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  • Monday Morning Star Count – 2014/10

    I hate it when my real job gets in the way of my progress, but it is a necessary evil!  So I really did not make much progress this week.  I was able to finish three flowers so that is better than no progress at all.

    I have tried three different thimbles this week and will try to post my thoughts, likes, and dislikes along with the pictures of the thimbles this week.  I really appreciate the advice I received from everyone.  I am linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts for the Monday Morning Star Count.  Come join the fun!

  • Monday Morning Star Count 2014/9

    I didn’t make as much progress as I would have liked, but it was a very busy week.

    I finished two flowers and added the border hexagons to four sections.
    I plan on stitching more sections to the quilt next week!  I am linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts for the Monday Morning Star Count.

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  • Monday Morning Star Count 2014/8

    What a busy week!  I took some time with my granddaughter, Gracie, to teach her basting hexagons.  Gracie was born at 31 weeks, has a form of autism,  and struggles with her small motor skills.  She actually used the needle 🙂 without my help, and stayed focused long enough to complete 7 – 1″ hexies.

    When she first started she poked her finger and cried.  I gave her a big hug and told her she would get the hang of it.  Although she was hesitant, she took my thimble (she refused it at first) and put it on her thumb and carried on.  Now for the funny part, when she was finishing her last hexagon, I said, “See, there is no crying in sewing.” and she replied (very seriously), “G-Mom, there is no crying in sewing until someone pokes themselves with a needle!”  I couldn’t help but laugh.  So here she is:
    And look at how proud she was when she finished!  She chose all of her own colors and this is the very first time she basted all by herself.  I am so proud of her!
    And so now for my progress.  I was able to add one more section and completed 3 more flowers.
    And thank you to everyone who provided suggestions for thimbles!  It was very helpful and I ordered several to try.  I will write a separate post next week with the results.  You are all wonderful!
    I am linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts!  Check it out and join the fun!
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  • Monday Morning Star Count 2014/7

    I did not get as much stitching completed on putting the sections together as I had hoped.  I did however add one more section and completed 3 more flowers for the quilt.  I am still getting used to handling the larger size of the quilt section and it actually took me an hour to add one section.  I am sure as I go I will be able to figure out how big to keep the sections so they are manageable and then I can sew those larger sections together.

    So here is my progress on sewing sections:
    I think the best part was removing the paper pieces 🙂 – it made me anxious to stitch more together!
    And here are the addtional flowers that I completed:
    I am also trying different thimbles.  I am having such a hard time getting used to wearing one, but when  I was stitching the sections together I actually pushed the needle into my finger so deep it spurted blood….not a good thing!!  LOL.  So I purchased a few different ones to try and I will let you know how that goes next week.  Do you have a favorite thimble?  Is it always hard to get used to?
    I’m linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts for the Monday Morning Start Count.  Check it out and join us!  The more the merrier!
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  • Monday Morning Star Count – Week #6

    Well…at least I made progress this week!  I finished 4 hexie flowers.

    And I now have 16 flowers, 19 flower sections with the added background hexies, and it looks like I should start putting some sections together!
    My hexie box is getting low :(, but that means I have made a lot of progress!!
    This week my focus is to make more sections and start stitching them together.  I can’t wait to see how it looks!  I’m very excited to be linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts!
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  • MM Star Count – Week 5

    It was a busy week and I was distracted by other projects :), but I still managed to complete 4 more flowers.

    One of the reasons I was distracted was that I just received Mickey Depre’s latest book – Pieced Hexies Deux.  And of course I needed to try one of the new designs!  The one I tried is called “Echo” and thing I find so amazing about these is that just by spinning/rearranging the hexies, you can create a totally different design.  Here are the various versions of Echo:
    The other distraction was learning to free motion quilt.  You can read more about that here.
    Looking forward to next week and more progress….and uh….focus!!
    I’m linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts for the Monday Morning Star Count.  Stop over and check out the awesome projects and progress.

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  • Just a little distraction….

