Now Loading

I finished this top a few years ago. It may be my oldest UFO to date. (Quilting lingo: UFO - unfinished object.)  You can read about it here. This is probably one of my favorite quilts. I love royal blue! Unfortunately, I had to put it on the back burner so I could make two graduation quilts in two years. I have one "spare" year before I do two more graduation quilts in two years. With that being said, I am now attempting to load it on the hand quilting frame.

 

I say attempting because I pinned the backing to the wrong rail and had to start all over.

Not fun.

I was frustrated with myself and thought that I'd write down the instructions to prevent this from happening again. Upon getting my quilting notebook I discovered my notes from before. This reaffirmed my thought that I had loaded the backing wrong. At least I know how to do it now!

I made myself laugh...go ahead and laugh with me...or at me, if you like.

Armed with my instructions, I proceeded to load the top on it's rail.

It's not difficult but very tedious.

Pinning the quilt top to the leader fabric is the first step.

Then rolling, smoothing, checking, repeat...SEVERAL times.

Once I got the top loaded I decided to give it a rest for the evening.

I had already done this twice by this point...

The loading process will be repeated two more times.

Once for the backing and then the batting.

I'd like to get it loaded and ready before the end of the week.

We'll see.

Quilt Repair Update

 

Quick update on the quilt repair.

I trimmed the wonky side.

It was driving me crazy!

I finished patching the front side.

It's kind of obvious that I didn't really make an effort to have straight patches!

The material moved too much to keep things straight.

Oh well, it adds to the character of the quilt.

I have started repairing the back side.

It shouldn't take as long as there are fewer holes.

Plus the material is much easier to sew through.

Ready, Set, Go!

I finished this table runner top back in October.

Then five days later I started another hexagon quilt.

Then the table runner sat and waited.

Then I started working.

Then I thought perhaps I should finish the table runner first before continuing the new hexagon quilt.

(Then I also thought I should make a post about the new hexagon quilt too!)

So I started to make the parts for a quilt sandwich.
Because I'm frugal I made some franken-batting.

It took 14 pieces to get the size I needed.

I have bigger scrap pieces but didn't want to waste them on a table runner.

A little basting prep on my sewing table.

Lots of pins later I had it basted.

I plan on taking this with me to school.

Thread basting tends to get caught on stuff so I decided to pin baste instead.

I also taped the raw edges to prevent the fabric from fraying.

I'm hoping all this prep will make it mobile friendly.

I have two hours from the time I'm done working until Dwayne is done.

I do read but it also makes me sleepy so I need something else to do.

Hand quilting to the rescue!

I have a quilting plan but have no idea how long it will take me to finish.

I'm not planning on marking my quilting lines this time.

I plan on free hand quilting.

Hope it goes well!

On a side note, I had a fight with my large quilting frame.

I ended up switching frames.

I also ended up with several splinters in the process. :(

Hopefully with the quilt in the other frame I won't have any more issues.

I still have a goal of finishing the full size quilt by the end of May.

We'll see.

2018 Quilt Wrap Up

Here it is the last day of 2018.

I was thinking about the quilts I have finished this year.

I completed ten of them.

I also managed to meet some of my goals for 2018.

Most of my goals fell to the wayside. I'm OK with that.

I quilt for fun. I'm not worried about all the things I didn't accomplish on my list.

I'm excited for the things I learned and quilts that got done.

That's what counts.

I made collages of the finished quilts by size for a quilt parade.

They go from mini to full size.

Two mini quilts.

They are fun as always.

The one on the left is my favorite mini so far. 

Two table runners.

Baby gifts.

Technically the two on the right are doll quilts.

The pinwheel quilt is one of my favorite baby quilts.

Last but not least the full and twin sized quilts.

I finished the full sized blue jean quilt in January and we've used it all year long.

The twin quilt was my first weighted quilt.

That's not all that got done this year with quilts.

I have a few flimsy finishes as well.

A flimsy is a completed top that hasn't been quilted yet.

These should be celebrated too!

I finally finished this hexagon table runner top.

This is my oldest UFO (Unfinished Object).

I'm hoping to get it quilted this year.

This has been on the back burner for so long I almost forgot about this top.

It is probably the craziest one I've done but I love it!

It was part of a sew along I participated in the spring of this year.

It still needs batting and backing.

I have no ideas for the back yet.

I'm hopeful to get it quilted this year as well.

Last but not least is this crummy photo of part of the back of a quilt that's a gift.

I really don't want to spoil this one so I'm not showing the front.

I really like this one and it will be worth the wait.

It's currently on the hand quilting frame.

I'm hoping to have it done by May.

So that was my quilting adventure this year.

Except for the aforementioned three quilts,

I'm not really making many official goals for the coming year.

I'm keeping most of them to myself this time.

:)