Tuesday To-Do #46

I've been really busy the past week cleaning the house and trying to hire contractors but I did manage to spend a couple of days working on quilting projects.

I finally got my ProStitcher Tablet back from HandiQuilter, but it's still not working. Super irritating. On the bright side, the store also got a new HandiQuilter Infinity in their showroom and it's having the same problems so maybe now they'll be able to figure out what is causing it and will give us a fix.

I cut out three quilt kits before company arrived for the weekend. 

Since I had a friend for the weekend who wanted to sew, I pulled out one of the kits and started sewing it. The pattern is Blue Ridge Beauty by Bonnie Hunter and is from her Adventures with Leaders and Enders book. I decided to call my quilt Eggplant Enchantress. The rest of the blocks are finished except for the last seam, but I decided to futz around the direction of the seams before I put in the last seam so I will have less seam stacking in the final assembly.

For this coming week, I would like to:

• Finish piecing the Eggplant Enchantress flimsy.
• Nag SAVE Stores about a fix for my long arm. I need to become a squeaky wheel because I want this machine fixed.
• Fix the backing on the Aged Elegance Quilt.
• Maybe this will be the week I make a backing for the Graceful Moments lap quilt.

Go check out the Tuesday ToDo linkup to see more great projects.

Making Scrap Quilt Kits

I have a ton of scraps. Way too many. Even though I've been working on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I haven't made much of a dent so I decided to try and up my game. I've spent the past three days ironing and cutting up scraps in an attempt to assemble some kits. I think these patterns will be fairly easy and quick to make.

Lake Cabin by Kim Brackett (from Scrap Basket Sensations)

Generations by Kim Brackett (from Scrap Basket Beauties)

Sanctuary by Kim Brackett (from Scrap Basket Beauties)

Blue Ridge Beauty by Bonnie Hunter
(from Adventures with Leaders and Enders)

Over and Under by Kim Brackett (from Scrap Basket Sensations)

The colors will change, but these are the quilt patterns I'd like to make. I've mostly finished cutting up the scraps that were floating around in my sewing room, but now I'll start sorting them and cutting colors to fill out the pieces I need for each of them. It will be nice to have some quickie projects I can just pick up. I might use some of them as leader and ender projects.

Tuesday ToDo #45

My life has started to settle down again so I've been able to grab more time to sew. It's time to get back to my weekly goals and figure out what I'm in the mood to work on.

I have not done a great job on my last list, which included assembling the Desert Sunset quilt. I spent a while working on it, but I was having issues with the blocks not turning out the right size. My old sewing machine died while I was working on this project and my seams on the new machine are not turning out precisely the same, so my alternative is to tear blocks apart and fix them, or stuff the project into a UFO bin and deal with it later when I'm less frustrated with the project. And that's what I did. LOL

My brand new HandiQuilter long arm is also out of commission. We have had ongoing problems with the ProStitcher computer crashing in the middle of programs. That's not really a feature. So we took the tablet into the store for them to send back to HandiQuilter for repair. It was supposed to be back in two weeks, but when I called at two weeks, they hadn't even started working on it, so who knows how much longer it will be. Another source of frustration at the moment.

During the past week, I did manage to make most of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. I spent the entire weekend sewing and I managed to catch up with my green, blue, and orange blocks. So, I should be good to go for next month's color when it is released next week.

Arlington Square Blocks
Pattern from Pat Speth's Nickel Quilts book.

Bloom Blocks
Pattern by Kim Brackett, from her Scrap Basket Beauties book.

Flowers for Nana Girl Blocks
Pattern by Kim Brackett, from her Scrap Basket Sensations book.

For next week, I would like to:

• Make something small and fun. My scrap bins are overflowing so it definitely needs to be something scrappy. Choose a pattern and get it cut out.
• Fix the backing on the Aged Elegance Quilt.
• I still need to make a backing for the Graceful Moments lap quilt.

Thanks to Linda for hosting the Tuesday ToDo link-up.

August Goal Complete

I spent all weekend cutting and sewing my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. Other than the stained glass blocks (which I've decided to postpone until the weather gets cold again), I've caught up on all the blocks for my RSC projects!

