November OMG Done √

Yea!  Another goal accomplished.  On November 4th I set this goal: 

"I'm going to try to get my heron wall hanging to the top stage."

It wasn't a really big goal but I really would like to get this bird done!  The kit sat for years and now it's time to finish it and hang it in the great room.  

Top is finished!  I really like it except for one weird thing.  The left side is a bit crooked. Hum,   

I must have sewn the background fabric a little wonky.  That's easy to fix, I think.  I'll mark the beginning and the end of the "wonkiness" and sew a little smaller seam.  I'll be right back.  🎵🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶

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🎵🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵🎵music to wait by.... 

It took me longer than I thought to fix it.  How does it look now? Less of an indent in the middle of the left side?  There is still some indent there but it doesn't seem as bad as the first one.  There may be some more messing with this before the quilting.  Or I may just say "It is what it is!"  What do you think?  More fussing or is it done, ready for quilting?

One thing you can't see in the pic is all of the thread hanging around the legs.  I thought I had tied and buried all of it but oops!  There it hung.  You know the BIG problem with invisible thread??? You CAN'T see it. I had a heck of a time threading my needle to bury the threads. I'll be dealing with that again this evening while I try to finish moving threads to the back, tying and burying them.  Something to keep me busy while I watch some Hallmark movies. If I can see them!  

I've got a couple of pillowcases I want to make before the end of the month.  My finishes this month haven't used much of my own fabric -- mainly binding for small quilts.  So I figure two pillowcases will help me use up some actual yardage.  Especially since I specifically bought them for charity pillowcases for Christmas.  

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts OMG November Finishes, Needle and Thread Thursday, MidWeek Makers, and Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop.  Take a look to see what folks are up to. (We'll see if I remember Whoop, Whoop! tomorrow.) Success!  I remembered Friday evening.  Happy weekend all! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Row by Rowing

Yes, I'm still hitting quilt shops and picking up their row by row patterns.  I have way too many patterns and kits.  

Dorothy and I went on a road trip yesterday up to Fredericksburg, Va to The Crazy Cousin.  It is such a nice shop and I try to go there when I head north on 95 to visit my kids.  Here's their duck row: 

Too cute. But, will I use it?  Who knows.  It has a lot of competition. 

Then we headed over to Quilt and Sewing Center to grab their pattern. (I also got the kit but not sure if I'll use it or maybe use batiks... or not make it...) Yikes, I just looked at the pattern...hum, I may be skipping this one -- pretty intense...but oh the great results. 

In the studio I am in the process of loading a queen quilt back.  I finished my Trip Around the World earlier this year and I want to get it done so we can put it on our bed.  The blue and yellow quilt currently on the bed just doesn't look as good with the new taupe paint.  I'm almost finished getting the back on. Unfortunately, I let the fabric get really wrinkled after I washed it.  So, as I'm loading it I spray the fabric hanging over the back of the frame with water and voilà when it is dry the wrinkles are gone.  Then I roll more on the take up roller and spray again.  It takes more time but is infinitely better than ironing a huge backing. 

When the girls were here this past weekend we celebrated their birthdays.  It was a lot of fun.  I made animal cupcakes. First the picture I used as inspiration: 

And now what I was able to come up with. (Please note, these were the rejects and they've been sitting around for almost a week.) So, self criticism -- I used smaller cupcakes.  My tins are not the humongous tins you can get now, nor are they the mini ones.  Basically I didn't have as big an area to create my animals. I didn't think to look at JoAnn's for the cute eyeballs.  I suspect they are from Wiltons.  My frosting job wasn't terrible but, here, some of it has come off.  I used Jelly Belly's for all the parts except half a mini marshmallow with 2 seeds for the pig nose. (The other nose was taken off... hum, that one might have been a smarty and someone ate it!) I was surprised the girls ate the licorice eyes.  In fact Natalie seemed to love it. 

It's time to get back to the studio and play.  I need to fluff up a batting so when the backing is totally loaded I can load it and the quilt top.  One issue -- I haven't decided on the quilting design.... Decisions, decisions. 

I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday 8-3-2015

August started as July ended:  way TOO hot! Hopefully it will end without the temperatures being so hot! Enough said. 

I've been finishing little projects recently.  Several I have already shown.  One I'm holding until the Grands are here this weekend.  We're celebrating their birthdays this weekend.  

You've already seen what's on the design wall so I'll show you what is on Ruthie. This is a small quilt and I chose to place a triangle quilt design on each solid triangle and a small, uncomplicated triangle in the floral part of the two colored squares. (Squares?? Really, I mean the triangles.) 

Here's a close up at an angle to see the quilting.  You really can't see any quilting in the floral print centers.  It seems like a waste of time but it does need to be quilted for the integrity of the quilt. 

I've actually been doing quite a bit of piecing this past week.  I've finished one of last year's row from the Row by Row Experience which I showed here. I've got another one well on the way.  I'm making units for Talking Turkey block from the April class with Bonnie Hunter. Here's a bunch of units I worked on watching TV the other night.  

Goals were achieved for the most part. 

Week of July 27, 2015

Trim and bind table runner√

Load and quilt handprint quilt didn’t get to this one

Finish 2 more 2014 Row X Row sections √ in progress

Quilt triangle quilt √ quilting will be done today

Work on aprons for grands√ finished

And this week:

Week of August 3, 2015

Load and quilt handprint quilt

Lunch for the tea group at my house

Finish last 2014 row, start sewing rows together

Have fun with the Grands this weekend (and their parents.)

Do a little studio spiff up work: clear cutting table! 

Here's why I need to clean up the cutting table!  New fabrics, left over fabrics, piles of fabric.  CLEAN it up, girl! 

That's it for this week.  I'm linking up with Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts, and Patchwork Times.  (Anyone else notice that not much quilt talking is going on at Patchwork Times?) 

Happy Quilting All!