Finish-Along Goals for Second Quarter

It’s time to set our goals for the 2019 Finish-Along, 2nd Quarter. I always find this quarterly challenge (with a drawing at the end for prizes based on finishes) to be so motivating and inspiring. So once again I’m linking up to the 2nd Quarter goal-setting post HERE.

I have selected 10 projects/goals for the second quarter. Here they are, in no particular order.


1.  ON RINGO LAKE

This has been in my pile of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) for over a year. In fact, it’s my oldest unfinished quilt project, although I do have some older stitcheries. Unfortunately, until I get my carpal tunnel issues handled, stitching by hand is out of the question. Anyway, I may simplify this from the original on-point setting to something easier. Or who knows... maybe I’ll gut it out as is.

2.  GOOD FORTUNE
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

This quilt, like On Ringo Lake above, is a Bonnie Hunter mystery pattern. Good Fortune is the current (2018-2019) mystery. I have pieced about 60-75% of all the pieces, because I wanted to do a smaller version. This is also my personal OMG (One Monthly Goal) for April, so it’s the highest priority for finish. Yikes!

3.  PINEAPPLES TWO

I did a Pineapple Quilt (with pieced pineapples, not the classic zillion-pieces block) a couple years ago. It was so much fun, I want to make another one for myself since the first one went to my granddaughter Lauren. I’ve already done a lot of the strip cutting.

4.  STRING STARS ON BLACK
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

I just realized that I haven’t blogged about this project yet. It was started back in February when we went on vacation to Arizona. Currently I have 80 out of 120 (I think) blocks pieced. It is such a blast to work on that I have to force myself to work on other things that have higher priority!

5.   ALTERNATE 9-PATCH DONATION QUILT

This needs a better name, too, but I don’t care. It’s just going to be a donation quilt. I won these Nine-patch in Four-patch blocks in the Block Lotto in February. I have to sew several more (but not too many) and will then whip it up into a donation quilt.  This picture shows nine of the blocks together.

6.   STACKED COINS
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

I did a stacked coins quilt last month in gray, blues and reds; a more masculine or at least a more gender-neutral color scheme. This one will use some of my multi-colored scraps in greens, aqua and yellows with touches of other colors and flowers for a more feminine version. I am seriously trying to cull my basket of multi-colored scraps.

7.   CRUMBCAKES

This is a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project that I’ve been working on for over a year. In 2018 I made 6” crumb blocks and this year I’m sewing them into these 13” (finished) Crumbcake blocks by adding black sashing. Sometimes I have to sew up a few 6” blocks to come out to an even number to make the 4-patch Crumbcakes. But I’m down to the last 2-3 colors, so I want to finish it off this quarter to avoid a year-end logjam.

8.   NEWPORT PLACE

Cousin Kim and I both bought this Newport Place Layer Cake (10” pack of squares) a couple years ago. Last year, Kim made herself a small quilt of half-rectangles from hers (which I blogged about HERE). Then she gave it away. So, I’m going to surprise her and make her another one, only in a different pattern and with some Kona Snow, a floral border (fabric on order) and that old Tula Pink clamshell print on the back. Kim follows me on Instagram and Facebook, but doesn’t read my blog (I don’t think), so I think it’s safe to show this.  :-)

9.  LEMON-LIME QUILT

We are doing some updating to our guest bedroom. The gray paint on the ceiling and baseboards will get a refresh of white paint. The dark wood ceiling fan will be painted white and the gray carpet shampooed. And I need to make a new quilt for the daybed since is has an old store-bought (blasphemy!) quilt on it. I bought this Pepper and Flax fabric (and some other coordinates mixed in) at last year’s Utah Shop Hop in May/June. Time to get a move on!! I have mostly sworn off buying single fabric lines as being too matchy-matchy, but (a) these were the exact colors I wanted and (b) I still have older stash to use!

10.  BLOSSOMS AND SPOKES

This one isn’t even started, but I’m adding it to the list anyway. I fell in love with this pattern last year and cannot wait to start it. It has some fusible appliqué, but I don’t care; I love it too much. (After last year’s Groovy Guitars, I swore off doing appliqué, but... like Goal #9 above, I am reneging on that....) I can’t wait to hang this cheery wall hanging in my living room. And I can’t wait to get on my bike (when it stops raining) and RIDE it this spring!!

