Wednesday, March 27, 2013

March UFO Progress

Tonight I finally made progress on my March UFO. Last night I took some old pre-fold binding that I had bought and ironed it into French fold binding. Tonight I attached it to the front of the quilt and I'll spend the next few evenings binding. I really wanted to machine finish the binding but I never like the way it turns out so hand-finishing it is.

Sunday and Monday night I spent trying to clean up some of my sewing space. I couldn't even unpack my machine and put it on my table so I started trying to clean up and out. Kyle has threatened spring cleaning this Saturday so I better be prepared.

I also realized that one of our yearly shop-hops is next Friday and I'm not organized! Last year I had a list of projects and the finishing pieces I needed for them. It worked really well! Since I'm so focused on UFOs this year, I'm not sure how to prep. One option I am considering is that we really need a new quilt for our bed. The quilt we were given for our wedding is starting to rip in some places, and I'd like to take it out of bed rotation while I can still use it. Maybe I will find a pattern I like and buy fabric for that. Of course, then I'd have to add that to the list of projects. Maybe something challenging like a Mariner's compass or a large Lemoine star...

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

I'm Back!!!!

It's been awhile but I'm back. I spent most of last week getting ready and spending time in Las Vegas. We had such a good time!

We've had some trouble adjusting back to life so I just got focused back on sewing. It's been a crazy few days back so tonight I focused on cleaning up my sewing area. I can't get my sewing machine even set up on my table right now. So I spent about 30 minutes tonight working it over. By Saturday I should have the table cleaned off enough to work on my March UFO. It's called Framed Star from Fons and Porter and I completed the quilting of it at the last quilt retreat. I found some old premade binding that matches well and will just iron it into the French-fold that I like.

It's supposed to snow again this weekend, so it will be a good chance to get caught up.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Mucho Sewing

I've been doing so much sewing the last few days! Friday I attended Zakka class where I started a sewing machine cover and I will continue it at This Friday's session. Then Saturday I spent a lot of time cutting out two hand-piecing blocks and sewing on one of them. Sunday was hand-piecing class where we learned about curved piecing and I sewed more in the evening. Monday and this evening was more hand-piecing. I have finished 7 of the 16 blocks in the sampler and thought I would list them out here, since I only seem to have pictures of one or two.

First class was hand-piecing basics so we had very easy blocks:

Louisiana

Starry Path

Crow's Nest

The second class we tackled partial seams, which I hadn't done on machine either:

Hope of Heartford

Star of the Orient

Follow the Leader (not partial seams, just nice and easy)

Third class covered the sashing we would be constructing, so it had two easy blocks, one of which is complete:

Ohio Star

Today we got an email from our instructor saying that this last class had two templates that were drafted the incorrect size. We started on of the blocks in class, but I should have enough of the fabric to cut out new templates when they arrive,

This weekend I want to cut out the 4 blocks that I can. Then when I am on thaw plane to Vegas next week, I can be pumping out blocks.

The other fun thing that happened was Connie pulled the number for March, which was 9. That is my Fons and Porter Framed Star small quilt that needs binding. I'm glad this number was pulled since I will be away for a week and I really want to make progress on the hand-sewing. My February UFO has not ended up on Pinterest yet, so I will be emailing the quilt shop to see what happened.