Spring 2019 UFO Challenge

I did so well on the 2019 Winter UFO challenge on Ravelry, that I am joining again for the spring quarter. I completed 5 UFOs this quarter and have only one more of the 'Grammy quilts' to complete.  However, it may take a little while to complete that last one for a few reasons.  The tension on my Pfaff is a little off, so I will take it in to a shop to get a tune-up.  And, this last quilt will go to my daughter, so the quilting will be more intricate than the others.  That's the privilege of having the quilt maker be your mom.

So, for this Spring UFO Challenge, I will complete the 9th and last of the the Grammy quilts.  The backing is made.  It needs basting, quilting and binding.

The next thing on the list is the guild mystery quilt that I'm hosting.  The last clue will go out April 1st and I'm hoping to see completed quilt tops at the May meeting.  I know at least one member has been keeping pace with the clues because if I am late, she reminminded me.  So far I have all the components completed and need to assemble the top and add final borders.  I would like to have the quilt completed by the May meeting and should be able to do that.

Once the mystery top is completed, I would like to do the quilting on my cat quilt.  The blocks were collected in an Internet block exchange starting in 1993!  I put the top together over a year ago and it's been patiently waiting for the 'Grammy quilts' to get completed.  I'm really looking forward to quilting this one.  It needs a back made, basting, quilting, and binding.

The left overs from the bright baby quilt I completed late last year are hanging around and will be made into another lap or crib sized quilt.  I want to see how the brights look alternating with solid grey diamonds.  I think I have enough cut out to make a good sized quilt.  This is just play.

The stars left over from the guild's last raffle quilt were assembled into a top a few weekends ago at a quilt retreat. The scale of the blocks and the 9-patch blocks looked much better on the bed-sized quilt, but I wasn't going to expand this project.  I'm reasonably pleased with this, but would like it a little larger, so I'm planning a piano-key border to finish the top.

That seems like enough to plan for the next three months.  I have to remember that the weather is getting warmer and I will be spending more time outside and less time in my sewing room.  If I can complete all five of these before the end of June, I'll be thrilled. Wish me luck!

Progress and Completions

I've completed more than I thought I would in the past two months.  That is a good thing.  Winter is still here in full force, but once spring arrives and the weather warms, I will have less time to spend on quilting while I persue other activities.  So, it's good that I'm taking advantage of my quilty productivity while I can.

So, I've completed three more of the 9-patch 'Grammy' quilts.  I really slogged through the quilting on the last one.  My initial goal was to quilt each of the 9-patch quilts differently, experimenting with quilting designs.  But, this last one was done using the same circular pattern as an earlier one.  I was in get-it-done mode and not lets-have-fun-quilting mode.  D is for DONE.  I have two more to do and may baste both of them before I start quilting again.  I'm beginning to see the end of this project and that is good motivation.

The tumbler pieces that I thought I would put together and make a top turned out to be a whole quilt.  I don't have a design wall, so for this, to try to get the diferent pieces sort of evenly spread throughout the quilt, I laid out a row or two on my ironing board and before I sewed them together.  I wanted to try some simple quilting, so this was the excuse to do that.  I have never really liked the look of quilting 1/4" away from the seams, but this quilt seemed right for that.  That's what I did and I really like how it turned out.  I also used a thicker, green thread so the quilting would stand out.  And I found that I really liked that, too.  It was a successful experiment.  This quilt was donated to my guild's comfort quilt project.

The other small project that I spend WAY too much time on last month were the stickers for my new sewing machine.  I love this Pfaff, but I've never been a big fan of the color.  So I figured some stickers would make it a bit more cheery.  My original idea was swirls or flowers.  However, I couldn't find any suitable patterns on-line to use in the vinyl cutter DH has access to,  But, I did find these dragons!  And, with a lot of manipulation and time learning new software, I got the design I liked and DH cut them out for me.  They are not the daisys and swirls I had originally imagined, but I like them anyway.

 I got myself an extension table for the Featherweight.  Once I started using it, I thought I would set up the Pfaff as a quilting machine and the featherwieght for piecing.  But, I only had one table in the sewing room.  That meant moving the machines every time I wanted to do something different, and that just wasn't happening.  It was easier to change feet and settings on the Pfaff than to move the entire machine off the existing table.  So, when I saw the extension table and bought that, I figured I needed a new table to go with it.  Nothing useful was turning up on Craig's list, so we took a trip to Ikea to see what they had.  This table (Pahl) is perfect!  It has adjustable height legs, so you can raise the table as your child grows.  The medium height is a perfect sewing height!  I just got it all together a few days ago and haven't had the chance to use it yet.

 The last project I've played with is this antique sewing puzzle box.  I've had my eye on them for a while and bought this last spring with the idea that I would outfit it for my hand sewing.  It came with none of the originall tools inside, which was what I wanted.  I removed the original liner, sanded it and applied new coats of finish.  Then I glued new velvet to the inside. attached the box, the pin cushion and some elastic to hold the pencils and scissors and have a new, beautiful piece of history to use as my new hand sewing box.  It doesn't hold nearly as much stuff as the last bag I was using, but this brings a smile to my face every time I use it.