Wip Wednesday 11/18/2015

Works-in-Progress!  And I have been busy!

One of the hardest things for me right now is my determination to use this time period for FINISHING!

I am finding more and more projects to START :-)  So I am lining them up for after the first of the year.  I will probably do a whole post on them later but this week's find is the Shenandoah Valley Botanical Quilt.  Mostly applique and lots of flowers, of course.  Kind of goes with my Hawaiian quilting (applique) and my Underground Railroad (mid-1800s period).  Not to mention how much I love flowers and history!  Here is the site if you want to play along with me.  I have no real time table but will share as I go along AFTER January 1!   Sales of the pattern also benefit the Virginia Quilt Museum.  Another bonus in my opinion!

Anyway - I keep going back and forth... My head is DOWN into the Advanced Virginia Sampler quilt class assignments and the 4 grandquilts (8 pieced tops).  The goal is to be caught up with the class... and have the quilts basted before we go out of town for Thanksgiving (Sunday deadline).  So when I get back..... I can quilt, quilt, quilt (and make matching pillowcases)!

But you know how I work... several projects at a time.. get up, walk around, do something else....come back and focus.  So it's been days of sewing this week.. and cleaning out scraps, and dreaming.

I meant to finish binding my jelly roll quilt but that didn't quite happen.

I doggedly worked on the blocks assigned from the Virginia Sampler class I have been taking.  And I am proud to say that I did it!  Kicked my tail.. but they are done.  Here are a couple of them - but I can say that I finished NINE.....  go me!  Three of them are killer stars - two of which are very puffy in the center... but I have sprayed and ironed and sprayed and ironed.. and flattened them a lot.

Here are two of the nine.....    now Boom!  Done til after Thanksgiving!

Lighthouse Block - also known as Aerial Beacon

All American Star (you don't want to know what I called it!)

Blocks and scraps and supplies put away!

Finished up several [25!] Roads blocks while piecing Virginia blocks and grandquilts

I do these along the way and am now up to 55, I think.....  60 for a full size quilt... less for play mats.... we'll see how this goes :-)  Am kind of thinking about making another set with blue instead of gray (river instead of road) since I will have FOUR grandboys in TWO families....

But that is beside the point right now in the deadline projects!

I am excited to say that I finished piecing the grand quilts!  I did not think I would have all of them finished as of this writing....  I really thought I had a little more border tweaking but I am good :-)  I will give full stories about the quilts later when they are completed BUT here they are at the moment

This one basted:

Front

Back

After Thanksgiving I will consult with my daughter as to color of quilting thread and binding....  either white or silver for the thread, I think... and it will depend on whether she wants the binding to be invisible or frame the quilt....  white gray or a navy blue would be cool.  What do you think?

 These are not basted yet:

LOVED the way this one turned out... it is a really cool panel that needed to grow into a full size (double bed) quilt.

Front - a busy vehicle panel plus extra blocks

back

I am not sure at all how I will quilt this one and would love suggestions!  Probably white thread though... I'm not sure want to change threads throughout the quilting though I might do that anyway.


And then these for the grandgirls:
They will each get one bright and one pastel - one pink and one blue.  At least that is the plan.  Each style goes with a book so they will have books to go with the quilts.  More details of course when the quilts are done.

I don't think my girls read this blog - but if they do, they may give me suggestions :-) 

   Backs that go with the Gabby book ... a lot of the scraps in these come from dresses I made them when they were little.. so they will have their own stories to go with them.

And Fronts that will go with Princess and the Pea

I LOVE how these turned out!  The girls will recognize some of these fabrics - but some come from deep within my stash and have been around longer than their moms :-)  I plan to quilt these on the bright brickwork pattern side using the different threads top and bottom matching the primary color (light or bright pink or blue) using a cross hatch pattern.

I am still learning about machine quilting and will use my walking foot - keeping the tension straight will be enough of a challenge!

Whew!!    Done!  Basting is next.... but it's a back breaker since I do it on the floor with needle and thread.... I really need to learn to pin baste!

And in the midst of all of it - I cleaned up my scrap boxes.... red and yellow... done!

And that, my friends is plenty enough WIP for one week :-)       {Of course, I am working on using up my cotton yarn scraps into dishcloths.. but I will share those next week as I make a little progress on them!)

So... what suggestions do you have for me?

And what have YOU been up to?