May's One Monthly Goal

WOW, is it really May already.  Time is at warp speed, at least for me it is.  How about you?  I haven't taken much time to think about a goal for May, but need to come up with something as we leave Friday for the Oregon coast and will be gone until November.  Have I packed up everything that needs to be moved from the "big" 5th wheel to the "little" 5th wheel that will be our home for the next 6 months?  NOPE is the answer to that question and I'm running out of time.

Oh, back to May's One Monthly Goal which is hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts.  You can find out about it and link up HERE. 

Since I'll be working over the next six months as a campground manager, I'm going to make my goal an easy one.  I'll mostly be working on my redwork blocks that will eventually become a Christmas guilt/wall hanging.  Here are  pictures of a few that I've already completed.

And this is what all the blocks will become.

Happy Stitching

April's One Monthly Goal - Check

My One Monthly Goal, hosted by Patti over at Elm Street Quilts, for April was to complete a top for Quilts of Valor.  Not only did I get one top finished, but two.  Below are pictures of the making of the "Goal" top and the second top I finished in April. 

The beginnings are pretty messy, but it works for me.

 

Lots of stars

 

Trying to see what works, and what doesn't

 

Almost done

 

Done and finished before the 4/15 deadline

 

Top Two

This Block is Party Hats and found HERE (free pattern)

 

Blocks all in a row

 

Lola at attention honoring our military

 

Second top for April finished

 

 

One of my 2017 goals was to make three Quilts of Valor tops and I have now reached that goal and it is only April.  Our wonderful QoV leader had kindly put together a kit for a top for a member that hadn't picked it up so, being that person who rarely says no, I took the kit.  I've never worked from a kit before, but it looks like it will be fairly easy since everything is right there.  I hope to get it made before returning to Nevada in November.  Yep, we head out for Oregon on May 5th where we will be working as campground managers at Cape Perpetua Campground near Yachats, Oregon.  So if you are in the area this summer, please stop by and say hi.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for April's One Monthly Goal finish.  WooHoo!

Happy Stitching

One Monthly Goal for April 2017

It is going to be a hectic two weeks as my One Monthly Goal for April will be to complete a top for a Quilts of Valor quilt.  This one has to be done my April 15th so that it can be quilted and awarded to a very special Navy Seal in our area.  Wish me luck on getting it done.  Want to know more about One Monthly Goal, head over the Elm Street Quilts HERE.  Patty does a great job hosting it and it really helps to have a set deadline to get things accomplished.

I have no pattern for this top and have something in the back of my head about using the cut up panel I got, a lot of stars and maybe some crown blocks. Oh and some leftovers.

I had bought a stand up design wall awhile back that doesn't work well, so I've folded it to fit on our coat closet which doesn't allow for much design.  The blocks on it now are only 14" square and there are two of each shown that I cut out from the panel.  Living in a 5th wheel doesn't provide much in the way of walls.  Another draw back from the stand up design wall is that fabric blocks do not "stick" to it and keep falling off.  I need to find an alternative.  Any suggestions?

I made a few blocks while at my quilt guild's retreat the first week in March.  I used a new tool I got from a vendor at our quilt show in February.  It really works well and you can purchase one HERE.

 

They are easy to make and don't take too awful long to piece together.   I've been string piecing them which make them go faster.

 

Pieces and parts

 

I'm making all different size stars and hope I can figure out how to place them so they are random and appealing.

 



While at the quilt show, I also bought a pack of Liberty Crown by Quiltsmart which is a different way of doing paper piecing, at least I think it is.  They use printed fusible interfacing and I've started one block, but at a stand still as I need to buy some invisible thread and my LQS doesn't open until tomorrow.  She is only open on Mondays and the second weekend of the month.  Otherwise, I'd have to travel into Las Vegas to find some and I didn't feel like driving 140 miles roundtrip to buy some.  Call me lazy.

Pack with the interfacing beside it

 

First partial block

 

I'm not sure if I'll use some of these or not.  Time will tell after I get the invisible thread.

