FNSI - Around in circles!

Wow!  Don't get out your ruler... don't look at the back... but the quilting has started.  Round and round in circles...

I ended up re-pin basting them... I really wish for these that they were spray basted.  By sewing around and around, the fabric did move some and I wonder if glue might have been a better solution than pins! There are a few puckers on the back... but I'm not taking them out!  This quilt is about learning new techniques - so now I know what doesn't work!

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Summer Sewing... or is it canning?

My daughters finished these over the weekend....

Canning
This the season... and it has occupied much of this week... Blackberries, greengage plums and transparent apples.  The transparent apples are so wonderful for baking and applesauce.  And a tasty no-sugar added juice too!  The problem with transparent apples -- they have NO shelf life.  They are a soft and immediate use apple... so they are ripe - now they are applesauce!

The past few days have included multiple batches of apple sauce, apple juice, greengage plum jam, blackberry juice, blackberry jam, and chocolate blackberry jam.  

Oh but there are more apples... these are only the large apples from the other trees.  I don't know the varieties of these apples... but they have a longer "shelf" life... so they are headed home from the beach!  And I'll deal with them in September...  Probably more apple sauce and sliced frozen apples...

Garment Sewing

Here is the Burda Style Braided Neck Tank I made myself. Printed fabric is a poly-Lycra blend, solid fabric is a rayon-Lycra.  Instead of doing a full facing front & back, I cropped the pieces and made a shelf bra.  

And my sons second pair of pants. These still need the waist band sewn, and hemmed...

I really liked how these went together, but didn`t quite understand the instructions for the back pocket so ended up just  going on instinct! 

Quilting

I got 4 of my dresden plate blocks basted!  The fifth has been cut into an octagon and I`m adding the extra 1 inch strips to the cut edges.

My daughter commented the blue sheet I`ve been using all summer as a design wall is empty...  I am packing my sewing area... to move back to town...

Friday night sewing at the beach....

During the day instead of having prep time, I was making blackberry jam for my Gram.  She is very spoiled - my mom went home with fresh blackberry pie and blackberry jam for her.  She is 95!

After dinner I started sewing while the kids went down to the beach with my mom and her husband... Looking out at the calm waters I couldn't resist the call of the ocean.  So I went out for a kayak!  Then I picked up my husband from the ferry.

Finally at 9pm I sat down to sew...

Winter Quilt
First I worked on my winter whirly gig quilt.  I had laid out the blocks previously and then stitched together to quilt top.  I can't proceed any further on this until I get more unwashed white cotton.

Sewn Together

Dresden Quilts 

Last night I set 4 of the circles into the outer border, squared up the blocks, then added the two borders.


This project was started as part of Lily's Quilts QAL in the spring... but life got in the way and I never finished them. Now I have the blocks ready to add the batting and backing. I will start assembling these blocks, but the quilting thread for these is at home in my sewing room. Because I'm not positive where the thread is, I'll need to wait until I get home to find it.

I need to head back to Lily's Quilts Blog and read the instructions!

Each of these blocks is about 31" square.

The 4 Blocks Ready for the Quilt.  This is a quilt as you go project, so I didn't piece them together

When I was making up the blocks, I forgot one at the cabin... but now all blocks are united and now I have an extra one.

I don't have enough of the background fabric to border it.  I will do a wider light border - probably the ligth blue, and then maybe a pieced border... I haven't decided....

Dresden - this one will be made into a separate quilt.

Grace's Quilt


Grace is still in the hospital and is gaining weight but has some struggles. She is in our continual prayers... The kids are continuing to work on their gift for her. They decided they would do the quilting too! So the progress is slow as Gramma (my mom) came for a 3 day visit. They didn't work on this last night, but are starting to work on it again today now that Gramma has left!

Design Wall Monday

Quilting
Today we got Grace's Quilt top pinned together...  Not much else done...  

And my dresdens are waiting to be sewn into the backgrounds, which are ready sitting on my sewing table.  Time to get busy....

Back to school sewing
The pants for my son need the fly sewn...

Seen around town

This is the quilt in my massage therapists office.  I thought it was quite pretty... The statement on it reads "What is your greatest desire?  Follow it and find peace". 

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, they were all taken on my Blackberry...

Dresden Circles

dresden-circle3
Originally uploaded by l3designs.sewing

Lily's Quilt's QAL

Three Circles done. I have one more to complete.... I decided I only wanted to do a 4-block quilt as a 60"x60" would be great for my living room...

I've also just finished a few large quilts and don't really feel that motivated to make the 60"x90" version!

Two blocks have Inner Circles of 7", Outer Circle of 25-1/4"
The third block has Inner Circles of 6-7/8", Outer Circle of 25"

Wonder how close I can get with the last one?

Productive Friday Night Sew In

A productive night...

St Patrick`s Day Quilt:
Further progress includes adding all the borders, cutting, assembling the binding and cutting out the  backing.  Its ready for basting!

Saturday Update:  The quilt is now pin basted!

UFO Challenge - March
The number chosen for March was 1!  This was great, a nice simple one, assuming I could find it... It only took 2-3minutes to find tonight, and I was off to finish up - even better was that the binding for the project was folded up with the project.  So finish some of the quilting, square it off, and sew on the binding.  Then I machine stitched down the binding, I`m quite happy the way this one turned out.

This project originally started in May 2009 when I made 6 of these. Only 5 were finished then... the one that didn`t get finished was for my husband.  Now he has one to take into work!

Quilt Along Progress
I cut out my fabric for the Dresden circles tonight.  I did have some difficulties with the template, so ended up redrawing it instead of trying to print it again to have it off size.  Thanks for listing the sizes on it...  I will need to look at the background pieces once I have the background fabric.
I hope I can keep up with the progress of this quilt as the kids are on Spring Break for the next two weeks!

Only one other project attempted tonight - hemming a pair of my sons pj pants... they were a Christmas gift!