2017 Q1 Finish-A-Long, Finish #6

This was a big one, but I did it! First quilt for my own bed after 11 years of quilting. I am not a fan of doing king sized I decided, but I am a fan of how they look in the end.

Splendid Sampler is complete!! This is made with all Marcia Derse fabrics except two small pieces.

I am so happy to have the binding done. I used a new method by machine and love it. I’ll talk about that another day.

Pancho glad I’m done too.

Splendid Sampler – Quilted

The only thing left to do on my giant king size splendid sampler quilt is to bind it. I quilted Baptist fans all over it using a Baptist Fan ruler by Top Anchor. This ruler definitely has a learning curve and it was still beating me by the end of the quilt, but I will get it! 

Now to finish the miles of binding… 

Memory Quilt & Splendid Sampler Quilting

I’m keeping it short today. 

Over the last week I cut and pieced a memory quilt together for my husband’s aunt and uncle. This is the top:

I also put the spare pieces as a stripe on the back of the quilt. 

Lastly, I loaded my giant Splendid Sampler quilt onto the longarm today after finishing piecing the backing. 

Last 4 Blocks Splendid Sampler Complete – Block 88, 91 ,99, 100

I am so happy to have these done. Now I am starting to piece the top together. Hoping to have the top done by tomorrow. I am pretty happy with being on time finishing this when at 50 blocks I was on 20. I am so excited to use this on my new king size bed since it will be large enough.

Here are the final 4 blocks:

Block 88 Love is the Answer by Pat Wys. I personalized it and put the year and my name instead of Love-Peace-Joy.

Block 91 Gran’s Button Jar by Lynette Anderson. This was the toughest one for me to finish. I love the way hand embroidery looks when I finish it, but it is hard for me to start it. I’m also just learning it so I don’t like my quality, but I am learning to accept everything about myself including my imperfections.

Block 99 Four Corner Spinwheel by Kimberly Einmo

Block 100 Centred by Kate Spain

These are all the print outs of all the blocks plus the bonus blocks. Yep, probably would have been cheaper to buy the book! :p This was a fun and tiring process. I am so thankful for the two great people who put this all together. I can’t imagine how exhausted they are completing this project.  Now I’m off to piece the top together.

Splendid Sampler Blocks 31, 75, 95, 96, 97, 98, and Bonus Block One Million Pillowcase Challenge

These are the newest blocks I have finished this past week.

Block 31 Blossoming by Jenny Reynolds. This is only my 3rd try at hand embroidery.

Block 75 Stitch Crazy by Kathy Schmitz. My 2nd try at hand embroidery.

Block 95 Sunshine by Kim Niedzwiecki

Block 96 In the Sunshine by Cheryl Arkison

Block 97 First Purse by Di Murphy

Block 98 Fleur di Lei by Lynn Harris

Bonus Block from American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine, the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge.

I only have left the two hand applique blocks, Gran’s Button Jar and Love is the Answer and the two blocks to be released this week.

The only two blocks that I am choosing not to make are Block 20 Nature’s Walk and Block 36 Inchy Hexagon Club. Otherwise I also pieced all the Bonus Blocks except the paid ones. This has been a fun experience, but I can’t wait to have this top completed.

Here is my buddy that was assisting me through the hand embroidery. He wasn’t making it easy…

Splendid Sampler Blocks 39, 41, 82, 85, 89-90, 92-93 + Bonus Blocks Moda Sampler Block Shuffle, Pat’s Birthday Cake

Over the last two days I finished the following Blocks for the splendid sampler.

I have the following left to do:

1. 5 blocks that are cut and ready to be pieced
2. All the applique blocks I’ve had over the past week still need to be appliqued
3. 4 blocks that have been printed, but not cut or pieced
4. Need to finish the 3 blocks not yet released
5. Need to find 5 more blocks that need to be chosen that will fill out the remaining empty spaces of the quilt.

Block 39 Balls in the Air by Aylin Ozturk

Block 41 Sew South by Jennifer Mathis

Block 82 Under the Apple Tree by Brigitte Heitland

Block 85 Flow by Latifah Saafir

Block 89 From Colorado to the Midwest by Ebony Love

Block 90 Juggling by Lorena Uriarte

Block 92 Double Bees by Beth Bradley of Martingale

Block 93 Tiny Miracles by April Rosenthal

Bonus Block – Pat’s Birthday Cake by Pat Sloan

Bonus Block – Moda Sampler Block by Pat Sloan

Splendid Sampler Block 72-81, 94, Bonus Block Back-to-school, 28, & 22

This past week I have very SLOWLY been working on catching up on those splendid sampler blocks that I had pre-cut with my mom here. I finished the following blocks:

Block 22 Goose on the Loose by Amy Udall Smart

Block 28 Stitching Fashion by Charise Randell

Block 72 Full Star by Victoria Findlay Wolfe

Block 73 +Love by Jennifer Albaugh

Block 74 Button Basket by Karen Soltys

Block 76 Little Things by Jacquelynne Steves

Block 77 Prism by Sara Lawson

Block 78 Jersey by Carrie Nelson

Block 79 Spool of Inspirational Threads by Melanie Barrett

Block 80 Heartstring Star by Elizabeth Dackson

Block 81 With Love From by Cat Demack

Block 94 Skyscrapers by Stacey Lowe

Bonus Block – Back to School by Melissa Corry Design

Splendid Sampler Catchup

I am being good. I swear! I am in a lot of pain today, but I stayed on the couch decently well. Luckily cutting blocks  kept me there. I was catching up on the 25-30 splendid sampler blocks I was behind on. I took a picture of the finished blocks and the ones I have cut and are ready for piecing today. (See helper one, Nico, on the back of the couch).

