Recap of July

1. QDAD challenge piece.  This is my goal for August.  I just have to put some rows together and quilt.  Below is half of the piece.

2. Wedding quilt. All the blocks are done.  Next to put them together.  This will be my piecing project once I finish piecing the challenge piece above.  The wedding is in September.  I don't have to finish by then, but it would be nice to do so.

3. The bee hive quilt.  This is finished, but I need to take pictures.  It's going to be a bit before I see the recipient, so it's been languishing in the the laundry basket for quite a while.

4. Sunset wall hanging.   This has been my vacation work as I'm doing the quilting by hand.  I surprisingly finished it up on the last trip; I thought I still had a ways to go.  I'm going to put the binding on by hand too, a new thing for me.

5. Quilt nautical quilt.   I've had this one for a while, but my mother-in-law doesn't love it and was in no rush to get it back.  I'm putting ropes in sashing and want to put sailboats on the outer border, but am not sure what I'll be putting in the blocks themselves yet.  I might end up taking this off for a bit to put on some of the quilts mentioned above.

Other items still waiting around.  
6. Baby quilt (boy). 
7. bee hive scrap something.
8. scrap quilt #2.
9. Aunt's quilt. 
10. Scrap quilt. 
11. Simply solids bee quilt.     
12. Rainbow log cabin.  
13. Orphan rocket block.  

14. Jeweled floors.  
15. Lost piece (almost whole cloth quilt).  
16. Winter quilt.  
17. fabric from Christmas.  
18. Kids' quilt.   
19. A pillow with green/purple fabric.

Big plus, little plus (what begins with plus?)

After about five years, "Big Plus, Little Plus"* is finally finished

 

It'll be for a little boy due any day now...I'm rather excited that I finished before the baby came!

 

This time I took pictures at my parents' cottage.  I took them just as the sun was setting, which was rather bad for coloring but great for background.

The quilt is made of a bunch of strips; it was the easiest way to get all of the little pluses in correctly.  I started the design by putting in the big plus and then added the little pluses until I had them scattered about nicely.  

I then made a crazy spreadsheet with the color/size in of each piece in it's location.  Instead of just working on a strip or two at a time I first pieced the top two pieces of each row, then added the third piece, etc.  It was a rather silly way of doing it and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what strip I had.  I'm going to chalk up the foolishness to still being a rather new quilter when I started, as it is quilt number 7.  (To put it in perspective, I just started working on quilt 62.  They aren't all done, but I do have more experience now.)

The photo above is my favorite.  The one below is the silliest...I think the quilt looks like it is trying to play hide and seek and hide by the logs.

For quilting I used my plus design and a lightly variegated white/grey thread.  

There are whales in minky on the back; I couldn't believe how well the colors matched!  And it is bound in red sateen as normal.

*It took me until I was editing the photos to realize that this shape is not really a plus.  That's a long time of getting the shape wrong, so I'm going to stick with the name to remind me to actually look at what I'm doing.

Finishing this was my goal for July.  I'm also linking up with Finish It Up Friday and Sew Cute Tuesday.

Binding

I found an additional use for the knee-lifter!  A binding holder.  I wrapped the binding around an Aurifil spool and put it on the lifter.  I did have to use a clip so that the binding didn't all come off at once, but that was easy to deal with.

New ironing board

I finally made a new ironing board!  The old one was small, had a cut in it when I missed the cutting board that I had placed on it, and wobbly because one of the leg stoppers was missing.  Oh, and now that I look at the picture it also had a bunch of stains.

I more or less used this tutorial.  My dad had some extra wood, so I got just the perfect size for the desk I'm using.  Not only is it nice and big, it was a great project to do with my young sons!  They especially loved using a staple gun.

I did make the back differently than the tutorial though, mainly because I wanted to use materials that I had on hand and to use more staples.  (staple gun!)  I ended up using that no-slide stuff that you put in drawers.  It helps the board not slide and when you staple it down the staples they go down far enough that they won't scrap the desk.  (Although if I make it again, I'd probably do the back first and cover it with the front.

Recap of June

1.  Pluses quilt for Baby boy.  Finishing this up is my July goal.  I need to bury some thread ends and bind.  The baby is due late July, so hopefully it'll be all ready by the time he arrives.  (This is my oldest work in progress - started over four years ago.)

2. Wedding quilt.  The middle blocks are almost done, along with some of the outside blocks.  This is my main piecing project at the moment, but once the blocks are done I'm going to move to something else for a bit.

3. bee hive scrap something. Everything is all trimmed up!  I know that my layout needs to be 20x27ish...next step is to figure out a layout.

4. Baby quilt (boy).  I'm going to use the Stash Bee blocks I get from this month to make this.  The baby was just born, but hopefully I can get this out quickly once the blocks are in.

5. QDAD challenge piece.  I have a layout and the fabric.  This is the next main piecing project.

6. The bee hive quilt. I just put this on the quilter.  I am putting loops on it...a nice fast motif, and the loops remind me of wind.  It's appropriate since the block is called spin wheel.

Other items still waiting around.  
7. scrap quilt #2.
8. Aunt's quilt. 
9. Scrap quilt. 
10. Sunset wall hanging.  
11. Simply solids bee quilt.     
12. Rainbow log cabin.  
13. Orphan rocket block.  
14. Quilt nautical quilt.   
15. Jeweled floors.  
16. Lost piece (almost whole cloth quilt).  
17. Winter quilt.  
18. fabric from Christmas.  
19. Kids' quilt.   
20. A pillow with green/purple fabric. 


I'm down one item from last month...but I have hopes of getting at least two things completed this month!  We'll see how it goes.