Virtual Quilting Weekend--March 15-17, 2024
 

Good evening! I am on a quilt retreat that started at 9 am this morning so I began quilting early. I finished clues 4 and 5 from a local quilt shop's mystery quilt. Also appliqued around the shamrocks on a candle mat (Shabby Fabrics kit). I'm in my room relaxing now, getting ready to watch Young Sheldon and Ghosts. I brought some handwork to my room with me but I doubt much will get done tonight! Maybe in the morning if I get up too early.

So what are your plans for the weekend? I have an assortment of projects with me to choose from, we always bring way more than we could possibly do but then we have choices. For example--I brought two small paper piecing projects but forgot my add a quarter ruler and seam roller which makes my life easier. :)

Next VQW is April 19-21, 2024. Any questions, please ask!

Oh what fun you are having on your quilt retreat! I hope to experience going on a retreat one day. Sounds like a lot of fun.
I have my 2 grands this weekend and will have lots of adventures...such as dying Easter eggs. I may not be quilting this weekend, but I enjoy reading about everyones projects. Have fun!

I won't be quilting, but will hopefully get some sewing in. Making teddy bears for a cousin from a baby quilt our great grandmother made for her (I will post pics under general chit chat when complete). I also have a concert to practice for (I play cello in a community orchestra) and one of the pieces is very difficult to play.

I am off for a two day sew weekend at our local quilt shop to make QOV blocks. One of the last requests before she died was to hold a QOV sew day in her honor at the quilt shop where we worked. So I will be sewing my heart out while thinking of her sweet soul and the military recipient that will be awarded.

I finished the nautilus pixel top, but don't have a suitable backing. I like 108" wide fabric for the backing.
I actually organized the fabrics for my next pixel quilt. OK, I cut enough squares to make a block. I'm calling it "The Pink Shell". I ordered all the fabrics in the Michael Miller Fairy Frost collection. Hundreds of color choices.

I am in too. I have too many projects under way and I need to get some of them out of the way.

1. Make blocks for a quilt that I have been procrastinating about finishing.
2. Label on a quilt.
3. Finish some Boom Blocks.
4. Sandwich a finished top
.
I could go on but.... completing more this weekend would be a fantasy. :)

I need to get the binding on this Escher quilt I finished last month. Then finish a kitty quilt, currently on the long arm, for our Grand daughter.

I'm in, I am working on clearing out some of my scraps. The table topper from the last VQW got delayed, just didn't like the next border so that is still on the wall. May do some more work on that. I have been making 6 1/2 inch string/crumb blocks and I think I will alternate them with four patches or just whole blocks. I made 5 yesterday and will make some more today before I take mom to her pacemaker check. I am still doing the hand quilting on the table topper from last year. Plus some cleaning in the sewing room and the rest of the house. I decided to just do what feels fun and go with the flow.

Only thing on the calendar this weekend is the corned beef on Sunday!!

Hey all -- thanks Heather for hosting. It's good for me to have a little motivation via the VQWs. Before my move and packing/unpacking I used to sew basically every day. LOL, that's not what is happening now. My lack of motivation and laissez faire attitude have been compounded by machine issues. But today is a new day and a new VQW and I seem to be motivated enough for some sewing!

I am finally putting on the borders to my Bonnie Hunter quilt, they have been done for at least a month now and just needed to be attached. Been working on putting the the two narrow inner borders today. I wanted to put on all three borders at once using miters in the corners but was hesitating so will just do the two inner borders in one round first and then the outer border as another, square butted because of the way it was pieced. So far I have two sides on and have pinned the third but wanted a coffee break so came here.

After that I have my Christmas String quilt borders to put on. The inner border is cut to size and most of string pieced borders are done, I will have to put on a couple more pieces on each side to make them miter correctly.

If I can keep my motivation going through the weekend, I bought a shelving unit to put in the closets I had built for my totes of fabric. That needs to be assembled and then I can put the fabric away while doing some organization and looking for the next project... haven't decided... one of the ladies in my sewing group is looking for an easy baby quilt for a friend's grandchild and I have what I think is a really good panel for that to also look for.

