2019 Q2 Finish-Along Goals

My goals for Q2 2019 FAL are ambitious! If I finish the five items on my list, I will be Superwoman, but if I only finish the first one, I will call that a success. Sarah at Cedar Fork Stitches hosts the Finish-Along, and you can find details by clicking the button on the sidebar. You can still join in! Read on for my list.

1. If I complete no other goals this quarter, the one thing I will do is make a quilt for granddaughter #1, who has requested a quilt in shades of green (blogged about here), and finish in time for her 18th birthday in late April. I’ve decided on an old favorite pattern – Yellow Brick Road!

2. I finished the quilt top for the Meadowland QAL on Instagram and need to sandwich it with a backing and quilt it. This will reside on our living room sofa. I will blog details in a later post.

3. Quilt the Eternally Yours quilt blogged about here.

4. Piece the Craftsman quilt I blogged about here, for my husband; all the pieces are cut!

5. I’ve joined three quilt-alongs: Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict’s 2019 Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge with a quilt to be completed by May 15; the 2019 Pantone Quilt Challenge with a quilt featuring Pantone’s 2019 Color of the Year “Living Coral” and a deadline of June 14, and Sandra at MMM Quilt’s Beothuk Star QAL with a finished quilt by June 15. Click on the appropriate buttons in my sidebar for more details about these quilt-alongs.

I’m considering combining the Pantone Quilt Challenge (see fabrics on the right) with the Beothuk Star QAL (Sandra’s pattern on the left)!

How I pictured our retirement. Umm, not happening. 😉

This post is linked to Sarah’s 2019 Q2 FAL linkup.

Countdown to Christmas SAL March Blocks

Here are three more blocks for a Christmas quilt before Christmas! I have nine blocks so far by participating in Mama Spark‘s Countdown to Christmas Sew-Along. The blocks are from the Moda Bake-Shop website, and you can find them by going here. I am choosing blocks that appeal to me rather than doing each block listed. This month I chose Festival, Special Gift, and Christmas Logs. I am picking my blocks from the ones listed in the Moda Index for December 2018 and am enjoying making a different block each time.

Festival

Special Gift

Christmas Logs

I made a mistake by not thoroughly reading the instructions for Christmas Logs. The directions are to trim the logs after each round, and I did not see those instructions! So this block finished at a full 3 inches larger than the other blocks. I will either use it as part of the backing, or it will become a pillow!

One Monthly Goal for April – A Green Quilt

My goal this month is a carry-over from March. I did not start the “green” quilt for my granddaughter’s 18th birthday, and now I have about 20 days to complete it. It is usually procrastination that makes me drag my feet, but this time I wasn’t in love with the green fabric choices in my stash. I’ll do a patchwork featuring the darker forest greens my granddaughter likes with some neutral blocks in between. I am still undecided about a pattern. Everyone in my family seems to love simple patchwork quilts, so that is probably what I will do.

I am linking to Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal for April, hosted by Patty.

A Finish for 2019 Q1 Finish-Along

Future grandson’s baby quilt

This is my first time joining in Sarah’s 2019 Finish-Along, and the time really zoomed by! These were my initial goals (blog post here):

Eternally Yours quilt flimsy

Although I did complete the first two goals, the baby quilt is the only fully completed project to post for the Finish-Along, and you can read about that finish here. The Eternally Yours pattern test was completed, technically qualifying for a finish, but I want to quilt it and add it along with my two other uncompleted goals to proposed finishes for Quarter #2. Hope that makes sense!

This post is linked to Sarah’s 2019 Q1 Finish-Along linkup.

A Galloping Horse (and a Giveaway!)

Today Bernie of Needle and Foot is hosting a giveaway, celebrating (yes!) our mistakes and epic fails. There are prizes to be had: a fat quarter bundle from Art Gallery, PDF patterns from Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts and Leanne at Devoted Quilter, a $30 gift certificate to Bernie’s Etsy Shop, and a book from C&T Publishing! I wanted part of the fun, so I contributed two packs of Grunge mini charms. For a chance to win one of these fun prizes, click HERE to go to Bernie’s post and leave a comment about your funniest goof. The event closes on Friday, April 5th and winners drawn and announced on Saturday, April 6th.

The galloping horse? My favorite credo in quilting is something my Mom used to say, “It will never be seen from a galloping horse.” It is so true, and I laugh every time I think about her saying this! However much I try to remember this, glaring errors do perturb me, so I correct as much as I can and forget the rest. Have a look at two recent ones in the photos below:


Corrected!

Log Cabin block is too big

How serendipitous that the same day after hearing about this event, I made two goofs! If you look at the two photos above you will see that in the first one I mis-positioned half square triangle corner pieces – a result of not paying attention. Second photo shows corrected block. In the third photo, I failed to follow instructions and created a log cabin block 3 inches larger than the other 12.5″ inch blocks. My biggest downfall in quilting with a pattern is deciphering and following the instructions. The directions for the log cabin block were to trim to a certain measurement after every round was added. Did I even see that part? Um, no, because I didn’t read the instructions all the way through before I started. That mistake is destined to become a pillow!

