October UFO is Finished

Whew, by the very skin of my teeth, I have finished off the October UFO, allowing me to continue to brag about finishing 100% of my UFOs this year.

Happy Dancing!!!

This picture doesn't look very much different from the picture I shared at the beginning of the month. Different bed, but you really cannot see the borders, which is all that I have had to work on to achieve the finish. It became a rather large quilt with the addition of the borders, so let's have some other views.

I stopped working on this quilt back in 2014 when I realized that the border was going to be so intricate and involved. I was just all too ready to be done, and didn't want to face the extensive piecing yet required to finish according to directions. Given a 3-year break from it, I tackled it this month, and although I did make some minor alterations to the pattern, I did finish it close to the original plan.

I will come back tomorrow with more complete details on this finish. It's time for supper, and I need to be in the kitchen!! I will take the time to link with the One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts blog. Whew. I barely made it!


Happy Quilting, Friends!

The Quilt Shoppe in Summersville, WVA

On Friday, a merry band of five quilters departed Ross Co., OH, for a distant quilt shop in central West Virginia. A couple of the girls had scoped it out for us as their guild had taken a bus trip there earlier in the year. It came quite highly recommended.

And I think I speak for the entire group when I say we were not disappointed! What a vast collection of fabrics - and some of it was older lines that I used to collect 10 or 15 years ago! Imagine seeing a bolt of Thimbleberries fabric from 1998 on the shelf next to some more current 3 Sisters or Kim Diehl. It was all good stuff, too!

So, if you ever have a chance to visit The Quilt Shoppe in downtown Summersville, I suggest you do it. The owner, Vickie, was just as pleasant as can be. Upon entering the shop, she asked where we were from. When she learned we'd been on the road three hours, she said, "The restroom is in the back, there's water in the fridge, and I'll put the coffee pot on, if you want." Just as if we were long lost friends who showed up out of nowhere, she was all about hospitality.

She didn't mind at all if I took pictures, so let me just show you around. Fabrics were organized by color for the most part. There were separate sections, however, for batiks, 30s prints, homespun plaids, and holidays.

Display case featuring old sewing notions and ephemera.

Upon entering the front door, this is the wall on the right.

The plaids and homespun.

A sitting area! And we appreciated it!
Sharon is perusing some patterns books.

The Halloween section.

The far back left corner;
black and white section next to the fat quarter cubbies.

I admired several of the samples displayed around the shop.

The back wall; this looked like a working area with tables and machines.

The batik section.

Another pretty display quilt;
the owner said she has a friend with an antique business
who helped her "stage" the shop. 

Headboards were often used to showcase the samples.

Now, let's get down to the good stuff - what did I buy? I came away with stash enhancers. No big yardage, but lots of fat quarters and fat eighths. I did attempt to exercise restraint, but perhaps I wasn't entirely successful. I don't think it's too excessive, though. Right??

Lately, I have been on a 30s kick, so the four half-yard cuts down front satisfy that desire. The four packs at the top are mostly of the repro or primitive variety. I think some of the quilts on my list for the coming year (when I'm no longer focusing so heavily on UFOs) will benefit from the variety.

Ah, it was a wonderful day spent talking quilts with the quilty friends in our Frankfort Girls group. It was great spending such quality time with a group of truly quality ladies.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Busy Monday, Busy Week

Retirement sometimes wears me out!

This is one of those weeks in which a thousand things are going on, and I wonder how I will cram it all in. My university classes are turning in essay rough drafts today, so those must be checked and given feedback. Job comes before hobbies.

A book must be finished by Thursday. We are reading a really good one - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I've only just spent a little bit of time reading, but it's so good that I am rather far along. It will be a pleasure to finish.

Here we are with just a week left in October and I have not finished the UFO for the month. I have worked on it and the first pieced block measures 3.5" x 6.5" as intended, so I will crank the other 31 of them out asap. This first one is far from perfect, but at this point I am more interested in finishing than I am in perfection. 

I want to get back to working on Emma's wall hanging, That lingers on my mind, as the time-consuming parts have been dealt with. Now, it's just a matter of constructing the top.

