Starting the 2nd Half

 After reaching the center of the quilt from the east side, I started over on the west side.

I've been asked if I have a problem with bulk or puckers in the center from doing this. No, never.

The outside border is completely quilted all around the quilt.

I rolled, this is how far the quilting has progressed on the pieced border.

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, 

Karrin, Gretchen, Daisy, Connie, Monica and Sherrie

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Progress With Easy Breezy

 Sashing has been sewn in between the blocks and the blocks are sewn into 13 rows. There are 11 blocks in a row. 

The yellow fabrics are all yellows but varying shades of yellow. Most of the blues are various shades of blue but I've added in some cousins too, purple, teal and aqua.

A lot of the sashing fabric is remnants from whole cloth quilt backings. Several of the remnants are entirely gone, at least in the 2" strip box.

The vertical sashing is now in progress. 

Linking to Peacock Party, Put Your Foot  Down, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, UFO Busting

Easy Breezy, the Arrangement

 I've arranged the blocks for my easy breezy quilt. There is sashing going in between the blocks but this just gives you an idea of what the plan is.

It seems like all year I've been sewing on projects that have to be made, quilts for the grandchildren, charity quilts, challenge quilt, a quilt for our daughter and of course, masks. I've finally got all the obligations taken care of and now I can sew what I want to.

One of the challenges I had set for myself this year was to reduce the amount of strips in the 2" box. The fabric strips for these blocks have come from the box but I can't tell I've even made a dent in the accumulation of strips! Of course there is an autumn easy breezy quilt started but that project is on hold for now. Blues comes first on my list.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Clever Chameleon, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday

Halfway Finished!

 I've reached the center of the vintage Boston commons quilt. I'm well on my way to meeting the goal of being finished by the middle of November.

Here is the quilting from last week. 

These pictures didn't load in the correct order but I think you can figure it out.

The above picture is obviously the center. See those bright pink squares? They bleed when spritzed with water. After the quilt is completely finished, she's going to get a good soak and wash. 

Above is the left  side of the center. This border was extremely puckery and it quilted out! Scroll down several pictures and look at the photo of the quilt before the quilting started.

Above is the left side of the quilt.

And this is the right side.

The right side of the center.

Here is a picture before quilting.

There was a comment last week that they would like to see a picture of the sticks & stands frame. Here is a link to my old Word Press blog about the frame.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

More Easy Breezy Blocks

 After I finished piecing the southwestern quilt, I pulled out the tray with the blue strips and prepped more easy breezy blocks. I also sketched out a setting that would make them into a quilt, queen sized of course. 

I needed 143 blocks and 165 were pieced! Here are a few of the blocks.

I know Bonnie says we're supposed to take our time and make these blocks using the leader/ender method but I didn't want to and I can make them whenever I want. 

Linking to Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties

The Southwestern Quilt

Five or six years ago or maybe it's even 7 by now, our daughter and her husband moved to Tempe (a suburb of Phoenix) Arizona so he could attend ASU. The plan was that after he finished his schooling, they would probably move back to Indiana. And they did, for one year.

Our daughter said, "the sun doesn't shine in Indiana in the winter" which, unfortunately, is very true, unless it is a very cold and very snowy winter. So they moved to Phoenix.

The first time I visited them in Tempe, we went to the 3 Dudes Quilting Store (which I can't find online) and I purchased a fat quarter bundle. The fabrics had designs and colors from the southwest US, something you definitely don't find in the great lakes region. I told her I would make them a special quilt to commemorate their years in Arizona.

Even though they've moved back to Phoenix, I've made them their quilt. I loved the fabric designs and didn't want to cut them into teeny tiny pieces. I wanted to display the designs.

A couple years after the fabrics were purchased, while browsing through the vendors at a quilt show, I found one who sold iron on motifs. This lizard looks like the lizards I saw running around while we were hiking in the dessert. He has been top stitched to the background. I had to cut his background block a little larger than the other blocks so the sashing on his block is more narrow than the rest of the sashing.

I was able to cut each fat quarter into four pieces, 9" by 10".  I had bought extra fabric and some of that was cut into squares too.

The finished flimsy is 75" by 104" and is presently at a long arm quilter. 

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Clever Chameleon, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down

Hand Quilting Progress

The reason I decided to quilt this quilt in the sticks and stands frame is because of the puckering. I didn't think the Grace frame would feed the quilt evenly. This is working great! The center border was the worst for puckers, but with the even tension on all sides, they're quilting out!

 

I quilted the left side of the quilt like I've been quilting.  Baptist Fan in most of it, the cable in the white narrow border.

Then I was back to wondering how to quilt the center section.

I finally decided to quilt diagonal rows. I like it!

Now I've rolled and started on the next row. I'm getting very close to the center of the quilt!

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

RSC Purple

I have 2 projects for the RSC, circle of squares and  scrappy sprouts. Here they are in their purple glory.

