Mighty Lucky Quilting Club

This year I tried something new to me, the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club sponsored by Lucky Spool Media.  This year the club was a bit of a mix of a mystery quilt and design challenges, but the overall it was all about color and I love to play with color.  We were encouraged to pick an inspiration color palette and I selected this pic from Design Seeds.

From there I did a little coloring on a grid they provided showing the major sections of the quilt.  The quilt is broken into sections and every other month a designer will give us the instructions for their sections.

Of these options, I pretty much went with the lower right set of colors…but this was before I saw any of the pieces for the sections.  You will see how this will change.

First came lots of paper piecing, a block designed by Carolyn Friedlander.  I came to fondly think of as the Purple Mountains Majesty…

I finished these up while at the DCMQG Spring Retreat and then set about working on the next installment, wonky crosses by Nicholas Ball.

And then I seemed to stall and worked on other projects.  Finally, mid-July I looked at the crosses for a long while and finished them up, here with the mountains.

By this time there were two more installments.  First I worked on these improv stars by Cheryl Arkinson

then the columns designed by Rossie Hutchinson…

A few days ago I put it all up on the design wall.

Yup, notice that big empty rectangle in the middle?  Just two days ago I got the next installment from Amy Friend.  This center piece is constructed with paper piecing, which is a lot easier for me than venturing into improv piecing.  I need to do a little coloring first before I dive into my stash for fabrics.

The final two months will be about quilting.  And, Angela Walters will be selecting two finished quilt tops to quilt and use as examples.  Waving hand wildly in the air – pick me! Pick me!  OK, that assumes that I get this next section all done by early October…totally doable.  Stay tuned!

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FAL Second Quarter Winners!

Today we are celebrating 401 (!!) finished projects in Quarter 2 of the 2018 Finish-A-Long. So many of you are joining in and getting their UFOs or WIPs out of that dark corner, and into the limelight to be shown off as a finish. If you are in need of inspiration go on over and have a look, there were so many great makes. And of course, thanks to our many generous sponsors, we are finishing off the quarter by announcing the lucky winners!!

Without further ado, the winners picked by the Random Number Generator of the 2018 Q2 FAL prizes are:

The Q2 Winner of the $50 Gift Certificate from Fat Quarter Shop is Mary who blogs at Quilting is in my Blood.  She finished three projects in the second quarter of the year, one being this adorable baby quilt:

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The Q2 Winner of the 3 PDF Patterns from During Quiet Time is Helen who blogs at Midget Gem Quilts.  She finished a quilt she had started back in 2016, her circles quilt, which is just lovely:

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The Q2 prize of the $25 Gift Certificate from Sew Sisters Quilt Shop goes to Cheryl on Flickr as Paisley Crazy.  She finished this cute charm quilt which was her first finish of the quarter:

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The Q2 Winner of the 2 PDF Patterns from Quilting Jet Girl is Dianne on IG @quiltova. She finished this charming baby quilt, which was her third and final finish of the quarter:

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The Q2 Winner of the $20 Gift Certificate from Sew Me a Song is Lisa who blogs at Lisa in Port Hope.  She finished a beautifully free motion quilted quilt started in 2015:

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The Q2 Winner of the 3 PDF Patterns from Happy Quilting is Jenny on IG @silverbellsandcockleshells.  She finished these cute snugly slippers:

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The Q2 Winner of the 2 PDF Patterns from Charm About You is Donna who blogs at Faerydae Stitches.  She finished a great Double Zip Gear Bag for a retreat swap:

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The Q2 Winners (3) of the 6 Month Subscription to Make Modern Magazine are:

1.  Teresa on IG @misdosbichillos.  She finished this double zipper pouch, which was her sixth finish this quarter:

2.  Helene on IG @30hela.  She finished this gorgeous sashiko pillow:

3. Donna on IG @donnalyn18.  She finished this super cute spring bunny cushion:

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The Q2 prize of the $25 Gift Certificate from Studio 39 Fabrics goes to Kayde on IG @sewdexter.  She finished this pretty tiny flying geese lanyard, which was her 13th finish for the year (and they say 13 is unlucky, ha!):

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 The Q2 Winner of the $25 Gift Certificate from Tartan Kiwi is Gretchen who blogs at 120 Blocks.  She finished this pretty felt hand stitched Christmas holly mat:

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The Q2 Winner of the Minikins bundle from Sew Sweetness is Cheryl on IG @1strongcheryl.  She finished this gorgeous quilt that is minky backed (I bet it is snugly!):

