February OMG (one monthly goal) project and progress on the maple leaf

I thought it was time for me to post Elm Street Quilts' my February goal project even though there is one more day in January, but I got ahead of myself.
http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/p/omg-one-monthly-goal.html

My OMG project for February is going to be a graduation t-shirt quilt out of these t-shirts. I will start on it as soon as I get the maple leaf quilt done.

I am now 50% done quilting the maple leaf quilt! It is going much faster than I thought it would.

UFO - Maple leaf quilt

I worked on this quilt this weekend. Here is the backstory - my neighbor where I use to live had a sister who had passed away and my neighbor had several quilts, a pile of blocks, and fabric that were her sister's. I gave her a bit of money for the fabric and told her I would put the blocks together and make a quilt for her out of the maple leaf blocks. Fast forward over 15 years. I had put the top together years ago, but never got around to quilting it. It is time to get this done!
I pressed the backing and taped it down

Spread the batting and top then pin basted it. The quilt is 78 X 101 so it was a bit long for my table that opens to 96" x 96". Yes, I am spoiled with this table! My dad made this for me at least 20 years ago and it changed my quilting life. No more struggles with pin basting!

There was a area in the middle I just couldn't reach and I had the end that hung over the end of the table. I dropped the leaf down and pin basted the area I couldn't reach. I then took the tape off the backing, pulled the quilt to move the end onto the table, retaped the backing, and finished pin basting it.

After winding a bunch of bobbins I started machine quilting. I am not doing anything fancy - I just want to get this done. I am meander stitching the white areas and for the maple leafs I am putting in a swirl then outlining the leafs. The applique stitching is not very good. It would be better if I blanket stitched the leaves, but I don't think I want to devote that much time to this. I have 34% of the quilting done so that's a good start.

Years ago I made sure I cut the binding out of the fabric that was her sister's so it would match the quilt. I picked this paisley print. It is folded in half and as you can see it only measures 18" so this dates this fabric to the 70's when cotton prints were only 36" wide.

Here is my sewing area. My Dad had made the cabinet for my machine, the two tables surrounding it, and I set up two TV trays that he also made to support the weight of the quilt.

I got to work early to get my walking in and here is what it looked like. I have no idea how much snow we are suppose to get.

Yeah for Friday!

I spent time getting things cleaned up for the weekend. I don't have to go anywhere this weekend so I plan on spending some serious time in the studio. I had fabric to press

Then there is still more that needs pressed

I cleaned up my big table and sorted projects into piles - the Chinese coin quilt with the black, white, and gray fabrics and the t-shirts for Dante's quilt. The off-white fabric is for the back of a quilt.

I also made oatmeal raisin cookies for the guys at work.

I finally got my glasses back from being fixed, but the right lense has two gouges on it that weren't there before I handed my glasses over to the optic place. I am not happy. I will be calling the head of the department to discuss. I am no longer going to deal with the goofy lady I had been dealing with. Her story keeps changing and I have no use for someone who can't tell the truth. You can see the almost two parallel gouges in this picture

Have a great weekend!

Top #4 is done

It was a bit of struggle to get this top done as I was getting tired after a long day, but I powered thru and it is done!

Here are the other three so you don't have to search past posts.

I think #4 is my favorite.

And the list grows

Over at Fret Not Yourself there is a year long improv challenge aimed at new quilters, but it also embraces us experienced improv quilters. Every quarter of 2017 there will be a challenge and this quarter will be the Chinese Coins design. Now I don't have my Gee's Bend improv project done, but since I would like to participate the Gee's Bend piece will have to get in line. This is what I am going to do for my Chinese Coin quilt - I have some pieces and parts left from the four quilt tops I have been working on for Vicki. I decided I am going to use those for my Chinese coin quilt and that will kill several birds with one stone;
1. It will be my piece for the AHIQ first quarter challenge

2. It will finish off a item on my UFO list

3. It will bust some scraps rather than tossing them in the scrap box. Here is what I have left hanging on the design wall, the pieces I gathered up from the four tops, and what I found buried on a table in my fabric storage room.

I also decided that I would go thru my black, gray, and white fabric stacks and pull out any scraps that may be hiding there. I went thru the black stack and this is what I pulled to add to the mix. I haven't gone thru the gray and white stacks yet.


