UFO-Layer Cake Custard

Happy National Quilting Day! Seems appropriate to have a quilting post today don't you think. 

This quilt is a UFO of either three or four years I think. I know I started it one winter while in AZ. I pieced the blocks with the bars and then set it aside as they didn't come out the size I needed. I think perhaps the layer cake wasn't perfectly 10"🤔.  So it got put in time out. December I decided I needed to move it forward. After measuring everything I trimmed to a consistent size and then fudged a bit to make the square blocks the same size. Next thing I new I had a flimsy top all done, yipee!!

At that time I didn't feel quite ready to quilt it plus I had to find a backing. So back to the closet it went for time out.  Fast forward to March when I found the right color backing at Hobby Lobby and it was on sale:)  Most of you know I love freehanding my quilting but I thought perhaps I could try using a pantograph again. I love the designs but don't care for that method of quilting because I like seeing the stitching as it happens. Also love seeing exactly when I run out of bobbin thread!  But I had the perfect panto for this quilt.  Thursday morning I pinned it on the frame and went to get my laser light attached and for the life of me I can't find my laser light!!! You have to have a laser light to follow the panto.  After going through my longarm closet/room I gave up and decided to just freehand the hook swirl again.  Done is good, right.

Glide 40 wt. thread in a tan on top and a Glide 60 wt. in tan in the bobbin. 

 The top is all Island Batik fabrics while the backing is wide cotton from Hobby Lobby. I used Hobbs 80/20 batting. Once I get better photos this will make it's way into my Etsy shop.  

What did you do for National Quilting Day?  I went to my longarm meeting, so good to get out and spend time with friends.  This quilt was one of my show and tells. 

Linking with Sew and Tell, Monday Musings and Design Wall Monday

Crossed Canoe

This quilt was started in December last year, you can see the beginning post of it HERE. It is still in the WIP category in my opinion. Especially since it was still sitting out on my counter waiting for me to get back to it. When do you consider something as a WIP vs. a UFO?  For me if it goes into the closet it becomes a UFO. 

Back to the quilt, Saturday afternoon I had free sewing time so I decided this quilt needed some attention. I finished up the last 5 blocks that were needed. Remember I was running low on the background fabric and couldn't get anymore. So in order to make this a decent size quilt I am going to add purple sashings around each block. Then a 2" purple border before adding a piano key border of all the prints. However I need more of the purple and I am pretty sure I got it at Hobby Lobby and they are closed until Monday. 

A little better lighting after I got started on the outside border on Sunday. I will wait to do more after I make sure I can get more of the purple! I am only a few inches short I think but don't want to start and then find out I can't get more. The blocks are made using the  crossed canoe Accuquilt die. 

Linking with Design Wall Monday, This and That and Sew and Tell.

Pressing station is done!

I couldn't be happier with how my new pressing station came together!  It's all done and I have started moving in;)  I'll leave those two cubbies empty for now until I decide what other fabrics I want easily accessible. For now I have my fall/orange/gold/some browns in there because I will use them a lot in a few months. They were tucked away on the top shelf of my closet, now they will be easy to get at.  Also added were St. Patty fabrics and a few backings I need handy right now.  

Several of you were interested in my big board that hubby built several years ago. Here is the bottom of it. The 2x2's on the sides and end keep the board in place on top of a regular ironing board. It measures 22 x 60".  We had layered it with batting and a canvas and stapled it on.  Later I needed a new cover so I  T-pinned a new one on so I could more easily remove for a wash. Next thing I new I heard people using flannel for the cover so I bought yardage and just laid it over the top and tucked it between the big board and ironing board.

So after assembling the new Kallax unit we knew we needed to do something different on the bottom side of the big board. We left the original 2x2's and added three more sections in the middle so it would sit on top of the Kallax cubes. I needed it also for the right height for me. You might have noticed several little white pieces of wood on the side and ends of the 2x2's, those are the stoppers so the board won't move around and fall off the cubes.   This is just what worked for me, if you make one you might come up with other ideas that work better for you.

If you look again at my first photo you will see my big board sitting on top the cubes with the flannel cover I prefer. The flannel is still tucked in between the board and the cubes so I can easily take it off to wash or exchange it. The dollies/castors we bought from Harbor Freight are also screwed onto the bottom of the unit. We purchased two of them.

Both my bunny runners sold on Sunday so I finished two more yesterday.

Linking with TGIFF, Off The Wall, Finished or Not, Peacock Party, and Whoop Whoop.