    I have so many projects in progress and my goal is to wrap up many by April.  However, I just decided to start a new one!  I have a quilt frame with a BabyLock Jane for quilting my projects.  I have really wanted to learn to free motion quilt on my domestic home sewing machine.

    Well…I wasn’t feeling so well yesterday, so I spent time laying around and surfing the web and I came across a new learning session that Leah Day at Free Motion Quilting Project started for 2014.  I have taken Leah’s Craftsy classes, but never quite got the hang of it.  I thought this would be a great option because she has videos and has set up a FaceBook group for all the participants to share progress and questions.  There is a fee for the PDF download with the blocks for the project, but it is very reasonable.  I really like this option because we are learning piecing techniques as well as free motion quilting.
    First thing this morning, I got to work cutting the blocks for the January session.  I pieced them and set out to test free motion quilting on my old Janome 4800QC.  I had a real issue with going backwards on the Janome as it left eyelashes on the back.  After about an hour, I decided to pull my BabyLock Jane off the quilt frame and guess what?  Right off the bat it was a perfect stitch…no tension issues at all.  I am using Superior Omni thread on the top and Superior Bottom Line on the bottom.  
    I used fabric I had in my stash and for the back I used a layer cake, ‘Lost and Found 2’ by Riley Blake.
    I free motion quilted the first block and found that I was having difficulty between my foot and my hands 🙂  One or the other was going too fast!  Here is my first block:
    Block Front:
    Block Back:
    So for the next block, I removed my shoes to see if I could ‘connect’ with the pedal and my hand movements.  This is something Leah recommends, but I reallly didn’t think I needed.  Below are the pics and I really think that it made a difference.  I still need practice, but it felt more natural.
    I can’t wait to start the February session!  Oh and did I tell you?  Leah Day’s husband Josh is also participating and since he is very new as well, Leah goes over all the challenges and ways to correct them.  Check it out!
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  • Monday Morning Star Count – Week 4

    Not as much progress as I would have liked this week, but I was able to complete another project, so that makes it a great week!  See my post on Sunday for my completed project, but now back to this week’s star count.

    I only finished 2 more flowers.
    I did work on my layout a little and figured I still need to complete at least 18 more sections to have a decent size quilt.   The section below is about 40″ x 40″; of course it would need to be evened out, but that is a rough estimate.  I think I at least want to make it twin size and I do need more variety in the colors so I am working on some orange flowers.
    One of the other distractions this week was looking at everyone’s wonderful projects and their progress.  I have to tell you that it is so inspiring that I was sidetracked just planning future projects 🙂 I don’t know if I will be able to hold back from starting another project.  Do you find yourself doing the same thing?  Being inspired by others and starting new projects before you finish one?
    I am linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts!  Stop by and check out the awesome projects that everyone is working on!

  • Ahoy Matey!

    I started this quilt about this time last year and finally have it finished.  I made it for our grandson to use in our camper up in Maine.  He is 5 years old and totally in love with pirates….then again, what little boy doesn’t like playing pirates?

    This is our grandson, Carter, with his sister Gracie.  I can’t wait for him to see his new pirate quilt!
    I used Riley Blake’s Pirate Matey fabric along with odds and ends of fabrics from my stash to get the quilt the size I needed for the full size bunk in the camper.  The overall patter was the ‘Disappearing Nine Patch” that I learned from one of the Craftsy Classes that Jenny Doan teaches in Quilting Quickly I.
    The back is a plain grey, but has patches of left over blocks and the binding is made from scraps left over from the project. 

     The pillow sham is pieced from left overs and a few blocks that I tried out from the Craftsy 2013 Block of the Month class.  The front of the sham is shown below.
    The back of the sham is shown below:

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  • Monday Morning Star Count – Week 3

    I have no idea where the week went!  I did not get everything I wanted to planned out, but did manage to complete five more flowers.  I am planning on laying out what I have completed so far and figuring out how big I want to make my quilt.  I hope to have a design for next week so I know how many more I need to complete.  🙂 Thanks for stopping by and feeling thankful for the encouragement from everyone participating in MMSC.  I am linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts and if you stop by and check out everyone’s progress you won’t be disappointed!

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