Pumpkin Applesauce Progress

I've made a little progress since my last post.

Pumpkin Peel wall hanging from the book, "Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts".

I've begun appliqueing the arcs onto the background fabric. In the photo, the lower two arcs are done and I still need to do the upper ones. I see I'll have to redo a flat spot on the left arc! My mistakes are much more apparent on the solid background.

This will be a four block quilt. Each block measures 39 x 39" finished so, to me, its a huge block.

I have a lot of stitching to do on it before it can go to the machine quilter. There will be plenty of opportunity for that this weekend as we're expecting more winter weather - snow, ice, and rain depending on the temperatures.

I've also been binding my Criss Cross Applesauce quilt. Only one more side to go before I can share it as my latest UFO finish at our next guild meeting.

Last but not least, if anyone reading this is near Paducah, Kentucky, my Selvage Star of Bethlehem quilt is hanging in the National Quilt Museum as part of the Heart of America exhibit until mid March. I'm not able to go see it but perhaps you might be able to. Here's the link with a picture of my quilt!

Until next time, 

Mayleen

UFO Busting!

Time for some UFO Busting calculations!

# of projects in process as of January 1 - 34 

# of projects completed - 1

# of new projects started - 0

# of UFO's trashed - 0

(I don't think I've ever actually trashed a project. I pass them on or donate to Goodwill.)

# of projects in process as of January 31 - 33

It doesn't seem like I made much progress but any progress is more than what would have happened if I hadn't joined the UFO challenge. If I can average one finish a month, I'll be very happy!

Finish #1 - My selvage Streak of Lightning quilt, Flash!

It needed binding and I added a sleeve. As soon as I've finished four quilts, I'll print out labels and add one to it.

 I finished piecing Criss Cross Applesauce and its at the machine quilter in line to be quilted. I won't get it back until early March. I learned quite a while ago not to try to machine quilt anything larger than a medium sized wall hanging on my domestic machine.

Instead of trashing my Target UFO blocks, I took them apart and am making this "Trip Around the Prairie" wall hanging. In this photo, I'm trying to figure out the last 5 or 6 rounds of color. I know I need a lighter value color but my stash is limited in choices.

 

This will be the next UFO I work on. Its "Pumpkin Peel" from the book, Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts, by Mary Elizabeth Kinch and Biz Storms. I don't know when it got wet but there's a little bleeding going on so I'm going to try soaking it in hot water and Dawn dishwashing liquid. I hope its not ruined.

Until next time, Mayleen

UFO Quilt Top Finished!

Another UFO quilt top finished!

Bonnie Hunter's quilt design "Criss Cross Applesauce". 

 While this is a name easier to remember and to say, I've named my version something apple related also but with a nod to the Civil War. When the quilt is totally finished, I'll reveal its name.

I really used a lot of my green fabric stash for this quilt which is good! 

I pieced the backing out of fabric in my stash and lets just call it "creative". Tomorrow, I'm delivering the quilt top and backing to the machine quilter and I hope to get it back sometime in February.

UFO #3 is calling me but I'm not sure what I want to do with it. Continue with the original plan or take it apart and start over? I'm leaning toward starting over. Watch for pictures of it next week!

Until next time, Mayleen 

My Oldest UFO and More

This year, I've decided to try to finish or make progress on my UFO's so to keep myself motivated, I've joined Field Trip and Fiber's UFO Busting link up! Click on her button in the upper right hand sidebar to read more about it and see what UFO's other bloggers are working on.

In this first post, we've been asked to tell how many active UFO's we have and name our oldest UFO.

My total number of UFO's is 34. Some are tops needing to be quilted, some are tops needing to be finished, and some are just a few blocks. Its very difficult for me to get rid of any quilt I start unless its really horrid so I'm going to say they're all active. Disclaimer - I may change my mind later.

I think this is my oldest UFO. It was started back in the late 90's as my daughter's high school graduation present. Unfortunately, it looks like it was meant to only be a double size quilt and it's also no longer my daughter's taste.

My mother did the cross stitch and I pieced the top, as far as it got.

Here is the final border fabric which I had purchased but not cut. It's dated 1998. It reminds me of the new color of the year - Marsala. I would like to finish this quilt as a remembrance of my mother, have it quilted but not sure what it's future will be.

So, what have I been working on? This is Criss Cross Applesauce, a Bonnie Hunter pattern, which is also a UFO. I finished making the blocks and was trying to web the rows together when I got them so tangled up that I had to cut the first two rows apart. I'll make another attempt at stitching the web together tomorrow.

I've also started to work on Love Entwined again. I'm a little further along since I last worked on it but not much. I do plan to take some of it apart - those heart wreaths really bother me.

I have "finished" one UFO - my wild child quilt, "Flash". It just needs a sleeve and a label for it really to be done. Since I print my labels on the computer, I like to print four labels on one fabric sheet. That means I'll need to finish three more quilts before I can print labels. Pictures of "Flash" and my fabric stash wall coming next week!

This Arctic blast weather has been perfect for quilting! 

(Trying to put a positive spin on freezing cold temperatures and wind chills.)

Until next time, Mayleen

Color Therapy, I need some

Do you force yourself to sew/piece/quilt when life is not turning out like you expect? Do you let things bother you and affect your sewing? Or are you an even keel kind of person?

I sure wish I could say that I leave my emotions and frustrations at the sewing room door but that's not the case. Some days just playing with fabric helps me de-stress but unfortunately that sometimes isn't the case.

I've always felt a little guilty for setting aside a project and working on something else but that's exactly what I should have done last week. I've been piecing the selvage spiderweb blocks together and here are two rows of the blocks. Take a closer look at the web on the far left. Half of it is colorful and maybe even a bit too red but what happened on the other half? Brown, brown, brown. Guess what kind of mood I was in?!? I realize God made every color beautiful but brown is just not one of my favorites.

Some of you might not even notice the brownness but every time I see that row, I'm reminded of something very disappointing that happened in my family last week. Its not going to go away and I can't change it, just my attitude toward it.

I'm stepping away from the selvage spiderwebs for at least a few days and maybe even a week or two. No matter how badly I'd like to finish this quilt, I need to wait until I'm excited to work on it again. I'll pick out my brown spiderweb, change it out with some more colorful pieces and restitch it one of these days but not now. Most of the time, you can have a do over on a quilt but usually not in life. We all live with the consequences of our choices.

So what am I working on? This past weekend, I purchased Bonnie Hunter's new book, Scraps & Shirttails II. Most of you know I've been trying to sew down my "Resource Center" so I'm always looking for projects that are scrappy and I found several in this book I'd like to make!

From the moment I saw the "Criss Cross Applesauce" quilt, I knew I wanted to make it so I've begun to cut out the pieces. I hope to reduce my green fabric by half and the reds probably by that much too. I'm not even half done with cutting but this step has been very therapeutic so far. That could be because there's a new blade in my rotary cutter or maybe its because I like the idea of using up some of my old fabric or very likely because its the excitement of a new project!

Here in Kansas the snow is melting away! We're enjoying mild temperatures this week and very possibly next week too. I highly doubt this is spring but believe me, I'm enjoying every minute of the weather this week!