Category: Easy Street

April UFO Challenge

Posted in Easy Street, Quiltville Quilts, Stash Project, UFO ChallengeTagged , 1 Comment

I’m participating in two UFO Challenges this year.

The first is at Heather’s blog. She chose number 11 for April. That’s my Easy Street quilt. Here it is with the last stitch in the binding sewn down earlier today.

The second challenge is at Aunt Marti’s blog, 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks. She chose number 2 for April. That’s my Big Star quilt which I actually finished in January so it was an easy month for me.

Check out the April Parade of finishes here.

For May, Aunt Marti chose number 12, which is my Double Delight. Yay! I finished it in February in a finishing spurt. Seems like once I get a quilt quilted, it just has to be finished.

And, Heather chose number 9, which is my Asian Sampler. This one is twelve 12” blocks that I need to get laid out into a top. No idea what I’m going to do with it yet. This one will be challenging and I’ll be lucky to get the top finished by the end of May, let alone quilted and bound.

Easy Street Mystery

Posted in Easy Street, UFO ChallengeTagged , 6 Comments


Easy Street is finished. This is the 2012 Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt. The pattern is only available on her web site until June, then it becomes part of one of her future books. So I won’t link to the page. 

I can’t believe I started and finished the quilt all within five months. The mystery started on November 23rd, 2012, the day after Thanksgiving.

As usual, Bonnie’s quilts are a little too big for me so I made 3/4 of the number of units. As it turned out, for this pattern, I could have gotten away with far fewer units.

So I made a second, mini version without borders, which will make a really cute baby quilt. I actually finished the mini-version first because it was so quick to put together.

 

Every scrap of fabric in both versions is completely from my stash, mostly my 2″ and 3.5″ strip bins. Even the 3.5 yards I used for the backing of the large version had been fermenting for quite a few years.

Full size: 75” square
Mini: 45″ square
Batting: Warm and Natural
Backing: Full size is a black on white all over feather patterned fabric. The 3.5 yards I had was not quite enough so I added a yard of purple down one side of the back. I like a slightly off center backing. The mini backing is a lavendar heart fabric.
Quilting: Large meander in Gray thread
Binding: Full size is a purple from Connecting Threads; Mini is a turquoise Fusions

 

This is what it looks like on my queen bed laid over a cream coverlet.

See more posts about these two quilts here.

April’s Getting It Done/May Goals

Posted in Easy Street, Getting it Done, Jared Takes a Wife, Pineapple Blossom, Quiltville Quilts, Roll Roll Cotton BollTagged , , , , , 4 Comments

For April, my goals were:

  1. Sandwich Monster Bash (Need to choose and make a backing first.) Done.

  2. Quilt Easy Street (Sandwiched and ready to go) Done.

    3. It’s quilted and I’ve got about three feet of binding to sew down. It will be finished today since it’s my April quilt for a UFO Challenge at Heather’s blog.

    3. Roll Roll Cotton Boll Blue. (Sandwiched and ready to go) Done.
    This quilt is now finished and waiting to be given to my good friend Kipp.

    Read about it here.

4. Border one of the Key Hole quilts. (Decisions, decisions….)
Not so good here. Didn’t even take the top off the hangar. Sigh! Goes on next months list.

Other things I got done this month are:

  • Got the borders on and sandwiched Jared Takes a Wife, finally.

  • Started a Pineapple Blossom in all Blues for my grandson.

  • Got out an old UFO (with no name) and started sewing the 3.5” x 6.5” cut pieces together in a brick pattern for a charity quilt. This one has no particular plan. I’m winging it.

For May, my goals are:

  1. Border or sandwich one of the Key Hole quilts. Have to decide whether it gets borders or quilted as is.
  2. Quilt either Monster Bash or Jared Takes a Wife, or both.
  3. Finish the Pineapple Blossom blocks.
  4. Get Part 1 and 2 Lazy Sunday pieces done before the next issue is released.

That’s it for me. Go see how everyone else is doing here at Judy’ blog.

Getting It Done February Report/March Goals

Posted in Easy Street, Getting it Done, Lazy Sunday, Orca Bay, Roll Roll Cotton Boll4 Comments

Warning! Picture heavy but I love seeing my progress.

Here are my February Goals and progress:

  1. Finish Orca Bay border units
    Orca Bay top is finished as of 2/26/2013

  2. Finish Blue Roll Roll Cotton Boll top
    Top finished, backing made, and ready for quilting

  3. Hand sew the three bindings for the quilts finished in January
    Two bindings done (Double Delight, Truck Quilt), Easy Street mini is still waiting to be hand sewed down.
  4. Sandwich Easy Street
    Easy Street is sandwiched and ready for quilting.

In addition to these, I accomplished the following:

  • Finished the Truck Quilt and Happy Child

  • Completed a Crazy Eights top for a new baby arriving in April, and got it sandwiched for quilting.

  • Started Bonnie’s new mystery in Quiltmaker magazine, Lazy Sunday. Got most of Part 1 finished.

For March, my goals are:

  1. Complete the blocks for 9-Surrounded at retreat in Danville
  2. Complete the blocks for Picnic at retreat in Danville
  3. Sandwich Orca Bay
  4. Finish the baby quilt started in February

See what everyone else has accomplished in February here.