I'll be quilting some tops that need finishing, I hope. And I have many Boom blocks left to make. Plenty to do! Hope everyone posts pictures!

Cheesehead, LOVE your Escher quilt!

Good day everyone,

I’m in again. My goals to bind the r/w/blk king size quilt and gift it. Quilt 4-6 baby tops for my friend. (It seems to be a never ending project). Work on my twin size traffic jam top. I realized my 1st plan and fabric choices were not what I envisioned. So I am making lots more medium to dark colored 4-patches. I decided to use the light to medium 4-patches for the outer border. So basically my work so far is not a waste. I have created a rough draft of my pattern so I should make progress this weekend. Then I need to find the double Irish stars box, so I can continue to work on that 🛸 for the rest of the month. When I need a rest from these projects I need to (and I mean I need to get back to unboxing my sewing stuff and find a home in my new sewing/quilting room. And of course what I don’t finish, I will work on for the rest of the month. Now time to start on my projects.

copycat--retreats ARE fun!

Iceblossom--glad to provide some motivation for you :)

It's been a pretty productive day. I appliqued one of the two dragon blocks I brought with me. And then I worked on my Ohio Star blocks for a charity quilt. Should be able to assemble the top tomorrow. Thanks to all who are hanging out with me this weekend!

Count me in, not sure how much sewing I'll be able to do. I do want to finish at least months 6 and 7 of my Stitchn' Heavens BOM Solare.
Here's a picture of months 4 and 5 that I finished last weekend.

I was able to do some cleaning pressing, and trimming of blocks finished this morning before I had to take mom to her pacemaker check. Tonight I was able to put together 3 blocks from 2.5 or smaller squares for a place mat. A friend gifted me the squares, (they all needed to be squared up, they were her leftovers). I have a few more to trim and figure a layout for before I turn them all into some kind of mat.

This morning while pressing strips and strings I came to a decision that anything less than 1 inch is now going to be tossed!!! I love making crumb blocks but I have enough scraps, and the small stuff I don't think I will miss them. Also all the salvages will be placed with the gardening stuff as ties for the grape vines.

Enjoy the night, I'm going to the TV room and work on my X-stitch. (UFO from 2006):rolleyes:

I'm so ready for this I have two quilts that need my immediate attention. One is almost ready for quilting.Second is a top that I need to sew more blocks so I can assemble and hand over to our PL long armer. I think that's all I can finish up dudring this VQW.

Those are some beautiful blocks, Sync.

I had a productive day. I got the binding on the quilt for my grandson, Hedgehog Hollow or something like that. Then I got a little boy's pirate quilt finished, and also quilted another quilt for a boy... Toy Caterpillar Trucks. Last of all I started the first row of a Disney Princess log cabin quilt for a little girl. I love making quilts for kids!

Tomorrow the caterpillar quilt needs binding.
Have a nice evening!

Oh, forgot to say the Caterpillar quilt is a Boom quilt. All the blocks were made by friends in the Boom swap. The Disney Princess fabric was given to me by Rebaquilts, a friend from the Boom swap. Thank you, Boomers and Reba!

I finally got a quilt on my long arm, did one pass with what I thought was good tension and discovered it was all eye lashes underneath.Grrrr.....So, I'm off to pull all of that out this morning and start again. I hope to get it quilted today.

Watson

1) pulled client quilt off the longarm yesterday. Needs to be trimmed and then call for pickup
2) started loading another - so -finish starting and start finishing
3) we had an envelope quilt party at the last PL (turn inside out to finish) so I need to topstitch that one.

And spring is springing here. I want to do some gardening.

Count me in! I hope to do the following:
1) finish quilting the large quilt that's currently on the longarm
2) finish machine embroidering 17 ( count 'em!) 17 Pokemons . I have to do color consulatations because this Grandma isn't a gamer!
3) I've got a small string block pinwheel quilt on the home stretch for assembly. Everything is cut (I think)

Had a nice and productive day yesterday. Got the borders for the Bonnie Hunter top on, I had been deciding which way to put the outer triangles and eventually went with Bonnie's design. So before I put on the outer border I had to stay stitch the outside edge of that. It all went quite smoothly.

