UFO's and finishing projects

I recently dug out another UFO, okay it was a tiny thing that got lost in a stack of fabric I had cut for bowl cozies. I had a goal of making 54 bowl cozies for a craft show and while I was sorting my fabric I found two Christmas mug rugs that got lost in the stack. All they needed was binding and they were done. 

These guys were made with scraps of Christmas fabric and two panel pieces from a mask panel I got at the end of 2020. They have been sitting unfinished for only two years. I decided to get the binding done on them before starting my bowl cozies. I got the binding done on them and a recent table runner I made then took them out to a local Einstien Bagels for a quick photo shoot.

After the photo shoot, I managed to make 37 of the bowl cozies for the show on Oct 8th and made the other 17 the day after. I am off to start quilting a few more table runners I have put together. I've got another craft show on Oct the 15th in Oliver springs for October Sky Festival. I hope to add a few pieces to the finished pile before then.

Tea Time!

This photo Is an old one. I have a bad habit of taking a bunch of photos for blog posts and forgetting if I used them or not, The tea is one I got at the local Asian grocery store. It's a Sencha blend. The cup was new when I took this photo and the whole thing matches the vibe since Halloween is approaching.

Berry Box Table Runner finished

Table Runner front

After I finished my row by row I did take a few days off but got back to work. I have a few projects pinned together ready to quilt. I have so many that I don't have any more basting pins. I pulled out the smaller safety pins I had, to put together my Berry Box table runner.

Quilting it was easy for me. The design was a four patch in a four patch so I played on that theme and did a four patch on point in the boxes. It took a day for me to work on it but I feel I was being thorough. Plus I was working on laundry and getting a lot of distractions from family and friends.

Table Runner back

In the end, it's a pretty spring/summer table runner that I have yet to decide what to do with. I may put it on display later or give it away as a Christmas present. It does have a lot of fabrics I really love it so that's a hard choice.

I did not get a tea shot for Sunday while I was quilting but I do have a photo from a previous visit to a tea room I use to go to a lot. It was called Tea at the Gallery and unfortunately, it is closed but it was a fun place to visit. They had all their teas in silver canisters on one wall so you can pick your flavor. I remember this was one of the first places I saw some exotic teas. The first time I saw monkey picked oolong tea I swore the label said 'monkey pickled oolong' which sounded bizarre and gross. This mistake still makes me laugh to this day.

Row by Row Experience 2019

So this year's row by row theme was Taste the Experience. I wasn't certain about this year because I didn't end up making last year's. I did get into traveling for the rows this year and found time to go to some new shops because of it. I had a few of the rows put together before I started my hustle for Dragoncon but I didn't start the bulk of working on Row by Row until I got home. Even then it took two weeks for me to get my attention back to sewing. I had a touch of the con crud the first week and then spent another week obsessing over if anyone got the tags I hid.

When it was all said and done I made 8-row patterns and found a new way to connect them all. The shapes lend themselves to a different looking quilt then what I've done in the previous years. I think I like this one a lot. I finished it on Sept. 29th but wrote the 30th on the label because I worked myself to death and forgot what day it was. I was tired of looking at the thing.

Not as many shops were participating in my area so quite a few are from out of town. I had gone through Georgia for half the rows. I was able to turn the quilt into my local shop. The shop owner has seen all my previous row by row quilts and said she thinks this one is my best yet. I feel the work put into this one.

Small errors that caused a few headaches

I do have to say, every time I've participated in the challenge, I do learn something new. This time it was the pineapple row that taught me something new. I have been told next year is going to be completely different so I'm excited to see what happens next.

Fruit Salad Throw finished

I surprised myself and finished this quilt quickly. It's not that big, it's about 45 by 47 inches. It's big enough to be used as a picnic quilt or a lap quilt. I had started the quilting on Sunday after my last post. I got most of the work done in that one day. That's what surprised me the most. Saturday I had finished the borders and the only thing I left the house for Sunday was to buy more thread. I used a Gutermann 807 Lemon Peel yellow. I was looking for a larger spool but Joann's only had the 110 yards size. It took about 3 and a half spools. 

I did an easy zig-zag pattern using a Dresden ruler to mark my angles. By Monday I had just one row and the border left to go. I had used the light yellow fabric as the binding. The backing was pieced with the leftover fabrics from the front. I Used up all the green and the darker yellow I tried to use as much of the fruit fabrics as I could. I am happy to say I have minimal scraps left to go into a pile for my million hexies projects.

The sun shows off the stitches on the back

I figured I worked a total of 40 hours on this quilt. That's a positively light speed for me on something like this. I'm going to take it by the quilt shop where I bought the fabric to show off the finished product.  

Tea for today is actually the Harney & Sons Blood Orange herbal tea. I know I had already featured it once but I made my self a nice lunch with it Sunday and that's what I drank while quilting.