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The Q2 prize of the $50 Gift Certificate from Mad About Patchwork goes to Danda who blogs at Northern Deb Quilts.  She finished this lovely scrap quilt which was a leader and ender project:

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The Q2 Winner of the 2 PDF Patterns from Blossom Heart Quilts is Celine who blogs at Espritpatch.  She finished this fantastic Blanche Barrel Bag for her daughter:

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The Q2 Winner of the $30 Gift Certificate from Clover & Violet is Mary who blogs at Musings of a Sometime Quilter.  She finished this lovely quilt and this is her first year participating in the FAL (yay!):

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The Q2 Winner of the $40 Gift Certificate from Bunny’s Designs is Cathy who blogs at Cathy’s Crazy by Design.  She finished this super sweet ABC quilt for her granddaughter:

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Congratulations to all the winners!  Thank you for playing along with us in the second quarter, and we hope you continue joining in for the rest of the year. We love to encourage you to finish up all those WIPs and UFOs, and to see what great makes will be finished next time.

 

That Magic Number…

apparently is 100.  I just finished up a 100 Day project, and am now into another one.  The simple action of doing something 100 days in a row, something creative.  I had seen this before, but this year I saw an idea that was doable for me.  Katie Blakesley of Swim,Bike, Quilt! had posted about making half square triangles, using a large pack of 101 Kona solids paired with another solid.  As I am heavily into solids, this appealed to me.  Kona makes 3 large sets of 101 solid charm squares – bright, dusty and pastel.  I am not sure how I roped myself into two sets, but my local quilt shop had Essex in steel that I liked with brights and teal that seemed happy with the dusty.  I used some solid stash for the first few days until my charm packs arrived and then I was fully good to go.

I started on April 3rd.  A few days later I got all organized and cut all of the Essex squares and then went back and marked the diagonal on them.  This way, all I needed to do each morning was to take a square and pair it with the next piece from the charm pack, and sew the two lines, then repeat for the other colorway.  Cut the pieces apart, press and trim.  I even have one of the cool bloc-loc rulers the correct size to aid in accurate trimming.  I started by posting every day…

Then, although I made the blocks every day, I posted every few days…

And so on until the last posting on July 11 with blocks 91-100

I figured out that the order of the colors of the charm pack was posted on Kaufman website, so I could post the color names for each set.  Some were water related, others fruits and veggies and still others coffee and wine.  It was fun to go through the colors and see the various gradations.

I was pretty satisfied with myself that I could do something for 100 days – really it was an almost, as I made a few of them ahead of time for when I went to the beach – and keep up with it.  I now have these two pretty stack of HSTs to play with, but I think that they will wait for a snowy day.

And now, I let myself get suckered into th 100 days 100 blocks from Tula Pink’s book.  I already had the book, and had it made into a spiral so that it was easier to use – well worth the 5 bucks that it cost me.  I started that on July 7….and I will keep you posted!  As a teaser, however, here is my first block

Finish-A-Long 3rd Quarter Link Up

Its time to link up your list of unfinished projects that you propose
to finish in Q3 of the Finish-A-Long. We are hoping that the FAL
community will inspire you to work on your unfinished projects this
quarter (and throughout the remainder of the year) and to get them
finished!

The 2018 FAL is hosted by a community of bloggers across the world. Our hosts are:

• Marci – Marci Girl Designs – USA

• Sandra (also Social Media Director) – Studio Sew of Course – Ireland

• Leanne – She Can Quilt  – Canada

• Ella – Throw a Wench in the Works – USA

• Felicity – Felicity Quilts – Canada

• Karen – Capitola Quilter – USA

• Izzy – Dizzy Quilts – Canada

• Lynne – Tinking Along – USA

For those of you who are new to the FAL, it is a place to find motivation and encouragement to complete those unfinished projects that are hanging around. At the start of the quarter you post and link up a list of projects you hope to finish in the next three months, and then at the end of the quarter you link up each successful finish from your original list.Each linked up finish is an entry into the draw for wonderful prizes from our sponsors. There is no penalty for not finishing a listed project, so feel free to make your list as long or short as you wish. The 2018 Schedule and Rules for the FAL are on my permanent 2018 FAL page, let me know if you have any questions.

Here are the fantastic and generous sponsors for Q3 of the Finish-A-Long. You can see each of their prizes listed under their logo. Please think about visiting them and saying thank you for their support of the
FAL.