Today I will be working on putting on the Christmas String borders. I will have to add a few pieces (already cut, some already in duos) for the mitered ends. When I was making this I cut a lot of pieces that were just a bit too small to go in the spider webs, so I decided to add them to the border. The skews and slants are deliberate, I considered straight piano keys but decided to go more stringy.

I have one quilt at the long armer now and when I pick it up, I’ll be leaving another off. Then I’ll coast through Summer since I started a small perennial bed last Fall and I’ll need to get some more plants in there. Great grands are getting big enough for softball & soccer and we go to cheer them on so that takes time away from sewing but that’s ok. My sewing plans are to finish the 4 UFO’s and not start new projects. If you believe that I’ve got ocean front property in AZ for sale. (Smile)

Well, I hope I can post--the electricity is going in and out! Thunder and lightning, oh my. At least I already made coffee.
Yesterday, I found a wide back for the finished nautilus shell quilt, but it was only 66 inches! I'm sure I would have ordered at least 2 yards. Q finished at 72 by85 ish. Found another suitable piece and placed it in the dryer to smooth out creases before ironing it today.
The pics show the first block for the latest Pink Shell quilt. Gotta start somewhere! And I organized and labeled the fabrics in order to follow the cross stitch pattern.

Time to re-evaluate my list.

1. Make blocks for a quilt that I have been procrastinating about finishing. I have 68 blocks to make all curves and tried to cut ten blocks yesterday. Nope, to hard on my hands. Dropping down to cutting five and finish five.
2. Label on a quilt.
3. Finish some Boom Blocks. One more finished and 5 laid out to conqueror today! Off I go!
4. Sandwich a finished top - Not happening. The place where I go to layer my quilts told me yesterday that the spray bothered some of people in the quilting group with asthma and that I could not use spray baste. So sad. The site has moveable tables that make layering easy. Will have to investigate reserving a room for an hour now and again so I can use the facility but not harm others.

Finished quilting and trimming the kitty quilt, it now needs a binding and quilt label. So happy to have one of the projects off my list for this VQW. The blocks were made by everyone in the Boom 30 swap, they did a fabulous job making the blocks.

Aashley, pretty colors in your shell quilt. Would love to see that one when it's finished.

Cheesehead, your kitty Boom quilt looks amazing! I LOVE the setting you used! It makes it very unusual and stylish. I looked and looked but I can't remember which block I made. Great job on that!

SBG, top row second from right! It was one of my favorites, you used the angle play rulers to create that block.

Thanks, now I remember! Did you use Angleplay rulers for your corner half-rectangles?

Sync--the Solare blocks are pretty!

Watson--:(

Wow--you've all been busy. So have I :). I finished the second appliqued dragon block today. Big accomplishment this retreat has been finishing the Ohio State fabric Ohio Star quilt pattern top. Now it will hopefully get quilted in the next ten days and I can turn it in to church. Time to do a little sashiko before heading to bed. Will check back in after I get home tomorrow afternoon.

No actual sewing for me today, but lots of pressing and sorting and tossing of fabric. I managed to clean out two small bins, and found some crumb blocks that were half started. So put those with the other crumb blocks, and I think I have a final pattern for the place mats using the blocks from yesterday. My day got interrupted with a quick run to pick up a bed frame DH found on Craig's list, then I needed to wash it down and found that one of the legs was missing the pins to hold the side rails. DH & I spent about an hour and did a repair so we just need to finish reassembling it tomorrow when everything is good and dried, But I have the house to myself all afternoon tomorrow!

Dedemac I also got a new bedstead and armoire from DD today, so lots of rearranging to get everything back in order. Tonight I am sitting with my feet up watching the food shows and removing stitches from the unneeded bedskirt. 😀

Quick check -in this morning. Quilt on longarm with last border (including corners) waiting to be done, 10 out of 17 Pokemons embroidered, scrappy pinwheel slightly over 40% assembled. Making progress!

