Virtual quilting weekend 9/8-9/11/23
 

Well I’m a little late starting the thread this month! I’m so sorry—I admit I forgot 😄. So what are your plans for the weekend? I went to a By Annie trunk show this morning. Fun to see the different bags made and how they compare in size to each other. I have some wips to work on this weekend.

Next VQW is October 6-8, 2034.

For once, in a very long time, my weekend is reasonably clear so I can participate. I always put the VQW on my caledar and it seldom works out for me. This weekend I would like to finish quilting a Dream Big Poinsettia and finish cutting and start working on a simple Christmas quilt. It’s a kit I bought years ago. I’m trying to shop out of my closet and been doing pretty good.

I'm going to try and get some more blocks sewn up and squaring up some that are already together. I can't remember the name of the blocks, but found the pattern from a link to a YouTube video in another thread (which I can't remember now either) . It was supposed to use a layer cake, but I had a lot of material left over from other quilts so no having to purchase more, though I will need to buy the backing. I was able to get enough 10 inch blocks from my stash to make the quilt top.

Shari

I'm in and actually have been sewing, well at least ripping what I did yesterday. We have been at the cabin since last Saturday and since we took two vehicles I was able to bring my Featherweight and the table my DH so kindly made for me. A couple days of rain and a day rescuing a neighbor has cut into our building and sewing time but we are coping. I have tomorrow mostly to myself so I should be able to get the last two borders on the quilt.

I am working on my second layout of the open options quilt. It goes pretty fast so may have time to start a third. Quilt guild tomorrow so that gives me motivation

Oh wow! I had forgotten about VQW. I'm going to try and find a project to take to my new real life group on Tuesday. I'll also have to find my portable sewing kit, I think it is wrapped up in my tall plastic tote of drawers... if it isn't in there, there are enough scissors and thread and on and on to make a new kit.

I decided to get an Eversewn Sparrow 15 as a portable machine -- it arrived early and just came. I should take a picture now that it is out of the box. Just like my repair guy would do, there is a piece of fabric and the remnant of a thread showing the stitches and buttonhole. How Cute!

I'd forgotten too LOL. Today I worked on dye-painting a new quilt top. I'll be working on that some more this weekend. I'm also still working on getting my Around We Go quilt ditched. And I'm trying to decide if another of my doodle landscape quilts is finished, or if I want to do some more painting or quilting on it. I also have an on-going foundation paper pieced project that I'm working on to try and whittle down my scraps so I may do another one of those blocks. Finally, I just downloaded two more free foundation paper pieced blocks that use small scraps so I'm looking forward to playing with those as well. So many projects, so little time ;)

Rob

I'm in this weekend. I'm working on a flip flop quilt for my daughter.

I just finished cutting and boxing my project for a retreat I hope to go to at the end of the month,
I have found enough cream fabric to piece a backing for a quilt, just need to get at it.
Tomorrow morning our guild does a zoom so unless I get a better offer, I will be hand quilting on my All about Bears quilt.
Always enjoy seeing and hearing about everyone’s projects, thanks!

I would not have remembered if it had not been in my calendar. Sounds like you had a fine distraction this morning, Raggiemom.

I am part of the Boom 30 group this fall, first time for me. So, I have some blocks to make. Tomorrow will be devoted to making one, two and fingers crossed maybe three blocks?? We will see.

Sunday afternoon and evening is make a baby quilt top time. Or I should say finish the blocks to make the top. Star blocks are all 2/3 done and then it is off to the races with the alternate blocks. Easy, peasy square in a square blocks.

Thanks again for hosting this weekend. I got started first thing as I had scheduled it on my calendar. I'm piecing Debi Montgomery's "Soul Mates"; took all day to piece the two blocks from step 3. Step 4 will probably eat all of my Saturday. My plan was to get the top completed this VQW - I dream big! Everything will have to piece perfectly for that to happen.

Best wishes for all your projects.

:) Hello Everybody!

I'm working on a baby quilt and have come to putting on the final borders.


Please refresh my quilted brain.....It has been a while since I've put on borders. I think what I've done in the past is place a side border strip down the center of the quilt lengthwise and use this size for both side borders. I would sew the side borders on.

Next I would place a border strip across the center of the quilt, widthwise and cut the top and bottom borders to this size.

