Tuesday ToDo #10

Last week I set three goals for the week.

1.    Tidy up my sewing room. ✔︎

When I wasn't working in my master bedroom closet, I spent most of my free time during the past week sifting and cleaning my craft room. This is the cleanest it's been in several years.

I washed, ironed and managed to fit all the new fabrics on my fabric shelves.
The color sorting isn't as good as it used to be because the stacks had
gotten so tall I can't always fit fabrics where I'd like to put them.

I went through my huge, overflowing cotton scrap bin and
sorted my scraps by color.

This is where the old scrap bin lived. The floor hasn't been this clean in several years.

I haven't been able to get into this closet for a while either.

I sacrificed the resale value of this bookshelf by putting
nails in it to hang my rulers. Worth it.

I will admit I transferred some stuff into my closet cabinets to make room for the scrap tubs, but I have also started pulling fabrics out of the shelves that I need to get rid of. It's time for a good cull.

2.     Make backings for my various flimsies. ✔︎

I made backings for all three of the flimsies I intend to finish in the near future.

3.    Sewcialites Block #28. ✔︎

My goals for the coming week:

1.    Sewcialites Block #29.

2.    Cut out the Finger Lakes Log Cabin quilt.

3.    Take photos and measure at least two fabrics I'm getting rid of so I can start listing them for sale.

(4.    I also still need to finish our taxes. Of course, I didn't finish them by April 15 when Biden gave us an extra month! LOL)

I'm linkng up with ChrisKnits.

Tuesday ToDo #9

Thanks to ChrisKnits for hosting this weekly link party; it really helps keep me on track with my goals. I was so busy with other projects this week, I quite forgot to post on Tuesday.

Last week I had two goals:

1.    Finish the Deco Elegance quilt flimsy. ✔︎

2.    Make Sewcialites Blocks #26 and #27.  ✔︎

I did them both. 

This coming week, I need to shift gears, at least part of the day, from sewing. I need to finish my bedroom closet. There is shellacking and shelf cutting that needs to happen. I've decided I won't let myself start a new fabric project until my closet is put together. I'm tired of the chaos in our upstairs bedrooms caused by having to disgorge everything previously stored in there so we could install these cabinets.

But when I am not working on that, I would like to finish these projects in my sewing room:

1.    I would like to tidy up my sewing room. I have fabrics from my various recent projects piled all over the tables. I'd like to put them back into the fabric stacks and iron and fold up any new fabrics.

My fabric shelves in tidier times

2 .   I would like to make backings for my various flimsies that are finished. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to attempt to machine quilt the lap quilt on my home machine. There are not many things I like less than wrestling with quilts on my regular size sewing machine.

3.    Sewcialites Block #28.

Friday Night Sew In

Thanks to Wendy for hosting the Friday Night Sew In again last night. 

I had a bit of a short evening because I had one specific task I wanted to do: catch up on the Sewcialites blocks. I had two new blocks to finish.

Block #27, Earnest 

Block #26, Courage

Some of my fabrics are pretty funky because I'm using scraps. At the end, when I am doing the final layout, I'll remake the blocks I don't like.

I also made another copy of Block #15, Genuine.

And I made 4 new log cabin blocks for the corners. I didn't like the scrappy random look of the original set.

Deco Elegance Flimsy

The Deco Elegance quilt flimsy is finished! 

This is my first medallion quilt and the first quilt I designed entirely from scratch in EQ8. Usually, when I make a quilt design I start with some photo or pattern created by someone else, but this time I did not. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I don't have enough of these fabrics to make the backing so I'll have to think about what I want to use. I do have some olive-green fabric that was part of the Deco Elegance fabric line, but I didn't use it on the front and I don't have enough to do the entire backing, sadly, so I'll probably end up making a backing with wide horizontal strips.

Now that this project is finished, I really need to get to work sanding the back stairs. I have to get them refinished before the weather gets too hot.

I'm linking up with TGI Finished Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop and Brag About Your Beauties. It's fun to go see what everyone else has been creating.

Deco Elegance Borders

The Deco Elegance quilt is assembled.

I've gotten to the point where I need to decide what to do for borders on the Deco Elegance quilt.

As usual, I am trying out different options in Electric Quilt.

This option has one thin dark teal border and one 3"-wide
burgundy border with corner blocks

This option has two thin borders with small corner blocks.

Which do you guys prefer?

Tuesday ToDo #8

Last week when I made my list, I wasn't sure what the weather for the week would be like. Since we had a couple days of rain it gave me more time for sewing.

