A Finish..... finally

Wow, what is my world coming to? Two posts in one day, and I think maybe a post every day for the past week or so........ not bad, not bad at all. The weather finally cleared up enough for me to be able to get outside and get some pictures. I have been working on this quilt for so long, since May of 2013, according to past records here on the blog, that it feels rather strange to be no longer working on it. Her she is, in all her glory...... announcing....... Meteor Shower!!!

 Here's a closer look at all the fun colours in the center of the quilt. I had so much fun playing with all of these bright colours. It's such a sunny happy quilt. Every time I look at it, I smile. As stated many time before, the credit for the design of this quilt goes to Judy Martin. The pattern for this is found in her book Scraps. I think the instant love I felt for this quilt was in large part due to the colours, so I followed the colours she used fairly closely.

Here's one of the corners. The quilting design shows up really well in this shot. I used a very simple, open and flowing star in star pantograph. I didn't want any competition between the quilting and the piecing.

And lastly, a close up of one of the corners, showing my favourite diagonally striped faux piped totally machine sewn binding. I'm running low on those diagonal stripes. It might be getting to be time to do some shopping for some more.
I am linking up this celebration of a finish to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday

What I'm working on......

I've been doing binding. Other than getting a hanging sleeve sewn on, Meteor Shower is done!! It's pouring down rain outside today, so I can't get a picture of the whole thing, but here's a tease.

The bottom corner showing the diagonal striped binding, with a narrow orange faux piping. Completely done by machine. I can't imagine the time it would have taken to do this one by hand, considering the quilt measures somewhere around 100 inches square.

I'm still working on the Blooming Nine Patch. I'm starting to sew the diagonal rows together, even though I don't have all the nine patches done. I can always add them to either end of the rows once I get that far. I'm running out of room on the wall, and sewing them together makes the rows shrink quite a bit, giving more room on the wall. I'm going to make more nine patches tonight, after linking up to The Needle and Thread Network.

Design Wall Monday, Sept. 1, 2014

This isn't my design wall. It's our design back yard lawn, the only place big enough with good enough light to be able to lay this out. It is currently 92 inches square. It has one more border to add. It will be one of the light blues in the quilt, and four inches wide. That is today's goal, to get that last border on. Then I can work on getting a backing done, and getting it quilted. I have been working on getting this UFO done for the last two or three months. I love this quilt, called Meteor Shower, from Judy Martin's book Scraps, but I am getting awfully tired of working on it. Our daughter, Becca, came out to see what I was taking pictures of, and it turns out she loves it too. So it might eventually end up living on their bed. In the meantime, I'm going to link up to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday, and then get those last borders sewn on.

Making progress.....

I'm working on Meteor Shower, a pattern by Judy Martin from her book Scraps, I have three sides of the border finished.

It's quite windy outside today, so I had to find some stones to hold it down while I quickly took the picture. My goal for this weekend is to get this baby done! I have six more of the small stars to put together, and then I can assemble the last of the pieced borders. Then there is another coloured border on the outside, although I have yet to decide what fabric or colour that will be. I think I am going to see if I can find a nice star pantograph for the quilting.
Time to go and do some more.......

Design wall Monday, again on Tuesday...

I'm late, again, posting this. Maybe I should name mine design wall Tuesday. Except, that if I did that, it would probably end up getting written on Wednesday. Oh well, better late than not at all. I don't have anything up on my big design wall, at the moment. I continue to slug away at this particular UFO, called Meteor Shower, by Judy Martin. The center is done. The big stars for the four outer corners are done. I am now working on one set of side borders at a time. Three out of six stars for the first of the four borders are done. I hope to get the last three sewn up tonight. Then I can get that first border assembled and sewn onto the quilt. I would like to have this one done long before the end of this month. We'll see how it goes. I have to be careful when it comes to attaching the borders, because the way the stars are turned and the side each border attaches to depends on the colours in the stars. Somebody remind me that, when I start the next new quilt, I should make it an easy one. My brain is just about fried after the last three quilts I've finished. Each of them have been large and complex. Maybe the next should be an easy string quilt, or something like that.
Anyway, I'm going to like up to Judy's Design wall Monday, even if it is Tuesday, then I'll go back to sewing stars and listening to the soothing music of Fernando Ortega.

