Wrapped in Ribbon - Quiltworx pattern

 Oh my goodness it has been a month since I last posted and my goal was to post every week. Time is just speeding me by.  

I have started and completed a new project (APIP#18) - Wrapped in Ribbon, a Quiltworx pattern.  I plan to teach this to my Stitchin' Friends quilt club  in September and October meetings.  Making my own I came up with a few "shortcuts" for the pattern, although they do require a little extra preparation.  But hopefully it will be fun for all.  The pattern itself has the paper pieces for two table runners, each with three stars.  The ladies all bought the patterns, but a 4 are sharing it, making one table runner a piece so they needed two patterns and one group of 3 are sharing and making 1 block apiece.  A couple plan to make both table runners and each bought a pattern.

Here is my finished table runner.  All the fabric is from the Stonehenge lines. You can also get a glimpse of my obsession with colored glass bottle.  Once Christmas is over I put out my whole collection of beautiful glass for the winter season.

Other progress since I last posted primarily goes to my Insanity quilt (APIP#17)- which I am enjoying tremendously making. Todate I have completed four rows of the diamonds and almost have the 5th row done - just needs one more diamond.  I have been doing lots of planning, drawing diagrams of how the quilt goes together and designed a progression chart to keep track of how many hexagons I have sewn to the quilt top.  I don't count them until I actually attach them to the top as in the picture shown below 

Finish one start one - so I am starting a new project this morning which will be APIP#20. It is the Jasmine Bag by Katrina Hadjimichael. This is a large bag (14 1/2" x 17 1/2" x 7") and I have had the pattern for awhile now, just kept putting off making the bag.  I will be showing my Underlay Applique technique at the First Friday Guild Sewing day in September and decided to get my applique started on this bag to use as my demo.  This is a picture of the bag I pulled off Katrina's webpage. She does absolutely beautiful patterns that have EPP and Applique and I so love making her designs.  I call the Elegant Whimsy just cause that is what I see in her designs.

I I completed another quilt label (APIP#19).  A fun one to make for the Owl and Hare quilt. I used the image from the pattern sheet for the center embroidery as I though is so cute.

 I am still working a little each week on the Crochet Bright Hope (APIP#14) quilt, crocheting the individual blocks, but the picture of the crochet blocks all look the same so no need to keep showing the same picture.

I also completed my last goody bag Rotary Cutter Bag this month (APIP#16) so that is another completed project off my list.  To date I have 20 projects on my (Active Projects in Process) APIP list, of which 16 have been completed :)  Makes me happy to see completions - some small but still a finish!

July 27 Progress report

 I did not post last Sunday, was just too busy working on stuff and then I forgot to post.  Guess one of those senior moment creeping up on me again.

APIP#1: Meryton Quilt - Its FINISHED!  The quilt is done and I have made the a label,  Have not sewn the label on yet as I an assisting a friend in a quilt label class in October and need to bring samples of labels I have made.  I have a couple more to complete before the class, and will wait and sew these all on after that class so I don't have to lug the big quilts in as well.

APIP#14: Bright Hopes Crochet Quilt - Crocheted the border around four more blocks.  Anxious to sew on Row 2, maybe this week.

APIP#17 - Insanity Quilt.  Accomplished a lot this week.  Cut out more squares for the diamonds (all cut out now) and added the backing and first inner border to the top left corner.  This took a little longer than I expected as I had to keep referring the diagram to figure out how to do it.

Insanity Quilt

 I have been working obsessively for the last few weeks on an Insanity Quilt.  I discovered this quilt while surfing the internet for EPP quilts, and was instantly enamored with the quilt.  I was some what intimidated by the quilt being made up of 10,530 half inch hexies, but I do love to EPP hexagons and I have done 1/2" - so I thought "Why Not?".   Here is a picture of Rhonda Pearce's (the designer) quilt that I pulled off the internet.  Hopefully no one is going to come after me for breaking copyright laws.

The pattern for this quilt was published in the Australian Patchwork magazine, but I am not sure what issue.  I did order a pattern from the Post Office Patchwork shop in Australia.

My first step was to start printing and cutting out 1/2" hexagon templates.  I drew them in Illustrator and printed out 69 on a cardstock paper.  [69 because I also have a 1" test block on the page].  I printed out 20 pages and my dear husband cut out 10 pages worth and I did the other 10 pages.  That gives me 1,380 templates and since the pattern calls for 600 I think I have enough.

After that I purchased some fabric for the two inner borders.  The rest of the fabric is coming from my stash.  I am using white on white or off white fabrics for the white background hexagons - need 5,389.

I cut out a bunch and thought I was set - but when I counted them, I had just cut out 1,350 - 1 5/8" squares to make the hexies.  Oh my gosh - I guess they will get me started, but guess I have a lot more to cut out.  I also cut out some border squares and to date I have enough print fabric to make around 100 of the diamonds.  I have started covering Hexies and assembling the corner of the quilt.

I designed a progress chart in EXCEL to track my progress.  I know it will take me several years to complete this quilt and wanted to track how long it was taking me.  Here is a pic of my progress chart and summary

One last picture.  I made a chart for my fabric choices.  I picked 80 different fabrics from 10 color hues of fabrics.  I cut 2 diamonds and one flower from each fabric which will give me 160 diamonds and 80 flowers.  That should be enough for me to ensure random color in my quilt.  I still have brown, green, pink and grey to cut - but I am getting there.  

My friends always tease me about my organization when I start a quilt, but it works for me.   My sewing needs are all in a special travel case and I have the hexies, fabrics cut outs and threads so that it is a grab and go whenever I want to work on the quilt.

Woohoo....the journey begins!

Bloom and Sew Top Completed!

 This will be a short progress update.  First I will report on APIP#2 the Bloom and Sew project - the top  is completed.  I do plan to hand quilt it but that will have to wait until my Meryton Songbird quilt comes out of the hoop.

APIP#1 - Meryton; Hand quilting continues.  I now only have 3 more of the large border blocks to complete....these will be done hopefully by my next report.  This week (7/07 - 7/13) I quilted 17 hours, for a total (5/23 - 7/13) 145 hours.   I'm getting real excited to see this quilt completed.   But then I have to get the label done:)

The only other project I worked on this week was APIP#17 - Insanity.  I spent a few days cutting more white on white hexies, and some of the hexies for the Diamonds and flowers and the random print hexies.  Its amazing how many of these little squares of fabric I will need.  Today I completed three more diamonds and have started putting Diagonal Row #2 together.  Maybe by next week I will have that row completed and added to the top.

I saw on someone's facebook page a method for tracking progress on the quilt and I will share that next week.  It took me most of today to develop the plan for tracking my progress.

Meryton, Bloom and Sew, Insanity

 Ahhhh, the Sunday after July 4th - all is quiet in the house and I even got a nap in.  July 4 is a wonderful holiday and I am so grateful to be an American living in this great country.  I enjoy celebrating the holiday with family and friends, but must admit, takes me Saturday and today to recoup and rest up after the holiday.  Progress has been made this week on at least three of my APIP projects:

APIP#1; Meryton - The hand quilting continues and I managed to get 19 hours and 21 minutes quilting this past week.  My total for the period 5/23 - 7/06/25 is now 129 hours.  I am working on the outside border of 16 rather large blocks - have completed 10 and 6 to go.

APIP#2; Bloom and Sew - This has been a great week for the Bloom and Sew quilt. I completed sewing all the blocks together, designed a border and got that sewn onto the top.  Now I am appliqueing hexies onto the border to match those used in the quilt.

APIP#17; Insanity Quilt - Fred and I managed to cut out 1,380 1/2" hexies.  He enjoys helping me cut out the paper pieces and I certainly enjoy letting him help.  I can usually use each hexie between 8 and 10 times, so I am thinking this 1,380 hexies will be enough to complete the 10,350 pieces needed to complete the quilt. 

Today I completed Diagonal Row 1 of the quilt top center and have it up on my design wall.  It looks so lonely up there, but I will be adding a little to it each week, I hope.  I do punch holes in my paper pieces to make it easier to remove the papers.  All of the hexies that are on the outside edge of this block still have the papers in them.  I remove the paper only after something is sewn to each side of the hexie.  That is why you see the little grey like dots on the white hexies.  

The outer border of this quilt is made up of random hexies so I have been accumulating small scraps from other projects and cutting them into 1 5/8" squares. Its gonna take a whole bunch to get this done, but it is also a great way to use up small pieces of fabric in my stash.

June goes by so fast......

 Whew this month seems to be zooming by so fast I can't catch my breath. This weekend has been so crazy with 5 grandkids spending the weekend at my house and then out of town company showing up today.  But its been a enjoyable time with Taralyn, Toby, Tori and Titus and their big sister Tess who lives here anyway.  I am so blessed to have wonderful grandkids!

APIP#1 Meryton - Hand Quilting continues.Week 5 (06-23 thru 06-29) was 21 hours, 54 minuets for total time 5/23 thru 6/29 of 109 hours and 33 minutes

APIP#2 - Bloom and Sew - Finished up the block #6 for June and that is the last block. Now just to get all the blocks sewn to each other and add a border.  This BOM has gone by quickly:

Block 6 - May-June

All the blocks on the design wall - not yet sewn to each other yet

APIP #14 - Bright Hopes Crochet Lap Quilt - only worked on this one morning at the SewEndipitous Hand Sewing day - just got a block 1/2 crochet  - but hey, that is still progress

APIP #16 - Rotary Cutter Pouch for Goody bags - Darlene and I met and got all the bags, but one, completed with the exception of sewing on some buttons.  The "but one" is one I discovered I had sewn the pockets in upside down.  Hmmmmm wonder if that was because my good friend was here with me and we were laughing and chatting while sewing.  Anyway - gotta make that one over.

APIP#17 - another new project - Insanity Quilt.  Oh my goodness, this has over 10,300 1/2" hexies.  I think this one may be on the list for quite awhile.  Going to try to complete APIP#1 and #2 before getting too engrossed in making this one.  My husband and I have started cutting out the paper pieces for EPP and I have also started cutting out 1 5/8" squares of white on white fabric.  I am determined not  to buy any fabric for this quilt - just use what I have on hand.  That, in and of itself, is a challenge.

Picture off the internet.  There is one more outer border made up of lots and lots of random hexies.

Meryton and Bloom & Sew

 I had some exciting news this week.  I had entered two of my quilts in the Splash of Color Quilt Show sponsored by the Cabarras Quilt Guild in NC.  Both of my entries received ribbons:

Delaford - Design by Katrina Hadjimichael.  I took second place in my category.  First place was taken by my dear friend Martee who also got Best of Show.

Granny's Flower Garden - This one took first place in its category.  I designed the borders around the quilt and did not have a pattern for the piecing of the center top, but basically a traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

APIP Report: Active Projects in Progress - I only worked on two of my projects this week:

APIP#1 - Meryton; Hand quilting is progressing.  This week I quilted for 27 hours and 39 minutes.  Total time since I started May 25, is 87 hours, 39 minutes.   I am now working on the outer border.

APIP#2 - Bloom and Sew;  I completed 4 of the 6 stitcheries for Block 6.