Progress on UFO's - AGAIN!

UFO's! UFO's! UFO's! That's what has been going on since my previous post! I have not started anything new, even if that has been very tempting a few times. I'm determined to finish as many UFO's as possible this year and so far so good! The PSQ #1 and the Scrappy Christmas Quilt - here - are both FINISHED! No photos yet. 

The last couple of weeks, I've been working on PSQ #2 and the Pineapple Quilt. For the PSQ #2, the blocks were done last year, but not pieced together. As you can see here, 3 blocks were missing (still not found!). New blocks were made and a flimsy was born! 

Does it happen you add pieces of batting together? I do, I zigzag the pieces together. I'm running out of batting and for this quilt I have pieced five pieces together to make it big enough.

A sneak peek of the pieced backing. I always pin and thread baste the 3 layers together before quilting. I've had my share of puckers when using pins only and don't want a repeat of wasted time ripping seams! I was wondering why the cat was so quiet and to where he had disappeared... HA! Under the table, on the quilt! Cats always find the best place to keep warm.

Poor 'Dear Nina'! This is how the bobbin case looked like after less than half of the quilt was quilted!

 It's all done and I hope to get the scrappy binding on by the weekend. 

42 blocks! Phyllis over at Jambearies suggested I add an additional row on one side and one at the bottom and call it quit, to make it a good size throw. ...and so I did!...so far! I'm not going to make more of these blocks, at least not for awhile! LOL. Elzaan over at Huisvlyt suggests a piano key border! ... which means the quilt would keep growing! I think that would look nice, but really, am I willing to add more work to it? I have to decide on backing too. Any suggestion? Scrappy? I may have some 'ugly' fabric that can be used. 

Removing the paper from each block took F-O-R-E-V-E-R! 

At one point, while making the pineapple blocks, it didn't look like it made any dent in the amount of strips at all! But now, after sorting strips - again - the amount is reduced from two to one box! Yippie!!!

HAPPY QUILTING!!!

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!