UFO, WIP, Flimsy parade - time to get organized!

I decree that yesterday's new name shall be - "Tally Tuesday"

Also, when ya can't beat the heat to sew comfortably in the loft (since we frugal ol' fuddy-duddies haven't folded to turn on the AC yet), t'was time to ORGANIZE all the bins and shelves and 'chair piles' downstairs in the basement quilting space. Don’t get me wrong! I like the heat but this task needed to get done all the same.

I haven't truly been in full-blown 'quilter-mode' since probably 2013/14, as my faithful followers of year's gone by can attest to; life simply got busy with the girls growing up . However, with a couple recent quilt-top finishes this week that had been in almost-finished stages, I really wanted to get a gauge of the status of all the other "things" down there. Ya know... to make plans and goals!

The parade of current UFOs (unfinished objects), WIPs (works in progress) and FLIMSIES (quilt top ready for quilting), plus a few HMIDs (holy moly, it's done) quilts.

[[alright, I made up that last acronym]]

FIrst up, the Flimsies...

Omigosh flimsy - 73"x 92"
Designer: Susan Garman

Omigosh perspective

Thirty-Six & Stars Scrapalooza

Having finished off Celtic Solstice and Cathedral Stars this week, the quilting mojo was still flowing, so I loaded up Thirty Six that had been waiting on the to-do pile for a few years, having been started back in July, 2011.

The Feather-Me pantograph was used in order to give this quilt a feminine touch, using Aurifil thread, as always :)

Bobbin thread ran out just shy of finishing, but I had had my fill last night, so everything was shut down for a relaxing evening in front of the TV with the family, counting down to the New Year. (although, I drifted off around 11:00)....

This morning, the quilting was finished up, resulting in a complete size of about 66" square.

Feather Me pantograph

THEN, with the time hovering right around noon, I figured why NOT load up yet another quilt!?!?!?

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014 found myself and Kevin the Quilter teaming up to create some complementary blocks;  my version resulted in Stars Scrapalooza, inspired heavily by Bonnie's Wonky Star block.
Both Kevin and I pieced up two each of our blocks, with the plan of keeping one and sharing the other with each other.  Kevin's design is still "Top Secret" -- I so excited to see what he comes up with.

My design incorporated some scrappy wonky stars as the cornerstones in my sashing units, continuing the overall theme of wonky stars.  Kevin's blocks are AMAZINGLY done, using a crumb-technique for much of his blocks!

"Fascination" pantograph by Lorien Quilting

I took this opportunity to test out a new quilting pantograph that had been set aside after a panto-mania I went through a year or so ago.  

A few hours of quilting later, another (almost) finish is added to the pile.  A soft knit backing was used, and it behaved quite nicely; I had been worried it would stretch a bit too much. 

The pantograph is quite 'linear' looking, but it quilted up quickly, didn't use a heavy amount of thread, and is QUITE forgiving.   The quilt measures 51" x 71" -- a GREAT size for a throw snuggler or for a little girl to enjoy on her bed.  I'm really quite pleased with the fun brightness!

Wrapping up four quilting tasks this week, ONE of them being a 110x110 King size, is definitely leaving me feeling quite accomplished.  My back isn't even that sore :D

So NOW.........

in the event that Bonnie's latest Allietare mystery reveal knocked me off my seat from yet ANOTHER show stopper design.....

... maybe I could pull some fabrics from the shelves... to just percolate for awhile while a sand-n-sea inspiration unfolds...

My Saturday sewing after the 1st week of school

I enjoyed my morning hours today!!!  My cutting table and iron board were loaded with scattered scraps for the Hawaii Sunset (or is it Hawaiian?) units I've been working on these past couple of weeks.  The first couple of hours were cutting and organizing those scraps into some units for the blocks.  All of the 4-patches are completed.  Another forty-some flying geese units were pieced, and all 25 of the 'block borders' were cut and basted until they'll be needed.  I was HOPING my Hancock Fabrics order would come in the mail today, but....it didn't.  So, I'm at a standstill until that happens;  I need more pink and green fabs.

