Rhododendron Trail Lap Quilt Finished!

I have finished my second Rhododendron Trail quilt. When I rearranged the large quilt last spring, I ended up having quite a few leftover blocks. Now that I've finished this one, I have only one block left and that will go into my orphan block tub.

I've been having fun planning out the quilting in my ProStitcher software so once it's on the frame, I already know the plan. This was what I came up with. (These pantographs were purchased from One Song Needle Arts and are part of her Sweetheart Wildflowers set.)

I was initially concerned the stitching was too dense, but I was happy with the size once they were stitched out. I'm also super happy with the back. This is the first time I've used a solid fabric for the back and I just love how the stitching shows up so well. I definitely will need to do this more often.

There was one frustration with this process though; the thread I worked with was terrible!! I bought some So Fine mini mystery cone thread last month and they sent me 10 of the same boring color, called Digeridoo. Since it was a goldish-taupe color I figured it would work okay with this quilt, but OMG, the thread was HORRIBLE to work with. It literally was shredding on the machine. I had to rethread dozens of times. I was so tempted to abandon the thread but I couldn't bring myself to change the thread color partway through. It's no wonder Superior Threads discontinued it. Don't buy that thread; it may be cheap, but it's not worth it when it takes three times as long to finish a project because you have to keep rethreading and reprogramming your software to back up and restitch a section where the thread broke.

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday and Monday Making.

Rhododendron Trail Lap Quilt

My Rhododendron Trail lap quilt flimsy is finished! This uses up all the leftover pieces after finishing my queen-size quilt.

I obviously made a few minor changes. The original pattern only called for ½-inch wide sashing and I decided to make mine 1-inch wide. I reversed the position of the yellow and cream fabric on the border geese. Also, I decided to add an outer border so I wouldn't have to worry about those geese coming unsewed while I quilted it. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of the aqua color fabric so I decided to bracket the geese in two burgundy borders. Now I just need to figure out what to use for a backing.

This was actually my second flimsy finished this week. I also finished the Eggplant Enchantress on Monday.

I am linking up with 

Needle and Thread Thursday

Brag About Your Beauties

Finished (or Not) Friday

TGI Finished Friday

Off the Wall Friday

Peacock Party

Holiday Weekend Sewing

For the first time in quite a while, I had a really productive week. I did every item on last week's Tuesday ToDo list.

I finished piecing the Eggplant Enchantress flimsy.

My longarm was repaired last Wednesday, no nagging was required.

I also finished repairing the backing on the Aged Elegance Quilt and Jeff finished the quilting. Then on Saturday, I put on the binding.

I also finally made a backing for the Graceful Moments lap quilt. I had originally planned to do something complicated but when I had a large scrap leftover from the Aged Elegance backing, I decided to use that instead.

Then, last Friday, on a whim, I decided to pull out my leftover blocks from the Rhododendron Trail quilt. I decided I had enough blocks I could make a lap-size version of Bonnie Hunter's original design. When I couldn't sleep on Friday night, I got back up and sewed for the rest of the night.

I worked on the border geese on and off during the rest of the long weekend. I still need to calculate the size of the fudge units before I finish this but it's too much math for me tonight.

For this next week, I would really like to

• Finish this Rhododendron Trail Flimsy.
• Get started on my quilting plan for the Deco Elegance quilt.

I'm having a lot of dental work this coming week so I probably won't have time for much else.

I'm linking up with 

Design Wall Monday and
Tuesday ToDo

Sept Friday Night w/Friends

I got a fairly early start on Friday Night with Friends because today my HandiQuilter long arm was FINALLY fixed. At least it seems better, so far. The store sent out a technician to change out the card inside the machine this afternoon.

That green card was replaced with a new one.

Once the technician was finished, I put the Aged Elegance quilt back on the frame. It is almost finished. It just needs the last two edges of border. But, since it's Jeff's project, it will wait until he has time to work on it. He's really busy with work right now.

Then I turned my attention to a sewing project. Today I was in the mood to play with one of my UFOs. I had a bunch of blocks leftover from my Rhododendron Trail Quilt and I thought I would turn them into a lap quilt. Because I didn't have many of the half-block-triangles leftover, I originally planned to make lap quilts with a horizontal layout, like this.

