Resume Working on the Philanthropy Quilt Top

After putting it on hold, I picked up the charity project again.  You can read about it here.   This one is for my Valley MQG's philanthropy which I had in my possession for a few months now.  

I knew it would be daunting to piece all the blocks together because the blocks were made from many volunteers and there are so many seams to match.   Whenever I have to tackle a project like this, I would turn on my favorite songs, take a deep breath, pick up two pieces and start sewing.  After a few hours, I got the top done.   

 

Now I can pass it on to another volunteer for quilting.  I love the group effort to get things done.

I started pulling out some denim jeans and fabric that I’ve been collecting.  My SIL has been giving her old jeans to me as well. Some denim fabric I have are very dark, intense blue colors. I crossed my fingers and threw them in a washing machine with bleach and let the whole thing soak for additional 10 minutes during the wash cycle.  These are some of the pieces that I got out of the dryer.

 

     

It will be interesting to see what would come out of all these pieces.  I'm ready to go down the rabbit hole.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

 

 

In addition to the linky parties on the sidebar, I also link up to:

 

Link to To Do Tuesday here hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt  

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More 

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese

 
  

The Pantone Quilt Challenge 2023 and May OMG is done

This is my first time participating in the Pantone Quilt Challenge.  Many thanks to the hosts Sarah Ruiz and Elizabeth Ray.  I am working with Paintbrush Studios fabric in the color Cherry Blossom and Raspberry.  Here is my original fabric pulled for this project.

I ended up not using any yellow or white/grey background. I did add Moda grunge green, and different black and white fabric.  The constructions of the quilt top was painless and went pretty fast.  Basting was done next, and I determined to do the best I could so that I wouldn’t have any problem during the quilting.  I have to admit, in the past, I didn't pay much attention to this step, hence I often had problems with puckering.  This time I spaced the pins a little closer than usual and it seemed to pay off.  The quilting went well and was finished with plenty of time to work on the binding, so I thought.  

After squaring up the quilt, I saw that the edges of the quilt were rippled like a wave, especially the area where I used my Juki machine.  How could it be?  Did I stretch the quilt too much while sewing?  What to do then?  I decided to block the quilt by laying it on my design wall on top of a big table and spraying water along the rippled edges.  Then I put pins about an inch apart along the edges to flatten them out and left the quilt to lay flat over night.  The next morning, I was pleased to see the ripples were gone and all the edges were flattened out.  Then I proceeded with the binding.  What a great feeling when I put the last stitch on the binding!!  Here are the finished quilt pictures of the front and back.

 

 

For this wall hanging, I used 100% cotton muslin and Kona Silver on the back.  While I was taking the pictures, I realized I love the back as much as the front.  Don't the pictures above look like I made 2 minimalist quilts?  I love how the shadows from the front came through the back so much that I will explore this design concept more in the future.  

Quilt Stats:

Size:        42.5" x 52"

Fabric:    Various 100% Cotton and 

                PBS - Cherry Blossom and Raspberry

Bating:    Hobbs 80/20

Quilting threads:    Wonderfil Specialty Threads 

Quilted on:    Juki TL98E and Bernina 1080

I love doing challenges.  It gives me an opportunity to do things that are out of the ordinary for me.  Before this project, Magenta was not a go-to color for me.  I found that many colors look amazing with it too.  I still need to improve my basting and quilting process.  About 60% through the quilting, I had to change a machine from Juki to Bernina.  I like using the walking foot on both machines.  Even though the Bernina is a lot older machine, it's still sewing great and produces amazingly smooth stitching lines.   Go to here to check out other great OMG finishes.

On to the next project; I think I like to work with Denim fabric next.  What's under your sewing needle?  I hope you're having fun working on something. 

Thanks for visiting and have a great week.

Margo

In addition to the linky parties on the sidebar, I also link up to:

 

Monday's Sew & Tell

Link to To Do Tuesday here hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt  

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More 

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese

 

A New Quiltmagic Room and May OMG

From the beginning of the year, I've tried to be more organized so that I can have a new sewing space.    I signed up to Declutter Challenge for 2023 with Karen Brown from Just get it done quilts.  It was very motivating for me to watch her Youtube channel, but then day to day following along was too overwhelming for me.  I got discouraged so I took a break from it but the ideas Karen shared are very helpful and I started the de-cluttering; at my own pace.