Accuquilt sales for March 9-13 is an Extra 10% off GO! Qube Block Sets and Companion Sets (use code: MMQUBES10).   And on March 14th you get 2x the reward points. These are affiliate links.

A Pressing Matter and Fabric Acquisition

Last Friday the hubby and I went up to the Twin Cities so I could do some shopping. Our JoAnns is in the moving sale stage and so there aren't having the sales according to the ads. And there was some stuff on sale that I needed wanted, so we went there right after lunch. Plus SR Harris fabric outlet is always a draw for me;)  Here is what followed me home.  Pretty yellows for my sunflower runners, more of my favorite reds and the green for more shamrock runners(I did run out of that one). And the rest because I thought my supply of those specifics were low. This was the acquisition part of the trip.

The pressing matter was picking up this Kallax unit from IKEA.  Currently I have other brands of cubes for my cutting station and another for my Accuquilt station and I love them. This Kallax is going to be the base of my new pressing station:)  Years ago hubby made me a big board to put over my ironing board and it has served me very well. But I want/need more storage and so I got to looking on Pinterest and saw people using these cubes under their big boards. I am so excited and can't wait to get this all fixed.  We bought some dollies with casters from Harbor Freight and are going to mount them to the cube. Then I can roll it around as it will have to sit in front of my counters and I have stuff under the counters I need to get at from time to time. 

And to keep you up to date on my actually quilting, two more shamrock runners were made this week.

Linking with Design Wall Monday, Sew and Tell, and Monday Musings.

Project Quilting 14.5- Not Square!

Our task for Project Quilting 14.5 this week was to create something that was not square and make it without using a square. This was a really easy task for me as I just received some new shamrock fabrics and a coordinating greens. I ordered from JoAnns and from Marshall Dry goods and they both came the same day. So I set right out to make this round wedge shamrock topper. Now this style is nothing new to me as I have done them in lots of color ways.  There is definitely no squares involved!!

I do have a tutorial here on the blog, or you can find it under the tutorial heading above. They really are not that hard to make, they just look like it;)

When ordering fabrics online you never know if the colors are going to be exactly what you want. Especially if you are ordering from more than one place and you want all the fabrics to coordinate.  I anxiously opened the packages and OMG they all went together perfectly!!  I am sure I was squealing a bit because the hubby was giving me a look, LOL.  The backing fabric is the one from Marshall Dry Goods, I bought a whole bolt of it because that is the most cost effective way to go. I am sure I can use it for lots more table runners. 

Thanks to Tish for hosting the Project Quilting to which I am linking.  Looking forward to the next challenge to see if I can come up with something for it also.  More linky parties I am joining in with-Midweek Makers and Wednesday Wait Loss

ACCUQUILT has a special of 20% off your entire order when using code: QUILTMONTH23 until March 6th. These are affiliate links. 

Is it Spring yet?

I am so ready for spring to get here! We were in the midst of a winter storm this week, I think we got around a foot of snow. There were others not so far from here that received a lot more. But watching the snow coming down outside for a couple days made me yearn for spring, so I made my own spring by working with summery colors complete with flowers. These sweet daisies make me smile:)

There are some little flowers on the lighter colored wedges of this one too.

What do you think of this bright one. Think of how many occasions you could use this. It would be great as an Easter table topper, or how about all spring long or use it for a birthday party. 

                                  

Accuquilt---Buy one, get one 50% Off select GO! Dies (use code: TEXTBOGO50) Feb.24-26.

Also 2x Rewards for today Feb. 24th only!!

Linking with these Friday linky parties:

TGIFF

Peacock Party

Whoop Whoop

Finished or not Friday

Off The Wall

Beauty Pageant

And DrEAMI because I am dreaming of spring and that makes this a DrEAMI!

Sweet on you

The Sew it-Show it Challenge is hosted by Joan at MooseStash Quilting this month.  And the theme is 'Sweet on You'.  Right away I thought of Valentine's Day so that is what I went with. Plus I needed a little mini Valentine quilt for a little quilt hanger. This style of hanger pinches the quilt in between the boards making it so easy to change out seasonal quilts.

Now aren't these hearts just so sweet;)  This little wall hanging is 14x14 and packed full of Love!  After sandwiching my backing, batting and top I quilted it on my Funquilter in a diagonal cross hatch. Before binding it I appliqued the hearts on with a zig zag. The hearts and letters I made using Accuquilt dies. Three little red prairie points were added to the top before binding also. And topped off with three little white pearl buttons.

The pink little hearts on the background fabric just adds to the sweetness of my project.  We only got to enjoy it for a few days this Valentines season, but it will be all ready and waiting for next year. 

