Friday, March 3, 2017

AHIQ Start and 17 in 2017 Progress!

It never seems like there's proper time to get a post written these days. Guess I'm spending too much time playing 'Words With Friends' with the family, catching up on my reading, or getting pulled away from what I'm doing by my husbands requests to accompany him here and there. Well, that and we just bombed through February already. Does that mean winter is mostly over?
Mock up of potential sashing units
Crossing my fingers fiercely on that one. Ughh. Am I ever tired of the snow and ice! However, there is still a bit of quilting going on behind the scenes, no matter how sporadic the approach these days. I dithered around, played with a quilting project idea, slept on it, then slept on it some more, tweaked my color choices and then finally, finally started the AHIQ-Chinese Coins challenge. These colors ended up being the pick of the day as they will probably end up being 'background' in the quilt and not a focal point.

At the moment there are only four sheets of strings sewn together. After getting through the initial work and checking to see that 'Yes, these can be cut to the appropriate strip widths and lengths', then I went ahead and free cut the approximate amount of strings needed for the entire quilt. Part of my initial reluctance to dive into this project was the feeling that Chinese Coins usually present in a formal 'evenly measured' manner. Then Kaja put into words some of my feelings about what was really stopping me from starting this project! We're all sort of inspiring each other I guess, because she referred to Sue {I personally was thinking about Ann's lovely string/coin work} and around and around we go. Mine will eventually be cut into 2 1/2" x 8" strips to be joined together in 6" sashing sets. And I want the imperfection of mismatched seam alignment although I did make an effort to not have extremes in width of fabrics cut. We'll see how it turns out, but whatever. I'm actually glad to have some mindless sewing in the works again!
Strips ready to be sewn into sets
So then, there's the 17ufosin2017 linkup. I thought there was very minor progress made during the minuscule month of February {hardly worth talking about}, but as it turns out, more was accomplished than I realized. Yay! My Peachy Cameo Medallion quilt gained another border. Hardly inspiring as it is identical to the previous one, but well... it just works. The quilt could almost be done right there, I'm so happy with the look, but it's gonna have to have that applique border I've been envisioning since the birth of the project. Yep. I can't help myself--always adding a bajillion more hours to my quilt tops, thinking applique will make it extra special wonderful....
A repeat border for Peachy Cameo Medallion quilt
Improv. Woven Basket also gained a border {very simple one} and then I've spent time drawing out and prepping for the next border. That always takes so much more time than we want to admit to doesn't it? And yes, the plan is for it to be an appliqued border as well. The picture below is what I have ready for the base of a simple flower design, mostly leaves with a very small little flower detail,that part to be determined after the bulk of this stitching is done. The flower stems were mostly gleaned from my orphaned applique bits and pieces totes which makes me smile and ensures a bit of unpredictability in stem width and color. Love that!
Prep work for border on Improv. Woven Basket quilt
Next up for gaining ground with a ufo is another border for Folksy Flower. This time I made sure to add triangular shapes to the end of my border lengths so as to address a little of the bias stretch that I will be dealing with. The math has been particularly tricky for me and so honestly I've just been avoiding it altogether. The border pieces are terribly wrinkled because I crammed them in my hand stitching bag for our recent long weekend to Oregon. Not much stitching happened tho as I found myself driving a lot instead of being passenger!
Another border for Folksy Flower quilt
While I completely finished up Geese Tracks and Black Shadow Applique {happy dance for a lovely, lovely finish!}, it doesn't feel like quite enough. If I'm going to be churning out quilt tops like a busy little beaver, then more domestic machine quilting is in order. Not just the feel good hand quilting stuff which is easy, fun and very low pressure. Ugghh. It never feels good enough, this machine quilting, but at least I'm starting to feel 'unashamed' of my unpolished efforts. Okay. That definitely feels like progress in and of itself!
St. Paul quilt sandwiched and ready to quilt
And my lovely husband tracked down some better tape for sandwiching my quilts. All of his own initiative too which makes it even more sweet. {Tired of hearing me grumble I'm sure!} I have had a terrible time with getting painters tape to stay attached to either the fabric or the floor and duck tape has been forbidden for use with my worn out, old wooden floors. This green tape is an auto body quality tape which so far is working wonderfully with everything but one fabric I tried it with. For some reason it didn't want to adhere to that particular fabric, but with everything else, I can actually pick the tape up and re-attach it!! Will wonders never cease. Now maybe I can get my quilt sandwiches to be taut and wrinkle free, something that machine quilting distinctly requires....

