April OMG Update

In spite of having what felt like extremely limited time in my sewing room this month I actually accomplished quite a bit. I'm very happy to report that I have converted the piles of Starlite Skies blocks into a top, so I am four for four on my OMG projects!

It still needs to be pressed and there are a thousand threads to pick off of it - that sashing fabric was really stringy - but other than that it is ready for quilting. I would have liked it to be a bit wider - it's currently right at 90"- but decided to exclude the optional border as it is already 106" long. I really hate super long quilts since all of our beds have footboards. My husband suggested bucking convention and adding borders to the sides only but I am pretty sure that would be too much for my symmetry-loving OCD brain to handle!

I haven't decided how I am going to quilt this one. I feel like it needs to be custom rather than an edge-to-edge design, but I have no idea how to quilt those blocks. It might be a while before I load it on the longarm.

This weekend I finished blocks 89 & 90 for Triangle Gatherings. I had only prepped enough HSTs to get to block 90 since that was the original number Lisa had thrown out for the total. I spent a little time in EQ over the weekend and figured out a nice setting that will work with what I have so I decided to skip the last 9 blocks. I have a black fabric that will be perfect for setting this one but will need a few more yards of it so I will be searching for that this week.

I also finished my last Magic of Chrismas block over the weekend.  I had been putting this one off because of the teeny tiny triangles - the little HSTs are 1/2" finished.

As always my photos are terrible - the lighting in my house is not ideal for photography, apparently.  The actual color of my background fabric is somewhere between the block above and the picture below.  Anyway, I saw an absolutely gorgeous version of this quilt in Paducah with wool applique in the center and border and have decided to use a similar setting. This layout uses 42 blocks. I thought about going larger since I have 49 blocks, but once I figured out that I would need to make more to maintain symmetry it was easy to decide to just orphan a few. My design wall isn't quite large enough so this is a bit sloppy, but here's the idea. (Now that I see the photo I see a couple of blocks that need to be moved...)

This will be a bit challenging to piece since some of the more elaborate pieced blocks are a little larger than they are supposed to be....apparently my seam is a little too scant...but I am determined to get it together.  I'm a little frightened of trying to applique after quilting but the one in Paducah was so fantastic that I feel like I want to give it a shot. I still need to come up with my applique design and figure out the quilting so this will be another one that takes a while.

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts to share my April OMG finish and now need to decide what I want to choose as a focus project for May. Obviously it should be the one above, but there are a few others calling my name...

Star-studded Weekend

I made great progress on my little 3” star cornerstones over the weekend!  I managed to finish starching the rest of the 244 fabric squares and to complete 34 stars, bringing my current total to 42.  That leaves just 30 more to go - something I can easily accomplish next weekend. 

I was trying to decide if I would forge ahead with this project for April or move on to something else for a while, but when both Patchwork Times and APQ chose it (UFO #5) as the April project I decided it was meant to be, so this is my OMG for April. My goal will be to get the top pieced this month.  I have no idea how I will quilt it (I don't think E2E will work for this), so that is likely to take a while. But getting all the loose parts assembled would be an exciting achievement, particularly since I haven't finished a Primitive Gatherings SBOW project since 2010. Sad....

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal for April. I love seeing what everyone else is working on!

March OMG Update

I'm double-dipping with this post - posting both a slightly belated Friday Night Sew-In update as well as a progress report for the Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal (OMG) link-up. I hope to have time to catch up on everyone's posts later today - it looks like a lot of fols were really busy this month!

I started the weekend with just one week's star blocks left to finish - or so I thought!  I checked the finishing instructions and found that there were two more star blocks still to do - a total of 50 in the quilt.

So as I have been doing all month, I got to work piecing the little center stars and then sewing the strip sets for the nine patches. I decided to mix the strips for the extra two blocks in with week 12 so I wouldn't have any duplicate fabrics.  

By Saturday afternoon I had finished the last of the blocks. Twenty-two blocks completed in March.  Not bad!

I was so excited to dive into the finishing kit, already starting to ponder how I will quilt this top, when I read the next step. I need to make 72 more little stars for cornerstones.  That's a LOT of stars! So I had to get out my trusty wire rack and start starching fabric again. It's going to take a while to get all of those squares starched, but I managed to get enough ready to sew my first 8.  Just 64 more to make!

I took a little break from sewing binding last night to work on one of my little baskets.  I'm not sure how many years ago I started this project, but I know that I was working on it when I traveled to Australia in 2010, so it has been a while!  I am not sure where I put all my finished blocks and the rest of the fabrics, and don't even remember how many blocks I have finished, but I still love this quilt and would like to get back to it. I think I might even replace one of my other UFOs on my list with this one - is that cheating? 

I need to give some thought to my April OMG project.  Do I stick with Starlite Skies?  I feel like I'm on a roll. Or give myself a break and move on to something else? I will have to see how I am feeling about little stars by the end of the week...

Starting Something New

Now that I have On Ringo Lake out of the sewing room, I decided it was finally time to start something new.  Alabama Star has been at the top of my list for quite some time and I finally settled on a background so I jumped in with the first of the "octagon" blocks.  

I was just not happy with how the center went together with the paper pieces.  I know that I should probably get the rest of the side triangles on and take the papers out of the center before I decide, but having hand pieced a queen-sized LeMoyne Star previously I feel like getting that center right with all those papers in there will be a gigantic pain.  I think hand piecing might be the better solution. I decided to stop where I was and bite the bullet and order the stamps from the Netherlands. It hurts to pay $25 in shipping, but I think I will be happier in the long run. Now I just have to wait for them to make that long trip across the pond!

So with that project put on hold, I decided to start on the 2018 TQS BOM.  I finished the January blocks (3 each of 3 patterns) so now I am only one month behind.  I hope to be caught up by the end of March.

I had to decide what to choose for my One Monthly Goal project for March. I could have chosen one of the UFOs selected for this month, but neither of those was really calling to me. I should have chosen Triangle Gatherings to get all of those blocks and pieces off my sewing table, but I am still trying to decide how I want to set that one. I decided to go with the project I was most excited to get back to: Starlite Skies.  I have the first seven weeks' blocks completed:

And started the weekend with five left to go:

I was able to get week #8 to this point - just need to sew the big nine patches now.

I'm not sure how far I can reasonably expect to get in a month, but my goal is to at least have all of the blocks pieced. I looked at the finishing kit yesterday to remind myself what was involved and was so excited (yes, that's sarcasm) to see that all the cornerstones are stars....so I have MANY more stars to make before this one becomes a top.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal (OMG) March link-up - hoping to be three for three by month's end!