Well, since I mentioned fusible appliqué, I have to chuckle and tell you that I just ordered two more fusible appliqué projects from Missouri Star Quilt Company. They’re called Sew-fari kits, and I fell in love with the elephant and the giraffe. I’m going to keep the elephant (when I make it) for us and give the giraffe to Harambe Humanitarian for a fundraiser! But these finishes are not on my list for this quarter, because unless I clone myself, there is no way they’ll get made until third quarter!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Finish and Some Pillowcases

Earlier this week I finished a tumbler wall hanging that I put on my To Be Finished list for the first quarter of the 2019 Finish-Along calendar.

The link for all our finishes will be open on April 1st, but I need to get this shared and blogged first! I’ve had these Bonnie and Camille fabrics for a couple years at least, and have almost given them away a couple times. But I forced myself to add this make to my list, and using my tumbler die (and Go! Baby cutter) cut the pieces out last December. This week I sewed them together, and in no time it was done. Why did I wait so long?

It’s now hanging in our mostly-gray living room, on a hanger that is probably too big for it. But oh well. I like to add bits of color here and there in the decor for a little punch. In the following pictures, you’ll see that I already have some teal blues and reds here and there. The Talavera vase in the picture below is normally by the fireplace. I just moved it to include in this picture (which was dumb, because it’s not in the bigger picture below, where it should be). 

This is goal #8 on my Finish-Along (2019 First Quarter) list, which you can see HERE. The finished wall hanging measures 26x32”. I quilted it simply by just doing a straight stitch 1/4” on each side of the seam lines. 

Yeah, that hanger is too big for the wall hanging, but the size of the wall hanging itself is good for the room. I have to go on the hunt for some alternate hangers for different-sized wall hangings as I make them (I do have on on my list to make next quarter that is more summer themed). 

And Cousin Kim was over to hang out and sew again today (our second time this week because our schedules allowed it! YAY!). On Sunday we decided we’d make pillowcases today. So we picked out some fabrics we loved (or that I wanted to get rid of, hehehe), and I had them all cut up for us and ready to sew.  

Kim took hers home (no picture), but I did snap pictures of the ones I made. First, we have the four that will go to some sort of charity (Million Pillowcase Challenge? One of the H2H charities? I have to do some research...)

I was about an inch short on the Joel Dewberry fabric (the large print), so the cuff of the pillowcase second from left ended an inch shorter than the rest. Otherwise, they’re identically sized (but may not look like it because of how they’re folded or photographed). They are so easy and quick to make and have wonderful finished seams inside and out.

And of course, I had to make a couple to keep. The right one, below, will be for me to sleep on. The cuff is the same fabric from Birds in the Lattice, which is on the bed. I wish there had been enough blue fabric left over to do two matching pillowcases - I would have loved to use it for the body of the case. The other yellow, gray and white one will go on the guest bed. I will be making a new quilt for that come next quarter. But first we have some painting and carpet cleaning to do in there (which I’ve been putting off for six months). 

So, I’ve gotten a lot of little odds and ends sewn this week as I wait for the new color for April to be announced for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Yesterday I basted the stacked coins donation quilt I’m making. If I can get that quilted and bound tomorrow and Saturday I may have one more finish for the month. We’ll see!

Pink Selvage Quilt Done

Yesterday I finished up the third and final selvage quilt from the selvage blocks I made during 2018 for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Like the other two quilts, this has been added to the pile of donation quilts.

This quilt used the 6.5” (unfinished size) selvage blocks in pale blue, pink, yellow and green. I also used up most of three pink fabric chunks for the sashing. There’s at least a yard left of the lightest pink, but the other two are residing as little scraps in the pink bin. The striped fabric was also used for the binding.

I quilted it in a small loopy design. When I quilt selvage quilts, I always do loops or a stipple so that I can be sure that the ample stitching secures the selvage edges extra well.

The quilt finished up at 48x56” (before laundering). For the backing, I used a piece of this cute Flower Market fabric by Lella Boutique that was left over from a quilt I made a couple years ago.

This selvage quilt was also a finish that ticked off Goal #6 on my Quarter 1 Finish-Along list, which you can see HERE, for 2019. It is my third finish this month. YAY!

