UFO Challenge: Progress Pile

I have made good progress on my WIPs, though not as much as I had hoped due to an extra work load over Christmas (total of ten visitors spread out over seven days).

The tops for both Caroline's Objects and the Night on the Tiles (NotT)are finished. The back for NotT is almost completely pieced, I ran out of the Mrs March's Collection script / scroll fabric I used and cannot seem to find it anywhere right now.

And I realised that my cheapskate approach to scrappy backing for Caroline's Objects was completely and utterly misguided. It took forever, didn't really match the front and made me feel quite resentful about the whole exercise.

Therefore it has been decided to just do a plain back on this one and use whatever I already assembled as the beginnings of a quilt top for Ms C, my elder daughter. She loves shoes and orange, so we're all set there.

Trying to finish as many projects as possible obviously also meant that I worked on several at the same time. This is something I had previously avoided, fearing that it would result in loads of UFOs and not a lot of finished quilts. But I'm finding that I am enjoying going back and forth between pieces and that it helps me stay motivated to finish things.

So this is the run-down:
Done:

Scrappy Quilt in a Day

IWC Charity Quilt

Theo's Planes

Top finished:

A Night on the Tiles in Manchester

Caroline's Objects

Scrapped:

Calendar Quilt Challenge

Relegated to 2010:

Disappearing Nine-Patch because it's currently just a pile of fabric

Bassetti for Reingard, not due until Aril 2011

Slow going these days

But at least the top is finished. I am now struggling to finish the backing because there is so little fabric left over and yardage of this range is hard to come by.

We will be binding and backing

There is worryingly little fabric left and I think this will be a scrappy backing!

Done! Christmas gift for my mum

I grew up with a mum who said that handmade gifts were always the nicest gifts and that she didn't want any gifts at all.

So here she goes: four semi-hand made guest towels to add an accent to my parents' silver-grey powder room. I hope they will get there on time!

Wild Thyme Give-Away at Twiddletails

Go here to participate!

The elves were busy

38 pressies wrapped (17 going to kids at our local battered women's shelter), 10 parcels packed, 28 cards written = getting Christmas onto the road!

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Spot the error!

While I was on the phone with hubby last night, I noticed an error I made in the assembly. My first impulse was to scream but I was too shocked and only stared. Which is a good thing because I noticed what actually went wrong. Rows 1 and 2 from the top are meant to be rows 3 and 4 and vice versa. Easily fixed, day saved!

AmandaJean's Figgy Pudding Quilt

In case I get bored over Christmas - and find some lovely light green fabric - I might make this Figgy Pudding Quilt.

Very excited to resume the Objects

Now that the Emergency Quilt is finished and ready to be shipped off, I can focus all my quilting energy on Caroline's Objects. Currently, I have no idea of what the backing will be like ... and I'm already worrying about stippling the whole thing.

Now if I didn't have to write 30+ Christmas cards and wrap a gazillion of pressies ...

Ready to be shipped!

This may well be the last post boring you with this little quilt. Evidently, I am very much in love with it and hoping that the recipient will be too. If she is too little to appreciate crafts (fair assumption that at four weeks, she might be), I'm hoping her mum will love it for her.

If you want me to tell you how I made this quilt, let me know. It was super-easy, fast and fun!

Straight from the washer-dryer

Before:



After:


The experiment worked quite well: the quilt came out of the washer-dryer and looks nicely wrinkled and cuddly. Now I just need to clean up a few loose strands and it's ready to be shipped to its recipient. She is - thankfully - doing a lot better these days!

Happy Second Avent!

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Binding going onto Elisa's Quilt

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Happy First Advent Sunday!

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Finished: IWC Charity Quilt

It's all done, ready to be washed and then stored for next year's Annual Charity Auction and Wine Reception.

Love, love, love it!

Making this quilt proves to be very good fun so far. Less than a week ago, it was just a pile of fabric and an idea based on AmandaJean's Ragged Squares Quilt. All I need to do is tie up loose ends and bind it.

Cool Straight Line Quilting Tutorial

Straight Line Quilting Tutorial courtesy of Tall Grass Prairie Studio.

