August's UFO

I joined our local quilt guild's UFO challenge this year and I've been doing a great job at working my way through my list of 12 UFOs. This month's draw is quilting up the Morris Garden quilt flimsy I finished in Nov 2021. 

I don't have a backing figured out yet, so I'll need to dig around and see if I already have something that will work. I hope so, I hate making backings from smaller pieces.

I've been working on a quilting plan for a couple months and I think I finally mostly have one. I'm still not happy with the outer border, but so far I haven't found a better option in my pantograph library. This border fabric is just so wide that most of the coordinating borders don't look good on it. I might try playing with a multiple border design to see if I can figure out something I like better.

I did edit a pantograph to assemble that funky filler shape.

Tuesday ToDo #76

Sorry, I've been extra flaky about posting blog posts this summer. My motivation to keep moving along on my lists has been flagging. My last todo list was a whole month ago. Oops.

Finish the quilting on the Flapper's Fancy (Deco Elegance) quilt, which needs to be done by the first week of August. ✔️

Create quilt labels for all the quilts.  ✔️

Bind my stack of quilts - six in total.

I've only finished three of them: The Flapper's Fancy, Midnight Mosaic and Comet's Revival. I still need to get new photos of the finished quilts.

Complete my insulated shopping tote, which is this month's UFO.

Yeah, I failed on that too. The inset zipper is giving me fits. I made a new zipper unit and it still didn't fit in the bag right. I was very careful to follow her directions exactly so I'm not sure why I'm having so many problems. In the end, I've decided to finish the current bag without a zipper and try again with one of ByAnnie's zipper bag projects. My last two ByAnnie bags went together perfectly and I had no problems following her directions.

I've ordered her Every Day Every Way Bag pattern and I'll try making it with special insulated batting for my husband to shop with. I'm hoping I'll get started as soon as the pattern arrives.

My list for the upcoming week:

1. Bind Rose Lane
2. Bind Cosmic Cabin
3. Bind Flower Paths
4. Bind Unicorn Panel
5. Quilt the fabrics for the Every Day Every Way Bag (you quilt the fabric and then you cut out the bag).

Linking up with Tuesday ToDo.

Oops, Fabric Binge

This past weekend I went shopping with a friend. We started out at a Quilter's Guild sale and I was really good: I bought rulers, books and a few patterns. My friend dug through a huge scrap bin and pulled out a bunch of purple scraps, and I did buy that for $1. And I bought a couple of larger solid fabric pieces for backings, but otherwise I stayed away from the fabric. Yay me.

Then she brought me to JoAnn Fabrics for their Doorbuster sale. I have to be honest, I don't do much shopping at JoAnn's anymore. I prefer quilt-shop quality fabrics, and I mostly buy from Hancock's Paducah, but I am not morally opposed to buying fabric from JoAnn's quilting section. Most of their fabric is a good value and fabric has gotten very expensive in recent years.

Anyway, I started off pretty well. I followed my friend around and didn't see anything I had to pick up, but then she pulled out this dragon fabric with purple background. OMG, I love dragons and my favorite color is purple so, yes, I had to buy it. (Strangely, the JoAnn receipt and website says it's Dragons and Stars on Navy, but you can pretty clearly see, that is not navy.)

And then it was like the damn broke, I started picking up all the fabrics. I was obviously in the mood for rainbows.

Digi Tile Blender (l) and Bright Swirls (r)

In the end, I bought 38.5 yards. Sigh, it didn't erase all my progress for the year, but I sure did make a dent in it. Oh well.

With this purchase, I'll go ahead and update my Stash Report:

I used nearly 11 yards on the front, back and binding of the Rose Lane quilt.

I used a bit more than 4.5 yards for the backing and binding of the Flapper's Fancy quilt. (Stay tuned for the post that shows the front of it.)

And I quilted up a little panel as a Comfort Quilt gift. It was a total of 2.25 yards for the front, back and binding.