24 comments:

  1. Good start on your Chinese coins! Making the decision is always hard and time consuming, I think. At least it is for me.

    It looks like you're making good progress on your projects. You have a lot of irons in the fire!

    By the way, I ADORE your Woven Basket!!

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  2. word with friends can trap you in and hold you for a time - one of sisters and I have a game going always because it is so easy to chat on the sidebar at the same time - we live miles apart and are chatting all day long on it!! (at least it is off and on all day and not for hours at a time :) )
    you are making good progress on everything always so busy. I do not know how I would quilt baste on the floor if it was not for carpet of which I use T-pins on to hold the backing down and in place. I miss my 3 roller quilting frame - one day the quilt room will be back in order.

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  3. Sounds like you have a lot of applique in your near future! All the Chinese Coins are so different. It's such a versatile technique! Can't wait to see where it all goes. :D

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  4. Интересные работы.

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  5. I'm glad you're making your ions as a background. I'm hoping some appliqué goes top. Yay!
    Congratulations on "keeping the line moving" with your finishes. They are lovely. I used to tape to the floor and scotch tape used to hold. About ten years ago it quit sticking. It sure if it's a fabric finish or change in tape sticky stuff. i bought some lightweight folding tables and clamps from the auto department to hold back to the table. Guess there's lots of good stuff for quilters at the auto shop. ;-)

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  6. lots going on here, must check out the chinese coins link it looks interesting. Best of luck with machine quilting I am finally starting to enjoy doing it. The tape sounds good but I have to sandwich on the table these days knees cannot take the floor anymore. Reading the above post must look into finding some clamps they would be a great help

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  7. Audrey I really enjoy your blog posts, they boost my creativity no end. I am still stewing on ideas but they bubble away in my brain and eventually bust out!
    Regarding the quilt sandwich...I have discovered the board method....may have mentioned it before but seriously it's really good for keeping those layers under control when you are basting that little sucker. Hehehe. Thank you again for your blog and inspiration love it!

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  8. You may not be writing blog posts but you seem to be motoring away on the actual sewing, which is, after all,the important part. I like the warm tones of your coin strips a lot and am excited to see what you have in mind for them. Like Ann I'm hoping applique is on the cards (well, not just hoping, more expecting!) All your other progress is looking good too.

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  9. You've got a lot going on, girl! Keeps us happy, right?

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  10. Oh how I love the Peachy Cameo. The border grabs my attention but does not overwhelm the applique center.
    Laughing to myself, I was sewing quilt blocks for a rail fence quilt (not any time recent) using such pretty fabric left overs from a friend. I could not keep even seams for some reason and ended up with just slightly wonky blocks. Never continued on. I should have embraced the wonky and moved on as I know I am going to like your off kilter coins.

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  11. What a wonderful job you are doing with your many projects. Your appliqué borders inspire me to try that idea soon on a quilt. Keep up the good work!

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  12. You've definitely made progress. The identical border is a milestone and looks like it took a pretty piece of time to accomplish. I love the sweet zig-zag border.

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  13. I wanted to ask, do you mix machine and hand quilting on the same quilt?

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  14. Those bajillion hours are always worth it because the applique really does make it extra special wonderful!

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  15. You have so many wonderful projects going on! I love the addition of applique to any quilt! Great find on the tape.

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  16. Just love how you make such lovely and different quilts. And I enjoy seeing the quilts develop and grow! Warm greetings

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  17. Such a post of lovely goodness! I'm ready for spring. It has been a long winter.

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  18. I always enjoy your stories and explainations that go along with your projects and your progress.

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  19. Love your peachy cameo, such a lovely colour combo! Looks like you are progressing & planning! Look forward to seeing how you use that Kaffe green strip with the little flower, one of my favourite fabrics!

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  20. great ongoing projects - thanks for sharing your process as well as your progress.
    great fabrics for your coin project.

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  21. Wow! That seems like a lot of progress to me for such a short month! My husband is a boatbuilder so we have every tape known to man in the shop. I too played around until I found the perfect one. It is green so it may be what you found. Kudos to your husband for finding it for you! Happy March!

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  22. For a short month, you did Heaps!! You do such interesting borders - love seeing your work.

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  23. My you are busy! All great projects.
    Good info on the car tape, will keep that in mind.
    Happy Stitching!

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  24. Your blog posts are more interesting and impressive. I think there are many people like and visit it regularly, including me.I actually appreciate your own position and I will be sure to come back here.
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