May Adventures

Am I a bad daughter?  I had my mother come to me on Mother's Day.  But it gave us the opportunity to walk the loop around my neighborhood.  When we got near Duck World we had the flock of chickens, ducks and geese flock to us like we were handing out treats.  There were several goslings and ducklings that came to check us out.  The two chickens with the crazy hairdos greeted us as well.  They are a goofy bunch!

I did fix her sewing machine while she was here... so I can't be all that bad. 

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.  

Scrap Stars

This is the first finish of three scrap quilts I'm working on.  Not one of my favorite pieces but it uses up a series of diamond rejects (too small or badly pieced) as well as a bunch of grey triangles and some crumbs.  Good practice for free motion quilting as well. 

It's a small piece - a little over two feet wide.  I thought I'd give it away but it ended up in our master bathroom.  It turns out that replacing the shower curtain with a glass door makes for a very echoey room.  Normally I would not hang a quilt in the bathroom.  In this case I have a home for the quilt and it makes the room seem less cavernous.  Win-win.

Sharing with:
Quilt Schmilt - To Do Tuesday
A Quiltery - Put Your Foot Down Thursday

Bobbin Tension Bliss

I have been quilting away.  I cannot believe how correctly setting my bobbin tension has solved ALL my quilting issues (well, except for user error...).  Even stitches.  No weird looped or breaking threads.  The bobbin doesn't rattle so much.  I only need to stop stitching when I've finished the area I'm quilting, I've run out of bobbin thread, or I've messed up the pattern.  

It's bliss.

It also means I'm nearly done quilting the Lone Star quilt.  Red should be wrapped up today; only the white and pink on the edge is left.  

Mystery Wall Quilt

I participated in a mystery QAL (quilt along) last spring for the Colour Value Mystery and pieced together this wall hanging.  It then sat for several months until I had a chance to quilt and bind it.  I'm pleased with the result!

I started the quilting with a walking foot.  My design required pivoting the quilt back and forth and that got tedious pretty quickly.  I switched to free motion quilting which sacrificed straight lines and precision but the process was a lot more enjoyable.  (Especially having fixed the bobbin tension issues.) 

At some point I started to quilt some curves, but disliked the look.  I ripped them out and continued quilting straight lines.  I really like the designs over the gold and white (the black is quilted, too, but does not stand out).  I extended those patterns across the border as well.

Lots of Lines

I started this mystery quilt last spring.  It has been on the shelf waiting for Winter Stars to be done.  I've been able to focus on it last week, plugging away on the quilting.  I wrapped that up this weekend - all I need to do is square it and bind it.

At some point I tried using a ruler to quilt straighter lines.  Nope.  Just as bad as I remember the last time I tried that.  Maybe I'll try ruler quilting when I get a nifty longarm machine.  Ha.

Do you recall I had some bobbin tension issues?  I spent some time on the bobbin before quilting.  I don't have a tension gauge, so I tested it by filling a little canister (remember when cameras needed film?) with safety pins then  clipping it onto the thread.  The bobbin needed tight enough for the canister to pull the thread a bit at a time but not so loose to drop to the floor.  With a bit of trial and error I discovered 22 grams is a good spot.  Stitches are even no matter which direction I quilted. 

Bursting at the Seams

 

Oh, boy!  A quick post before a busy weekend.  First up - I have a flimsy for the lone star quilt.  I pushed through the last few seams so I could start working on my Project Quilting quilt (due on Sunday!).  I did pretty well with the points, but the middle does not lay flat - obviously something is wonky.  I'm not confident it will hang straight on the wall.  I'll have to take a better look at it next week.

Finishes for 2025

My finished quilts for 2025 are few and far between.  That will change for 2026 for I am currently working on seven quilts, including mug rugs and a few wall hangings.  Next year is shaping up to be a banner year.  

But what I didn't accomplish in volume, I did in SIZE. 

My first set of finishes were all part of this year's Project Quilting:  three post cards, a pair of bowl cozies, an apron (that I love), and a wall hanging.  I worked on these a week at a time between my big, king-sized project...

Points All Over

It was fun using up my grey and black pieces.  Then the lone star quilt took on a life of its own and I had to curtail my designs lest it get too big to hang on the wall!  I'm now trying to figure out how to finish the corners without introducing yet another fabric.  How many diamonds or partial diamonds do I need?  And how to square it?  This is the drawback of designing a scrappy quilt as you stitch it together.   

I Like Thursday: Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas!  All sorts of things to share with LeeAnna's I Like Thursday.  

Winter piggies!  I fostered these two in the beginning of the year and took these pictures expecting they'd be last year's holiday cards.  However, their photos where set aside when I had those stinking cute Rice Crispy boys later in the year.  How nice to share these guys with you now.

Design Walls Are Taking Shape

I don't quite have enough batting on my design walls to completely lay out what I'm working on.  It's kind of a jumble.  