 

Another idea I have is to use a lot of small triangle pieces I had left over from the last Quilts of Valor top I made.  I mean a container full of red, blue and off white ones.  Lots of possibilities for them in this top.  Will I use them?  Not sure as it will take a lot of time to sew into HSTs (half square triangles), trim them and piece them.

 

Leftovers

 

I do need to get some redwork blocks done if there is any chance of getting it finished in time to hang up for Christmas and since I have to have the QoV top done by April 15th, I should get several of them done.

 

Happy stitching! 



March One Monthly Goal Wrap Up

March as been an interesting month for me.  Mostly it was all about getting my Meadow Mystery quilt finished up and by that I mean getting it sandwiched and quilted.  It was the main focus of my March One Monthly Goal so here goes and  beware of photo overload. 

Pin basting prep

 

On your mark get ready, GO

 

The quilt center

 

And more quilting, there was a lot

 

Then the borders with snake trails

 

Finally the binding

 

I had the perfect place for pictures of my completed Meadow Mystery quilt.  For some reason I love this abandoned construction site a few miles from where we live.

 

 

 

The minor part of my one monthly goal was to get some redwork blocks done.  I only got one done due to fighting allergies/cold for three weeks and then this happened when I washed out the Transfer-Eze.  I have never had DMC floss bleed before.  Any suggestions on getting the bleed out would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

The first of March was my local quilt guilds spring retreat about 50 miles from our small town.  It was a fun retreat except the day we arrived (Sunday) there were high winds and lots and lots of dust blowing around.  By Tuesday several of us were very snuffy with runny noses and Wednesday morning my husband and I headed home, a day earlier than planned.  The hotel/casino where our retreat is held also has an RV park so we always take our small 5th wheel over for some relaxation and to get away for a few days.  The allergies/cold has hung on way too long. 

 

My view during our retreat

 

I made microwave bowl cozies

 

Many of us made triangle zipper pouches that will

be  given to new members with 10 binding

clips inside.  I made a total of three

 

I made two blocks for my Stash Bee March Queen

 

Last, but not least is my March mug rug from Jen over at Patterns by Jen. 

 

 

That about wraps up my March.  During retreat I also worked a little on what I hope will be part of my April One Monthly Goal so be sure to stay tuned to see what that will be.  Here's hoping you'll join in all the One Monthly Goal fun hosted by Elm Street Quilts.

 

Happy stitching! 

One Monthly Goal for March

Maybe my one monthly goal for March will actually be two goals.

I participated in the Meadow Mystery quilt designed by Cheryl over at Meadow Mist Designs.  I love how mine turned out and yesterday I added a border.  My first and main goal for March is to buy backing material and batting and get it quilted.  I keep looking at it, but have no idea how I'll quilt it.  Usually, early on I'll get a feeling about the quilting I'll do, but no feeling so far.  It best be hitting me pretty soon.

Here is a picture of my top that I will be free motion quilting/walking foot quilting.  Oh, and that's my quilt inspector, Lola, making sure it is ready to quilt:

My second goal will be to complete three of my redwork blocks for a Christmas wall hanging that I hope to have finished by, you guessed it, Christmas.  I just started one of the smaller ones and here it is.  The pattern, "Holiday Redwork" came from The Stitch Connection.  I originally saw it posted on Pinterest and fell in love with it.  I've started using a product called Transfer Eze which I purchased last summer at a quilt shop in Oregon.  It works great.  I just print out the design I want to embroider and press it to my fabric.  It washes out just like it says.  You can buy it through Amazon HERE.   It was only $15.00 for a ten pack when I purchased it.

Sunday is my local quilt guild's spring retreat in Amargosa Valley, NV, which is about 50 miles from where we live.  I had so much fun last year and really got a lot accomplished and hope I do this year to.  I'm packing enough projects to keep me busy for a month or two, not just four days.  But I'm sure you know how that goes.

I'll be linking up with One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts.  Thank you Patty.