The first thing I did was clearing out the closet in our spare bedroom and moved my modest fabric stash in there.  For the past few years, that room has become a dumping ground for all sort of things that we don't know what to do with them.   There were computer parts, car parts, lots of old children's toys, and books.  With the help from my DH, we cleared them all out.  After many trips to the Goodwill, he took the old carpet off.  The most beautiful feature of the room is the hardwood floor.  We cleaned up some more so that I was able to move the first sewing table in.  

 

 

DH was helping me cleanup the soon to be my new sewing space

 

 More cleaning. My fabric stash in the closet with Franklin watching over and making sure that we're doing it right.  Franklin is a yellow ducky; he's my son's first stuffed animal.

 

 

The first sewing table moved in.  DH snatched this picture without me knowing.

More stuff got moved in and I started to decorate the room.

 

 

The first window cover went up next.  There is so much light streaming into the room.   Can you believe that I made this window cover in July 2020?  You can read about it in this post.

   

 

My mini called 'Funky Trees'

I called this room 'Quiltmagic' room.  The name Quiltmagic is my instagram account.  There is so much light in the room that makes me so happy every time I'm in there.  I'm glad that I put the fabric in the closet, away from the sun light.  The window cover fits perfectly!!  It gives me privacy but let the light in at the same time.  Now I'm set to make another one for the other window.  Right now I just use a top that I made sometime ago, as in the picture here.

 

 

Now both sewing tables are in the room.  I put a folding table by the window for cutting and ironing.  I'm testing it to see how this will work.  In a near future, I may move a sewing table by the window to see if it will work better.   I'm in my Quiltmagic room working on new ideas a lot.  I'll say that the room is 60% done.  Off course, there are a few things that still needed to be done, like a new coat of paint for the room, a new design wall, more shelves need to be put in...etc., but they can wait.  It will take a few more months for me to settle into the room.  I want to see if the placement of tables and things is ideal for the work flow in the room.   Right now I'm just so happy that I have a place of my own to do what I love.  No more sewing in the dining room.  

 

'Modern Time' - Pantone Quilt Challenge 2023

I'm excited to join this year's Pantone Quilt Challenge hosted by Sarah and Elizabeth.   You can read more about the challenge in this kick-off post.

Pantone color of  2023 is Viva Magenta.  Sarah did the work to match up solid colors from different fabric manufacturers and I am working with Paintbrush Studios fabric in the color Cherry Blossom and Raspberry.

 

A few weeks ago I made the first block

 Then I finished the top last week. 

 

'Modern Time'  44.5" x 54.5"

I set a goal to finish this quilt by the deadline on May 15. Check out the OMG link here. 

What are you working on this week?  Whatever it maybe, I hope you're having fun making it.

Thanks for visiting.

Margo 

 

 

In addition to the linky parties on the sidebar, I also link up to:

 

Link to To Do Tuesday here hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More

Friday Foto Fun at Powered by Quilting  

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese

April OMG Is Finished

I finally finished the baby quilt for a friend.  You can read about it here and here.  It took longer than I thought because I had to wait for a part I ordered for my Juki.  Here it is; washed and ready to be sent to its new owner. 

 

 

Quilt Stats:

Size:    42" x 54.5"    Before quilting

            40" x 52.5"    After quilting

            38" x 51"       After washing

Top:        100% cotton

Bating:    Warm and Natural

Backing:  100% cotton Flannel

In the past few months, with the help of my DH, I've been working on a new sewing space.  I should be able to share some pictures in a week or so.  I'm beyond excited and eager to get the room done.

What's you're working on this week?

Have a great week.

Margo

The Making of 2023 Pantone Challenge

Last week, I started working on the 2023 Pantone Quilt Challenge and made this block.

 

The fabric color is supposed to be magenta, but it looks really red in the picture.

I'm also making progress on the baby quilt last week.  I made the pieced back for it with the baby's initial.   Here it is on my design wall.

Now I'm all set to baste the quilt together and start the quilting.

What are you working on this week?

Happy sewing!!

Margo

Link to To Do Tuesday here hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt.

Pantone Challenge 2023 and OMG for April

I'm not quite sure what happened in March.  I was all set to join in the OMG, setting a goal for March to finish the baby quilt for a friend.  First, I forgot to link to the goal setting link-up for March.  Then life happened and we got so busy, I didn't accomplish my goal.  Anyway, here we are in April.  My OMG for April is to finish this baby quilt. 

 

This week, I also pulled out some fabric for the Pantone challenge and here they are.