Click on the photo for a chance to win these Grunge Hits the Spot and
Grunge Seeing Stars mini charms and other prizes!

Hand Pieced QAL Emmeline Block

This is the last block in the Hand Pieced Quilt Along! The tutorial for this block is by Kristin at Simple.Handmade.Everyday, and Pattie’s version is here. Several of these blocks have been named by Kristin and Pattie for characters in Friendship Album 1933, a quilt fiction podcast.

Here are all nine blocks; next up is sashing and placement.

This block was a bit more complicated with four flying geese units and little quarter square triangles that make up part of a half square triangle. My points were off, but it’s OK. Hand sewing the units of our quilt along involves sewing through seam allowances, not over them, and that can create some bulkiness on the back of the block. Many of the quilt along participants have posted photos of the backs of their neatly done blocks, but mine aren’t that pretty, so they shall remain unseen!

This post is linked to Week 9 Linkup. Hop over and view some beautiful versions of these blocks!

March OMG Finishes

Even though the title says “Finishes”, you will find no actual finish here. One of my two goals for March was to stay on track for the Meadowland QAL on Instagram, so I did meet that goal! I’ve made 15 blocks so far, have another 5 to go, and haven’t tapped out yet! I love the way the blocks look together. The pattern by Then Came June is brilliant, in my opinion. I love the pattern and the option of using solids or prints.

The other goal was to to start a quilt in greens for my oldest granddaughter for her 18th birthday in April. I haven’t started because I’m not excited about my stash choices so far. However, my LQS just sent an email of a 50% off sale this week, so I hope to find inspiration there!

This post is linked to Pattie’s One Monthly Goal March Finish Link-Up.

Tip, Tutorial, and Pie! Hands2Help 2019 Comfort Quilt Challenge

I recently signed up for Hands 2 Help 2019 Comfort Quilt Challenge, a charity quilt project hosted by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Starting in 2011, this project has provided quilts to over 1450 people! There are five charities to choose from, and I am making a quilt to go to Bernie’s Mercyful Quilts. I made a quilt for this project in November 2018 (you can read about it here) and have wanted to do another one, so this is the perfect opportunity. There will be a few linkups in the process to complete a quilt by May 19, and this first one is for “Tips, Tutes, and Tasty Things”. It is a way to get to know the participants by sharing one’s favorite tip, tutorials, or recipes. I am sharing all three!

My favorite tip: I am a spray baste quilter, and Stephanie Palmer of Late Night Quilter has a great tip for smoother sandwiching that has helped me more than any other tip in quilting. This tip involves using a ruler as a pressing tool. After I spray baste all my layers together, I use an old 6.5 x 12 ruler on the top layer to gently push down and forward, lifting fabric and re-placing if I need to, and press wrinkles to the edge. Sometimes I do this on the floor, but if the quilt is small enough I can do it on my design board. Christa Watson did a guest post at Diary of a Quilter showing this method in MUCH more detail. You can find that link here. Using this method on both front and back of the quilt works beautifully for me!

My favorite tutorial: My first binding was done with the help of Amy at Diary of a Quilter. I used her tutorial and have never done it differently. Amy provides lots of photos and clear instructions. I love her method!

My favorite tasty thing: Cherry pie is my second favorite pie (gooseberry is number one!), and I normally make a lattice top crust for it. I concocted a streusel-topped version, and you can find it right here.

This post is linked to Hands2Help 2019 – Tips, Tutes, and Tasty Things!.

Hand Pieced QAL Florence, Eula, and Bess Blocks

It’s hard to believe we are almost finished with our hand piecing journey! Patty and Kristin are the brave hosts of this quilt-along, and they named these blocks “Florence”, “Eula”, and “Bess” after characters in Friendship Album, 1933, a podcast novel. Gardening put my sewing on the back burner for a few days, so instead of weekly, I am posting three this time.

The Florence block is a pinwheel block surrounded by half-square triangles in the corners and flying geese on the sides.

The Eula block is assembled with HSTs (half-square triangles) and flying geese. It’s amazing how many different designs can result from little HSTs and flying geese!

The Bess block is made with Flying Geese, Half-Square Triangles (HSTs), and a Square-in-Square. The sub-units are the same as the Eula block but with a different placement.

Since I fell behind, I am linking all three blocks to Patty’s linkup for the Bess Block.

One Monthly Goal (OMG) for March

One of my goals for this month is to start a quilt for this beautiful girl, our granddaughter Sydney. Her 18th birthday is in April, and she will graduate in May. She requested a quilt in “greens” last Thanksgiving. I took her into my fabric closet, and she loved one of the fabrics that was yellow with a green design. She was vague about the particular greens she wants, so I may make a trip to my LQS and get some suggestions. There should be an ample supply of greens this month!

Another goal is to keep working (and not tap out!) on the Meadowland Quilt-Along on Instagram. I will make the large throw size, 64″ x 80″. As you can see by the above picture, my version is in light blue, mint, navy, gray, and yellow gold. There are so, so many beautiful versions on Instagram, I can’t help but be inspired! I just finished mixing up colors, so I will start on my first few blocks for this week.

I am linking this post to Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal linkup.