Working On a Finish

It's always exciting to get a quilt back from the quilter.  One more project almost finished and off the to do list.  But there's still a few steps to complete between pulling it out of the shipping box and taking that last stitch in the binding.  

One goal for this weekend was to finish those pre-binding steps so I could focus on finishing up the Morewood Mystery quilt this next week.  I remembered to do finish step1 just before I went to bed on Saturday.  I printed out the label, soaked it, and let it dry overnight. Sunday I added the borders. 

I still need to turn under and press the top and left side borders, but that won't take long.  Other than that, the label is ready to sew on with the binding. The Scientist in Training suggested the name. She thought the square in a square blocks with the HSTs, next to them looked like wrapped candies.  

Trimming off the excess batting and backing is not one of my favorite things to do. It's not hard, it's just awkward to fold and refold the quilt so it fits on the cutting table for trimming. 

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

After that it's ready for the binding.

Which at the end of Sunday was still being stitched together over at the sewing machine.

I just need to sew the two halves of the binding strips together to finish that step.  I'm hoping to get that far tonight.  After that the binding still needs to be folded in half and pressed before stitching it to the front of the quilt.  That's the goal for this week. I'm hoping to get that done and make a start on hand stitching the binding to the back. That's my favorite part of the finishing process.  

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 38 of 2021

 

It was a long week, but it's been a short weekend.  Just one long work day this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 14/18 days
• 15 minute days/2021 = 217/261 days
• Success rate = 83.17%

This week was better than last week.  I'm all for small victories this year.  Though I'm not managing 7 days of stitching time, what I am managing is moving projects along.  I should have a completed quilt and another one ready to go out for quilting.  So even if I don't meet my goals this year, there has still been good progress.  

Are you making progress?

Family Photo Challenge Week 12

This week's prompt was challenging.  

We don't have any one that young in the family. And being seen around a school or park where it's obvious you are taking photos of kids that are not your own could get you arrested.  So we agreed to allow some leeway in the choice of subject this week.  

I decided on a photo of a photo approach.  

This hangs in my office and has some of my favorite shots of the Scientist in Training when she went by Kiddo or Drama Teen here on the blog.  

My Guy found a Mom that didn't object to having her baby photographed. 

  The Scientist in Training had to make do with her roommate's "baby". 

This baby is 11 years old, so she just slides under the age requirement.  

That's it for last week's challenge.  My Guy picked the challenge card for this week. 

The SIT may struggle a bit on this week's challenge, but you never know, she's been pretty inventive so far.  

To Do Tuesday For Week of 9/14/2021

Last week was really good on the stitching front. I may not have stitched every day, but the weekend stitching made up for that.  Last week's to do list is all checked off. 

To Do List for the Week of 9/7/2021

• Cabins and Fans: Start making borders ✔
• Scrappy Butterflies: Make 9 patch blocks ✔
• Macaron Mystery: Start Step 3 ✔
• Unity: Make HSTS for clue 6 as leaders and enders ✔

I've been keeping my lists pretty simple as work is still pretty insane some days, even so, it still feels good to see all the check marks.  Progress will eventually end in finishes, though I'm probably going to fall very short of my goal finishing 8 quilts this year.  But any progress this year sets me up to have a higher number of finishes next year.  So what's the plan for this week? 

To Do List for the Week of 9/14/2021

Morewood Mystery: Make binding and label, trim quilt

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

Trudy did a beautiful job with the quilting.  I'm looking forward to finishing off this quilt. Fingers crossed I can get it finished by the end of the month. 

Cabins and Fans: Finish adding the first border

Cabins and Fans, self designed

The first border is black.  The two long sides have been added. Now I just need to measure the quilt and cut the top and bottom strips.  It would be nice if this project was ready to go out for quilting by the end of the month. That's probably a bit ambitious, so I'll take good progress towards that.

Scrappy Butterflies: Make more Irish Chain blocks

Scrappy Butterflies
Block is available in EQ 8 Block Library

Slowly but surely this quilt is coming along on the small design wall. Hopefully by the time I finish all the alternate setting blocks for what's up on that wall, Cabins and Fans will be a finished quilt top and I can move these blocks to the big design wall.  

Macaron Mystery: Make HSTs for clue 3

Macaron Mystery: By Meadow Mist Designs

I was going to say there wasn't a lot of progress on this project this week, but there really was. The fabric pull was finalized, the fabrics were washed and pressed, pieces cut, then the first two blocks were made.  Macaron will run till March or April of next year, so as long as I do a bit each week, I'll be able to keep up.  

Unity: Make HSTS for Step 6

Just two more blocks to stitch and the last border for step 7 will be complete.  Then I can move on too step 8. After adding Morewood back to the list to finish, I doubt it that happens this week.  

That's my list for the week. It's pretty much the same as last week's, other than adding Morewood back into the mix.  The goal is progress, but I'm excited to be so close to another finish.  I could make that happen if all my sewing time was focused on Morewood.  That's not normally how I prefer to sew, I like having multiple projects in the works each week.  

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday.  

Odds and Ends Stitching

The Scientist in Training was home this weekend, she was very content to just hang out with Mom on Saturday. So I got in a fair amount of stitching time, but as we were talking and laughing, I didn't think to take a lot of in progress photos.  

I've been in mask assembly mode.  In addition to making a few new ones this weekend, I reworked a few of the older elastic ones using the pattern we all liked better. 

Mask pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts 

Had you told me a year ago March that I'd still be making masks more than a year later, I'm not sure I would have believed you.  There are  a few more to remake and a couple of colors to add to our current collection so this round of mask making should be over by the end of the month.  

I did more fabric cutting then stitching this weekend. The border strips for Cabins and Fans were cut and assembled.  The first is stitched to the quilt top.

Cabins and Fans, self designed

The second border is pinned and ready for stitching.

Clue 3 for the Macaron Mystery came out last week, but I still wasn't thrilled with all my fabric selections.  The gray and black floral fabric just didn't seem to "go" with the rest.  

I try to pull from the stash for mystery quilts, so I was preparing to just live with the floral when I remembered a set of fabrics that had been purchased to make a black and white quilt.  Those had been kitted up and stored in one of my fabric bins. There were some very nice options in that stash.  The fabric pull for Macaron now looks like this. 

This works so much better to my mind. I cut the first pieces this weekend, which puts this project on my in progress list. It's been over 9 months since my last new start.  Playing with something completely new is going to be fun.   

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.