 

The Pantone color fabrics are Raspberry and Cherry Blossom from Painters Palette.  I'm still thinking about the design, not sure yet what it will be.  I also have a few Grunge fabrics in there because I love them.  Again, this is not the final selection.  I may add or pull out something later on.  We shall see.

Hopefully, I'll get things together better this month than last and accomplish something. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

 

Margo   

WIP For The Week of 2/27/23 - 3/3/23

I continue the work on the baby quilt.  The top is done, next is quilting it.  Right now it is 42" x 54.5".  Here is the picture.

 

It's hard to believe that we're in March of 2023 already!  I just realized that I haven't linked in with the OMG at all this year.  Well, it starts this month, my goal for March is to finish quilting and binding this baby quilt. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

Margo

I link up to To Do Tuesday hosted by Quilt Schmilt

A New Baby Quilt and A Truck Load of Woodchips

I'm making a baby quilt for a dear friend who just had her first grandson.  I pulled some fabric out, you can see them here.  I started to make a few blocks of curved piecing and put them on a design wall as shown here. 

I haven’t decided yet what this quilt would look like.  We’ll wait and see.  I'll let them hang out on the design wall for awhile and make some more to join them.

While I was working on the quilt, I got a truck load of wood chips delivered on to my drive way. It’s a gigantic amount of wood chips as seen here. 

I do gardening for fun and to relax.  Recently, I learned of using wood chips in the garden as mulch from Back to Eden Gardening Documentary film by Paul Gautschi who introduced me to an organization called Chipdrop. I don't have any affiliation with any of these two organizations.  I only recently used their service and love the idea and now tell people around me about them.  Now I have enough wood chips for my own garden and to share.  Some of my  neighbors came and took some wood chips for their garden too.

 

That's what's going on around here.  I hope you all have a great week and thanks for visiting.

Margo

Learning A New Skill and WIP in February

I'm done with the second charity quilt top for Q4C. You can read about the first quilt top here and see the finished top here.

For this one, I decided to use 3 fabrics. There is only one Intersection block repeated over and over without rotation.  This is the layout for this quilt. 

I'm amazed at how different the two quilt tops looks.  With a minor change of fabric and the way the blocks are put together, we get a new look!   There will not be any borders, just a dark red for binding.  It was delivered yesterday.

 

I've got a new project and it's a baby quilt for a dear friend's first grandson.  I haven't decided on the pattern but I pulled out some fabric.  I'm sure I'll add some more fabric into this pile later.

Last week, I took my first longarm quilting class.  After many years of wanting to learn a longarm FMQ, I didn't really know what to expect.  We started at 1 pm.; the class is a 3-hour class.  The instructor started by showing me how to turn on the machine which is a Nolting longarm quilting machine.  She let me play by moving the machine around with the stitch regulator and also without the stitch regulator to feel the difference between the two modes.  My first time having my hands on a longarm!!  It felt so powerful and fast!  I love the stitch regulator mode; I can use all the help I can get.  The stitches come out so nice and even.  I moved the machine around in swirly motion, but later came back to straight lines.  I guess I was trying to imitate the straight line quilting style I do on my domestic machine. 

She then showed me how to mount a quilt on to the machine, how to wind a bobbin and where to put it in.  We mounted a real baby quilt top on.  She showed me how to baste it using a single stitch around the area about 20" which is the area I'll be quilting.   She then said ok, let's quilt.  I was freaking out a bit because I was afraid to ruin a good quilt top.  This baby quilt is supposed to be a donation and I didn't want to mess it up.  She said it's fine go for it, and said many encouraging things to me.  After seeing me still stressed, she left me alone to calm down.  I sat there quietly for 5-10 minutes, then gathered myself up and started to move the machine around in a swirling motion.  I had no idea what I was doing, but my hands kept the machine moving.  When I was done with the first area, I moved the quilt upward to the next area and on and on.  By 3:45 pm., I was done with the whole piece.  What a rush and I liked it!!

 

My very first Free motion quilting on a longarm

I probably don't remember all the things she taught me.   This is not the first time that I force myself to do things that's new to me.   I was intimidated at first, but it turned out to be a really fun thing to learn.  I need more practice time to familiarize myself with the machine.  Look forward to play some more with the longarm machine. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you all have a great week ahead!!

Margo

I am linking today to Carol at Quilt Schmilt!

WIP in February

I took a needed break during the last 2 weeks of January and the beginning of February.  I get tired easily because I had brain surgery seven years ago due to a ruptured aneurysm.  The outcome of the surgery was great.  I am able to resume my day to day activities and live a "normal" life.  But sometimes, when I use up all my energy, I have to stop and recharge.  That can take a week or, sometimes, two.  I'm accepting the fact that I'll never be 100% my former self, but I'm grateful for everyday that I have. 