Once I am done with these, I have 9 more to cut, then I have to piece them all. Once I piece them all I will have 103 quilt blocks. I plan on completing 7 more for a total of 110. I also cut the pieces for the 110 alternate blocks. Thanks to Texas Quilting for the idea (https://texasquilting.org/).

That will make this officially the largest quilt I have ever made. Luckily we just bought a king size bed therefore this will be a great use for this huge quilt. Without a border it will be 120in x 132in wowsers and all of it made from Marcia Derse fabrics both old and new.

And here is helper #2 (Pancho): “I’m helping mama!” He is being such a brat since he lost his play partner. He doesn’t have anyone to get his energy out anymore 😦

I don’t remember the last few days too well so I’m sorry if this is a repeat, but last week Friday I had hurnia surgery and we have to put our 4 year old beautiful, pesky, amazing Bengal baby, Enzo, down. He had a cancerous tumor on his heart and we didn’t even know it until the last week. We thought all the human food we were feeding him was possibly giving him diabetes so we took him in. Not the end result we were expecting. 😦

Here is a glorious memory of him 🙂 Luckily he was a very loved kitty and had a great life. We took well over 150 photos of him and keep finding more every day. Like this one:

We also have tons of videos of him too. Here he is helping mommy cut strips for this quilt.

Hard Weekend, Mentally

This weekend was very difficult for me. I was super depressed. I kept pacing the house feeling like something was wrong. My anxiety was high and I was exhausted. This is why I don’t like fall. I love the color changes and the smell, but not the winter blues. I even tried quilting on Saturday and then cut a few things too small pulled out a bunch of pieces and spent 1 hour with nothing achieved. This didn’t help me. SO I just slept… and slept… and slept some more. I did get myself to work on my EPP a bit. I almost have the star row around my rosette complete. I’m a little further than this picture shows. I’m loving these colors together!

Then today I decided at 7:30am I needed to stop sleeping and needed to actually get something done to get out of this slump. So I took a shower, ate breakfast and went up to my quilt room. AND I ACCOMPLISHED THINGS! YAY! Now I feel 100x better. I even made fajitas for dinner!

The Splendid Sampler blocks I completed!

Block 71 – First Stitch by Kerry Green: I did a completely different color combination that was just calling out to me.

Block 70 – Bows by Jane Davidson: I used up the last of my background on this one. Luckily it is super busy because I had a piece a few pieces together to have enough to finish the block.

Block 69 – Full Circle by Holly DeGroot: This one took me the longest to piece. I feel like I am looking out a submarine window for some reason.

Block 64 – Rising Star by Kathy Brown

Bonus Block – October Pumpkin by Pat Sloan

The I did my October Aurifil Designer of the Month block.

Chip off the Old Block by Kathy Brown: I was happy to have large squares to use this beautiful blue fabric in.

Here are all my blocks for this year thus far:

It is amazing how as you add in more blocks they start all working together. There was a few I was worried about before since they are all random scraps, but they are all starting to fit in. I think I will be using medium to dark grey for the sashing. I am hoping that will help bring the black into it. We will see.

Then my phone saw this beautiful view and I just had to take a picture! Splendid Sampler blocks on the design wall with Marcia Derse fabrics and Aurifil Designer of the month blocks on the floor. My idea of a sexy room!

Tomorrow, back to work. The drywallers are starting to work on our basement tomorrow so *fingers crossed* by Christmas my quilting stuff and I will be in the daylight basement!

Even More Splendid Sampler

Yesterday and today I finished the following blocks:

Block 60 – Hearts and Flowers by Fiona Ransley. My first attempt at Embroidery.

Bonus Block – Earth Day by Cheryl Arkison

Block 42 – Pencils by Jane Davidson

Block 65 – Stripe and Flowers by Siobhan Rogers

Block 66 – Happy Thoughts by Vanessa Goertzen

Block 67 – Bobbin Chase by Scott Hansen

Block 27 – Sewing Machine by Pat Sloan

Block 68 – Wild Rose by Pat Sloan

Block 17 – Family Stars by Kimberly Jolly

AND MY MISTAKE! Be sure to trial a new product prior to using is for something very noticable. I tried this “wash away” paper to make my 2nd embroidery block only to discover it doesn’t wash away very well.

Now I’m back to using my tweezers. You can see I already did this on one of the stars and started in on the red petals. At least I can salvage my work. *cry*

On another note, I have less than 10 blocks to catch up and two of those blocks are already cut, just not pieced. See you all again next weekend!