wonky stars

 Last year I made tiny wonky stars along with the color for the rainbow scrap challenge at so scrappy. I had no idea what I was going to do with them. I just knew they were cute and fun. And, when I made the roofs for tiny houses, I had 2 little triangles left from trimming that needed a purpose. I made 60 0f them, but that isn't enough for anything.

Well, as I was trying to figure out how to lengthen my ode to Joey quilt, I realized I could use them to make a border or two. How fun is that? When I divided the width by the size of the blocks, it came out even, Now, I am sewing them into borders.

I am linking to:

rainbow scrap challenge at so scrappy

TGIFF

TGIFF different     here  and here

Whoop Whoop

creations

peacock party

from bolt to beauty

put your foot down

oh scrap sunday

UFO busting saturday

boms away  sunday

needle and thread Thursdays

crayon quilt

 It's time to pull out the crayon quilt I have ready for borders. I worked on it until december 2019 and I had everything ready to do for borders. I needed to add the white inner borders first. Before I could add the outer borders.

I made the crayons as part of the rainbow scrap challenge at so scrappy in 2019 from 2 1/2 inch strips and scraps.

Once the inner borders were done, I could start adding the outer borders. I have just the top border sewn. Since I don't have a pattern for the borders, I have to try what I want with trial and error. But, I am excited to see this move forward. Now I am thinking I will need another white border above the words.

I am linking to:

midweek makers  

wednesday wait loss

needle and thread Thursdays

Oh scrap sunday

creations friday

UFO busting saturday

rainbow scrap challenge at so scrappy

on the go top

 this past week I started working on an older ufo - on the go. It was a kit I bought in 2014 for a donation quilt. It is bright and colorful and easy. I added the outside borders this morning. It was raining or I would have a better picture. I have fabric for the binding, but, I will need to find a suitable backing in my stash. Then, it will live with the other quilts waiting to be quilted.

My radishes are ready for harvesting. I picked a mild radish, and, it is too hot for me. Good thing the leaves are edible. I have had 3 whole green beans from my raised bed. 

I have made a little progress on ongoing projects. I am still making waffle stamp blocks and I had a few sets of tiny houses cut. These are always a welcome diversion from cleaning and finishing quilts.

I am linking to:

TGIFF

TGIFF different     here  and here

Whoop Whoop

creations

peacock party

from bolt to beauty

put your foot down

oh scrap sunday

UFO busting saturday

boms away  sunday

needle and thread Thursdays

on the go

 The mint has really done well this year. I have had several versions of mint for years, and, have not done anything with them, except munch on a leaf every now and then. This year, I have started drying them, and making tea with them. I am really enjoying them cold. By now, I don't remember what the names are, I do know, I like the taste of the ones by the rose bush more than the ones in the wash tub. 

I cut them back 2xs a week.

these are the best taste.

I found my on the go quilt that just needs borders. I bought this as a kit a few years ago.

I sewed the first border on last night.

 

The outside border is pieced, but, it looks like I have the pieces.

I am linking to:

midweek makers  

wednesday wait loss

needle and thread Thursdays

Oh scrap sunday

creations friday

UFO busting saturday

florabunda borders

I had a sew day Saturday for working on my florabunda quilt. I wasn't sure the last time I worked on it, that I would like it. But, I decided to press forward and make a simplified version of Bonnie Hunter's  borders on her quilt. I calculated that I needed 5 1/2 inch, 2 1/2 inch, 3 inch strips, to strip piece what I wanted to do. I had a leftover collection of florals to use.

5 1/2 floral plus 2 1/2 yellow strips

I sewed the second unit with a 2 1/2 in strip of floral, 2 1/2 inch strip of yellow and a 3 inch strip of floral. I sliced everything into 2 1/2 inch units.

I have what I believe will be all the borders made. I miscalculated the length of the smaller piece ( it should have been 3 1/2) so, I will have to trim them.

I like the way it looks with the borders. It is definitely an improvement. I am glad  I kept going

Bonnie Hunter free pattern called Florabunda. 

