Stars And Stripes Finish!

Hey Quilty Friends! I'm  super excited about my latest quilt finish and the fact that I'm ready for the 4th of July shindig at my house today.  Everything is cooked and cleaned. The checklist was complete a day ahead of schedule, can you believe that?!

 

The quilting was quick and easy.  I started quilting it late Saturday night. 

The plan was to quilt it on my sewing machine but at the last minute I decided to use the frame quilter due to my shoulder injury caused by my dog. The doctor told me to use my shoulder as much as I could stand or it would lock up on me.  Sitting and piecing was not comfortable but it was tolerable. The pushing and tugging on the quilt to quilt it would put even more pressure on my shoulder joint.  So, I tested how it would feel to pull and  push my frame quilter. It was much easier but allowed movement of the shoulder.  So, the UFO quilt on the frame was removed.....

....and within an hour I had this girl on the frame.

On Sunday hubby gladly ate leftovers for breakfast and dinner while I quilted my tail off and took frequent breaks to ice my shoulder.

By 9:30 pm she was quilted and bound.

I'm not happy with the label but at least it has one.  The sewing machine doesn't make pretty letters.  Hopefully someday soon I'll find a good deal on and embroidery machine.

The label was added to the backing before quilting, it makes it harder to remove. 

 I can live with an ugly label as long as the front makes my little ole heart go pitter-pat.

Do you know how to tell if I really love a quilt? It's pretty easy.  I can't stop taking and sharing pictures and I will share more than what is necessary in a blog post.  I took about 20 pictures and had a hard time deciding which ones to share.  (the free pattern can be found here)

This quilt he will be used as decor on hubby's rocking chair on the back porch.  

She's hiding a really ugly but comfortable chair.  Hubby loved how the chair felt on his rear and back but oh that cow print...EWW!  We decided in the store to buy it for the feel and not the looks.  Eventually one of us will try to remove and replace the cow print fabric.  For now, hiding it will work just fine.

Of course you can't have just one quilt when there's two rockers.  My rocker is was a prop when I had my quilting business.  After I closed my business she came out of the office to her new home on the back porch.  My back porch isn't going to make the cover of Better Homes and Gardens but she makes us happy.

Wishing you all a wonderful 4th of July!  

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Patriotic Quilt Top Ready To Quilt

 Hey Happy Quilty Friends!  I'm super pleased with how this quilt came together.  Cutting the red and white fabrics was the hardest part.  Once they were cut it came together super fast.

Over the last year or so I've been using my floor as a design wall.  It's quicker if I use the wall so I need  to move my sewing table to access the entire wall.  

The sewing table isn't as heavy as it looks.  It glides across the tile floor pretty smoothly.  Within a couple of minutes I was ready to layout the blocks on the wall.

Yep, it's messy but who's going to see it besides me and you?

I pieced it in horizonal rows as I usually do even though my eyes were telling me to sew the star blocks together first.  I'll be honest, if I had tried to piece this in vertical rows I would have messed up the block layout.  Even with the simple design I would have turned the blocks the wrong direction, especially the star blocks which are tilted in opposite directions.  Am I the only one who is directionally challenged?

I also wanted to make sure none of the repeat fabrics were touching one another.  As far as I can tell, mission accomplished.

Now to get this girl quilted before the 4th of July.  Wish me luck!  This year we are having the festivities here in Podunk.  I don't need this to be finished for the shindig, I'm just setting a goal for the fun of it.  There's lots of work to be done before this coming Thursday so I better get quilting.

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Tackling The Red And White Scraps

 Hello Quilty Friends!  It took two days to work my way through the red and white fabrics.  I took breaks often to give my back a rest. Then I had to cut some of them more than once because the universe knows I love scrappy quilts so it worked in a few miscuts.  Awe, how sweet.

I opted to use what I have on hand.  I did not open the fat quarter bundles and did not purchase any fabric.  My friend Judy offered to let me pull from her stash.  What a good friend to feed my addiction but I graciously declined her offer.  I ended up with 19 repeat fabrics.  Once everything was cut, they were separated to make sure there would be no repeat fabrics in one block.  I don't think I've purchased any fabric this year, can you believe that!?

Yesterday and this morning my back has been feeling  much better.  There's some work needing done outside today so I hope to get into the sewing room around lunchtime.  That should be more than enough time to complete all the simple quilt blocks today. If you missed my blog post about this free quilt pattern, you can find it here.

Below is short video this morning for my Facebook friends.

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Seeing Stars

Hey Quilty Friends!  There's been progress on the current project.  If you missed the post about this quilt you can read more about it on my previous blog post.  You'll also find a link to the free quilt pattern.

Choosing to do the applique star blocks first was a good idea.  It took about 3 hours total to make them.  From ironing the fabric, cutting and stitching the stars in place.  It felt good to see it come together so quickly.  The next set of blocks will take a bit longer since they require more sewing and cutting.  

