Five Shadows

I am participating in Judy Laquidara’s 2012 UFO Challenge. I’m happy to report that I completed my Garden Lattice quilt. One down, 11 to go! Why do we quilters start so many projects but move on to another with out finishing the first!?  This ‘finish’ is actually just the quilt top, as I am also participating in a Free Motion Quilting Challenge. I hope to have improved enough with my FMQ skills to quilt some of my tops by the end of the year.

February’s UFO is a Christmas table runner that I’m no longer excited about. Maybe I’ll have to think of it as a head start on gifts for December.

I’m doing two Block of the Month projects this year. The first I am combining with Vicki Welch and Judy Laquidara color palette challenge. I’m using the color palette to create a 2000 Joined at the Hip  BOM. Here is the first block:

I’m also participating in Craftsy’s BOM and here are two blocks for this month:

Moda fabrics. Hullabaloo and other Modas.

This is #4 in a series of now five Not Just T-shirts Quilts. My client wanted four quilts made from her husband’s clothing as memory quilts for her four adult children and their families. She liked them so much she now wants one of her own.

Oops! First ‘frog stitching’ of the new year!  ”Rip it!”  I got a call from the long-arm quilter who quilts up the shop models for Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN. She was quilting along and came to a block with a flipped section, making a flying goose instead of an on point square. I picked up the quilt from her and ripped out the section in question. Because she had already quilted up to the seam of the mistake, I had no choice but to hand piece it back in to it’s correct placement.

Here is the quilt in question. Can you find my mistake?

Hint: it’s in the second row.

Here it is:

See the flying goose in the bottom center? It should be flipped to make an on point square.

Here it is corrected:

Too bad the quilting is not showing up in the photo. The long-arm quilter does such a lovely job! I was sorry she had to take the quilt off the frame and now has to re-load the quilt due to my mistake. But we agree that it is a good thing she found it before ripping out quilting would have been involved!

2012 finds me joining Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times and Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber for their Color Palette Challenge and also Judy’s  UFO Challenge. I hate to say it, but while cleaning my sewing room, I’ve come across more purchased and unmade projects than I’d like to admit! I also unearthed several works in progress. I have found more than 12, but put the ones I’d really like to get to this year on the UFO Challenge list.

1. Christmas Table Runner – applique on words, quilt

2. Argyle Quilt Top – blocks made, piece together

3. Pie Safe Quilt – finish applique and piecing top

4. 3 Creative Studios BOM – blocks made, piece together top

5. Garden Lattice Quilt – fabric bought, need to cut and piece top

6. Journal Covers – fabric bought, need to make covers

7. Chinese Coins Quilt- finish hand applique vines, piece constructed strips together

8. Modern Chinese Coins with applique – fabric bought, start top

9. Fire Escape Quilt – fabric bought, cut and start piecing

10. Fairy Quilt Top – fabric bought, cut and start piecing

11. Wallet Pattern – pick fabric and make!

12. Purse Pattern – fabric bought, make!

I’m also participating in SewCalGal’s Free Motion Quilting Challenge. I’m very excited about learning to FMQ this year.  Maybe by the end of the year I’ll be using my new skills on the quilt tops finished in the UFO Challenge!

For the Color Palette Challenge I’m using  a Joined at the Hip  BOM I bought in 2000 but never made. And I also signed up for Craftsy’s BOM. I’ll use the color palette for that as well, and then use those blocks to practice the FMQ.

I’m feeling all set for sewing and quilting in 2012!

This is memory quilt No. 3 made of t-shirts, dress shirts, ties, slacks, jeans, and bib overalls and also two bird and flower panels. My client tells me the first two quilts brought tears and many happy memories Christmas Day when she gave them to her adult children. No. 3 goes to another daughter later today.

Front of Not Just T-Shirts Quilt

Back of quilt

I have noticed that there are lots of gals (and gents?) looking at my blog. I’d love to meet you all! Please leave a comment, and I’ll visit your blog!

Thangles. Do you know about them? Do you use them? Thangles is a paper piecing method to make half square triangles (HST). And I just learned that you can make quarter square triangles (QST) too! I just made their Mama & Her Kitten pattern. And I must say using the Thangles to make such tiny QST   for the kitten head and ears was pretty simple. The website has a nice little video showing how to construct HST.

Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe is gearing up to start a new Block of the Month Program. This BOM uses Thangles Scrappy Stars Pattern. Kits will soon be available through the quilt shop.

Quilts are on their way to the Long-arm Quilter.

Daughter # 1 and her hubby asked for his & her matching plaid bathrobes for Christmas.  My Dear Hubby and I did some on line searching for said matching plaid his & her bathrobes and came up short. Did I mention that flannel was also a requirement in the matching part of the his & her plaid bathrobes? Phew! What a list to try to accommodate!

Since the on-line search did not pan out, I up and said to Dear Hubby that I could make plaid matching his and her flannel bathrobes for the two. I  already had 6 pairs of flannel PJ bottoms in the making for my crew. So just how difficult would it be to find 12 yards of matching plaid flannel? A lot harder than I expected! I found out that our local Joann Fabrics flannel comes only  8 yards to a bolt. What is up with that!? And since it was now so close to Christmas, there was not two partial bolts of the same fabric to be had. Oh bother. I could go to the local quilt shop, but their flannel is expensive. I had already bought flannel there for the PJ bottoms when the shop held a BOGO for each yard of fabric purchased. It was their anniversary sale the first weekend in November. And a great sale it was! My only other option seemed to be to check out the local Hancock Fabrics store. Boy was I pleased when I found they carry bolts of flannel with 12 yards per bolt! And I was even more pleased when I found a bolt of green plaid! And then I learned they had  Simplicity patterns for one dollar each! I bought two of the same pattern so I didn’t have to trace anything. A his and a her pattern each! Now I just hoped I had the right plaid to make the couple happy with their homemade Christmas gifts.

Here they are wearing their PJ bottoms, matching green plaid bathrobes. Notice they are also wearing slippers – given to them by daughter # 2 who did not know what I was up to with making PJs or bathrobes!

Looking forward to a new year of sewing, and having come across many interesting challenges on the web, I’ve decided to sign up for two. Here is my plan, I’ve signed up for the Free Motion Quilting Challenge offered by Sew Cal Gal. I took a free motion quilting class at a local quilt shop this past year, and have just not played/practiced around with it enough to feel comfortable with FMQ. This challenge should help. There will be 12 experts giving free advice during the year. One FMQer per month. And there is a Facebook page with loads of advice and encouragement.

Then the Color Palette Challenge caught my eye, offered by Vicki of Field Trips in Fiber and Judy of Patchwork Times. But would I really follow through with two different challenges, I wondered? Vicki suggested that the two could be combined. The more I’ve thought about it, I believe Vicki is right. I could use her color palette to create a mini quilt each month and then use the encouragement to FMQ that piece.

Then I remembered a Block of the Month pattern series I bought several years ago. Baskets & Blooms by Joined at the Hip (2000!) And now my thought is I’ll create the BOM using Vicki’s color palette and practice the FMQ in the background of those blocks.

Here’s to a Happy New Year with new sewing experiences!