Virtual Quilting Weekend--11/12-11/14/21
 

Welcome to Virtual Quilting Weekend :). In case the cats allow me to sleep in tomorrow morning, I thought I would go ahead and start the thread tonight. For newcomers, VQW is where we gather together online and share what we're working on this weekend. Maybe you're quilting, shopping, organizing, or just observing. All are welcome to join us.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm working on this weekend. I have some tops to quilt, some mystery clues to catch up on, cleaning my room, and handwork. I guess I'll see what appeals in the morning!

The next regular VQW is December 17-19. We will have a special one November 25-28 also.

I'll see what I can get done. I'm working on a Christmas Cathedral Windows and also a BOW.

I hope to get some sewing accomplished. I have a baby quilt to finish binding, a Xmas stocking to put together and then back to my economy blocks. Also have our annual quilters auction at guild Saturday. I hope to get rid of a bunch of scraps and come home empty handed.

Hey Heather - thanks again for hosting the most awesome weekend of the month!

I've got so many things on my plate, I'm not sure what I'm going to get done this weekend. I have a pattern for a new quilted sewing caddy/organizer that I desperately need, the one that I have now is working but it's so lightweight that a good, stiff breeze will blow it over. Then I have some cooling/warming pads for my elbow, shoulder and hands that came to me smelling of mildew and mold that I cut into to get the filling out so I could wash the minky to get the smell out and then refill them. I also have my Fall Table Quilt that I have not touched since the last VQW, the block that was on my design wall is still up there.

Before I do all that, though, I have my sewing corner to clean and re-organize. We've been doing a lot of deep cleaning since the last VQW and since I work in the dining room, naturally things were placed in it and stuff is disorganized because I've been doing some soft sculpture sewing. I've got a cottage shaped pincushion to finish, depending on how my hands feel later tonight, I might just finish that.

Trying to keep my VQWs somewhat organized and my goals attainable has been in the forefront of my mind the last few months, so I always make a list of things that needs to get done and then cull it down to three or four goals. Hoping to keep that going and the extra VQW this month might just set me back on schedule for everything else. Just have to pace myself, lol!

Finished- finished a quilt today! It's a gift that needs shipment now. Looked around the house for a box but nothing. We will see what is available at work.

I have 3 more UFOs in the closet but decided to work on a few more box bags- stash and old batting scraps.scrapnot letting myself start in new major projects until the UFOs are caught up - but gift bags and box bags don't count because they're for Christmas!

Thanks for hosting, Heather.

I’ll be working on two pieces that I sandwiched and started quilting before my riding mishap. One is a quilted mandala that I’m coloring with inktense pencils and fabric paints. I’d like to get the coloring finished on that so I can go back and add in some detail quilting using specialty threads. The other one is a doodle quilt that needs a little more quilting with specialty threads and some highlighting with fabric paint before it’s ready to be bound.

looking forward to seeing what everyone else is working on.

Rob

I've been working on an Irish chain with some motifs to fill in a few of the gaps. Not sure how much sewing time I'll have this weekend, but thought if I wrote something here I might be encouraged to carve out a few minutes so I can report progress at the end of the event. :-) Good luck, everyone, with your to-do lists!

Well, I have breathed new life into my Vintage Rose with a lot of new fabric. Have been sewing like crazy since then. Have a daughter coming this morning do some cleaning and scrubbing for a pre-Thanksgiving clean up. Then a son with 2 really cute grandsons at 5:00. My calendar says nothing but sewing for the rest of the weekend. Have brought my featherweight into the family room. Sew a little, iron a little.

Thanks for hosting Heater! I am in and working on my Allietare quilt, I have a lot of cutting left to do for the headless geese. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone is working on.

I am I and looking forward to getting some quilting done as well as some other tasks.

1. Finish final two blocks for my Harriet's Journey quilt
2. Make remaining 5 setting blocks for HJ
3. Start assembling the blocks and adding setting triangles to HJ
4. Catch up on work tasks - online class 1 - 15 Plus Misc.
5. 10 minute clean up of sewing room - just put things back in order from this week's work.
5a Watch the snow falling and the birds at the feeder.

