A good January of finishes; Harley quilt progress

I had a good month with five finishes, two of those being old UFOs, and getting the Harley quilt well underway. To recap - quilted and bound two baby quilts

Finished the GB piece that had been hanging around since Feb. 2015

Made this t-shirt quilt for a woman I work with. It is for her son. Thanks to everyone for your compliments on this quilt. Heidi D. - you are a no-reply bloger, but I thank you for your comment!

Then I finished this other UFO that had been left unfinished since around 2013 or 2014. I had to quilt the black stripes in rows 2-8 and the yellow accents.

I figured out how far along I was with the Harley quilt. This one seems to be going slow. I must have picked every t-shirt that had the most detailed designs on them! Since I outline the lettering and the designs, it has been slow going. I did figure out I am 34% done with the quilting which I am very happy about. I have circled the shirts quilted in yellow and the one in the center circled in orange is partly quilted. That the hardest one to get to so once that one is done it is downhill from there!

5th finish for 2021

The purple t-shirt quilt is done! I will label it once I get the information from the lady that had me make this quilt. It finished 68" x 86.5".

Progress on the purple t-shirt quilt and Harley quilt

I got one more t-shirt on the Harley quilt quilted before I started on the binding on the pruple t-shirt quilt. The shirt circled in green is the one I did today and the yellow line is around the shirts that are done so far.

The binding is now on the purple t-shirt quilt and I have about 1/3 of it hand sewn. The color of the fabric was perfect thank goodness. It was just a guess when I picked it out looking at the computer screen.

I made another pot of chicken soup. This time I threw in carrots and bok choy to get more vegetables. It tasted pretty good and I will have easy and quick meals for the weekend.

Progress on the Harley quilt

I now have four t-shirts quilted. There was a lot of detail stitching and changing thread colors which took a lot of time. I would show you the back, but that backing is so busy the quilting doesn't show.

The purple fabric for the binding of that other t-shirt quilt came today! It is washed so tomorrow I will be binding that quilt.

Busy

I have been busy working, cleaning, food shoping, cooking, laundry, and taking care of bills and taxes. All of this is cramping my quilting time! LOL!! I did get started on quilting the Harley quilt. It is hard to quilt the black t-shirts without any good natural light along with the lights at my sewing machine. It has been gray and overcast. I did get the Yuma, Az. shirt done and started on outlining the details on the shirt above it.

4th finish for 2021, 2nd UFO done out of 15

It took me all day to finish this UFO. I'm tired! I didn't not think it would have taken me all day. I'm glad it is finally done. It measures 75" x 85". It was already bound. The black and yellow fabric is commercial, but I hand dyed the greens and blues and the backing. I don't know exactly when I started this quilt, but my best guess is sometime in 2013 or 2014.  My top thread was Sulky Rayon and the bottom thread was various cotton threads.

It looks good on the bed either way on the bed. It won't stay on the bed; in fact, I don't know what I will do with it. It will probably go on the pile of quilts I have until a need arises.

Here is a look at the backing.  You can see I did a facing binding.

I had made a piece in 2015 out of the scraps left from this quilt which ended up in Rayna Gillman's book Create Your Own Improv Quilts..

All pin basted and another UFO

I got the Harley t-shirt quilt pin basted today. That is a big job done! The quilt top went together so easy. The design again was simple, but the two colored columns of shirts represents the number 11.

I decided I wanted to get another UFO done since I was setting up the sewing machine for free motion quilting for the Harley quilt. I need to quilt the yellow accent pieces and the black stripes in all the rows except at the edges. This is not going to take long. Why I haven't finished this, I don't know.  The yellow accent areas are now done and you can see on the back the areas that need quilted.

As soon as I get this UFO done I will start quilting the Harley quilt.

Ready to pin baste

I got the top all sewn together and it is now ready for me to pin baste. Right now it measures 85 1/2" x 95 1/2". The backing is just wide enough; not much to spare at all in the width. I will make it work!

I ended up using the gray and gold fabric with the skulls. It was a bit tricky to match the design. I had to sew it twice, but I think it came out pretty good. I didn't take a picture, but I will show the back once I get this quilted.

Three-fifths sewn together

I am happy with the progress I have made on the Harley t-shirt quilt. Three-fifths sewn together! If I can find the time tomorrow, I would like to get the rest sewn together so I could be quilting this by the weekend!

I have these two lengths of fabric I am considering for the back. I am leaning toward the gray and gold piece.

Busy day

First, thank you all for your kind comments on my GB piece. This next quilt is not any dramatic design, but it has significance. I have made a Harley quilt every year for the past 5 years to donate to a poker run that is run by a lovely lady. The money raised is donated to charity in remembrance of her daughter who was killed in a car accident. This year is the 11th year since she passed, thus the two columns with colored t-shirts will be the number 11. Last year I made an X with the colored t-shirts for 10 years and a hug. I got the center column sewn together.

