Finishing projects

Too many projects at the almost finished stage!  I guess it's better than too many projects at the just beginning stage, right?

  

This is the quilt I left on my longarm while waiting for more thread.  Yeah, it's quilted!  So, I thought I had saved a piece of the wine colored fabric to use for the binding on the edge of the quilt.  I can't find it anywhere. :(  I know as soon as I finish it with something else I will find that piece, but finish I must.  I made a trip to Quilt Cove to try and find something that might work.  The ladies working at the shop were very helpful.  Here is what we came up with, I had my heart set on the wine color which is not easy to match.

I also bought some backing fabric for my glow in the dark block of the month.  I finished piecing it this last week.  So, I didn't get it completely done for my son's birthday but I will wrap up the top and give it to him today and put it on the longarm tomorrow.  It is all straight lines, squares and rectangles so I need to use curves when I quilt.  Still not quite sure what I will do but hopefully I will be inspired as I put it on the machine.

Here is the fabric I bought at Quilt Cove for the back.

I had to finish the quilt on my longarm so I would be able to quilt my son's quilt.  My flag was finished yesterday.  I bought a pantograph by Patricia Ritter of Urban Elementz to use on the stripes.  I read somewhere this pantograph is often used on Quilts of Valor.  Once I get caught up on my own projects I plan to do some quilts of valor.  The words on it are courage, bravery, honor and valor interspersed with stars.

I am thinking of using this fabric for the binding.  

I didn't make any more of my Dear Jane quilt this week but all in all it was pretty productive.

Have a creative day

Janet

Sew on, and on, and on...

I have been very busy sewing this week.  I'm trying to finish the Craftsy quilt by the end of this month, for a gift.  The second set of blocks were the most challenging.  24 sets of little 1 inch grids!  

What a relief when they were complete and bonus they all measure to the correct size!

These ones seemed like a picnic after the tiny squares.

I decided I wanted to get an idea of what it was going to look like.  It doesn't really fit on my design 'wall' but you get the idea.  This is the first three months.

The next addition was a rail fence that was also pretty easy.  Whew!

Here is my design wall with the rail fence blocks added in.

I skipped a month and did the big blue blocks next.  So now I only have one set of blocks to go before I can start piecing it all together.  Maybe I will be finished by the end of the month.

I did sneak in time to finish 4 more blocks for my Dear Jane quilt.

Have a creative day

Janet

Vacation and Sew it begins!

Last week my husband and I took a little vacation time.  One of the items on my bucket list is to visit every state.  I have been to Missouri before but I'm not sure I have ever stayed in Missouri.  We spent the week in Branson. One of my favorite places was Dogwood Canyon Nature Park.  It was amazingly beautiful.  We road a tram through the Park and it was well worth the time.

I thought I would get a start on my Dear Jane Quilt while riding in the car for about 9 hours each way.  Discovered hand sewing in the car is not my strong suit.  I finished half of one block on the way.  When we came home I ripped out those awful hand stitches and fired up the sewing machine.  I finished the four blocks I had prepared for sewing in the car.  And Sew it begins...this will definitely be a long term project. If you aren't familiar with this quilt here is a link to my Pinterest page of Dear Jane's.  Each finished block is 4".

I made myself a notebook to keep them all in one place as I finish them. (I have a tendency to lose things)  It will be interesting to see how my skills improve as I progress.

None of them are perfect but they are at least the correct finished size, which will make piecing it all together much easier.

My thread for my quilt on the longarm finally arrived just before we left on our trip.  I plan to finish it tomorrow.  My missing fabric for the Craftsy Block of the Month 2014 also came while we were gone.  Bonus!  They sent extra fabric with my bit that was missing.  The missing piece is on top all the rest is a wonderful surprise.  Around forty pieces of beautiful batiks.  You can't beat customer service like that!

I cut out the strips for the next section of this quilt.  

This lesson is complementary colors.

Have a Creative Day

Janet

Lot's of color!

I started the Craftsy Block of the Month for 2014.  This is really good for me!  It is still 2014!  I may actually finish something in the same year I started it!  I'll have to throw a party or something.

I sorted and labeled all the fabrics because there are 35 different fabrics in this quilt.  I discovered I was missing one of the pieces that is only 1/6 of a yard.  I bought the fabric in May so I wasn't positive they would still have the same fabric available.  I sent an email to the Craftsy help people to see if they could suggest a substitute if they no longer have this fabric, I gave them the fabric name and number too.  Within an hour I had an email saying they knew exactly which fabric it was, they still had some and had already put it in the mail.  Terrific service!  I was amazed and very greatful. Thank you to Patty and the Craftsy help team.

It was one of these I was missing.  There are quite a few, so an easy mistake to make.

I made several different strata.  They are straighter than my poor photography shows.

Cut the strata apart and put them back together.  Sounds like a song, should I be doing the Hokey Pokey now.

Here is the beginning of the Craftsy Block of the Month 2014. This class is about color theory.  This first section was about an analogous color palette.  They chose blue and about one fourth of the color wheel which is right next to blue.  Blue to yellow green.  This is a free class.

Have a Creative Day

Janet