Walk in the Park and a Flock of Triangles

Last night I finished up my Denyse Schmidt Flock of Triangles quilt top! I improved my bias sewing as I went (and used my trusty pins more) and I am loving how it turned out! It is quilt number 110 (I number them all now) but the next quilt was one of my UFO's...some of you readers may remember this quilt, number 53, which I started in Wisconsin years ago and never finished due to the applique. Almost a year ago I asked my readers to vote on which UFO I should complete by this July and this one won the vote. (Ironically I finished one of the other ones before this one, and have only one UFO to go!) So I cheated but it is done...I pieced the top together without appliquing it (I tried about four times to applique it and ripped out every time dissatisfied) and begged Ros to quilt it the best she could.

Ros did a great job going around the applique pieces and then quilted a pretty flower pattern elsewhere. So my Quilter's Home Walk in the Park quilt is done! Sorry it took me so long Mark! I love it!
I have also been knitting...I am still a beginner at this but after watching my DVD and some awesome stuff online I finished this dishrag that Becky helped me start. It is a bit asymetrical, but it will work to wash my dishes.

Next I did another in the same colors and it is better. So yesterday I worked on one in the yellow, orange and white and am even happier with that one. I then started a scrubbie and after some ripping out and restarting it is taking shape! Becky told me to check out knittinghelp.com and it has a ton of good stuff...and I found a link to a step by step sock tutorial, so I may just try that next!

Mark Lipinksi's Walk in the Park!

Ros has done her magic again and quilted my Quilter's Home "Walk in the Park" quilt! This one was my UFO challenge quilt that my readers voted for me to finish before July and tada it is almost done! (Still needs binding and a label.)

I started this quilt in Wisconsin (it was from one of the first issues of Quilter's Home I believe) and put in lots of hours since this is really my first applique quilt. I moved it to Arizona in block form and tried several times to applique it...first with colored thread, then with invisible thread, etc. I solicited lots of advice from lots of great quilters, but was never happy with it when I would do it, so I would unsew it! I even signed up for an applique class and worked on some tablerunners to try to get better with the process, but all I discovered is that I am not really patient enough to see it through. My tablerunner is also unfinished!

So after joined the blocks and adding the borders, I begged Ros to take this quilt unappliqued and just quilt all over the dang thing to get it out of my UFO pile (of which there is only one left!) and on its way to someone. I am not positive who will be getting this one yet, I am going to have to mull that over. Ros used a monopoly invisible thread to quilt around the edges of the applique (praise God) and then to quilt all around the rest of it. I could not be happier with this quilt...as always Ros does amazing work!

In other sewing news...I spent much of the weekend at my sister's house, but I brought along Tara and Tommy's strips and with Kathy's help I got them all cut and pinned...so the last third is in progress! I also hand stitiched the binding and the label on the Zoe's Quilt History quilt though I need to get a done picture to post on here! So I was quite happy with the amount of stuff I got done sewing wise and I got to hang out with my mom and sister and Tiffany (brother's gf) and make a ton of pasties.

Will have to post some pictures of that but it took over seven hours and we all have a ton of pasties! Then Sunday we went to my brother's house for my nephew Ben's third birthday party. At work now but hope to get to sewing again tonight. Still riding the bike everday, whoot, whoot. A record for me...and up to 30 minutes now with resistance!

Sunday Best Gets some Binding and a Backing

Fabric on the right above is the backing for Walk in the Park...got it together this morning so it can go to Ros soon! Not sure who is getting this quilt but happy to have it almost to the next step! This one was my challenge that my readers voted I should get done by July, and it is looking like it is going to happen!

I also made and attached the binding for my Sunday Best Schnibble though it still needs to be handsewn. I had made a bunch of bindings awhile back and thought I was all caught up and last night I discovered I had forgotten to make the binding for this one, but have the binding done for the one I just gave to Ros to quilt! FUNNY...guess I am sewing too much to keep track of things or something.

I am also working on the handbinding for Kathy's NYE 2009 quilt and it is getting close to done...once it is complete I will get to this little cutie! This is another one I am not sure where it is going...love the versatility of it since the backing is Denyse Schmidts gorgeous quilt like fabric.

Hoping to go to June's this afternoon and work on Tagalong and maybe cut out the fabric for Isabella's baby quilt.

Sunday Best Schnibbles and Walk in the Park

This lovely quilted Flea Market Fancy fabric is on the back of my February Sunday Best Schnibbles!














You can see the fabulous quilting that Ros Atwood did on it! I am so glad to have found a local gal to quilt for me so I don't have to send boxes all over. Though as prolific as I am sewing these days I may have to spread out the quilt tops anyways!
Here is the front! It looks fabulous close up and far away if you ask me! I just have to bind this one when I get it back and I am all set.