I mentioned last week that we Frankfort Girls were taking a trip to West Virginia for some shopping. I really want to get a blog post up about that fun day. Drive 3 hours to a quilt store; shop 3 hours; return home. It was a long, long day - but really fun, too. I plan to have a post about our fun trip tomorrow. The photo below is of Sharon O. and Jan waving at me as I capture the beautiful flag against the vivid October sky and a mighty fine-looking pavilion which was located next to the quilt shop.

Breezy and rainy here today - a great day for sewing and creating. However, I must be off to Chillicothe for classes, so the stitching will have to wait until evening. Hope you are creating some beautiful stuff today!

Linking up with Monday Making over at Love Laugh Quilt. Beth has a real treat for us today - a new granddaughter! How nice.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Slow Sunday Binding

I brought home a little project for a friend on Friday. Terry, fellow Frankfort girl and long arm quilter, had a customer quilt that needed to be bound - by  hand - and Terry asked if I'd do it. I enjoy that sort of thing, so of course I said I would.

Normally, Terry does not offer this service, but the customer is somewhat elderly, and I'm sure it seemed like the right thing to do.

It's a very pretty Christmas quilt made with 10" squares - very simple, yet very, very appealing. After I finish the binding, I will take a picture of the entire quilt.

So I have enjoyed a leisurely day of hand stitching. Hope your Sunday has been leisurely, as well. I am linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitching party.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Baby Wyatt

Back in September I finished three baby quilts. I asked each family to send a picture of their bundle of joy with the quilt, if they had the chance. I will share the first with you today.

Little Wyatt is the second son of Adam and Jenna. Our friends Harold and Judy are the paternal grandparents, and they furnished this adorable picture. Daddy Adam is a proud alum of THE Ohio State University, so when I found that I had enough of these fabrics left in my stash, I knew a Buckeye quilt would suit them perfectly. I think Wyatt agrees, wouldn't you say? Click here to see older brother Cade and his quilt.

That's all for today, Peeps. I am off on a great adventure to West Virginia with the Frankfort girls. We are shopping!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sewing With Sharon

For the first time in several weeks, Sharon and I sewed together on Tuesday. Between my recent sick spell and our schedules, we just haven't had many days together lately.

As planned, I did devote the day to working on the October UFO. The main order of the day was making 3" x 1.5" flying geese units. This pieced border is for the birds, I tell you, and no pun intended! I should have just put a solid border on. I grumbled all day. However, I am too far into the process to change up now. So I will finish it according to the instructions, and yes, I will grumble some more, too.

Part of my grumbling came from having to do the math on figuring out how to make 64 flying geese using the no-waste method. Eventually, I got it right, but I did waste a good amount of fabric. And that's all I will say about that. *wink*

Here is the halfway point of the no-waste method. Funny looking things, to be sure. But it really does work when you calculate properly.

I was a good girl and trimmed them. The block I am making for this pieced border requires 2 of the green and blue flying geese, and one of the green and neutral flying geese, shown below.

And I need a total of 32 blocks. Next step is to make 64 HSTs of green and neutral. Then block construction can begin. Stay tuned. I will be grumbling my way through that very soon.

Sharon, bless her heart, put up with my whining as she worked happily away on constructing her flannel quilt top of 5" squares. What a great winter time quilt for the back of her couch. Think of all the great books read or movies watched wrapped in this! A hot cup of tea or a glass of wine - heavenly for a cold wintry evening!

 

I took several shots to try to get the colors true - I don't know if any of these accurately show the proper tones. Trust me - it is beautiful.

Short and sweet today, quilty friends. I have been spending a lot of time on my two university classes and have been catching up on some things around the house. Next up for me - a hair appointment!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Mid-Month Crunch

Having been sick for two weeks, progress on my sewing and quilting to-do list has been woefully lacking. Now that I am feeling almost entirely back to normal, the goal will be to try to tackle that list with gusto from here on out to month's end.