The Emergency Quilt has a name: Elisa's Quilt

Elisa was born last Friday - she was due in early January 2010, she is in intensive care and her parents are "hopeful she'll be able to breathe on her own very soon". Mum is recovering very slowly from horrendous blood loss. It is all very sad in that only hope and time can work their magic and make for better days.

Edited to add: it is loosely based on Amanda Jean's Ragged Edges Quilt Tutorial, only that I sped up the whole process by patching and quilting at the same time.

As soon as I have photos to show, I will explain!

Getting ready for Santa

Lots going on in my sewing room these days. I have a hard time prioritising at the moment. Santa? Emergency Quilt? Objects Quilt? Hell, I'll just parallel engineer ... !

And we will be the rest of the Quilt

I'm having a hard time leaving this one alone, which is good I suppose, because that way I will get done!

We're disrupting our regularly scheduled programme

for an emergency baby quilt in pink! My elder daughter's best friend's mum has now been in hospital for ten days, trying to keep the baby safely tugged away in her belly. The baby is due in early January and mummy is going out of her mind, one step every day, chained to her hospital bed.

Godchildren's Pressies sorted!

Check out the Christmas Stocking Tutorial by Aneela. Originally, I had planned on making place mats but the family is moving and that makes colour coordination so difficult. And they're also gone over Christmas ... so that now I will make Christmas Stockings and send them in time for German Saint Nicolaus. Yay!

New Love: chain piecing

I'm having such fun with Caroline's Objects, probably as much fun as my friend Caroline with her Objects of Desire: shoes

And I discovered a new love: chain-piecing. Fast, fun, efficient!

Theo's Planes - done

This came together nicely and all made from stash too.

UFO Challenge - The List

This is my list to be completed by December 31

Done as per last night:

Scrappy Quilt in a Day

Almost done:

IWC Charity Quilt

Theo's Planes

Halfway through:

A Night on the Tiles in Manchester

Not quite half way yet:

Caroline's Objects

Oh boy, nowhere near done:

Calendar Quilt Challenge

I have decided that this one is not an UFO yet, because it's just a collection of pre-cut fabric squares: Disappearing Nine-Patch

Since this is not due until Aril 2011, I don't count it either: Bassetti for Reingard, cheeky, I know. But it's all about setting attainable goals. And that way I might actually manage ... well, Night on the Tiles may be a problem with all the quilting that will be needed.

Finished

When my work day finally ended last night at 10 pm (household, kiddies, work-work, laundry, parents' meeting at church), I picked up the much neglected Quilt in a Day No. 4 and tied up the last few loose ends.

I'm guessing it took me about 9 hours start to finish and I thoroughly enjoyed making this scrappy non-planned quilt.

Stacks of Objects

This is a stack of squares from my Objects of Desire jelly roll and charm pack. I am making very good progress on my value quilt. Pinning the whole thing to my design wall has been a great help. Now off to sew more squares into long strips ....

I'm in: UFO Challenge

31 Minutes

from the above to the below



Obsessive me realised that I couldn't let the guests of my daughter's Halloween party run around trick or treating with plastic bags. Since I couldn't find any of those plastic pumpkin contraptions I decided to whip up six bags ... in 31 minutes. And they lasted the entire evening!

Those will be small triangles

You can tell when I am focussed on cutting and sewing that the quality of photography goes far south ... too busy to bother, really.

Because I am currently spending my evenings sewing together jelly roll strips (on both long sides) and charm pack squares (on all sides) to cut into triangles.

Then I will have to do some maths and finally decide on a lay-out ... all the while avoiding work on:

- Theo's Planes
- Scrappy Quilt in a Day
- Charity Quilt

who are all clamouring for attention to their binding.

Changed my mind ...

Caroline's Objects with be a Values Zig Zag Quilt ... to make use of the jelly roll.

Cracking on with the Tiles

Total Overload

My sewing room is slightly chaotic at the moment as I am transitioning from one project to another.

I should be working on Christmas things ...



But then there is my friend's 40th and I want to do a Values Quilt.

Quilt-a-long: Value Quilt

Original work by Jarobichaux

Because I don't have much to show right now ... I'm in that dreadful phase with no terribly looming deadlines and between projects ... I am wasting my time surfing the web and came across this wonderful quilt-a-long on Metrosupial Designs aka Katie's Willy Nilly blog that also has a full tutorial as well. Posted is a photo from the Flickr Group.

