Supernova

Supernova is finished and photographed!  I am thrilled with result.

Supernova started from a ton of extra grey and black triangles I had cut but didn't use in a king-sized quilt's background.  That quilt also produced a bunch of black and white crumbs.  Scrap Stars barely put a dent in the pile of triangles and crumbs.  Therefore, this quilt had two parameters:  use up the remaining triangles and create as few (or none!) black and grey pieces as possible.  While researching quilt designs I came across several lone star patterns.  I made the triangles into diamonds and started playing with various layouts.  

Finishes for 2024

This year's finishes was a real mishmash of stuff - a handful of postcards, various quilted objects, a few wall hangings, a baby quilt and a throw quilt - along with some not quilted objects. 

Irish Chain postcard, water bottle holder, flowers for my hair
More postcards: Milky Way, Birdhouse and Time Flies

I have been really enjoying Project Quilting - this year's challenges resulted in most of my mini pieces.  I created four new postcards, which were a blast to dream up and assemble.  I finally made a water bottle holder for myself (that's been on my project list for years).  I also completed two wall hangings - the citrus one was one of the challenges, whereas Marmalade used up all the leftover citrus wedges.  My last mini piece(s) were flowers for my hair to go with my dancing outfits.

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather is finished and was gifted this weekend.  I put the last stitch in on Saturday morning then I handed it my cousin and his new wife on Sunday morning.  I'm bummed I didn't get more time to admire it on my wall, but it was nice to be able to give it to them in person.

What a sprint to the finish!  I spent every free moment I had last week to complete it.  I got up early to work on the quilting before going to work and then sat right down again after dinner.  It all went smoothly until Monday night, when suddenly my bobbin nested and the top thread snapped three times after only stitching a few inches.  I panicked.  I had quilted not quite half the quilt and it had gone so well!  No skipped stitches; no broken thread.  How could this happen?  I swapped out the needle and the bobbin and cleaned all around the plate and mechanism.  Don't know what fixed it, but I was able to continue along.  Whew!

Feather Flimsies

In less than a week I have two complete sides of a quilt!

I shuffled around a few feathers but mostly kept with my original layout.  Nearly all the feathers were cut from strip blocks, which resulted in six feather pieces that had the same color layout:  three from top-to-bottom and three bottom-to-top.  When I pieced left and right together, I got a set of unique feathers.  I was amused, though, that after I stitched them all together, I can see two sets of rights and two sets of left next to each other.  I guess that means this is truly random. 

A Floor Full of Feathers

Ooh - feathers all over my floor!

I spent a few hours over the weekend digging in the garden.  Then it got too hot, humid and rainy so I switched over to sewing.  I have 25 completed feathers!  That's one more than I need.  I'm in the layout stage.  What fun!

The feathers went together so smoothly and consistently.  In my last post I had questioned if I printed the pattern correctly; given how nicely everything lined up, these have to be the correct size.  Pretty, aren't they?

Test Feathers

I've finished a couple of test blocks - enough that I'm comfortable with the pattern and ready to cut the rest of the fabric.  The finished quilt dimensions make it appear the block is 18 x 9" finished, but no matter how I set my printer settings, I get it to print a pattern that produces a 17½ x 8¾" block.  I never noticed before (and it didn't matter for the wall quilts I made).  So I'll roll with that.  A slightly shorter quilt is fine and if it feels too skinny, I can add one more feather (or a bit more background) across. 

I added extra fabric to the pieces of one of my test blocks, to make the finished 18 x 9" block.  But the extra work and trying to resize the pattern pieces wasn't worth the effort (and it will be easy to cut that down to the same size as the other).  Now that I am comfortable with the process, I'll be sewing strips and cutting feathers this weekend!

Feathers to the Front of the Line

My "cleanup" projects are stacking up.  I have overflowing bags of strings and crumbs and selvedges that I really want to work on.  However... my next throw quilt is anxiously telling me I need to get started now if I have any hope to have it completed by the end of July.  Which I'd like to do without rushing any of it, knowing that I always run into unexpected snags.  I started reviewing the instructions, templates and fabrics so I can dive into the work.

Hexie Crumble

Hexie Crumble is finished and labeled.  I started this quilt in 2015.  I had just finished Shattered Kites and needed another crumb quilt to work on.  Quilt-as-you-go hexies had been featured on another blog and I thought: that would go great with crumbs!