On Friday, I finished the Flowers for Nana Girl blocks.  I started cutting out the dark green triangles for the sashing blocks, but I won't bother to build those until I know how many I need.

Then on Saturday, I finished the Bloom blocks. I also cut out the rest of the light pieces and the dark green leaves for the remaining 8 blocks. Now that I have counted them and know I need 8 more, and there are only 3 colors left, I will likely backtrack and make a couple more in an earlier color when I get the project out again next month.

And then on Sunday, I made 32 of the Arlington Square blocks! These blocks are really quick to make especially when you have many of the squares already pre-cut.

Looking at this photo, it's obvious there isn't enough orange in those blocks so I will cut extra orange squares for the next round. 

I also counted up these blocks and I have realized I already have more than the 96 total I need and there are still 3 more colors for RSC. Oops. I guess they're too easy to make. I've decided to continue making them each month but I'll just use the extras in a lap quilt, probably without the fancy border.

I've also been looking ahead at how I'm going to assemble these blocks, i.e. whether I want to add sashing or not. I think with all the seam matching along the edge of the blocks, I will be adding sashing, but I can't decide which color. Which do you guys prefer? White or Black?

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday and Monday Making. I'm also linking up with One Monthly Goal. Drop on by those blogs if you want to see more great projects.

Aug Friday Night Sew In

I didn't get much done for FNSI this month. I seemed to spend most of my time cutting out fabric. I've been having a problem with my block sizes drifting lower. I'm not sure if it's because I'm still getting used to my new sewing machine, or if my paper templates have gotten smaller. In either case, I've printed out new templates, and when possible, I started making my HSTs oversize, and then I'm cutting them down to the correct size. (I'd forgotten how time-consuming that is.)

Anyway, during FNSI, I got four more of the Flowers for Nana Girl blocks finished.

I had forgotten I let a friend raid my blue batik scraps so I didn't have much left. I'll have to make another blue block after she finishes her project and returns some of them to me.

I'm planning to continue sewing this weekend on my other RSC projects. I'm trying to catch up on most of the blocks I missed during May and June.

Thanks to Wendy for hosting Friday Night Sew In.

Aug One Monthly Goal

I cannot believe it is August already. This year has been zooming by. Because I was so distracted with house projects this spring, I fell behind on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects so for my August goal, I would like to try and get the blocks all caught up (except the stained glass blocks because it's way too hot to be running the iron non-stop). 

In April, I did some of the pink blocks but not all. And I didn't do any of the blue or green blocks during May and June, so I would like to get all the appropriate color blocks finished by the end of August. Plus, obviously, the orange blocks for August. I might also make a few more purple blocks because in my house you can never have too much purple. LOL

Thanks to Patty over at Elm Street Quilts for hosting the monthly linkup. When I have time, I really appreciate having a goal that helps focus my attention.

On My Design Wall

I spent several hours this past weekend starting to assemble my Desert Sunset quilt. As a reminder, this was my original plan.

It's probably no surprise to some of you that it was a mistake to cut strips out of all the fabrics before I even started sewing because once I laid them out some didn't look good together. It's discouraging that fabric scans are so far off from the actual colors of the fabric. I have created way too many scraps so far; this has been a very wasteful project. On the bright side, next month's rainbow scrap challenge color is Orange so I will be set to make those blocks without even pulling out my orange scrap bin. LOL

This is how much I got finished over the weekend before I had to turn my attention to straightening in anticipation of the house cleaner's visit.

It took me about a day of futzing around with my EQ design to convert it into SVG files that could be cut out on my Cricut. This time it surely would have been faster to just cut it by hand, but I was trying to learn how to create SVGs in my ProStitcher Studio software.

I finally managed to get the Aged Elegance flimsy on the long arm and Jeff started quilting it.

For the next week my goals are:

1. Finish assembling the center star of the Desert Sunset quilt (not including all the borders).
2. Start making my orange RSC blocks.
3. Assemble a backing for the Graceful Moments Flimsy.

I am linking up with

Design Wall Monday

Monday Making

Tuesday ToDo