Hand and machine stitching

It's been a busy week or two here in northern MI. Al and I were both sick with a 24 hr stomach flu that was nice enough to visit every family member and more. 

So while in bed I had time to hand sew bindings on. I sent the quilt above... The modern solid sampler quilt... on to its new home at my daughters house.

The Dr. Seuss hexagon quilt is finished for Henry. This is UFO for January ...#3 out of 12 that I will try to finish this year.  http://www.patchworktimes.com/ufo-2017/

Now scraps were getting out of hand so I joined the Rainbow Scrap Challenge but to get rid do as many scraps as I have I need to make quilts not blocks. This top was finished but then I looked at it and looked at it...I decided I wanted a border.

So I cut 60 degree triangles out of the leftover purples and grays.

I haven't decided on points in or points out but I'll definitely be adding a border. I may add a little strip of gray before the border to keep the triangles from touching the plus signs....and then maybe a final border in gray to keep the binding from cutting into the triangles. SOOO...now I'm nowhere near done but as always I'm enjoying the creative process. 

First quilt finish of 2017!

Finally! It's done...big sighhhh. 

This is a mishmash of solid blocks (and partial blocks) that I had laying around the sewing room. I decided not to make certain quilts or projects but I still liked my "tester" piece so I decided on a sampler.

This was a bit of a challenge mathematically...I had to measure each piece/block then sash it or join it to another to get them to work together. Graph paper saves me! 

Isn't it odd how cast offs and scraps can end up being a favorite quilt? 

Making progress

Well this sampler is quilted! So nice to feel the progress.

Yesterday was a beautiful day but COLD! Al and I were babysitting Henry. During nap time I got to finish the quilting and pick out a binding.

Barb, here's my basting space...fits a lap sized quilt but not much larger. The next quilt that needs basting will have me rolling back the rug for a couple of days.

So my old friend Denise (not age kind of old!) told me about a UFO challenge on the PATCHWORK TIMES BLOG. I'm not officially doing it but I decided to follow it this month. 

She has you make a list of 12 projects then pulls a number a month ....you work on completing that one. So number 3 on my list is dr. Seuss. I plan to finish this up and hope to check it off that rediculously long UFO list. PATCHWORK TIMES BLOG

Cold snowy days...quilting days

Cold, windy and snowy today....perfect for staying in and quilting.

Al and I woke up to what sounded like a blizzard outside. It doesn't help that we sit really high up in the subdivision so there's no stopping that Lake Michigan wind.

Since I have a bunch of almost completed quilt tops I decided that 2017 should be the year of finishes. With any luck I'll get the 20-30 quilt tops and blocks finished.... DONE! 

So this is the final border needed on my modern sampler. Put on a 2-1/2" white border to just set the binding apart from the top. Orange binding? Or red? Still thinking about that. 

I have it all pin basted now so if we aren't watching our grandson tomorrow then I'll start the quilting. 

I have no idea what type of quilting I'm going to do...probably something modern and linear.

So the other day I decided to cut up this sweater and turn it into a pillow. Turned out nice.

Harry dog seems to like it!

Modern Solid Sampler quilt ready to baste

I've been working on my civil war quilt a lot lately and needed some COLOR! This scrappy solid quilt is ready for quilting so I'm taking a break from dark colors to do this. 
Originally I planned to add a border but I've changed my mind...it's big enough for a lap quilt and that's all it was meant to be. This was just a way to use up blocks that I auditioned... If I wanted to try a block or quilt pattern, many times I make one block. If I like the process or technique I start the quilt. I've been making my tester blocks in solids knowing that someday I would have enough for a modern solid sampler. There's some that were so bad they didn't even make the cut for this quilt...and one in here that was soooo time consuming I only made 1/2 a block (the red & white block to the left of center).
So onto the quilting....