Whoop!! Whoop!! Whoop!! Once Upon a Time is Checked Off! 17 in 2017 is finished!

Yes!!  I just finished tying and tucking the last tails on the seals. . .

and the walrus sleigh block. . . 

Probably 5/6 of the applique stitching has been finished while doing the trapunto work. The remaining stitching will be simultaneous with the quilting. There are a couple embroidery tasks to happen after quilting, too.

And now that all the trapunto work and pre-quilting stitchery is finished on my "Once Upon a Star," that means I've successfully met my 17 in 2017 challenge!

And I can't tell you how much lift of burden I felt to have this stage completed on this project! It is what has held it back for quite a long time.


A quick recap for my challenge: I'd listed 17 UFOs that I wanted to advance a stage during this past year.  Of those, 4 were completely finished, 4 are ready to be finished on the longarm, and 4 are now flimsies. At least six of them would not have been touched at all this year were it not for this challenge. 

I also accomplished: 10 other finished quilts, 4 other flimsies, 5 other significant advances, and my first customer job (custom longarm quilting).

So I'm really looking forward to the 18 in 2018 challenge helping me get a lot more finishes that might otherwise stagnate! It's surprising how much that challenge helps, even when you just expect a step or two to be done instead of a finish. Between that and the 6 & 6 challenge letting new things in, it's going to be a fun year.

~*~*~ Linking at:

TGIFF at Kathy's this week
Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday
Meredithe's 17 in 2017

WIP'n along and Whoop'n it up

Woohoo!!!   This is #16 on my 17 in 2017 list, so I know now that I can check them all off by year's end.

Devon's quilt has quite a bit of quilting that was done on the domestic. There is a lot left, though, and much had to be done to prep it for the longarm. 

Something like 250 pins have been taken out of the blue area, all the hundreds of tails are tied and tucked, backing is squared, and spacers are sewn onto the three narrow sides (I anticipate wanting to turn this quilt for easier border work.) This is a large queen quilt.

I did all the marking yesterday on the Sapphire Stars Mystery quilt that I'm finishing as a special QOV for my father-in-law. I made the USAF stencil the old-school way by printing the right size onto cardstock and wielding an X-acto knife. Also cut the border elements out of a cereal box (some day I'll have star rulers for longarms, but for now it's old-school).  I got about 1/2 of the stabilizing done on the longarm before night's call. Hopefully this afternoon I can finish that up and start on some of the fun work.

And my early-morning attention is currently on puffins and penguins - they're maybe halfway finished getting their trapunto work.  :)   This FMQ work still happens at my domestic machine for two reasons: 1) I don't have nearly enough fine control yet with my longarm to do close-edge applique quilting with so many tiny details; 2) Quilting through multiple layers of fusible can be really tricky even without fine-control issues. I'll be waiting until I have a lot more experience with my longarm and its reaction to various threads, fabrics, and pop-up issues before putting any fusibles on it.

~*~*~
Linking to:

Lorna's Let's Bee Social, 

Sarah's Whoop, Whoop!

Meridithe's 17 in 2017

WIPs - Llamas and Unicorns

It's so nice to be back to regular blogging, instead of just BOMs Away days.  :)

My priority WIP work is almost finished. Here are Heather's Llamas during the roll-back to do the face and fur fills. That's all that is left for this cute quilt. It involves a thread change, so I finished everything else to the end first and dabbed out my register marks for carrying the lines across the llamas. I left it hanging loose overnight to evaporate those spots before rolling it back up on the front bar. I've learned that it can be challenging to keep tension perfectly happy when you're quilting a mix of fibers, and linen is a very stretchy fabric compared to cotton! The pro side of that is that it's fairly easy to manipulate to square things up. The con side is that tension is "interesting" when you're moving back and forth on sections of different fibers.

During my quiet early-morning work times, I've moved another 17 in 2017 item to the next phase. I made the backing for my "Leaded Glass" quilt. 

That's been procrastinated because I had this really fantastic fabric that I wanted to match the pattern with the seam. So I made myself get over it and just get it done finally. The size of two full fabric widths, minus the selvage on one side of the seam and the little bit to match up on the other side was perfect for the overage I'll need past the top's size.

Nailed that match-up!  

<~ That's a seam running down the right side, not a crease.  :)


I also pre-shrunk its batting, so everything is ready to go. I'm thinking this will be a really nice quilt to have on the frame during our snowy February days.  

~*~*~

Linking up: 

Brook's WIP Link-Up,
Lorna's Let's Bee Social, 

Julie's Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE

Sarah's Whoop, Whoop!

Meridithe's 17 in 2017

Whoop! Listen With Your Eyes!! (some more tips, piecing NYB blocks)

Yes! Here's another 17 in 2017 item moved along.

