Sun Bonnet Sue, she's finally coming together

Once upon a time...Ok to be exact it was somewhere late February early March of 2013 that a friend sent me a package of blocks and fabrics that her Granny had started making a quilt from.  My original post can be seen here.

Well for the past 18 months or so I have worked on these blocks off and on and FINALLY, just this week I have made it to the point of being able to start the quilting process.

I have 2 'twin-ish' sized quilts.  I am really excited to be this far along with them.   Sorry that the pictures are blurry cell phone pictures.  I have no idea what my husband had done with the camera when I needed to to take them.  I'm guessing he needed for a project at work.  I keep telling him his work needs to buy a camera just so they can do what they need to get done (aka remember how something goes back together).

I am linking up again this month with Melissa and the A Lovely Year of Finishes with the goal of getting  both of these quilted.   With kids activities 5 of 7 nights during the week and with me working everyday I may be burning the midnight oil at the end of the month.  

I hope everyone is doing well.  I can't wait to get these quilts finished up.  I have a special baby quilt to get done by November, and then a T-shirt quilt commission that is a Christmas gift to get done.   I am foreseeing lots of goals in my future.   Have a great month everyone.  I will try to be better about checking in with progress or even life updates.

February ALYoF Goal

I really have 2 goals for February, but my main goal for this month is to make a purse for my Mom.  She was really thinking that she was getting one for Christmas and I fooled her and gave her a quilt instead.  I have had the fabric for her purse for quite some time but I just haven't made it.

 My other goal is to finish quilting and binding the 'Twist and Turn' quilt.   You will see in the picture below that I am nearly finished with the quilting part. I just have the blue/green outside border left to go. 

I did basic 1/4" quilting on either side of the seams for the zig-zag part of the quilt.

I love the look it gives on the back.

Then for the two narrow borders, I did the basic 1/4" as well.  I like the simplicity of it with the busyness of the zig-zags.

In addition the borders and binding, I have a gazillion threads to bury.  

A Lovely Year of Finishes 2104, January Goal

Well I hate to admit it, but I didn't finish my December 2013 goal for A love year of Finishes.  I did do a lap quilt from start to finish in less than a week though.  I'll show some pictures of that at the end of this post.   I think that since I didn't finish my Sister's quilt top in December I am going to make it my January 2014 goal.  I did make progress on it in December, I just ran out of time with the holidays and all the family commitments we had going on.

At the beginning of December the fabrics looked a little like this.

I got them cut into nice strips and sewn to look like this by Christmas.

A few days after Christmas they had been cut down a little more and a couple of days ago, I had sewn the green triangles on the ends.  I should mention that these were supposed to be cut at a 45 degree angle, but since someone still can't follow directions, I guess I somewhat have a new pattern here but I'm not giving any information of what degree angle these actually are and the headache I had figuring everything else out.

 I will get this top done here in January, that is my official goal.

Now, I mentioned earlier that I finished a quilt start to finish in December that wasn't even on my radar until the week  before Christmas.   Our lovely pastor's wife took our family pictures for us early in December and wouldn't tell me how much to pay her and that word of mouth was just fine. I couldn't just leave it at that.  I HAD to make her something as a thank you.  

 So here you have it, a Bento box quilt. This was a fun quilt to make and it went together really fast.   It is hard to see my quilting, but I did a large cross hatch for the quilting with a black, white and grey variegated cotton thread.

She loved it.  She cherishes hand made things because she knows the work and time that go into them.

2013 A Lovely year of finishes, finishing party

I did a lot of sewing during the course of 2013 and here are the goals that I met with the A Lovely Year of Finishes.

I did not meet all my goals and I took the month of October off.  I did so many other projects on top of these that I do not know how I got it all done.  I will try to post more of those later but for now you get just these few.

If you didn't get around to joining in the finishing fun of 2013, don't be down on yourself Shanna and Melissa are back with the 2014 version of ALYoF.  They now have a facebook page and instagram as well to strut your stuff.

ALYF December Goal

Fabric hoarding collecting must run on both sides of my family.  My half-sister who lives out of state sent me these beauties that she was holding on to for a quilt one day along with some pattern books, magazines and a package of queen sized batting.   She finally decided on a pattern she liked enough to to involve all of these pretties.  My job is to make her that quilt and I'm happy to oblige.  My goal for December is to get all of this pressed, cut, and the top sewn together.  This should be quite the chore since in 3 weeks my kids will be on break for 2 whole weeks and I will have to entertain them.  I also must do my holiday sweet making, it wouldn't be Christmas without a sugar overload right?

