Design Wall Monday

Falling Stars is still on my design wall, but I have 5 rows together.  It is coming along slowly.  Sewing blocks together is the part of quilting I dislike the most.  Even binding is better than sewing rows together!

To give myself a break from Falling Stars, I pulled out an old kit, Bram Bones.  I bought this kit from a LQS about 2 years ago, but the only part of the kit I've used so far is the horse (precut and fused) and one of the batiks.  I didn't like the yellowish fabric they chose for the background, and when I changed the background to gray, the rest of the colors didn't look right.  I used brighter colors than the dull brownish oranges in the kit.  The rest of the fabric from the kit will get dumped in my batik bin, which is still full despite all the batik quilts I've made in the past year. Bram Bones will be a wall hanging in time for Halloween next year.  

I spent most of the morning cleaning up my sewing room.  It had gotten so bad, it was hard to walk across the floor.  I have too many bins of scraps and not enough room to store them all.  I'm going to try to make more scrap quilts next year and whittle the piles down.  

Linking up:  https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2019/10/design-wall-monday-october-21-2019.html

Framing

I picked up 2 framed cross stitched projects today.  One of them was a Mill Hill kit that I started last spring when the quilt shop was slow.

 This little kit took me a surprisingly long time to do, probably a combination of the subtle shading (which doesn't show up in the picture), the solid background and the black beads interspersed with the cross stitches in the pumpkin (they don't show up well in the picture either).  I'm just glad this one is done!  My framer showed me different mats for the pumpkin, but we agreed that a simple treatment looked best.

The next one is a Round Robin that I estimate is 14 years old.

I am glad to have this one framed because I want to preserve it, but I don't really have a place in my house for it.  I don't do a lot of seasonal decorating other than Halloween.  I may give this to someone for Christmas.  My husband said he liked it. I asked him if that meant I should keep it or could I  give it away, and he said that he knew there was a right answer to that question and walked away without giving his opinion.

Design Wall Monday: Still Falling Stars

The same old quilt, Falling Stars is on my design wall, but today I get to report that all the blocks are done.  I just need to sew them together.

I also started working on a turkey pillow called Gobble It Up by Kristina Brinkerhoff of Center Street Quilts.  I found the pattern in the fall issue of Quilts & More.  I'm using all scraps from Witch's Night Out, except for the light brown.  I have a lot more done on him, but his feathers are still on the ironing board waiting to be pressed.

I am not sure how I'm going to get the pillowtop quilted since my walking food disappeared almost 2 years ago.  I had it with me at a class and know it came home with me.  I remember seeing it.  I suspect it has fallen into one of my many scrap bins and gotten buried in it.  The walking foot is for a Bernina machine that is over 25 years old and cost me about $130 when I bought it.  I don't want to have to spend that kind of money on a foot I rarely use.  It seems silly to get one of my longarmers to quilt an 18" pillowtop, but it would be less expensive to do that than to  buy another walking foot.  

Linking up:https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2019/10/design-wall-monday-october-7-2019.html

One Monthly Goal, October

I know you are supposed to chose ONE goal for OMG, so my goal is to finish all my binding, which right now is 2 quilt's worth.

Fish Hope came back from the longarmer sometime in July.  Two months later, it still needs a binding.

I don't even know how long Summer Stars on Fawn Lake has been waiting to be bound. I finished the top in February.

Neither one of these quilts should take that long to bind, since I'm going to do them both by machine, but I'm afraid if I don't publicly commit, they might never get finished.

Linking Up: https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2019/10/one-monthly-goal-october-link-up.html

Design Wall Monday: Falling Stars

I don't buy many quilt books, but about 6 weeks ago, I bought Kim Brackett's Scrap-Basket Bounty.  My favorite quilt in the book is called Falling Stars.  I worked on it while I was also working on Witch's Night Out.  Here's how far I am:

The quilt in the book is only 48" x 64".  That isn't big enough for my husband.  He wants a couch quilt that is big enough to cover up from his neck to his toes.  Mine will be 80" x 64".  I am really enjoying making this quilt!

Falling Stars in my latest attempt at using up my batik scraps.  I made Jo Kramer's  On the Bright Side last year:

 In 2017, I made Arrow Point Path:

And last month I started another Sew Many Scraps, this time in batiks.

For all of these quilts, I had to buy light batiks, so I would have some contrast.  All of the medium and darks were pulled from my stash, and believe it or not, I could still  make a couple more quilts with my batik scraps.

Linking up:https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2019/09/design-wall-monday-september-30-2019.html

Stash Report:                                                                                                                                       

Used this week: 0 yards

Used year to date: 109.375 yards

Added this week:  6.25 yards (WNO backing/binding, neutral FQs, turkey fabric)

Added year to date: 119.375 yards

Net Added: 10.00 yards

Witch's Night Out Quilt Top Done

Witch's Night Out by It's Sew Emma was my September One Monthly Goal.  I have been working on this quilt all month, and today I put on the last border.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, but I wish I had used something more interesting as the background.  I think I will like it better once it is quilted.  This quilt is 57 1/2" x 64 1/2".


https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2019/09/one-monthly-goal-september-finish-link.html


Stash Report:

Used this week:  3 yards (WNO top)

Used year to date: 109.375 yards

Added this week:  1.5 yards (neutral FQs)

Added year to date: 113.125 yards

Net Added: 3.75 yards

One Monthly Goal, September

My one monthly goal for September is finishing Witch's Night Out.  I have about half of the blocks done already.  I was doing it along with Pat Sloan's block of the week, but I got behind.  This is what it looks like now:

I simplified these pumpkins.  They had a square in a square in the middle of the star which made for some very bulky seams.  I like my version just as well as the original.

If I had it to do over, I would make the cat the same fabric as the tail.  I love the swirls in the black fabric and how they look like fur.

I would also make the bottom of the broom jagged, to make it look like a ragged witch's broom.

I won't change any of the blocks now.  I am not a perfectionist, but if I were to make it again, I would do these two things a little differently.

Linking up:  https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2019/09/one-monthly-goal-september-link-up.html