Finish Jeff's Overnight Bag  ✔︎

Finish 3 Denim Tote Bags  ✔︎

I obviously set the bar too low as I had those projects finished by Friday then I started a new sewing project. I really should have started working on sanding our back stairs so I can refinish them, but instead, I spent nearly the entire weekend sewing.

For this next week, I would like to finish the Deco Elegance quilt flimsy. I still need to finish assembling all the blocks then I'll need to trim down the outer edge so I can add the borders. The outer border is the fussy cut coordinating border print. 

Then, I'd like to make Sewcialites Blocks #26 and #27.

And, if I get through those projects, I'd like to work on cutting out the Finger Lakes Log Cabin quilt.

Drop by ChrisKnits to see what everyone else is working on.

Rainbow Scrap Project

Since it's Design Wall Monday, I'm linking up this design I made last year. I found it when I was cleaning up my old Electric Quilt files.

I think would be perfect for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I have too many projects in my queue for 2021 to try and add it now and then need to catch up so I'm putting it out here so I'll have the blog post to remind me next winter if another round begins.

This is made from easy 9-patches and I think I'd have enough scraps in different colors to make it. I might make it smaller if I need to.

April Friday Night w/Friends

I actually got an early start on Friday Night with Friends this month. After lunch, I started cutting out a new quilt, the Deco Elegance medallion quilt I just finished designing.

I worked until 11PM and got most of it cut out. Fussy cutting the print fabric was so wasteful I actually couldn't get enough of the little print squares to finish the quilt as I originally designed it so I had to do a quick redesign.

This morning I spent a couple hours making the center block. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out as there were a lot of mitered seams in it. I am definitely getting better at them.

Finally Finished

I started these projects last year and added them to my 2021 WOOFA list, hoping I could motivate myself to finish them up this year. Since I cleared my One Monthly Goal so quickly, I decided I really should pull out these UFOs again.

I started the overnight bag in August. I actually found the directions in a YouTube video and this was the second one I made. However, I would recommend if you use a heavy tapestry fabric, do not add interfacing (at least not as thick as the video recommended). It made my seams too thick to sew on my pfaff by the end and I actually had to hand-sew the ends together when I sewed in the lining. (That's why I set it aside last year and didn't finish it right away.)

Savoring that finish, I decided I would also turn my attention to the three circle denim bags I started last November. I don't know what I was thinking, starting three of these at once; I'd forgotten how long they take to finish after the panels are assembled. I will NOT be making more of these as they don't use enough of the denim to make it worth the time. 

Normally, I would have used salvaged denim for the entire bag, but I just wanted to get these bags finished as quickly as possible so I used some new denim gifted to me last summer. These bags are fully lined with a second bag inside because I wasn't sure how strong the denim circles are and we tend to really load up our shopping bags.

I'm happy to be able to link up with TGI Finished Friday, Finished (or Not) Friday, Whoop Whoop, and Peacock Party. 

I am ecstatic to get these projects cleared out of my sewing room because now that I've finished these projects, I will let myself start a new quilt for tonight's Friday Night With Friends, I just need to pick which one. =)

TuesdayToDo #7

Last week my to-do list was to work on catching up on the Sewcialites QAL. I was successful. I already finished all of the blocks published to date. These are some of my favorites, so far.

Since they only publish one block a week, I think I will turn my attention to some other project for the rest of the month. I have a couple of UFOs on my WOOFA list for the year and it sure would be nice to finish them.

• Finish 3 Denim Tote Bags
• Finish Jeff's Overnight Bag

I'll be pretty happy if I can get one of them done this week, but it sure would be nice if I could finish them all.

Deco Elegance Medallion Quilt

I was inspired by Design Wall Monday to play with Electric Quilt today.

Since the Sewcialites blocks all came with directions for making 3" blocks, I thought it would be fun to play with one of the pre-designed on-point medallion quilts with small 3" blocks in Electric Quilt but as I was populating it, I realized I had the perfect fabric to work with the design.

In the Beginning Fabrics, "Deco Elegance" by Jason Yenter.
Those little medallions are almost exactly 3" in diameter.

I ditched the idea of using the Sewcialites blocks, and just went to BlockBase+ and downloaded some blocks I liked. There are not many colors in the quilt because I don't have many in my stash that match. I am going to order a couple yards of a small cream and metallic fabric.

Cathedral Window Block

Most of the blocks are fairly simple, but the center block is the most difficult.

Widower's Choice Block

Center Nine Patch 2

Flower Weave Block

Criss Cross Block