Wonky Webs and Wonky Stars

Anyone that has been here from Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting UFO Sunday links knows I've been working on my Cobweb UFO for the last 3 weeks or so. So, I'm sure you are all sick of seeing it but here it is again. The only thing left is the binding! So, prepare to see a UFO become an FO by the end of next week. (No promises...I usually only find time to sew on the weekends).

 I quilted each web with some wonky webs...

...and finally am finished with all but the binding.  I used bright scraps for the webs, scraps for the batting zig-zagged together.  This is the second method of construction I've used on a spider web quilt and I didn't like the first method and didn't like this method but I have one more to try.  This method left me with a lot of leftover fabric for what I used for the centers. Normally I would link to the place where I found the tutorial but since I don't recommend it I won't. 

Spiderman is on the back and you can kind of see all the webs and the curliques I quilted on the cobweb stars. 

But my spiderweb quilt is not the only thing I quilted on this weekend.  I've had a Christmas tree skirt top laying around here for a couple of months that needed to be finished up as a gift for my daughter. 

 I was in a swap on the Quilt-N-Friends Yahoo Group where we swapped 6.5 inch charms with a Christmas theme. I took two charms, laid them right sides together and sewed all around the four sides with a 1/4 inch seam.

I then cut them on the diagonals...

 ...and ended up with 4 HSTs which I sewed together...

 ...into this configuration.  Then I let it lay around for a few months.  And today I zigzagged together more batting pieces, made a quilt sandwich, cut a six inch hole through all 3 layers and a slit down the side...

...then I quilted it all together with some wonky stars. What a challenge. I can't even draw stars very well let alone quilt them but I guess they will be okay.  And, hopefully, this, too will be bound and labeled by next week.   Then it will be 2 down and ???? to go.

Check out the progress on other UFOs at  UFO Sunday at Free Motion Quilting Project.  While I'm feeling linky I'm also linking up to Sew Many Ways Sew Darn Crafty linky party - a great place to pick up ideas. And to see what is on everyone's design walls visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. 

UFO Sunday

Last week I posted about a spider web/cobweb quilt UFO. This week I was hoping to get it pinned and quilted. Problem is that I have to get down on the floor to pin the quilt. (Oh, my aching back). Problem is that I have to clean off the card table next to the sewing desk in order to do any quilting. The card table carries the most of the weight of the quilt while quilting and I hate cleaning it off - putting scraps in scrap bins, putting projects in boxes, putting fabric purchased that week in the proper drawer. There are only so many hours outside of work left for hobbies so cleaning is not my favorite thing to do.

So, while procrastinating the pinning and cleaning I worked on another UFO to give me some sewing time I crave on the weekends to make things right with the world (and my mind).


 I worked on a Blue Double 4 Patch UFO. These blocks were from a "no stress" (participate or not each month) monthly swap several years ago on a list to which I no longer belong because I didn't like the direction/tone it was taking.  Anyway, each month for a year we could swap blue double four patch blocks and I don't think I missed a month. I love getting fabric in the mail. It was fun to see what everyone chose for blue fabric for the blocks each month.


Last January I laid them out on my design floor (oh my aching back) and picked them back up, labeled the rows and sewed 3 rows together, bought some backing fabric and left them all in a pile in the corner of the sewing room where they have remained a UFO until yesterday. (Well, actually it still is a UFO - just not in the corner anymore).

Evidently I didn't know how to multiply back in January. There are 90 - 8 inch blocks( finished size) but if there are 9 in a row and 10 down I think it would be a quilt would be 72x80 (not 90). Now, if my grown kids were to notice that they would think I was starting to get senile.

 Anyway, this UFO is now in the flimsy stage (72x90). So, now I have another UFO ready to pin (oh my aching back) and quilt.

I eventually got my quilt sandwich made and pinned (oh my aching back), cleaned off the card table next to the sewing desk so I could start quilting my wonky cobweb quilt. I wanted to try a spider web from Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project blog in each "spider web"/cobweb.  (Keep in mind I am an old lady with poor eyesight).   The left side got a little wonky down near the bottom. That is where I start to sew backwards and don't see where the next line of the web happens to be.  The seam throws me off some too. And sometimes my hands just plain shake.

This one was a little better but it's still a little wonky down at bottom left (see that green patch?).

I only made it through 4 webs before I decided to quit for the day when the bobbin ran out of thread. I can't sit at the machine for long before my back starts to ache.  (Hear a common theme to this post?  I need a new chair and/or a new body). 

 Spider man is on the back - scrappy quilt, scrappy guy - spider webs, spider man. The quilting kind of blends in to the backing.

You can't really see it but I just quilted some circles around the spider webs in the fabric in the star that forms between the cobwebs.