November ALYF Finish

I have met my goal for the month!  I finished my table runners.  It was a busy month, and I was thrown off with my kids and husband all being home this week along with traveling and lots of cooking, but I did it!

The lighting in my photos is horrible.  The only color that is close to being 'true' is the red in the bottom photo and the blue in the top.   Here is a better picture of the colors in case you missed it in a previous blog post.  

The patter is out of Quilitmaker magazine from the Spring of 2013, it is titled in the magazine as Sicilian Sunrise or Solar Eclipse.   Mine is more of a 'snowball fight'.  The runners are going 2 different places so I must get to the post office on Monday and get them shipped off.  

ALYF November Goal

I took last month off from the ALYF party.  I hated to miss it, but at the same time I am glad that I did because I had so many random projects going on topped with school parties and Halloween.

I have what seems like tons of things to do this month as well, but I have some projects with specific deadlines that I will be working on as well.

I have 2 different secret Santa Christmas swaps that I am participating in this year (yes, I think know I have totally lost my mind) so my goal for this month is to get them both done!  Specifically the one using the bottom set of the 2 sets of Christmas fabrics below.

Since the person's who will be receiving the items I make don't know they are coming from me I will be able to share my progress and the completed items with you all.  Bonus, I don't think either of them follow my blog!  That is kind of sad, but it is ok because it will be a super surprise to them as well.

Other things on my list of things to complete this month are:

Curtains for HVAF Jackson Street house renovation.  This a home for homeless veterans in the city of Indianapolis.  My husband and I volunteer with a group that does 1-2 renovations each year to help out a veteran.  I'm still not sure how I got the job of making curtains, but I have over 100 yards of fabric and lining in my sewing room to sewed up by the bedtime on Thursday.  I'm praying that Trevor gets me the window measurements early today so I can get started, I'm really starting to feel the stress.

My sister that lives out of state will be home at the end of next week and in town for a week. I really want to spend some time with her.  She has also commissioned me to make her a quilt from Batiks.  I can't wait to get started on that as well.

I still don't have the quilting done on the circles quilt that was my September goal. It is staring me in the face right now.

I also pieced together a quilt as a pattern test for Melissa from Sew Bittersweet Designs last month that is in the 'to be quilted' pile.  I see a huge need for a massage and some chiropractic work by the end of this year.

I hope to get a few minutes to show off some pictures of all the work I did last month and the extra projects from this month in the next few weeks.  

September ALYF, Goal

I have a lot on my plate for this month, but I hope to get the quilting done on the Circles of Hope quilt before the end of the month.  

I do have a plan in my head for the quilting on this beauty.  

I haven't done any sewing for several days now.  I noticed last week when I was trying to put some Sun Bonnet Sue blocks together, that my iron was not getting very hot and that it was using an excessive amount of water when I needed the steam for fusing the interfacing.    I also noticed there were some dark spots coming through my ironing board cover, so I pulled back my cover and was grossed out by what I saw.

So, my warning to you is, if you have dark brown or black spots showing up through your ironing board cover, you may have a rusty board.  You can sand the rust away and repaint with rustoleum paint if you don't want to buy a new board.  I opted to buy a new board, because I don't have time to do all that other stuff.

I will leave you today with a picture of raw joy.  We took the kids on Saturday to see the NHRA drag race qualifying in Indianapolis.  This is my daughter and her reaction to one of the runs after we we had been drenched by rain earlier in the afternoon and waited out the delay.

And to quote her, 'That was the fastest car I ever seen!'.    Have a wonderful Wednesday!

August A lovely year off finishes, finsh

I did it.  I dug in and conquered the Circles of Hope quilt top.  It came with a few challenges, but that is ok those challenges equal new skills and a new 28mm rotary cutter.

This quilt top has finished at 54"x54"  It is nice lap size or wall hanging.   I haven't decided if it is going to be on the back of the couch or hung on the wall yet.  I'm going to enter it in a small viewers choice contest at the Ben Franklin in a nearby town.  They winner gets a $25 gift certificate to the store and hey, they sell name brand fabric too boot!  I'd be happy to get something fun for a new project.

Speaking of new projects,  I will give you a sneak peek at what else I'm working on.  No, it won't be my September goal for ALYF, but it will be revealed sometime next month.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!  We are still getting into a groove of things even though it has been 2 whole weeks now.  Second grade homework has proven to be challenging, but I'm pretty sure that is due to the strong willed child I have.  My husband and I are tag teaming on that part and he is taking the math and I get the fun of the spelling and whatever else may come home.  

Circles of Hope, ALYF August goal

This month I am digging into a project that I started at least a year ago.  I have all my pieces cut and had sewn at least 2 blocks together before I got caught up with a bunch of other projects and want to makes.  My goal for August is to only finish the top.

