Desert Sunset Fabric Prepped

Last year I was poking around my digital files and ran across a photograph of a quilt from some book. Sadly, it didn't have any identification about where it originally came from. All I know is that the original name of the quilt was "Pause." 

Something about it appealed to me so I put it into Electric Quilt. I ended up playing with the fabrics and went with a very different color scheme. I posted it to my feed in Facebook and friends said it reminded them of a desert sunset, so it was given that as a name.

A couple days ago, I decided to play with creating SVG files using ProStitch Studio, so this seemed like a good project to try. It works! I can export the metafile from Electric Quilt and then import into ProStitcher and then save as an SVG. I'm doing the happy dance because I no longer have to confine myself to blocks that are in BlockBase.

Anyway, I worked up my cutting plan and prepped the fabric today. Now that everything is ready, it probably won't take me long to cut them all out. Though, now that I am looking at the fabric laid out, I think those two yellow fabrics are too yellow, they were supposed to be more orange. I think I'll have to replace them with different options. Tomorrow I'll poke around my stash and see if I can find another, better option.

Tuesday ToDo #43

I actually did pretty well on last week's list:

1. Add the last border on the Groovy Garden Broken Bricks lap quilt.  ✔️
2. Assemble a backing for it. ✔️ (I just made it from a chunk of solid orange fabric I had leftover from my square dance clothes-making days.)
   
   
   

   

   That border fabric is called "Flower Power -
   Groovy Garden" and was made by Patrick Lose.

   
   
3. Make my Purple RSC blocks. ✔️
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Work on my Stained Glass blocks. ❌
5. Bind the Sewcialites Quilt. ✔️
   
   
   
6. Figure out the next project and start cutting it out. ❌
7. Assemble a backing for the Graceful Moments Flimsy. ❌
8. Long Arm quilt another lap quilt. (I think I only have 3 left now.) ❌

For next week, I think I'll drop the stained glass blocks from the list because it is much too hot now to be running the iron all day long. This is my list of goals for the coming week:

1. Assemble a backing for the Graceful Moments Flimsy.
2. Iron and put the Aged Elegance flimsy on the long arm frame. It is going to be gifted to Jeff's aunt, so I think it will be more special for her if he quilts it.
3. Catch up with the rainbow scrap challenge by making the blue and green blocks.
4. Figure out which project is next and start cutting it out.

Thanks to Linda for hosting the weekly ToDo Tuesday link-in.

Finally some RSC Progress

I fell behind on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but because this month's color is purple⏤my favorite color⏤I was determined to get those done at least. I spent yesterday digging through my big pile of purple scraps and making blocks for three of my RSC projects.

I know they look black in the photos, but they are dark purple.

This is the layout of the finished quilt. 

Flowers for Nana Girl pattern,
from Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Sensations

I also made blocks for my Bloom quilt project.

Yeah, more black-looking dark purple. I can't help it, I like
dark purple so I have a lot of those scraps.

I've built up a nice little collection of these blocks.
Almost enough for a lap quilt.  I may add sashing between the
blocks so I don't have to deal with stacked seams.

And I finished up another 11 of the Arlington Square blocks; 9 purple and 2 bonus colors that just happened to be the right size and were lying nearby while I was cutting.

This is what the finished style of this quilt is. Since I didn't confine myself to "pretty" scraps, this one may end up being a little weird; we will see.

Likely, I will spend next year's RSC assembling these smaller blocks with the colored sashing.

I thought about working on the stained glass blocks, but since it's over 100℉ here, and our air conditioner is working hard to keep up, I decided running the iron all day was a really bad idea. The stained glass blocks will have to wait until cooler weather. They may turn into a winter project.

I do plan on going back and catching up on the blue and green blocks from May and June sometime soon. I've just been really distracted playing with my new long arm and design software.

Thanks all for dropping by. If you'd like to see more fun quilting projects drop by 

Design Wall Monday, 

Monday Making, and

Scrap Happy Saturday.

Sewcialites Quilt Finished!

The Sewcialites quilt is finished! I had planned to do the long arm quilting myself, but when my husband wanted to play with learning how to do custom quilting I put it on the frame for him. He quilted every single block differently. And the borders are made up of 3 different patterns. He put a lot of time into this quilt and it shows.

We are still beginners at using the long arm so there are mistakes, but it turned out quite well, in my opinion.

I am linking up with:

• Brag About Your Beauties, 
• Finished (or Not) Friday, 
• Off the Wall Friday,
• Peacock Party and 
• TGI Finished Friday.

Tuesday ToDo #42

The last two weeks were a total fail on finishing the projects on my list. I suppose it is not surprising, especially during the first week. We did have a very successful garage sale and we regained quite a bit of space in our garage. Now if we could just keep that trend going. LOL

Then, I got a new Windows-based computer. I had to buy a computer to work with Pro-Stitch Studio; it won't work with Macs. After I got it installed I spent way too long watching videos about how it works and playing with my pantographs (quilting patterns). 

(In spring I would often find myself scrolling through websites looking for patterns I liked and would spend upwards of $10-15 each for them, but then I ran across the One Song Needle Arts website and her prices were amazing. Yes, many of the sets are just pieces repeated with minor changes, but she has a lot of nice patterns. Somehow, I talked myself into buying her complete collection, upwards of 3000 pantographs. Now I have a ton of patterns and instead of scrolling through patterns I don't own, now I mostly scroll through patterns I do.)