I am linking to:

midweek makers  

boms away 
Oh scrap

I am linking to:

boms away 

needle and thread Thursdays

rainbow scrap challenge

borders for baskets

One of my goals for this year is to finish my basket quilt. I really don't like borders, so I avoided this part longer than I would like.
The inner border choice was easy. I knew I wanted to continue the sashing fabric. I had a rough time choosing the outer border.

I had 20 fabrics out auditioning them.  I decided since nothing was great, anything would be fine. So I switched to what would be something I just really liked. The fabric I decided to use has a memory attached. It was an old print that I used in my country jumper business in the 90s. I loved the fabric, and, after making hundreds of jumpers, I never got tired of it. I love florals. If I still love it now, it might stand the test of time.

The borders are on, and, I am ready to quilt it. Other blog posts about this quilt are here.

I am linking:

Monday Making

design wall monday 

oh scrap

grand illusion 2

In my project box for my second version of Grand Illusion mystery quilt, I couldn't find the inner border or the fabric that it was supposed to be. So it could be anything I wanted. It was supposed to be the turquoise in the 4 patch. I tried yellow, blue, white, navy, green in different variations. But, I liked turquoise the best, and I had a different fabric that is a pretty good match.

I like the way it frames the quilt and helps tone down a pretty busy quilt. I like the quilt better the farther I am away from it. haha

I am one step closer to finishing this.

I am linking to:

WOW

midweek makers

Silly Mama WIP

Oh Scrap

A finish for February

My one monthly goals for February included the finishing of this quilt. It is celtic soltice, a quiltville mystery quilt from 2013. I have had it pretty much ready for quilting since then.

I had thought I would do a celtic quilting on the quilt, but, opted in stead for the big swirls in a cool gray color.

And for a backing I used a bit of the shamrock - don't you know. While making it, the green was very overpowering green, but, with the blue borders it calmed the colors. I like that it makes large circles as a secondary pattern.

See my other mystery finishes here

This was a finish for the 2019 finish along. My list is here.

I finished all 30 blocks that I am doing every month for my swap partners for our version of the circa 1880 quilt.

I had hoped to get the border on the Christmas snowflake quilt. I did, and, I also pieced the backing, and prepared the binding. It's ready for the longarm.

I am linking to:

Monday Making

Moving it Forward Monday 

main Crush Monday 

design wall monday   

boms away 

Oh scrap

one monthly goal

patchwork times

Stash report February 10, 2019

The border fabric I ordered, came this week for Christmas snowflake. hooray

I bought a border fabric for a fall quilt this week at Joann. I am a little out of season.

And on a whim, I bought a daily fab 5 at missouri star. I love the mini charms, and I have plenty already. I tend to buy them like I would candy, since I can't buy candy any more. I am pretty sure they won't kill my pancreas, or drive my blood sugar too high.
But, what can you do with just one? if you could actually open the pack? and really use them? problem solved - buy 12. haha.

Stash report

Fabric Used this Week 21 yard orca bay

Fabric Used year to Date: 32 yards

Fabric Added this Week: 4.5 yards

Fabric Added Year to Date: 47.5  yards
net fabric: 15.5 yards bought more than used

I have a binding to do today for slow Sunday stitching, my favorite part of the week.

I sewed more than 15 minutes every day - still working on good fortune

I am linking to:

Slow Sunday Stitching

Oh scrap

sunday stash at quiltpaintcreate

15 min to stitch at life in pieces

quilt border fears

note
On Mondays, Jo of Jo's Country junction has a string challenge. She wants to finish all the string quilts in Bonnie Hunter's String fling book before her next book is published ( Dec 2018). I checked my quiltville projects to see if and what I wanted to do as part of the challenge. I decided to finish all the mystery quilts. I have them all started except maybe one ( orca bay). For May, I hope to finish 2 of them. This is double delight, and I have been working on the borders. I have become a little more comfortable in adding borders, although, I will still procrastinate some. This quilt has a fun four patch in the corners.

I had ordered this great vintage brown for the border.

  And they look fun together.