The pattern I am doing is called Circle of Hope.

Here are the first 2 blocks that I had done.  It was my first time sewing curves in the quilting world.  I will say I am going to take the top one apart and see if I can get it back together without the puckers.

My sweet little minions start school on Wednesday so I will have a few uninterrupted hours each day to sew. I am going to enjoy every minute of it for at least a week and then I am going to buckle down and after just over 5 years of being a stay at home mom I plan to go back to work in the real world. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

A Lovely Year of Finishes, July Finish

I started this month out thinking that I would just complete the top for the 'All Framed Up' Pattern by Melissa Dunworth over at Sew BittersSweet Designs.

Melissa designed this patter with beginner quilters in mind.  It has a great modern look, and goes together super fast.   I chose a modified cross hatch for my quilting to accent all the squares in the quilt.  

For my binding I went with the 'Susie's Magic Binding' method.  It gives a neat look and I think it was the icing on the cake for this quilt.

I really enjoyed testing this pattern.  I can't wait to see what the other testers made.

I am thinking that I am going to give this quilt to mom for Christmas, she always hints about me making her something. I know I finished the hand sewn labor of love last year, but this is something she can wrap up in on the couch if she wants instead of hanging it on the wall.  If you are worried about my mom reading my blog, well it is ok, because I know she isn't a follower and to be honest I don't think she knows what a blog is.

Mid-Month check in A Lovely Year of Finishes

I have really enjoyed testing Melissa's quilt pattern. I'm almost done, I need to add the borders and I should be able to get it quilted by the end of the month.  This will be a nice quilt to have as a wall hanging or just keep on the couch for a chilly evening.

It was quite windy out when I took the picture.  I hope to get the borders on today and then this goes back to the side for a few days while I try my hand at making a puppet or two.  

I'm Linking up with the A Lovely Year of Finishes mid month check in.  

A Lovely Year of Finishes, July Goal

I'm trying to do better at not procrastinating.  I'm sure at some point I will fall back into the rut, but for now I'm trying.

Last week my friend Melissa over at Sew Bitter Sweet designs asked for some testers for a quilt pattern she has written.  I volunteered to test out her pattern. You can see her quilt here.  I thought it would make a great gift for my mom, if I don't keep it for me...

I was digging through my fabrics yesterday and there are so many choices. This is without going to the fabric store or looking and ordering online.

I have some 'Simply Color' by V and Co. and then I have some super cute Christmas fabric that I made my version of 'Frosted Stars' from.

I guess I don't need 2 quilts from this fabric, but I do know I bought the additional fabric to make a tree skirt.  

I'm beginning to think procrastination and indecisiveness go hand in hand...have a great Tuesday everyone!

June ALYF finish

Well I should have done this post at least a week ago, but I told myself I had a week and well I'm sure you all know that when you procrastinate that life foils your plans. Well one day I will learn to stop procrastinating.

My ALYF (A lovely year of finishes) goal for June was to finish one Sun Bonnet Sue block.  I blew my goal out of the water and had one done within the first week!  I guess I'm a bit faster stitcher (Is stitcher not really a word or is spell check just behind times?)  than I thought.

I'm not the greatest blanket stitcher there ever was, so if you have any good tips for me I'm listening.

I actually managed to finish 2 blocks this month, so here is #2.

On top of the 2 quilt blocks I finished in the month of June I also made several more 'Sue' dresses, hats and feet, my son a pair of shorts and 2 pairs of dress pants.  I'm not exactly happy with the way the pants turned out.  I'm not a master pant maker, even though the pattern was super easy, it was sized all wrong and since I didn't make a trial pair for just lounging it is my fault.   

First off, the shorts.  One day as we were going to lunch my son asked me if I could make something for him like I make things for his sister.  I had to think for a minute and I told him I could make him some shorts.  He was all excited.  I then asked the $64 question, "what print/design would you like the fabric to be?".  He had an answer for me and I thought some more and then we were off to Hobby Lobby after lunch and we were able to score the fabric he requested.

He wanted Purdue shorts to wear with his Purdue shirt, bless his little heart.   Now finding Purdue fabric where we live is a difficult task because we live in the town with their in state rival of Indiana University.  