And I just wanted to give a shout out to Cousin Kim. She has always wanted to try a Jelly Roll Race quilt, and after spending months and months on a gift quilt for her son (the lovely Hunter’s Star quilt that I never got a picture of), she wanted a quick project.  Kim made it from a jelly roll she picked up on sale last summer when we were out gallivanting around. The purple border was left over from a quilt she did 2-3 years ago.

And this is the fabric from (half of) the duvet cover that she used for the backing.

Again, it’s been too cold to snap pictures outside, so we’ve just been pinning these up on the design board, hence the wonkiness. Or maybe it’s just the way the lens bends things? Whatever; you get the idea, right?

Stay safe and warm during the horrendous Polar Vortex weather here in the Northern Hemisphere. As for us, we’ve got plenty of quilts, cats, heat, margaritas, and food to keep us warm and safe until we head south to Arizona next month......

Two Quilt Finishes!

Now that Groovy Guitars is done and out of my quilting queue, I’ve hit the ground running to finish up other in-process quilts. This week I finished up both a little baby donation quilt and my longest-standing UFO (unfinished object) - my Farm Girl Vintage quilt!!

Let’s start with Farm Girl. I started this back when Lori Holt did her quilt-along, at least 3 years ago. I had chosen the 12” size rather than the 6” size because I was a fairly new quilter at the time. And frankly, I had issues with HSTs and flying geese and keeping points and maintaining proper seam allowances and .... and....

But with time and practice, my skills improved, even to the point where I was able to put these sometimes-wonky blocks together into a cohesive whole. Yes, it’s readily apparent that I now need to work on my photography skills....

Farm Girl finished at 70x82”, and I quilted it with loops on my Bernina. I would say that this size is about the limit of what I’m comfortable wrangling with on my home machine.

The backing is a farm print I bought on clearance at Connecting Threads last year, and I also used almost all its remnants to make a matching binding. Many of my favorite blocks are not represented in the 30 I chose for this quilt because they were used in the Autumn Sampler quilt I finished last January (see this post).

I still have leftover Farm Girl blocks and will probably make a donation quilt from them. They’re currently making friends in the Parts Department.

The other quilt I finished this week is a donation quilt made from a charm pack of Horizon by Kate Spain, a few extra solids and some leftover oatmeal-colored background fabric. It finished at 41x46” after washing and shrinking.

Today I’m linking up with Sarah for Whoop Whoop Friday and Alycia for TGIF (Thank Goodness it’s Finished) Friday.

These were also goals on my Quarter 3 Finish-Along post. Although I didn’t link up with the hosts (and am therefore ineligible for prizes this quarter. I was in Africa at the time.), I am using the QAL as motivation to check items off my list. The Farm Girl quilt was #9 on my list and the donation quilt was #6. You can see my goal-setting post HERE.

Goal Setting for the Second Quarter

It’s time for me to set my quarterly goals for finishing up quilting-related projects. I’m going to pretend that Spring will really arrive one day and that the cold, rainy weather and blustery days will give ‘way to warmth, sunshine and flowers. But I’d be an ingrate if I did not acknowledge that Mother Nature has already blessed us with three - yes, only 3 - daffodils. Wha????? I planted at least 30 last fall..... Well, the tulips are poised to open any day now....

My list for the second quarter proposed finishes is relatively short. But even so, I know that with everything else going on in spring, I will be fortunate to finish just half of them. Anyway, I’m linking up to the 2nd Quarter 2018 Finish-Along Goal Setting linky. 

1.  Bruce’s Guitar Quilt

This quilt is also my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for April. But I’m advising everyone, Bruce included, not to hold their breath. I don’t even want to pull it out until I finish my yellow Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, probably next week. And that’s already half way through the month.

2. Baby Quilt for Stacy
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

Our daughter Stacy is expecting a baby girl at the beginning of July. Yay! I was hoping it was a girl, because I’ve had this ABC panel (Tamara Kate) for over a year, just waiting.

3.  Geese Migration

FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE. 

This is a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. The pattern is by Cynthia Brunz. It’s a flimsy currently, but will be basted and quilted soon. Probably it’ll be my first finish of the quarter.