The pattern calls for a specific size to cut the borders, but I worry my quilt size will not be the same size per the pattern.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Wishing you all a fun and productive weekend.

Wow. This snuck up on me. I delivered half an order of the pillows I make yesterday for an order and I plan to start stenciling the other half today. In the process of selling my house and moving, my studio or course is not setup yet. I managed to get it functional enough to complete the order, but did need to split it into two orders, which the vendor was fine with. I have my stencils and fabric cut, so it's onto stenciling today. Looking forward to seeing what everyone is working on, will check back in later.

Good morning All,
Yep, VQW slipped by me as well. But I spent yesterday sewing anyway so all is good. I am putting together a large very stuffed baggie of HSTs that were part of an exchange we did many years ago at the quilt shop. These were either the seed blocks we started with or leftovers customers didn't pick up. Mostly all fabrics are in the Reproduction type. I have bocks sewn and and working on rows. It will make a nice throw size even without borders. I will decide on those when the top is complete. Off to work today, but will be back to sewing on Sunday as it is supposed to rain. Hope you all get in some good sewing while I'm away.

I don't know what I'm working on yet, but I know I need to sew!

I'll be sewing with you too. I've started another QOV. I need to make 24 star blocks in 2 sizes. I am making Lemoyne stars using Deb Tucker's rulers. I am a very slow sewer, I got all the yardwork done yesterday so I can sew today and tomorrow. But there will be a quick trip to the grocery store - I'm almost out of cat food!

I started a kaleidoscope stack/whack with 8 panels. Did not purchase the 7 shades of blue needed to complete the blocks because...I found them in my stash!! Yesterday, I finished cutting all the pieces: 20 sets of 8 identical wedges; 32 sets of 4 patches; and the blue backgrounds. I ordered a nineth panel for the backside like I have seen here before!
Today, the beach is flat, so we're going surf fishing this morning. This afternoon, I'll finish pinning and hopefully start stitching.

Hey Copycat, I prefer to fit my borders to my quilt like you are describing, but I typically miter if I can so I need the extra length on the ends and I cut them a couple inches larger than necessary, just in case. Without the miters especially, cutting both sides the same helps keep the finished quilt more true to measurements.

I find working on my ironing board (especially with a baby quilt) to be good place. I press in place the border right side up and since I am a believer in pinning and open seams, I then press the top in place with the right side down and I pin every leading seam edge and/or every 2" or so. I know many quilters who barely pin at all and who get wonderful results, but that's not me.

I am in a temporary month-to-month rental while we get some things done at the new house. Went into the room with the fabric totes and opened up the the plastic storage drawers but haven't found my portable sewing kit yet. Got a little overwhelmed with everything and backed out. Most of the stuff was packed back in 2022, moved into a pod, out of the pod and into storage, then into a truck and then unloaded. Hopefully by next VQW I'll have my sewing studio unpacked and be able to find things. But first, the upstairs bedroom wood floors need to be refinished and the downstairs sewing room needs a couple of closets built for storing all of those totes and such.

Iceblossom, You are very patient!
Here are pics of my WIP.

Good morning everyone. I’m in. I had this on my calendar too. I so look forward to the VQW each month. I enjoy seeing all of the progress everyone is doing.

My goals today and tomorrow and rest of the month: (1) finishing sewing binding on 2 quilts that were on my list for a few months. (2) square 42 = 12.5” blocks. (3). Sew the 42 -12.5” blocks together. (4) get backing and batting cut for 2 donation tops, 40 by 60” tops. So I can quilt later in the month (5). Rearrange an area in the downstairs quilt room. (6). Quilt 1 baby quilt top for a friend (7). Finish sewing 2 baby quilts and get ready for quilting.

Enjoy sewing/quilting everyone!!! 😊

My hand quilting project for the morning. All about Bears, hand appliquéd.

I will try to finish the binding on a baby quilt and start FMQing a wedding quilt. My sewing has been nonexistent this year between a flood in four rooms of my house and having Covid at the same time. One o f my doctors says I have long covid, but I prefer to think otherwise.
The VQW is a good incentive to do a few things. Maybe I can find the fabrics for the pillowcase that needs to be mailed with this baby quilt. It will be for the big brother.

Missed VQW too. Love the pictures. I’ve been cruising without direction. This gives me motivation. Off to my studio.

