August Stash Report and Goals Recap

August was a major milestone month - the Checkerboards and Dresdens project was finished to a flimsy. I also participated in Kevin's mystery and finished an abbreviated top, so there should be some good stash usage numbers.

August Stash Report:
IN this month: 4-1/8 yards (4-1/8 yards special girl baby quilt fabrics)
OUT this month: 22-1/2 yards (19-1/4 yards for Checkerboards + Dresdens top (includes leftover strips). Est. 3-1/2 yards for Kevin's mystery quilt top.)

IN YTD: 88.5 yards
OUT YTD: 86-1/8 yards
YTD Net Change: 2-3/8 yards added to the stash.

Moving much closer to my goal of breaking even for the year. I anticipate having some finishes this fall so if I don't go overboard with fabric purchases I should be fine.

Goals Update:
August Recap:
1. Finish the checkerboard borders and make backing for the Red Project and get everything ready to give to the quilter. DONE; gave everything to the quilter on Aug. 10.
2. Start planning a special girl baby quilt for my niece's baby and kit it up for future off-site sewing. YES - purchased fabric, pre-washed it, cut triangles, laid them out and kitted it up for off-site sewing later. 
3. Work on Clue #2 for Kevin's mystery. DONE - made neutral four patches and cut extra pieces. Also completed Clue 3 and assembled a smaller top.
4. Work on hand stitching WIGSP Piecing Group project. YES!!! Finished sewing two rows, leaving only one bottom border row to be added. 
5. Continue working on the collaboration project with friends if possible. NO. I don't know if this is ever going to happen so I'm not going to put it on the list any more.
6. Look through UFOs and work on one of them; try to get it finished. Partially: chose Roman Road, prepped the binding, and basted the label on. 
7. Keep up with bee blocks and BOMs. DONE

Other: Made award ribbon for CSQ's quilt show. Put sleeves on two quilts to hang in the show.

September Goals:
1. Finish the WIGSP flimsy and prep backing to take to the quilter.
2. Find out if STLMQG wants me to do demos at Sew Me STL and if so, start prepping materials for them.
3. Make Bat pillow for grandson.
4. Plan the next donation quilt using pieces from Wanda at Exuberant Color.
5. Bind and finish Roman Road.
6. If time permits, quilt and finish Kevin's mystery quilt for donation.
7. Keep up with bee blocks and BOMs.

I have some other non-quilty stuff going on in September so my list is a little light, but I can always find something else to work on if time permits.


Link ups:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Em's Scrapbag
Love Laugh Quilt

Enough

OK, I admit, I'm tired of playing with little four patches. I put them up on the wall per Kevin's mystery reveal, but in a smaller layout since I made fewer units.

I got them all sewn together. With the sides trimmed, the area in the photo above measures 40" square. No, I did not save all the little triangle off-cuts from squaring up and trimming the sides. I have lots of blue and neutral four patches left over, but not enough to finish out the borders like Kevin's design, and I don't want to cut more pieces and make more.

I could leave it at this size for a baby quilt, but I don't like all those bias edges so I decided to add borders. I'm calling this a finished flimsy.

As shown, it measures 48".  I'll quilt it, bind it in blue, and donate it, maybe to Project Linus. It's a good lap size for a kid.  This keeps me on track toward my goal of piecing and/or quilting one donation quilt each month. 

I put the leftover four patches in my "parts" drawer; maybe I'll find a use for them someday. Or maybe I'll give them to a friend who's a scrap quilter. 

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Wendy's Quilts and More

Hand Stitching

You know I've complained before about how hand sewing hurts my arthritic hands, especially the joint at the base of my left thumb from the pinching or gripping action. Well, this month has been a big one for hand sewing.

I've been really pushing to make progress on my WIGSP. Last month and so far this month I've completed one long seam and 1/3 of another. The rest of the last seam, then the bottom border, and the top will be done. Here's the most recent photo, from July. Since then, one of those seams and part of the other are done.

I'm still a member of CSQ Piecing Group, the hand-piecing bee that helped make components for the quilt above. This month was Joy's turn to hand out. She's a bit of a free spirit. She gave us kits with drapery fabric. Here's my finished block for her. Pretty, but tough to sew by hand.

CSQ is presenting a quilt show in October, and I have two quilts entered, Pickle Dish and Goodnight Darleen. They both needed sleeves added. I had enough leftover background print from Pickle Dish that I decided to use it for the sleeve. I'm unavailable on the day we're supposed to turn in our quilts so I'll have to give them to the show coordinator early.

Last but not least, there was a bit of hand sewing involved in assembling this award ribbon. It, too, will have to be given to the coordinator early. Lots of deadlines involving hand sewing this month!

Even though my hands are kind of achy, I'm hoping to get the rest of the last long seam in my WIGSP done so I can take the top to the next Piecing Group meeting and show everyone what they've helped me with over the last 11 years or so. It's about time, after all.

The girls in Piecing Group are all CSQ members and they'll have quilts in our show in October as well. Here's the show info if you're in the St. Louis area and you're interested. 

