Third Quarter Finishing Goals

Lights, camera, action!!

It's time to set some finishing goals for the 3rd quarter of 2015

Here's the pile waiting for their turn to be documented!!

The first three are rollovers from the 2nd quarter?!?

I've been hand quilting on this off and on for the past 3 months but keep drifting away to my EPP.

I have two blocks left to quilt and the sashing (stumped on the design) and borders.  Finishing this quilt is a major priority!!

All the embellishing is finished on my Bug Hut round robin and as you can see it's layered but I'm stuck in one of those "how to quilt it" pauses.

I did get these sweet blocks from Nat's Sunflower sew along set together and the backing organized but now I have a potential recipient for this quilt so need to forge ahead and quilt it. 

This little piece surfaced during a "search and rescue" mission in my studio -- it's a sample of a triad color scheme from the workshop series I taught based on Gai Perry's Color From the Heart. 

This piece was made by my younger daughter and she lost momentum somewhere in the quilting phase so I offered to bring it home with me and finish it so she could use it for a donation back in her community.

I finished this top as part of the 2015 #apqresolution challenge a couple months ago and plan to give it to a friend this fall, but first . . . . .

My #apqresolution pick for June was this quilt.  I designed it during Ohio Bicentennial as a mystery quilt for my shop (2003) and made three versions of it for my three Ohio born children.  Two were finished that year because they lived out of state but this one has been laying.  All I got done on it during June was to layer it up, but that's an important step in the right direction.

I was impressed with the quality of my hand applique when I was layering it up. 

This cutie keeps coming back to haunt me and finally I have a reason to finish it this summer as a gift for friends who are moving out of the area.  I finally finished the stitching around the appliques this spring and added the print border to make it a nice lap size quilt.

(FINISHED on 8/8/2015)

The layered ones are folded up neatly and on the table next to my APQS George, ready to go!

Now to make wise use of my time over the next three months and move through these projects at a steady pace!!

 

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's lists at Adrianne's On the Windy Side third quarter link-up for the 2013 Finish Along!!

 

Mary Huey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Together!!!

There it is!! The very last 1" seam to finish setting together my reproduction mosaic quilt.

And here's it is -- ready for borders!!

This adventure began quite a few years ago with an antique quilt that was displayed at a local show.

Two and a half years ago, I made a start on it working out of my stash of reproduction prints and making a half dozen hexagon motifs while demonstrating at some local quilt shows.

Those became the centers of the largest motifs and the central star.

At one point, I decided I needed to draft it out in my Electric Quilt program to make it easier to plan and choose fabrics as I built more and more motifs.

Once I started drafting the layout from the photographs I have, I started tweaking the design a bit to fill in empty spaces that I didn't like in the original quilt. 

It's completely machine pieced using the chain-piecing technique from my DVD, Set-in Piecing Simplified.  I don't recommend one learn the technique using the 1" hexagons in this quilt.

But I had already made several tumbling block quilts and a hexagon quilt with 2" hexagons when I started it.  I used Marti Michell's Grandmother's Flower Garden template set to do the cutting and marking. 

I've started to organize a layout guide for this quilt and will make that available as a FREE download in my Craftsy shop later this month.  There's math that needs to be checked before I do that, but I am so excited to reach this point, I wanted everyone to see it right away. 

I still have a few hours of pressing the seams before I add the border fabric.  I think that might turn out to be the most challenging part of making this quilt?!? 

 

Now I have to start thinking of a name for it??

 

Mary Huey

 

 

 

 

 

Katje's Millefiore Rosette 6 is together!!

Last month I started piecing Rosette 6 from Katje's Millefiore quilt follow-along.  I showed you how I used Marti Michell's template Set G to cut the pieces for the center hexagon motif HERE.

As I moved out from the center motif, I shared how I used Marti's template Set H and adapted the way I used the templates to get shapes like the elongated hexagon and the parallelograms needed for this hexagon motif HERE.

This past rainy weekend, I finished setting together the entire motif and have another template use modification to share with you.  The green mini-check pieces are rhomboids if I recall my geometry terminology correctly. 

Katje created it by merging together the two diamonds and the equilateral triangle along one edge of this hexagon motif.

The large template in Set H is a 3" hexagon and it is a perfect match for the finished size of all the hexagon motifs in The New Hexagon.

The small diamond template is a perfect match for the diamonds so I can use that to cut a strip that will be the correct width for the rhomboids.

Now when I lay the large hexagon template on the strip with one edge matching, I can cut rhomboids that are the perfect size.

Taking the time to trim off the tips of the rhomboids will make aligning them with the rest of the motif easier and accurate. (See the photo above.)

Once those six hexagons were pieced, I was ready to set them together to complete the rosette.  I work with Marti's templates most of the time these days, but I still experience a little thrill when I lay two blocks together and they are the same size!!  You can't see the one underneath because it is the exact same size as the one on top!!

I usually work from the center out but decided to try a different approach this time and set the hexagons together in rows.