I also was wishing for a portable project - something I could stuff in a bag and work on a bit at a time, like my knitting friends.  The idea was to make a stack of these hexies and hand stitch them together.  Timing is everything; the hexies were finished during the pandemic and I stitched everything at home.  It was a nice idea!

Each quilt-as-you-go crumb hexagon is finished with 2" sides.  Initially I made my own cardboard pattern.  Eventually it wore out so I made a pair of plexiglass templates and kept going.  Every time I finished a quilting project I'd sew up some more crumbs, cut some more backings and flannel for batting and create more hexies.  I averaged 20 hexagons at a time.

Harlequin Opal

Another finished quilt!  this is a long-overdue wedding present.  When I asked for colors I was asked to use jewel tones.  I chose batiks since they have such rich colors.  Besides, I find it easier to work a paper pieced pattern when I don't have to worry which side is up.

The pattern is called Icy Waters and I used a working name of Icy Colors as I blogged about it.  But that's not what I wanted to name a wedding quilt.  Did you know that harlequin opal is a gemstone that has colors similar to this quilt?  I stumbled across that while searching for a good name.  Google it! It's pretty.  And a great name.  So may I present Harlequin Opal:

It took a long time for this quilt to take off.  I loved the colors of the fabric I bought, but not how they looked together.  After two false starts, I swapped the single color from the pattern with lighter greens, blue and pink.  I changed my mind again once I started sewing them together, but stuck with what I was doing.  I liked it, then hated it and freaked out over it.  For better or worse, that's how my creative process works... so I plunged on.  I really like how it turned out in the end (and so do the recipients!).  I'm glad I persisted.

Shady Lanes

Yay!  Shady Lanes is done, labeled, photographed and delivered! 

It was a big surprise for my friend.  She loves it.

Lots of Clean Edges

Woot!  I made my goal!  The Icy Waters quilt is done, bound and labeled.  All I need is a good day to properly photograph it and send it on it's way.

Additionally, Shady Lanes is quilted and bound.  I need to go back and fix several spots of skipped stitches.  A few days of hand stitching that binding and putting on a label... I might actually finish this by the end of the month, too.

Mostly Done - Finally

I've quilted the last block of Icy Colors.  I can't believe the quilting is done.  I have at least a dozen repairs to do.  I've pinned various spots where I found skipped stitches - there's at least five in this photo.  There's also one tiny piece that's waiting for the binding before quilting.  So close.

I have binding picked out and I've started work on the label.  I pushed through Sunday to have the quilting done before I looked at this week's Project Quilting challenge (I'm amused that it's flying geese, after what I made last challenge).

March OMG

Wait, it's March?  Well, considering my laptop crashed last week, I guess there's a number of reasons I missed my February OMG.  I quilted two-thirds of one quilt and half of another - so one could argue I actually did accomplish my February goal.  However, I didn't have the finished product I was hoping for.  Project Quilting also ran some interference with my focus.  Oh, well.

That make's March's goal easy - to have Icy Colors quilted, bound and ready to gift.  There's still several hours of quilting and binding left to do, but I'm motivated to finish it.  My machine tends to skip on the medium green fabric; otherwise quilting has been steadily progressing.

I Like Thursday: Good and Bad

I'm not sure where to begin.  I bricked my laptop on Sunday.  I'm on a desperate search for a new one.  But... it had been backed up before it crapped out and Rob restored my setup on an old laptop from 2008 that's still working.  Well... working may be a bit optimistic - I click on a web page, go get a cup of tea, and hope that it has rendered by the time I come back.  Our five year old tablet is lightning-fast in comparison.  I sit with both of them in front of me to accomplish anything.  It's maddening and somewhat of a hoot all at once.

This was on top of a busy weekend with my mother visiting.  Along with purchasing a kitchen sink to make sure it's here before the cabinets get delivered which should be next week.  I wanted to get taxes done over the weekend and that didn't happen.  And another busy week at work.  Wait?  Monday was a holiday?  It didn't feel like a three day weekend.