The Quintessential Quilt 2019 Quilt Show

Presented by Circle in the Square Quilters

Sept. 30 - Oct. 31, 2019

University City Public Library

6701 Delmar Blvd.

University City MO 63130

Open during regular library hours; free

Kevin's Mystery on my Design Wall

I've been playing along with Kevin the Quilter's Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt mystery.

I made half of the required number of units for the full size, thinking I'd make a kid size adaptation. Knowing that I'll have to modify the layout slightly, I put Clue 1, 2, and 3 units on my design wall.

Here's where I'm at so far. The long diagonal will measure 56" after it's sewn, so I think the sides will come out to somewhere around 40". I have plenty of Clue 1 blue and Clue 2 neutral four patches left for borders. I'll continue to lay it out and see if I need more of any units. I'm hoping it'll end up about 48 x 56-60" for a nice kid size comfort quilt.

I love the way the scrappy blues sparkle! Kevin's a master of scrappy quilts that still have a very cohesive look to them.

Thanks, Kevin, for the fun mystery!


Monday link ups:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Em's Scrapbag
Love Laugh Quilt

August Color BOM for STLMQG

The skill/theme for August is Fussy Cutting.

My fabrics are mostly blenders, so most of them don't have motifs to fussy cut. The one that actually has a floral print is so light, it wouldn't show up well as fussy cut motifs. What to do? I don't want to miss a month of this BOM series; I want to be eligible for points and prizes at the end.

My color is yellow green. Actually, it's more chartreuse than green. These are the swatches I carry around for color matching. The largest motif here is 1/2".

Before I go buy something, and I don't even know what block design I'm going to use yet, I'll just check the stash and see if there's anything I can use. We're allowed one accent color along with our feature color plus neutrals. Maybe I can find something, although I haven't used an accent color yet and I'm trying not to.

I found a print I had bought for backing for something else and haven't used yet. The greens in it are greener (less yellow) so it's not a true match. But if I don't use it next to my greens, maybe I can cheat and fool the eye into thinking it's my color. These flowers are about 2-1/2" across so they're much better suited for fussy cutting than my blender prints.

Okay, I can fussy cut this print, but I need a block design that enables me to use buffer pieces of my black and white prints to separate this print from my yellow greens. What if I use a fussy cut flower as the center of a Dresden plate and make all the blades in black & white?

It's worth a try. I can use one of my blender prints as the background.

Okay, it works. It meets the requirements.

At 15" it's my largest block so far, a very bold block! It will certainly draw the eye no matter how I use it in the final layout. It will be a puzzle laying out this quilt at the end, but that's part of the challenge.

I've submitted my fussy cut block photo and they've accepted it. I wonder what the next skill or theme will be?


Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Bunny Quilt on the Wall

I need a special baby quilt for a baby who's due in November. After three boys - and lots of boy cousins - the family is having a girl. Mama's favorite color is purple and she likes animals, so I found the cutest bunny print I know she'll love.

To let the fabrics do all the work, I'm just doing a simple triangle quilt. Here are the pieces laid out on my design wall. I pieced together a strip for the backing with the leftovers; the rest of the backing will be the bunny print.

This is something I can work on elsewhere if I kit it up, and I need several projects for off-site sewing coming up soon. To kit it up, I've labeled the columns and rows. Yes, even a triangle quilt like this goes together using the columns and rows system. I'll take the pieces in each column off the wall, and stack them from top to bottom and clip them together so they'll be in order for when I'm ready to sew.

Simple but cute.


Monday link-ups:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Em's Scrapbag
Love Laugh Quilt

One Little Finish: Quilt Show Award Ribbon

My traditional guild is presenting a quilt show in October. If you're in the St. Louis MO area, check it out in the University City Library during library hours for the entire month of October.

We hold the show every other year, and each time we make the award ribbons that are presented for the winning quilts. I've made award ribbons for at least 5 or 6 shows now.  This week I made one for this year's show. It's all I accomplished this week, since I had other stuff going on. 

We build them on old CDs. Each maker chooses whatever she wants to make: pieced, appliqued, quilted, embellished, etc. Here are two from 2017; I made the green one.

The one I made this year is very dimensional. I covered the CD with gathered dark red fabric; covered a smaller circle of template plastic in the same manner, and stacked them together. I made the largest size covered button for the center. Then I added a ruffle around the outside edge.

Very festive! Only first place and Viewers Choice ribbons are required to have a ruffle, but I personally think the proportion of circle to streamers looks better when there's a bit more than just the CD. Adding a ruffle to second place and honorable mention ribbons is optional at the discretion of the maker.

The back is another covered CD, just flat no gathers. The ribbon streamers are sandwiched in between the front and back CDs. I mostly glued the layers together but per the instructions I also hand sewed the front and back CDs together, poking the needle through the ruffle, so there would be no chance of the layers coming apart.

I'll turn in the ribbon to the committee chair in early September so she'll have it in plenty of time. I'm looking forward to seeing the show in October!

The Quintessential Quilt 2019

Presented by Circle in the Square Quilters

September 30 - October 31, 2019

University City Public Library

6701 Delmar Blvd. 

University City MO 63130

Free; open during regular library hours.

Supported by CSQ fundraiser quilt on display at the library; tickets available at the desk. 

More info available at  circleinthesquare.org

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Wendy's Quilts and More