Saturday Sew-in day

We had a sew-in day sponsored bu the guild today. It started at 9 am and went to 4 pm. I didn't get there until about 9:20, and it took until about 10 to get all my stuff sorted out, and my brain semi-clear enough to begin handling sharp objects. It took me all of the rest of the day, with an hour taken for lunch, to get one more of the Meteor Shower blocks done. Of course, there might have been just a little bit of talking and visiting and checking out what other people were working on involved during that time.

 The picture is a little bit blurry, and the colours are a bit off, but you get the idea. One of the reasons it took so long to put this together was because I didn't have a big enough design space to be able to spead out and see what was going where. I decided that, when I got home, I would fix that.

Here's my solution. I found a piece of foam core board and covered it with a scrap of batting, using duct tape to hold the batting onto the board. And now I can put all the pieces up where they are supposed to be, and not have to keep rearranging them and checking them and re-laying them out in order to keep track of what I am doing. I only have 2 more of these large blocks to do, and this should make doing them go much easier, and much faster. My own portable small design wall.

Design wall Monday on Tuesday

This seems about par for the course for my life these days. I'm behind, yet again. I'm getting lots of quilting done, but not much else. Our guild quilt show is coming up in October, and I'm trying to use my time better in order to get all the quilts done. I can manage the ones coming in from customers OK. It's getting to my own that is presenting the problems. I'm quite certain this is common throughout the long arm profession people. But, I will persevere, and with better time management, I should be able to get more done. Part of that time management is going to have to be spending less time on this contraption.
I spent the day over at Gail's on Saturday, and managed to get 2 more of the big star blocks put together for Meteor Shower, a design by Judy Martin found in her book Scraps.

The center nine block are now all finished and sewn together. The design calls for a large star block in each corner, and a plain border and a border of small stars that run in between each of the large corner stars. If I get time in the evenings this week, I'll work on the corner stars. There is also a guild sew-in day coming up on Saturday that I am planning on attending. I really want to get this quilt finished and entered into the quilt show.
I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday and also to Connie's Linky Tuesday. Then I really need to get off this computer and get this day going.

Design Wall Monday, June 30, 2014

I still have Meteor Shower, a design by Judy Martin, up on the wall. It has grown a little bit more, but only because it was raining yesterday, so after the marathon jam making session, I couldn't go back outside. So I stayed in to sew instead. There was another marathon jam making session today, too, that ended up with another 14 500ml jars of strawberry jam.

This quilt was part of my June goal for The Lovely Year of Finishes. I had started off the month wanting to get all of the remaining large star blocks done. Midway through the month I amended that goal to just getting the blocks in the main body of the quilt done. As shown here, I didn't make that one, either. So, I will just have to extend that into July. I have a lot of quilts to do in July, and we're going to be away for a week, as well, so I'm going to be easy on myself and just say that I will try to finish the last two blocks that are in progress up there. After that, there are only three more large blocks to do, which will probably be August's job, along with a lot of little stars for the border. They are really easy to do, no set in seams for the little ones. There's a guild sew-in day at the end of July. Maybe I'll take those to work on then....... sounds like a plan to me.
I'm going to link up to Judy's Design wall Monday and also to the June's Finish Party at The Lovely Year of Finishes. Then I think I'll head back outside and see if the fireflies are out yet.

Design Wall Monday, June 23, 2014

I've still got Meteor Shower a design by Judy Martin, up on my wall. It's grown by a couple of blocks since the last time I took a picture of it to show here. It is a complex design, and requires my brain to be fully focused when working on it. One second of not paying attention, and something ends up turned the wrong way, or a colour in the wrong spot. That means it's going slower than I hoped.This is June's UFO, and my goal was to have all 12 of the large blocks done by the end of the month. given that it's already the 23rd, I don't think that's going to happen. Of course, it didn't help that I spent the first half of the month playing with a new project, rather than working on this. I'll settle for finishing the last 2 of the blocks needed for finishing the center of this quilt.
I have a dinner to go to tonight for the end of the year on the program committee for the guild, so this is going to be a very short post. I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday, and then I'd better get ready to go.

Design Wall Monday on Tuesday, June 3, 2014

 I'm a day late with this, but that's better than not at all. I was going to do this yesterday evening, but ended up reading all evening. It's the first time in a long time that I've had a book that I started and finished all in one day because I couldn't put it down. It was called The Midwife's Confession, and it was really good!! Anyway, last time I posted on Sunday, I mentioned I was thinking of doing up a few new blocks. Well, I did, and here they are. I have a bunch more cut out and ready to go. I'm sewing the bonus triangles into broken dishes blocks as I go, and might use them in a border for this quilt, once it gets to that point. I have a bin of fun modern prints, along with some black and whites. The plan is to use the black and whites somewhere in every block, some lights and some darks, and see where this takes me. It felt really good to play with something new.