My husband did finish quilting the Sewcialites quilt. I think he did a fantastic job. I'll probably do a post about just that project once I finish the binding and we get it outside to take some photos. The photo below was taken while it was still in progress; I didn't actually remember to take a photo before removing it from the frame.

Unlike my husband, I am not comfortable coming up with a plan on the fly. I like to know the plan, which I why I focused on learning how to use the ProStitcher software this past week. I got started on a plan for the Morris Garden quilt I finished last November. Even with all my new pantographs, it was difficult to find pre-made patterns that work with it. I spent a lot of time auditioning different options.

I don't really like any of the options I've come up with so far, so I set it aside and turned to my Finger Lakes quilt (which I finished almost exactly a year ago). During my earlier search, I found several pantograph options that looked like they would fit the shape. That project went much better.

Those lines are just jumps that won't appear on the finished quilt
because those threads are trimmed. And, to be honest,
I won't just put this quilt on the frame and quilt it all at once.

I'm not actually sure I'll be quilting this quilt next, despite the plan, since I don't have batting that is wide enough. I am not in a big enough rush yet to piece batting.

I think I'll repeat the last list and see if I do any better. 

1. Add the last border on the Groovy Garden Broken Bricks lap quilt.
2. Assemble a backing for it.
3. Make my Purple RSC blocks.
4. Work on my Stained Glass blocks.
5. Bind the Sewcialites Quilt.
6. Figure out the next project and start cutting it out.
7. Assemble a backing for the Graceful Moments Flimsy.
8. Long Arm quilt another lap quilt. (I think I only have 3 left now.)

Thanks to Linda for hosting Tuesday ToDo.

Tuesday ToDo #41

How is it Tuesday again? Gosh, time is going so fast this summer.

This past week I hoped to get the borders on my bright broken bricks scrappy quilt. I didn't quite get that done, because my sewing machine died in the middle of one of the edges. I took it in to the shop and it turns out the motor was dead. And since Pfaff is no longer making motors for the Pfaff 7570, my machine was kaput. I was sad, for about 5 minutes.

I actually bought this machine something like 20 years ago, and it was used at that time. Probably not very much, but it was not new in the box. It was quite the workhorse.

I debated about what to replace it with and looked around for something used again, but then I discovered Pfaff makes a purple machine! Yeah, I had to get that.

It is going to take some time to adjust to the differences, but I do like the color. 

Anyway, by the time I had the machine figured out, I turned my attention to binding the Rhododendron Trail quilt and got it finished!

The Sewcialites quilt is still on the frame and is almost finished. My husband has quilted all of the blocks and is currently working on a fussy border. I think he's doing quite well at coming up with quilting designs that go with the blocks. To be honest, when I ordered the long arm, it never occurred to me my husband would have any interest in using it. LOL

I didn't work on sewing stained glass blocks, at all. I was too busy getting ready for a big multi-family garage sale next weekend.

On that note, I will make my ToDo list, but I don't expect I'll get much done this week. It's more the list for the month.

1. Add the last border on the Groovy Garden Broken Bricks lap quilt.
2. Assemble a backing for it.
3. Make my Purple RSC blocks.
4. Work on my Stained Glass blocks.
5. Bind the Sewcialites Quilt.
6. Figure out the next project and start cutting it out.
7. Assemble a backing for the Graceful Moments Flimsy.
8. Long Arm quilt another lap quilt. (I think I only have 3 left now.)

I am linking up with Tuesday ToDo.

Sewcialites Quilting Progress

Since my husband is enjoying playing with my Handiquilter so much, I told him he could quilt whatever he wanted to on my Sewcialites Flimsy. I'm sure some of you recall the Sewcialites Sew Along with the Fat Quarter Shop last year; it was a really fun project. I obviously departed from their final construction by a lot, but all the blocks are there from their design. I was learning EQ8 at the time and I wanted to do a custom layout and this is what I came up with.

Anyway, my husband has started quilting it and I'm super impressed by his block quilting. We've only had the long arm for a couple of weeks; maybe I'll be doing the edge-to-edge and he'll be quilting the customs. LOL These are some of the blocks he has already quilted.

This is a combo of a frame and a motif

This is another one with a block inside a frame. They go well together.

We're off to visit friends for the holiday so nothing more will happen on this quilt until next week. But it has been fun watching Jeff's progress.

Rhododendron Trail Finished

I spent all day wrestling with the Rhododendron Trail quilt to get it trimmed down and get the binding on there. Phew. I don't really like that part, but being so close to the end can usually carry me through to the finish.

I made this quilt with Bonnie Hunter's Rhododendron Trail Mystery Quilt earlier this year. It was really fun, though I will be honest, I followed a different layout suggested by another participant because I really liked it. The quilt is pretty big, about 78"x96" so it's a little big for my husband to hold it up for me. I'll try and get some better photos over the holiday when we visit some friends.

Jeff did a great job with the quilting.

The backing. I thought it would be fun to make one gigantic black.

As I said before, my husband Jeff actually did all the long arm quilting. I had it on the machine and was planning to do it, and I found him in there playing with the computer so I just let him play. I did suggest some blocks but he did nearly all the layout work. He's a mathematician and likes geometric puzzles.

I still need to do some thread clean up, but I wanted to catch the light before it was gone for the day.

I am linking up with:

• Brag About Your Beauties, 
• Finished (or Not) Friday, 
• Friday Night With Friends,
• Off the Wall Friday,
• Peacock Party and 
• TGI Finished Friday.