Happy stitching

One Monthly Goal

Well, I made my One Monthly Goal for February and had fun doing it.  My goal was to make a quilt top for my local Quilts of Valor group.  I hope to get three tops made by the end of this year.  Here are the pictures of my process for making the quilt which will be handed over to our QoV leader on Thursday.

In my February 2nd post I had included three blocks I was considering for the QoV quilt top.  I chose and got permission from Le Ann at Persimmon Quilts to use her Courage block pattern.  A big thanks to Le Ann as I love this block. The next step was to gather up all my red and blue scraps along with fabric obtained from our Quilts of Valor group.  My top is a scrappy one, with the exception of the off white fabric and the red fabric used in the corner HSTs on each block. 

February 4th was the Quilts of Valor sew day and I spent the day cutting fabric for my courage top.

 

I made one block to see if I could do it and what it would look like as a scrappy block.  I definitely loved it.

 

 

 

Next I spent a lot of time marking all those squares to be made into lots and lots of half square triangles.  It took a long time too.

 

 

During the month of February, I was overwhelmed with our local quilt guild's quilt show as I was the intake coordinator.  Did I tell you it was my first year doing this and there was a lot to do.  I did, however, get all the blocks made and sewn together and then the rows sewn together.

 

 

I had enough blue and white fabric for the borders, but not red.  We went down to Las Vegas on the 22nd so I could attend the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild meeting that night.  We stayed over with my stepson and his lovely wife, Jennifer, until Friday morning so Thursday I was at JoAnn's getting red fabric among some other fabric and needed notions (my daughter, Jennifer, had given me a gift card for my birthday).  Friday I got the borders cut and started sewing them on and finished up on Saturday.  It has been too windy to get any nice pictures of the finished top so here is a picture taken in our home (38' 5th wheel RV).

 

 

This is my second post for today, so be sure to check out my earlier post HERE as it will fill you in on all the quilty things I accomplished during this crazy, busy February.

 

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts' February One Monthly Goal link up and Making Monday.

 

Happy stitching

 







Muggamo and Quilt Show

February was a major busy month for me.  My local quilt guild held their yearly quilt show and I volunteered to be the intake coordinator as the lady who had done it for several years was in the process of moving out of state. 

I had entered four quilts/wall hangings in the show and brought home three ribbons, plus $50 in prize money, plus a free entry into next years show (3rd prize). 

Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt for 2014,

Grand Illusion took 1st Place

 

This table topper/wall hanging was a

challenge from my local quilt guild

this year and took 2nd place

 

A panel I bought in Idaho one

 summer and made into a child's

quilt last year took 3rd place

 

My favorite was a block challenge

from my Las Vegas Modern

Quilt Guild this year that didn't place.  :(

 

Of course, there were lots of vendors at our show and I did lots of shopping with my winnings plus a lot more $$$ added in.

On the left a new template for

making stars and a paper piecing kit

Some really beautiful ombre

fabric and a pattern

Fat quarter bundles, half yard

bundles, jelly roll, and a pattern

Other than the quilt show work, I actually accomplished a lot, so here goes.

I have been wanting to join Jen over at Patterns By Jen for her monthly mug rug pattern program (muggamo), but didn't have the time in January (quilt show stuff going on) and didn't think I'd make it for February, but since I finished my one monthly goal on Saturday, I took the time yesterday to make it and had fun doing it.  I dug into my stash and found some leftover Bronco fabric from the travel bag I made for a Christmas gift back in 2015.  So here it is in all its glory.  Be sure to check out Jen's blog for the March mugrug pattern.

Go Broncos Mug Rug

Mug Rug back

Here is a picture of the block(s) that I made for Hive 5's February Stash Bee Queen.  She didn't want them joined together as she is going to mix them up with all the blocks she receives.

I completed my One Monthly Goal, but that will be in another post real soon.

And last, but not least, I finished another redwork block.  My goal is to get all the blocks finished and made into a Christmas quilt to hang up in our 5th wheel before Christmas.  Wish me luck.

Well that's it for now.

Happy stitching