It definitely would have been easier, but then I decided I would finish the lap quilt as Bonnie Hunter designed the pattern. I had enough blocks to do a 3x3 layout with 4 extra hourglass blocks.

I had to spend a couple hours tearing apart the extra hourglass blocks to get the pieces then I spent another hour or two assembling the missing filler triangles for the offset layout.

Now that all the blocks are assembled, I can cut out the sashing strips and start sewing the center portion. Of course, Bonnie's pattern has a complicated border with a whole lot of geese so I'll have to make those too; I only had a few leftover from my earlier project. 

It would be nice to finish this before Bonnie's next mystery quilt starts, assuming she does another one. 

I'm linking up with 

Friday Night With Friends

Finished (or Not) Friday

Tuesday ToDo #41

How is it Tuesday again? Gosh, time is going so fast this summer.

This past week I hoped to get the borders on my bright broken bricks scrappy quilt. I didn't quite get that done, because my sewing machine died in the middle of one of the edges. I took it in to the shop and it turns out the motor was dead. And since Pfaff is no longer making motors for the Pfaff 7570, my machine was kaput. I was sad, for about 5 minutes.

I actually bought this machine something like 20 years ago, and it was used at that time. Probably not very much, but it was not new in the box. It was quite the workhorse.

I debated about what to replace it with and looked around for something used again, but then I discovered Pfaff makes a purple machine! Yeah, I had to get that.

It is going to take some time to adjust to the differences, but I do like the color. 

Anyway, by the time I had the machine figured out, I turned my attention to binding the Rhododendron Trail quilt and got it finished!

The Sewcialites quilt is still on the frame and is almost finished. My husband has quilted all of the blocks and is currently working on a fussy border. I think he's doing quite well at coming up with quilting designs that go with the blocks. To be honest, when I ordered the long arm, it never occurred to me my husband would have any interest in using it. LOL

I didn't work on sewing stained glass blocks, at all. I was too busy getting ready for a big multi-family garage sale next weekend.

On that note, I will make my ToDo list, but I don't expect I'll get much done this week. It's more the list for the month.

1. Add the last border on the Groovy Garden Broken Bricks lap quilt.
2. Assemble a backing for it.
3. Make my Purple RSC blocks.
4. Work on my Stained Glass blocks.
5. Bind the Sewcialites Quilt.
6. Figure out the next project and start cutting it out.
7. Assemble a backing for the Graceful Moments Flimsy.
8. Long Arm quilt another lap quilt. (I think I only have 3 left now.)

I am linking up with Tuesday ToDo.

March Friday Night w/Friends

My main goal for the evening was to finish the backing for my Rhododendron Trail quilt. Mission successful! I don't have a good place to lay it out and take a photo because it is so large, but this is the huge 72" block I finished a couple days ago.

Basically, it looks like this.

And since that project went so quickly, I had time to finish another squirrel. I had a bunch of pink rectangles I'd cut out as I worked on the Rhododendron Trail quilt and when yellow was this month's color for RSC, I couldn't help myself. It only took a few hours to finish up this little guy. Haha, this makes four of these little practice quilts I've finished in a little more than a month. I'm sure I won't have any problems finding homes for these lap quilts after they're finished.

It's definitely time now to put away the red and pink scraps and get to work on my yellow RSC projects.  It really would be nice if I could finish all 16 of the yellow stained glass blocks.

Thanks to Cheryl at Gone Stitchin' for hosting the monthly virtual sew-in.

Rhododendron Trail Flimsy!

It's finished! I enjoyed participating in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I don't normally go for pink, but this quilt is so bright and cheerful that it's definitely growing on me. I changed my quilt from Bonnie Hunter's original design; I used the border geese for the sashing and omitted the solid aqua sashing. I also reduced the number of rows and added a fabric border.

I have a bunch of blocks leftover, so I am definitely going to figure out something else to make with them. I'm thinking about making one lap quilt and using the rest for the backing on the big one.

This completes my One Monthly Goal, with a few days to spare! 

This flimsy will get tucked into the tub and will get quilted once I get my new Handiquilter long arm. I think our basement is going to be finished in the next two weeks and then we can figure out how we're going to shuffle around the furniture and fit in the long arm. 

