Progress on UFO's during the Lockdown

It's Monday again! How did that happen?! Hope you all had a great week. Lockdown continues (to be eased, phase #2, as from May 1, 2021) and the week has been wet, wet, wet! Lots of rain which caused flooding in the South-eastern part of the island. It has been raining in our area too, but that's nothing compared to the South-East. No venture out except twice a week (lockdown restrictions) and the rain! Thank goodness for fabric and notions, stay inside and stay dry! 

I've taken a break from the pineapple blocks. I am going to make more blocks, at least one more row to the side and bottom, which would make a good size throw. I may do two rows; twin quilt, depending on the strips I've left. ...as if that is a problem; I can always cut more, if needed! 

Since my previous post, I've been working on other UFO's. 

The PSQ (with the stubborn backing) is quilted and trimmed, ready for the binding! I haven't had a close-up' look on how skewed the backing actually is, but after a quick look it doesn't look that bad. 

The scrappy Christmas quilt is quilted too! I had in mind a red and green scrappy binding, I shall see what I have left of Christmas fabric. 

Does any of you use Aurifil 50Wt for quilting? This is the first time I've used it (ran out of SuperiorThread's King Tut and Masterpiece). I love it! 

Pinned and thread basted! The 'flying geese' and blocks are leftovers from this quilt. Bits and pieces of 'ugly' and 'not so ugly' fabric are added. This quilt was supposed to be backing for another quilt. During my creative process - haha! - I came to the conclusion it's too beautiful to be hidden at the back of a quilt! What do you think? 

Any suggestion how to quilt this one? I'm thinking 'stitch-in-the-ditch' on all the 'flying geese' and blocks.  Maybe cross-hatch quilting on the rectangles and FMQ on the bigger pieces? I didn't take photos of the latter, part of them can be seen on the previous photo, side of the table. 

As if this was not enough, I've pieced together another PSQuilt.

How come 3 blocks are missing? I swear I made 48 blocks, because I made the other PSQ first, wanted to use up more 2.5' squares and knew exactly how many blocks are needed. I did count the blocks several times before I put them away (last year). I've been hunting high and low but didn't find them. I'm sure the troll has stolen them!!!  I had to pull out all the 2.5' squares already cut and made 3 new blocks. 

I don't think I have a 'square-problem'! LOL I had fun making the 3 extra blocks, now I'm tempted to make more 36-patches blocks for another PSQ! I really want to use up more of these squares. 

...and 5 new blocks for the scrappy 1.5' quilt. 

A new week, new possibilities. Not sure what I'm doing today. It's raining. Binding has to be cut and sewn to the Christmas quilt and PSQ, I may do that, but first..... COFFEE! 

HAPPY QUILTING WEEK! 

Scrappy Pineapple Blocks and Lockdown

Good Monday morning!

I hope your week has been a good one and that you have been busy in your sewing room. We are on partly lockdown until April 30, 2021. I'm not going to say much about it except that we are allowed shopping etc twice a week only, on alphabetical orders. It works fine with us, one just have to adapt. Of course I miss my daily (almost daily) walk. Yep, we are not even allowed to go for a walk or take our dog for a walk! It has been raining almost daily for the last week, too wet for yard work, which is long overdue. Due to the lockdown restrictions, we also missed our sweetest girl's 5th birthday! Same happened last year! After watching the photos her Mom sent, I know she had a fabulous birthday. Hopefully next year we will be able to celebrate her birthday together.  

Thank goodness I have fabric and thread to keep me busy! Thanks to all of you who commented on my previous post. I did listen! 

The scrappy pineapple quilt has grown from 16 (previous post) to 30 blocks! If I stop here, it will measure about 55 x 66 inches / 140 x 167 cm, lap quilt size. I'm tempted to make it into a twin size quilt! What do you think? It has made a small dent in the scrap (strips) boxes, and there's enough for more blocks. 

 I love the 'circles' and 'waves'. Squint a bit and you'll see it more clearly. 

I'm taking some days break from pineapple blocks. They are fun, but a bit tedious to make. Actually it takes me 1.5 hours to make one (paper piecing), 53 pieces per block. I think I deserve a break! 

Today I'm going to start quilting a UFO! It is made of 2.5' squares from swaps and some of my own cut squares. I'm not sure I like the backing.... almond/pastel colors, but I thought the back would be fun with geometric fabric. It's a wide backing (108'). It was so skewed and I had a hard time straightening it. It's not new to me how to do it and with help from hubby and lots of tape, I think we managed pretty well. Time will tell how straight it is when it's trimmed and the binding has to be attached.  

Time for another cuppa before I remove everything (strips!) from the table to make space for quilting this large quilt. 

HAPPY QUILTING! 

Scrap-Happy Pineapples; continue, or not?

 Good Saturday morning! 

I hope it's a good morning for you? Not so good for me; I had one of those rare nights when I woke up just after 02:00 a.m. and no chance getting back to sleep again. After about one hour twisting and turning, listening to the rain and thunder rolling in the distance (I think it was the distant thunder that woke me up) and looking at the clock umpteen times, I gave up and got up! Even the cat was surprised to see me that early! Usually it's him who wakes me up when it's 'food o'clock', but today I woke him up! HA! Revenge for all the early mornings he has terrorized me to get out of bed to feed him! I've made myself a strong, big cuppa. The coffee should kick in soon and make me feel more awake, but I definitely see a nap coming later today. 

UFO finishing goes very slow so far this year. During the lockdown last year, I finished several UFO's because I was so determined to finish as many as possible. This year I've been a slug; we are into month #4 and I have finished the UFO for January only. 

Yesterday, after I finished quilting and thread basted the binding on a table topper, I pulled out one of my UFO's; scrappy pineapple blocks.

I have 16 blocks (I made one yesterday). Each block has 53 strips and measures 11.50" square (before sewn into quilt). 

I've been debating with myself either to stop it here (wall quilt) or continue making it into a bed quilt

My conclusion; with all those strips left, I'll continue making blocks and turn it into a bed size quilt. What do you think? My goal is to make one block a day, until I have enough blacks for a bed quilt. Time will show if I stick to my goal! :) 

Patriotic Table Runners, This and That

 I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. For us, it was just normal days. Here, compared to Norway, there are no public holidays related to Easter. In Norway; Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays. Now that we are on partial lockdown (phase #1 in reopening), all church services are closed. If you would like to know more about lockdown Easter celebration in Mauritius, click here. 

UFO's are put aside, since I'm currently working on two Patriotic table runners. It's a custom order to one in the US. 

OOOH! That photo doesn't look that good, shot in the late afternoon in lamp light, but alas, you see what it is! lol This flag is in the centre of the table runner, which measures approximately 82 inches / 208 cm). Since the customer wanted a monogram, I have hand embroidered 'May 17, 1814' at the top and bottom of the flag. This date is the day the second oldest (after the US) constitution was signed and celebrated as Norway's National Day. 

The second table runner is shorter and doesn't have any monogram. Not visible here, but the pinwheels differ slightly from the longest table runner. Both are quilted and ready for the binding. 

Does any of you have an on-going project? 

My insanity project! 1.5 inches squares. So far, I have pieced together 1512 squares. For not being overwhelmed by all these tiny squares, I piece them together when I see there's enough for 2-3 36-patch blocks.

All the arcs for the Double Wedding Ring quilt is done.

...and in between quilting and housework

LHN's 'Coffee Menu'. Love how it turns out! Not much left to do. I love doing counted cross-stitching again; fun and relaxing. 

Our bougainvillea in full bloom.

HAPPY QUILTING!