Weekly Progress - August 12, 2017

This week sure went by in a flash.  My poor husband has been down with a very sore back - we've been to the Chiropractor several times, and even to Urgent Care one morning when the pain was so severe he wasn't even sure he could make it down the stairs from our bedroom!  Needless to say, I've been busy taking care of him and making sure he is comfortable (lots of back rubs with muscle cream seam to be the best therapy!).  I did get the weekly alterations finished up, plus managed to make progress on one of the projects on my master list.

This is a sample of my Big Surf quilt that I am making for the quilt shop.  I pieced all 12 blocks, assembled them together into a top and actually have it basted and ready to quilt.

And I finally added a strip to the backing for this quilt and am ready to start quilting it as well.  It wasn't part of my original list, but I've added it because I want to get it finished up this week.  I also made my first block for the I Wish you a Merry Quilt Along.  At first I was going to do a plain red and white block, but I saw so many cute fussy cut blocks that I decided I wanted to go that way.  So this morning I pulled out my Christmas bins and chose fabrics.  Most of my choices were the precious last pieces of the Kate Spain "In From The Cold" line, and I found some fun things that went well with that - including the kittens in mittens I used for my block:

The background is some cute snowmen - this is a BasicGrey print I've had for a while as well.  I think this will be a fun wintery quilt when it's finished!  The next block debuts on Tuesday - if you want to see more blocks, and join in you should join the facebook group:  I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long.  So far it's been a blast and I can't wait to see the next block!

So - for next week I want to set a few goals.  I won't bore you with the alteration projects, they are pretty mundane, but for quilting my goals are:

Quilt and Bind Allietere.
Quilt and Bind Bug Surf.
Make 5 Farmer's Wife blocks (this is a Christmas quilt and I would love to finish it this year!)
Make 5 Dear Jane blocks (my forever project)
Work on writing pattern for Twinkle Star.
Cut out and start sewing my Quilt as You Go project for the Island Batik Challenge this month.

That should keep me quite busy!  I'll let you know next week how I do with it - I'm hoping that by setting some specific goals I can start making progress on some of my long term projects as well as finishing up other short term projects.  Hopefully DH's back will continue to improve and my schedule will be a little easier this week.  I can't complain, because I know it's no fun to be in that kind of pain day after day!

Wishing you a good weekend, and some time to quilt as well!

Allietare Mystery Quilt - Borders are Decided!

One of the perks of a busy weekend working at the quilt shop was that I had the opportunity to shop for the borders for my quilt!  I decided to go with the gold stripe and chose a nice red to go with it.  I hope to get the corners on and the borders sewn on this week - yay for a finished top!  I have determined that this is not going to go in the UFO bin and will be quilted up by the end of February.  I even have the thread ready, so just need to see if I have enough batting left on the roll for one more big quilt.  I will definitely have to start shopping for another roll now.

I worked on a valentine project for the quilt shop today.  I made 16 of these heart blocks:

This is a patten by Moda that uses 12 fat quarters.  I think it will be really pretty, and we'll make up some fat quarter bundles to sell with the pattern.

I worked on some star blocks as well today, plus finished another Dear Jane block in addition to the one I did Sunday.  I picked a simple one today because I didn't have a lot of time.  We had appointments to get our eyes checked today.  Both of us are getting new glasses this time around.  I am looking forward to seeing a bit better!

Here are my blocks - not good pictures today, will have to get some daylight ones tomorrow:

K13

E8

Be sure to check in tomorrow, I am writing a post about machine sewing your binding!

Missing - the Last Piece

I guess I can say that putting together my top for Bonnie Hunter's Allietare Mystery Quilt is a bit like assembling a jigsaw puzzle!  I lay pieces out, stand back and think something like "That doesn't fit there!" or "I need a piece with a darker red".  I have sewn half of the top top together and am loving it, though.  Today I was working on laying out the last half, and I find that I am missing one of these units:

In fact, I think it may be this very unit!  I know I turned the half that I sewed on wrong, but maybe I set it down somewhere in my sewing room instead of with the rest of the units? I know at some point I had them all because I counted.  I keep hoping it will turn up, but if I don't find it soon, I will have to make a new one!

Here is the first half of my quilt:

I do like this one very much, even though I never would have thought I was a fan of red and gold.  I also love the grey in it.  So pretty.  Actually the colors makes me think of my Junior High school.  Our colors were maroon and gold.  We all thought it was a pretty yucky combination then, but what do Jr. High kids know?

I think I might finish putting my blocks together tomorrow.  Then I have an idea for my gold border.  I love the fabric, but I don't know that it will work on this quilt so we'll have to see what it looks like.  But first I will have to find that last missing piece!  

Allietare Part Four Done

Today was inventory day at Threads That Bind.  Between the 10 people there we got all the fabric counted up in about 2 hours.  That was really great - it was nice to have it done so quickly.  After that we went out for breakfast, then I got to come home and spend the afternoon relaxing with a side of sewing!

I got the remaining 10 units cut out for the Allietare mystery by Bonnie Hunter, then sewed them all together.  I did press the center seam the wrong direction in all of them, but I can remedy that as I sew the blocks together.  Hopefully I can do Clue 5 tomorrow then get started sewing my blocks!  I really like the finished quilt, so plan on working to get this one finished up right away.

My plan for this week is to get last year's mystery quilt finished so I can take it to quilt guild Thursday night.  So I have my week cut out for me.

1)  Work on Baby Clothes Quilts
2)  Put together Allietare top
3)  Quilt Grand Illusion
4)  Finish the next round on JOY
5)  Remove shoulder pads from 3 blazers

I have one day of work at Threads That Bind this week, and possibly Bunco on Friday.  I am also starting our Women's Mentoring on Tuesday Evening.  It's a 10 week Women's Bible study.  So I will have to take some time to read my lesson and do the work book tomorrow.  Plus get back to the exercise regimen.  Plenty to keep busy at, as usual, but welcome 2016!

Rainbow Swirls Top Finished!

Despite part of my afternoon being hijacked by an errand that went badly, I got the Rainbow Swirls top finished today!  I won't go into detail on the errand other than to remind you that you can't have reprints of photographs made at Wal-Mart unless you have taken them yourselves.  We ran into some copyright problems, and I totally understand, but my poor husband has to rework his project a bit to make it acceptable.

I was glad to retreat to my sewing room and work on sewing 64 blocks together into a quilt top.  Other than a little fussing to keep the colors random enough to suit me, this top went together like a dream.  First you sew them all in sets of 4 like this with the outer curve at the top and the inner curve at the bottom -

Then you sew those together into 4 sets of those units.  You can see the swirl now!

Then sew those four units together to make the center of the top

And you add the borders to finish it up!  Easy as pie!

After that I started working on sewing together the units from step 1 for this years Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Allietare.  I got 59 triangles done, and hope to finish step one tomorrow so I can get busy on step 2!  This coming week is a bit busy.  I have 4 curtain panels to make, 3 pair of pants to hem, 1 valance to adjust the width on, and an appointment to alter some blazers.  Not to mention that I have a Bunco party at my house on Friday and need to clean and decorate the house, shop for gifts and prepare lunch for 12 on Friday.  Oh well, life would be boring if it wasn't busy, right?