So, first, I have made all the triangles for Emma's wall hanging. They were easy-peasy with the help of Thangles papers.

The stack of HSTs; probably made a few too many.

Our sketch of what it will look like.

Pressed HSTs measuring 2.5 inches. 

I would like to continue working on the wall hanging, but another list item is also screaming for attention: the October UFO. Since tomorrow is a sewing day with Sharon, I think I will devote the day to working on it. One good, long day of sewing could accomplish so much on that deadline, and it would feel really good to see yet another UFO bite the proverbial dust.

Which means that continuing to work on Emma's wall hanging will wait patiently off to the side for a day or two. I am determined, though, to finish both this month, so it won't be waiting for long.

I am linking up today with Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Significant Hexie Progress

My heading indicates that I have been making significant progress, yet the big breakthrough hasn't been in actual stitching. No, instead, I have been thinking (always dangerous business for me!) and somewhere along the line I had a great breakthrough idea. An "ah-ha moment," if you will. Why this never occurred to me earlier makes no sense whatsoever, but I'm glad I have eventually arrived here. Let me explain.

Back in the summer, I shared a post about all the random hexie flowers I'd been making over the last couple of years. I had a nice little variety of random flowers, yet had no particular intent for any of them. It was just something to work on when I needed handwork. Consequently, they were accumulating. Never did it occur to me that I ought to add another ring around these existing flowers.

But why not?!?! Seems like a perfect way to use them. Since I have apparently taken to making what looks like an eventual Grandmother's Flower Garden, (scroll down in this post to see) I need to put these older ones into service.


I placed a ring of pink hexies and a ring of blue hexies on this mat, and auditioned a few of the small flowers. Here are some options I may go with.

I will very soon have enough flowers to get a nice little quilt going! I know so many quilters never work without a definite plan or goal in mind. My method, more often than not, is to just sew some stuff together and see where it takes me. This seems like a nice destination.

Linking up today with Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's Quilts. It appears I will have quite a lot of slow stitching in my future, eh?

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Baby Quilt Finished

With all the coughing and sniffling and wheezing going on around here, accomplishing very much in the sewing room has been difficult at best. Yes, we are still trying to recover from our respiratory infections. It's been brutal!

Finally, yesterday, I found myself sufficiently fortified to quilt the woodsy baby quilt that DD Emma and I made two weeks ago. She needs it for the baby shower tomorrow, so I was running out of time.

In anticipation of Thursday's being a good day for sewing, on Wednesday evening I prepped the quilt sandwich. Since it is small-ish at 44" square, I opted to spray baste the layers. It worked pretty well, but I wouldn't go much bigger, I think. Just too much wrestling of fabric, in my opinion. Using a flannel for the backing is a good idea for a baby quilt, but this plaid offered a new challenge - keeping the lines straight. I took my time and did a pretty decent job. I think for future reference, I will use a solid if I am quilting it at home, or I will long-arm quilt it if using a plaid.

My plan originally was to just straight-line stitch in one direction all across the quilt. However, after we went to the trouble of haphazardly arranging the blocks so that there is no definite up and down, I thought simply outlining the blocks should be the better way to go.  I am glad I made this decision, and I finished the quilting in a few hours.

After a little break to rest achy shoulders, I attached the binding and stitched it down. It turned out pretty well, all in all, and I am pleased with it. I was worried that I would be embarrassed to send it off with Emma, for everyone to think my workmanship was shoddy. It passes my quality control standards, so off it goes. *grin*  Oh, it has its imperfections, to be sure, but not so glaring that anyone would be dissatisfied.

Yes, I even remembered to add the label. Emma wanted to leave it blank for the new parents to write the baby's name, birth date, and weight after he arrives.

In with the gift, she plans to include a box of color-catchers for laundering. I think that several of the fabrics in this quilt have the potential for running.

I do believe that DH and I have finally turned the corner on our sicknesses; hopefully this is all for us for the remainder of the fall and winter, and then some!

Linking up today with Finish It Up Friday. She has an interesting string quilt to share; check it out!

Happy Quilting, Friends!