Case in point - there's only enough room to put up half of the lone star.  But it's enough to get a feel for what it will look like.  I'll use up all my remaining grey and black triangles (converted to diamonds) and will actually have to cut some additional diamonds.  At this point I'm debating how big to make it and how to finish off the star.  Wall hanging or throw quilt?  We'll see...

Grey With a Splash of Red

 

I'm starting to make a dent on my leftovers of Winter Stars.  Oddly enough, the one project is growing into three.  

I had to scale down my original design for lack of triangle and diamond pieces.  Instead of nine stars I'm down to four.  Currently I'm playing with border designs before I stitch the four blocks together.  

 

First Round of Cleanup

 

Now that Winter Stars is out of my sewing room, I'm making progress on the piles of projects that are scattered about.  

I started this mystery quilt back in March for a QAL from the Canuck Quilter.  I worked as far as the reveal, then set it aside until now.  I've recently added borders, made a flange binding (coiled in the lower left) and sandwiched it ready for quilting.  

Stitching Away

I've been participating in Canuck Quilter's mystery quilt.  I was doing so well on the latest block until I started ironing the pieces.  I managed to sew one right-side to wrong-side.  D'oh!

It was a flip and stitch corner, so in addition to the required piece I also have a set of tiny 1½-inch half square triangles to use in some other project somewhere.

This will be a wall quilt when it's finished.  The steps have been quick and easy - I'm curious how it turns out.

Project Quilting 16.6 - Swirling Spheres

The last Project Quilting challenge of the year was called Button it Up.  My first thought was a shirt or a coat.  Boring.  I have a pile of buttons I want to use up, so how to use them?  Creating a postcard or a mug rug seemed awfully lumpy (and not very useful).  Maybe a pillow or a wall hanging would work better with the texture?  After some research on button quilts I found some interesting designs featuring circles.  I was fully inspired by this and ran with it.

Both Rob and my mother thought I was crazy attempting a wall hanging in less than a week, especially since I was still cutting and ironing circles on Friday morning.  I had a final layout by Friday evening ready to fuse in place.  Saturday morning I fused, sandwiched and quilted.  I had hoped to quilt it all with one color of thread (for speed reasons), but quickly hated how it looked.  So I took the time to rip what I quilted and switch matching thread.  It was quilted and bound with corner pockets for a hanging rod by early afternoon.  It had to be!  I ran off to dance the rest of the afternoon and evening.  I brought the quilt with me to the dance and spent the dance break burying threads.  Whew!

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.

Half and Half Headboard

I finally finished my Two Colour Mystery quilt (the pattern is now officially called Half and Half).  It's been a fun and frustrating project as I tried new things and experimented.  

This was my first time participating in a mystery quilt.  I was intrigued when Joanne announced the two color mystery quilt on Canuck Quilter.  I have always enjoyed watching others' progress with mystery quilts, but haven't had the time nor faith in my color selection to participate myself.  But only two colors?  Hard to go wrong with that.  

Around the same time, my mother had asked for a wall hanging to cover the wall above her new full-sized bed.  (Interestingly enough, not a quilt for the bed itself... how long before she hints about that?  LOL)  Excellent.  I could join in on the mystery quilt and know what I was doing with it.  I let my mom pick out two fabrics from my stash and set to making the baby sized blocks.

I Like Thursday: Marching On

Wow - I've blown through March.  I suspect I'll be spending part of April just catching up!  Lots of likes to share with LeeAnna's I Like Thursday. 

Ducks!  There's a farm near the bottom of our street, and a sanctuary appropriately named Duck World.  So often I need to stop and wait for assorted fowl to cross the road, but this time I managed to get evidence.  The chickens usually hustle across but the ducks take their sweet time and there are always stragglers.  The turkey and the geese are the worst, though.  They'll stay put and stare you down, daring you to get by them.  Always a chuckle!

QAL and Projects

I've finished the rick rack baby quilt (photos soon) as well as the latest Project Quilting challenge.  Time for some cleanup projects:   straightening out my sewing room, figuring out why my quarter inch foot doesn't like my Singer 201, even organized my fabric stash by color.  You know - the odds and ends before picking up the next big project.

I also joined a mystery quilt-a-long hosted by Canuck Quilter.  I've eyeballed several mystery QAL over the years, but haven't been willing to take the plunge.  No time.  Too many other projects.  And what if I hate the blocks when I'm done?  But a two-color mystery quilt?  Seems pretty hard to go wrong with that.  

Adventures in Blocking and Bleeding

Pinned to the floor

I finished Creekbed last November.  My sister snagged it, declaring it looked perfect on her living room wall.  (I have to admit - it does look good there!)  However, she didn't like how the bottom bowed out.  I'm sure I stretched the fabric on the setting triangles while sewing on the wavy border.  I told her to bring it back to me and I'd block the quilt.

I wet it down and spent a chunk of time Thursday evening squaring and pinning it to a throw rug in the sun room.  Perfect.  I left it to dry overnight.  When I checked on it on Friday morning, I discovered several of the reds and blues had bled all over the white sashing.  Oh no!