Design Wall Monday and Goals for Week 5

On the design wall today are all the blocks for the 2005 BOM, a sampler I've named Ameliorate, using reproduction civil war fabrics. I finished the last block late Sunday and then played with a few layout. The first layout is just the twelve blocks in rows. With the second layout, I will need to make another block and some fillers. With the third layout, I would need to make a medallion center and would probably make another block on point within the center block. I'm leaning toward this third layout right now.

Reviewing last weeks goals is a little disappointing. I have not been able to find the backing fabric for the Baby Bow Tie Quilt. I may have to buy new fabric for it, but I'm not going to do that until I have opened every box in the attic, and there are still a lot of them. I'm not going to spend any more time looking for it now. I'll just move on to the next UFO. I also haven't made any progress on the design wall. I am meeting some resistance from Hubby about finishing the wall, which makes sense considering we don't have any cabinets in the bathroom and still have a utility sink in there. The only goal I completed was finishing the last three blocks for the sampler.

I think these are realistic goals for the coming week:

1. Decide on a layout for the sampler quilt. The fabric I have in my stash may be the determining factor in that. I know I have some blue civil war reproduction fabric and that may be all there is. I'm afraid I will need to buy more of the off-white background fabric. It's Moda so I should be able to find some.

2. Clean up the Snowball Blossom quilt. I noticed some threads that need to be clipped and I don't think I tacked the corners on the binding.

3. Make a label for the Snowball Blossom quilt. I was going to leave it until I had someone to give it to, but I think I want it done and finished.

4. Attempt a sweater makeover. I have a hand-me-down sweater that I like except for one thing - when I washed it (apparently for the first time) - the sweater shrank but the zipper didn't.  So now the zipper is wavy and unattractive. First step is to remove the zipper. Also, the sleeves are too long and not just fashionably long, more like orangutan arm length. I'm not sure there is a fix for that, at least one that I am capable of doing. I don't knit.

Linking to:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
BOMs Away at Katie Mae Quilts
To Do Tuesday at Home Sewn by Us
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter Midweek Makers at QuiltFabrication

Weekly Reports - January Success

I only used a little fabric this week with the sashing strips of Snowball Blossom But a little is better than nothing, so I'll take it. I did manage to get quilting time in every day even though one day was repair work. Yesterday I planned to stick something in the oven and stitch while it cooked, but I hadn't considered washing dishes and prepping for the next thing to put in the oven. So I barely got in quilting yesterday and wouldn't have if one of our guests hadn't been a quilter. After we had a short show and tell before she left, I sat down for a little "Me" time.

Linking to:
15 Minutes to Stitch at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate

Snowball Blossom

Design Wall and Week 4 Goals

When I was looking around for the next UFO to finish, I spotted this Baby Bow Tie quilt top that I had recently unpacked. When I looked back on my blog, I saw a post that said I was putting it away with backing fabric. So where is that fabric now?

So I took that down and found a UFO that I can actually work on. This is a BOM sampler from 2005 that I named Ameliorate with nine finished blocks and three unfinished.

My goals for the week:
1. Find the missing backing fabric, and if it is sewn into backing already, prep it and send it off for quilting.
2. Make the final three blocks for the sampler quilt and decide on a design for the quilt. I started this as a beginning quilter so some of the blocks may need some help.
3. Buy sheets of foam board for a new design wall. I'm not sure if I want to cover them with polyester batting or flannel. I'm tired of blocks falling off the current flannel sheet.

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
BOMs Away at Katie Mae Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
To Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us
Midweek Makers at QuiltFabrication

This Week in Stitches

It was a busy week here and will be busy in the coming week too. We are hosting the amateur radio field day again this year and it will be next weekend. I've been trying to tidy up the living space and do some deep cleaning, along with baking cookies and doing some batch cooking. Sitting around talking makes men hungry. I thought I would spend yesterday quilting, but Hubby had a ham event and the constant shouting (he doesn't think it's shouting, but it is) gets on my nerves. But it is over and I have the space reserved today.

I managed to get in 15 minutes each day, but most days, that's all it was. It makes the report look good, but there isn't much different on the design wall.

I made a couple of borders for the quilt I'm working on, so used just a little fabric. If this year is nothing but finishing UFOs, I don't think I'm going to make my usage goal again this year.