Focus Freeway

So I probably should have waited on making my last post because I had that project finished within an hour of posting it. I took a few extra minutes of getting the binding prepared and finding binding fabric.

I couldn't find the remnant of the grey I used for the camera body but I did find a scrap of grey fabric I did have. The binding is not perfect and there are a few non-pretty sections but I'm not worried. I plan to make at least 3 more as presents for some of my friends who are into photography. I stopped at my cousin's house and got a nice final photo for it by her tulips.

I do have an Instagram that I put my finished photos on plus whatever else I feel like putting on there. I've got a link here if you want to check it out.

Oh Baby Finished!

This is a project I knew would come to an end soon. It was closer to finishing a WIP then starting anything new. The original quilt top had been around for a while and I'm happy to see it finished and finally going to a home. My cousin's baby shower is next weekend so I am thrilled to have this done with time to spare.

With the scraps, I also made two cute decorative pillows to match. Since the way, I created the backing out of the top itself only the top and bottom needed binding. I was able to use scraps from making the pillows to make those. So I am happy to say no new fabric went into this project. I am also surprised my thread held out. I have enough to put on a bobbin for another project now. The stitching across each lava lamp/ distorted hex shape gives it a rather interesting texture and I'm glad about how the thread blends into the majority of the fabrics.

Now I think it's time for bed and I can gear up with my next project in the morning!

A Rose for My Boyfriend Finished!

No more WIP posts for this one. I have a finished quilt! It's not my fastest quilt time but I did finish it pretty quickly compared to my average quilting time. So, Lets start with a little time line of my quilt.

• Dec. 29, 2018 to Dec 31st- Piecing. I Found the pattern out of Simple Modern Quilts & Crafts # 15 which I believe is the December 2018 issue. It hadn't been out long. I got the magazine for a cute penguin pattern but decided to do this one first. I still want to make a penguin.
• Jan 6th 2019 - Backing and Basting. I started the backing the next weekend out of the scraps from the quilt top. This was an excellent use of scraps and left me with almost nothing. I've been tempted to toss my remaining pieces but I keep stopping myself. Most of the backing is a sold black fabric I picked up from JoAnn's on New Year's day. I decided that if I finished it quickly I would try to enter it in a local quilt show. I've missed that deadline now but It was motivation to not stop. 
• Jan 7th to Feb 13th- Quilting. I'm still slow at sitting down and quilting because my work area has always been slow. Last minute inspiration from the web showed me an idea on expanding the work area so that I'm not hurting myself so badly pushing and lifting the fabric. I am no expert at quilting. Anyone who sees my stitches will not argue with that, but I am learning and getting better. 

  

  Almost no scraps!

• Feb 14th- Binding and Finishing! With the final week of realizing how close I was to finishing I was able to get myself to work harder and finish everything on Valentines Day. I do still have to label it but for now I call it a good finish. The binding fabric was a scrap from a walker bag I made for my aunt years ago. It was a large piece maybe a little smaller then a fat quarter. It matches the pinks in the quilt and even if it's adding a new fabric to the whole project it matches the thread color I used. 

Back of the quilt

Now I'm not sure I want to continue to do so many of the bed size quilts but I do have a few tops this size to quilt. I think I have a better idea on what to do to make it easier. One thing I want to invest in is a walking foot or a free motion foot for my sewing machine. I use a Project Runway Brother I got several years ago on a black friday sale. It has been a wonderful machine but I never bothered to buy extra feet. 

Now that this quilt is done I will start on my next WIP and I'm thinking about the Halloween one. 

For tea today I have a Ginger Peach Green Tea. I picked this one up recently at Tuesday Mornings. It's very peachy. I love the smell of this one. The tin had 50 bags and I got it at a good price. Inside they were packaged into tow foil pouches of 25 each. I took one pouch to work and left one at home so I can have the tea both places. The cup in the photo is one I picked up at world market a few years ago. I like it because the green part is silicone so it keeps you from burning your hand on the warm glass.

2018 Quilt Review Pt 3: Love Quilt

Another 2018 project that was finished is a small lap quilt/ wall hanging. This one hangs in my office cubical. The original pattern I got from Simple Modern Magazine # 13.  The quilt designed by Sandra Johnson titled Love Forever. I did not follow the pattern exactly but it's close enough I'm going to say it's from her pattern. The Kanji in the center stands for love which is why I call this my love quilt.

I used purely scraps at putting the background together. This was a great scrap buster for me. I think I cut what I had at the time in half. I did buy the black fabric I use for the applique and the binding new but I decided on that after I had it all together.

I did improve blocks with the blue and purple fabrics and tried to get a sort of ombre look when I laid them out. This one was suppose to go into another fair but I never got the application out in time so it just decorates my wall and reminds me of Love. 