$50 Gift Certificate

3 PDF Patterns

$25 Gift Certificate

2 PDF Patterns

$20 Gift Certificate

3 PDF Patterns

2 PDF Patterns

3 Six Month Subscr.

$25 Gift Certificate

$25 Gift Certificate

A Minikins Bundle

$50 Gift Certificate

2 PDF Patterns

$30 Gift Certificate

$40 Gift Certificate

So now it is time to round up those projects that you want to finish
over the next three months! Take a photo of each one and make your list.
Please ensure that you have at least started your projects – pulled
fabric with a pattern is considered a UFO – and remember it is only
finished projects that will get you an entry toward the above listed
prizes. So while we love to see your bee blocks, the “finish” is when
they are a completed, usable project.

If posting on social media (Flickr & Instagram), it will be very helpful if you tag your list with #2018FALQ3yourname (where yourname is unique to you).
Using the same hashtag over the quarter when sharing project progress or finishes helps the host to make the connection to your original list quickly and easily.

IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to link up your finishes when the quarter closes!

The 2018 Q3 list for your list of proposed finishes is now open, below, on my blog and each of the hosting blogs. You need only link your list once, on one host blog and the link will show up on all the host blogs. If you are using Flickr or Instagram, post a photo mosaic of your projects and put your list in the description. Don’t forget to include your unique hashtag. Katy of The Littlest Thistle has a great tutorial on how to link up if you need it, or Marci of Marci Girl Designs has a tutorial to link up an Instagram post specifically.

We also ask that you become part of the FAL community. Please check out the links of others – visit and comment on their lists. We all need encouragement to get those finishes done, so please share some of your own too.

If you want you can follow us on Facebook, Finish-A-Long and/or on Instagram, @finishalong, too. We’ll post encouragement during the quarter and reminders when the finishes link up opens at the end of the quarter.

When creating your list there is one thing to remember – No deductions for not completing something so – Aim High! Nothing to lose!! Well now, get your list together and get linked up.

Feel free to use and share the FAL button above and this one too:

The Q3 proposed finish linky party will stay open until 11 pm EST, Wednesday, July 18, 2018 – as we are global, you might want to check your time zone to determine your last possible time to link (you can also see how much time is left below the linked up images on the right.)

Remember: you only need to link up at ONE hosting blog and it will automatically show up on all hosting blogs.

An InLinkz Link-up

https://static.inlinkz.com/cs2.js

Some sewing going on…

Yes, there has been some sewing going on here, just not what I thought that I would be working on. This morning I looked up what I set as my finish-a-long goals for the second quarter. There were 11 of them, and I have finished…one. Have I even looked at any of the others? Nope, but here it is…a skirt that I actually do wear!

I am thinking that perhaps I should just choose one thing each quarter, and really focus on finishing that up. Maybe it will work better that way. We shall see!

So what have I been sewing? Mostly smaller projects…here they are!

Actually let me start here…

I am a list maker and sometimes use a white board to see the bigger picture of what I am working on.  Since it is just for me I use abbreviations – SLW for Sherri Lynn Wood – and am a little off  – snowmen really is santa and tree- but all in all if helps me see what I am working on.  My issue is that every small project requires sorting through fabric bins and leaving that fabric out until I am done.  At some point this month I decided to complete all of the smaller projects so that next month I can work on the big ones, which are Mighty Lucky and Sherri Lynn Wood.  More on those next month!

Swaps!  I don’t join in very often nowadays, but I will do a simple mug rug from my guild and for the Starbucks mug swap.  After looking at my partner info, I decided that I wanted to use the same pattern for each and set out to construct the tops.  I cut the backing and the binding, and then I could put those fabrics away.

Bees!  I belong to two different bees.  One is with my guild, and June is the last month of this current round.  The queen bee wanted Christmas in June…such fun!  We had a choice of santas or trees, so I made one of each.

I also belong to Serenity Circle of do.Good.Stitches, a charity bee.  There are lots of different circles, each donating their quilts to a particular cause.  Serenity Circle donates their quilts to hospice patients and families. In general I make two blocks every month or every other month.  Here is May/June – Trip Around the World Blocks, which surprisingly I had never made before…

and then July, very simple heart blocks.

I was the main person for March/April, and asked for these blocks that are somewhat like quarter log cabins.  I put them together and then pieced a back.

I have batting, so it is all waiting for a guild meeting when I can get someone to help me to pin baste it.  I hope that I can get it quilted in July.

And that leaves the Scissors.  I had signed up for a Scissors Workshop with Carly Mul from WebFabrics.  Unfortunately, the day before the workshop I fell (really it was more of a dive – I think that I was airborne!) and hurt my hands and wrists.  No rotary cutting or scissors for me for a bit.  However a friend brought me the materials and explained what to do.  Last week our group went to Web Fabrics and Carly asked us to bring our completed scissors.  I love a challenge, and I realized that the scissors were scissors friendly, which was good because it still hurt to use a rotary cutter.  It started out looking like a hot mess.

