Back To Talkin' Turkey

 I started Talkin' Turkey about two years ago.  I pulled it out again after I got the Project of Doom off my design wall.  I got the blocks sewn into rows and figured out which outer borders I still needed to make.

It hung on my design wall for 4 days before I found the mistake.  This won't be difficult to correct since it is on an end.

This quilt has a complicated border involving over 200 flying geese units, and I don't know if I can stand to do them all at once.  I think I'll just get the center together and do the flying geese a little at a time.

Linking up: http://www.joscountryjunction.com/ufo-challenge-11/

Irish Quadrille Continued

I wanted to work on my Irish Quadrille for an hour every day during the daylight.  I didn't get to it every day, but I managed to still get a lot done.  Here's how it looked last week:

And here's how it looks now:

I am doing the most difficult part now.  It is mostly fractional stitches, which I find very hard to count with my old eyes.

Linking up:  http://www.supermomnocape.com/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-98/

Stash Report, First Daffodil

My stash is headed in the right direction this week because I managed to stay out of my LQS.

Used this week: 4.5 yards (POD 3)
Used year to date: 26.375  yards
Added this week: 0
Added year to date: 28.625 yards
Net Added yard:  2.25 yards


My first daffodil of the year bloomed on Thursday this week, February 16.  I try and keep track of what day my first daffodil blooms.

2012                  before 2/1/12
2013                  2/21/13
2014                  3/10/14
2015                 3/13/15
2016                  2/4/16

 When the winter is so cold and gray, I really look forward to seeing it.  This year, though, it seems 
like we have had as many days in the 60s as the 30s.  I know winter isn't over yet, and March could be awful, but winter of 2017 has been great so far.  

The Final Project of Doom

I finished my third and final Project of Doom quilt top yesterday.  The other two have hand stitched titles. This one doesn't.  The other two were gifts.  This one I made as part of a  stitch along with no particular recipient in mind. It will sit in my closet, maybe for years, until I find someone who is POD worthy.

 I started it in January of 2015 when Fandom of Stitches was making alternate blocks available for the bookcase.  I don't usually make the same quilt twice, let alone three times, but I really enjoyed the paper piecing in this project.  I was able to use  scraps in this quilt and didn't have to have to do a lot of cutting in advance or planning, so that was good too.

This quilt is 84 1/2" X 67".  I am very glad to have this UFO out of my way!

For comparison, here are other two PoD quilts:

From the first one, I learned that there needs to be loads of contrast between the bookcase and final background.  I think the brown and gray are too close here.

The one with the black background may be my favorite.

Linking up: http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2017/02/love-hoop-art-and-finished-scarf.html

Not A Dozen Roses, Stash Report

 I didn't get a dozen roses yesterday, but I did get 13 fat quarters:  a total surprise!  My DH went to one of the LQS on the way home and got help from the workers picking out red fat quarters.  They had it all folded and rolled neatly, but I opened it up to get a good picture of the fabric.

We don't typically celebrate Valentine's Day (by mutual agreement), so this was a big and welcome surprise.  I have a red and white  scrap quilt in the works and was just wondering if I enough fabric for the border.  Now I do!

I also missed the Sunday Stash report, so here it is.  This doesn't count my new fat quarters because in my fabric accounting system, gifts don't count as fabric in.

Used this week: 0.25 (Bee blocks)
Used year to date: 21.875  yards
Added this week: 11.5 yards ( Blueberry Park bundle, sale FQ)
Added year to date: 28.625 yards
Net Added yard:  6.75 yards

Irish Quadrille

I have been working on a St. Patrick's Day ornament, Irish Quadrille by The Sweetheart Tree.  I have had this kit for a few years, and pulled it out in mid January, thinking that I'd surely have it done by mid March.  Last week I realized that February was almost half over, and I hadn't made much progress.  Now I'm trying to get in a hour of stitching on it every day.  The key is I need to get the stitching done during the day when the lighting is good.  At night, my eyes are too tired to cross stitch.

This ornament will have a four sided body with points at either end.  Stay tuned to see if I get the finishing done by St. Patrick's Day!