On Friday and Saturdays QOV Sew days we made enough blocks to make 4 tops. 288 blocks not counting the extras made. 2 completed tops were also sewn from those blocks. While I didn't get much of my sewing done this weekend, I did manage to stitch a few wool applique blocks. Birdhouse and flower blocks left from some other project that I decided to finish and put into a small wall hanging. I have two Community quilts to machine bind today but it remains to be seen if that will actually get accomplished.

Everyone has been so productive!
​​​​​​​After the morning storm rolled through yesterday, the sun came out and created a beautiful 85 degree day with not much wind. (Living near the coast makes it windy a lot.) I just didn't feel like sewing, so I fired up the hot tub and spent the day outside. Now, I'm fixin' to press the wide back piece for the nautilus quilt and spray baste the sandwich. And probably make another block for the pink shell quilt.

Well if it helps aashley, I was not productive yesterday! I did cook some dinner and spend some time with the hubby and some thinking about my project. I've decided that much like I did on the Bonnie Hunter project, I will put on the mitered inner border first and then put on the outer border. I was concerned about all the skewed pieces and trying to make a nice smooth miter for the corner. Instead of adding the pieces to the borders, I will make and miter corner units first and then connect those and put them on square. I did stay stitch the outer edges, and cut out some foundation papers for the corners. Putting it all together might happen today -- but first we go bowling.

Peoria is a town that has a St Patrick's Day parade -- we will avoid the crowds and potential traffic issues but I am wearing some green for bowling :) Top of the morning/day to all of you!

Working on a string block quilt. I have been working on this quilt since 2018! Work on it some, put it away for awhile, work some more, put it away. I know it will eventually be completed. Eventually could be in 2024 or 2044, no telling when. At least I like the project.

Relax and put on some nice music and grab a glass of wine or something and frog it. You only did one pass not the whole quilt.

It has been fun watching the Christmas string quilt grow and I have also followed the BH thread and watched all the progress. You are a better quilter than me to tackle all the bias pieces on her quilts, too many small pieces for me.

aashley333 I would be able to do the cross stitch pattern but I think I would be overwhelmed with the seam allowances in the pixel quilt You go girl!!

Not Re-evaluate - Change in direction!

Love the way you set the blocks, it add so much to the whole quilt and each block.

Sewbizgirl-- Awesome finishes

It's been a nice quiet afternoon here. DH has been off with the church high school group and I just started the corned beef in the pressure cooker, I warned him that when he left the living room would have a fabric explosion! I kept it to just the dining room table, when he left I grabbed the box of Pieced Squares" and decided to sort them and see if anything would work with the blocks from yesterday. Found a few but also found a few other abandoned block projects. These were just HST's not trimmed or squared. the red and tan and the smaller 4 patch block are 2.5 square. I've found and also set up 4 place mats that should match the table runner I made for a friend in 2020. Just have to finish squaring up all the HST's Happy sewing every one.
I enjoy doing miniatures.

Well, yesterday was a very frustrating sewing day. Started to work on month 6 of Solare only to realize that I cut some of my pieces too small ...... ugh ..... had to dig through scraps from the previous months to find fabric to recut those pieces. Then as I was putting the inner star together - it's not fitting ..... another ugh ..... take them apart to find out the triangles in a square were too big - sigh - okay trimmed and was then able to put the whole block together. Finally, picked up the blocks for a short photo shoot. Came to the quilting board to check on the VQW thread and post my progress and when I pulled up the photo of my blocks ................... one of the blocks had a section that was upside down! I fixed that section this morning and now I have started on month 7.

Well, I did some sashiko this morning before leaving retreat. Since I got home, I've done a couple loads of laundry and ran the dishwasher. And paid attention to the cats of course! It has been a wonderful and productive weekend for me. Hope it was for all of you too :) See you next month.

Thanks for hosting again, I have been hand stitching a binding this afternoon, with the windows open, loving some fresh spring air!
There is still more machine quilting to do on this project but it has been stabilized to the edges, and I wanted some handwork 😀