UFO Busting #122

 

Where did this week go?  Is it just me or did it fly by at warp speed??  I managed to get basically nothing accomplished.  I blinked and here we are.  I knew that I may have a baby shower coming up soon, though baby is still a little ways off.  Shower...well I found out this week it's only 3 weeks away.  YIKES! So this week's focus is what will I make?

Momma to be, found some fabric that she loves on Spoonflower and had a chair reupholstered.  So I scrambled to the site to see if I could order some.  Good news?  I can!  Bad news?  It will ship in 14-16 days.  There will be a quilt made from this fabric but my fear is it will be a Christmas quilt not a shower quilt.  

So I'm doing what any good quilter would do (or that's what I tell myself).  I'm making a place holder quilt...meaning I'm making a quilt to open at the shower.  Is that crazy?  I wanted to see if anything in the stash spoke to me and I remembered I had several packs from a Moda past line called Flirt.

I think this will make and adorable little snuggle quilt, tummy time, just love me quilt.  So this weekend, I'll start chopping to make sure this quilt is finished on time.  I feel safe sharing about the progress on here, but will probably not mention on social media until gift time.  So secrete squirrel project it is!

Now lets see what you've been up to last week.  First up we have Karen at Quilts...etc.  Karen has been quite busy!  She's starting to enjoy the transition to fall, but that's not slowing her down any.  She's got masks to make.  Hexies to hexi and some crocheting as well.  But the thing that caught my eye is her beautiful hand stitching on her Alaska Quilt.

I have been thoroughly enjoying watch has this one is taking life.  Please keep us updated!

Next up we have Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing and her entry into the Hello Fall Blog Hop.  Kathleen found herself with some left over acorn seeds and let me say she planted them and something beautiful happened.

A table runner grew!  I love when that happens!  Make sure you visit with her today to read about her process of making this quilt from some left over blocks.  If you stay long enough, you just might find a down load link to make one of your own.  

Now let's see what you were up to this week.  Link up below and tell us all about it!

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UFO Busting #121

 

Happy Saturday!  With three-ish more days until it is offically fall, I'm calling it.  Fall is here.  I can't say I'm sad about that.  I love the smells and foods that come with Fall and it's perfect quilt snuggling weather and I LOVE that the most.  This week, saw me working away on the small wall hanging I started a month or two ago.

I have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying zipping around the quilt with the 4-N-1 Mini ruler by Natalia Bonner.  It's super easy to hold in my hands and allows me to easily switch between stitching straight lines and curves.  Total win!  All that is left to do is the white fabrics, and I may be showing a finish pretty soon.

I love when I get on a quilting roll.  I get super motivated and want to quilt all the quilts...and believe me there are plenty that need finished.  When I'm in this mood for quilting, I want to look at pictures of quilting.  I want to read about quilting.  So when I discovered one of my favorite quilters, Kathleen Riggins (Kathleen Quilts) has a new book out I had to have it.

If you've never viewed her amazing quilting before, you should!  I love how she combines what is really several simple designs into intricate looking, how'd she do that ?? quilting.  Best part, that is what this book is all about.  How she combines these quilting motifs to become a masterpiece symphony of quilting.  Can't decide on what motif9s) to use next on your quilt?  She even suggests a fun little game, but I'm not going to spoil that for you.

So while thoughts of ribbon candy and pebbles run through my head, let's see what you were up to last week.  First up we have Gretchen at Gretchen's Little Corner and her Southwestern Quilt finish.

I love how all her fabrics came together in this one!  I think my favorite block is the little lizard looking like he is curled up on a rock having a good sunbath.  Gretchen chose the most perfect quilt design for her longarmer to do on this one.  Make sure you pop over and congratulate her on this finish!

Next up we have Sandra over at Musings of a Menopausal Melon and a finish that has me seeing stars and feathers!

Sandra was finally able to put her Blueberry Park fat quarters to good use in this squirrel of a project, the Sweet Star QAL.  I want to snuggle this quilt (and lick it because you know it tastes like blueberries) so badly.  Make sure you pop over for a celebratory glass of virtual wine with Sandra and check out the amazing "floppy feathers" design she quilted all over this top.  Floppy Feathers, that will keep them snuggly and warm!

Now it's your turn.  Link up below and show us what you've been up to this week

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UFO Busting #120

 

Happy Saturday!  Let's get our quilt on!  This week I'm celebrating an actual UFO finish.  Started in late 2017 I present to you Blue and Gold Star Cross.

I really had to rack my brain to come up with my quilting motifs.  But once I got them going they just flowed.  You can read more about the quilting of this one here.