4. It will add a quilt to my giveaway stash


What else in on the growing list? I need to make a t-shirt quilt out of these t-shirts by March 4 for my beautician's son who is graduating from high school this year. It won't be a big quilt so I think I should have no trouble getting it done.


Next I need to start working on my piece for the Akron Art Prize. My brother told me to go thru a bunch of t-shirts he had and take what I wanted. I have to bins and a basket of shirts to go thru.


Then of course I need to finish this fourth top for Vicki. I did get a few more pieces laid out. I had to go back and cut a couple of pieces of gray and the black leaf print. If I put my mind to it I could finish this tonight.

A bit more done on #4

I was very tired when I got home from work - caulk up another 16,000 steps yesterday. I finally mustarded up a bit of energy and put a few more rounds on quilt top #4.

I still will have some pieces are parts left after this top so I may do another top.

Quilt top #3 done

Here it is - the third quilt top out of the UFO strips and some colored squares I cut from a UFO from 2015 that went away. It is 48.5" x 60".

I got the binding made for the four tops I had planned on sending to Vicki.

I got started on the fourth top. I think this one will need the turquoise binding. The two triangle sections had been sewn together over a year ago so I just added scraps to make it the size I needed.

Saturday it was warm - like 60 degrees out - so I decided it was time to move the cora bells from the front garden someplace else. They really don't like it in this front bed because it is in full sun and the cora bells prefer some shade. I dug them up

and I decided to move them to beside the garage. It was a messy job because the ground is clay.

Here they are all replanted. I know they will be happier here as this area never gets direct sun.

I also put some of the plants under the deck. I had a lot of babies that fell off the big plants so if they survive I will have plants to share!

I then covered up the front bed with black plastic to kill the weed seeds over the next couple of months until I replant this bed. I did cut the plastic around the daylily so it wouldn't get killed. I think I will plant coneflowers here because they are perennials and the deer don't' eat them.

I forgot ...

to post the pictures my sister sent me with her dentist. He and his wife just had a baby girl about 13 weeks ago and I sent my sister a quilt for the baby. She said he loved it and she says she is now his favorite patient!

I also forgot how fun it is to get a package of fabric. Last night I received two - one from Hancock's of Paducah and one from ebay. Yes a bit more minion fabric!
From Hancock's I got such a great deal on pink Jolly Roger - $2.99 a yard! The other two pinks for baby girl quilts were $4.99 a yard.

Also from Hancock' was this Timeless Treasure black and white print for $2.99. I thought it would make a cute back for baby quilts so I bought six yards.

A couple of Halloween fabrics at $4.99

Then to round out my order I got these three minion fabrics for $5.99 a yard

From ebay I got this cute minion fabric which I had never seen before. It was about 4 3/4 yards and came to $5.26 a yard and shipping was free!

I had to wash a load of my work clothes last night so I threw in some of the fabric as there was plenty of room in the washer. This is all washed, pressed, and ready to be made into quilts!

I made cookies last night for the guys - Pecan Sandies. Oh my goodness they are good! I got the recipe from For Love of the Table. Toasting the pecans really upped the taste of these. I would definitely make these again. I double the recipe, but I think I made the cookies bigger than they were suppose to be. I also didn't take the time to roll into balls and flatten with a glass. I just made balls and flatten them with my hand. I already took them out to the job site and the guys were devouring them.

I managed to get three more rows sewn on the quilt top. I will have it done for sure this weekend and I have enough scraps to make one more.

Have a great weekend!

Garage, walking, demo, and quilt top - Oh my!

The garage door is fixed! The fellow did an excellent job and tweaked a few other issues.

Yesterday I walked the site with one of the contractors to rewire the fence where people have tried and/or have made access to the site at night. He took me threw the remaining building as the debris field in one area was too bad to try and walk thru. It was interesting seeing the demolition from inside the building. The structure standing is very stable so there were no issues of walking thru there, but I never would have done it on my own.

I dug thru my stash and found some fabric that I can use for the binding on the quilt tops. It doesn't match exactly, but there are so many colors the colors of the binding fabric will work fine.

I got a lot of steps in yesterday again. What I noticed today is that I am finally starting to recover quicker which I am thrilled about. It has taken a long time and a lot of steps over the last two years! Yesterday steps:

I already have 7,601 for the day so far so I think it will be another big step count today.

I was up early this morning and managed to get three more rows sewn on the third vet quilt top.