All 40 NYB blocks finished

My "Listen With Your Eyes" kit has apparently been lost in limbo in my super-pretty chest drawer FOR SIX YEARS!!

What this will grow up to be:
"Listen With Your Eyes" - a Jacqueline DeJong design
This quilt SPARKLES amazingly in real life!

Good thing I put this project on my 2017 list, and that I didn't give in with so many still on it at the end of the year.  

I cleaned that drawer out completely and made sure I had all the bags, baskets, and boxes with parts of this stunning quilt.

It's a really difficult one to assemble, which is a lot of why it's been idle for so long. It took hours and hours just to sort things and reacquaint myself with what was going on and how to proceed. 

I lined everything up under my longarm frame where I'll see it every day and be prompted to work regularly on this top in the next months (and where cats can't interfere with it, as they're locked out of that room). 

Everything's in order of stages. Each stage is super intense! At least I had finished sorting all the colors the last time I'd worked on it, so "all" I have to do now is construct the components and assemble the blocks.

Some of my favorite pics from the 2011 work:

After getting everything sorted and studying the patter again, I settled in for the first stage in the line-up. The result was all those pretty New York Beauty blocks at the top of this post. There are 40 of them! I am super excited this morning to have this quilt moved to this point, and I suddenly feel like I've crested the peak of difficulty with this project. 

Tips about constructing these blocks:

Sailor's needle to take papers away from acute angles

CUT EXTRA AND TRIM AFTER SEWING - you want about 1/8" on each side at the inner angle  (start at the pattern edge at the seam and angle out at the point)

*and* on the outer curve, give it an extra 1/2" on the outside edge.

 This will provide stability when attaching it as well as give room for shrinkage if you mis-stretch the piece during construction. I just cut away the sewn seam allowance from one of the pattern pieces and taped it to the block so I could trim the outer edge. Very helpful with that super narrow curved seaming.

Thank goodness I had written those notes to myself on the baggies that held the arcs. I must have gotten those tips from Jacqueline DeJong at her workshop.

Jacqueline is a wonderful person, and she comes to the U.S. regularly. Her BeColourful quilts are AMAZING! If you want to make one, don't shy away from it. If you have your heart set on a 5- or 6-star pattern, though, I would recommend planning learning projects ahead of it. (This quilt that I'm doing is a 5-star construction.) 

The perfect lineup for me turned out to be: 

First, an easy Judy Niemeyer project, like Stepping Stones that will teach you basic paper piecing techniques. Next, do a project with curved piecing - try another Judy Niemeyer on a more complex level, such as Glacier Star (looks hard, but is extremely accessible as this pattern teaches you all kinds of advancing paper piecing techniques). 

Now try your DeJong mega-quilt. And if you possibly can, I also recommend going to a workshop with Jacqueline or one of her approved instructors. I'm not at all sorry I got into this quilt project. It's every bit as rewarding as it is challenging. And she has so many spectacular patterns now. I already know I want to reward myself for finishing this top by getting a kit for Spring Fever. . .   

~*~*~

Linking up: 

Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Linkup

Meridithe's 17 in 2017

WIPs & Paper Piecing Tip (literally)

Two things going this week:

New York Beauty blocks for "Listen With Your Eyes" (a Jacqueline DeJong quilt), the next focus on my 17 in 2016 list.

~*~*~Paper Piecing Tip~*~*~

I love the preciseness we get from engineered paper piecing, but it can be daunting to get the papers off when you have lots of tiny angles. In the past, I've used my Purple Thang and needles in my applique book to help. 

When I was spring cleaning, though, I ran across this huge sailmaker's needle. (Why on earth did I even have this?) 

It is my new best friend in my pool of quilter's tools.

A sailmaker's needle is the PERFECT tool for this job! It's long enough to hold comfortably (about 4-1/2 inches). It's fat enough to never bend (a little bigger around than the lead in a #2 pencil). Its sharp tip fits right into the ends of the acute angles (in 40 arcs with 15 pieces each, I never had a problem with it getting caught in the fabric).

Just slip it in, give it a swoosh, and all is happiness. You find the rhythm, and it makes much shorter work of a mundane TV task.  :) 

If you pick one up, you'll want the sharp tip, not the rounded one that's like an oversized cross stitch needle.

My real work this week is this Super Cutey! I am so excited to start on it. This is the "Lloyd & Lola" pattern from Elizabeth Hartman, and this is my first customer quilt.