Now that a UFO is complete, it's time to help a newer project not fall into that category.  Hopefully this weekend this little red, white and blue project will find itself basted and quilting started.  Fingers crossed.

Speaking of fingers crossed and holding breath...that's how Chris at Chris Knits Sews left me last week!  She is a woman on a mission.  She is working hard to prevent a UFO from happening.  She has a baby quilt to finish and STAT!

She left us with the pieced top and I LOVE the pattern she landed on.  I think it's perfect with these fabrics.  Like a child, I'm banging my scissors on the table yelling more!  I want to see it quilted!  Her deadline for the baby shower was today and I'm hoping she got it all finished right on time.  I'm cheering for you over here!  

Also celebrating a UFO finish with me is Bernie over at Needle and Foot Fine Fabrics.  Bernie has created the most adorable little farm quilt for her granddaughters.

I hope this sweet little quilt, absorbs lots of little giggles from the sisters as they share picnics and lay back and look at the clouds on it.  Bernie did have a little red bleeding mishap (I hate when that happens.  Why does red misbehave so badly??).  Go congratulate her on her finish and read bout how some quilty friends help Bernie save the day and get that red behaving like good fabric should!

Now let's see what you've been up to this week.  Link up below and tell us all about it!

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Star Crossed--UFO

 

I'm super excited to share another UFO finish!  This little wall hanging is from a free pattern on the Juki website called Star Cross.  I've actually made this wall hanging two other times, but decided a few years ago to go brighter in fabrics and add a bigger border.  I think it was pieced around the end of 2017 and has sat waiting ever since.

I'm actually kind of glad I drug my feet on this one.  Three years ago, I don't think I would have been brave enough to play with scallop type quilting in borders.  I would have whined and said the math's too hard.

Joke is on me.  Sometimes you don't even have to use math!  Just consistency and registration lines.

For the quilting, I went with Aurifil #2135 Yellow for the yellow, white and center blue fabrics.  For the blue fabrics and scallops in the border I used Aurifil #2775 Steel Blue.  Aurifil #2784 Dark Navy provided the match stick quilting in the border.

For the ruler work, I used Natalia Bonner's 4-in-1 and mini 4-in-1 rulers and I am IN LOVE.  Instead of having 4 or 5 rulers to juggle as I moved from motif to motif, I only had two.  I didn't lose them and I wasn't stopping every few minutes to pick a ruler up that my quilt pushed off the table.  That in and of itself was a time saver.

Though kind of time consuming, you can tell from the picture above to the picture below how all those 1/4" match stick lines help those scallops subtly stand out.  

Adding the denser quilted lines in a darker color thread really allowed the scallop quilting to take a step forward, giving the border the illusion of dimension.  Never be afraid to experiment!

From a distance, you really can't see the quilting in the border.  So I guess the question is why go to all the trouble?  Answer, it provides that extra little ah factor as you approach the quilt.  That little thing you didn't expect to find.

And just for fun, I threw in a little flange binding to really frame this one.

Star Cross is the 4th UFO I have tackled this year.  Hopefully, it won't be my last!  Now I'm headed over to Cheeky Cognoscenti to join in on her Long Arm Learning linky party and check out all the other quilty eye candy!

UFO Busting #119

 

Happy Saturday!  I'm getting kind of a late start, but better late than never.  This long weekend, has a few quilt shop stops in store for me and hopefully, a whole lot of quilting.  

I've pulled out a few smaller recent finishes hoping to baste them up and get them finished!  If I feel I need to piece something, I've pulled the Pat Sloan Out of This World quilt tops back out.  Pat started releasing blocks again last month.

And this week I celebrated a quilt top finish...the Crazy Flamingo Quilt.

There is a mistake that is driving me NUTS, but I"m leaving it.  I mathed wrong.  But hopefully, the future receiver of this quilt will never notice.  Hopefully they will be too busy looking at all those pink birds...so I need to let the quilt craziness go.  

Here are two things I'm okay with being crazy about...first is Helen at Midget Gem Quilts and her Polaroid quilt top finish.  I could show you Helen and the whole quilt top, but I'm only going to give you a snapshot (see what I did there?).

With a little help from her bee group, Helen now has a beautiful and fun quilt top to play with.  Make sure you visit to check out the entire top and read about how this little UFO came together.

Second thing I'm crazy about is Gail at Quilting Gail and her Bouquet Murder Mystery Quilt.

Gail quilted this UFO on her domestic sewing machine and man ol' man did she do an amazing job!  Make sure to visit Gail and check out some of the up close pictures of the quilting.  So much yumminess to see!

Now what do we want to see??  What you were up to last week, of course.  Link up below and show us!

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