 

Now I'm back and as good as new!!   I finished a quilt top for the Quilting For Community (Q4C) and dropped it off last week.  Here is the picture.

It's 54" x 66" before quilting.  Now I'm working on the second one with the same fabric but a little different layout.  I'll show a picture in a few days.

 

I decided to take a Free Motion Quilting on a long arm machine class at the Q4C.  The class will be on Thursday of this week.  I'm excited but a little nervous.  I think it will be really fun to finally dive in.  It's been on my list of things to do for a few years now.  I can't wait!! 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you all have a great day!

Margo

Sometimes we don't know why or how things happened.  I trust in the Lord that these things are for my benefit and that I will learn from them.  From 2Nephi 22:2 we read: Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.

Charity Quilt Tops

Last week, I started working on two charity quilt tops.   You can read about them here and here.  I made big progress on them that I would like to share today.

 

Valley MQG Philanthropy quilt top.  After making 8 additional blocks and trimming all 20 blocks to unified size of 14", I put them on the design wall to see how they look together.  

 

 

With this layout, I'll get a 54" x 67.5" top, a very good size for a quilt.  I'll leave them there for a few days before I start piecing them together.  I might move some blocks around.

Then I worked on the Q4C charity quilt top.  I started cutting the fabric and made the blocks. 

 

This quilt top has only 1 block that repeats over and over.  By rotating every other block 90 degrees, we get this design.  This block is called Intersection block which was published in September 2021 in the MQG Journal.  Making this block goes really fast and the finished size of the block is 12".  The final layout will be 4x5 which will make 48" x 60" quilt top.  It will be good for a lap quilt.  Big blocks make the quilt top come together in no time.  I don't know if I will put a border or not.  It all depends on how much fabric I have left.

I hope you all have a wonderful day and thanks for visiting.

Margo

I am linking today to Carol at Quilt Schmilt!

WIP for January

I started the disappearing 4-patch charity quilt for ValleyMQG. There is something mysterious about working on a project that had many hands involved before it gets to you. I’ve done this before, you can read about it here. 

I have 8 4-patch blocks that needed to be cut, rearranged and sewn back together.  I turned on my favorite music and lost myself in it.  What I did was turning on an autopilot mode and took off.   

1. There was no instructions, so I looked for disappearing 4-patch block tutorial. 

2. I started cutting one block at a time and rearranged the pieces.  Here are pictures of a block.   Having a swirly cutting board is very helpful!!

 

3. Sewing started after I got all the blocks cut. This is the step that having a zen-like mood is really helpful.  Because each person sews differently and no two sewing machines are alike, I tried my best to match the seams. Only 8 blocks to do, I kept reminding myself. 😂🤣   Before I knew it, I've finished 5 blocks.

4. After I get all 8 blocks done, I’ll trim all 20 blocks to a uniform size of 14” squares.  Then we'll see what I have on the design wall.

Thanks for stopping by.

Margo

How I Start Off the New Year

 Happy New Year everyone!!

I hope you all had a fabulous Holidays celebrations.  I sure did and plus I had some time to rest and relax without worrying about traveling.  Now it's time to get back to the real world.

 

I would like to start this year with getting organized.

This year I'll try to organize my sewing space.  I joined in with Karen Brown at Just Get It Done Quilts.  Karen is running Declutter Challenge 2023.  We'll see how much I can accomplish this year.

 

I also want to start the year with charity quilt projects: 

1. Finishing a project for Valley MQG Philanthropy's on going projects.  I picked up a bag and this is what's inside. 

 

It's a disappearing 4-patch blocks.  There are 8 4-patch blocks that I have to cut, rearrange and sew them back together.  There are 12 blocks that were sewn up already too.  Interesting!!  I've never done this design before.  Can't wait to get started.

2. Start a charity quilt for Quilting for Community (Q4C).  I got these four lovely fabrics from them and will start making a top in a few days.  I'm using Intersection block pattern that I designed for MQG Journal in 2021.  If you're a MQG member, you can go to their resource page to get the pattern.  There are tons of interesting patterns and articles on the MQG Resource Library.  I really enjoy reading and going around the MQG website.

 

That is my plan to start the new year for now.  I'm sure there will be more quilts that I want to make.  Some of them are just an idea, but some are already in the design step.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Margo