June Goals - Mission Accomplished!

GOALS FOR JUNE 2013

• X 5 Grandmother's Choice blocks
• X finish ANY quilt
• X Sampler pillows
• X 4 Dear Jane blocks
• X start a Leader & Ender project
• + 3 hot pads
• + 3 dish towels
• + mini ironing table
• + Week 1 Scrappy Stars QAL

I'm pretty happy with my progress so far this year.  I haven't always completed all of my goals, but I am making progress. So I haven't always stuck with the idea of nothing but UFO's but anything new I have started, I have finished -- so no new UFO's are being created! That's progress!

Five Grandmother's Choice Blocks

This week's Grandmother's Choice BOW is Star of Hope

  

  

Finish ANY Quilt

Okay, so it's not a big quilt, but it is finished.  

Sampler Pillows

 

4 Dear Jane Blocks

I actually did many more than four.  I don't know if I took photos of all of them or not.

  

 

  

 

Start a Leader and Ender Project

I've had this bowtie quilt cut and ready to go for years.  It's about time I started stitching it together. I'm pretty sure I have a few more blocks than this finished.

3 Hot Pads and 3 Dish Towels from the Zakka 2.0 SAL

I only took a photo of 2 of the hot pads, but I did make three.  I gave the tri-coloured one to one of our admin assistants at the office.  The other two I sent out to Nova Scotia to Sailor Boy's girlfriend.  I was intending to send the dish towels out as well, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

Mini Ironing Table

This has certainly changed my sewing life.  It's so much faster to make a 90 degree turn and press a seam.  It was simple and inexpensive to make.

Oh My, Scrappy Stars QAL

(no photo - yet)

I spent most of last weekend cutting the fabric for this QAL, and have started sewing the parts together.  The instructions for this were posted on Thursday.  It's a tremendous amount of work - I hope I can keep up!

I guess I can think about my July goals -- the 2nd half of 2013! -- tomorrow.

Some Sunday Stash and Slow Sunday Stitching

Okay - there was some serious stash enhancement this week.  After all - there was a big sale on at The Greenwood Quiltery. I snuck in there on Tuesday, looking for a little linen, and left with a rather large bag.  But, I also found a great thrifty find on Friday!

I needed pink and green thread for my B.L,D towels, so my plan was to check a couple of thrift stores which are on the way to the Lens Mills store, and see if I could score some cheap thread. I had a coupon for 30% off thread that I printed from the Lens Mills website, so I was willing to go with "new" thread, but because I only needed a little, well....you know how cheap I am.

First stop was St. Vincent de Paul store.  Some quilter has made a significant donation here, because I've been scoring quilty stuff every time I visit.  This time was a brand new table runner kit.

 Linking to Dreaming in Patchwork

You can see that the Copyright on the fabrics is 2013 - and all six of the fabrics are from a collection called "Neutral Love" from ConnectingThreads.com.  The kit is not on the website (I had to know what the retail price is!) but I still think I got a great deal for $5.

But no thread.  So next stop was the BFM, where I did find two sandwich baggies full of threads - pink AND green - and a 1/2 yard of a white on cream print - a neutral always finds a home in my stash, and a couple of hard cover quilting books. 

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning and immediately sat down with my morning coffee and some Slow Sunday Stitching.  I stitched the centre appliques in this Dear Jane block:

Linking to Kathy's Quilts

The stars are appliqued as two separate pieces.  Thank goodness for "That Quilt" or I'd never figure out how to have made this block.

Yesterday was a good Dear Jane day.  Here are two more blocks I finished:

I'm very happy with how Starburst came out. The points are as perfect as I am likely to ever get!

....which sort of makes up for Papa's Star.  I was dreading this block (likely why I left it to almost the very end)! At least two if not three of the star points are going to get snipped off when I add the sashing.  But it's good enough for me.

No big plans for Fathers Day here - we walked down to a neighbourhood restaurant this morning and treated Hubby to brunch.  Now we are ready for a nap. 

I did warn Itty Bitty that he was helping me baste a quilt today.  I've accomplished all of my goals for June (with the exception of the next two BOW's from Grandmother's Choice). So I'm gonna DO it!  I am going to finish a quilt!

Zakka 2.0 Week 2: B, D, L towels

Linking to LRstitched

Because I used these great patterned linens by Parson Gray, I chose not to put binding on my interpretation of this week's project.  

Lost my Linen Virginity!

I went shopping for linen the other day, in order to make this week's Zakka 2.0 project: B, L, D towels.  I came across a new product I'd never even heard of: Parson Gray World Tour Utility Linen.   I chose three of the available prints, and have already got the breakfast towel 90% finished.  

I tried using my rolled hem foot to hem the linen - I decided I didn't want to use cotton binding as shown in the book instructions.  Yeah - that didn't work.  I ended up having to cut the end off of my first trial - it was a big stretched out mess.  

If you visit the Parson Gray website - you must check out the Skullduggery Quilt Pattern!

 I totally stole this image from this link.

I Think I'm Pretty Clever...

This week's Zakka 2.0 challenge is Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Towels.  That meant a LOT of tracing onto the Heat n' Bond.  I had photocopied the applique patterns from the book, because the letters had to be enlarged a bit.  So I used spray adhesive to stick the copy paper right to the paper of the Heat N' Bond.  Yeah, I think I'm kinda clever. 

Zakka 2.0 Sew Along

A package arrived yesterday with a copy of Patchwork, Please!  by Ayumi Takahashi, so I am all ready to hop on board the Zakka 2.0 Sew Along!

Penny at Sew Take a Hike posted the first project.  In the book, the bell peppers are shown as coasters, but Penny blew up the pattern by 180% to make a potholder, and so did I.  It was a fast and fun project.

I chose the green stripe first, and then chose the yellow and red to match the colours in the striped fabric.  Penny used a piece of Moda twill tape for her stems, I just used a strap of brown checked fabric.

I liked the red print so well, I had to use the other matching fabrics that went with it to make a second pot holder.  I like these fabrics because they look so much like kitchen linens.

I used Insul-Brite batting for the overall potholder, but used a scrap of thin cotton batting for the centre patch.

Here's the back of the potholders.  I made sure the back of the centre patch matched the backing fabric so there was no noticeable change, making the backs look a little more...I don't know...consistent?