Getting It Done January Report/February Goals

Posted in Double Delight, Easy Street, Getting it Done, Mystery Quilts, Quiltville Quilts, Roll Roll Cotton Boll2 Comments

My goals for January were:

  1. Finish Easy Street Top.
    Finished the top and I’ve got the borders ready to add.
  2. Use up the leftover Easy Street units.
    Made a mini-Easy Street quilt 45″ square from the leftovers. This quilt is now just waiting for the binding to be hand sewn down next weekend on a road trip.
  3. Sandwich Double Delight ready for quilting.
    Had a fun time sandwiching this quilt using the island in my son’s kitchen. I’ve found my new sandwiching “table”. This quilt is finally all ready to quilt.
  4. Make Orca Bay border units.
    Somehow I turned this goal into making the border units for my Blue Roll Roll Cotton Boll instead. Well at least it’s progress on a UFO.

In addition this month, I quilted six quilts finishing three by machine stitching the binding. The other three will be hand stitched next weekend. Not a bad month.

Here are my February Goals:

  1. Finish Orca Bay border units
  2. Finish Blue Roll Roll Cotton Boll top
  3. Hand sew the three bindings for the quilts finished in January
  4. Sandwich Easy Street

Look here at what others have accomplished.

Design Wall Monday and Easy Street Update

Posted in Design Wall, Easy Street, Quiltville Quilts5 Comments

My wall is empty today. But that’s because I finished my Easy Street top late yesterday afternoon. So it’s on the floor. 🙂 The center is 65” square. I’m afraid the colors in the photo are a bit washed out compared to the real thing. Ah well.

I do have to add the borders. And, I did have to fix one 4-patch that was turned the wrong way. But other than that, this top will be ready to sandwich very shortly.

I made 3/4 of the number of units knowing I didn’t want a quilt as large as the directions called for. Given the size of the blocks and the layout, I had enough smaller units left over to make a second mini-Easy
Street. I’ve got the blocks half-way sewn for that one too. It will make a great baby-size quilt.

Hooking up to Bonnie’s Part 8 Linky Party and Judy’s Design Wall Monday.

Easy Street Mystery Revealed

Posted in Easy Street, Mystery Quilts, Quiltville Quilts5 Comments

As of 5:00 pm today, here’s what my Easy Street top looks like. I really like this one a lot.

20130101-170851.jpg

All the corner and setting triangle units are made. And, I’m sewing the diagonal rows together as I finish the blocks in the row. So the whole upper right section is sewn together.

I’m making mine 3/4 the size Bonnie called for. So I have four more block A and three more block B units to piece together. Maybe I’ll have the energy to do more piecing tonight, but then again maybe not. It’s been a pretty intense couple of sewing days while I was also taking down and putting all the Christmas stuff away. But I will try to get the rest of the top pieced by the end of this coming weekend.

Can’t wait to see how everyone else is doing.

Happy New Year!

 

Design Wall Monday 12/31

Posted in Easy Street, Quiltville Quilts, Stash1 Comment

I had to get one last Design Wall post for the year. This is what my design wall looks like today.

On one side is this table runner that I made with a turnover of the Caroler. I was determined to get this turnover out of my stash before the end of the year.

The Caroler Table Runner

I finally decided what this turnover pack should become. I just made hour glass units by sewing the triangles together into HSTs, pairing up with a different unit, slicing and resewing. Easy. I’m going to call it Hidden Pinwheels because if you look closely, there are a number of complete pinwheels in among the QSTs.

On the other part of my design wall is the first step in today’s Easy Street Clue 7.

Easy Street Part 7

Four of these smaller triangle units. Next up is the second part. I want to be ready for Part 8 tomorrow. I will have this into a top and not let it sit around as a UFO for the next few years like the past mysteries. 🙂

Happy New Year!

Linking up to Judy’s Design Wall post.

Easy Street Part 5

Posted in Easy Street, Quiltville Quilts5 Comments

Here are my Easy Street Part 5 units. Not sure what we are calling these. I finished these yesterday, Christmas Day. We do most of our celebrating on Christmas Eve so Christmas Day is always quiet around here. Great for relaxing and getting a little sewing done.

I’m very excited that I’ve kept up with each part. Hopefully, on Friday, we’ll be putting these together into a quilt top. Can’t wait.

Crazily, I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a second quilt in different colors. But so far I haven’t actually pulled any fabrics. I’ve got way too many other projects to complete first. 🙂

Technically, I’m working this week, but very few of my colleagues are working. So it’s very quiet and I’m working from home. So I think there’s some quilting going to happen in the afternoons over the next few days.

Linking up to Bonnie’s Part 5 Link Up.

Easy Street Part 4

Posted in Easy Street, Gifts, Quiltville Quilts3 Comments

I was finished with East Street Part 4 by Friday evening.

I struggled with making the Flying Geese using Bonnie’s method. In the past these have not come out even for me. I realized the problem lies in accurate cutting and making sure the tops of the background line up perfectly with the top of the goose. When all these stars align, the flying geese unit turns our perfectly.

A lesson in slowing down and patience for me. If I want accurate piecing that is. 🙂

I cut my 3.5” squares from 3 different greens. The rest of the greens from my stash that match this colorway are in 2” and 2.5” strips, so my choices were limited. Hopefully, I’ll get to use some of these others as well. But I promised myself this quilt would be completely from stash.

On Saturday, I finished off my Christmas gifts. I made these two zippered bags for my housecleaning team.

I added some hand lotion, hand sanitizer, kleenex, and a Gift Certificate to each. I really like the second bag with the zipper offset from the top. Not having to add the zipper where the bag turns the corner makes such a difference. It lies perfectly flat this way. I used the tutorial found here. But modified it a bit to make only one bag.

I’m now ready for Christmas, so when Clue 5 comes out on Friday, I can spend the day sewing.

Linking back to Bonnie’s Part 4 post and Connie’s Tuesday Linky Party.