. yellow green orange UFO star sampler quilt - complete remaining 8 blocks, etc.

 

This is project number 9 on my 2020 quilt goals.  I began this quilt in 2012.  It was a quilt along sponsored by Moose on the Porch Quilts.  There were 12 blocks, with the idea of using a selection of fat quarters to make the blocks.  I completed four blocks back then, and then this project became a languishing UFO for 8 years.  Finally got the blocks and borders done, so next steps will be making the backing, getting it quilted, and a final border.  The bright orange around the blocks will also be the binding. 

Bonnie Hunter Frolic - body of quilt top completed

I finished putting this together this weekend.  The next step is an inner border and then the outer borders of raspberry/neutral half square triangles and blue/neutral half square triangles.  I want to slightly expand the dimensions of the quilt, so I'm thinking of widening the inner neutral (off-white border).  It's supposed to be a queen size but needs to be a little wider to provide adequate drop over a thicker mattress.  At the moment I'm stabilizing the outside of this section by stay stitching and then will trim to even up the edges into a straight line. 

work in process - Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt - "Frolic"

I've been working on this since the beginning of the year off and on.  I have the 25 main blocks made and now in assembly, but also making the half block setting triangles as I go.  this fills one of my long term goals of a quilt with a hidden secondary block that emerges when the blocks are assembled.  (the white areas of the quilt).  Also the blocks are set on point by doing diagonal rows.  This is a weird color way, so not sure where I will use the quilt .  After the block assembly, there will be a sold white/neutral border, then a red/neutral and blue/neutral 1/2 square triangle external borders.  I may make add another neutral border in between the 2 half-square triangle borders to add a bitt of width and length. to the quilt.  

Hand quilting project not on my 2020 goals - work in progress

a couple of years ago I searched EBay for quilt tops and found this beautiful top that had been embroidered and cross-stitched and already had the quilt sandwich.  It was a preprinted top that had the quilting markings ready to go.  After I finished the gingham sunflower handquilting earlier this year, I started the hand quilting on this one.  Of course it is a much smaller project, about the size of a crib quilt.  But I have made good progress.  Now working on the outer detailed hand quilting, so I probably still have a month or more of quilting while watching tv  .  I inquired of the EBay seller who the maker of the embroidered top was, but he/she had purchased it at an estate sale on the east coast and had no more info.  My deep gratitude to the skilled embroiderer!

Goal 12: various non-quilting sewing projects for new granddaughters

While we were in South Bend last month (where my embroidery machine lives currently), I got around to adding machine embroidery designs to some onesies and snappy shirts for the 2 granddaughters.  (these were sized 6 months, so I had to get them done before they outgrew them.  )
I watched a number of videos about embroidering on knits, stabilizers, needles, etc., as well as working with my Embrilliance software for transferring fonts and designs into the embroidery format. 

Doing this number of projects helped me get more proficient and "automatic" about the process.  Before this I had mainly used my embroidery machine to make quilt labels and only made 3 or 4 a year (my quilt output lol), so every time I had to relearn the process.

Here are the results:

Here is Ori modeling 2 of her shirts:

And here is Elin in one of hers: 

cleaning stuffed animals

It's pretty embarrassing, (I'm not a hoarder), but due to an intown move at a time when I and our family were leading very busy lives, our nanny packed the kids rooms (without really sorting anything), so old and new toys and stuffed animals ended up in boxes and trash bags, and then we just moved things into storage.  now, 20 years later, both kids have had beautiful daughters, and I've pulled this stuff out to see if they want any of the old toys. 
(I've only started on stuffed animals and dolls and baby books.  (there is still a box of puzzles, another of Halloween costumes, and several boxes of legos - another time).

Anyway, so these stuffed animals are 20-30 years old and have been in storage for 20 years  (at least no exposure to covid !)  but some of the stuffed animals had some soiling from years of loving. 

So I decided to clean up the most precious ones.  And it worked!  This Carebear was pretty soiled, as seen in the first "lineup " picture.  And then the next picture is "after".

First I used stainremover spray on the obvious stains.  (spray n wash).  I then soaked the stuffed animals in a sinkful of warm water, with a 1/2 cup of Biz and a tablespoon of Dawn liquid dishwashing liquid.  I let  them soak about 45 minutes.  Then I looked at them and used a brush to scrib any remaining stained places.  I took them out, squeezed out most of the water, and then put them back in a sinkful of clean water and let them soad another 30 minutes.  squeeze out and then another 30 minute rinse.  I squeezed out the moisture really  thoroughly and then put them in the dryer on "casual" with a couple of large towels.  It took about 3 cycles to get them close to dry. 
The bear looks almost like new!

5.. complete quilt as you go Westalee quilt

I have finished the sampler quilt using the Westalee rulers.  With some trial and error (taking careful notes and making samples), I seem to have identified the right settings for free motion on my Pfaff, and these work on the Westalee foot and rulers as well.  (I still need lots of practice).

I finished the last block, just filling it up with linked circles. Then I did the quilt as you go sashing, which was surprisingly time consuming.

I originally made 14" blocks, but only used 12" interior block space for the quilting.  That left an inch seam allowance all around.  I used 2.5 " sashing, so the 1 inch of seam allowance filled up those 2 inches.  On the outer sashings, I sewed an extra 1.25 " strip of batting to the seam allowance so the outer borders would be full.   the mistake I kept making was forgetting to sew the sashing on both sides at the same time.  The nice thing is the quilt is totally reversible.  it's about 45 x 45.