I didn’t have tons of sewing time this week. We had big family supper here because Carver turned FIVE one night. We had a bridal shower for a family friend on Saturday and Kalissa and I ended up using up the whole morning and much of the afternoon. I still managed to get a few things done.
First up, a of couple weeks ago, I told you about a project of Kelli’s I got. This one…
Kelli sewed all these hourglass blocks back when she first started quilting. She didn’t do the best job on them and didn’t do any trimming on them. When I was at her house after the boys were born, we were cleaning and she handed me the project and said she didn’t want it. I thought I’d take it home and finish it up.
I sewed about four together and thought NO WAY. This will never make a decent quilt if I keep going at it the way it is. So…I ripped all the blocks apart. I ironed them…and I trimmed them.
The project has been sitting on my kitchen island since the end of August. I did a few each day until Monday of last week over naptime, I had enough of the mess of it being out and just finished it. I trim while I talk on the phone, while supper is cooking, while I’m waiting for parents to drop in the morning, over naptime…anytime I have a couple of minutes.
I love this little ruler of mine. It has trimmed up so many blocks. I love that it has the circle at the inch markers. I just line up and 2″ and cut…first the right and top, then flip the block and do the new right and top.
Kalissa can watch some videos and say “Mom, they are so satisfying to watch”. To me, trimming blocks is satisfying!
They are finally all done. I’m not sure what I’m going to make with them now…I need to count them and come up with a plan.
Any ideas? These are going to sit for a bit until I come up with an idea.
I had left my American Quilter’s Stitch Along lag a bit. I was five blocks behind. Oh my.
I thought I got caught up but am behind again. I am eager for this one to wrap up. I love it but it’s time.
I ended up doing last week’s block too. I am one behind now.
For my Garlic Knots quilt, I started working sewing the border strips together. My goal for the week is to move the quilt one step forward. I am losing steam on this one but refuse to put it away again as a UFO so I’m taking any progress I can get on this one.
I only managed to get one set of border sewn on Garlic Knots.
I had time over last weekend and I should have worked on longarming my Bitcoin quilt. I didn’t. I got stuck on what quilting motif to use. I picked the thread colors. I filled bobbins. I just can’t decide on a motif. I was super tempted to do straight lines but that didn’t seem right. So it sat.
I talked to Kelli and she said maybe just a stipple. I’m considering that. Hmm. She said to make it a smaller stipple. Hmm. Any suggestions??
Remember my goal is to make a little bit of progress on all of my projects. I did cut and make the binding for the Bitcoin quilt.
I worked more on my Scrap Vortex quilt. This project is the one that made the… HUGE leap forward over the week.
I had a little unexpected time so I made the best use of it that I could.
When I last left you I had to get 12 more 12 1/2″ blocks made and six 6 1/2″ x 12 1/2″ blocks made. I ended up getting all of the needed blocks made by Thursday and then on Saturday afternoon after the bridal shower I decided to try to get the quilt top together. Here it is…
It is a massive amount of bitty pieces sewn together into blocks and then the blocks are sewn together.
This didn’t even make a dent in my scraps. I could likely make three more before I see a dent! This needs to be ironed. I’ll save that for naptime this week.
I’m trying to decide if I should add a border or if this is where I will leave this quilt. Right now it is 84″ x 96″. Maybe I should add another row so it’s 96″ x 96″. I don’t know. Opinions, please??
I worked on my Two-Step quilt…this one.
The quilt is in this book. You can find the book HERE on Amazon.
I have all my twosies now sewn into fourzies. I am opting to sew this quilt together in columns vs rows. I think I’ll have better luck nesting seams that way. I’ll let you know how that idea turns out.
I’ve been using my Cutting Gizmo to cut the pieces apart. If you don’t have a Cutting Gizmo, I highly recommend them. I got mine years ago and they have updated them now.
They look like this now…
HERE is an Amazon link for them.
Here is a Youtube video showing how it works.
It’s so awesome for chain piecing. Here are part of my pieces all organized and ready for the next step. I have the rest of them sewn but cutting and organizing them will wait until naptime over the upcoming week.
I know someone is going to ask about the wooden box I’m using to organize my pieces in. It’s from a childcare toy, Wooden Farm and Tractor Playset from Melissa and Doug. It is the PERFECT size for my quilting projects. I happen to have two of them.
That’s it for on the sewing front this week. I’m happy with my progress and am hoping I can make equally as good progress over the next week. Please leave a comment on any idea you have on for:
-what do with the hourglass blocks
-what quilting motif to use for Bitcoin
-to add borders or leave Scrap Vortex as is
I love reading your feedback!!