It's About Time - Project Quilting 8/6 - Time's Up!

This week's challenge for Project Quilting is the final one for the season.  I think this is the first year that I've actually been able to keep up and finish all the challenges, so I am giving myself a big pat on the back for making it!

I won a prize from the fourth challenge (Brighter the Better) and was delighted to receive a mini charm pack along with a set of numbered pins - those will really come in handy!  Thanks, Kim!

When I started this challenge there was one particular fabric I knew I wanted to use.  It's one of those last bits of favorite fabric that I've been hoarding, and it was perfect for the theme.  Then I was reminded of a long overdue promise that I needed to keep and knew exactly what I wanted to make!

I started off with a mini dresden plate in fun colors.

After I handstitched it to the background fabric, I outlined it with machine quilting and quilted swirls in the background fabric.

Oops, forgot about the center, better take care of that before I go any further!  This is where that special bit of fabric came into play.

Isn't it perfect for the center?  Do you know what I am making yet?  It's a quilted journal cover!  I also used that green for the pocket.

I like how you can also see the clocks on the notebook inside.  I also used the green for the binding.
Here is the finished journal.

I will be mailing this out to Kathy E this week.  She purchased the 1500th item from my Etsy shop before the end of the year.  I promised to send her out something special, and it managed to slip my mind - it's about time I got it done!

Come see all the entries for Challenge 6!  It's really fun to browse through them, as there are many creative quilters participating!  As usual, I created my entry here in Coos Bay, OR,  The journal cover measures 10 1/2 x 7 3/4 on the front.

Wouldn't It Be Nice?

Wouldn't it be be nice if all the things I wanted to get done in a day would get done?  I certainly think so.  Seems like most days my list is way longer than my day is.  For instance, today I had several phone calls to make, planned to work on sorting stuff from the garage for my rummage sale on Saturday, stitch a few more Dresden plates and go to my daughters dress rehearsal for the Dance Competition.  Then my husband had to stay home from work with a sore back and my daughter had to be picked up early from school because she was feeling unwell.

I did get about half of the stuff from the garage sorted, but no phone calls or Dresdens got done.  The dress rehearsal went perfectly, though!  I am excited about going to the competition next week.  (Yahoo, three days of no cooking!!)  Plus, after this weekend my house will be less cluttered.  I hope I can get some time to clean out the sewing room a bit also.

I have the center panel of the Dresden plate quilt together (sorry, no picture!) and we picked out the next border fabric. then I have to add two more rows of dresdens and I am done!  I'm not sure if I can finish it next week, but I sure would love to.  I'm starting to think of what my next quilt will be.  I have a UFO that I'd like to work on for my bed - it's a round robin that I've designed a final border for that will be awesome on my bed!  I've also been thinking of a star quilt in blues and whites.  Hmmm... possibilities!

Project Quilting 3:2 and Plenty of Piecing!

It's been quite a busy week, at least as far as quilting goes! I really had a lot of other things to work on, but I didn't want to miss out on making another quilt for the Project Quilting challenge this week. The theme of the challenge was fun - it was called Making Music and we were supposed to make a quilt based on a song. I was excited because I have several quilts based on songs floating around in my head, but I soon realized that they were not quilts that could be easily made in a one week span! As the days started ticking by, I kept trying to come up with another idea that would work for my theme. Finally, the pile of fabrics with roses that I have been shuffling around my sewing room all week and the June Taylor ruler I won from Moda merged together and the song title became obvious! Something simple, like Ring Around the Rosies! Woo hoo, I was ready for sewing - fabric, theme, and tools were all set to go.I cut four squares of blue, four squares of pink, a rose print for the center and borders and used my ruler to cut the squares out. (ignore the fact that the one pink square looks like a different color, because it wasn't! These are the squares you have left after cutting with the special ruler. I started out with a piece of fabric 20 x 20 inches
After cutting the smaller squares and sewing back together my piece measured 12 1/2 inches! I thought about making a pillow, but decided on a small quilt for a table topper or wall.
And here is the finished quilt, complete with some accent beading. I had a hard time with the binding, there wasn't enough of the blue fabric or the roses, which would have been my top two choices. I was really pleased with how the pink looked after I had it on, though.
I've been making stacks of triangles for Ann's quilt. I hope to have the top for this one done early next week. I think I'm about halfway done now.
Don't they look nice all together?
I also finished 15 of these this week. Only 85 left to go :/ Trying to keep a positive attitude, but I want to get this project finished soon! With any luck I'll have 35 more done by next Saturday. I also finished up the T-Shirt quilt! I'll take pictures tomorrow and show it - it really deserves it's own post!

Hope you have a good quilting week - don't forget to check out the Home Sweet Home Quilt along! If you need me to send you a pdf of my block instructions, let me know, and I still have more of the houses to give away if you want one make sure to let me know.

Enjoy!

Pamela