Stories from the Sewing Room

This month has flown on by and it's now time to link up your finish. (If you're looking for my regular weekly post, I will post it tomorrow.)

This link up will remain open until September 30 at 11:55 pm EST.

   

   

Here are the stats for this quilt:

Pattern: Pink Grapefruit by Coleen Merte

Finished size: 72" x 84"

Fabrics:  Kona white, unknown green text, green polka dot from JoAnn, Architextures Blueprint text by Carolyn Friedlander, plants by Paula & Waffle for Dear Stella, Velvet Sky Netorious by Cotton + Steel, green with arrows Greatest Adventure from Riley Blake, Moda Kelly, Moda Sapphire (also used for binding), and one unknown green print. The backing is Carolyn Friedlander 108" Widescreen Crosshatch in Pacific.

Quilting design: Mandelbrot

Here is a picture of my initial fabric cuts back in 2019.

       

Won't you join me in setting a goal for August?

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

This month I am hoping to make any amount of progress on my race car quilt. I don't really want to work on it, but I'd like it to be done and out of my life, so... 

There is an additional inner border to be added and a border of pieced blocks as well. I am working on the pieced blocks first because my quilt has been consistently smaller than the measurements given in the pattern. My thought process here is that I can adjust that other border if needed so that the pieced blocks fit. 

It's time once again to share your finished goal for the month.

This link up will remain open until July 31 at 11:55 pm EST.

This month really got away from me and I realized Tuesday that I needed to work on my post for Friday (and really, Thursday night since it goes live at 12:05 am). That was apparently the motivation I needed to start working on this project. Tuesday I fixed the parts of the blocks above that needed addressing and sewed them together.

I trimmed the panel to the correct size and then fudged it a little so that I didn't have any of the white showing. I find that a lot of panels that come through here tend to be parallelograms. This one was fairly on-grain, so that was nice. 

I cut and created the other borders.

As of Wednesday night, I made it this far. Everything lined up nicely except for the border I cut 1/2" too long. Oops! Just two borders remain. 

While I don't think I can fully finish this quilt before the end of the month, I feel pretty confident I can get the last two borders on and get it quilted. 

Now it's your turn to share your finish (or your progress if you didn't quite make it to the finish line).

Take a few minutes to visit others, offer encouragement, and make new friends!

This link up will remain open until 11:55 pm EST on July 31. Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room July One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up

 It's time once again to share your August OMG finish.

This link up will remain open until August 31 at 11:55 pm EST.

My goal for the month was to completely finish my Swiss Star quilt. This is one that my daughter has claimed. She selected the colors, quilting design, and thread. My contribution was the background fabric and binding choices. Oh, and all the labor! I got it done pretty early in the month and she's already taken it back home with her. 

Yes, that is a snail quilting design. It sort of looks white in the pictures, but the thread is a variegated rainbow, front and back. 

I didn't have a fun time quilting this one, so I opted for full machine binding to get it completed quickly.

This project was also on my PHD list. I like to double-count whenever possible. 

Now it's your turn.

 It's time to share your progress for the month.

This link up will remain open until July 31 at 11:55 pm EST.

My goal this month was to quilt my Churn, Churn, Churn mini quilt. I wanted to custom quilt it, and I did. Typically I have a plan for what I am going to quilt prior to starting. I did not do that this time. 

I did a combination of FMQ and ruler work. There are definitely things I would have done differently. I thought I was going to do the pebbling in all the blue, but I was really tired after doing the outside, so I did quicker things on the inside. In retrospect, I would have done the coils on the outside and the pebbles on the inner parts. I probably should have redone the corner coils because they are kind of sloppy. 

And I made some big errors in my crosshatch considering that I used a ruler, but I was tired and my back was killing me, so I left it. 

I tried a boxy quilting in the red that turned out pretty well. I know that's one of the more basic FMQ patterns, but I've never tried it by hand before.

I finished sewing down the binding yesterday morning! I didn't think I'd get it done in time.

For the backing, I sewed together a bunch of red charms I received years ago from an international swap. I thought I had centered the top with the backing, but as you can see, it was a bit off. Luckily I did not run out of backing fabric! 

  

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

This is my birthday month and I'm celebrating a big birthday this year, so I thought I'd choose something enjoyable from my list of unfinished projects as a treat. My goal this month is to quilt my Churn, Churn, Churn mini. As you may recall, I made this in a class with Kelly Young in May.

I made a pieced backing. I think I am going to custom quilt this since it's not too big. At any rate, it will be quilted in some fashion and possibly bound by the end of the month.

Now it's your turn.

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on July 25.  Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal July Link Up

 It's time to share your progress for the month. 

A few days later I started sewing down the binding and soon I had a finish. I don't think I've ever finished an OMG this quickly. It measures 13.75" x 13.875".

In the meantime, add your link to show your finish and then go visit other linkers and make new friends.

How did you do with your sewing goal this month?

My goal of sewing the rest of my Log Cabin Stars quilt into a top felt insurmountable as my to-do list feels never-ending and we have many events scheduled with the end of the school year/college year quickly approaching. I rallied and managed to get my blocks sewn into a top. I'm happy to look at something else on my design wall now. 🙂

I was really hoping to get this thing quilted and partially bound too, but I've just been swamped with work. There are still seven days left in this month, so maybe I will be able to get it quilted before next month. Stay tuned, and I'll see you next week for May's goal setting--I think I have a doozy selected.

It's time to set your October goal. If you're here for the first time, welcome! Let's set some goals and have some fun!

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

My goal this month is to get caught up on the Malted Mystery quilt. I need to do August (cutting), September, and October's clues. October's clue releases on the fifth. The only thing I've done so far is select the fabric. The nice thing about Cheryl's mystery quilts is that they are very easy to get caught up on if/when you fall behind.