That is enough for this week-end. "Left-overs" will re-appear during our special Thanksgiving Weekend VQW!

Thanks for the weekend and hello to my virtual quilting friends.

I've been working on my project Aunt Debbie Bleeds Blue over the last few weekends. I wasn't sure if I'd still be working on it this weekend or not, but gone it done last week, took it's picture yesterday, and today's task is to box it for mailing. Overall, I'm happy with this project for being a college sports themed quilt. The front is so strong, I made the back easier to take for non-game days! I've been trying to improve my quilting skills, I feel I did ok with this. I started by "stabilizing" with serpentine quilting following the fan arcs and echoing the rick rack. Then I filled in the larger areas with free hand free motion quilting in a large chunky meander. I did good in terms of not crossing lines, my arcs are generally smooth and not pointy. I used a yellow thread on top and a blue thread on the back and am happy with my tension, etc. If I had a long arm, I would have used white thread top and bottom and done a floral edge to edge so it was sort of like a lace overlay -- but I don't and I didn't feel I had the skills to achieve that finish.

For this weekend, I've begun work on this year's Bonnie Hunter mystery -- or at least I'm making a back and binding for the project now. The actual project starts after Thanksgiving, on the next (special) VQW. Not the way I usually work (starting with the back), but it's keeping me busy. First goals for this weekend are to piece the back and at least make the binding segments I need, if not get it completed.

After that, my Froggy Beach project's back is up for some work. I had designed my project and the next day I found the perfect piece of fabric for backing at the thrift store. But then I enlarged the top and somehow the back didn't get bigger... now the back is pretty much exactly the same size as the top and I don't like putting them together with that close a tolerance, so I figured out a way to extend the back.

Iceblossom, Congratulations on the finish. Been watching your journey for some time now. I saved the photo to send to my daughter. She bleeds Maze and Blue also. It may inspire her to return to her quilting space. What a pretty and fun way to show Aunt Debbie's university pride.

Finally a weekend that is not loaded with commitments…thank you Heather for the early reminder of VQW.

I am pinning a backing onto the long arm this morning and hope to get an 80x80 project quilted this weekend. I have also started a tshirt quilt for my son who is a California firefighter. I would love to gift it for Christmas…so far I have the tshirts cut out and ironed fusible to each one.

Gail’s post reminds me that I need to do a quick cleanup in my sewing studio as well. I did not get any sewing done this summer so things sort of just landed on surfaces…and I can’t work with clutter.

Hello everyone,
I have a small quilt to finish the hand sewing of binding and some strip cutting for a BOM I've been working on. Leaving for another retreat Tuesday - going to Shipshewana!! We are going to shop hop our way up and then retreat starts Wednesday. So I will be doing laundry, cleaning and packing this weekend too.

Coffee break! As well as -- how could I forget?? am going in person today to my first quilt show in 2 years or so... Block Party Quilters, my former guild when they met closer to me and I could still drive at night.
https://www.blockpartyquilters.org/quilt-show

Wanted to give a shout out to Rob -- good to have you upright!

According to my approxi-math, I have enough of these 4-some binding combinations now made. Worst case is I will have to cut 2-4 more strips but I think I'm good. I'm going to leave the pinning for my Tuesday group, The goal was to use enough of my solid fabrics with this year's Bonnie Hunter project that the box would close better -- goal achieved :) I've done pieced binding like this before, for these I've cut 2.5" wide strips, staggered them into groups of 4 and then trimmed. I make larger than normal bindings anyway, typically I cut at 3": These have been cut at 3.5 because I might use a half inch seam allowance.

Friday Morning
 

Good morning, everyone.

Iceblossom, the quilt is absolutely beautiful. I love blue and yellow together, there's something sweet about it that I just adore.