Linking up: http://www.supermomnocape.com/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-97/

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Aqua

I worked on RSC this week.  Aqua is not a color I tend to buy, but my friend Holly has given me a lot of aqua scraps lately.  I made 19 string blocks:

And two Inverted Star blocks.  

This brings my total Inverted Star blocks up to eight.  I think I need at least 24 to make a decent sized quilt.  

Linking up:  http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2017/02/scraphappy-saturday-teal.html

http://www.shecanquilt.ca/2017/02/february-scraptastic-tuesday-link-is.html

Surrounded by Scraps

The second clue in Charlotte Hawk's Surrounded by Scraps came out yesterday.  I am making the smaller of these quilts, so I was able to get this clue done quickly.

Based on these units, the number of small four and nine patch squares we made last month and the fact that we cut no triangles, I predict a quilt based on Burgoyne Surrounded and Irish Chain.

Bee Blocks

I joined my first online quilting bee this month.  Daisy asked for scrappy semicolon blocks:

Tina is in a sister hive, but her block was so easy, I made one for her too.

Stash Report

I spent 2 days last week cleaning up my sewing room.  I was sorting scraps most of the time.  I also found some flannel and minky scraps and books to give to a quilting friend. I filled a giveaway box  with fabrics that weren't quiting  cotton:  lawn, upholstery samples, silk and linen.  I know I might wish I had these fabrics someday, but the truth is I probably wouldn't be able to find them if I needed them, and what I really need is storage space, not more scraps.  There is more cleaning and sorting to be done in my sewing room, but now I'm burned out on organization and just want to sew.

I have a ton of blue and green scraps to use up.  I also have a whole tub of selvages.  There must be at least two quilts in this tub!

Used this week: 4.75 (binding Stars Around the Corner, charity top)
Used year to date: 21.625 yards
Added this week: 3.875 (red from QC, blue for charity quilt, pillowcase fabric)
Added year to date: 17.125 yards
Net Used:  4.5 yards

Linking up:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2017/02/05/stash-report-february-5-2017/

Stars Around the Corner Finished!

I did a big post on Stars Around the Corner when I finished the top. http://sewingoutofmycomfortzone.blogspot.com/2016/12/stars-around-corner-with-borders.html

Here's the completed top.  It was quilted by Virginia Longarm and bound by me last week.

The quilting is a big looping pantograph.  I have found that with very scrappy quilts, most of the quilting gets lost in the busy design.  It shows up best on the back and the borders.

To see more finishes:

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2017/02/kindness-pillow.html

http://persimondreams.blogspot.com/p/scrap-quilt-challenge.html

Quick Curve Ruler

Last month I got a quick curve ruler for my birthday.  I've been meaning to learn how to sew curves for several years but just hadn't found the right class.  When I saw how gentle the curve was on this ruler, I thought I might be able to teach myself.

My first hurdle was coming up with big enough sized scraps from my stash.  These blocks are much bigger than most of the scraps in my stash, and I hated to cut into fat quarters, but I did it anyway. Here are my first test units.

Three of them turned out OK, one of them did not.  I haven't used this ruler enough to figure out the problem, but I assure you, it is a user error, and I suspect it happened during the cutting.  The cutting does not feel natural to me as this is my first slotted ruler.

I ended up making a lot of  lantern shaped units using some fat quarters that were left over from a previous quilt. I wanted to make a donation quilt out of them, but I didn't have enough lanterns for a good sized quilt.  That's when this quilt went off the rails.  I used some text print and scraps left over from the lanterns to stretch this quilt.  I wanted it twin size, and I almost got there, but at the expense of design.  

They are not colors I use a lot.  You will have to trust me when I tell you that the addition of the navy fabric helped a great deal.

This quilt is getting mixed reviews from my family.  My blunt sister didn't care for the colors. My diplomatic husband said he liked the outside blocks but it wasn't one of his favorite quilts, and he is not a fan of the text print.  This isn't one of my favorite quilts either, but it accomplished my goals:  a top for donation and practice with my new ruler.

Linking up:  https://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/2017/02/lets-bee-social-163.html