I also have been working on the 2010 quilt. I have tried to spend a few minutes every day quilting  on it this week. It is not a big quilt so if I keep at it I might have this done in a few weeks.

I decided to treat myself to some chocolate. I haven't had any Malley's chocolate for a long time. My SIL always buys me a rabbit for Easter, but we didn't have an Easter get together last year because of the pandemic and this year looks to be the same. I had no intention of buying two bags, but if you bought the first bag at full price the second bag was only five bucks. I couldn't walk away from that deal! LOL!!!

Add computer work for my job and a doctor's appointment - it was a busy day.

We don't care where you go

but you can't stay here

Don't go away mad; just go away

I can breath again.

3rd finish for 2021; 1st UFO done

The Gee's Bend quilt is done! I got to put a big black X thru the picture that I have hanging on my door of all my UFO projects. One done; 14 to go!

I mended the sleeves of three shirts finally. I always seem to wear my polo shirts out in this area.

The deer gathered in the back yard today. I threw them a few apples that were going bad; they ate them. The adult doe looked like she was pregnant and she ate two of them. I know I shouldn't feed them, but I did.

When I got back home after a long walk, I made a pot of chicken soup with broth and chicken that was leftover from cooking two chickens a few days ago. I was in a hurry and hungry, so I microwaved the celery to get it soft quickly. I like these Sobo noodles, but I only put in the serving I plan on eating. They only take one minute in simmering broth to cook. The noodles are delicate and I don't think they would stand up to being reheated.

I also got started on this year's Harley quilt. This will be the 11th anniversary of the death of Andrea Torres so I am leaning to arranging the t-shirts into columns which end up with an 11.

Binding the GB piece

As I wait for the purple binding fabric to arrive in the mail for the t-shirt quilt, I jumped back to get the binding on the Gee's Bend (GB) piece. The binding was cut out of the leftover pieces from the shirts I used to make this piece. It is sewn on now and I have the lower left corner hand sewn so far. This piece measures 40" x 48.5" so it won't take very long to finish the hand stitching.  The backing is a piece of my African Dutch Wax fabric.  

All quilted!

I was suprised late Saturday night that the thread I needed to quilt two of the neckerchiefs was delivered. I hadn't checked the mailbox. Today I was able to finish up all the quilting on this t-shirt quilt. Now I just have to wait until the binding fabric arrives so I can get this quilt done and get it delivered!

To answer Kaja's question of my approach to quilt this, I decided I needed to quilt the neckerchiefs first, then I could move to the t-shirts that adjoined the neckerchiefs. I started with the light blue one because I knew I needed to nail down the design first then work my way to the diagonal. The neckerchiefs are much lighter weight fabric than the t-shirts and I was dealing with bias. I could always move any excess from the neckerchiefs to the t-shirts, but I would end up possibly with tucks in the neckerchiefs if I quilted the t-shirts first then moved any excess to the neckerchiefs. It worked well to quilt the navy and light blue ones first, then the quilt the t-shirts adjoining them, quilt the plaid and cheddar ones next, then the adjoining t-shirts, etc. Another thing I always do is to quilt around lettering or motif first then meander the background. This way I know the motif will stay nice and flat because otherwise the t-shirt fabric could move and then the motif or lettering could get puffed up and hard to quilt without making a tuck. You learn these things after making 30 some t-shirt quilts.

plugging along

I had a busy day trying to get my computer and work phone updated with additional security that the company is doing for another layer of protection for people working from home. I read the instructions and didn't get very far and I was lost. After contacting IT, trying to figure out passwords and IDs, I was finally up and running after 2 1/2 hours. What a pain. 

I did get a little quilting done on the t-shirt quilt after my work day was done. The area circled in green is what I got done today. Everything below the yellow line is what has been quilted except for the area in the yellow circle that still needs quilted.

Snow fell for a couple hours today. There was a heavy coating on the grass, but nothing much to get excited about and nothing to shovel, which is a good thing!

More good progress

The yellow line divides the quilt into what is and what is not quilted. I made good progress. I would guess that I am now about 45% done with the quilting.

I am thinking I should have the quilting done this weekend except for the light blue and cheddar neckerchiefs. The thread is scheduled to be delivered next week. I think I will be able to find something to work on while I wait! LOL!!!

Close to 30%

I was happy with the amount I got quilted last night and a few hours today. I figure I have about 30% quilted. I know this picture is dark so I drew a line; the area below the line is quilted.

Quilting on the T-shirt quilt

It is too soon to figure out the percentage of quilting I have done on the t-shirt quilt. I am happy with the amount I did get done yesterday and today. The navy blue neckerchief, part of the light blue one, the purple shirt and some of the border has been quilted.

I ran out of the thread I was using for the light blue neckerchief. I have some on order, but I think I have plenty I can do until it arrives!

Here is the back. The area not quilted is the bear leaning against a drum. This design is a heavy rubbery type iron on. If I would try to quilt over it, the needle would leave holes. I have quilted over iron on designs, but nothing this heavy.