I hope you are enjoying the hop and are getting lots of inspiration!

Please check out my fellow bloggers who are participating in this hop today. But you can find the whole list for the week at MooseStashQuilting. Thank you Joan for hosting another fun hop!

Vicki's Crafts and Quilting (you are here)

Creatin' in the Sticks

Quilt Schmilt

Ms P Designs USA

The Crafty Grammie

Vroomans Quilts 

Words and Stitches

As an affiliate for Accuquilt I wanted to let you know...

Accuquilt has EXTENDED! - PRESIDENTS DAY SALE -- Extra 20% off Your Order (use code: PRESIDENTS) Thru Feb. 22nd.

February 23rd is a FLASH SALE! -- $20 Sale on select GO! Die Storage (use code: TIDYUP)

Linking with these parties: Wednesday Wait Loss, Midweek Makers

Project Quilting 14.4-QUILT

Project Quilting 14.4 is all about Novels- the rule was your project had to reflect a book you have read. The other rule is that it must meet at least one of these requirements: include patchwork, include appliqué, have 3 layers stitched together by hand or machine.

I took a few days to think about which book, as I have read several romance novels. However that is not the avenue I went down. My mind kept wandering back to quilting, I remembered really enjoying Jennifer Chiaverini books.  So my mini QUILT will remind me of those books while it hangs in my sewing room.  

I picked two scrap 10" squares of Island Batik fabrics and sandwiched batting between them. Let the quilting begin, since this was a small project I quilted it on my domestic machine with a decorative wiggle and then a straight stitch in between those lines.  The heart was cut using an Accuquilt heart die after applying fusible web to the blue batik fabric.  Accuquilt's 2" alphabet came in handy to cut QUILT out of felt which I had applied fusible web to also.  What a fun little wall hanging. This was my second PQ challenge and I really enjoyed it!

Linking with PQ 14.4, and Oh Scrap!

St. Patrick's Day projects

St. Patrick's Day fabrics are not so plentiful here this year.  Our JoAnn Fabrics is moving into a bigger building soon so they haven't been stocking as much in the old store. And the new one isn't open until early March I think.  Even Hobby Lobby doesn't have much, I did however pick up one piece there a few weeks ago. I did have one piece left from a previous year so I was able to make up a couple of table runners.

If you follow my blog you know how much I love making these round wedge toppers. My customers really seem to like them. If you are knew to my blog I have a tutorial on these under the Tutorial page in my header.

Next up is the reversed S swirl runners which are pretty popular. Until this year I haven't made these in shamrock fabrics.

There have been a couple of other projects I have in the works, one is for Project Quilting. That should be done and blogged on Saturday.  The other is for the upcoming Sew it-Show it Challenge hosted by Joan at MooseStash Quilting.  My day will be Tuesday Feb. 21st. I hope you will stop back and see my sweet project!  

Accuquilts PRESIDENTS DAY SALE -- Extra 20% off Your Order (use code: PRESIDENTS)  This sale runs from Feb 16.-Feb 22nd. 

On Feb 21st is Online event: Die Relaunch and Bundles! -- Register for chance to win prizes from Banyon Batiks

Those of you that purchase from my Affiliate links I thank you so much!!

Linking with: TGIFF, Whoop Whoop, Finished or Not, Peacock Party, Off The Wall Friday

A scrap of binding, a scrap of batting

Do you ever have those days that you just don't know what you want to work on?  That was my case yesterday morning. There is always projects I am working on or should be working on. But none of them tripped my trigger on Saturday. Until I was reading Nancy's blog post! She talked about her little portable design boards. I have wanted to make some for a long time, but never took the time.  I had a foam core board, and I happened to have a scrap piece of warm and white cotton batting. And we all know there is always a scrap of binding! Forty five minutes later I have a little design board.

Nancy had a link to a you tube tutorial that used fusible web instead of hot glue to secure the binding. I used the web and it made it so quick and easy. My board is cut at 12.5" because that was the ruler I had handy. Of course then I had to try it out:) One more Hunter Star block in the making. 

Linking with Oh Scrap!

Accuquilt -- has Free Shipping on All Orders (use code: FOOTBALL) today only  and don't forget to register for their  Online event: Valentine's Day trunk show! -- Register for chance to win prizes from Timeless Treasures. This link will take you to the main Accuquilt page and then click on Events to see all the upcoming ones.

Sweet bunny love

Down the rabbit hole I went again😀.  These cute little guys have stolen my heart.  I can see them in all different color ways. But I kept it to only two for these finishes. 

