Almost mid month update

Progress has been cracking along in the All The Good Ones shed.

On my diary/calendar I have ticked off all of my monthly goals apart from one... and there's still some days left.

After listing out my goals for the month, I wrote in the calendar space some key tasks that needed to be done to achieve my monthly goal.  BUT, I haven't micromanaged every single activity, just those things that have been holding up the works.

After I finished the first grouping of mini tasks... I added in some more BUT those 8 odd tasks took a good two weeks to complete.  On the positive side... some of those goals have kept growing and I have achieved much more than I expected.

For example the Cross Tile quilt my monthly goal was to finish the machine quilting, which I did AND  I managed to get binding sewn on and three quarters hand stitched down! 

My goal for Timeless Traditions was to get the second corner section sewn together (which I had been majorly putting off) AND I managed to get this sewn as well as hand stitching a section of bias stem.  I have added a mini task to trace out the applied shapes, which is a nice job to do while suffering from the summer heat.  It has also been transferred to the design wall!

My super duper goal for January was to get the Loosely Woven quilt top fully pieced... and this got completed on Monday.  I added my own borders for this one, using off cuts from the strip piecing and it worked out perfectly for the king size required.

And the North Star borders that were giving me conniptions has also been finished!  Adding the pieced sections to extend the outer squares was not what I really wanted to spend my time doing... but I also knew it would be so worth it.

Loosely Woven and Timeless Traditions

My big goal for January is to finish piecing the king sized top that I have been requested to make, using the Loosely Woven pattern, and using a mix of purple fabrics to achieve it.

Surprisingly... it has been a lovely top to put together.  I changed the construction of the blocks as it was a stack and whack pattern, with organically spaced strips cut from squares.  But, knowing the intended recipient, I chose to have regularly sized strips and alter the size of the blocks to suit.

The blocks kept growing, until finally there was enough!  And I started sewing them into large chunks.

And finally all together!

The subtle changes in colour really do add to the illusion of woven strips.

I have started putting together border strips and all going well I should meet my target by the end of the month.

Taking advantage of my empty design wall I started placing the completed components of my Timeless Traditions BOM, to see how it was looking.

And get that next little bit of sewing completed!

Happy to report that it is looking Fine!

Progress and progress and progress...

Sometimes it's about jumping in and holding on until the end!  Whether it is technically on your list or not!

Finishing the ruler work FMQ on the Cross Tile quilt, I had a quick audition of a couple of free hand designs using some lightweight clear plastic to try out some fillers emphasising the Ohio star outlines.

Which morphed into a wishbone sort of pattern in the points and stipple in the centre square.

Similarly to the straight lines quilted, this could be achieved with just the one start and stop.

This one shows the mix of quilting techniques used!

It was also relatively quick so I was keen to keep the momentum flowing and chose this uneven organic stripe for binding out of my stash.

Although the colours are not exact... they are close enough considering there is a plain border between the outer blocks and the binding.

Before I could change my mind... I got the 9 strips cut, sewn and pressed ready to machine stitch.  Ideally I would have done the whole pieced binding/flange/machine applied binding... but there were too many other roadblocks.  I would have needed to clear my floor of the other two quilts already laying on it to trim the quilt edges so the binding could get sewn onto the back.  Not happening!   (Regular binding I attach to an untrimmed quilt).  And, I would have needed to find two fabrics suitable for each component of the binding... and that didn't seem to be happening either!  So a regular binding it was going to be.

And, I've started hand stitching the binding to the back and adding a touch of big stitch quilting roughly 1/4" from the binding.

Really happy with how this is turning out.

Cross Tile Quilt... Progress Is Happening!

Sometimes it is the weirdest things that create creative roadblocks... preventing you from making progress.

With the Cross Tile quilt, I had made a good start with the quilting - edge stitching in the background around the tile shapes with my walking foot, and had started hand quilting around the crosses in the sashing.  BUT because I didn't know what I was going to do next, I just stopped working on it.  Weird!  So it has just sat there for literally months as a constant reminder.

Part of my planning process for this year is to push myself past these roadblocks and just get things moving again.  After borrowing the Westalee quilting foot and ruler from a friend, I spent a bit of time familiarizing myself with the feel of the product, trialled a couple of ideas... and away I went.

My design is neither amazing or perfectly executed, but I can complete each tile in one run... with only one starting and stopping point and as a learning experience it is good because there is movement in every direction.

Working my way around the quilt in columns, I quilted the first two columns  (starting from the far right hand side) of this 5x5 grid as my first target.  Then after rotating the quilt a quarter turn, my second target was 6 blocks in the new far right two columns... and now I'm working on the next quarter turn 6 blocks.  Just quietly... this means its not that far from being finished!  Roadblocks are NOT my friend!

I'm not sure whether I will add more quilting to these designs, I quite like the idea of pebbles or small spirals highlighting the small star in the centre... but that's thinking for another day... and that's OK!