Also this afternoon I did some ripping and sewing of my Walk in the Park quilt. As you can see, in the end I left one of the boo-boos for posterity! I added in a leftover nine patch and saved myself the trouble of ripping it out. My perfectionist streak must be weakening!

I also made the binding while I was at it! I think I have run out of stuff to sew unless I want to get moving on Tara's quilt...it is all cut into strips!

This is absolutely the most satisfying day I can recall in recent history. Maybe I should get up early more often :O

A Whole Lot of Progress!

Kathy made me a gigantic A for my quilting studio! I may paint it down the line, but I really like it! This morning I got up at 6 AM (for no real reason, which is RARE!) and sewed up the binding for my Roundabout Schnibbles Quilt!

I then decided to finish up my Quilt History Quilt top...I went ahead and put the last three not so hot blocks together and then realized that I needed four in order to make the size better...I don' t like those three blocks (upside down but on the left of this picture) and so I will put them into the backing of this quilt. At this point it still needed the last border....
I completely forgot to take a picture and blog about the ice skate I got from Kimmie from Michigan when we met up a few weekends ago for the quilt show and such. I didn't wind up getting as much time with her and the gals as I had hoped, but we had breakfast together before the show. She made this cool ice skate painting! Sweet, huh and very thoughtful of her to give EACH of us one!

Now you can see I did cut and add the wide outer border to the Quilt History 2009 quilt. It is BUSY but I like it anyway. I also whipped up the binding since I was on a roll. Now all I need is the backing and it can go to the quilter!

I was also multitasking while doing all this. When my Dad died six months ago (has it really been six months already) he passed on to me his dad's old film reels that had been converted to VHS. I watched almost three whole VHS tapes this morning while sewing...much of it is from before my Dad even came along (1946) and it starts out black and white and no sound...eventually it is in color and there have been parts with sound but not many so far. I have caught a few glimpses of my Dad as a baby and a toddler. Even better is seeing his mom, Florence, who died when he was six. I have only seen a few pictures of her and now I can see her personality and her love for her husband and boys. There are also lots of visits to National Parks, a plane and train crash mess (Grandpa was an engineer and maybe this was work related??) and even the race between Seabiscuit and I forget the other horse in which Seabiscuit barely loses. It is taken from the stands, so I guess my grandfather was there! Interestingly enough..I have only watched a few movies with my Dad in my adult life and one of them was Seabiscuit! There is also a Packer Redskins game from the same time frame...looks like it is at Lambeau! Anyway, I look forward to watching more this afternoon.

I then decided I was going to just put this Walk in the Park quilt together and have Ros quilt it...hopefully since I didn't do any applique she is up for it. This is my challenge UFO and I want it all done by July to show at my guild, so done is better than perfect..right!

First pic it is without borders, second pic I have the first sets of borders on. Unfortunately time was running out and I was in a hurry and I messed up putting on the final border...so I need to rip out two sides and switch them and add the last side to fix that....that is on the agenda for this afternoon so there should be another post!

After talking to Coleman for a bit, Randy and I went for Mexican food and then I came home and DEEP cleaned the car. The weather is PERFECT for that sort of thing. I also reorganized and loaded the food and games for Disneyland...we leave on Monday!

Vote for the WIP I Should Complete!

The Nimble Thimbles Quilt Guild I belong to is having a cool meeting on July 7th. I am not going to make it to that meeting since I signed up for a knitting class that night. However, they blogged and told us to bring in three WIP's or UFO's, etc. and show them to the members and have the members vote on which one we should strive to complete in the next year. I don't have near as many UFO's or WIP's as most, but I do have a few bothering me to get done. So I am going to show you three of them here (you may have seen me work on them previously!) and tell you what is holding me up from completing them, then you can vote and tell me which one you think I should get to completing! So even though I can't go to the meeting, I will take the challenge and do the one my readers (all six of you, lol) think I should do!

This first one is called "A Walk in the Park" and was in Quilter's Home. I love this quilt and put lots of work in it to date, but I have not mastered machine (or hand) applique enough to work on the flower blocks. Once I get that done, it will be a snap to get this put together!

The second one is "Bargello Seasons" which I made while taking a Quilt University class. I love how these turned out, and my challenge is that they are different sizes and so I haven't figured out a good way to sash and connect them into one quilt. I could complete all individually and change them out on my wall, but I like the idea of having them in one quilt. Again, I am stalled very near the end of this one.

The last choice is my "Stars" quilt. I made all these last year in the star block challenge in my NewQuiltingClub yahoo group. I used whatever I had to make them and learned a few things about points and value in the process. I have one block that I never finished because I couldn't master the inset seams on it (I have done a few here and there but this one nope!). Again, the blocks are all of different sizes and being a pattern gal I have been unable to figure out how to group them and sash them so they will all look great together.