I’m off to a good start. Took care of my DM and then off to guild. I got all my blocks made and ready to set together. With little sleep last night a nap was next on the agenda. Then off to mow the yard before that slight chance of rain comes in. Maybe I can set those blocks together and get a picture later. Love the bears Thimblebug

I can see the finish line on the Dream Big Poinsettia panel! First time ever on my longarm, ran out of thread on the spool . Using the same green thread for all the leaves, kept checking the bobbin thread but never thought I would use all of a fresh spool! Luckily my long arm senses a problem with the thread stopped and set off an alarm. No harm, no foul. Got the focus blocks and one border cut from the Christmas kit. I even bought the backing when I got the kit, yeah me! Love your bear quilt thimblebug6000.

Cam's gram, I am so looking forward to seeing your poinsettia.😎

Update on today, 20 pillows stencilled. Only two more to paint tomorrow.

I finished longarming a Christmas panel quilt and it was making me even crazier than usual. I was using Mono-poly in the bobbin, and the first 50-55% of the quilt went fine and dandy, the last half was nothing but thread breaks, backlash in the bobbin, and muttered curse words from me. I ended up transferring the bobbin thread to another bobbin and while it didn't entirely take care of things, I'm done! Never again.

thank you for the Border Advice tips!
 

Many thanks for your tried and true border tips. It's been so long since I've cut borders, I needed reassurance.
Good luck getting your sewing studio back together in your new home. Sew Exciting!!!

Sunday morning update on progress: Finished the three Boom blocks and actually laid plans for the next two. It is the planning that takes time not the making of the blocks. I made quite a mess in my sewing room while auditioning colors patterns etc. The result was that I had to spend some time cleaning up and prepping for my Sunday afternoon of finishing up the stars for a baby quilt. Not sure I will get the whole baby quilt top finished because it is absolutely gloriously lovely outside and perfect for a walk. I must take advantage of these fine days knowing in a month or two I will be whining about how cold it is or the rain or the wind. ;)

Good morning!
I plan to keep pinning circle pieces. The end is in sight.
The nice weather is distracting... I tend to take a break at 3:00 and call it pool-o'clock!

I have finished all but 2 of the larger Lemoyne stars for my quilt. But I realized I don't have enough blue fabric for the smaller stars. So tomorrow I will go to a couple of the nearest stores which are 40 miles away to look for more of the same fabric, or formulate a plan B. In the meantime I can work on the red and white stripes needed for the quilt.

QuiltBaer--I love Lemoyne stars, one of my favorite blocks.

Iceblossom, rryder, WMUteach--I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who forgot! I usually put it on the calendar but forgot to do that too :)

copycat--how did your borders turn out?

Did a little work in the sewing room yesterday. Since our last VQW, I completed all the tops hanging over the railing and organized/cleaned the sewing room so it's very neat looking. I almost don't want to work in therer and mess it up! I'll be back to work this afternoon tho. I have a table runner I can easily finish and cross off my list.

Will check back in later.

Attachment 645409Attachment 645410
Been working on the pillows this morning. Pictured are is the Maine one with the stencil still on it, the others are stenciled obviously with the stencil removed. Trimming and matching them up with their backs, also waterproof outdoor fabric. I make these for the TV show Maine Cabin Masters. I am one of their vendors for their store in Manchester Maine. I make my stencils and use Profab fabric paint for the stencilling. This paint is fabulous to work with.

The simese in the polyfil box was my DFILs blue point. He just loves hanging out with DH and myself. We inherited him after my DFIL passed in July, he is an awesome cat and we love him dearly.

No sewing or even playing with my new portable machine yesterday. We were going to do a bit of garage sale-ing in the morning and went out in the hubby's truck to get cash and I needed quarters for the laundromat. We don't have a local bank yet but there is a Chase on the far end of town open on Saturdays so we head there, get money broken down into small bills and the roll of quarters. Since we are on that end of town, we go to one of the farmer's markets. All is well but the truck doesn't start. We get a jump,it starts just fine but we are watching the power gauge steadily go down until we are about halfway back to home (5 miles left) and truck stops.