I am so lucky for this to be my jumping off quilt. It's absolutely adorable to start with, and Heather's piecing is meticulous (no wavy ends, a perfectly squared-up backing with lots of margin all around). I even get to do fun custom work on it. We've already settled on the plan, so all I have to do is get the tension squared away and start playing.  :)


~*~
Linking to

Brook's WIP Link-Up
"New to Me" at Celtic Thistle, 
Lorna's Let's Bee Social, 
and Julie's Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE

Finish Report, a Flimsy Alert, and a 17 in 2017

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. We we enjoyed a traditional feast day at home with all the kids except Devon, and of course, I ate far too much. I still feel sluggish from that! I don't have much energy right now, but I'm Whooping it up, because I have three things to report this week. :)  

~*~*~  Finish Report!  "Thankfulness 3"

Here is the final of the three "Thankfulness" quilts! This one is ours. It was the first to be quilted, so that I could try out the longarm diagonal ruler work and feathers on it before moving to the ones that were gifted. It was the last to be finished, though. 

My first longarm feathers. I'm not unhappy.  :)
Diagonal SID, though. . . needs practice!

These were 47 x 56 inches as flimsies, 46 x 55.5 after quilting, and 44.75 x 53.5 after washing in cold and a low-heat dryer. Perfect lap size. That's with pre-washed fabrics and batting. I wonder how much more they would have shrunk with un-treated materials? I can't believe how soft the Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 washed up in these, though. It has a really super nice feel.

Karen's Thankfulness quilt was shared last week. It arrived in Florida on Tuesday, and I got a slew of exuberant texts. My daughter reports that she loves showing it off. 

Lisa and Jeff got their Thankfulness quilt on Sunday, and she was tickled to death to have a handmade quilt. They live across the street from us, and always do more than anyone else to clear snow and coordinate the resurfacing needs we have to attend to for our cul-de-sac. I said something about wishing I'd been able to finish it several weeks ago so that it wouldn't be "out-seasoned" so quickly, and she said, "Are you kidding me? This is mountain Colorado land! We will use it all year!" 

Our Thankfulness quilt got its binding and label two days ago, barely in time to be out for Thanksgiving Day use. I was tempted to put it on the table, but decided I didn't want it getting that dirty right away.  :)  

The diamond and sashing fabrics are the same in all of them, while the accent colors, borders, and backings are each different.

All of them have the faux-piped binding, and all of them have leafy labels. I really love how these turned out, first-time longarm ruler bobbles and all!

~*~*~
Flimsy Alert: "It's a Silky Wool Flannel Kind of Autumn Day"

. . . because sometimes you just need a funky quilt name!

Yesterday evening when everyone was crashed for some quiet time, I did all the "race" seams for my jelly roll. This flannel collection, "Woollies Flannel" from Maywood, is so plush and nice, I want to buy several of the prints to make jammies from!

A really weird photo of a flannel top in gorgeous fall-jewel tones.

Boy, oh boy, do I love this flimsy with the spots of gold Silk Radiance! Night-time shots are tricky to get the colors right, and this full shot is really horrid for that. Contrast is all messed up and won't play nice in filters, colors are weird. . . you know how it goes.

Taken upstairs under an incandescent bulb, this next photo shows a better balance, although the colors are still a little richer in life.

With the flannel, I pressed the seams open instead of to one side. I sewed this up "race" style, but took the time to press the seam after Lap 1 and Lap 2. Laps 3, 4, and 5, I left the pressing until I was finished. I'm really glad I pressed those first two laps before sewing the next lap. It would have been a royal pain to have all the seams to press open at once without a decent space already lying down for the rest of the laps going at once. It also made it infinitely easier to line up the fabric to stitch laps 3 and 4.

It'll be January, probably, before this goes on the longarm. I have a customer quilt, a QOV gift for my father-in-law, and some Christmas quilts that have first pick on frame time.


~*~*~
17 in 2017 - "Mermaid Fantasy" 

On another vein, I've been able to check off a stage on one of my 17-in-2017 projects. 

Heather's "Mermaid Fantasy" now has its detail trapunto work finished on the five vignettes, and it's ready for its final quilting. That's a task for the 2018 list.  :)

That was a weird movie
(The Whole Nine Yards provided snipping entertainment)

I did this the same way I did my Sea Breeze mini quilts - I've put in all the detail quilting for each of the five vignettes. I didn't do the dissolving thread approach, as I like the way the detail quilting gives definition to the area, but doesn't get flattened too much when layered over the quilt's full batting and outline-quilted. For very large areas, like the central mermaid, there are some inner lines that will be followed through both layers of batting, but the details will stay quilted only in the trapunto layer.  I did all this at my domestic machine. There's no way I can do that level of detail at my longarm yet.