4.  All You Need is Love

I’ve used this picture before, but actually the quilt is well under way. It’s for my Beatle-loving daughter, who needs another quilt. Well, she has a Minky-backed winter quilt I made her about 3 years ago, so this will be an all-cotton alternate quilt. So “need” is appropriate, right?

5.   Lozenge Quilt in Orange

I’ve been working on this off and on for a couple years. Mostly I’ve just worked on it when the orange month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge rolls around. But I’ve got all the orange rectangles (all 475 or so) cut out, as well as a majority of the white corner squares. Now I need to cut out the black corner squares and do some heavy chain piecing. But the priority is after the four above-listed quilts.

6-7.   Charity Quilts

I’ve been trying to add charity sewing to my quarterly output (whether listed as a goal or not) this year. I may as well list a couple of them here. The two I’ve selected are basically whole-cloth quilts that were selected by virtue of being on the top of the 12-quilt pile! LOL

Sorry for the lousy picture; the purple fabric is even shown wrong side up. I just match pieces of fabric, flannel, batting and keep a baby quilt-to-be pile going. These are all meant to be baby sized, from 36” square up to about 48x54”. They either go to a local church group, online charity drives, or the local Primary Children’s Hospital. 

And that’s it for me for the second quarter. Now, must get sewing......  Thanks for stoping by!

A Fun Week

Wow, this week just sped by! It was full of family and fun, exercise, sewing, yard work and so much more.

London and her mom, Heather

On Saturday I went with my DGD London (my DS Shane’s daughter) and her mom Heather to Wheeler Farm for an Easter Egg Hunt. I have experienced my share of Egg Hunts in the past, both as a mom of three kids and as a mall marketing director for 9 years. Plus, I worked at Wheeler Farm for 4 years, and we had Hunts then too. But I’ve never been to one that was so well organized as this year’s hunt!

The kids were separated at pre-registration by age and parental preference of Hunt in the Woods or Hunt on the Grass (for the younger ages). The different groups staged in different areas and were then further split up and led into different sections of the woods (the farm is about 75 acres) by guides.

Everyone got the “Let’s be kind and share” lecture so that no child would go without. The kids were just great about this! The eggs were empty, and once the kids got their allotment, they helped other kids. When it was all done, they turned in their eggs back at the barn and got a full Easter basket of prizes, candy, a stuffed bunny and other toys and coupons. What a deal!

London was in the last group of the day and they didn't have any egg limits. In fact, they were asked to help out the Easter Bunny by finding all the eggs they could (and to share, of course) so that he wouldn’t have as much work later. We parents and grandparents further helped out by gathering and bringing out any plastic eggs that had been smashed by over-anxious kids!  Anyway, it was really fun to walk all over and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. In fact, Bruce and I went back on Monday and walked the entire farm again by ourselves. We also visited all the new baby lambs and goats.

On Tuesday I hemmed up some flannel receiving blankets for one of my neighbors who will be going to Uganda with a local radio station. They go twice yearly and bring these blankets to the villages so the babies don’t have to be taken home swaddled in newspapers. The Riley Blake company, which is local, donates quite a bit of flannel, and I hemmed up a bolt of the blue chevrons and then added some of my own. This pictures shows some of them.

I got some more sewing time on Wednesday and worked on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. This month is yellow.  First I did three Linked Squares blocks, which will finish at 16” each. I need a total of 20 and now have 11 finished.

Next were six 4” (finished) bowties.  I only need 32 more - a few of each of the remaining RSC colors. This project will continue on...

And finally I finished up 10  selvage blocks in yellow. They will be 6” finished. No plans yet other than to clean out my selvages!!  :-)

I still have lots more yellow blocks for the next few weeks: birds, Squared Away sampler blocks, quarter log cabins, and crumb blocks. Plus, I’ve started my daughter’s “Love is All You Need” medallion quilt. The tough part was all the quilty math to figure out the various rounds - no small task because she wants a rectangular rather than a square quilt. So, I worked out the numbers and designs on paper, pulled the fabrics and have gotten started. I’ll share more about this in a week or two. But I will be making certain blocks as the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month coincides with one of the colors in the quilt (mostly yellow, pink, turquoise, blue, black and white and some orange).