I'm late getting my post done today and will be joining these linkups:
15 Minutes to Stitch at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate

The Border Dilemma

I love making the main part of the quilt, but I always struggle with borders. When I mention this to other quilters, they look at me quizzically like it has never been a bump in their road to a finished quilt. But here I am with a center flimsy, or maybe it's not a flimsy when it is a quilt-as-you-go, maybe it's a stiffy, or a stuffy. Anyway, here I am with the center stuffy, trying to find a border from my stash. I originally thought white on white so it didn't compete with the center, but I don't have any more true white on white. It could be the white on off-white I have will look less off-white when it is unfolded to a single layer of fabric. Of all the other fabrics I tried out, only the yellow and purple on the left are possibilities. What do you think?

My Janome voted to just bind it as is. It doesn't like QAYG, at least not the sashing method.

What are you working on this week? Join me at these linkups:
Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese
Whoop! Whoop! at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

End of the Week Progress and Week 3 Goals

Yesterday, the morning started with lead-gray skies. I was out of thread and needed to run over to the next town, and that's when the wind kicked up to thirty miles per hour and I felt like I was being pushed around the road. By the time I left the store, it was 73 degrees. It would have been the perfect day if it weren't for the wind and humidity. By the time I got home, dark clouds were building and after dinner, the rain began. Or should I say the rain pounded. It was deafening and lasted for several hours. Of course the tv weather people were in their element and the 6:00 news ran through the evening programs. There were tornado warnings in the counties north of us as the storm raged through, and then finally, it was quiet again. We woke up to ice on the windsheilds, but the counties north of us had an inch or two of snow. 73 to 29 in eight hours. Only in Texas.

But hey, I got my thread and could continue working on my quilt. It's all about priorities.

This week I finished quilting blocks on four more rows and joined three rows. I was hoping to get some quilting done Saturday, but I was in the kitchen most of the afternoon cooking for today's lunch. Hopefully, I'll have some quilting time this afternoon. This is where I am right now. I'm hoping for a finish by next weekend.

I was happy to get in 15 minutes or more every day on this quilt, and hope my streak continues. It was also nice to get to the backing so the stash report shows a nice loss for a change.

Home Sewn by Us has a To Do party that starts on Tuesday. But my OCD makes me crazy, or crazier, if I start it in the middle of the week, so I'm running Sunday through Saturday.

My first To Do list in 2020 is for Week 3 of 2020 and is a little ambitious, at least for me.

1. Finish the center of Snowball Blossom.

2. Find a fabric for the borders, both front and back. I'm afraid this will might require a fabric purchase as I am sure I want a white on white fabric.

3. Take down my design wall and finish the wall behind it. This is a tall order as I haven't really decided what I want to do here.

To see what other people have on their design board and on their sewing reports, join me at these linkups:
15 Minutes to Stitch at Life in Pieces
Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
To Do Tuesday at Home Sewn by Us
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Tuesday Colour at Clever Chameleon Quilting

A New Start for the Sunday Stash

When we were in Branson, I visited Quilts & Quilts Fabric Shoppe. I was only looking for a panel with a travel trailer on it, and while I was searching, so much more jumped in my basket. I hope this is the last new fabric I ever buy, but I know there will be bits and pieces needed to finish quilts.

I have no idea what I'll do with those two fabrics on the right, but aren't they pretty? Luckily, this purchase happened before the first of the year, so I added it into my beginning of the year stash total and don't have to show it as a 2020 purchase. I used a quarter of a yard making backing pieces for the Snowball Blossom quilt. It's not as impressive as cutting all the backing amount, but since I doing the quilt as you go method on this quilt, that's all I used this week.

I'm linking to Sunday Stash at Quilt Paint Create

15 Minute Challenge Week 1 of 2020

Off to a good start this year and I spent New Year's Day making the remaining blocks for the Snowball Blossom Quilt started as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge by soscrappy in 2018. For most quilters, these blocks are very easy, but I cannot seem to get the corners straight doing them the usual way and have have to make them oversized and then cut them down which makes for a lot of extra work. I managed to get in 15 minutes for the next three days and quilted several blocks. I am going to make this a quilt as you go quilt.

I was going to take another full day of quilting yesterday, but my simple project of replacing the grease in my Kitchenaid mixer took nearly all day. I was lucky to get 15 minutes. It's early in the year and I know my numbers will fall off when summer arrives, but for now, my sewing success rate is 100%. I'm not setting a success rate goal until we are finished with all the building and everything related to life on the farm.

Linking up to Kate's 15 Minutes to Stitch at Life in Pieces.