June UFO Progress

There hasn't been too much time this month for a quilting project -- and it looks like July will be just as busy.

But - I have managed to find a few hours here and there to make some progress on my "Ice Cream Quilt"

It's all basted -- with a wonderful soft wool batting that's a dream to quilt.  I wanted to play around with the quilting on this one.  I thought I'd do some machine quilting and some hand quilting, using different colors and different threads, some perl cotton and some embroidery floss. 

The hand work has turned out to be much more fun than the machine quilting, so I don't think I'll be adding too many more machine quilted lines.  The closer I get to the outer edges, the bigger the chance is that I may change my mind on that.  We'll see. 

I didn't set a goal to finish this one in June -- only to get it basted and start the quilting.  I feel like I've met that goal and anything else that gets done on it in June is a bonus. 

The big news is that I've gone 37 days without buying any fabric.  Amazing!  I have had to empty a few online shopping carts during that time.

Flag Day at the Cemetery

Barb and I went for a walk in the cemetery tonight -- so peaceful, and just enough breeze to chase away the bugs. Barb got some better shots of the many flags in the cemetery but this one at the memorial for veterans caught my eye.

I had left my camera downstate last weekend, so I asked Barb to bring hers. I wanted to get some pictures of the quilt I completed for May. I tried hanging it on the clothes line, but it was dragging the ground, so I brought it along on our trip to the cemetery and shot some pics there.

WARNING: If you find pictures of quilts on gravestones to be disrespectful, scroll no further.




I love the statues in the cemetery. I'm always a bit tempted to take a wire brush with me to clean up some of them -- but then I think the aging process adds some interest and maybe I really better just leave them alone.



But the ones that have been cared for do look nice.



And don't they look like they really enjoyed the chance to see my latest quilt? I think they may want me to come back.



Click on the picture a couple of times to get a much better look!

May UFO Challenge

I pushed pretty hard, but didn't manage to finish my May UFO Challenge in time. Give me another week and I should have it done.

The pattern I used for this quilt is called Yellow Brick Road -- not really appropriate for a pink and green quilt. I'm not one to name my quilts, but if I did, maybe Peppermint Pathway would be better.

I might have reached my goal if I had placed the crosshatching a little further apart, but this was something I've been wanting to try and this quilt needed a little extra effort to make me love it -- it's working!

Just a dozen more rows of quilting and it'll be ready for binding. I hope to finish the job before I head downstate next Thursday.

In other news -- I bought myself an early retirement gift. Still five months to go, but I didn't want to car shop in November, and this one looked like a pretty good deal.

The quilt that I'll be working on in June is this Ice Cream Quilt. My goal is simple for this one -- get it basted and begin the quilting process. I want to combine some hand quilting with machine quilting on this one so I'm not even hoping to have it complete by the end of the month. June looks to be a busy month and I want to sit back and enjoy with no pressure.

I do have a backing all ready for this one, but I'll have to order a batting and plan to get it basted after I return from downstate.

Check with Judy over at Patchwork Times for links to other May finishes.

Basting Away

I finally put together a backing for my May UFO Challenge quilt and got down to the job of basting it together.

First I had to shove my kitchen table and chairs out of the way and sweep all the crumbs off the floor. Normally I would give the floor a quick wash before laying out a quilt on it, but I opted for a sweep this time.

After laying out the backing and taping it(wrong side up) to the floor with some painters' tape, I smoothed out the batting and the quilt top on top of it.

And started pinning.

I try to keep the pins approximately four fingers apart. The rows look further apart in this picture, but they're close to the same distance.

I just start at one end and roll as I go -- and take breaks between every three or four rows to give my back a rest.

This twin sized quilt ended up with about 450 pins.

I'm getting a late start on the quilting -- it looks a little iffy on getting it done before the end of the month, but I'll give it a good try.

Ready, Set, Go

I love seeing all the fabrics that are available lately for boy quilts! When I saw this Ready Set Go line from Robert Kaufman Fabrics, I couldn't resist purchasing a few pieces.

It was fun to dig through my stash to find some coordinating fabrics. I absolutely love this quilt. The Kaufman fabrics are incredibly soft organic, and the overall bright color appeals to me. I have to admit I like to pick it up and carry it around like a security blanket.

I have some of the fabric left -- I think next time I'll cut the squares a little larger to better show the planes and helicopters.


I pieced a strip of helicopters into the backing fabric. I don't often take the time to piece backings on larger quilts, but it's fun to do on the small ones.

The bright colors cheered me up so much that I had to stop at the flower shop on my way home from work so that I could add some of that color to my kitchen table. So cheerful!

Don't you think they look nice with the quilt?

I finally put together a backing for my May UFO Challenge quilt -- now to get it basted and try to squeeze in lots of quilting hours before June arrives!

Nine Patch

Here's the other quilt that I finished in April. I had hoped to get a better picture of it but ran out of chances . You'll have to take my word for it that it's much prettier in real life.

This one was made for a coworker, and I surprised her with it on Wednesday. I know my memory isn't that great, but I think it may be first time that I actually made someone cry happy tears. Made my day!

I'll have company all next week, so I'll be putting my sewing aside to enjoy a little activity in my normally quiet life. Then I'll have to push to get my May UFO finished. That one's still waiting for a backing, so it'll be a challenge.

Hope all you moms out there enjoy a wonderful Mothers Day. I'll be feeling very blessed to be able to, at my age, spend it with my mother.

Happiness is.....

A brand new iron,



a new ironing board cover,



and some brand new fabric to play with!