First Quarter Report

All in all, I had a successful first quarter.  I finished all the the projects that I listed as goals in my First Quarter Goal Setting post. 

This lovely Mystery Stars quilt is my most recent finish.  It's a modified version of Sheila's (Bluepatch quilter) Mystery Quilt, and I blogged about the finish in my Three for Three post.

I also finished my Sea of Squares.  This was a quilt along organized by Christa, and it was a lot of fun. I blogged about it here.

Finally (actually this was the first finish, but I seem to be going in reverse chronological order), I finished this Hexagon Star baby quilt that I blogged about in February.  It's just about the last item in the box of unfinished items from the late 70s and early 80s.  Really, opening that box after it had been lost for so many years was like opening a time capsule. 

So, I finished everything that I planned to and a bit more besides, but it wasn't a particularly onerous list.  I think that I may have to up the ante for the next quarter.

Second Quarter Finish Along

I didn't participate in the First Quarter FAL, largely because I was more into starting than finishing, and partly because I didn't want to set any deadlines for myself.  Now that I'm dealing with so many more commitments, a little external motivation may help me to get a few things done.  Rhonda's (Quilter in the Gap) Finish - A - Long comes along at exactly the right time.

The first thing I'd like to finish is this quilt that I started about 40 years ago--might be closer to 45 (that makes me feel so old!) .  This has been carted from pillar to post since then, and when I recently came across it while looking for something else, I decided that it's now or never if this top is ever going to turn into a functioning quilt.

Since I had the good fortune to inherit a large bag of scraps from a lovely 90-year-old woman who was moving to a smaller home, many of the fabrics greatly pre-date the time that the top was sewn -- as far back as the 20s -- but some are definitely scraps left from clothes I made during the 70s ;-)  Even then I was fond of solids, and I like to think that I was ahead of the aqua and red trend.  I've made a start by basting it, but since hand quilting is going to be my only option, there's a long way to go before this ends up on anyone's bed. 

Then there are the two recent projects that I undertook to help me ease back into quilting.

The first is the Mystery Quilt from the Mystery QAL that Sheila Bluepatch Quilter designed and organized.

In random order these are 1. Starry Path; 2. Block 2; 3. Clay's Choice; 4. Ohio Star; 5. Mariner's Compass; 6. Tippee Canoe blocks; 7. Friendship Stars; 8. Block 1

This one may take longer than expected.  I'd originally decided to make this as a skill-building activity, and I think that I'll carry on in this vein.  I've really enjoyed learning a range of new techniques, so once I've finished a few more of the blocks Sheila provided, I think that I'll continue with the star theme and add more blocks that use different techniques--perhaps applique, maybe a lone star, some wonky stars, some tiny stars, and definitely more foundation pieced stars.  I'm feeling adventurous.

Finally, I really want to finish my Stained Quilt that I'm making with Sarah and crew in the Stained Pink Quilt Along.

I was doing so well with this, then I ran into a few obstacles, and had to regroup when I realized that my plans for quilting this were going to need a total revision.  Since my machine it totally and completely useless for quilting anything that exceeds the dimensions of an average magazine, and since I have no intention of quilting 17 separate blocks and then assembling them, I'll have to come up with a plan B.  It will no doubt involve hand quilting as well.  Perhaps some utility quilting with perle cotton.

So, three things in four months.  Not a hope ;-)  I'll be quite happy if I finish one, and make decent progress on the other two.

Busy Week

I've had an unusually productive week, for me.  I consider it a good week if I make steady progress, but this week I have some finishes.

First, on the sewing front, I completed a 241 Tote.  This is a great pattern, and since this one is destined to be a gift, I may have to make another for myself.  The pink and brown Robert Kaufman Pimatex prints have quite a bit of body that help to give the bag shape.

Then, I finished this little biscornu needlepoint pin cushion.  It's adapted from a pattern in the Aug/Sept issue of Stitch.  I wanted to use up what I had around the house, so my canvas was a bit bigger gauge.  That meant that I had to use 9 strands instead of six.  And instead of the beautiful variegated silk threads, I used cotton from a project completed about 30 years ago.  There wasn't enough of to make the sides match, but  the colours are the same.  I've just used different values on each side. Because the gauge was larger, I omitted one of the stitch patterns to keep it from becoming too large.  And I left off the bells.  I'll probably be using this one on my loom and the jangling bells would drive me nuts.

On the quilting front, I redid block 4 of the Mystery Quilt.  I couldn't live with the unintentionally wonky stars, so now I have balanced stars.

 I also finished block 6....

and block 7.  Yes, I realized that I've missed block 5.  That block is huge and fairly plain.  If I were using more elaborate fabric it would be fine, but my fabric is kind of low key, so I may have to punch up the block a bit.  I'm still thinking about it.

Finally, I completed all of the blocks for the Stained Quilt along.

Now to start joining them.  I'm debating whether to quilt it in sections.  It's not a particularly large quilt, but I have a very small machine.  I'll have to think about it some more while I put the pieces together.

More quilting progress

This week I managed to complete another pair of small blocks for the Mystery Quilt. They're not as wonky looking as they  appear in this photo.

And I've also been working on the blocks for Sarah's Stained Quilt Along.

Block one was the largest, so I thought to get it done first.

I needed to make three of this block, so in an attempt to be efficient, I chain-pieced all of the individual pieces together until I reached the point where I would have crossing seams before I stopped to press the seams.  It was then that I realized that the needle on my machine had moved, and all of my seams were fractionally too wide.  How much too wide?  About 1/16 ".  Per seam.  That's 1/8" per sashing strip.  When you look at the number of sashing strips in this quilt, those fractions really add up quickly.  So, out they all came.  I was getting much faster at ripping out seams by the time I finished the last seam in the last of the three blocks. Unfortunately, all of this sewing, ripping, and resewing resulted in a bit of stretching here and there.  Oh well, it's mostly flat.

Blocks 2 and 3 went together much more quickly.  Each of these was repeated five times.

And that leaves just one set of four block 4s.  That will be next week's project