Well, I made a mistake and have to push back the organizer until the next VQW. I was going over the pattern this morning while I was drinking my coffee and I completely forgot to order foam stabilizer, so I don't have everything I need for it. I ordered it as soon as I realized I hadn't bought it, so the organizer is pushed back. I'll at least get the fabric together for it today, ironed out and the pieces interfaced that needs it, but won't be able to move any further until I get the stabilizer. I generally try to find a workaround when it comes to something like that, I try to be as thrifty as I can and just work with what I have, but the organizer won't stand up properly without it. I have a pattern for a Memory Bear that uses the foam that I was going to work on in January, I bought the eyes, joints and filling for it, I spaced off the organizer completely and pushed back getting the foam in December.

With that pushed back, I'm going to go ahead and work on my hexagons today, just not much in the mood to work on the Table Quilt just yet, it means clearing off the sewing cabinet first. Need to have a slow start today, I've taken my joint supplement and Aleve, I'll work on cleaning sometime this afternoon.

Still going to work on my heating pads, I found out last night that the mildew/mold smell is actually coming from the filling, so I'm going to have to fill them with rice now. Kind of disappointed in that, I love pads made with flaxseed but can't put that filling back in the pad because of the smell.

Hey everyone! I just finished 3 back to back to back quilts so my sewing room needs some attention. I'm going to be working on it this weekend.
However, I just saw a beauty that spoke to me so I may do some cutting as well.
Thanks for hosting, Heather!

I finally can participate in a VQW! Friends are stopping over later. He's going help DH hang a quilt block on the house that my BF and her daughter made for me. I'm blessed with good friends. Other than that, I think I'm free for the weekend. For the VQW I'm going to work on two panel quilts for the DGGS's. The underseas panel is a kit and the dinosaur panel is flannel. Think I have a plan for that one.

I finished binding on the baby quilt and put together a Xmas stocking. Also got together items for our guild auction. Next on the list is to go back to working on my economy blocks. I feel accomplished 😊

Good mid morning everyone. IceBlossom. I like your blue and yellow quilt. So pretty and creative.

My goals this weekend to finish the top to BHMQ 2020. I’m in the process of squaring the 6.5” inner square for the 12.5” squares. After that I need to figure out what sashing material I will use to be able to put the top together. My goal to have this project completed before I start this years 2021 BHMQ. My second goal to complete or almost complete another top I call Bauble for short. The second quilt I had cut out the steps and the project stayed in a plastic Craft container for over 10 years. I love the fabric and pattern. I just wished I had bought enough to make a king size top. But it will be a twin size. I’m on step 4 of a 17 step project. It’s very doable if I stay on task. My third goals to relax me some. Cut & sew borders out for 2 baby boy tops. I will quilt these later in the week. That should keep me busy for the next 3-4 days. Until my next pop-in, happy sewing/quilting everyone.

I just might be able to accomplish things this weekend. I am feeling stronger and back to sewing a bit. I started some oven mitts. I would like to get 10 pair made this weekend. I have my Insul-bright and fabrics ready to go and will get more Holiday fabrics out today. This sounds like a winner.

Thanks for hosting another VQW. There are a few things I wish to either finish or start this weekend. Thanks for the extra push. Let’s see now
1. I need more 6” star blocks for the border of my BH Unity top
2. Since I’m 2 clues behind on my Cotton Cuts mystery I should at least try to catch up and
3. Baste Artemis’s baby quilt

This has been a kitchen day. I canned cauliflower pickles, made a batch of wholewheat naan and have a pot of cabbage soup simmering. I made holopchi (cabbage rolls) earlier in the week and needed something to use up the cabbage leaves that were too small.

But I hope to get back to the sewing room tomorrow. I have a commissioned bag to work on. If I put my mind to it, I could pretty much finish it by Monday. Thanks for the incentive. Everyone sounds busy, busy busy.

Hi everyone, hoping I might get to actually do some quilting this weekend - it's been a while, what with one thing and another...

