The quilt is finished!

I took some time to put the binding on the quilt today:

Another Finished Quilt!

It is a huge relief to have this one finished.  In a lot of ways, this quilt is one of the reasons that I have a fabric addiction.  I saw this pattern in a magazine in 1998 or 1999.  It was a scrappy quilt--each square had a lot of different fabrics in it.  For some reason, I fell in love with it and decided to make one for me.  I really hadn't made a pieced top before.  The first square was pretty pathetic.  I had used a .5 inch sewing allowance instead of .25 inch, and I hadn't been careful enough with my cutting. 

The next square was better.  Pretty soon, I had enough to make the quilt top.  And, I got them all sewn together.  But, there it sat.  For years. 

Now, it is finished, washed, and ready to put on the bed tonight.

It is more than time!

Working out the machine quilting woes

I am still not sure what the problem really was with the machine quilting problems I kept running into.  I have my suspicions, though.  I tried re-threading the bobbin and re-threading the top thread numerous times with little to no success.  At one point, I thought I had solved the problem and sewed merrily along for about 15 minutes.  I was really pleased, until I turned it over.  The tension was way off, and I had to rip out 15 minutes worth of sewing.

Machine Quilting Was Not Smooth

Let's just say I wasn't overly happy about having to rip out that much sewing.

When I finished, though, I realized that I needed to put the second spool of thread on the machine because there was very little left to the first spool.

I now think that the problem was the spool of thread.  Once I put the second spool of thread on, progress was quick.  I have now finished the machine quilting, and just need to stop and pick up a couple of packs of binding:

Finished with the Machine Quilting

As an added bonus, tonight I managed to completely finish the first two lap quilts for the veterans' project:

Two Finished Lap Quilts

Fortunately, all that was left was to hand sew the hearts to the back of the quilts and complete the corner seams for the corners containing the hearts.  I have three more lap quilts ready to finish...

So, the question becomes:

1) Finish the full size quilt
2) Finish the three lap quilts
3) Work on products for the upcoming craft show season

Decisions, decisions...

Machine quilting woes

Over the past few weeks, I haven't really felt much like sewing.  I've worked on a couple of small projects, but nothing interesting.

I have, however, still been thinking about sewing.  There has been an unfinished project weighing on me lately.  I started this quilt back in 1998, shortly after moving to Colorado.  I finished the top, but it has just been taking up space in my sewing room. 

Over the past few weeks, though, I bought some batting and found some backing fabric.  Yesterday, I went to one of my favorite local quilt stores and bought some white machine quilting thread. Last night, my wonderful husband helped me maneuver the fabric to complete the backing, batting, top sandwich.

Today, I started quilting.  It has not gone so well.  While I invested in the good, heavy machine quilting thread, the thread keeps breaking after I get 6-8 inches sewn.  The front looks fine:

The back, though, is showing all the stops and starts:

I can feel where the thread is catching.  I just have to figure out how to fix it.

On the plus side, though, working on this quilt is a good thing.

And Yet More Fun With Scraps

I've been too busy lately sewing to post.  Here are photos of the first two quilts after quilting:

Quilt 1

Quilt 2

There is a quilt 3--another log cabin quilt.  I'll post a photo of it once I finish quilting it.

Quilt 4 is from a concept that I saw on the All People Quilt (allpeoplequilt.com) site.  It involved a lot of little squares:

Quilt 4--So Many Little 2.5 inch Squares!

But, tonight, I finally finished sewing the top together (well, except for the 3 inch plain black border that I have yet to add).  Here is how it is looking now:

Quilt 4

Some of the corners are a little off, but I like the over all way that it turned out!

Still Having Fun with Scraps

Tonight I finished the top of the patriotic scrap quilt:

Finished Lap Quilt Top

Next up will be a very similar quilt.  I'm planning on using scraps of dark fabrics:  greens, maroons, blues, browns, and scraps of light fabrics.

In the meantime, I am finishing off some other squares for the project.  A woman who has passed away had started making some "stack and whack" squares and were in with the donated fabrics for this project:

Square 1

Square 2

Square 3

Now, I need to figure out how to turn this into one of these squares:

Already Cut Out Pieces

Digging Through the Scrap Pile

I was excited to hear about a project that one of the Lodges closest to where I live is doing:  making lap quilts for wounded veterans who attend the winter sports clinic in Aspen.  Fortunately, they were willing to have another volunteer to help them out.

Rather than use some of the fabric that has been donated, I decided to first go through some of my stash and see what I could come up with.  From the 2011 charity quilt, I had 11 left over blocks, and enough left over fabric to make 25 more blocks:

Left Over Squares for the 2011 Charity Quilt

This was a quick lap quilt top to create:

First Completed Lap Quilt Top

After I finished this lap quilt top, I wasn't sure what to start on next.    Last night, I finally had an idea.  Whenever I work on a project, I wind up with extra fabric, including small scraps.  I have a tough time throwing out fabric, especially since I frequently need just a small bit of this color or that color.  So, I tend to keep any piece of fabric more than 2 inches square.  I keep them in a plastic container.  And, the container has been over filled for a while:

Scraps in the Scrap Container

In honor of the Fourth of July and in consideration that this project is for people who served our country, I decided to go with patriotic flair.  I picked out the red and blue scraps.  With a couple of extra strips that I took from larger pieces of fabric in my stash, I decided that I'd have enough fabric for a patriotic log cabin lap quilt top:

Strips of Fabric Ready to be Sewn

I now have four squares finished:

First Four Six Inch Blocks...

Only 32 more to go...

The 2012 Charity Quilt Is Finished!

2012 Charity Quilt

I finished putting the binding on the quilt tonight.  I have a few threads to snip, but for the most part, this one is finished.  There ar a couple of places that I'm not happy with, but in general, I'm pretty pleased with the result.