I have no idea why the squares in this picture are rectangular, blogger did it, not me! This is just plain weird!!

Not all the squares are totally purple but if it has the color purple in it, I'm calling it purple.

Linking to Peacock Party, Put Your Foot  Down, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, UFO Busting, Scrap Happy Saturday

Easy Breezy

Bonnie Hunter has a new leader/ender project out called Easy Breezy. I didn't plan on starting this quilt but I saw the blocks other people were making and decided I was going to make just 1 block to see what I thought.

I pulled strips from the 2" box and prepped 4 of the 6" finished blocks. They looked so nice, I decided to prep more, I ended up with 34 blocks in my favorite blues with some yellow.

I wonder how these blocks would look in a larger size, how about 8" finished?

The pieces in the 8" blocks are made with strips from the 2-1/2" box.

Then I sewed 2 6" finished blocks with autumn fabrics.

I didn't intend to start a new project, now I've started 3!

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday

Sunday Stitching

Another week has passed by and more hand quilting has happened but not as much as some weeks.

Last week there were 3 comments asking about marking the quilt. Yes, I do like to mark the quilt ahead of time before putting it in the frame. All the white borders were marked with a Paper Mate sharpwriter #2 mechanical pencil. I try to mark lightly. I read on Sue Garman's blog years ago that this pencil is what she recommended.

I didn't decide how to quilt the pieced sections until after I was quilting. I tried marking with the pencil but it didn't show on all the fabrics and there was the problem with a sharp point poking into the fabric.

I've started using a marker that has blue on one end and purple on the other end. The purple is supposed to evaporate on it's own and not be long lasting. If I mark lightly, it evaporates before I get all the quilting done. If I mark too firmly, the marking stays for 24 hours but it does show on the darker fabrics.

Maybe I'm making a mistake by using this marker, I certainly hope the markings don't come back to haunt me some day.

I haven't decided how I'm going to quilt the center section of the quilt but the quilt has told me it doesn't want Baptist Fan which is ok with me!

This weeks goal is to finish quilting across the quilt. 

Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, 

Kathi, Bella, Daisy, Connie, Monica and Sherrie

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Happy Little Things

In the summer of 2019, Jacquelynne Steve's had a block of the month called Happy Little Things. I decided to participate since it included embroidery.

I enjoyed the embroidery but decided to finish the blocks in my own way instead of Jacquelynne's design.

This quilt has been quilted in my machine quilting marathon and she measures 42-1/2" by 45". 

My friend Deanna embroidered this Grandma's heart block several years ago for me. I decided it was perfect in this quilt.

For the machine quilting, I stitched horizontally and vertically around the 9 patches, then diagonally in both directions. The embroidered blocks only have diagonal quilting.

This is the last of this blue oval fabric, I thought it went perfectly with the blues in the front. Unfortunately I didn't have quite enough so I had to add the narrow strip to the side.

And a quilt roll.

Here are other posts about Happy Little Things.

Linking to Peacock Party, Put Your Foot  Down, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Free Motion Mavericks, Brag About Your Beauties, Let's Make Baby Quilts, UFO Busting

OMIGOSH!

At the Jane Stickle retreat there is a quilter who loves to issue challenges, she actually finishes them too! Usually I'm not interested but one challenge she suggested last November was the Omigosh! quilt. 

Since this quilt was already on my to be made list, I decided to participate. Here is my small finished quilt. The double 9 patch block and the shoofly blocks finish at 4-1/2". She measures 46" by 51". The borders are my own design. I didn't want plain white borders.

Spiral quilting was the perfect design for this quilt with so many tiny pieces. Son 2 is an accountant and I had him figure the number of pieces in this quilt. The final figure is 4513. I am so glad I didn't make a full sized quilt! In an earlier post I had figured the number of pieces and came up with a different number, but hey, never argue with a accountant.

My spiral quilting isn't perfect, don't get out a compass!

The back is a pale blue & white pinstripe fabric.

And the fabric roll.

You can read more about my Omigosh! journey here.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Clever Chameleon, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Let's Make Baby Quilts, Free Motion Mavericks

Slow Stitching Sunday

I have to say I'm getting used to the new blogger format. My biggest complaint though is the difference between the 'normal' font and the 'large' size! It seems like there should be another size in between the two. Many blogs are using the normal size, it is really hard to read. Guess they don't have a problem with eye strain.

Here is my progress this week on the vintage Boston commons quilt.

This quilt has some challenges so my marking isn't exactly perfect. I had planned to have cross hatching as the background of the feathers but that didn't work out. 

The mitre seam doesn't look right but it needed to be quilted because of puckers.

The Baptist fan quilting is happening on point. I like it this way.

This quilt is never going going to be a show quilt, I'm just quilting this for fun and because I liked the quilt. I didn't piece the quilt, it was  purchased for $20 off the resale table at the Jane Stickle retreat last November.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away