So I pulled out my 36-patch top...and decided it was big enough.  No more border were needed.

Therefore, a backing was pieced;  batting was cut... and all were added to my 'must-quilt' pile.

Then...out came Orca Bay.  THIS one, however, has another border coming;  I don't want this to simply be finished off with all those seams along the outside.

I had a perfect green waiting on my shelf for the border.  It was cut and pieced..... and then lunch time hit.  {{.....and this is STILL where it remains.....}}

Once lunch was complete, I relaxed with the laptop....and got side-tracked for much of the afternoon.

Last night, I'm not really sure how this conversation came to be, but Paul asked me, "When are you getting your monogramming machine?" (aka: embroidery machine).

Recall July 19th, 2012 when I talked about avoiding the temptation of purchasing an embroidery machine.  WOW!  Almost two months ago already!  I thought for sure it was the beginning of August when I did that research.

Anyway...last night's conversation went something like this:

Me:  You mean the embroidery machine?

Paul:  Whatever.

Me:  I didn't order one.

Paul:  Why not?

Me:  You mean it's okay if I do?

Paul:  Sure.  That way we can label all the towels and the girls will stop taking new ones out every time they need one.

Heeding the advice of others from that July embroidery post, I spend the day researching machines that allow for a 5"x7" hoop.  

After a couple of hours of review and searching for the best price....

I THINK I've come up with the Brother PE-770 Embroidery machine deal from Allbrands.com.

Then again, this deal from Amazon also seems okay; lots of thread and designs offered "free"....but the reviews are stating that all of those "free" designs don't work on the Brother machine. (??)

I have pushed any buy buttons yet.... so.... does anyone have any final words of wisdom (or concern) to share?

Happy Saturday!

{{The PACKERS play tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!}}

36-block reaches a flimsy

Borders were added to the 36-block center.  It's one of my smaller finishes, measuring 66" square, but I think I'm saying it officially has reached flimsy stage.  I could add more borders;  another light, and then a brown corresponding fabric of which I have some yardage.  **shrug**  But I'd rather just be finished with it.

Yesterday afternoon, I gave my houseplants some annual TLC.  As usual, I didn't think to take a before picture, but considering this plant...

and these plantings..... 

and the planters in the background, plus one more BIG pot were all thinned out from my main Jade planter... 

I'm sure you can imagine how crowded my poor Jade plant(s) was(were) in this planter.

The original plant was given to me from my MIL back when Paul and I moved into our first apartment, so it's going on 14 years old.  When first received, it wasn't much bigger than one of those smaller versions from my transplant clippings.  Jade plants are SO easy to take care of, and don't take much effort to regrow from fallen leaves.

36-patch and RWB Heartstrings progress

Both of these UFOs have seen more progress today. The 36-patch center is nearing completion. The borders are still being played around in my mind, so nothing sewn there yet.

The RWB strings were increased by another eight blocks. Additionally, twelve red-string blocks are being auditioned in an attempt to help the heart-center be seen.

Some UFO tasks

I have to repeat a phrase that Angela shared with an earlier post.....

It has been ages since I finished anything and I am starting to feel

that there are too many irons in the fire.

Only I would alter this a bit to say........

It has been ages since I finished anything that

I have officially deemed EVERYTHING a UFO!

Back on July 20, 2011, I started this 36-patch Quiltalong with CrazyMom. I wasn't too sure about the whole thing since I'm not a big fan of 36-patches. However, today as I was finishing up the 10 blocks I prepped so long ago in July , I started thinking about how I would put it all together. An on-point setting similar to what's pictured came to mind. I'll still have to play around with how exactly I'll do the sashing and setting triangles.


Then Cassie and Caitlyn came down to see what I was up to. Cassie didn't last very long, but Caitlyn did, and she was raring to do some sewing.

