Friday, March 30, 2018

March OMG Finish

I'm happy to report I've finished my March One Monthly Goal.  Phew -- I was afraid I said I'd finish the quilt but I just reread my post and it said I would finish the top.  Which I have done today.   Yee Haw!  I worked on it off and on this month.  I had two quilts I wanted to totally finish so once those were done I could get back to finishing my Braid Shuffle top. So today I cut and sewed the borders.  
The purple border came from Nancy who trimmed a quilt at my in-house retreat and left the trimmings for me. Thanks Nancy!   I've got a big T Shirt quilt on the design wall so I don't have a nice flat surface to show this off.  It's hanging on one of the long arm rails  I thought it was pretty funny that I have the top and bottom row the same.  All the greens are in the middle.  If I had noticed that I would have changed them.  Sigh.  I'll be quilting this after the T Shirt quilt is done. So you might not see it for a month or two. 

I'll need to think up my goal for April.  I'll keep you posted. 

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday, Mid Week MakersCan I Get a Whoop Whoop?  and Elm Street Quilts. Join me as I skip around quilting blogs to see what folks are doing this week.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie

Monday, March 26, 2018

Monday Meandering 3 - 26 - 2018

I have all of my quilts ready to send off with Sharon for the Faithful Circle Quilters show in April.  I've put all the hanging sleeves on the larger quilts.  I've got all the labels on them. (OOPS I probably need to put a temporary label on the challenge quilt. Good thing I keep basic labels around the studio.)  Here they are spread out on the bed in the spare room.  I borrowed Theo's quilt back to hang in the show. 
I'll be meeting Sharon on her way back home after a visit to her father's house.  She can turn them in for me so I don't have to leave at the crack of dawn to reach Columbia in time to turn them in on the Wednesday before the show. The show will be held April 12 to April 14 at Columbia Presbyterian Church.  If you are in the area please come visit. We have a wonderful show with so many talented quilters showing their work.   

During the last several weeks we've been redoing parts of our shower in the master bath. It originally had a plastic floor with an odd drain which was horrible to keep clean.  We decided to have a tile floor put in and raise the tiles one row higher on the top.  It's getting annoying having to shower elsewhere. We've probably got another half week without the use of the bathroom -- bummer.  I'll share pictures when it is finished.  Hopefully some time this week. 

That's it for me today. I'm linking up with my regular Monday blogs: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Moving It Forward and Main Crush Monday. (I'll try to check back to add Moving It Forward when it comes out.√) Come join me checking out what is new on blogs this week.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Thursday, March 22, 2018

To Do List -- A Bit Late

I'm having a hard time with remembering to write my To Do List post each week.  This week Tuesday and Wednesday zoomed by before I realized I was suppose to write a blog post on Tuesday.  So, I'll be re-evaluating when I do my To Do List post. 

So here's the list from last week: 
March 13, 2018
Work on T Shirt quilt√
Enter quilts in Faithful Circle quilt √
Load and quilt Patriotic Dog quilt for Taps√
Work on Jamestown Landing√
Work on Braid Shuffle #2√

Rail Fence √

I'm happy to report I moved all of those projects forward. Here's a look at the Rail Fence quilt.  This was a partially made top from the quilt fabric from the estate I got.  (Here's more about getting the fabric.)  There was a section 4 x 4 already sewn together.  I decided it would make a great small quilt to pass on to the nursing home that Country Piecemakers supplies quilts to.  There was a big stack of fabrics already cut to size.  I grabbed a couple of my scraps and cut a few more.  I'm hoping to get this to a good size soon.  I have plenty of backing fabrics I can use when I quilt it. Right now I'm just adding blocks to it until it is close to the required size.  I don't think I'm going to put borders on it but I might change my mind! 
Here's what I'm working on this week.  And since this is late I know I've already started some of these items! 

March 20, 2018
Final trim on T shirts, begin sewing columns together
Sew the rows of Braid Shuffle together
Sew the hanging sleeves on 3 quilts
Continue to work on Jamestown Landing
Quilt a baby quilt that’s been waiting to be finished
Work on Rail Fence

I find I have several projects going at the same time.  Surprisingly I don't get them mixed up.  And, I'm able to move all of these projects ahead.  I would really like to start a new quilt but I'll hold off until at least one or two of these projects are done! Do you work on more than one project at a time?  