However, I have not given up working on my UFO's. Meteor Shower, another design by Judy Martin in her book Scraps, is going to be this month's assignment. However, I don't think I'll be able to get the whole thing done this month, so I'll break the goal up into at least two months. It needs six more of these large star blocks, so I think that's what I'll give myself as this months' goal. Next month will be the little stars and putting it together. This should be doable, and still give me lots of time to get this one, and a few others quilted up before our quilt show in October.
It's coming up on canning and preserving season, so I have to give myself some time for that. I currently have about 10 pounds of rhubarb sitting in my kitchen waiting to be processed, so, after I link up to Judy's Design Wall Monday and A Lovely Year of Finishes for the June goal setting party, I'm off to do some rhubarb crisps for the freezer and some pie fillings, plain rhubarb and some strawberry rhubarb using some frozen berries from last year. There might be jars on my counter to take pictures of tomorrow. It's still warm outside, with a gorgeous breeze, so I think I'm going to take the rhubarb and my cutting mat outside.

Design Wall Monday, Sept. 30, 2013

Well, today turned out a little differently than I had planned first thing this morning. I had a sewing day planned. I was going to put the last border on Orca Bay, and then lay it out on the lawn for pictures. But, sometime around noon, my husband had the weather network on, saw how beautiful it is supposed to be for the next few days, and suggested a day trip out to the Pinery Provincial Park to scope out and choose a campsite. I very enthusiastically agreed and off we went, and found a lovely campsite that we have booked for the next 4 days. We'll go up Tuesday morning, and come back Saturday. It's supposed to be warm and sunny all those days, and then turn wet and cooler Sunday.
So, all this means that, instead of a design wall, or a design lawn, I have a design ironing board.

I'm planning one more border for this, of about 4 inches, in the red.
Then, the other plan I had for today, was to start working on another UFO. I couldn't decide if I wanted to work on

Great Granny Squares,

Thanksgiving Leaves or

Meteor Showers.

So, I took my indecision, and texted Gail and asked her to choose one for me. This was before Scott turned on the Weather Network which prompted the impulsive trip to the Pinery. Her choice was Great Granny Squares. I was all prepared to go searching for it and start working on it, after I got those other borders sewn on.

Plan B for the next 4 days is to take the Thanksgiving leaves with me while camping. The only reason this one is going with me is because it as all together in one tote. I don't have to go looking for anything in order to work on it. (I really need to do this with all of my projects. It makes life so much easier) However, I will pull out the Great Granny Squares when we get home, and assign it as the next to be worked on until finished project. And somehow, it seems rather appropriate to take a project with fall leaf colours out camping in the fall leaf coloured campground. Although, truth be told, the leaves are just at the very beginning of changing. Everything out there is still mostly green, except for the sumac and the poison ivy, which are turning bright red. I had also hoped to be taking some new wool and a new sweater pattern called Pinery with me. But the new wool hasn't arrived yet, and that's probably a good thing. This way I will be forced to finish a couple of things before starting something else. Highly sensible, but no where near as much fun.
And now, I'm going to finish getting my sewing and knitting stuff together for leaving tomorrow, after I link up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday, August 5, 2013

Lots of stuff going on here today. I finished my Grandmother's choice quilt last night, and put it up on the wall to see what the final product looks like.

I like it. So now, it goes onto the pile waiting to be quilted.

 

Then, I wanted to see what Meteor Shower looks like, now that I have a few more blocks made. There are 13 of these squares to do. Another one that I really liking the way it looks.
 This is on my getting it done list for August, to get a couple more of the blocks done.













And then, I just had to put up some of the blocks and sashing for the Lazy Sunday Mystery, just to see what it looks like. I love it!! I so want to start sewing this one together. But first, I finish sewing the binding on my Dresden Plates. I'm trying really hard to finish things, rather than bumping from one thing to another. Although, I've bumped from on thing to another today on the wall, similar to what's going on in my mind. So many things I want to get done, but none of them get done if I keep bouncing from one project to another.I must develop some self discipline....... yeah right...... like that's going to happen. LOL!
I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday, and then I'm going to start in on that binding.

