Well, in by the skin of my teeth on one of the projects! My daughter’s Aeroplane bag was the last finish for the quarter on my original goal list, so here are all four of my projects, all completed and pretty. Yay!
Signature Quilt for my daughter’s teacher (done, and she loved it)
Aeroplane bag for my daughter (done, and she loved it)
My Aeroplane bag (done, and I love it)
Labyrinth Quilt for my son (done, and he loves it)
I’ve got a rough idea of some aggressive goals for Q3. Yikes!
Tra la la! Told you I’d bust some big milestones this week! Between the 9 placemats I’ve made this week (to be donated to Meals on Wheels), Rainbow Baby, and organizing my leaders and enders better, I’ve busted 200 total yards used and 100 net yard used.
As I was cutting my scraps from my leftover fabric from various projects, it became clear that my leaders and enders (2″ squares I use to always keep fabric on my machine - Bonnie Hunter explains it better here) were getting out of control. One day I do want to make a postage stamp quilt with them, although they do make their way into various projects anyway, like the Rainbow Baby quilt. So I decided to sort them by color.
Which means I had to make more baskets for them! I used this tutorial from Sometimes Crafter to make my bins. I went with Neutral, Black, Brown, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Pink, and Red. Here’s the pile of L&Es waiting to be sorted.
Then I figured out I needed an aqua one too, so I made that one and finished sorting, and now it looks like this:
I took the blue bin with me yesterday to my workshop with Edyta Sitar and managed to piece 2 16-patch blocks while making my Dresden Plate blocks.
For the curious (aka nerds like me), here’s how this year compares to last year in terms of net yard used - the blue line is this year, the red line is last year.
See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!
It’s a mega whopper of an episode to get you through the week! Language note: I use one mildly bad word (think of a female dog reference) in the middle of the episode. This week is jam packed with teaching a bag workshop, Edyta Sitar, placemats, emergency baby quilts, scrap cutting, and 3 new things I learned about me.
Jett is a goober who likes to helper a lot when I’m cutting scraps.
But I persevered and got all these cut!
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I am happy to say that I finished the Rainbow Baby quilt the other day, and my neighbors brought their baby girl home yesterday. Not too shabby!
The finished quilt measures 50×50″, and is made up of 16 patch blocks like this one. The 16 patches are made up of 3″ finished squares and some of my leader/ ender 4-patches for a little more interest.
I quilted it using an overall meander with some special hearts in the white block in each of the 16 patches to give it a little flair. I think pieces of flair are the way to go when using the meander, especially since it feels like I use it for everything. I really need to get back to my Craftsy class on FMQ to mix it up a bit.
The back of the quilt makes use of a piece of rainbow fabric gifted to me from my daughter’s teacher and some more of the white fabric from the front (the Eric Carle white on white “Brown Bear” print, which is fun for baby quilts).
As of this moment I have finished the Rainbow Baby quilt, and am on the precipice of working on my next project. The stopping point, though, is that my scrap basked overfloweth and it’s time to cut some squares. That is a very unglamorous picture, though, so here’s some things I recently finished instead.
First up are the 7 placemats I whipped up to be donated to Meals on Wheels. They’ll deliver these along with meals to the people who could use a little brightening up in the day. As you can see, six of them are stripey, which I made using the flip and sew method onto a foundation of backing fabric and batting, which means you piece AND quilt at the same time. I’ve been trying to clear out my strings, and this was an ideal way to put them to good use. The one in the bottom center is a leftover from my trapunto class a couple years ago - the aqua piece on top has trapunto butterflies on it, so I attached a bottom piece of purple to make it placemat sized.
And here is the Aeroplane bag I made for my daughter over the weekend (no pics of the one I finished from my class sample, since it’s a Christmas gift for someone). It’s a little misshapen since she shoved it full of swimsuits and stuffed animals for her week at Grandma’s house!
Nothing like taking a step backwards when you’re close to a milestone! I bought some fabric (mostly for projects, but a smidge for stash) that came in this week. I’m 99% sure I’ll bust through 200 yd used and 100 yd net used this week because I found out that same neighbor that had the stealth baby over a year ago just had another baby.
Side note: I wonder if they know what causes it?
So anyway, I think Rainbow Baby quilt will be repurposed as a baby gift, to be finished this week, and I’ll whip up another baby quilt to donate in it’s place.
I’ve been making slow and steady progress on Easy Street Redux. I’ve got the center pieced together and the first border on. Except I think I’ve change my mind about the first border and think I might take it off and replace it. I used a print when I think a solid would look better, but I didn’t have enough of the print to use for a large outer border. Jett and Morelli don’t give a rats’ patootie, though, and have insisted on laying all over the blocks and/or top whenever I leave it alone.
Anyway, as part of getting it the size I want, I’ve been piecing together a side border out of HSTs and simultaneously putting together another top for a charity quilt. I’ve got some more of the white fabric cut for an outer border, so it’ll end up 50″ square or so with a lot less cat hair on it when it’s done.
Over the weekend, I caught up on my blocks for the Saturday Sampler program with Tiny Stitches. I missed my normal 1st Saturday pick up day since we were coming home from the beach that day, and I wanted to get back on my schedule.
First up, the next Royal Gardens block. The shop is also offering the first set of sashing for the quilt if you want to make the queen size. I’m tempted to do it, but I’m not sure if a queen size quilt in this darkish purple and cream is what I’m looking for. While I’m a fan of it, unless I upsize it to a king for my bed, I don’t think either of my kids are going to be a fan of it so not sure where to put it in my home.
Anyway, I suppose I’ll worry about that later. Like Scarlett O’Hara. With fewer dresses made out of curtains. And bitter carrots and burning of Atlanta. But otherwise, yes, just the same.
Since Going Coastal is finished, the new program called Saturday Soiree started up. It’s a two-color quilt, and I chose the blue/white over the red/white colorway. Again, I don’t have a solid destination for this quilt either, but the blue and white could work for either kid or a lap quilt. I’m thinking I might add some lime green or something in the sashing to give it a little kick.
I am so very close to hitting 100 net yards of usage this week - just half a yard shy! Alas, it will have to do because we have a family pool party lined up for this afternoon and not a lot of time for finishing projects.
I was very good and resisted temptation at the Georgia Celebrates Quilts show this weekend. I bought one pattern, but no fabric, but of course got lots of inspiration at the show.
Happy Father’s Day!