I have rather stalled with my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler again - I was going at a great pace, but have hit a wall. I have just over half of the blocks made. I might ignore it altogether this weekend, or I might pick a random block to work on, we'll see how I feel.

Otherwise, I have a Christmas tree skirt I'd like to make - I'm only at the choosing fabric from stash phase, but it looks as if it should be fairly straightforward to piece (famous last words, lol)

I have a summer themed cushion cover that I pieced over this summer that needs to be quilted before adding the backing and zip to actually turn it into a cushion/pillow. That's been waiting for me for a few months now, maybe this weekend is the one - I only plan on machine quilting it on my DSM, and it isn't large, so I'm not sure what's holding me back.

I'd also like to make a simple flamingo Christmas ornament out of felt - I have the supplies but have not yet started.

So, all in all, I have options!

Happy Quilting everyone :-)

Just back from the quilt show, first time out in public other than a bowling alley, store, or restaurant in 2 years... masks and proof of vaccination both required.

Anyway, it was nice to see all the lovely projects. I'm seeing a lot more color and combinations of color than in many years. I've known for some 20 years that I prefer fluffier batts and less quilting than is currently popular. You got that right! Every single quilt was extremely flat and thoroughly quilted, except for one wall piece that used basically my standard batt -- but it was really about dimensions in both color and size and depth of batting.

railroadersbrat—staying organized can be a challenge!

tallchick—how are the headless geese coming?

WMUTeach—leftovers are perfect for Thanksgiving

Iceblossom—doing the backing and binding first does seem backward 😀

QuiltingVagabond—have fun In Shipshewana

I’ve had a fairly productive day. I finished two table runners and two small wall hangings. Just need to stitch down the hanging sleeves while National Treasure plays in the background. I also sandwiched four quilts to hopefully finish soon.

I will have to just read about the great work you are doing this weekend. My husband and I are working with younger son on his just bought house. Some things need to be done before they could move in and this weekend is it. Luckily I have no one coming on Thanksgiving so I will have some time that weekend to sew.

Friday Night Update
 

Heather - you are seriously not lying about staying organized! I can have everything perfect for a few days, but then one project later and it looks like I haven't touched a thing in a month. While I know that's to be expected, when I'm not able to get it back organized and clean and then I sit down to try to get something accomplished, I usually lose all the wind in my sails and I don't want to do a thing. That's sort of the reason why my Table Quilt fell behind, I wanted to get it done before Thanksgiving but now it might be late.

Progress today was slow; I was able to get one rosette almost completed before I needed to lay down for a while and nap. My sleep schedule is so far out of whack it's crazy and when it hits me that I need to lay down for a bit, it usually hits me like a ton of bricks. Just had a warm ham and cheese sandwich for dinner, got some coffee brewing and I think I'm good to go for the evening. I'll finish the rosette, then get to organizing my space again. Depending on how I feel after all of that, I might tackle one of the heating pads.

Here’s some of the 6” stars I’ve been working on today. I now have 18 of 48 done.

Sync - those star blocks are beautiful! Love those colors!

Hello. Trying to keep this house cleaned and even improve it so it's ready to show for selling. So making a quilting mess difficult. No plans for tomorrow, so maybe I'll organize more Q stuff for the move.

Minor progress on my list for this weekend, but....I did get my COVID booster which was not on my list! Went to one pharmacy and was told I would not be able to get it because too many folks were waiting. OK, went home and scheduled and appointment at the same pharmacy for the first available appointment, day after Thanksgiving! Took a birthday pie to my son-in-law and found my daughter curled up in a fleece blanket looking like a disaster had hit her. She had had her COVID booster and was in the middle of her reaction. The one good result of her yuckiness was she told me about a small town compounding pharmacy that had walk-in boosters. Well, after my birthday visit I was on my way to the little pharmacy and home in time for popcorn, a Christmas moving and hand stitching the binding on a quilt. Ta- Da.

Sewing room squared away, a little work on my online class and one more side of the binding finished! Not all I would have wanted to accomplish but there are still two days left in the weekend, right? On to Saturday!!

