Blocks from the Past Quilt Along Weekly Update

I feel I have dropped the ball a little bit this week. I forgot that it was Monday.  I know that never happens to other people, so I'm sorry it happened to me. If you are following along, go check out my friend, Konda's blog to see about this weeks blocks. As for myself, I have copied out the applique pieces, with hopes of getting 1 or more prepped in the next few days.

I also have a few pictures to take of some of the things I have gotten done this week, so I can get them up on here. Many great things, and some harder things have been happening, including some sickness. Kyle has had an icky nose for much of our time in Utah, and I had thought it was possibly teething related until I got it. We also had Spencer come home sick from work one day, and Nate got it just after that. Luckily it wasn't something that stuck around for very long. Also, in the last 2 weeks, Nate has decided that he wants to be a big boy, and no longer uses diapers, and has even being staying dry at night. We are very proud of him.

Anyway, it is after my bedtime now, so I must bid you adieu.

First partial finish of 2015

While this is a finish I am only going to call this a partial finish at this point. Since I'm trying to get myself all the way to bound and labeled with some of my UFOs, bound and labeled will be the only Finishes allowed. I'm also going to be rewarding myself for Full finishes with a fat quarter for each finish every 100 days. The 100 days of not buying fabric will also grant me a fat quarter. This way I will be using my fabric faster than acquiring new fabric.

Anyway. This lovely little house is part of a swap I'm participating in with my mom and some of her quilting friends in Indiana. There are 5 of us and we will be making 10 houses every month. There are few different styles of houses to choose from. They finish at 4.5 inches. i had fun picking out the fabrics for this one, since I had a Curious George print that was the perfect size for the window. They are now packaged and on their way to Indiana.

Finish #2 of 2015

This is my second finish of the year. It is a baby blanket/quilt for a new little guy, the son of a lady from church. It is all flannel. I used 5 inch squares that I randomized using my random number generator app and then sewed together just making sure that the same fabric was not touching itself on either the sides or the corners (until the end where 2 touch on the corners, betcha can't find them :P). I used a low loft batting and sewed, flipped, and topstitched to give it binding-like look. It was the first quilt I tied. I have helped tie some for donations, but this was the first one I did by myself. It's a bit bigger than I realized. It finished at 49 inches square.

Quilt Along Progress

It's another Blocks from the Past Quilt Along Day. Go check out Natalie's blog for the beginning blocks. I have had a few very busy days since returning to Utah, so my blocks are still living as dreams for a little longer.

I had a baby shower last Saturday with another one this Saturday, so a lot of my focusing the past week has been on some blankets/quilts for those. I also have been hard at work on a comfort quilt for a friend. Pictures of all these things will come if I can find some time. I also have been trying to get some blocks ready to mail for a swap I'm in with my mom and a few of the ladies from her guild (in Indiana). And I hope to soon be able to get a little more progress done on Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery. My husband and I have also been enjoying some time together sitting and watching 1-2 episodes of some of the shows that have been waiting patiently for us to start, so my binding is coming along slow and steady on my Round Robin. It is slower some days, since the shows get a little more intense at times.

Hopefully, I will have more to share with you soon.

In an attempt to use what I have, I have not bought fabric in 101 days.

First Finish of 2015

 My first finish for the year is this lovely mini quilt. I chose to participate in Schnitzel & Boo's Mini Quilt Swap: Round Three. We each signed up and gave a little bit of information about our selves, and she very generously paired us all up. We were to make a mini quilt to send to a new friend. A big part of the fun is that we could follow any number of other people on Instagram who were also joining in this swap. But none of us know who is making the quilt that will be coming to us. 

Shipping opened this week for getting them to our partners, so I had to get over my fears of my partner not liking it, and get it quilted. I managed to piece it at my parents' house while I was visiting for a very long Christmas visit. My mom allowed me to search her stash for just the right fabrics and I am quite please with how it went together. I finished it with a bias binding of the same bright square fabric that I used for the back and included a corner label and 2 hanging corners. Once I have settled on what extras I want to include in the package, it will be on to it's new home.

Blocks from the Past Week 2

Hello again dear friends. With another Monday comes another Blocks from the Past Quilt Along update.

This week Natalie is discussing fabric selection and fabric requirements for this project, so go check that out. As for myself, I plan to stick fairly closely to the book in layout, while doing scrappy neutral (or low volume in modern quilt speak) and scrappy colorways, too. Just before heading off to Indiana for 3 months because my dad had a heart attack (and he's doing really well now) I had started to sort my scraps by color. The bags and bags of scraps were just getting to be overwhelming, and needed to have some help in finding a way back into use.

The book is Teach Yourself Blocks from the Past by Marie Henry and, while out of print, copies can still be acquired through Amazon.

Remember to use the #BFTPqal for any progress you post to Instagram.