Yes, even more fabric being pulled out! But slowly it took shape and I completed it on time.

I am really happy with how it looks and liked the technique.  It is going into the sewing room, and I could see making more of this type of mini in the future.

How about you?  What have you been working on?

FAL Q2 Link Up Closing Soon!

Popping in today for a quick reminder that the Quarter 2 Link Up for all your finishes closes on Monday, July 9, 2018, 11 pm EST. So you still have a few more days to finish a project or two and link them up to be eligible for prizes. The link up can be found HERE or on the blog of any of our current hosts.

A few reminders for linking up:

• Please only one finished project for each post that you link up, so that each finish can be an entry in the (random) prize draw.
• Please include a link to your original list in each post of your finishes (on Instagram the link is the unique tag #2018FALQ2yourname to be used in the Q2 list post, and in any Q2 finish post).
• Please visit some of the other participants and leave a friendly comment, we all love to get those!

If you didn’t have a chance to visit the tutorials that were posted as part of Finish-A-Long Tutorials Week, here is the schedule once more:

• July 3, 2018 – Sandra of Studio Sew of Course – The Finish-A-Long Project List – keeping track of your FAL projects

• July 4, 2018 – Ella of Throw A Wench in the Works

• July 5, 2018 – Felicity of Felicity Quilts – Mini Charm Pack Zip Pouch

They are well worth a visit!

Finally, we hope you will be joining us for Quarter 3 to do it all over again!! So get your List ready, the link up for Q3 Lists will open on July 10, 2018.

Felicity’s Mini-Charm Pack Pouch

 

It’s TutoriaWeek while you finish up those last few projects!  Here is a tutorial written by Felicity of Felicity Quilts.  As I read through I am already thinking if I have the zip and the foam, because I definitely know that I have some of those mini-charm packs!  Here it is……

Do you collect those adorable mini-charm packs because they’re sweet and tiny and cheap, but then wonder what to do with them? ME TOO!

This short tutorial will show you how to use one to make a cool zippered box pouch like this:

Mini Charm Pack Zip Pouch

All seam allowances ¼” unless noted.

Materials:

1 mini charm pack (42 2½” precut squares)

1 scrap fabric for lining, 13″ x 15″

1 scrap of sew-in foam stabilizer like ByAnnie’s Soft & Stable*, 11 3/4″ x 14½”

1 14″ zipper

*this product will help your box pouch keep its shape. You can definitely use other batting or interfacing but the bag will be floppy.

Directions:

1. Arrange the 42 mini charm squares in a 6×7 layout, and sew them together to make a patchwork panel. It should measure 12½” x 14½”.

2. Spray baste the lining, foam stabilizer and patchwork panel together. NOTE: the stabilizer is cut so that it fits the patchwork panel exactly in one dimension and allows for about a 3/8″ overhang by the panel in the other:

3. Quilt all three layers together.

4. Trim away the lining, flush with the stabilizer. NOTE: you will have to fold back the bit of the patchwork panel that overhangs. Don’t cut it off! This is the bag panel.

5. Zip the zipper together. Layer the zipper right side up and positioned so the zipper pull is at the bottom and the bag panel right side down along the side that has the overhang of patchwork fabric.  The bottom of the zipper tape should be aligned with the bottom of the panel (see diagram). Pin in place if desired.

6. With your zipper foot in place, stitch in place (see diagram). Needle should be right beside the edge of the stabilizer. You may need to stop with your needle down and move the zipper pull up to keep everything lined up.

Note in this photo the zipper is layered underneath the flap of fabric under the presser foot.

7. Fold the bag panel right sides together and repeat for the other side of the zipper, again aligning the bottom of the zipper tape and the bottom of the bag panel.

8. Squash this unit flat, with the zipper centered. Stitch the bottom end closed.

9. Unzip the zipper all the way.

10. I repeat: UNZIP THE ZIPPER ALL THE WAY.

11. Stitch the top edge closed.

12. Box the pouch corners by cutting out a square that is 1½” from the folded side and 1¾” from the stitched end of the panel:

13. Open up one corner and squeeze it together:

14. Stitch the corner closed along the edge and repeat with the other 3.

15. Turn the bag right side out, poke out the corners with your finger and enjoy.

 

 

 

16. Enjoy!

PS: Please note that there are raw edges/seams inside the bag – you can finish them with a zigzag stitch after you sew the seams if you want. The edge of the lining/stabilizer layer that is beside the zipper seam is also left raw.