Hooray for AAA -- the charge guy comes out and determines as we already suspect that it is the alternator and not the starter or battery, and his advice is to have it towed while we are in a safe spot and not risk trying to get home. So we take his advice and now have to wait for the tow guy. Happens that we are about a block away from a BBQ/Bar so hubby volunteers to stay with the hot car while I go to the dark bar where I had some wonderful onion rings and a drink the bartender recommended when I said "something light and lemony". I think we left around 9:00 am and truck broke down about 10:30 and we got home about 3:30 pm... I was exhausted by that point and crashed while the hubby watched the U Michigan game.

I am so thankful that this didn't happen on the road as he was driving from Seattle. So thankful it wasn't during the recent 100 degree heat wave. So thankful we have two vehicles. We had charged cell phones and AAA and no dogs or children or other things with us (dogs had been left at home). And hey -- we had even been to the BBQ place already so knew that was a safe spot to be. We already have a garage we like, just maybe 1 mile away from our temporary rental and a fresh jumped battery will get him there with no problem. One of my turn signals had gone out and wasn't the bulb or fuse, and while we were there talking to the shop a lady came in with a quilting T-shirt, we were chatting and that's how I met my new Tuesday sewing group.

Today I did set up the new machine. I think it will work very well for what I want it to do. Still need to go through the boxes of stuff to find a project One of those tubs has some of my pre-put together kits but I haven't found that yet (maybe it's where my portable sewing kit is), or maybe will put together a new one out of things that were distracting me. Will try and get that done today but I still have Monday before Tuesday group.

Grats to all who have been getting things done!

Quiltah Mama -- Maine Cabin Masters is one of the home shows I regularly watch. Before the show I was reading some books set in Maine but I didn't quite have the concept of what a "camp" is and now I know. How cool that I have probably seen some of your work without realizing it -- and now your name makes more sense to me heard in a Maine accent :)

Didnt even know about the VQW - the first week of school was upon us and .... a major heat wave. Just what teachers and kids need, amiright??

I've been sitting on fabric for "Stepping Up" pattern from Fabic Cafe (3 yards) it was a freebie offered on their website. I had Project Linus on Sat so I precut everything ...and then my needle broke before I took a single stitch. So did the strip piecing and cutting last night and did the center of the pattern this morning. Great pattern, very quick. Still need to do the borders but I need to get going on a customer longarm project. Its a neat pattern - single LeMoyne star -- but the HST blocks are 18"! Talk about a quick way to make a BIG quilt!!

Good luck with the heat everyone. Make no apologies for abandoning sewing for the pool -or- hiding inside in the AC if you are lucky enough to have it.

Quiltah Mama - I inherited my DM's cat Lucy. I had her for 19 1/2 years, she was 25 or 26 when she crossed the Rainbow Bridge, my vet's oldest patient for years.

Got the Christmas Quilt cut out. Finished the Dream Big Poinsettia, even made the binding. The picture of the Poinsettia is washed out because we had to take it outside. Inside none the stitching or texture showed in the pictures we took inside. I did the Dream Big Poinsettia panel with Pro Stitcher Premium on my Handi Quilter Forte. The laser light was a tremendous help outling the areas and learned a lot about Pro Stitcher Premium. Used Isacord thread and two battings per Adamsewsfun videos.

Thanks for hosting the VQW again Raggiemom.

Iceblossom--I can understand why you would be exhausted after all that!

The Yankees game seemed to take forever this afternoon but at least they finally won one. :) Now I'm turning off the computer and getting a project ready to work on first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks for quilting with me this weekend, and I'll see you all back here next month.

I got my open options together. The extra blocks will be on the back.

Raggiemom.... I got the right and left side borders on so far. I'm happy I waited to cut my borders out until I squared the quilt top.
Using the quilt top to measure my borders worked perfectly! I will get the top and bottom borders on today after work. I have been slow as a turtle getting this quilt done, as I've had lots of Grandma time to keep me busy.

Thanks for posting your projects everyone and have a Great week!

OMG iceblossom, I would have had to get in my recliner after all that. Hope you get to play with your new machine soon. Nothing better than a new machine to motivate us quilters. My pillows are in season eight on several episodes of their show. On their website, they are called Backyard Pillows.

Cash mom, your outside picture of your poinsettia is absolutely gorgeous, perfect for showing your stitching. How beautiful. Thank you for sharing. Love the poinsettia coloring for the Christmas quilt.

Thank you Heather for hosting again. Looking forward to next VQW in October, thank you everyone for sharing your progress and work.