I am hope to get pictures up soon of some of the other progress I'm making on other projects, including 3 versions of Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery. And an addition 5 more projects I decided I needed to add to my life, yesterday.

Happy crafting.

Blocks from the Past Quilt Along

Welcome to the new year. To get us started off right my friends Marion and Natalie are hosting a quilt along from a wonderful old out-of-print quilting book called Teach Yourself Blocks from the Past over the next several months on their blogs. I have agreed to help out with a few of the blocks and will post about them here on the appropriate days. Each week there will be 1 applique block and 2 pieced blocks. For more information including the schedule, be sure to check out Marion's blogpost with the starting information. Otherwise, I'll see you back here next week.

Grand illusion link up 1

It is Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt time again over at Quiltville. This year it is called Grand Illusion and was inspired by her visit to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Since it was coming during the travel season I made plans with my mom to borrow one of her machines while I was visiting and to borrow my mother-in-law's sewing machine for any parts that may be given while visiting there.

The plan originally for the holidays had me and my boys getting to Indiana to spend a little under a month with my parents this past Monday. But due to unforeseen complications of my dad's double knee replacement surgery (he had a heart attack), we actually got out here around the end of October. That meant I was lucky enough to get to spend an early Thanksgiving at my in-law's and Thanksgiving with my parents. AND I was able to work on the first clue with my mom. We bantered back and forth on who was in the lead. And my mom came out ahead in the end. As you can see from the picture above, we have each pulled fabric for 2 Bonnie sized quilts. Mom's are on the left in Bonnie's colors, and a second one using her Denyse Schmidt fabrics. My two on the right are Bonnie's colors and fabrics from some logo fabrics, that I acquired way too much of and mom so generously picked up from Goodwill and has been holding on to for me. I also have fabrics pulled for another one half sized out of my own collection of Denyse Schmidt, but those were unfortunately forgotten in my rush to get out to Indiana.

We have both completed all the pieces for part 1 in Bonnie's colors, and have been using the second as rewards when my boys manage to give us a few minutes of freedom. I have just a few yellow and black squares still to cut, and my mom is nearly done with her second set.

Now to join the linkie. You can find more crazy fun-loving people's links to their own quilts with the pattern here. I should be around am number 280.

Lozenges

Slowly working my way through my lozenges. I know they were supposed to be leaders and enders originally, but they have become my main project since they require nearly no thinking. That is a mist if you are going to try and sneak in a few minutes here and there.

The boys are getting more and more active everyday. Kyle has been crawling for over a month and has been pulling himself up to standing for a couple of weeks. He seems to want to skip cruising since he keeps trying to just take a step away from whatever he was holding on to. This makes keeping everything craft related picked up when more important.

Happy crafting. I have to remind myself, "5 minutes of progress is still progress."

I'm still alive

This quilt top is now ready for borders. It was started in 2013 at the local quilt show as part of the mystery class. I tried getting it out earlier this year, but that just brought back all of the thoughts of nausea since I was pregnant when I started it. I'm really trying to push to have this ready to quilt soon.

Trying something new

This is something I'm trying to use up little scraps. It is quilt as you go, and raw edge. The batting square started at 10 but has shrink to 9.5. I have a few other things I want to try on the next block, including a glue stick on the pieces so they don't shift.

Celtic solstice

My Celtic Solstice is bound and ready to hear to my local quilt show tomorrow. Pattern was the 2013 mystery by Bonnie Hunter.

Challenge Quilt

Time to trim and bind. Need to get these done this week to go in the Quilt Show next week.

Morning stitching

I have lots of morning stitch time today since Nate decided to come in and fuss about going back to bed. It woke Kyle up, and since I have no laptop with me, I thought I might as well get something done.

Star struck progress

Finally managed to get a few blocks done for a quilt I decided I needed to do because I wasn't seeing any progress on the other. The pattern is Star Struck by Bonnie Hunter and is available on her blog Quiltville. Blogspot.com. The stars will be in a few Bright colors and not all purple.

Table runner

This table runner is completely done: bound and labeled. While I pushed to finish the top and quilting in a day, the binding took a bit longer. Since my current show us not kid friendly, my TV time has been reduced to naptime and the hour between the boys' bedtime and mine.

Kyle

Apparently my stack of rest hammocks looks yummy.

Vomit quilt progress

I'm slowly making progress on my vomit quilt, which was my January goal.

Leader ender challenge: Lozenges

Finally finished cutting my pieces for a lozenge quilt I'm doing for Bonnie Hunter's leader/ender challenge. That is 540 bricks at 3.5" by 6.5" and 2160 2" squares. I gave myself 10 minutes a day to cut them. And my mom sent me nearly 200 bricks.

January goal: revisited

Finally getting myself going on my vomit quilt again. It will be nice to be able to put something else on my design, or at least to have that option again.