A quilters quarterly report....

OK, no judging please, it has been one heck of a quarter! I have only managed to post twice in March and have not even finished any Zentangle challenges, although I started many. Sad, I know, but at least one of the things keeping me busy during that time was a quilt. It wasn't on the UFO list, unfortunately, but I started it in mid February and finished top and back last week at it is at the long arm quilters until mid to late April. Other than that I did get some things on my list done or at least worked on.

First on the list was to border the crumb quilt. DONE! We won't talk about that no back has been made and no quilting has been done... The goal was to get the border finished and I did! Go me.

Second on the list was to make a backing and quilt the Winter's Winning Hand. PART done. I made the backing... a sort of mish mash of leftover parts and some Gingerbread Man fabric that seemed appropriate but wasn't big enough. I never got around to the quilting part so technically not a finish although progress was made.

backing for the wreath

Third on the list was to quilt the Holiday Wreath. I made the backing and began quilting it. I ended up doing some machine trapunto on the ribbons and then stuffing them even more before I even started the quilting. It may have been a mistake as it is going to be mighty hard to get my skip-happy machine to quilt right close to those fat sections... but live and learn. At one point after cross hatching the background around the wreath and getting into free motion stitching around the motifs in the borders I ran out of thread and it took a few days to get more of the right color... By then 'the moment had passed' so to speak and I had moved on to other things. I hope to pick that back up this week while my son is off hiking and I can stay up and sew into the wee hours. So, again, not a finish.

The charity quilt I was planning on finishing was worked on! I pulled it out, made a few blocks, decided on how big it will be and found the rest of the fabric I need for it. Still not done, however and no new photos.

So, I got one thing on my list done and made a very special retiring teacher a huge queen sized quilt from beginning to 'flimsy with backing' and added all sorts of sentimental value to it with names and signatures from students and teachers. Not too bad for a quarter, even if not everything was on the list! Now I need to assess what I will work on in the coming quarter. Thanks for stopping by. To see what other people have managed to finish this past quarter stop by Quilter in the Gap's quarterly check in post.

Many things in progress, few things actually done...

Hello all you lovely blog-land readers. I am alive, but just barely. I knew two months ago when I scheduled my calendar that the first half of March was going to really stink, and I was RIGHT! I have been overly busy and had some not so lovely additions added to the mix like the death of a terminally ill family member, the long lasting yucky cold of my preschooler and the failure of a committee member to fulfill her duties regarding the science fair leaving me in the lurch at the last minute . Now, of course because said preschooler crawls into bed with me and puts her stuffy little head right next to mine on the pillow... and coughs in my face... I have that same yucky cold AND a ton of things to do! Yea me!

BUT... one sunny day late last week before I was completely snowed under by the science fair I did manage to take a couple of pictures of the only project currently getting any attention and one project that has been finished for a while but I have not had in my possession until now. First, the teacher quilt has all border vine applied and stitched and all of the green leaves stitched as well. I have one flower done and have added two of the bees. This is a distance photo, I don't have detail photos yet. I have also added all the names that will not be written by the children themselves... that in itself was a comedy of errors, but nothing horrible and that just makes it 'handmade' right?

This is what the bees will look like and I have been debating how many I will add... one to a flower seems a little too regular, two to a few flowers might be a little crowded. What do you think?

This project is a quilt for the assistant pastor at your church who left... um three years ago almost? It took two years to pull it all together working with various quilters making blocks. It was a finished flimsy late last spring. It was finished by the quilter, also a friend of the pastor, last summer and we have been waiting for the current senior pastor to decide when to give it to him. I just got it back from the quilter's daughter last week so I finally got to see it quilted. She does a great job and honestly, when you can find a quilter who WANTS to bind the quilt for you its a winner! She enjoys binding... how amazing is that!

Being the work of multiple quilters it was exciting to put it all together but I think it came out nicely. I love this layout and its ability to accommodate so many different sizes. I hpe he appreciates it and it is not too lame that it took so long to put it all together. 

All my other projects are on hold. I had hoped to finish a number of tops this quarter. There is one that is part way quilted (holiday wreath) and one that has had a backing made (winter's winning hand). The crumb quilt is finished, although I have made no further progress on the backing or quilting. To see what others have 'in progress' visit Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday. 

I have made Crumb progress... but only in my head!

I had really wanted to get a few things actually quilted... this is called 'quilting' right? Not 'piecing'? However (and there always seems to be a 'however' in my life) I got caught up in a piecing project (shocking I know!) that is for someone else and has a deadline and must be sent out to quilt which will take goodness knows how long. So, all my limited sewing time has been spent doing that. It is turning out fabulously, if I do say so myself (see the past few posts and tune in later this week for a photo of the final top photo) but it has kept me from completing even the small top I was actually quilting in January when I ran out of the right color thread. Drat, foiled again!

So this is a re-hash of the final crumb top, Hearts of Gold. I plan on quilting it... and this is where the 'progress has been made - I made an actual DECISION! with a gold toned variegated thread in a large overall meander. I don't think it can stand too much of a pattern since there is already so much going on. I may do a straight line grid to stabilize the whole thing before I start. I will also certainly take special care with my hearts - probably echo quilt around them a couple of times and work the meander around them. There are a few other crumb tops, some of them actually quilted! over at the Crumb Round Up.