Today I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Mid Week Makers. I'm going to spend a little time seeing what others are doing this week. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday, March 19, 2018

Monday Meandering 3 - 19 - 2018

This past week I've spent quite a bit of time working on the Tee shirt quilt.  I'm now to the point that I can trim each shirt to the exact measurements and start to sew them together.  I'll check with my customer to see if I can post some pictures soon.  

Here's a finish I haven't shared yet.  I've named it Dog Talk.  Faithful Circle Quilters in Columbia, Maryland gave each participant a brown bag with fabrics.  The challenge was to use the fabrics given and somehow incorporate the alphabet too.  I believe I got my bag last May at the spring quilt retreat.  I spent a lot of time mentally planning and by early January I was ready to start.  You can see my original design idea here along with the bag of fabrics.   Before the end of the month I was done with the top.  The white  is a white on white alphabet fabric. Too cool. 
  
My January One Monthly Goal -- was to get the top all together. You probably saw my progress on the embroidered words I put on it. Today, I realized I never shared the finished quilt. (Nor several other finished quilts. What was I thinking??) 


This is a busy quilt.  Lots of different dog fabrics and lots of different blues.  And here's the back.  A friend told me she liked the back the best. She might have a point as it's not quite so busy.  I tried hard to use up all of the blue fabric from the bag.  I probably still have a few pieces but not much. I notice I make dog quilts frequently.  What can I say, I am a dog person.  Cats? Not so much.  Do you have a favorite dog? 

I've been getting my quilts entered in the FCQ quilt show.  I've got to decide on one more quilt before the deadline tonight.  The one above will be in a special section showing other alphabet quilts.  These quilts will go to the Columbia, MD chapter of Project Linus. 

Tomorrow I'll share my goals.  I've done a great job on them from my point of view!  

That's it for today.  I'm linking up with my regular linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward.  I'm looking forward to spending some time seeing what other folks are doing this week.  I've been swamped, or maybe just more dedicated to actually working on quilts rather than looking at quilts.  But today, I'm taking time to just look and comment. I hope you do too. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Weekly Goal Report

Last week had it's busy days but I still did pretty well on my goals. 

March 6, 2018
Work on T Shirt quilt – finish plan, start backing tees and trimming to correct sizes the plan is done (see below.) 
Make a pillowcase or twoActually, I got 3 more done and delivered.
Work on Jamestown LandingI'm still using this as my leader ender.
Load and quilt Taps quilt Nope, didn’t happen.

Attend USC Day of SCerviceIt was a busy but very fun day.  By Sunday I was totally worn out although I did spend a little time in the studio. 

Here's the plan for this week. 
March 13, 2018
Work on T Shirt quilt -- hopefully I'll get all of the shirts backed and start sewing them together.  My goal is to have this completely done by May 1. 

Enter quilts in Faithful Circle quilt show -- the deadline is March 19th!

Load and quilt Patriotic Dog quilt for Taps

Work on Jamestown Landing

Work on Braid Shuffle #2

Work on the little rail fence quilt I got with the fabrics from the estate last week.  This would make a nice quilt for the nursing home that Country Piecemakers support.  There are a lot of pieces already cut so I'm adding this to my list of what I'll do as leaders and enders. 

Below are 2 tee shirt quilts I wanted to share with you from the Mid Atlantic Quilt Show.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to get a close up of who made them.  I took pictures for inspiration.  

I've spent a bit of time trying to figure out how this one was put together.  I think it was done in horizontal chunks. I can definitely see two from the middle to the bottom.  But the top section or two?  Maybe using partial seams the quilter could get the sections together.  What do you think?
Another great example with a lot of tee shirts of all different sizes.  
The tee shirt I am making for my customer is a cool collection of University of Alabama shirts.  They are all different sizes and she wants everything that is printed used. She doesn't want them sashed.  It took a lot of thinking to come up with my plan but I finally succeeded. 
There will be three columns of shirts that are 15" wide separated by 2 columns  6" wide.  I'll have to add filler fabric to the smaller columns.  And, I'll cut the column 1 tees longer to make up the same size as the other two columns.  
You can't imagine how happy I was when I finally got this plan together. (Click on the photo to enlarge to make it easier to see the design.)  

Please visit the following linky parties to see what else is happening in studios across the world.  Visit To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers and WIPS on Wednesdays.  Ok, I totally forgot to link up with Midweek Makers last week. And again this week. Sorry all!   I will try to remember this week.  (note to self...put a reminder in the calendar!) 

Happy quilting all!  Bonnie