One single photo on this post (too much work figuring out how to get it off my phone onto this computer!)  I'm making progress quilting Icy Colors.  It's fun!  It's frustrating!  Bulky seams cause skipping thread here and there.  I swear I've spent as much time ripping out and burying thread as I have been stitching it in. 

Switching Gears

I was sprinting towards the finish on Shady Lanes when I hit a snag.  Or rather, a series of skipped stitches.  Checking tension, swapping needles had no effect.  Online advice suggested maybe the the thread?  Sure enough, I swapped thread and suddenly the section of fabric that would not hold a stitch quilted up, no problem.

Well, dang.

I spent several hours picking out all the cinnamon stitching I had done in preparation to switch to different thread.  What a stinker.  Could have been worse.  I contemplated slapping the binding on before finishing the quilting, just so I could stitch binding in the evenings, but I decided it was smarter to set it aside.

February OMG

I have four pieced-together and sandwiched quilts.  The first one has been hanging on my wall since April.  The latest one was just sandwiched on Saturday.  All of them are overdue to be quilted and gifted. (It would be nice to hand over the baby quilts while they're still babies.)

I also seem to have fixed the tension on my sewing machine that had been broken for the last two weeks.  Yay!  (and whew!) 

Therefore, my February goal is to get one of them quilted.  I'd like to start with the Icy Waters one, but I'm not committing to that.  I'm simply aiming to get any one of them quilted.  

Maybe if I'm lucky, more than one?

Sharing with:
Elm Street Quilts - February OMG
My Quilt Infatuation - Needle and Thread Thursday
Wendy's Quilts and More - Peacock Party

Icy Colors Flimsy and Some Backing

I managed to finish my monthly goal long enough ago I almost forgot to post and link up!  Finally a month that I wasn't down to the wire or missed entirely.

I fixed some blocks, rearranged some colors, sewed together a new block and assembled the quilt.  I've decided against a border and have focused on piecing together a backing with the loads of extra fabric I bought that didn't end up on the front.  

I'm also making progress with my missed September goal:  I have all the fabric for the first baby quilt and have been cutting and laying out pieces.  As soon as I have the backing pieced for this quilt I'll start assembling the baby quilt.

October OMG

I did not meet my September OMG, which was to pick, cut and lay out fabrics for a baby quilt.  I pulled colors and started to cut, but needed more fabric and failed the rest.  I plan to continue working on it in October.  However, that won't be my October goal.  That's the problem with working on multiple projects at once!

Because I didn't have all the fabric for the baby quilt, I switched gears and started working on the Icy Waters quilt again.  This month's goal is to finish fixing blocks (I've pulled apart six of them so far, and I think I need to replace one block completely) and assemble the quilt top.  Maybe I'll finally accomplish this goal?  Would be nice, because I'm dying to start working on the borders for this, along with the two baby quilts on the drawing board.

Sharing with Elm Street Quilts - October OMG

 

August OMG Finish - All the Blocks

I have accomplished my August goal.  Finally.  I have a whole set of blocks.

I enjoy paper pieced projects, but I'm learning that my usual approach of layout and color doesn't work well.  I have a much harder time envisioning the final product before I start.  This project changed directions twice since I started, and halfway through the second revision I thought of yet another (but I no longer had enough fabric to change directions - so I forged ahead).

I had anticipated my next step would be to assemble the blocks.  However, I first need to fix a couple of blocks (the ones sewed together as I was changing my mind how it should look).  Then I need to let this stew.  I generally don't like starting another project while one is in progress.  It's not how I work.  However, this needs to hang on the wall for a while and let me stare at it and tinker with some pieces before I put it all together.  I know it will look better when I fix the oddball blocks, then hopefully it will speak to me and tell me what to do next.

I Like Thursday: Harried, Henri and Hummingbirds

A stressful weekend being on call.  Plus I have too many things that are incomplete and needing input and I'm a bit overwhelmed.  Then there's this humidity - everything is going mildewy - it's giving me a headache.

And yet, on the happy side...

Hurricane Henri dumped two inches of rain, but no trees down or power outages.  I've got a happy garden.  Tons of tomatoes!  Haven't seen much of the bunny rabbits, but the hummingbirds have been out in force.  I love watching their antics.  Zoom!

My sister shared photos of her fosters.  Yay!  She says the bolder one is now wheeking for goodies when my sister is in the kitchen.