Get it Done Goals

Judy at Patchwork Times asked about completed goals for the month of March and goals for April. Check out her linky party here.  I needed to look back to see what all I have finished in March and I have to say, I am pretty happy with my accomplishments for the month.

First, I finished two quilts for the Small Quilt Talk challenge.

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I finished a little UFO that has been floating around for a few years:

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The infamous Tumbler was Pieced and quilted:

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The very old batik UFO was added onto, quilted and finished. This will end up with Quilts Beyond Borders.

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I also quilted three tops for Quilts Beyond Borders. Here is the first:

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And the second:

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I will take a picture of the third and add it later today. I made progress on a few other projects and I cannot forget the big clean in the sewing room!

However, I have done very little knitting this month. Perhaps a little more BBC is in order…..

I need to be reasonable in my goals for April. We do have a wedding coming up! Here goes with my list:

1. Quilt and bind one more service quilt.

2. Ship quilts to QBB.

3. April SQT challenge quilt.

4. May SQT challenge quilt.

5. Small quilt for SQT Swap for Judith in Wales!

6. Border and bind QOV # 12 (for April). Blocks are done and together.

7. QOV #13 (for May).

8. Finish Yellow socks. I just turned the heel on sock #1.

I better stop there!  I am really trying to clear the decks in prep for the May wedding.

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Goals | 2 Comments

Design Wall Monday

As part of of the Small Quilt Talk group, I am making one small quilt a month. We usually do not know the challenge pattern until the first of the month. However, our fearless leader, Kathy Tracy, offered a free pattern on her website and decided this would be the pattern for May. This was terrific for me since May is wedding month here. So I have started the May quilt and will start thinking about the April challenge when it is posted sometime today.

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I am linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times. Click here to see what others have on their design walls.

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Doll Quilts | 5 Comments

Grace….beautiful grace

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8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Another top quilted for QBB

Here is the second top that I quilted for Quilts Beyond Borders.

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I finished the third today but have not yet taken a picture of it.
It was beautiful here today! It could have been warmer but the sun shone. I also found the daffodils beginning to peek through.

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Until next time….

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What’s on my needles…and frame

I have not been accomplishing much on the knitting front. Here is a sock I am currently working on, at a snail’s pace.

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It is a DK weight cotton that I found at a thrift shop and the color is actually a butter yellow.
I have also started quilting some tops for Quilts Beyond Borders. Carla sent me three tops this week and the first is quilted and bound.

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This is my first time quilting something someone else had pieced and I was a little nervous! Carla assured me it was a good place to practice since there are no quilt police in the orphanage where these will end up. If you want to help, visit the QBB blog.
Time for work! Have a great day.

Now faith, hope , and love remain – these three things- but the greatest of these is love. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:13

Posted in Knitting, Socks | Leave a comment

A couple finishes…

First the dratted Tumbler quilt of Frustrating Friday Fame:

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The quilting obviously doesn’t show. It does look better after washing. The thousands (okay, maybe not really that many) of thread breaks made this a miserable project. I hoped for better  success on the batik quilt I showed yesterday. It was marginally better. The first pic shows the truest color and the second shows the quilting better.

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Maybe it will be nice out tomorrow and I can take better pics.

Until next time…

Posted in Free Motion Quilting, Fresh Modern Quilts | 2 Comments

Design Wall Monday

I found this piece while cleaning the sewing room this past weekend:

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I made it from scraps several years ago but never really cared for it. Too small for a baby quilt, not something I would hang on a wall. But when I found it again, I saw new possibilities. Especially since I also found a small pile of batik scraps to add to it like this:

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After some rearranging and sewing, it became this:

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I thought this would be a good quilt for the shelter but needed to be a bit bigger. So I added these grey batik like borders to the top and bottom.

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Today, I hope to find a backing and get it in the frame. Wow, this picture is bad! Hope you get the idea. I am really loving this now and looking forward to playing with the quilting. And to think I nearly threw that middle piece away…

How often have I made quick judgements of others and wanted to cast them aside without seeing the beauty of what they could become or even what they already are. I am thankful this morning that God sees me as I could be but still loves me as I am. A wonderful teacher named Brian Simmons once said, “God gives us a crown and allows us to grow up into it.” I like that.

I am linking up with Judi at Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday. Go visit and see what others are working on today.

Until next time…

Posted in Design Wall Monday, Modern Quilts, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Sunday Morning

Yes, goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the Lord ’s house as long as I live. (Psalms 23:6 CEB)

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Before and after…

My hubby is out of town and I had the day off. So I bound the disastrous tumbler and started a deep clean in the sewing room. This is how it looked at 10 this morning:

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And this is how it looked at 10 tonight:

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I also spent some time cutting scraps to make quilts for kids on orphanages. I have more work to do folding fabric in the baskets but I got through quite a few of those today as well as the entire closet. Time to put my feet up.
And plan a new project…

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Frustrating Friday at the Frame

I finally started quilting the tumbler quilt. I purchased some circle templates from Deep Blue and decided to create a border design to try them out. The templates seemesd a bit rougher around the edges than I was eexpecting but they worked fine and the price was fantastic. They are 1/4″ thick so they can be used on the midarm.

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This quilt used the same fabrics, backing, thread, batting as the Bowtie Wedding quilt. It did NOT quilt the same.  The thread broke more times than I care to mention. I had tension issues. In some places I ripped and requilted. I finally gave up. It is what it is. For the main part of the quilt, I quilted randomly spaced vertical lines.

This should have been easy. I have no idea why it was not. I wanted to pull my hair out but that would not have improved the looks of the quilt any.

I guess some days are like that. I am hoping that washing and shrinkage will help hide the wobbles and mess. I will post pics soon. Consider yourself warned!

The temptation to just meander every quilt on this machine is strong. I know how to make that look decent. But if that is all I ever do, my skills will not improve.

Time to bind the monster.

Posted in Fresh Modern Quilts, Machine quilting, Uncategorized | 2 Comments