Holly Mart Sale at church: no sewing, but there's well over a hundred quilts all shapes and sizes offered up for sale and next Quilt Ministry meeting will decide donation options. So I'm going to be talking "quilt" all day. Does this count on the VQW?
PS. It took three of us four hours to set up yesterday

Sync, I love your beautiful unity star blocks…your points are perfect.

QuiltMom2 - I hope you have a great turnout at the church sale. I went to a Quilt Show in New Hampshire a few weeks ago for the first time since Covid and enjoyed looking at everyone’s work.

I have loaded an 80x80 scrappy quilt on the long arm and will begin quilting it sometime today…I may just go with a loopy design or meander in the interest of time. I’ll post a picture later…

Iceblossom- love your quilt and the scrappy bindings you are working on.

Rryder- great to see you back, I hope your recovery is going well, looking forward to seeing your projects.

Sync- Those blocks are fantastic!.

Everyone sounds like they are keeping very busy this weekend, even those not sewing!

I made very little progress yesterday, I did get one set of units sewn and one block put together, and I did rip a block apart and made a new unit that needed to be fixed after a trimming error would have caused me to lose the points during final assembly. I have everything cut and ready to sew, but these units are tedious, so in order to break up the monotony, I am sewing one block at a time as I finish each unit.
I hope to make better progress today since I am home all day waiting for my new snow blower to be delivered. I have no desire to shovel snow this year or any other year in the future, I would rather be sewing! I have a decent size corner lot and it takes too much time and effort to shovel the driveway, sidewalks and walkway.

I’m enjoying reading and seeing progress from others. Very creative.

I made a little progress on both of my projects yesterday. My BHMQ 2020 - 12.5’ sub pieces are ready to be sewn together today. Then I need to decide which brown fabric to add for the final border piece. The brown I used is too dark for my taste and I want to change it up a bit. My second project I completed 3 steps. Need to finish 13 more steps to complete this top.

oh well time to get back to my baubles mystery from over 10 years ago. Happy quilting/sewing everyone.

Well here's the back for my Bonnie Hunter project. I've had these pink circles in my stash for 8-10 years at least (I think...). Bought it on sale as "good for a back". When the colors for this year came out, I immediately thought of this piece, various pinks, "garnet" and yellow and pretty much the same values and tones as Bonnie's paint chips.

Both for design/fabric usage and because I try to use my stash whenever possible I have a number of ways to extend quilt backs. For this, I had enough length but the width was narrow, not enough fabric if I trimmed off the selvedges (which I did). The 8" bar of bricks will give me 4-5 inches of extra on each side. There's about 12" of strip on the short side, when done it will just be about 4-6" of the circle fabric. I find when extending fabric for backs it is best to offset it somehow and not to try for any sort of matching on the front, so I will chose deliberately off numbers.

Now -- time to do a similar sort of thing to the Froggy Beach back. Or maybe I still have to prewash it. Only one way to find out :)

Got the quilt block hung and have two more borders on this panel quilt and this top will be done. Making progress!

Color my world BOM progress + zoom
 

Hi all, it has turned into a quilting weekend for me, so I’ll be working on my 2021 BOM “Color My World” quilt top. (On the quilt show website). I got started late so I’m now playing catch up. I’m going to host a zoom room if anyone wants to join at 1 pm EST. Message me privately for the room ID (I’ll check my inbox periodically)and join if you want to share a cup of tea or coffee while you sew and a little show & tell, join up. and please forgive my sewing room. It’s like a hurricane went through but I am on a mission to work on my BOM so the organization has suffered a bit. The virtual zoom room starts at 1 PM EST so I can clean up the sewing room just a little bit and grab lunch. We can see how it goes, I don’t know if anyone has ever done a zoom quilt room before. Hugs all!

Two more box bags done from the decor fabric leftovers. I also used leftover quilt batting for some structure. Still have 3 tops hanging in the closet but they need to be sandwiched.

Love watching other people's progress! Keep it up every one!