YAH.

{How Charming - Quilt in a Day}

More like Quilt in an Hour. Easy peasy pattern. I made it in girl prints first to test my math skills - I have three charm packs and three quilts to make, so I'm not quite following any of the given sizes of the pattern. And a good thing I tested - I miscounted the needed charms, so the twin boy versions will be smaller, but with added borders.

The twin boy versions are an order from my mother-in-law. The girl version will go to Project Linus, squeaking in just under the wire for 100 Quilts for Kids. It'll be first up in the quilting time scheduled for later this week.

Speaking of quilting time - so the Fifteen Minute Challenge this month was learn something new. {I know I've mentioned it once or twice.} Paper piecing and applique weren't quite new, but required a bit of relearning since I don't do them often.

This was my brand new skill for the month. Long arming! There's a place in town that rents time on their machines, and my husband is a big fan of "try before you buy a $10k machine."

{Just kidding. There's no way he's buying me one.}

I loved it. I mean, it's terrifying. Those machines are huge and they can whip across a quilt fast. But as someone who was tried and tried and tried at free-motion on my home machine, it was wonderful. I'm not at all anywhere near perfect, but my first attempts with a panto were huge strides beyond my attempts at home.

{Mine are the middle flowers. The perfect ones on the left and right are my instructor's.}

My freehand is still a little shaky - and I hate chalk; it disappears in seconds with all that vibration. I'll definitely be marking my quilts at home with a marker in advance once I get the confidence to go free hand.

{Wedding Quilt}

And in unfinished projects, another pile of my sister's wedding quilt blocks, taped to cardstock and ready to go.

{Flirt Marks the Spot - McCall's Quilting Magazine}

Another couple of blocks added to rows.

{Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Rebecca Barker Quiltscapes}

All that piecing led to lots of leaders/enders becoming blocks.

{Swoon - Thimble Blossoms}

And in my most selfish sewing, I started piecing the back of Swoon. And it's a top-super-secret until the Blogger's Quilt Festival, so this is all you get.

Whew. Nice week, huh? I decided I'm going to try to piece four St. Paul blocks each week, freeing up time for other things so it doesn't get paper-piecing-tedious as fast. It'll take five weeks to finish, but I'm still on track for a Christmas finish. {Since I've missed her birthday and dissertation submission.}

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces
Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times
BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy
Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Weekly Progress - St. Paul's Cross

Another week, another slow bit of progress on St. Paul.

{St. Paul's Cross - Quilter's Cache}

I added eight more blocks, and now I am taking a break for a week. I can't fully participate in Selfish Sewing Week - I have way too many commitments for that - but I can selfishly set these aside for a week and come back refreshed for another round of them.

After I finished the weekly quota of paper piecing, I moved on to another new-ish skill - applique.

{H is for Henry - Art to Heart}

Although this isn't exactly the hard part, I have all the letters cut out and fused down. I don't have matching thread, so I'll continue my studies on the blanket stitch before heading to the store.

I also added two more blocks on the Flirt rows and therefore a couple bits of leader/ender RSC, but didn't take a picture.

{Wedding Quilt}

And I started taping squares to cardstock for my sister's wedding quilt.

September is "learn something new" month with the Fifteen Minute Challenge, so I refreshed my barely-existent skills at paper piecing and applique. On Thursday, I get to learn how to longarm quilt. There's a local place that rents time on their machines, so I'm hoping this will help clear off the list of unfinished tops!

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

        

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

        

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Weekly Progress - Paper Piecing

This month's Fifteen Minute Challenge is to learn something new. Well, paper piecing isn't quite new - I learned how to do it waaaaaaaaaaay back in September 2011. But I have done exactly one paper piecing project {barely} since then.

And relearning hurt.

There's just so.many.steps.

The first couple of days, I made a whole bunch of the parts, then tried to assemble them all into blocks at once. But there's a Y-seam. And I missed the intersection on the first three blocks, which became frustrating to the point that I might have quit if the fourth one didn't come out okay.

After that, I switched to 1-2 blocks a day. Harder to chain piece. But slightly less stabby.

And so, at the end of the first week, I have a whopping eight St. Paul's Cross blocks to show for my effort.

After all that work for eight blocks, I went into normal speed piecing mode on Saturday. Polished off all the blocks for Flirt and started assembling the rows.

Which finished off all the red RSC leader/enders. Then I pulled out the light blue bin, sorted and pressed and got to cutting. My next stack of leader/enders is ready to go!

And my last bit of weekly project arrived in the mail! 17 Kona and Bella in greys and purples, which will be sliced and diced for my sister's wedding guest book quilt.

{The bottom blue-grey might not make the cut. I need about five more greys, so we'll see what it looks like when the pile is complete.}

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

       

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

       

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure