Backing up Big Time

Lots of tops ready for layering

and the first step is choosing the backings! 

So, here is the line up so far!

I was gifted a bin of yardage bundles and 

after a good sort, backing fabrics are almost aligned. 

Six of the stash busters quilts

are ready so here are starters for their backings. 

A few may be a little lacking in yardage but some

matching bits will finish them up. 

The last one to be finished up was the orange. 

It turned out well and used up quite a few scraps!

July's rainbow scrap color is teal/ aqua

but I am not sure if I'll get to a

teal Irish Chain on top of all the layering!

A coincidence tho, August's color is orange ! Yay!

All these lovely orange squares can get quilted up this month!

My goal is to get some quilting complete! 

First will be the 2 triangle rainbow squares.  

One is already on the table, and after a false start at 

pinning when I positioned the backing the wrong way, 

it will be ready for quilting tonight!!

I also managed to drop all the pins onto the carpet during the 

repositioning of the top. 

There were some handy picker uppers in my notion stash 

that worked to clean up the mess.

Here is the winner !

Then I will pin up one of the Irish chains. 

I haven't considered any quilting design for them yet . 

There maybe some fans and concentric rings in the future!

My pinning is going even easier since my 

DH came across some of my favorite clamps at the home store. 

So excited that I can clamp down 

all sides of the backing! My magnet tool can even pick them up!

All these great tools made for a productive weekend.

The last of the three crazy log cabins is all 

quilted and bound. 

The first of the rainbow string square tops is 

under the needle today!

The second rainbow top is pinned up, just choosing 

some thread. 

The orange Irish chain is the also in the 

line up. It was pinned late in the evening as 

the last act of defiance before I stumbled off to bed!

There is still a bit of a backlog over in the " to be quilted" pile

but my deadline took precedence and I do love to bounce around 

to many different projects!

Linking up to:

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Fabric Collectors

Yes, we are all collectors!! 

Lately, I think we all have a bit of hoarder code in our genotype. 

Looking thru my stash, I found items that are just not me

 

and will never be!! Adding on top of that 

is the fact that we are all aging and will 

someday receive the call that we need to 

help destash a friend's home. Well, I've gotten that call twice. 

The key is to not adopt all those goodies! 

There is nothing more fun than experiencing 

new fabrics but they can not all be added to our collections!  

Having that in mind, here is my stash report with no added fabric!

Fabric Purchased: 0 m

Used since last report  6 m 

Fabric In to date: 19.5 m

Use to date 2024 : 48 m

Scraps in : 0 m

Scraps out : 0 m

Big Batch donation : 60 m (June) 

Net Fabric in YTD: 22.5 m

To show off a bit, here is a triptych of the three 

crazy log cabins that moved my stash report

the last few weeks!

My To Do list is getting quite large, but I will get to it!!

It is always fun to have things to do and what is life but 

one challenge/task after another strung together!

   Quilt two Rainbow Strings

Quilt Orange Irish Chain

        Can Grocery shop go here!?!

Make binding

Pin yellow Irish chain

I can't finish up without a picture of 

the star gazer lilies in the yard. 

These poor lilies have really preserved.

They regrew after a devastating year of lily beetles. 

The beetles won that war and they plants ended the season as sticks. 

This year they were doing great until I went on holiday 

and the slugs had a staycation eating all the leaves, 

The blooms are still performing so I had to give them 

a chance to shine!

Have a great week stitching!

Linking up with : 

Stash Report 

One Monthly Goal Finishes!!

 Well, I am actually getting my finishes

 into the finish link ups, yay!!!

I have made some great progress this July. 

The beginning of the month saw a colorful top quilted 

up and donated to the Northeast Babies. 

Then, after a  difficult quilting morning, 

two of the crazy log cabins were quilted up. 

A saucy stripy binding finished them off very well and 

the " to be quilted" pile is shrinking nicely. 

The backs were fun too!

The end home for these quilts is yet to be 

decided but they 

should be welcome where ever they go!

I started a total of four of these black background

log cabins during wild weekend of making the center

blocks that left me with lots of options for quilts!

I've made a good start on the Rainbow strip strings tops too!

A few afternoons layering up should get the 

rainbow tops ready to quilt!

Stay safe and sew on into August!

Linking up with :

OMG

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Stash Update Progress

 The past few weeks have been busy and productive!

A few more tops to layer and two quilts fully complete!

The two black wonky log cabins have made it through the 

binding stage and are ready for labeling 

as soon as they find a home. 

They were fun to do and the stripy binding suits them 

completely. The usual finishing method for me is to 

apply straight grain binding to my quilts. 

 It wears well and I've never had

to replace a binding.  The multiple color fabric set aside

for binding had a horizontal stripe. Positioning 

a linear stripe would be very challenging and not the 

look I was planning. So off I went to make bias binding.

I found a number of techniques available and chose 

the simplest possible.  

Folding  a 1 meter square diagonally and then cutting 

stripes with the fold horizontally yielded a number of 

bias stripes.  Stitching them together to make 

binding yardage was easy and 1 meter square 

produced enough binding for two twin sized quilts with 

some left over. 

The free motion quilting was quick on one top and 

difficult for the other.  I enlarged  a small flower pattern

and the enlargement made the speed and tension critical 

to the result.  I should learn not to alter everything I try. 

They finally finished up nicely and I can add them to the 

completed list! 

So that will make the stash report this week :

Fabric Purchased: 0 m

Used since last report  12 m 

Fabric In to date: 25.5 m

Use to date 2024 : 42 m

Scraps in : 0 m

Scraps out : 0 m

Big Batch donation : 60 m (June) 

Net Fabric in YTD: 28.5 m

Spending today making a back and getting ready to layer 

the quilts needed for August!

Stay Safe and Sew On!

Linking up with : 

Sunday Stash Report

Deadline Ahead

 Lots of things to do but the most pressing

is the Rainbow Triangle Strings I need 

for a wedding next month. 

Since I have a whole set of  extra blocks 

pinned to the complete top sections, some

quick sewing is needed to get both projects moving. 

This is the bottom portion of the quilt and 

here is the top, so here we go!!!

Label, unpin, stack and stitch!

Row one done and now only twelve more to go. 

There is some strange power in the universe and 

I always end up with extra blocks for this pattern!

This is my own fault too, because I change a 

feature colour or placement.  That cascades into 

a few blocks being excess. So.. with these two tops

I consolidated the extra blocks as I was sewing and split 

them in half to make the needed blocks. All in all I only ended 

up with one extra blue and pink block!!  Yay me!  

Almost done!

The work table is empty. I cleared it off when family 

was coming so they think I am more tidy than I am!  

Recently I purchased 2 rolls of batting so I am all set 

to layer and quilt these two tops as soon as they are stitched! 

We will all find out if I can keep my focus that long!  

Wish me luck. I do work well with a deadline!!

Here are the tops completed midafternoon. 

I had a lovely 32 degree photo shoot!

No change in stash numbers but look at 

those finished tops!

Linking up with :

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Free Motion Mavericks

Senior Salon Pit Stop 320

Free Motion Craziness

 All the blocks were ready for the Rainbow String tops, 

so of course it is time to check out a different work in progress. 

The "To Be Quilted", pile is calling and doing  up  a crazy 

log cabin or two sounds like a great adventure.

    The black background lends itself nicely to some allover

quilting designs in multicolored thread. Usually, I sew myself 

into a corner, panic and drive off the quilt. Then I begin again, 

and do the same thing again.  It always seems to work out in the

end so I will get stuck in  and start sewing. 

There are three crazy log cabins in the pile.  So three 

different free motion designs will keep the quilting interesting 

for the recipients and give the sewer variety !

I think I will chose from these designs suggested in 

Joan Statz's Free Motion Quilting . 

Not too many things to fall off my tables after 

last night's clean up 

so I can jump in and start stitching!

Update!  Well some great fun was 

had and I have a nearly finished quilt.

The quilting design I used for the first of the 

crazy logs was none of the above!!

I ended up with this one. 

Here is my paper practice, 

and here is some quilting!

I managed to get all the way to the victory lap before the 

sunshine called and a new grand daughter needed visiting. 

The evening even saw a nice trim and fold.

Now all it needs is a saucy colored binding and 

I can adjust my stash report! 

Linking up with :

Monday Musings

Stash buster assembly!

 Looking around since all the blocks are ready for the Diagonal

 Rainbow strings so ...  

I moved some piles around and there were all the 

stash buster Irish chains waiting patiently.

So off we go and on to quilt tops!

First up is  Red. I did up blocks for the RSC 

but not in February!!  

Remember all the logs from last year ?  This year's "logs"

seem to be the Stash Buster Challenge, Irish chain.

I made the first two tops in the early spring (blue and green) 

 with a layout of 6 x 7 blocks which is a nice twin size.  

My taller friends (all my friends) advised 

to move up to 6 x 8 blocks to make room 

to tuck in your feet or snuggle down into the quilt. 

So first,  make sure to start with the correct block. 

The main 5 x 5 block of squares stitched to the alternate block. 

Do this three times. 

Then on to the second row, rinse and repeat!

Here is the top!

The RSC 2024 color list for this year so far is :

Jan-green x

Feb -red x

March -purple x

April-yellow x

May-pink 

June-blue x

July-aquamarine

I think I've got it correct. 

I had a goodly stack of blocks but 

I couldn't resist doing an orange one!

So checking off the colors with blocks/top done 

I was able to add some marks with just a few empties. 

Not sure if I have that much aqua but 

let's focus on the stacks of blocks first!

We just had three days of scorching weather, 

so I had to spent lots of time in the cool of 

the sewing room. Soo...

here is the result!

The purple is bright and, 

the yellow turned out mellow and soft looking!

A total of three more Irish chain tops were stitched up while 

I was avoiding the heat wave.

The block pile is considerably smaller.

Only the orange top and the extension blocks

for blue and green remain. There is even a 

nice stack of extras for a last multicolored top. 

That was a lot of stitching but with a great result. 

The cool of the sewing room was wonderful too.

Looking forward to another week with 

fabric, family and fun!

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Monday Sew & Tell

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Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap!