September WIPocalypse Check-in

Well, I spaced totally on the August Check-in but am not on a plane for this one! The topic is to talk about a Journey with a stitching Piece. And of course to show progress on projects from my list. I haven't really worked on anything from my project list. So nothing to show in that respect.

The piece I want to talk about from my Journey of Stitching is the one as follows:

It was the first significant one project that I completed for a gift and the first with a lot color shading. It also had a lot of personal significance due to the subject matter. The work was a gift for my Father-in-Law that did 2 tours of duty in Vietnam as a medic for the 101st Airborne. It gave me a range of emotions in both my proficiency in stitching and subject matter.

Quilt Weekend Roundup!

So I figured it was a good time to get caught up on the rest of the quilting weekend I had with my Aunt in mid-August. My Mom and I decided it would be best to have the weekend at her house as I was coming back from a work trip and wouldn't have the time to prep my own space for the event. My mom is a clean freak and loves to have the social time even if she isn't a Sewer (yet!). My aunt came down on Friday and we started right after dinner. My aunt is also the one that I completed a quilt 30 Years in the making for last year (Post here). She has accompanied me to fabric stores in the past and for some reason in July she decided she wanted to have sewing as a hobby. I was definitely shocked but love the idea of having someone to share all the craziness. She realized after a few classes on her machine that in person project work was the best way to learn. The goals for the weekend were to learn the steps in the quilting process, including Cutting, piecing, pressing, and basting.

She brought with her, her first project that she started sewing on. She bought a Jellyroll of various batiks and started sewing them together in strips. I then coached her on pressing them. As we were pressing them I realized that the seams were off due to the issue that the 1/4" on her machine was really a 3/8" like I mentioned in my post on the Allegiance Top from a few days ago.  It wasn't a huge issue on this one as the blocked were all squared up to the same size and a white border was added. She and my mom then Pin-basted the whole quilt together. The goal was for her to be able to take it home and stitch in the ditch to quilt.

First Quilt - Aunt B.

We didn't find the Seam issue until we started putting together the Stained Glass Quilt blocks.

Stained Glass -Aunt B

It lead to a lot of Seam ripping (thanks MOM) and a few tears but the blocks are in a Much better place than they would have been otherwise. I also went home and brought over my machine to help increase the sewing output as my Aunt had the goal of getting all of these blocks together before she left on Sunday. I can say that I did donate a few fabrics to this one which makes me happy.

While she was completing these blocks, I whizzed through an UFO to make some Blocks. The strips were first sewn together in January of 2015.

Purple ZigZag - Top #7 (almost)

I left one of the blocks at home so I couldn't sew it all together. This is the next thing on my quilting to-do list.

All in all it was a great weekend and my Aunt is just buzzing along.

Happy Stitching everyone!

Small Finish!

I had a nice small Finish - Happy St. Paddy's Day!

It was stitched on a piece of scrap linen, with some overdyed from my stash. I am having a brain drain on who the designer is...for some reason Erica Michaels is stiching in my head but I will need to check. This one is getting me prepped for the ornament hunt for the year.

Quilt Top #6 - Allegiance

I had a quilt weekend in mid - August with my Aunt who has recently picked up quilting. I was able to complete a Kit I picked up from a local Quilt Show I am calling Allegiance.

2016 quilt top #6 - Allegiance

Overall I am happy with how it came out. I started the weekend using my Aunt's sewing machine and made a rookie mistake. I didn't check that what she told me was a quarter inch really was that and it was really three-eighths of an inch. It makes a huge difference on the start blocks, etc. Thankfully there was enough blue fabric in the kit, I could bridge the borders, etc to make it work.

The weekend overall was a great success. My Aunt learned a lot and I made sure to bring my machine the next day to make sure I was comfortable and to increase our output.

More to Come. Happy Stitching Everyone!

Pretty Little London Complete!

My Project for most of August and the Beginning of September was Pretty Little London by Satsuma Street. I was able to finish it on 9/6/2016. I stitched it on Tarnished Silver from Under the Sea Fabrics with the called for DMC.

Pretty Little London - Satsuma Street

Next in line in this series is Pretty Little Italy I think. I am also working on a Lizzie and Katie for a change. I also realize ornies need to get started to make sure they are completed in time for the holidays.

Happy Stitching Everyone!