Design Wall Monday, July 22, 2013

I have a couple of things up today. We had a sewing day at the guild on Saturday, and I took my quilt project Thanksgiving, which is a pattern by Judy Martin, in her book Patchwork Among Friends. I took this one because I figured it needed less concentration than Meteor Shower, so that I'd be able to visit and sew at the same time, without running into problems. Well, this wasn't quite true, so there was a bit of ripping done, because I wasn't paying close enough attention to what I was doing. But, I came away from the day with another block done. Four down, 12 to go.

The other one I have up is Meteor Shower. I have 4 blocks done, and another about a third of the way done. This quilt needs 13 of the 2 coloured blocks. This too, is a Judy Martin pattern, from her book Scraps. I'm hoping to do some more on this one today, and get that 5th block done.

We're planning to take off for a week camping either tomorrow or the next day, so I need to get some projects ready to take with me, as well. I'm just not sure yet, what I want to take. It isn't likely that we'll get a hydro site, so whatever I take will have to be hand work. I'll have to rummage around and see what I can find. Maybe I'll have time to get some more prepared for My Tweets, and get back to working on that one.

I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday, where there's lots of other fun and inspiring things to see.

Design Wall Monday, June 3, 2013

I have a whole pile of 36 patches and 4 patches up on the wall. It's interesting to see how different it looks in the picture that when looking at the real thing. For instance, looking at the picture I can see that the 36 patch square that is in the second row down and 3 in from the left isn't working. The contrast between the lights and darks in that square aren't as crisp as they should be. Maybe that one will end up on the back. I really like having the left over 4 patches acting as a border on it. I've been wondering what to do about a stop border between the body of the quilt and the four patches. Right now it's just the design wall showing through, but I think I like the way white looks in there. So maybe, instead of trying all kinds of different colours, I'll use white as the frame. I have 23 of the blocks done, although if I remove the one that's not working, that makes  22. Eight more to go and this baby is done. It is a perfect piece to work on while resting my brain from working on Meteor Shower.

I have 2 blocks finished and a third about half done. The third one is all blues and oranges as well. The next ones will be pinks and oranges. It's complex, but I'm enjoying doing it. I'm linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday, then I'm going to play with a few more 36 patches before going in to work this afternoon.

May Newfo Challenge

This past month, I decided that the new quilt that I would start would be Judy Martin's Meteor Shower. I left it rather late in the month before starting, it, so I didn't get a lot done on it. Add to that, it is a very complex pattern that requires full brain engagement, so it hasn't gotten very far. I spent most of last night working on the second block.

I have over half of it done now, the second block, not the quilt. I really like this one, so I'm going to keep going on it. I may start something else new in June. Actually, it's almost guaranteed I will start something else new in June, I'm just not sure right now what that will be. I'm so excited about the way this is looking that I actually am having a hard time thinking about any others. I wonder how long that will last? I'm linking up to Barb's Newfo Challenge link box. Stayed tuned for more of the story...... will she or won't she.........

Friday catch up

I've been really busy this week, working on customer quilts. I finished Charlene's, and loaded Maureen's Easy Street. I can't show  a pic of Charlene's until she picks them up, but I can show a sneak peak of Maureen's.

I spent a large part of Wednesday evening and yesterday cutting the fabrics to start making Meteor Shower. Last night I finally had enough cut to be able to begin sewing. This one requires the total engagement of the brain in order to make sure that all the colours are in the right place and that none of the units are turned the wrong way. I found that out the hard way, which involved a couple of sessions of unsewing. But I am lovin' what I'm seein'. One of the light blues in the light blue star section is a bit too pale, but I have something in my stash that can replace that particular fabric. This pattern is my Newfo for May. I hadn't thought I'd get much more done on it, since we were planning on going away next week. Those plans have since changed, so there is a whole week left to sew on these, and also some other things. Right now, I'm going to pull out my Grandmother's Choice box, and piece together 2 blocks, and see if I can't keep doing 2 per week until I'm caught up.

May Newfo

I got so excited yesterday, after posting the pictures of this quilt that I want to start this month, that I went to my drawers of fabric, and starting pulling colours.
 I need bright and pastel oranges,

 bright and pastel blues,

 bright and pastel purples. These look more blue here than purple. But they are purples.

 Bright and pastel pinks,

and bright and pastel greens. I'm not sure exactly when I'm actually going to start cutting and sewing for this quilt, But these are going into a project box all their own, to bake and simmer and shake around some more. I want to check my various sized strip boxes, as well.
The next thing to find is about 20 some odd different creams and beiges and tans. When I find those, and as I find them, I'll add them to this project box. It's going to be hard not starting on this one right away.