I also made the sweet boy 2 pairs of dress pants for church camp this week.  They have to wear "church" attire to the evening service each night.  I know I could have easily gone and bought 2 pairs of pants for the boy, but I still would have had to hem them since he is a bit husky.  You can't tell in the picture, but He needs the length of a 7/8 but the waist of a 10/12.  I figured that making them myself would be just as easy and the cost was about the same maybe a bit less depending on what store I would have been able to locate long pants for a boy in June when all you can find are shorts.    The boy and I agreed on McCall's pattern number 6222, it is more of a cargo pant pattern but I figured it would be comfortable enough for him.  I learned that the pattern runs very LARGE!  According to the pattern envelope and my sons measurements he should wear the X-Large, after cutting out the pattern and holding it up to him.  I made the medium, while it is still too big for him, I am very thankful for the forgiving elastic waist that I can cinch up so the pants stay up on him.  I again think he was happy that mom made him something else even though I'm not 100% happy with the end product.  

I feel bad for not getting this posted yesterday, but I my stuff done and that is all that matters to me.  Now I'm in the process of picking out some fabric for July's goal.  I promise I won't procrastinate and get it posted  before the end of the week.  Have a great Monday everyone.  

A Lovely Year of Finishes, June goal

I've really teeter tottered on setting a goal this month since my son is out of school and I'm trying to make it a great summer for the kids and do lots of activities.   The last 2 months I feel like I over extended myself so this month I'm going small and I'm choosing something that is portable a.k.a. I can work on it while I'm at the park with the kids or sitting next to the pool watching them swim.

A few months back a friend sent me a box of Sun Bonnet Sue blocks that her grandmother had started before she passed away and asked me if I would finish them.  She told me there was no rush, but she would like to have 2 twin-ish sized quilts from them.  She chose me because she knew I had a passion for quilting and was confident that I would do a great job.

I have decided that I am going to finish 1 yes only 1 of the 28 additional blocks I need to make for her quilts.

Here are some that her Grandma finished so you can see what I'm up against.

All of the black is hand stitching.  That may or may not take me a while.

Of course her Grandma had to  stitch almost every single one differently as well.

My goal is to do one, but if I can do more than one that will be wonderful.  

A Lovely year of finishes, May finish.

I really need to make smaller goals for myself :-), especially now that my son is out of school for the summer.   The past few months I have found myself running myself ragged to the point where I'm not enjoying life.  Most days it feels like a chore just to do anything.  You can all look at my past blog posts and see that they are getting further and further apart.  My 'me goal' for June will be to blog at least once a week.  

For May I set my goal to finish a the quilt top of all the squares I trimmed up last month.  I am pleased to say that I did finish the quilt top just yesterday.   I love it!   I'm really glad I was able to get pictures yesterday because it is raining buckets today.  

While working on this, I was talking to Melissa over at Sew Bittersweet Designs on what to use for the setting triangles around the outside.  When I put white with it, it just made my eyes cross and then she suggested using a blue of some sort.  I had a small piece of  blue in my stash so I sent her a picture and so with that picture in my head no matter what I tried, I couldn't make myself like the white.  

So there it is.  Bold and Beautiful.  There is a story that goes with this quilt and I will tell it one day, but you are going to have to wait in limbo for a little while longer.  

A Lovely Year of Finishes-May

May is always a very busy month for my family.  My son has a birthday this month, there is the Indy 500 and all the practice days that go with it. We are right in the middle of soccer season for my son, and after today my son has 2 more Monday's left of school for this year.

To add to the craziness of May, my husband and I volunteered or time and skills over the weekend to do some home renovations and repairs for a disabled Veteran. Dan, served our country with 2 tours over seas during Desert Storm, and suffered a brain injury while serving.  One of my husbands friends organized the renovations and is hoping to do another one in November.  I can't wait and I promise I will take more than one picture at the next one.

Here is a peek of before and after on the counter tops that were replaced in Dan's kitchen.  We also repainted all the trim, doors, and cabinets in the kitchen. The dark counter on the left is the new look.

Now,on to my my May goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  My goal this month is to take all those blocks I trimmed up last month and complete a quilt top.  I need to plan the layout and cut sashing if I decide it looks better with than without.

April goal met, A lovely year of finishes.

I did it!  I got all 66 of the Granny Square blocks trimmed up.

Start

Finish

You may be thinking that trimming off the corners wouldn't take very long to do and you are indeed correct. I had to completely take apart and re-sew 16 of the blocks. That is what took the most time, roughly 3 weeks.  It took me a minimum of an hour to take each block apart and put it back together.  There were many factors of why the blocks had to be taken apart, improper seam allowances, squares cut the wrong size, you get the picture.    My advice to anyone making blocks as part of a group project, make sure you cut your pieces accurately and check your seam allowance as well. You would be surprised at how often you are using a 3/8" seam instead of 1/4".  Draw lines on your machine or use a piece of tape to mark things.  

I'm linking up with the Lovely Year of Finishes with Sew Bittersweet Designs and Fiber of all Sorts.