And that leaves me with the question....how does everyone manage to pin/baste together large quilts? I put mine on the hardwood floor in the living room and sit on top of it to pin it. It's not exactly easy on an old body. I'm not sure I have room to put two large tables together to lay quilts out on but I may have to find room one of these days or stop making large quilts.

Oh, and take a look at what other UFOs are being worked on at UFO Sunday at Free Motion Quilting Project.   And linking up to Linky Party Tuesday at Freemotion by the River. 

Wonky Webs (Almost a Forever UFO)

This is a story about a UFO that almost remained a UFO forever...

Last week I decided I would follow along with Free Motion Quilting's UFO Sunday and try to finish up a spider web quilt (I call it cobweb quilt since the fabric that forms the star is called COBWEB. Well, in my post last week I said I had 48 triangles for the remaining 12 blocks I needed  finished and ready to trim. Well, I trimmed them up yesterday but I only had 44 triangles to make 11 blocks. This morning instead of remembering I only needed 4 triangles to make another block in the back of my head I remembered I needed 4 blocks and so, after digging back out my bright novelty scraps,  made 16 more triangles (4 more blocks).  I sewed the 15 blocks all together and then into rows of 5 thinking I had 5 blocks across and not 4. When I went to add to the 3 rows  of 4 across already completed long ago (the UFO part) I was ready to scream. The UFO was about ready to stay unfinished forever.

This started out as a way to use up small bright scraps but it's been an awful lot of work -marking, ironing, trimming, trimming some more.  I don't like the method I used and maybe some day will try a different one. (I have another spider web UFO using a different method in a bin somewhere around here that needs major seam ripping. I hated that method of spider webbing even more.)

So, anyway, I felt committed to keep on with it since I did commit to try to finish up some UFOs on Sundays and so made it as far as the completed top and kind of like it now. It has a lot of yellow in it and red so I will probably use the Spiderman fabric I bought at 50% off plus 15% off with an old fogie discount for the backing. I think I have two pieces of batting I can zigzag together so I don't have to buy any. So, next week you might see it ready for quilting after I decide how to quilt it. 

My scrap bins don't seem any emptier. Next time the short strings will go into a wonky log cabin. 

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. 

More Cobwebs in my Sewing Room

Way back in July I started working on a cobweb quilt....

 ...to use up some of my bright novelty scraps - the shorter pieces left over after I made several string quilts using the longer strings for the Heartstrings Quilt Project.  challenge.

 While I was browsing the Free Motion Quilting Project for an appropriate design to quilt on my grandson's Halloween Quilt (see previous post) I also noticed she was running a UFO SUNDAY linky party to encourage folks to finish up their UFOs.   So, this is one of my dozens (hundreds?) of UFOs I wanted to get finished up because 1. I want to use up more scraps and 2. I'm sick of looking at that uncompleted thing hanging over the back of the chair in the sewing room (I don't really like brights).  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it when it is completed. I thought about using the Spiderman yardage I have on the back and give it to my 3 year old grandson for his new bunk bed since he loves Spiderman. But he visited this weekend and told me now his favorite character is the Incredible Hulk. (But maybe that is because that was who was on his underwear for the day. ) And I stray... Anyway, I finished up the rest of the 48 triangles necessary to complete the quilt that already consists of 48 triangles.  Four triangles make a block and the quilt will have 24 blocks in a  4x6 configuration.

Now, trimming and sewing them together will have to wait until next Sunday. My back hurts from sitting in the non-ergonomic chair for so long and this is my last day of vacation so I'm going to enjoy it with a glass of wine on the deck. We are having beautiful fall weather.

Again...to see what everyone else is finishing up visit  UFO SUNDAY  and why not work on finishing up one of your UFOs.

Cobwebs in the Sewing Room

I've added six more blocks to my cobweb quilt and hopefully one of these days I'll have my small bright scraps used up. The larger scraps all went to several colorful Heartstrings Quilts. My 3yo grandson loves to look at all the different fabrics in quilts so maybe I'll get some Spiderman fabric for the back and this will be his. Or not...

I'm linking up with a Linky Party at Quilting By the River.  Come party!

I'm Not a Bright Person...

...so how did I end up with so many bright fabric scraps?

I'm using up smaller scraps too small for further Heartstring quilts. This is my first spider web (or is it cob web?) quilt since my previous attempt using my 30s fabrics that did not go well. So, this is practice before I return to my more controlled spider web (or is it cob web?) I'm using scraps so didn't get too concerned or rip out a piece I saw turned wrong side up. I'm not even concerned that some of the webs are touching and some aren't (at least I don't think I am. Really, I'm not).  After all...I'm not a bright person ;-) and I'm using up scraps and I'm practicing building a better web. It's a MODERN quilt, I say. Oh, what a tangled web we weave....

And I'm looking for the bottom of the scrap boxes. And I'm linking up to Connie's Quilting by the River linky party.