If you are new to raw edge applique and would like to learn more, I made a video a few years ago.  Just click here to hop over to YouTube to watch the video.

Sometimes when doing applique I use the same thread on the top as in the bobbin.  Due to the price of the finer Microquilter thread, the decision was made to use a cheaper serger thread in the bobbin.  If there were any doubt in my mind that it would cause  a problem, it would not of been used.  I'm pretty confident the SureLock thread will hold up just fine.  I use it 100% of the time for piecing and will sometimes use it for quilting the quilt.

The difference in the size of the thread is very noticeable.  So if you choose to use different weight threads, you may need to adjust with the top tension  I try to always use the same color thread on top and in the bobbin. This helps hide any tension issues.  Of course after the quilt has been washed and dried those issue will disappear.  

Now to tackle the mountains of red and white fabrics!

EDITED TO ADD

I bought these scraps on an impulse.  After sorting them by color I realized I don't want or need them.

If you live near Martinsville, Indiana and would like them, let me know.  I will gladly meet up with you and hand them off.  Sorry but I will not ship.  If these are not taken by 6/24/24, they will be donated to the Salvation Army thrift store.

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A Blessing In Disguise, Quilting Time!

 Well Hello Quilty Friends!  It's been awhile since our last chat.  Things have been quite busy out here in Podunk.  Lots of planting, puling weeds, picking wild berries and many other fun in the sun chores.

I'll try to share more on all those things later.  Right now I'm happy to be stuck inside for a few hours a day.  Why am I stuck indoors?  Well two bad reasons that in reality turn out to be a blessing in disguise.  

1.  I sneezed and knocked my back out of whack.  Now I have a hitch in my hip along with some pain and loss of mobility.

2.  The temperatures for the next 2 weeks will be at least 94 with a heat index of 100.

Not my idea of fun in the sun.  That's more like shake and bake.   I'm not going outside after 10 am for the next few days.  The plants can be water early in the morning when the temps are more Lea Anne approved.  

While I wait for the weather to break I could work on one of the many UFO's but I'm feeling the need to start something new and quick.  Something I could quilt on my domestic machine since there's a quilt on the frame that I have no interest in quilting right now.

 So here's the plan....

RED, WHITE AND BLUE!  Designing a new quilt and doing math doesn't appeal at the moment. A  quick Google search for free quilt of valor patterns brought up just what I needed.  Now to pull the fabrics.  I'm thinking scrappy is a good plan for whittling down those scrap bins.

The pattern I choose needs 2.5" red and white strips,10.5" blue squares and some large white squares for stars.  I thought I could find all that I needed in these bins.  Wrong!

I didn't have any blue print fabrics large enough.  A quick dig into the the fat quarters and yardage and TADA!  This is why when making a scrap quilt the scraps never decrease they always multiply.

The red and white fabrics came mostly from the scrap bin but I still needed to pull from my larger cuts of fabric.  Well, I didn't have to until I decided I didn't want any repeat fabrics in the quilt.  Mission accomplished with the whites.  I had to open a much treasured original Bee Basics fat quarter bundle. That's why we buy fabric, right?

Then it was time to dig for the rest of the reds.  Even with digging through the loose fat quarters and yardage I'm 17 fabrics shy of what is needed for no repeat fabrics.  Today I'll start cutting the white and blue fabrics.  I don't think I'll get it all done but it's a start and will give me time to make a decision.

Here's my treasured fabrics cabinet.  I pulled what I could from the red.  What's left in the red is duplicate fabrics and wrong shades of red.  Then there's my backings.  I could get 3 prints from the backings but then I would be adding a bunch of fabric to the scrap bins and possibly making a backing that I can't use in the future.  Now for the top shelf.  There is more than enough red fat quarters in my much loved FQ bundle stash.  Most still have the plastic and ribbons around them.  It makes me sick to my stomach to even think about opening the plastic in order to pull out the reds.  Then I think, why not just open them all and separate them by color?  The greedy side of me says, they are more valuable if you leave them alone.  I told myself I would never open a bundle unless I planned to use them all in one quilt.  Sigh...what is wrong with me!..It's just fabric!...I'll cross that bridge later in the week.  For now I'll cut what I have and let my mind toss around the idea of fat quarter bundle separation.

Let's move onto the quilt I plan to make before I have an fabric bundle separation anxiety attack.

The Stars and Stripes pattern has a free pdf that can be found here.  Scroll down on the page and look to the right for the picture of the quilt in the sidebar.  You'll find the pdf link there.  This picture is not my quilt. It's Suzy's from Suzy's Quilting Room Blog.  The quilt finishes at about 61 x 71.  The size and the simply design should make a for an easy to cut and quick to finish quilt.

See you soon with my progress and red fabric decision.

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