I'm linking up with

One Monthly Goal

Needle & Thread Thursday

Finished (Or Not) Friday

Brag About Your Beauties

Peacock Party

Tuesday ToDo #35

It's Tuesday again! This winter has been flying by. Last week I hoped to work on the following tasks:

1. Finish assembling the Rhododendron Trail quilt flimsy.

So close. I finished assembling the center portion, but it still needs the border. I will get it finished in another couple of hours. It outgrew my small design wall so I have to put it on the floor now.

2. Continue work on my latest Leader-Ender quilt.

I finished sewing all the pieces that I had cut out, but then I decided it would be too bland to make the quilt with just aqua pieces.

So, today I cut out and started sewing some light purple pieces as well. Now it will be more like this when it is finished. Of course, now I'll have twice as many pieces as I'll need so I may end up making a second one in the same colors.

3. Start getting ready to move my quilting room. I need to figure out the final arrangement of furniture for the relocation and I need to decide if I should pack up any of my stash.

I got distracted over the weekend with cleaning and washing fabric. I had quite a large pile of unwashed fabric and I spent all weekend washing it and still didn't get it all finished. I have clearly started hoarding fabric. It's time to stop buying fabric.

This is the pile of washed but not yet ironed fabric.
There is still fabric in the machines so the pile will get higher. Sigh.

On the topic of shopping, I did manage to get a great score at JoAnn's this weekend. I was able to use a 60% off coupon on a 15-yard roll of Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 quilt batting. I am ready to have my long arm delivered.

I also spent several hours doing general cleaning upstairs over the weekend in preparation for the furniture shuffle. As soon as the basement is finished we're going to be moving our bedroom down into the basement and I am going to take over the master bedroom as my quilting studio. Yes, I have the best husband ever. =)

Bonus: I also started getting ready for Edyta Sitar's 2022 Mystery Quilt. It starts on Feb 28 Mar 15. Fortunately, I bought the Alaska ruler on a whim last summer when I had a coupon for the Fat Quarter Shop, so I'm all ready to go.

I learned from the last mystery quilt and decided to change the colors to better suit my taste. I like purple a lot more than blue so I pulled various shades from my stash. This is the first pass, but now I'm thinking the colors are too dark; I definitely need to add more mediums and pull out the darkest couple.

For next week, I would like to:

1. Put the outer border on the Rhododendron Trail quilt.
2. Continue work on the Leader-Ender quilt.
3. Start on the Rhododendron Trail lap quilt using the leftover blocks.
4. Keep cleaning my sewing room!

Thanks to Linda for hosting the Tuesday ToDo linkup. I'm also linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Feb Friday Night Sew In

For this month's Friday Night Sew-In, I decided to focus on my Rhododendron Trail no-longer-a Mystery Quilt. By bedtime, I'm about 75% finished. All the filler corner pieces are finished. The rows are assembled and I have to sew three more of them on.

Once I finish sewing them together, I'll have to trim down the inner border and add the outer border. Unless I get distracted, I should be able to finish this weekend.

Tuesday ToDo #34

It's hard to believe the week has wrapped around to Tuesday again already.  I guess it's time for another ToDo list update. Last week I hoped to do the following projects:

Finish my Tinkled Pink Blog Hop project. 

The flimsy for this one is finished. My day is tomorrow, so there will be a post about it then.

Start assembling my Rhododendron Trail quilt. 

I've gotten started on this one as well. The assembly is a little slow going because it's quite a bit of work matching points on the sashing now that I'm using the geese instead of plain fabric.

Continue to work on my 4-Square Log Cabin.

The quilt flimsy was finished a few days ago.

I also cut out my latest leader-ender project. These were 4-inch aqua squares from my scrap bin that I decided to use because of the February Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

For next week, I'd like to:

1. Finish assembling the Rhododendron Trail quilt flimsy.
2. Continue work on my latest Ender-Leader quilt.
3. Start getting ready to move my quilting room. I need to figure out the final arrangement of furniture for the relocation and I need to decide if I should pack up any of my stash.

Thanks to Linda for hosting the weekly Tuesday ToDo linkup.

