Carolina Christmas Border

I've been working on the border of my Carolina Christmas quilt.  Tonight while I was handing out Halloween candy, I got most of the pieces cut.

 

If the weather is as bad tomorrow as they are predicting, I'll get some of them sewn.

 

Linking up with Jo and her Bonnie Hunter quilt challenge:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/challenge-update/

Selvage Stars, Bound at Last!

Regular readers of my blog have seen this quilt multiple times.  I've been trying to get it done since 2011.  This morning I finished up the binding.  Here is my Selvage Stars quilt:

 

This quilt was inspired by Karen Griska's book 'Quilts From the Selvage Edge', and it contains selvages from one of my quilting friends as well as mine.  This quilt is busy, and it didn't need elaborate quilting, so I chose a simple meander.

 

 

 

 

 

The backing was left over from another quilt.  I had just enough.

 

 

I thought about giving this quilt to my sister for her 50th birthday. 

 

This quilt is 56 x 81 inches.  It is a mystery to me why it took me so long to complete!

 

Linking up with:  http://amyscreativeside.com/2014/10/24/bloggers-quilt-festival-scrappy-quilts-3/

 

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2014/10/finish-it-up-friday.html

 

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2014/10/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-little-things.html

 

 

Bonnie Hunter UFO

I'm late to the party, but I pulled out my old Bonnie Hunter UFO:  Carolina Christmas.

 

I've got 48 poinsettia star blocks and 52 fox and geese blocks done.  There is no sashing in this quilt, and that is keeping me from putting the blocks together.  In  a scrappy quilt like this, it is hard to get all the seams to nest, and I'm quite OCD about nesting my seams.  I may put that part off for a while and just work on the border.

  I started this last October when Jo had her first finish up for old Bonnie Hunter UFOs.  I didn't have a BH UFO then, but I did have many scraps and love her patterns, so I started one of her quilts..  I have a lot going on right now, but I may be able to get the border going before the new mystery comes out.

Linking up with Jo: http://www.joscountryjunction.com/bonnie-ufo-challenge/

Four Blocks To Go!

Here's my POD progress so far:

 

This is The Standard Book of Spells block times six.  All the same title, but the Roman numerals are different depending on the volume.  This is mindless embroidery and my least favorite set of books to do.

Twenty-six blocks already pieced, four to piece, nine to embroider.  I'd like to complete the piecing by  this weekend, so I can spend the following week cleaning the house.  We are having overnight guests, so both the upstairs and downstairs need to be clean.  At the same time.  It's a challenge for me!

If you think you might like to make a Project of Doom quilt yourself, check out the free pattern:  http://www.fandominstitches.com/2011/05/harry-potter.html   It is all paper pieced, but paper piecing isn't as hard as you might think.  I taught myself how to do it about a year and a half ago when I did my first POD quilt.


Linking up with Patchwork Times:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/10/27/design-wall-october-27-2014/

Two More Blocks

While I was at my parent's house this week, I finished the embroidery on two more blocks.

 

 

  The vials are labeled Doxy Eggs, Pond Slime and Bubotuber Pus.  The books are New Theory of Numerology, and A History of Magic.

 

 

 

 

The books are Modern Magical History, Prefects Who Gained Power, and Quintessence: A Quest.  If I had this block to do over, I'd chose different color for the saucer and handle.  They blend a little too much into the background.

 

Here is  the teacup block from the first quilt:

 

 

 

 

Exciting news:  I only have 9 more blocks to do for the center of this quilt!

 

 

 

 

October Gypsy Wife Blocks

I completed all of my October Gypsy Wife Blocks this weekend.  I just realized I made two Nurses Cross blocks instead of two Old Maid's Puzzle blocks.  Since they are the same size, I'll just sub one for the other.

 I'm tempted to go ahead and do November's because November is going to be super busy here. 

Paper Piece Fail and Flying Key Block

I've gotten pretty good at paper piecing, but every once in a while I have a block that I can't save.  Here's my first attempt at the Flying Key.

 

After I started sewing the main sections together, I noticed that one of the small pieces I had done in black was supposed to be yellow.  I attempted to rip it out and fix it, but would have had to rip out multiple seams in order to do that.   I use a tiny stitch when I'm paper piecing tiny pieces, and it is almost impossible to rip out seams like that without stretching or tearing the pieces.  So instead of fixing this block, I reprinted the key pattern at 150% and did it again.  This way I got a bigger, less lumpy key block, and it was much easier to piece.

 

 

This block is not included in the original Project of Doom pattern, but the key is available on the Fandom of Stitches site, and the book is from another of the POD blocks.