Meet Walter!

This is what giving up looks like...

I've tried on two separate occasions to free motion quilt this little baby quilt and both times, I ran into trouble. Whenever I try to curve the stitching, the tip of my needle catches in the fabric. Even though I'm using the same machine, and foot, and thread, and batting, and bobbins, I've used successfully a hundred or more other times, it won't work.

The quilt top has already been sitting since January of 2016 and I don't have any idea when I'll be able to free motion quilt again. (At this point I'm violently resisting the idea of taking my machine to the dealer since it hasn't been long at all since its last cleaning/checkup and on previous occasions its come home unable to do free motion quilting. Too much time and money risked for something that's not guaranteed to work.)

So I pulled out my walking foot and now the quilt is done. I'd rather that the quilting was a pretty meander, but it's not going to stay at my house and quilting with the walking foot is a completely acceptable way to finish it. So is machine stitching the binding.

I'm hoping now that this one is done I can tackle the free motion quilting drama with fresh eyes. Whatever happens with that, it feels good to have my first baby quilt finish in almost a year.

I love the top and backing. It's Bonnie Hunter's Lozenges, in the size that she intended for them to be. For the lozenge quilt I'm keeping, I'm making them much smaller. This one was fun to put together, but I think I'll be happier long term with the smaller pieces.

Spools

It's been a long time since I counted spools. Without a permanent design wall, it's a hassle to make the space and time to lay out this many little blocks. To get this picture, I had to put my cardboard cutting mat on the bed and stand on a chair.

 The total is at 161, out of the 400 I need. Unless I've got another stack of spools hiding somewhere. That would be a happy surprise!

This post is linked to Patchwork Times and Jo's Country Junction. 

Lozenge Update

Either this is most of the lozenges, which means I need to cut a bunch more pieces....or I've got more lozenges in a plastic box somewhere and need to figure out what safe place I put them in. I counted while I was cutting and I'm sure I started with enough for a 60x60" quilt.

I love long term scrappy projects like this one, but they sure make it easy to forget what you've already done and where you put it.

This post is linked to Jo's Country Junction. 

Baby Blue Lozenges

Blue lozenges for a new baby quilt, this time in the size Bonnie suggested for her Leaders and Enders challenge. I'm not sure if these are easier than the smaller ones I'm making for my own quilt because they're a lot larger, or if it's just that I need a lot fewer of them.

Decisions, Decisions

Do I start assembling the lozenge units I've already made into blocks so I can get a better idea what the finished quilt will look like? Or use the pieces I've got cut to make more lozenges? Or cut more fabric? 

I think there's enough already cut to make the 60x60ish quilt I'm aiming for, but I've found more lights and darks in my stash since then. And I can't find the shoebox with the rest of my pieced units in it, so I'm not even sure how many lozenges I've got done at this point.

But I've got fifty-some more than I had last week. That's progress, no matter what I decide about the rest of it.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times and Jo's Country Junction.

Jo's Show and Tell Challenge

Did you see that Jo's cooked up another challenge for us as she prepares for her Bonnie Hunter retreat? I can get more lozenges sewn up...or maybe just figure out where I put the ones that I've already finished. At this point, I'd count that as progress.

Yup, that's the same picture I posted the last time I worked on my Lozenges quilt for one of Jo's Quiltville challenges. I've got maybe twice that many lozenges pieced now, and enough squares and rectangles cut for me to finish the top.

Meet Johnny!

As the thrift store scrap bags get more and more picked over, I've been telling myself that I could work my way through Bonnie Hunter's books, make a zillion fun little quilts, and probably not make much of a dent. 

Green fabric, I've got. I used a bunch of it  for Quinn's Trip Around the World, but there's still plenty left. Not that I'm trying to use it up. I like green fabric. Red, I've got. I'm hoarding every shade I can find in my stash for a couple of different projects, but I made myself part with just enough for this quilt.

The pattern is Criss Cross Applesauce, from Scraps & Shirttails II.(The book is obscenely overpriced on Amazon right now, but Bonnie is still selling it.)  I wasn't sure at first if I was making a baby quilt or a big person quilt, but after twenty-five blocks I decided that I was done. It's a fun pattern and I may try it again in different colors, but for now this is good.

While I was working on the quilt, Hubby decided that our youngest two kids might not know the story of Johnny Appleseed, so we found and watched the Disney version on youtube (voiced by Dennis Day from the old Jack Benny radio show), and got into a debate about whether it was Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill who rode a tornado. When did they become "fakelore" instead of tall tales?

This post is linked to Needle and Thread Thursday, Finish it up Friday

So Close!

Jo from Jo's Country Junction has challenged the rest of us to finish up some of our Bonnie Hunter projects before the challenge starts. I'm going to sit out this mystery, but it was just the motivation I needed to pull out one of my favorite WIPs. 

I've got everything done but the binding. It's a little smaller than I'd originally planned, but I've fallen in love with another pattern that uses 2" bow tie blocks and finishing this one means I can get started on that one. 

Quiltville Challenge Update

Jo from Jo's Country Junction has challenged the rest of us to finish up some of our Bonnie Hunter WIPs before the challenge starts.  

Now that my cheddar bow ties are assembled into a top, I've turned my attention back to the lozenges.

Lots of dark and light rectangles cut, a few of them pieced together....nothing dramatic, but it's progress. 

I'm using smaller rectangles than Bonnie suggested, and I'm still not sure what size I want the finished quilt to be, so there might be some more cutting to be done. It all depends on what turns up as I'm digging through my stash. 

Bonnie's Quilts

tncottagequilter asked over on Quiltville chat how many of Bonnie's quilts we'd made.  I can think of at least six that I've finished, not counting baby quilts.

There's the Scrappy Blue Bargello. I pulled every fabric in this quilt from the same thrift store scrap bag and put together the top in two evenings.


I made my Fun With Bricks to replace a quilt I'd made for myself and given away. I've also made three or four baby quilts using this pattern.



I started this Double Irish Chain shortly after discovering Leaders and Enders. I think it was my first attempt at a tightly controlled scrap quilt.



Weed Whacker used up most of my green scraps. I had such trouble with the quilting that I wound up trading to a friend to send to her husband overseas to get it as far away from me as humanly possible.  She didn't want to send one of her quilts because something might happen to it, and this one was definitely expendible.  Just after shipping it off, I realized that my son's absolute favorite color in the world was green, so I started collecting green scraps for another green quilt.



The first Scrappy Mountain Majesties got its start when Grandma brought me a huge plastic bin of thrift store scraps for Christmas. And the second one was made with fabric purchased just for this quilt, since it was a gift for a friend and I was trying to make something that fit her style.





This baby quilt is one of Bonnie's patterns from Quiltmaker.



And I'm working on more -- Texas Braids, Cheddar Bowties, Santa Fe String Star, Daylilies, Orca Bay, Quinn's green Trip Around the World  ....

What are you working on?