Flower Paths Quilt

I've taken to playing with Electric Quilt in the evenings when my husband and I watch television. Most designs don't see the light of day, but I like this one and named it Flower Paths. I think I'll add this lap quilt to my "queue."

On my actual design wall is the Rhododendron Trail quilt which I am finally sewing together. I waffled for a couple weeks and even bought some fabric for the sashing but didn't end up using it. I finally decided to use the geese in the sashing but I am reducing the number of rows to allow an outside border. I have started assembly line piecing it, so I don't have good layout photos yet.

This is my final layout plan

I will make a lap quilt with the leftover pieces.

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Tuesday ToDo #33

I guess I forgot to post my list last week. I've gotten distracted with basement remodel-related tasks lately and haven't had quite as much time to sew.

I've continued to work on my list from 2 weeks ago.

Sew 4 more heart blocks for the Tickled Pink project. ✔

Finished. The project is mostly done; I just need to add the outer border. I'm not going to show it yet, though, because I need to save it for the Tickled Pink blog hop.

Finish the Leader Ender lap quilt. ✔

Yeah, I did that and then I made a 2nd one. I'm discovering that I suck at managing leader-ender projects. As soon as I get to about 50% finished I have a low resistance to turning my attention to the project and just working on it to completion.

Figure out the next Leader Ender project and start cutting it out. ✔

I did this one too. It uses more of those purple 4" squares that I've had for so long.

4-Square Log Cabin

I've done more than start cutting it out. LOL

Except for the sashing, this is made from scraps. I'm not arranging the colors in the purple border stripes, so they'll probably end up a little funky. I'm just cutting a lot of 2" squares and sewing them together in basically a random arrangement.

Make the setting triangles for the Rhododendron Trail no-longer-a-mystery quilt. ✔

I've done this too.

Here is my list for next Tuesday.

1. Finish my Tinkled Pink project. This one has to be finished.
2. Start assembling my Rhododendron Trail quilt. 
3. Continue to work on my 4-Square Log Cabin.

I'm linking up with the rest of the folks at the Tuesday ToDo linkup.

Feb Friday Night w/Friends

As usual, I got an early start on my Friday Night With Friends. I spent most of the day cutting out the neutral fabrics for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts so I should be able to get the blocks finished really quickly when the next color is announced. 

I also cut out the rest of the pieces for the Rhododendron Trail filler blocks. Bonnie Hunter's directions said we should cut out squares and trim them off to be triangles before attaching the border. I decided to cut out triangles rather than squares because I was able to use smaller scraps and I think I wasted less fabric.

I also finished assembling the 18 filler triangles for the on-point setting.

Thanks to Cheryll for hosting Friday Night With Friends. I look forward to joining you each month.

Tuesday ToDo #32

Last week I posted these tasks for my ToDo list:

1. Make significant progress on the Tickled Pink project.

Done. I made all 24 of these Amethyst Blocks. They were a challenge and I'm glad I stuck with it.

2. Make a red block for the Flowers for Nana Girl lap quilt. (It's a wonderful jelly roll quilt designed by Kim Brackett and is available in her Scrap Basket Sensations book.)

Done. I also made a pink block because I still had pink scraps lying around on my cutting table from the Rhododendron Trail quilt. 

While working on these projects, I continued to feed through pieces for my Leader Ender project and it's getting pretty close to being finished. I've started sewing together strips. It's amazing how fast this project has progressed. It feels good to get a quilt from small "squares" I had considered discarding.

Also, I think I figured out how I would like to finish my Rhododendron Trail quilt. Someone on a Bonnie Hunter Facebook group suggested using the geese in the sashing and I liked the way it looked so I played around with how I would do it with my fabrics. I arranged the geese so they make a little pinwheel. I also decided to use fewer blocks so I could add a fabric border. Since the arrangement of the seams wasn't planned out at all, I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to get it assembled, but I'll give it my best shot.

For next week, I am hoping to get these tasks finished:

1.    Sew 4 more heart blocks for the Tickled Pink project.

2.    Finish the Leader Ender lap quilt.

3.    Figure out the next Leader Ender project and start cutting it out.

4.    Make the setting triangles for the Rhododendron Trail no-longer-a-mystery quilt.

Thanks to Linda for hosting the TuesdayToDo Linkup.