Ugly Challenge

Did I ever share this? I took the piece of fabric sent to me and was allowed to add up to three more fabrics. Here is what I made.

Just Need to Baste It and Mail It

Help Me With The Sails.....

Are just outlines ok? Do I need to do a different stitch?

Sadie Helping

I mentioned that whenever I get my 7 Sisters out someone shows up to "help" . Note the dog slobber on the quilt.


When Sadie gets overly rambunctious we do doggy yoga. We lie her on our belly and rub hers.
She does calm down.



Here is some quilty content. Not my 7 Sisters. Karen don't look if you want to be surprised!!

One side completed I have completed one side of my 7 Sisters. I flipped the quilt around to look at the opposite side in preparation to start quilting it. I was not prepared to see that there are quite a few repairs that need to be made first. I have seams coming out, a blown piece of fabric that needs to be replaced and if you remember the dog incident, I have to piece batting back onto the original batt as the dogs tore too deeply when they got ahold of the quilt. I have become quite practiced at this so I will just fix it and go on.

Ok, ok are you buying that plan? I am going to check the three remaining sides and see if there are any that can be quilted right now and quilt that one! So there! If not then I will quilt what I can until I am forced to start fixing! LOL!

Look At What I Won!!

An adorable bag and some FQs from Andrea. Perfect timing. I really need a quilty hug these days. Too much work, too much family stuff.

On the quilting front....I have just one half block to complete on one side of the quilt and then the two border rows and I will have one side done. I plan to bind it once the two borders are quilted all around and then will finish all those setting triangles.

Someone at my house thinks this is her cuddle quilt and doesn't mind lying on it every chance she gets even if she pulls out the batting on the sides a little. I will try to capture a picture of her. She is a mess!

Progress.

This is a closeup of the side setting triangles next to the full blocks and the borders. You can see the quilting I did on the stars. I am then outlining all the setting triangles with 2 rows of quilting and echoing the HST border into the two pnk solid borders. I am not going to quilt the outer border until after it is bound so I don't lose my points. On the HST border I am just running a straight row of quilting along the top and bottom of the row. I like it. I am trying to control the poofiness and am getting better.

One Big Block To Go I am almost half way through the last big block. I think I over did it on my big push to get done with the quilt. I am getting tired of working on it and it has started to become a chore. I just sewed until I was tired and stopped rather than pushing through.

Once I have the big blocks done I will move onto RR's for a little while to get those out the door then go back to the 7 Sisters. This will still be my tv watching quilt. I will take a pic once I have done some quilting on setting triangles and borders.

All or Nothing Kinda Gal Hi all. I am here and have my head down on my 7 Sisters quilt. Are you watching the progress? I just passed the 2/3rds mark. I have every plan to get the big blocks all done this weekend. Wish me luck!

May Accomplishments/June Goals

I had planned the following in May:

• quilt Chain Events by end of May - not one stitch
• get to half way point on quilting 7 Sisters - I made it! I am near the 2/3rds point. Yeah!
• move round robins along a little more quickly - I got several out the door and have 2 at my house now to be done
• put final touches on ugly challenge tote bag - thought about it

June

• finish the 7 Sisters quilting
• find suitable binding for 7 Sisters
• get round robins done on time
• finish 2 small totes from last year

I think that is enough. I will be stitching into the night to get this done! Wish me luck.

7 Sisters Update I have really made some progress. Since Friday night I have finished 3 of the big blocks. When I first started quilting this it was taking me about 35 minutes for each star. I can now quilt on in about 15-20 minutes. Instead of it taking almost four hours I can now finish a block in just over 2. Dang I might finish this thing yet!

I did replace the two diamond pieces the dogs damaged. I will have to mend a few spots but will do those as I come to them.

Spencer Update He has been receiving treatment for three weeks now. I feel as though he has made an improvement. I need to get him to the vet for a weigh-in. He is still bony but nothing compared to what he was like 3 weeks ago!

7 Sisters Update I added details about my 7 Sisters quilt on my side bar. The number of full blocks, half blocks, connector triangles. As I finish quilting a part I will update my side bar. This has been motivating for me. I told Beth that I would not work on any of my other UFOs until I was 10th on the UFO challenger list or higher or it was the end of the 3rd quarter. She did give me permission to finish 2 little totes I have to get done as gifts, which are UFOs, and not consider it a deal breaker. Yes I can hear her giggling all the way from Maryland. I think she knows me a little too well and it will be hard for me to stay away from another finish on something else. This is the only way I am going to make any progress on this quilt. Wish me luck! Go tell Beth to be nice to me too!

My Sweet Boy Turned 15 Today!

Happy Birthday! Momma loves you!

Quilt Holder in Training I didn't notice the bottom of the subject when I took this pic but had a good laugh when I loaded it to the camera. See this post. I had seen my friends dh in her pics and when she quilted my quilt I asked him to please hold my quilts as well.

I then asked my quilt holder to turn the quilt around. Notice my quilting assistant in on the act as well. Smart alecs!!

Mamacrafty's RR

Sweetjessy's RR

The Following Are Actual Events.... No names have been changed as there are no innocent

Let's set the stage. This UFO obsessed person just got a UFO back from the quilter. Trying to decide what to concentrate on...a fast finish or longer term finish.

Me: You know I am in this UFO challenge where there are 100 women that all have to finish a UFO each quarter. As you finish your name moves to the bottom of the list. If your name bubbles up to the top of the list you have 1 week to finish something or you have to pay a fat quarter... You also have to have 1 finish per quarter but I already have that.

dh: okay....

Me: So I am trying to decide what to work on next. I have this big quilt to hand quilt and I wonder if I should just work on that and save the binding for a fast finish...

dh: (blank stare)

Me: What do you think?

dh: All this just over a fat quarter???

Me: Well....yeah....

He just doesn't get it. I went and consulted with my buddy Beth. She thinks I should machine the binding on and save the hand work if I get toward the top of the list. I like that woman! She gets it!!

Kindness of Others My family has been through a lot over the past few years. If you have been reading along you know the stories. Over this time I have experienced several random acts of kindness. One was a gift certificate to equilter from Sharon where I purchased the following:

The next was a kind offer to quilt a UFO for me. I did not act upon this at first but then later accepted the offer. In return I am donating a QOV to the quilter. I know this is dark but the quilting really shows up well that way. Thanks Alycia!

Quilt back

I am truly blessed by the kindness of these friends.

Did You Hear Something? Maybe it was the loud thud of me falling off the wagon. 21 yards later but I am happy. A birthday gift from hubby. 2 quilts and one tote are in plan for this yardage.

Arlington Quilt Show and Saturday Sew In

Pics of the booty I got at the quilt show.

Winnings from the Sew In. I met up with a group of gals from the Quilting with a Passion quilt forum. We played some games and I won some cute notepads and 18 FQs. It was a LOT of fun! Thanks ladies.