ROSES AND ARROWS QUILT DONE

 Here is July's quilt for the UFO Challenge with Quilting Mayhem.

It is called Roses and Arrows after the charm pack of 42 5" squares it was made from, along with some light grey to make half square triangle blocks.

I made the bias binding from the same grey and got it sewed onto the little 32" by 40" quilt today.

It is FINISH #12 for the year!

ROUND 1 OF ROUND AND ROUND

 I'm taking a month long workshop with Maria Shell.  The workshop is called Round and Round and we will be making Medallion quilts.  On this first week we were asked to make a sketch or a plan for our medallion, to pick a palette of fabrics and make our center block.

I want a rectangular quilt, not a square one.  It adds a degree of difficulty!

My fabrics, so far.  Most of these colors are not showing up correctly.  Oh well.

My center block.  It took me several days to make all of those tiny 1" HSTs.

 

ONCE UPON A TIME TOP

This morning I finished trimming the HST blocks to 4-1/2" and put them up onto the design wall.  These were made from a charm pack called Once Upon a Time with some Kona solids added to make the Half Square Triangle (HST) blocks.

After lunch I started sewing the rows together.  Then I sewed the rows to each other.  It is now a finished top, ready to be quilted, after I make a backing for it.

 

MADE A BAD CHOICE

I got out a charm pack, Roses and Arrows, and picked a  fabric for the other half of the half square triangles.  I cut the squares and marked the sewing lines on the backs of them. 

 I thought it best to cut a few and see how they'd look before sewing them all together.  

Good thing I did.  I did not think they were a good match after all.  So I took them apart and looked for a better match.  I settled on a light grey, Kona Lighthouse, and started over.

THIRD MONTH OF SEATTLE BOM

 I made this month's blocks for the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's Block of the Month for 2024.

THIRD WEEK OF PLAYCATION2024

 Here is this week's block for Cheryl Arkison's Playcation2024.  I was a day late making mine.  Then I messed up and made it the wrong size (quilt math) and had to add a strip on the bottom.

CUTTING A HOLE

 I drew out a circle on freezer paper to use as a template.  Then, using a heat erasable pen, I traced the circle onto the quilt top.

Then I cut the circle out.

After finding the perfect solid green fabric and cutting a half inch from the previous circle template, I traced it onto fabric.

Next step was to pin and glue it onto the cutout circle.

Sew and press it flat.

Using a ruler as a guide, I cut the border at 3/4" all the way around.

Sewing the rest of the top onto the cut-out circle was a little more difficult.

But, it was all worth it.  Here it is - the finished top.

ITS A TOP - SORT OF

 I got all of the rows sewn together today.

It's not officially a top yet, because I'm going to cut a circle out of it and re-insert it.

Stand by!  This could be fun.

SEWING ROWS

Yesterday was the first Sunday of the month and I attended the Sew Modern Connection zoom meeting.  I was only able to sew a few rows together because I couldn't find a comfortable position for my inflammed left leg.  I left the meeting early.

Today, Monday, was a Brave Patch Monday Sewcial zoom meetup.  I continued to sew the rows together on the pink and green HST blocks.  I figured out it was better to sew the whole row together and then get up and press the seams open.  Yesterday I was trying to press each seam as I went, which meant turning back and forth to the ironing board.  That was what made my knee unhappy.

They are now in six sets of two.

BLOCKS ON THE WALL

 I went upstairs to the studio this morning - the first time since my left knee replacement surgery on May 16th.  

I got those green and pink HST blocks up on the wall.

FINISHED SHATTERED

 I finished up the quilting on the Shattered quilt.

BACKING FOR SHATTERED

 I made the label with the triangles yesterday and forgot to photograph it.

Here's the backing all sewn together and ready to go.

When I saw that fabric with the grey, black and white rhinos with the bright yellow background I knew it would be perfect for the back of this quilt.  This year's Pantone Color of the Year is actually two colors--

Illuminating (bright yellow) and Ultimate Grey:

So, now it looks like I planned this quilt for the Colors of the Year!

ALL TOGETHER

 While watching Joe's Workshop from yesterday in the morning and joining in with the Seattle MQG's Sunday Sew-In, I managed to get the blocks for Shattered all sewn together.

It's a quilt top.

I even started planning the backing.

Happy Pi Day!

NEBULA 3

 I finally got around to making the Nebula 3 blocks today.

There was barely enough fabric wide enough left to make the smaller versions.  I had to piece together a couple triangles to make it work.

I also got the Shattered blocks out and put them up on the wall.  Hopefully tomorrow I can sew them together.

OPENING NIGHT QUILTING DONE

I finished off the quilting on Opening Night today.    I was running out of white thread towards the end, so I figured I'd only need about another half of a bobbin's worth to finish everything.  But, I was wrong.  I refilled that half a bobbin three times!  There's still a bit of white thread on the bobbin, but that is it.

I had to rotate the quilt to fit the side triangles into the quilting area of the longarm.  Those last few setting triangles were quilted with black thread on top luckily.

I also finished sewing the last of the Shattered blocks together while I watched a webinar about embroidery software for the Bernina.  And I started making the binding for Opening Night which should get completed tomorrow.

BRAVE PATCH MONDAY

 During our weekly Monday Sew-In on Brave Patch I got a few things done.

I sewed on the very last square on the top then I made a backing for my Floating Squares quilt. (I think it deserves a better name, don't you?)

I need to ink a label on there somewhere, too.

Then I got to work on those squares for the last blocks of Shattered.  I didn't quite finish though.  

Now that I take a look at them, I'm worried that I put them together wrong.  Or maybe I just need to turn those top rows around.  I hope so.

ANOTHER SHATTERED BLOCK

 I got some work done on Opening Night before lunch.

After, I attended a Brave Patch zoom meeting and sewed some Shattered blocks together.

Then I trimmed up the last set of HSTs.  

THURSDAY STUFF

 I spent the morning quilting on the Opening Night quilt.  I'm getting closer to the middle.  Then I went inside to catch a lecture about What Judges Want given at Quiltcon  Together.  

After lunch, I got around to making the small version of the Nebula Two blocks.  I had to do some ciphering to figure this one out.  But, now I'll be ready to the next ones, too.

Then, I trimmed the triangles for a set of blocks for Shattered.  I have one more set to trim - and then I need to sew the blocks together.

I wrote in my journal that I want to cross off some of the projects from my to-do list this month.  If I put my nose to the grind stone and just did it, I could probably get some of them done.  Here's to perseverance. 

[Speaking  of perseverance, the Mars rover, Perseverance, landed safely today, too]

DOUBLE DOWN

 This morning was another wonderful zoom workshop with Joe Cunningham.  I finished up that last seam on my Shattered blocks from the other day first.

While I watched I finished another set of nine Shattered blocks.  

It had started snowing last night and it never stopped.  There's 10 to 12" of snow on the ground now.  The dogs don't like it.  But, we are staying warm and dry up here in the studio.

After Joe's workshop I started quilting on Opening Night.  I did the big setting triangles with a computerized 'feathers' design.