That brings the total for the year to 105 yards used! Subtract out the two purchases of 75.75 and it brings the total to 32.25 yards used for the year. A little disappointing compared to my last report, but it is much better than the past few previous years where I was up hundreds of yards. At least I'm down for the year. =)

Next Up: Flapper's Fancy

When I finished the flimsy for this quilt in April 2021, I called it Deco Elegance. It was more of a provisional name; it emerged mainly from the fact that I used Jason Yenter's Deco Elegance fabric line, and admittedly, I didn't take time to create a more original name. Now, with the assistance of my AI minion, I have a variety of alternatives. And there are so many good options, I still might change my mind again about the name. (Update: I learned there was already a Deco Delight quilt pattern, so I changed it AGAIN to Flapper's Fancy. I'm pretty sure that won't be taken. LOL)

Anyway, I designed this quilt myself in early 2021. One of the prints in the fabric line featured these 3-inch medallions and I was inspired to come up with a plan where I could fussy cut and use them. So, I scoured my library of blocks, selecting ones that would let me incorporate these medallions then I combined them all in a medallion-style quilt. I was quite happy with the result.

I've now had my long arm for a year, but I've been reluctant to quilt this one because I kept reworking the plan. The complex blocks I initially wanted to incorporate are too large for my quilting space, and I still don't trust my ability to break them into sections and align them perfectly. My fear is some elements might turn out skewed, which would lead to an overall result I wouldn't be pleased with.

So today, I reworked the plan with more, smaller pantographs. In the end, I decided to go with Donna Kleinke's Genevieve line of pantographs. The finished plan looks like this.

It's now on the long arm, and I'm ready to get started, so this is likely how I'll be spending my weekend.

Linking up with Finished (or Not) Friday and Friday Foto Fun.

New Old Project

For my recent Friday Night With Friends project, I chose to work on this month's UFO, which is an Insulated Shopping Tote. For the majority of the project, I've followed these directions, although I made a few modifications: I swapped out the nylon lining for a canvas-type material, and decided to skip the interior pockets. I'm really just aiming for a sturdy bag suitable for carrying frozen goods when we go grocery shopping.

I think I started this project a couple years ago when Jeff asked me to make it for him. However, at the time, I got frustrated because I couldn't figure out the inset zipper panel so I set the project aside.

When I pulled out the project at the start of this month, I found the assembled canvas lining with the Insul-Fleece and the inset zipper unit.

After dedicating tonight to the project⏤mostly rereading the 17 page directions⏤I'm happy to report I've now also put together the exterior pouch fabric. I also began to disassemble my previous attempt at crafting the inset zipper unit, but then realized (again) it was an inch too short. Rather than continue trying to salvage it, I decided to order a new zipper from WAWAK (along with some new colors of serger thread for the long arm).

Having made a solid start, I feel pretty confident I'll be able to wrap up this project before the month is out.

Quick Quilted Panel

A while back I purchased a couple of panels intending to use them as backings for quilts I was hoping to make for my husband's niece's kids. However, after seeing photos of the kids over the weekend, I realized my window for crafting them "baby" quilts had already passed. It's funny how quickly they grow!

In an effort to avoid working on this month's UFO yesterday, I decided to put one of the panels on the long arm, quilt it, and donate it to Comfort Quilts. I'm pleased with the result and the fact it will now bring comfort to someone in need.

This particular panel is available from Marshall Dry Goods

I used a remnant of 100% poly batting I had lying around and orchid Maxi-Lock serger thread, primarily because I had some leftover bobbins from another project. The edge-to-edge design I utilized was Briar Rose Pearls from MyCreativeStitches.

Now that I'm done with this diversion, maybe I can loop back around and work on my insulated shopping bag. I'm sure once I get going it will go fairly quickly.

Tuesday ToDo #75

I skipped last week's post as I got sidetracked before I could finish it. However, I did manage to accomplish all the tasks on my list, and even a bit more. My Rose Lane quilt is now quilted and waiting to be bound; I shared about it in a previous post here.

At the moment, I'm contemplating what my next project should be. There are a couple of projects with impending deadlines, so my strategy is to list everything out and simply check them off as I tackle each one.

The tasks on my list include:

• Finishing the quilting on the Deco Elegance quilt, which needs to be done by the first week of August.
• Creating quilt labels for all the quilts.
• Binding my stack of quilts - six in total, including the Deco Elegance.
• Completing my insulated shopping tote, which is this month's UFO.

I'm eager to see how much I can get done and how each project turns out. It's going to be a busy, yet rewarding month!

Linking up with Tuesday ToDo.