Just imagine this bunny hopping around in the green Easter grass. The gingham might represent the fence and he's such a good little bunny staying inside the fence. 

The next color was a pretty purple, and man was it hard to photograph! It kept coming out blue instead of purple. I asked my hubby for ideas of how to make it more true to the color. He came up with shining a red light at it while I shot the photo and it worked!  The purple might be a field of lavender or lilacs that the bunny is frolicking around in. Both of these have the same backing fabric. 

I have also started a little baby quilt in order to try out the Hunter Star Accuquilt die.  Now I have used other methods of making a hunter star and I thought they were great. However now I am totally liking the Accuquilt die. Everything lines up so nice and it is easy to sew. No Y seams.  You make four 6" blocks and join them to make a 12" block. There are four blocks here. I am thinking I'll do nine blocks for a 36" quilt and maybe add borders. We'll see, I'm just playing and enjoying the process with no hurry to get it done. 

And to get out of the sewing room a bit here and there I have been putting puzzles together this month. A friend loans me a few at a time. This hummingbird is a whole different kind of puzzle than I am used to. The only ones I have ever done are square or rectangular and this one is just the hummingbird attached to the flower with only his beak! The brown is my card table. 

Linking with Put Your Foot Down, Whoop Whoop, Finished or not Friday, TGIFF, Beauty Pageant.

From 2/9-2/13 Accuquilt is offering $536 off Ready Set GO! cutting system (use code: RSGSAVE) and 2/11-2/28 is their SEMI-ANNUAL SALE! -- 70% off Clearance Items (while supplies last) If you use these links I will receive a small commission as an affiliate. 

Sweet Love

Over the weekend I finished up my Sweet Love UFO!  You might remember seeing the flimsy in THIS POST in July of 2020 when I finished piecing it. However I wasn't ready to quilt it as I really wanted to have another row of blocks so I didn't have a square quilt. So I put it in time out to have time to figure out what to do. I didn't think I had any of the Pie Making Day jelly left. 

Fast forward a to last Friday when I was going through some fat quarters and what should I find but some scraps of this jelly left. Figured up what I needed and darn I am short a bit. So I decided to hunt through some other modern fabrics and found three I thought would blend enough. A hour later the blocks were done and sewn to the flimsy.  

Next came the decision for the outer borders. The pattern from Villa Rosa Designs called Sweet Love called for just adding a 2" background for the border. Once again I wanted to do something a little different and add more borders. Up first was the 2" background border and then I got stumped as I didn't think the gray polka dot was going to work after all. A lot of time was spent interviewing different fabrics and nothing caught my eye. I really wanted that polka dot gray to work! So I left it overnight and then decided perhaps adding a dark gray skinny first would work. Saturday I texted a friend and got her opinion, she liked it. Pedal to the metal and I got those borders on. 

Then I pinned it on the long arm and freehanded an allover lettuce leaf feather.  Sunday the binding went on. Bing, Bang, Boom I have a finished UFO!!! Doing the happy dance:)  

In December Marshall Dry Goods in Arkansas sent an email with their wide backings at a really good price. Being in business I can order wholesale, I bought a whole bolt of this gray wide backing with scrolls. The intent was to use it for my snowman table runner backings. But it was just perfect for this quilt, I still have lots left for those snowmen runners. My quilt finished at 64 x 68 I think. I need to measure and get better photos so I can list it in my shop. 

Linking with: Sew and Tell, Design Wall, This and That.  Thank you ladies for hosting each week!

Lots of sales going on at Accuquilt too, 50% off select dies until 2/10/23.  15% off downloadable embroidery.  Ending today is 55% off Studio Dies and Studio bundles.  Thanks to those of you who buy through my affiliate links!

Flimsy time!

 So it is not a true finish but I am pretty darn happy I got this UFO to flimsy finish this week! For the past two weeks I worked on this off and on.

Documentation was never made as to when I started this. But I know it was in the last four years as it was started when I was in Arizona. The pattern is Layer Cake Custard from Fat Quarter Shop, fabric is from Island Batik.  Fifteen of the blocks were constructed back then. I stopped because not all the blocks were coming out the size I needed to pair up with the more solid blocks. A good lesson learned to complete one block and measure it. 

Fast forward to two weeks ago, I am tired of scooting this UFO box around every time I want to move my ironing board. 

So out it came and I fudged and trimmed and got everything to line up. Made up the more solid blocks and I am happy with how it came to a flimsy stage. Now to find a backing for it. I would like a wide backing in a cream print.

Linking with:

TGIFF

Finished or Not Friday

Whoop Whoop

Peacock Party