First (almost) Finish of 2019

A few days ago I decided to get quilting on UFO #50.  I had been waiting on the backing fabric to arrive, so when it finally did, I got it together and then the next day got quilting.  I believe this one was started in 1998 and the top was finished around the same time, no pattern that I recall, I just wanted to make a space themed quilt for Justin because he liked space stuff back then.  He never saw the quilt when I was working on it, but I told him about it a year or so ago and he urged me on to finish it :)   Today it's all quilted up, and now I just need a few days to sew down the binding and then send it off to him.


One border was very wavy, but I didn't take it apart to fix that.  I left it alone and just worked with it.  Overall, I think it will be fine and should relax even more in the wash--but it will always have a slight wave.


The charcoal grey, solid blue, and red fabrics all have a glitter finish.  This was back when I loved the sparkly fabrics.  I didn't check my stash to see if I have any of those left, I seem to recall that I also bought a solid green from the same line that was also sparkly.  The hand of those fabrics are pretty stiff.  I hope they soften up after a washing.

And now that my wall is all back together again, here's my Starlit Skies, 24 blocks worth.  This is the halfway point!  There will be a sashing (I think 3") with a star cornerstone (unless I change that part in the pattern).


I'll probably put these back into my project box, I don't anticipate finishing these up very quickly.  I would like to get busy on the new scrappy trips off to the right though.

At least I have been doing some sewing, it's nice to have that desire again.  I think the next quilt I get busy on will be the millennial charm quilt.  I already have a simple idea in mind for the quilting.

Prepper Alert!

Thanks to Judy and Julie and their efficiency recently with prepping quilts, I decided on Saturday to get a bunch of quilts prepped for quilting.  I had to go into my reserve stash of pins for basting, I've used so many!  One day I will try out basting spray, but I think I need a demonstration on it and how to do larger quilts with it first.  Because I baste quilts using my design wall, I am trying to get as many as possible prepped because it's kind of a pain to have to remove things off of it in order to baste.  I am waiting on another order for yardage, so I won't get totally settled back onto my design wall again until after that arrives.

From top to bottom in the stack:
2018 Stitch Happens (50% quilted)
2019 Spool Block cat masterpiece quilt
UFO 62. Y2k Charm Quilt
UFO 68. QM Bitty Blocks (this will be the last finish from 2015 started quilts!)

2016 Always The Season
2018 Good Fortune
2017 Jigsaw Quilt/Jelly Roll Challenge

Overflowing box of tops...


In my box, I have identified at least two more that I want to get basted and prepared for quilting:

UFO 50. Outer space: top, kid bed sized (started this one for Justin when he was about 12... he's now 32! He told me I should finish it... I plan to send it down to him as a surprise)

UFO 66. 2016 Evergreen State BOM2016 (a Pacific Fabrics BOM).

I have also updated my UFO list (adding.... sigh).  I wondered if maybe I should renumber my ufo's, but I decided against it.  Maybe I should just have a running total that I update instead.  In trying to locate my Y2k Charm quilt, I couldn't believe I didn't already have it listed with the UFOs.  That one is 19 years old at this point.

I have to say that I am feeling good that the finish bug has hit me.

Grandmother's Flower Garden, Row 6 Complete!

I have been working over the last three days to finish sewing my sixth row of flowers, I really wanted to finish before the sun went down to get some good light.  It was pretty close, but still with dusk on the cusp, I had to lighten up the photo a bit.



I think it's been a year since I completed row 5.  Apparently this is more of a slow cooker project than I anticipated. The good news is that since that last row, I did complete all the grey pieces I need for this quilt--at least for what I am currently planning.



Last night I had an idea about adding a ring of colorful fabrics and then one more ring of grey. It would help to add to the quilt for length as it really isn't the size I like for even a lap quilt yet. Considering this quilt project has gone through a lot of good times and bad (started 2001), it has been a good therapy aid over the years. Maybe one day it will be a finished quilt, but right now it is a great calming device.

Spool block aka plus/times/ aka Japanese X and more

In typical fashion, I had my Plus/Times blocks laid out and ready to be put into the quilt... and then I got confused about which sections I was putting together!  UGH!! I did not notice until it was together, and I am NOT ripping.  The first two blocks of the 2nd and 3rd rows are in the wrong places, and I would MUCH rather had it that way, but I am not completely sold on this version of the block idea so I am going to quilt it up and call it good.  It's all basted and ready to go. I used up the rest of the masterpiece cats fabric for the back, and whoever ends up with this quilt after me when hopefully understand what I was trying to do by seeing the backing fabric.

For the border, I sewed up the strips left of the charm pack without worrying about a standard width.  I kind of like how that turned out.  I have one long and wider string strip leftover for another project.  I plan the bind this quilt in black (which I am now almost out of... time to order a new bolt of Kona!).



Speaking of backing fabric, fabric.com takes FOREVER to receive.  Every so often I will browse the cheapest sale fabric there and buy yards for backing.  I'd really like to get Madame Rouge and Good Fortune basted for quilting, but the fabric isn't due to arrive until the 31st (I ordered about two weeks ago).  Did you know that amazon.com now owns fabric.com?  This is a fun fact I had only recently learned a few months ago.  I guess it doesn't arrive at Prime timelines :)



Here is a new quilt I am considering as a baby quilt for one of my older son's friends who's expecting.  I am not positive if I am going to like this version of Scrappy Trips around the world, but we'll see.  I only had enough of the green and pink solid to make 16 blocks instead of the 20 that I wanted originally.  I think a square baby quilt would be ok (they are 12" blocks).  But again, we'll see how the fabrics play.  It may end up just becoming a donation quilt, but who knows. I have other fabrics in this collection (Pop Garden by Heather Bailey)  so I might end up liking it.  It kind of reminds me of the 60's right now.