I will count the votes on July 7th and the one with the most votes will be the one I focus my attention on finishing. I would love any suggestions you have or tutorials I should watch or whatever to help me complete these three quilts. I believe these are my only three true UFO's...I am actively working on other things and so I would like to get all of them off my list of to do's!

Thanks for your help! If anyone else wants to do this challenge too let me know, I would be happy to vote on your UFO's too! Andee in AZ

Accounting for my UFOs

Someone else posted a picture with lots of boxes of quilts in progress and asked us about how many project we had going on. So I thought I would take stock of things and post some pictures in case you didn't read my blog when I started these projects!

These are my star blocks from my online group's star block of the month challenge. I truly enjoyed the challenge, but find getting all these different size blocks to work together an even bigger challenge! I need to just bite the bullet and buy some black fabric and just put them together. I really want to use the blocks, not just have blocks, but I am a pattern girl...I follow the pattern better than I do my own thing. Funny because that isn't how I live my life in other areas!
This tablerunner is just waiting for me to find and make binding and get it on there. I quilted it on my machine already though this picture isn't current. This one is for me for under my laptop...right now there is a flag tablerunner, lol. This is from this past fall but it got pushed to the back of the pile while I was doing Christmas presents and then I just sort of forgot to do it! I plan to get moving on this one this weekend.


Bargello Seaons, this is from my Quilt University class last Spring. I love all four of these and planned to put them into either four wallhanging that I can change with the seasons or one quilt that I can fold over with the current season showing for my quilting studio. They aren't exactly the same size and I got really stumped with how to combine them...so I think I will do wallhangings so this UFO gets done! Not sure if I am brave enough to quilt them myself though. See this is what holds me back!

Walk in the Park (Quilter's Home) is all set except I need to doing the sewing/applique on the gorgeous blocks and then put it all together. I love how this quilt looks so far and I am afraid to mess it up! I think this one is the oldest UFO I have...it is from December 2007!
And of course this is my most recent UFO, A is for Adiminaby. I have it all hand quilted with little x's now and yesterday I bought the binding fabric. So this weekend I plan to get that attached so when I have time I can hand sew the binding on this one too.

I guess I can consider this one a WIP and not really a UFO since I am actively working on this Double Delight Mystery from Bonnie's Quiltville site. I absolutely can't wait to see this one together. I picked up a few more light shirting materials and another pink at the quilt shop last night since I was running short to finish step 3!

I also have squares and hexagons for I Spy (still collecting) and Flea Market Fancy Squares but since nothing but the cutting is done I won't count those! I also have my daughter's slightly started cat wallhanging. She finally was interested in sewing so we got all the stuff for the project and just didn't get time to finish it. I am hoping she will come visit this summer and we can work on it together.

This means I have five (or eight if you could the Bargello separately) UFOs and one WIP to get moving on...two should be almost done by the end of the weekend. Thanks for challenging me to access what I have and think about getting them done. I don't like to have them lined up...I am a finisher! So how many UFOs or WIPs do YOU have going on?
Wish me luck because I have to take the Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessment test tomorrow! I have been studying for it all week and hope to pass the first time through!

Randy's Stained Glass Hobby and the Last ABC Quilt Top

Yesterday Kathy cleared her woodworking area and built a larger worktable on the other side of the garage for her stuff. She needed more space and Randy needed a place to do his stained glass work. So today he set up all his stained glass stuff and spent some time outside working on this Christmas ornament. I took pictures here and there so you could see the process. He plans to get more ornaments made before the Christmas season hits us. I think he was glad to get back to his hobby...did I mention he moved here from Wisconsin and moved in with us? We are once again the three musketeers and when Randy finds a job then things will be even better!

These are the cut pieces sitting on the pattern.

This is with the soldering in progress, I like the lok with the gold and silver.
And here it is all done, though hard to see the different colored glass from this angle.

I spent some time today catching up on blogs...I still have over a thousand to go...guess other people have more time to write than I do, but it was very motivating and so I did get up to the loft and finished the forth ABC quilt top that was in progress. I also took pictures of all of them again and now will try to decide which one goes to who!

Critter gets the fire hydrants and pretzels ABC Quilt.
The youngest nephew, Seth, gets this quilt with little rubber duckies and frogs on it.
This one has footballs, school busses and trains so Mikey, the oldest nephew gets it.
This one has pretty unicorns and dragonflies and I think is the girliest of the bunch so this one is for Ayla.

So soon I will get the batting and backing ready for these and then I will feel like I have really made progress towards the Christmas gift list!

A Walk in the Park Pictures

Here are the pics!