Quilting

 

I made Sixteen Patch blocks last year with plaids and florals. They have been in my SAR ( some assembly required) bin until last week when I pulled them out and assembled a top. I have pieced a backing and pin basted it so now it is ready for quilting on my DSM. 

Stay tuned...

And sew on...

It's a Finish: Bootiful Dreamer !

 Bootiful Dreamer

a Halloween 16 Patch

60 x 72

Machine quilted

 I decided to try to use up all my holiday fabrics in 2018. I declared it my Holiday Cheer Challenge. It will be fun to see how many things will get made that include holiday fabrics. The holidays include Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Fourth of July (patriotic) and St. Patrick's Day.  Not only will I be making some new things but I hope to also finish up some old things. 

 This Halloween 16 patch used up quite a few bits and pieces of fabric I had left over from making quilts and pillowcases for the grandkids, trick or treat bags and other miscellaneous items.  My oldest granddaughter was born on Halloween. She's a real treat! 

I quilted it on the machine with alternating up and down loops in each square.  I meant for them to be oriented up and down like you see here but I evidently put the quilt in the wrong way when I started to quilt so they loop sideways but it's the same effect.  I need to work on making my loops the same size but sometimes it's rather difficult to push a large quilt through a small harp. 

I used up some Halloween fabric on the back too.  It's actually a quilt of it's own - a giant four patch. 

It's a little blurry but you can see the four patch consists of monsters and creepy things in jars. 

And that's my first Holiday Cheer Challenge completion!  I think I'll make a tab to keep track of all the holiday cheer. 

This was listed as my goal #5 

for 

2018 Q1 Finish-Along

and

18 in 2018

It's a Flimsy! - Trick or Treat

Trick or Treat

60 x 72

It's a flimsy! 

Again today it's too cold to go out and hang it on my clothesline to take pics so you will just have to believe me when I say it's a full fledged flimsy. 

I want this year to be a year of holiday cheer. I'm going to try to clear out all the holiday themed fabrics I have in boxes and drawers.  I'm calling it my Holiday Cheer Challenge.  I started this easy 16 patch in Halloween fabrics in December.  I cut pieces to have on hand so that I could sew something easy and mindless while my brother was here visiting from Florida and between visiting with family and friends. I sneaked in a few minutes of sewing here and there and completed all my blocks before year end. 

 And I followed through and pieced a backing too.  I made a giant four patch from the monster and creepy jar fabrics. 

This made a big dent in my Halloween fabrics - especially all the small bits and pieces that were leftover from making the grand kids pillowcases, trick or treat bags and quilts.   

My daughter made off with my Halloween quilt - Black Widow's Wedding Party - a creepy wedding ring quilt with glow in the dark fabrics  and quilting - so I guess this will be my quilt when I get it finished.  

 I still have Halloween fabrics to use for my Holiday Cheer challenge.  So I made up four Halloween placemats for my daughter.  She brought me that orange feedsack fabric with the black cats on it. It was a small piece I think she found at a garage sale. So I used it in placemats for her family of four.  

I made these 12 x 18

I was going to make reversible placemats with the same design on the back as the front but I have some small pieces of Halloween fabrics with a large print so I think I'll use these fabrics on the back of her placemats. 

 In an effort to clear out the Halloween drawer I "refiled" some pieces. The two in the top left are now in the fall themed box, the pile of purples in the top right are going into the purple fabric milk crate, the orange with pumpkins is going into the orange/yellow milk crate and the bugs, spiders and bats are going into the critter basket.  I could have put those purple spiders and cats in the critter basket but I'm low on purples so that's how I decided. I put a piece of Dios de los Muertos fabric in the travel fabric box. 

I store my fabrics (greater than a FQ) by theme and then by color. I store my scraps by size with all colors mixed- normally 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5, chunks (less than FQ) , light strings, bright strings, selvages, waste triangles).  

But I still have quite a few Halloween fabrics in the drawer. I'll probably make myself a table runner and set of 8 placemats since I also have lots of little pieces of batting to use that are too small to piece together for a quilt.  I might make a pillow or two for my Halloween loving daughter since I also have lots of tiny batting pieces I can use for stuffing.   I might even have enough fabrics for another quilt.  Who knows what will come out of my Holiday Cheer challenge.  (I also have Valentine's Day, Patriotic (Fourth of July), Christmas and St. Patrick's Day fabrics to use). 

And leftover from making all those 16 patches are some 3.5 inch scraps for the 3.5 inch scrap box. You will see those later in Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. This year they will turn into bow ties, rail fences and snowballs - all on-going and carry over from 2017 RSC projects that use 3.5 inch scraps. 

'Tis the Wrong Season But I'm Still Feeling Jolly

I'm trying to clear up little stashes of fabrics here and there in the sewing room.  I have a small amount of Halloween fabrics left over from making Halloween quilts, trick or treat bags and pillowcases for the grandkids and my daughter.  

  I decided to make some quick and easy St. Louis 16 patches that finish at 12 inches.   Just a few more and I'll have a quilt top. 

And that's how some 3.5 inch scraps get into the 3.5 inch scrap box. 

A Donation Quilt: St. Louis Sixteen Patch

St Louis Sixteen Patch

40 x 60

Machine Quilted

This will be donated to Quilts Beyond Borders

This started as a fat quarter challenge. The fat quarter I received was the deep red floral in this block. 

I combined the fq with some of my other scraps and made 10 inch sixteen patch blocks.

I pieced together some batting scraps with zig zag stitches, found a backing and quilted it on my DSM on the diagonal. 

I'm not good at binding a quilt on a sewing machine and I don't like the look but "Quilts for our kids in 3rd world countries need to be strong and durable enough to withstand the frequent washboard washings."

As soon as I find a box I'll get it in the mail. 

This was my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for January. 

Goal Accomplished! And I'll be linking my OMG finish up at the end of the month at

 Elm Street Quilts. 

QBB FQ Challenge

St. Louis 16 Patch

40 x 60

It's just a top for now.  I need to piece together some batting leftovers and find a backing and then I probably won't get it quilted until after the first of the year (along with the pile of other donation quilts). 

When finished the quilt will go to Quilts Beyond Borders. 

The quilt started with this FQ I received from a QBB Coordinator along with the label to be added.  The challenge was to make a quilt using this FQ and some of my scraps. 

The FQ was used in these blocks.  And the rest was from my scrap chunks. 

I moved a FQ forward into a quilt top so linking up today to 

Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag


Edited January 1, 2017: Getting this finished will be my January 2017 OMG (One Monthly Goal)