~*~*~

Linking up: 

TGIFF at Myra's this week

Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Linkup

Meridithe's 17 in 2017

WIPs - Flannels & 17 in 2017

Between - OH MY GOSH, I HAVE TO DEFROST THE TURKEY > > > 

Geez, I get distracted so very easily these days. . .  Now that the bird is happily bathing in some cold defrost water, I can take a social moment.  :)

I usually wake long before the others, so it wouldn't be cool to work on my priority quilt at the longarm, as it would wake some of them. So I have "putz around" projects I do in other places. 

Right now, that's working with this really luscious flannel jelly roll my daughter gave me for my birthday. I'm doing it up race style, with diagonal joins and some spacers. Those spacers and the whole backing are done with harvest gold Silk Radiance. It'll get a  leafy vine meander for quilting, with leaves highlighted at each of the gold bits. It's a nice project to see in the mornings during Thanksgiving week.

Also, when I have odd moments that aren't really long enough to get good piecing in, I've been working on my "Plums in November" quilt, which is on my 17 in 2017 list. I had started its quilting at my domestic machine last year. 

Almost all the black SID work is finished (hooray!), and a wee bit of decorative quilting had gone in.

So far I've removed the over-500 quilter's safety pins, marked the rest of the diamond centers, trimmed back the batting to get the backing edges easily accessible, and I've made sure those are all squared up.

I still need to make some extenders to baste on so the clamps don't interfere with the quilting at the longarm. I grabbed this huge amount of ugly-fabric yardage that's been in my stash forever. 

Which is inspiring me. . . 

You know that concept that if you don't like a fabric, you haven't cut it up small enough yet? I'm going to work up a nice pattern to use an ugly piece from stash, coupled with two nice colors and a good bit of "neutral" to make a really appealing quilt. It has to be after the holidays, though. 

So the first Stash Rehab 2018 will appear this February 1st. 

This one will be designed to utilize a piece of yardage that's been sitting in stash. As I have more than one piece that's been stagnant in there, I'll do periodic Rehab projects, some of which will focus on using pretty fabric that we just don't know what to do with. Rehab will culminate on St. Patrick's Day so we can see what those little magic leprechauns can do for us. I'll figure things for several sizes. I hope you'll join in! 

~*~*~

Thanks to Lorna for hosting Let's Bee Social, 
and Julie for Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE

~*~ Finish Report ~*~ "Fall All Around"

I'm really in love with this finish, and it's so nice to have a post for TGIFF!

(By the way, TGIFF will be hosted here next week, so if you're on the verge of a complete finish, get it whipped up so you can report it next Friday and link up!)

Scott helped me catch some shots a bit ago with the early morning frost still on the hills behind us. 

"Fall All Around" is the Quilting By The Bay version of the 2011 Patchwork Party quilt, but my kit remained untouched until this year. 

This was one of my "17 in 2017" list items. It finished at 86 x 96", and I used the Hobbs Tuscany washable wool, which I pre-shrank as my fabrics were all pre-washed.

The only change I made was to round off the cream corners when I added the final border, and I just placed the feature blocks however they wanted instead of paying attention to how they were arranged on the original rendition.

I am a stickler for details, so a backing made from the pretty plaid in the collection would not have made me happy unless I matched up all the cross lines when I pieced it. That wasn't something I felt like doing at the time, so I made a central strip using left-overs from my 1/4 yard bundle. (The yardage I used does not have a brown read, like the camera sees outside, but a very green read like the detail shot a couple photos down.)

This was the 6th quilt on my longarm machine. I used a gold Glide thread, size 40, which has a really nice sheen that approaches a metallic gleam in this tone. The sheen of Glide is not my personal favorite in thread (being a cotton, tiny-weight lover), but it went very nicely with this quilt.

I used the Urban Elementz pantograph, "Utopia - petite," and really like that one. I'm sure it will be a staple for fall quilts, or garden-y ones with its pretty scroll-tipped leaves. It's moderately dense work-wise - took 14 1/2 Magna Glide bobbins (L size) for this quilt. You can see how it played out for a confident beginner:

By the way, the fabric collection in this quilt is "Bittersweet" by Nancy Halvorsen, put out by Benartex. It is absolutely gorgeous in real life, with a glow in the prints that totally captures that magical look of fall colors in a pretty afternoon sunlight. It's not metallic or anything, just has phenomenal magic of color play. I have enough fabric left to make pillowcases, but I need to figure the math for making that kind in a king size. 

Note to self: This is the shot wherein you can see dots of Canadian Geese on the tiny background strip of golden knoll on the right of the shot, 1/3 down, if you zoom it in.  :)

~*~*~

Linking up: 

TGIFF at Celtic Thistle Stitches

Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Linkup

Meridithe's 17 in 2017