What are my greatest fears of adding borders?
1. That I will pin and sew and reach the end and find out that I ran out of bobbin thread - it happened.
2. That I will finish the quilt and have wavy borders. I am keeping my fingers crossed
3. That I will mis -measure and not have enough fabric after I have started sewing, or, a variation, that I will discover that I put the sides on the top or the top on the sides. no problem this time
4. That I will twist the border - nope
5. That I will lay it out finished and not like it. It will grow on me
6. That I will have spots I didn't catch in the seam -nope
and in this particular quilt
7. That I would turn the four patches the wrong way - It happened.
I checked and rechecked - wrong.  hmm... it doesn't look that bad. I shall call it a new variation.
I checked and rechecked to do it "wrong" on the second border, and I got it right sigh..... so now I have one set going the wrong way and one set going the right way. I have to fix one, it might as well be the "wrong" one and tada the borders are finished.

I am linking to:

Jos country junction

Making Monday  link in sidebar

Moving it Forward Monday 

main Crush Monday   link in sidebar

show and tell monday

design wall monday   

boms away   link in sidebar

Oh Scrap   link in sidebar

civil war Christmas

Last week I took the black inner border off the spirit of Christmas quilt. I had put it on during an open sew, and I was just not happy with how it looked. I spent a bit of an afternoon with the seam ripper.
At home, I could use a good iron and spray starch and squared it up a bit. Time to begin again.

This time the little black border was great. And I moved on to the next border. Each time I was taking a little more time and effort to get it square and happy. There 3 more borders to go but I am pleased with the progress. I don't have to be in a hurry, even if my friend has already finished hers...sigh...

I am linking to:

Fiber Tuesday - 

Free Motion by the River

to do tuesday

too cute tuesday

one monthly goal mill girls bom

Mill girls is a completed top. I have added the last border....

and mitered the corners...

and it is ready to be quilted...

I have the back on the frame, and the binding ready to attach. The only reason it is not completely finished is that my husband said he thought the quilt deserved a wool batt and to be on our bed. I told him that would be expensive but he insisted, so I ordered one, but it hasn't come yet. The minute it does arrive, I will quilt and bind the quilt.

I can't believe it is this close to finished. I am ecstatic.

This was my one monthly goal for July,and my Ufo 2017 project, and I was afraid I would not get very far on it. I consider it a finish. Here I was at the beginning

I am linking to:

Making Monday

Moving it Forward Monday 

main Crush Monday

show and tell Monday

design wall monday

One monthly goal

boms away

Mill girls Last border

I have started working on the last border for Mill girls. I am soooo close. I have just now realized I would need to order a wool batting for it.It may not get here in time to finish by the end of the month. fingers crossed. I still might be counting my chickens before they are hatched since it is not even finished yet. The last border is actually 3 pieces , a 1 1/2 inch red tonal, a 3 1/2 inch floral and a fussy cut 7 1/2 inch blue strip with red on either side.
First I needed to square up the corners and sides as best as I could.

Actually it was pretty good, just little bits here and there that needed to go.

All the border pieces are together x 4. I really like the idea of building a border before adding it to the quilt. I think it is spectacular. I am really loving the quilt so far. When this border is added, it will need to be mitered in each corner.

Today is a one location shop hop in town. I am deciding whether or not to go. I don't shouldn't need to add anything to my burgeoning stuff, but I hate to miss anything. geesh I have added more fabric lately than I can handle - it's bad when it is still in the sack. But new pretties are calling out and I Can hear them.....

I am linking to:

TGIFF

Finished or Not Fridays   

Whoop Whoop

crazy mom quilts

side borders

I have two borders on Mill girls. I needed to piece these using the monthly blocks that were made in the first months of the block of the month. The setting triangles were cut as part of month nine.
All the dark setting triangles are for the side towards the quilt. And the lights are for the outside edge.

only 2 more to go

3 more glitter blocks ( Jen Kingwell)

I am linking to:

Fiber Tuesday -

Free Motion by the River

to do tuesday

too cute tuesday