My final sewing goal for this week was to get my Geese Migration blocks sewn into a flimsy. That happened yesterday. Excuse the wonky picture. As usual, I pin the top on the design board and let the rest fall freely, so the bottom part is not taut. But it is even, I promise!

I am so tickled at how this is turning out! I still have to whip up a backing from some of fabrics. I’m going with green because I found a 3-yard piece and another 1+ yard piece in those colors that will work. The binding will be the same gray fabric.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We finally got our new car this week. We’ve been waiting for two weeks, and our new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid finally came in and got its windows tinted. It was ready for us on Thursday. I borrowed this picture from the Toyota website (I hope they don’t mind), as our new baby is exactly this color - Electric Storm Blue.

We love our Toyotas! We sold Bruce’s Tundra and traded in my Prius and are now just a one-car family. This car’s controls are very similar to my Prius, but the visibility and some of the newer features (back-up camera) are superior. My favorite thing is how well it fits me. It’s so solid and tight and ..... geez, I sound like a commercial. Sorry, but I just love it. We always give our cars names (please tell me we are not the only ones who do this! Bruce’s Tundra was Elwood and my Prius was Penelope), but we haven’t named this one yet....

And now I’ll switch gears (pun intended) for the final time. This week Darla learned how to wind a bobbin. And she is definitely a southpaw!

Hey, I’m the Supervisor, not the Bobbin-Winder!

If she thinks I’m going to sew those batting scraps together when the bobbins are done, she’s got another thing coming....

PINK ! It's the new, um, ....pink

I have no idea why, but this month I'm enjoying the hell out of this month’s Rainbow Scrap color of pink. Yeah, enough to say hell instead of heck! Just picture this fluffy person in her new swivel chair at her sewing machine sewing and rocking away to the beat while my poor cat Darla rolls her eyes and tries to sleep nearby.  And she does roll her eyes!  Anyway, you can see all sorts of pink scrappy sewing and fun over at Angela’s Scrappy Saturday blog post. No eye rolling required!

First up this week was the Geese Migration blocks from the pattern by Cynthia Brunz. I did three of them, one more than I have done every other month so far, bringing my total to 17 of 25 needed. Next year I will add one more of each color when I presumably have more scraps and variety.

Then I worked on plus blocks. Not pictured are four orange plus blocks that I added to last month’s total (so there are now 8 orange pluses instead of just 4). And here are the 21 pink ones that I did. This gives me a total of 114 blocks, which is about 10 more than I need. So I can weed out the ones I don’t like as well and put them on the back or in a kennel quilt. I hope to start assembling the plus quilt before the end of the year.

Next are those sweet, easy, fun Bow Tie blocks. I made 25 of them, and they’ll finish at 4”. At this stage I have 202 of the 304 needed, so about 2/3 done. I am enjoying these blocks way too much.

Oh, and I have to point out two super cute blocks in this group. The first is the middle block in the bottom row of the bow ties above. Notice the pink penguin fabric? That is from my friend Diann, who also made a bow tie block with it. (In my last post, I showed the cute zippy pouch, pin cushion and fabric she sent me).

The second block was a rather serendipitous occurrence as I was chain piecing all these blocks.

Fabric Goddess! HA! How cute is that?

So then I had almost a whole jelly roll left of a pink (and some orange) fabric line called Palm Court.  I began sewing strips together adding a few other bits here and there, not quite sure what I wanted to do.....

It turns out I’m not that adventurous, because I didn’t stray very far from my original idea. But I do loooooove the white with black polka dot sashing!!  The picture below looks rather wonky because half is pinned and the bottom part just hangs.

Bruce came up with the suggestion of expanding my design board to the floor, which might happen some day. But then the cats would just go after the pins anyway (or worse - start climbing it! Sorry, Molly!) So just use your imagination to envision a straight quilt. Besides, I can assure you that the top and bottom widths are less than 1/4” difference (which is as good as it gets in my book).

In the coming week, I will baste both this pink quilt (a future donation quilt) and the Reading Rainbow quilt. And then start quilting Reading Rainbow. I also hope to finish all my pink Friendship Star blocks. There is more pink on the horizon beyond that (vintage sheets, bitty scraps and kennel quilts), but I need to think about those and possible new Rainbow Scrap blocks for awhile.