For the tea I would have to spotlight here is some of my favorite Sunflower Jasmine Tea. There's a local asian grocery store that gets lots of different things and some at good prices. It's a pretty big store and has everything from fresh meats and vegetables to frozen and instant foods. The tea I like to get is in a tin with an extra stopper in the lid to keep the tea fresh. It's imported by Fujian Tea. I've repurchased this one several times. I sometimes buy extra jasmine blooms and mix it in with it for a stronger floral taste.

2018 Quilt Review Pt 2 Epp and New Orleans

2012 at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop

This is a post I could take forever at making so I am going to try to keep it short. in May of 2018 I went on a week long trip with my mom and two friends to New Orleans. This is my second trip and if I compare the two it shows just how different a person I am versus my first trip.

My first had been in April 2012 with just my friend Karen (who went on both trips). We had spent all our time exploring most of down town and went to the Aquarium and Zoo. I had fallen and hurt myself so I hadn't really picked a lot of places extra to go due to avoiding too much walking. We did go on a ghost walk cemetery tour and even a fabulous park all with lots of sitting and breaks while my friend took lots of photos. My leg has never been the same but it also never locked up on me. The trip was still fabulous and forever shapes my memories of New Orleans.

Quilt Block tile at welcome center. 2018

My second trip I still insisted the people I was with pick stuff to do because this was their vacation as much as mine, but it is shaped by having my mom with us. That is not a negative both of us have lots of things in common and share a love for quilting. We went to a quilt shop and explored areas outside of down town more. We stayed in a hotel across the river and it was so much hotter because the weather did a major change between end end of April and the beginning of May. These factors meant leaving downtown by rush hour to get to the hotel and cool off before dinner.

The four of us at the Zoo. 2018

The quilt shop we went to was Uptown Needle. They had a fantastic quilt on display that was a Nola 300 special pattern of the map of New Orleans. I picked up several fabrics from there and was awed at their cute little shop. Apparently as of now they have closed and are going to relocate. I'm so sad.They had a nice article about them in the Louisiana edition of Quilt Folk if you ever get to read it.

EPP in Progress

This trip I also got to go to the A& E fabric store in Pensacola. Karen lives in Pensacola so we took a few extra days to visit the beach. That store is huge and has lots of great finds.

Finished Flamingo EPP

With fabrics from both of these places I dived into my first EPP project. I had never done english paper pricing before and with a few videos from Mr Domestic I got a clue and started. I was very happy with the finished project. It's a table topper size or small wall hanging. I find these easier to quilt on my little Machine then a full size quilt.

I also entered it into the local fair and won a 3rd place ribbon! This one was a new learning experience with me. I want to do more EPP's in the future.



Since this post is mostly about my New Orleans trip I want to continue with stuff I got from there. But alas, I did not get an appropriate tea picture to share.I will share one of my drinks from New Orleans. It's only fitting.

Bloody Mary in the French Quarter near the French Market.

2018 Quilt Review Part 1. East Tennessee Quilt

I haven't been posting in a long while but I still have been quilting. I have several tops that I finished but have not gotten around to quilting. I finished a quilt that I had started a while back for my brother. I had designed the top to reflect local East Tennessee landmarks and aesthetics.

I call it my East Tennessee quilt. The top is suppose to represent the Great Smokey Mountains that shape a very large part of this area and heritage. The section below is suppose to be the mountain's reflections in the rivers and streams. I used an orange for the mountains to show the fall colors in the leaves but green for the reflection to show how it is in the summer. The bottom checker board area represents the fall leaves and more of the color that can be seen in the area. The surrounding border actually represents the roads through the mountains.

I also have sewn on patches from the national park to show case many of the walking trail. The large patch in the center was an antique boy scouts patch that my cousin had earned. My grandmother found it and had no clue where it came from. She gave it to me to use since she knew I was doing this quilt. When my cousin came to visit I showed the quilt to him and he told me where it came from. I had asked at the time if he wanted it back because I had not started the quilting process but he said to keep it.

The quilt is actually a couple of years in the making. It took me about 2 weeks to do the piecing and another several weeks to find all the patches and sew them on. I did this part in 2017 around September. The only reason it got finished in 2018 was because I decided to finally quilt it. I started hand quilting in February because my wrists were hurting too much when I tried to pull it through my machine. I'm slow at this process so it was a 3 month journey getting it finished. It was suppose to be my brother's birthday present in 2017 but he got it in March of 2018. He has been very happy with it finding new things about it that he loves.

And finally before I forget this post is brought to you by Harney & Son's Paris Tea. I found a tin in World Market and added to my rather large collection. I love this one it smells so good like a citrus vanilla. I took several bags to work and everyone wanted one to use as an air freshener!