Eventually, I might do this too ... (yeah, right!)

Top finished

Now I need some lining and dark blue binding and I'm done!

Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival: My entry

I have contemplated which of my quilts to enter this time around and had a hard time deciding. At the end, I settled on my sampler(s):


I chose these samplers because they were my first project. Initially, they were meant to be one quilt but after years of neglect, halving them made more sense.

I begun working on them in September of 2002. They are paper-pieced and machine-quilted. I love the colours, fresh, clean and vibrant. Both girls have their version on their beds to cuddle with.

They also mark the beginning of my quilting journey, a passion that has saved my sanity since becoming a (working) mum and has allowed me to connect with people while I am working on a project for them.

Fiddly Job: Applique

I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to have that many small pieces and none with a straight edge. But chemistry to the rescue: I ironed them all on and then hand quilted them.

4-1 IBOL Drop (30 SEP 09)

IBOL goodness going out to women and children in Northern Iraq courtesy of IBOL Guy Art La Flamme.

Back from Retreat

(Click on photo to see more)

... and it was wonderful. In fact, we had such a good time that in 2010 we will extend it by one day.

There was lots of sewing, laughing, slurping, chatting and debating to be done. The sun shone and the backdrop was fabulous, the food was good and the nights short.

Lining up the squares will not be fun!

Getting there

Making up for past mistakes

Due to VERY bad planning I had to spend a day and a half ironing out mistakes ... always under the threat of running out of the green fabric.

Weekend Progress Report

In the run-up to my Retreat Weekend, I have been busy, busy, busy:

cleaned out dressers and closets to take outgrown clothing to charity shop and bedding to women's shelter

did lots and lots of laundry

did lots and lots of cooking

and then: I attached the binding to my Quilt-in-a-Day 4 and started assembling what I have in terms of top for my Night on the Tiles.

I did not have to go vote because weeks ago I used an absentee ballot to exercise my constitutional right and civic obligation.

But I only needed 20m ...

Instead of spending two hours on a trip into the city centre, I decided to shop online. There will be future projects where I can use up that green thread ... all remaining 780 meters of it. And while I was at it, I got some cream coloured thread for machine quilting my Night on the Tiles.

Last few stitches ....

I love attaching the other side of the binding by hand! It's very soothing and I like pondering the person or cause the quilt is going to.

This quilt is donated in aid of our women's and children's shelter. The ladies who run it pour endless hours and large parts of their strength and hope into the project. And I admire their determination that has provided a safe haven for local women and their children for more than 30 years!

Happily quilting along

6 hours in

The top is completed and sandwiched, the very scrappy binding has been assembled, quilting has begun ... and then I ran out of thread. YIKES!

It's a particular colour by Guetermann and I cannot find it anywhere online. Drat, drat, drat! I really don't want to have to go back to the department store where I purchased the first two rolls. But I think I will have to.

In the meantime, back to my Night on the Tiles. Now I don't have any excuse!

I will be binding when I grow up!

With the top pretty much complete, I need to start fretting about the binding. Here's why:



Not enough colourful material! I can see a scrappy binding in my near future ... which will probably be a LOT of fiddly work. But then it will be a proper scrappy quilt made from 100% cotton.

Time elapsed: 3 hours 45 minutes

90 minutes in: Awaiting assembly

I'm attempting another Quilt in a Day, this time for a soon-to-be-born baby. She's the daughter to my husband's friend and his second wife. He had lost his first wife to cancer and had been single ever since, also because of his very hectic work schedule as a hotelier. Earlier this year, one of his (elderly) guests was being picked up by her daughter and lightning struck.

They are now pregnant and in love and glowing, it is incredibly sweet. And I am very happy for both of them.

I am actually 2 hours and 15 minutes into this project but it's going really well and I am enjoying it immensely.

Finished Granny Square

I finised another blanket, yay! Reading all those posts full of finished pieces was bogging me down a bit ... but no longer, because now I can snuggle under this while I finish the binding on another quilt.

Granny Square Blanket - critique

I really loved crocheting this and it will not be my last granny square. Because I am lazy, I am not sure I will ever make a blanket from many smaller squares but who knows.

What I love about this is that the regimented lines and relative squareness of the blanket are counteracted by the soft and girlish colouring.