Spool Block or Japanese X

I had big plans last week to finish up my two prepped groups for my Starlit Skies quilt (2017 Summer Block of the Week by Primitive Gardens), but shortly before running errands on Monday, my Jeep was stolen from my driveway.  That put a dent in my day and for a few days following.  For my facebook friends that followed along when the GPS pings were relayed to the Everett police, it was pretty exciting to know they had sight of the vehicle.  Quick note before quilting post commences, if your car has an app such as Uconnect (for Jeep, and probably other vehicles I'm not sure about) and OnStar for other models, hubby's Ford pickup has a different app that I can't think of the name:  Be familiar with it, download it and at least register!  I did not have to have a running subscription to get the GPS going, but I did have an account (free) already that I started years prior (mine is a 2014 model).  For those without the GPS pre-installed in their vehicles, there are aftermarket devices that you can install as well.  I assume you'd want those in hidden places though (because thieves go through everything!).



We were able to get it recovered within 10hrs (abt 6hrs after I remembered Uconnect and called them!), and today it is getting detailed to remove the smoke smell and for a spa day.

Now onto a new block.  The original block design is attributed to Nancy Cabot (1938) under the name Spool Block, but it is also sometimes referred to as the Japanese X Block because I guess a Japanese quilter at the Tokyo Quilt Festival entered a winning quilt with this design (around 2010, says the search query on this block).





Three different sites with three different size directions:
10" https://scissortailquilting.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2018/08/XPlusQuiltBlockPatternV2.pdf
8" https://badskirt.blogspot.com/2011/04/japanese-x-and-scrappy-quilt-tutorial.html
12" https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Japanese-X-and-Plus-Quilt--A-Tutorial.html

I am doing this with a group of friends.  I wasn't sure what to use, but decided to just play with a charm pack I had.  Not all the colors had four charms to make it a one-color-corner block, so I will end up being somewhat scrappy with the color placement.  I found an old fabric panel in my stash of masterpieces in cats, so I played with that.  When I saw the site with the 12" blocks with the Kaffe fabrics, I fell in love. I may make up another in those fabrics I have hoarded next (larger size for a lap quilt).





First I have to see how this smaller cat version ends up!

Good Fortune: Top Finished

I'll be repeating myself, but I love this quilt design.  I will definitely be trying to complete this one to enter into the fair this year.  After I finish quilting, I'll take a better picture on my quilt frame.  There is too much to move to get an unobstructed picture of it in my quilt room.





Those borders.... The quarter squares were a challenge.  When I put together two sides in the method that Bonnie designed, the blue was too overwhelming to me.  I asked Kevin what he thought (without my prompting on thoughts) and he actually said the same thing.  I planned to do a final string border, so creating the ribbon design made sense.  Now the corners!  I was not happy with how they were lining up and wasn't really sure what to do.  The sides all end in an even number and some ribbon borders I've seen end in odd to get the right effect.  I also had mirror image blocks and I quickly pushed out the notion of creating more so they were all going the same way.

Here is the evolution:



What's worse?  After I had the quilt up on my design wall, borders and corners going the right way, I somehow turned a couple over and I had to rip out all four corners (instead of doing the entire border row) and replace them.  AND THEN! I discovered that the corners would not be mirror images on opposite corners, so I needed to rip out a corner yet again to get it right.  I decided to leave one corner with the background so it would be the "end of the ribbon".  It still isn't the perfect effect, but I am happy with it.

Those corners weren't the only pieces being ripped, I also had four patches that needed to be ripped after I read one clue wrong about construction (did way too many, nearly double of the needed 4-patches for the center of that block).   I need to replace my seam ripper however because I think it is getting dull (I'm sure I have a spare or two tucked away).


After the string borders, I still have a pile of strips... it doesn't even look like any were used!  My next project is going to be Hunters String Star and I plan to have the same type of background fabrics so at least I am ready to go for that.  I haven't decided on what color/s  I want to do though.  I can't decide on a single color or multi.  Should be a fun one either way.

I am also still plugging along on my Starlit skies.  I'll blog about that soon.

Link up Monday:
Check out the progress from other Good Fortune Mystery makers here: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2019/01/mystery-monday-link-up-reveal-2.html

Revealing Good Fortune

There are some quilts that just make you want to fall into them and snuggle... this Bonnie Hunter mystery has done it for me.  I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it's just likely the combination of my stash fabrics and the design.  I really like this year's mystery.  It may just top my most favorite: Orca Bay (renamed Coffee at Orca Bay):



I did end up using some of the greens from Orca Bay in Good Fortune (as well as some of the reds from Allietare).  When I used stash fabric for Busy Street (Edit! I just realized the mystery was EASY Street... mine was just busier than most and I couldn't get that out of my mind apparently! LOL!), I wasn't happy with the result... I am thrilled however with Good Fortune.

I decided to make it longer because finishing at 72" square didn't give me enough length for at least a lap quilt.  I like to tuck my toes sometimes :)  Because there were extra four patches, I was able to make up that block quickly... and now I only have one four patch left.  I decided to do the green sawtooth border before deciding if I wanted to do more bonus hst's again, and there are many leftover still.  I haven't made up my mind yet, but I need to soon since I am almost done with one side of the half chevron pieces for my extra 7 blocks needed.



My project over the next week is to finish up the 7 chevron star blocks and then work on adding a few extra pieces for the two longer borders.  I am wondering if this quilt will bump others in line for quilting?


Check out the other reveals here: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2019/01/mystery-monday-link-up-reveal.html  I love seeing how others have used different colors and how they turn out.