Finish A-Long goals for 4th Quarter

Last quarter was my first time joining in on the fun at the 2013 Finish A-Long hosted by Leanne at she can quilt.  I had listed 5 projects that I had hoped to finish and I am happy to say I completed 4 of them!  I didn't expect to finish that many and am feeling pretty happy about it.  So I am following that success with even loftier goals this quarter!  Here's the list...

The English Paper Pieced snowflake quilt needs to get quilted!  As I was hoping to use this on my sofa this holiday, I just can't let this one slip.  The top has been finished for months yet I seem to have waited until the last moment. 

 (sigh)

Of course the "scrappy goose" is going on the list.  I have a plan now so I just need to not only get the blocks pieced into a quilt top, but it will need to be worked into the quilting queue.  

That is always the hardest for me.

 This project was the hold out from last quarter.  This quilt top has been done for about 4 years and just never seems to make it to the top of the pile.  

Maybe this quarter....

Here's another quilt top that just needs quilting.  This was made with leftover "chunks" of fabrics that were hanging around my sewing room.  I had a pile of those turquoise strips that were the by-product from an older project and I just couldn't toss them.  So of course I had to design a whole quilt around them!

 (This quilt top did clean out a bunch of scraps from the sewing room so its a "win" already!)

 And finally, I purchased these fabrics with the intent on making a bunch of fabric buckets for my studio and sewing room almost a year ago.  They have been sitting on my sewing table since.  I say these need to get done by the end of the year also.

Well, there you have it.  Five more items I would love to get off my project list.  Don't worry, there will still be those new projects I want to start or the impulse "great" idea I get late at night for a new scrap design.  You can bet there will be lots of those and I will be sharing everything with you.

Wish me luck!! I am going to need it!

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, Thursday Threads at 627handworks and Really Random Thursday at Live a Colorful Life.

Moving forward and Looking ahead

Yes...I am still working on this *@^# scrappy quilt.  Don't get me wrong, I really like how it is turning out.  But it has grown into a much larger quilt than I had originally planned.  Plus, there is far too much cutting and scrap sorting on this one!  Truthfully, I am extremely bored with it....however, I am determined to keep moving forward.

I have finally reached the point where I need to decide the block layout so I thought I would get your input.

I was originally going to set the blocks on point.  I like how this looks but I am struggling with how to treat the inset triangles.

(We will call this option #1)

But today I thought it might look interesting to stagger the blocks. 

(option #2)

Or I can set the blocks to create a pinwheel effect with the geese.  I have made something like this in the past and liked the finished effect. (option #3)



(sorry about the blurry picture)

What do you think....Do you have a favorite?


I am really motivated to get this off my design wall as I found out last week that I won some of Amy Smart's (Diary of a Quilter) patterns!  Yay!!  As you know, I took part in the100 Quilts for Kids drive this year and I won the below suite of patterns!  I love Amy's patterns due to their scrappiness and have decided to make each one completely out of my scraps/stash.
(backs and all) 

So feel free to also weigh in on which one you would like to see me work on first.  You can bet I will be starting on one of these as soon as the scrappy geese blocks are all sewn together!

...and if you would like a copy of these patterns yourself, you can click on each picture and it will take you to Amy's pattern site.  I have already looked at the patterns and they are really well written.
I know I can't wait to get started.

Linking up with Stitch by Stitch for Anything Goes Monday and Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.

It's a Real Puzzle!

When I updated my list of projects for the month of September, I was shocked to realize how many scrap quits I completed. So how is it I still have a full bin of scraps! 

I know all quilters laugh and joke that scraps multiply when you are not looking but I am thinking there just might be something to it.

As I was going through pictures, I did notice I had failed to share this scrap finish with you. (You can read more about this quilt here and here.)

I finally finished up the quilting and snapped a quick picture between the torrential rain we are having here in the northwest.

Boy has it rained!  Thanks goodness for rubber boots!

 The fun surprise is the quilting.


Yes, that's the real puzzle! ( hee hee )

I used the squares in the quilt top piecing to quilt the appearance of puzzle pieces. (On this quilt, each puzzle piece is about 4" square.)  

 

 It is very simple to do as it is just line quilting with alternating bumps and dips.

Using my longarm, I just did grid quilting so it was continuous and did not require turning the quilt on the frame.  The only thing that stopped me was having to replace the bobbin!

Now onto the next scrap quilt!

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, TGIFF, Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, and FMQ Friday with Leah Day.