As with any y-seam construction, I didn't press any of the setting together seams until it was finished.  At every corner I was waiting for points to not match up but it never happened!!

 

And here's the rosette!  Those of you who are doing the entire quilt will notice that I completed the last round because this is going to be the center of something medallion style. 

No plan yet, waiting for inspiration.

If you are one of the seven quilters in the world who haven't discovered this inspired quilt -- visit Katje's website HERE.

I machine pieced the rosette using the chain-piecing approach in my DVD, Set-In Piecing Simplified while continuing to finish setting together this large reproduction mosaic hexagon quilt.  The pieces of the rosette were my "leaders and enders" between the 1" seams of the final assembly. 

I still have about 80 seams to go on the reproduction and my goal is to share the finished top with you in my next post!!  Another rainy day would help, but really we have plenty of water on hand for the moment!!

 

Thanks for stopping by today and reading all the way to the end!!

Enjoy your weekend. 

I hope the USA is warm and sunny for the holiday. 

I hope Europe cools off!!

 

Mary Huey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did it just rain again?

Really I'm not an ungrateful sort of person, but if anyone out there would like some rain let us know -- Ohio is one of those parts of the USA that has been getting more than we need and I'm sure we'd be happy to share at least one rain storm with say southern California -- yikes!!

 

See that cute little yellow pan on the edge of the pond -- it was empty Friday,

but by the time it was safe to go outside again on Sunday morning, it had a good 3" of water in it.

That meant there was little choice except to sew all day Saturday!

Gordon helped me finish the quilting on this charity quilt. 

He keeps it from sliding off that end of the table?!?

On Sunday, I trimmed and bound it.  As I trimmed it, I was reflecting on how much I learn about machine quilting every time I finish another charity quilt. 

I did a great deal of straight line stitching to give it a graphic masculine feel.  I like the look of it, but it's a lot more work than free motion meander quilting. 

I should have done a bit more pre-stitching math to calculate line spacing on some areas of the quilt.  By the time I got all the green squares and triangles on the front filled with straight lines, I was bored, too.  So I switched to some free motion meandering and my spider webs. 

This top was my February stash busting project to create a donation quilt.  I used the Moda Love LayerCake Quilt pattern cutting my 10" squares from the green shelf.  The fall floral for the background has been in my hoard for over 10 years.  I'm not sure the "cute" panels do much for the quilt, but it's another lesson learned -- they are too close in value to the central green triangles.

But I did use a lot of green -- about 9 yards altogether!!

And the quilt will head down to eastern Kentucky with a local mission team in July spending a week working for the Appalachia Service Project.  I think it will be a good quilt for a man -- so often our charity quilts feel more like they should go to a child or a woman so I always try to get one or two manly ones organized. 

This is my fourth finish from the list of goals I set back in early April for the 2015 Finish-Along over at On the Windy Side.  I set eight target projects and while I didn't get four more finishes, I did make progress on three of them.  So I'll roll them forward into the third quarter at the top of the list!

(That list is HERE.)

 

Today's post is dedicated to Coal, my frequent companion over the past four years in the garden,

in the sewing room,

and around the neighborhood.   

One of my daughters and I live together. Coal was her dog but when she is working, he has been my dog.  We lost him rather suddenly Monday to a neurological disease that wasted his muscles. 

I will miss stepping over him on my way to the ironing board and our daily evening walks.

Rest in peace you old sweetie!!

 

Mary Huey

 

Linking up with all the other finishers at the

2015 Finish-along over at On the Windy Side!

 

 

A Few Days Off From My Stitching

What prompts you to take a break from your stitching? 

 

This week, my youngest daughter and my grandchildren came for a visit and all stitching ground to a halt.  The focus for their visit was spending time together.   

 

That's a local waterfall roaring like Niagara after a heavy rainfall Monday evening.  It messed up our plans to explore the creek but not our fun!

My granddaughter and I had one of our little tea parties.  She informed me that one of her goals in life is to use every tea cup in my collection!?!  Okay!

 

We spent a morning exploring the Botanical Garden -- I think I was the only one who didn't try out these contraptions.

And the best part for me is always all the family dinners!!

 

When they leave, I'm always at lose ends so I headed out into the garden to weed and see what's blooming.  With all the rain we've had in the past month, the garden looks more green than anything and the weeds come out easily. 

 

But there are some highlights of color!

Butterfly weed is in full bloom -- not many butterflies though -- this wet weather is not butterfly friendly.

A penstomen has started what I hope will be a long summer of blooming. 

I found the wild rose in bloom in the back corner -- I'm always happy to see it again! 

The afternoon rain chased me inside and I spent a productive 45 minutes machine quilting until I heard UPS leave a package at the front door.  It's here.  The beginning of a new project.

So up to the studio to finish prepping for my turn as Queen Bee for Hive #7 in the Stash Bee block swap.  Aren't they fun?  I made three (using a tutorial from Block Lotto) and wrote my post which will go live on July 1 -- check that off the list!! 

Back to my stitching and my gardens until the next visit!!

 

How will you enjoy your weekend?

 

Mary Huey