OUT came the RWB strings!!!

Can you BUH-LIEVE that the first 8 of these blocks were pieced in July, Two-Thousand-NINE!??!?! Goodness me! They are a great 'puttering' block that see the day of light every so often. I'm not at ALL certain how they'll be pieced together since I didn't establish a "center" strip to have them "go together" nicely. Anyone have any great ideas? I thought of maybe a small 1" (finished) sashing strip between each??

My weekend has one more day to it, thankfully! No plans, no definite goals....but I can bet I'll be making it downstairs yet again for some more puttering tomorrow.

HSTs galore! And more 36-patches

Okay, okay. So the units in the picture don't look all that impressive, but yesterday for about 6 hours, I was organizing and pressing blues/neutrals, and cutting with the Easy Angle, and sewing LOADS of HSTs for Jamestown Landing. The units against the wall are in piles of 100, and I'm only half way done. All the string blocks are back there too, trimmed nicely (and correctly) to 4 1/2".

Around 2:00, I was pooped out of the blue/neutral combination, so I grabbed my Blue-n-Gold HSTs, and with Candace's help, I finished up what I had left in my L/E pile. I haven't counted yet, but I recall needing 556 B/G combos. Today might consist of quite a bit of HST pressing and dog-ear trimming.

Since I've moved the Blue-n-Gold quilt off the L/E list, I replaced it with the 36-patch blocks that Amanda (CrazyMomQuilts) is leading as a quilt-along. Truth be known.....I'm not big fan of 36-blocks. I hope something comes of this when I finish my planned 12 blocks, and I hope I won't regret breaking into the jelly-roll from Connecting Threads.

36-patches & Paul

Amanda (CrazyMom) is hosting a 36-patch quilt along, and (like Candace - WraggedyPatches), I figured......"why not??!?" ;0)

Amanda's directions call for 8" wide fabric pieces......But I was more interested in making the blocks from strips from this collection from Connecting Threads; already organized in strip combos here..... Sadly, though....one 2.5" strip isn't long enough to produce the 18-like colored squares. :0( HOWEVER, I wasn't going to let 2.5" regulations of the quilt-along hold me back.

Instead, I did some quick calculations, and realized that if I cut the strips down to 2.25", I would be able to create a complete block. So, that's what I did ;0)

Choosing two strips, and piecing them length-wise, I was able to subcut them into 20 twosies (2.25" wide), even though I only needed 18 twosies for the block. SO, with a little trimming down, I'm able to make one 11" (unfinished) 36-patch and one 4" (unfinished) 4-patch. These measurements don't play nicely with much of anything......except themselves! So, the game plan is to make up all the 36-patches and use the 4-patches as possible cornerstones with sashing? Or maybe the 4-patches will appear in a border??

Paul is home again today and tomorrow. This morning, he was peeking (more like peering?) at his blueberry bushes. I couldn't resist trying to get a picture of him with his "gardening" hat.

He must enjoy his limelight on my blog, because he was all smiles when he actually saw me with the camera! :0) {{Truth be known, Nancy---I think he likes those "stud muffin" comments **wink**}}

And I DID get my 8 miles in this morning after dropping the girls off at school. The humidity has finally broken for the most part; still HOT due to the cloudless sky, BUT the humidity is out of the air and there is a nice breeze, making the outdoors quite bearable today. So...yeah....8 miles this AM; it wasn't too bad. I took my share of walks again, and enjoyed quite a bit of shade for the first 4 miles.

As for now, we're enjoying a relaxing afternoon. The girls are watching Narnia (Prince Caspian), Paul is browsing the Internet for some fishing "stuff," and I will be either (a) putting my feet up with one of my Kindle books OR (b) writing the final portion of instructions for Splendidly Marching Along.

{{Three Hours Later}}
Or how 'bout reading on the Kindle for 20 minutes, and then taking a 2-hour nap?
;0)

Happy Thursday!