I'm also working on my version of the Log Cabin Stars quilt by Emily Dennis. This is a QAL I joined in on without reading through the timeline. I had a fabric pull that looked like it would work, so I thought, why not? Then the emails started coming. Oh my. 😅 I won't be finishing this one on time, but it's more about the journey, I guess. 

If I can get caught up, I'd also like to sew the remaining Grassy Creek border units. 

One thing that may help me slightly is that I'm scheduled to attend two (daytime) retreats this month.

A stretch goal is to get a few more of my to-be-quilted tops quilted. I'm entering my busier season of quilting, so this will probably be unlikely. 

I also have my dress form pieces waiting to be sewn and some clothing to make. I don't know about you, but I never run out of things to be sewn.

*I am trying to visit and comment on all your posts, but I am having great difficulty with the commenting. I'm sorry.*

Can you believe it's August already? On the July finish post, I shared my finished top that I was disappointed not to have fully finished. I'm happy to report that, as of yesterday afternoon, it is now complete. I'll be sharing more about it tomorrow so as to avoid making this post overly long.

What will be your goal this month?

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

Patty at Elm Street Quilts and I are co-hosting  One Monthly Goal. You can link up at either of our blogs and your project will show in the same link party!

I've decided to tempt fate this month and work more on my Grassy Creek borders. In case you're unfamiliar with my project, every time I have selected these borders as my goal, something in my life goes haywire and I never finish. I'm making a modest goal this month to finish half of the border blocks. You can see in my picture that I have some partially done. I have started sewing 2/3 of the blocks that lean one direction. I'm hoping to finish those 2/3 and completely sew the other 1/3 of the same-angle blocks. That's clear as mud. 🤪 Send good thoughts my way!!!

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on August 25.  Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal August Link Up

Have you finished your July goal? It's time to link up. 

This link up will remain open until July 31at 11:55 pm EST. Remember, you can link up from either my post or Patty's at Elm Street Quilts and your link will show up in the same link party. 

Want to see everyone's goals? Check out the July goal page. 

I am still visiting everyone's links, however, something in technology land is making it very difficult for me to comment. Have you been experiencing challenges too?

I was confident that I would not only create the top, but quilt and bind it too.  However, life just got in the way and I did very little sewing this month. I was worried I wouldn't even meet my stated goal of creating the top. Luckily, I rallied and finished it just hours before I needed to publish this post. 😅 

 What will be your goal this month?

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

Patty at Elm Street Quilts and I are co-hosting  One Monthly Goal. You can link up at either of our blogs and your project will show in the same link party!

My official goal this month is to finish piecing the top of the Betty quilt. I have two blocks completed so far, which leaves 18 blocks and the setting to go.

Let's see if I can stay on task and get it done or if the lure of a new project will win out. Also, I just noticed that the block on the right has one fabric clearly turned a different direction, so I'll need to fix that too. :)

It's time to link up your June finish.

This link up will remain open until June 30 at 11:55 pm EST. Remember, you can link up from either my post or Patty's at Elm Street Quilts and your link will show up in the same link party. 

Want to see everyone's goals? Check out the June goal page. 

Although I wasn't able to comment on all, I did visit everyone's links at the beginning of the month and there are some wonderful projects in the works. 

And how did I do? My goal for June was to put together the top on my long unfinished Women's Voices quilt. I accomplished that and then went above and beyond to finally finish this thing! I like it better now that it is complete, but it's still not really my style, so it won't remain in my collection much longer. 

I no longer have this pattern. It is still commercially available from the designer. Please do not ask me for the pattern; please go honor the creator and purchase a legal copy.

At the beginning of the month I mentioned that I'd need to buy backing fabric. I wanted a muslin wide back for this. Armed with a 60% off coupon, I headed into Jo-Ann Fabrics. None of the fabrics I was considering were on sale online when I checked ahead of time, but they all were marked down in-store. So I stood in the store and ordered online with the pick up in store option so that I could use the coupon. 🫤 One glitch is that the fabric I got wasn't the one I thought I was getting. I was hoping for a more traditional muslin-look and received a silky-feeling solid. But it was acceptable and was a bargain at $5/yard.

I used Warm Plush batting for this quilt. While the package was marked 90 x 108, the piece of batting was actually closer to 100 x 100, which suited my 91 x 91 quilt just fine. This particular package of batting had been hanging out in my closet since I'd ordered it as an experiment on sizing a while back. I had a client provide me with two packages of the 90 x 108, the biggest size this particular batting comes in. One was quite a good bit bigger, but she'd cut a chunk out of the corner, so it was not big enough for her project. The second package was closer in size to the one I'd purchased, more like 100 x 100. So beware--I've had bad luck with the larger Warm packages not being sized as marked on multiple occasions. The Plush batting is quite nice though and yielded really nice stitch quality.

Now it's your turn to share your finish. Please add a link to this OMG post so that others can follow where you are linking.  Just paste this into your post:

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal June Finish Link Up

Take a few minutes to visit others and make new friends!

Are you ready to set your goal for this month? 

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

Patty at Elm Street Quilts and I are co-hosting  One Monthly Goal. You can link up at either of our blogs and your project will show in the same link party!

My goal for this month is to finish my Tall Tales quilt. I need to quilt and bind it. Here's the top, completed last July. 

If I get this one finished up, I'd like to move another project from my UFO list up to the ready-to-be-quilted stage. I'm feeling pretty motivated at the moment. We'll see if I can keep that feeling and translate it into more progress this month.

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on May 25.  Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal May Link Up