Making Progress

I've been participating in the Drop and Give Me Twenty challenge over at Quilting Hottie Haven.  I'm plodding along, but I AM making progress.  I am such a slow quilter!

I'm finally, completely finished Sand and Sea Glass.  I made Mr. CQT climb up on a ladder in the snowy back deck to hold it up for me.

As I was hand-sewing the binding on, in my living room, I was pleasantly surprised to find the quilt blends in remarkably well with my grey-green furniture.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but it's become a living room snuggle quilt.

And, I've been keeping up with the Scrap in a Box mystery.

This is Step 2 of the mystery.  I've made 82 of these.  Now, I'm just squaring them up.

Twenty one down - sixty three to go!  I'm really happy with how cheerful these blocks look.

Scrap-In-A-Box Part One

Charlotte, over at Scrapitude Quilts, posted her first clue for the Scrap-In-A-Box mystery a couple weeks ago.

This week, I completed it - 82 of this little block - each squared up to 2 1/2 inches.

I had a little fun trying out different ways of putting them together.

However, there are lots of cut pieces yet to incorporate into this quilt - I'm sure the finished product will have none of these combinations in it!

I have not forgotten about my Drop and Give Me Twenty commitment.  Today was February 1st, and I actually gave Beth about 200 minutes, being Sunday and all.  I cut my binding for the Sand and Sea Glass quilt...

 ...sewed it on the front, and started hand stitching the back.

Linking up to

and

Drop and Give me Twenty Time Again

I, Colleen, owner of too many UFOs and/or more fabric than I can hope to use up in my lifetime, am joining Quilting Hottie Haven's third  annual DaGMT event, and pledge to quilt for at least 20 minutes, (since Downton Abbey will be almost over, and Outlander doesn't start again until April) every day of the month of February, 2015. In doing so I hope to finish 5 or 6 UFO's (but who am I kidding - I'll be lucky to finish one) and I think Beth Helfter is brilliant for coming up with this concept and inspiring me to join.

OK, OK, she made me post this pledge - but I DO plan on joining in and you might want to take a look at it her blog.  Beth has a wickedly good sense of humour!

I'm Going to Drop and Give Her Twenty Again This Year!

"I, Colleen (owner of too many UFOs and/or more fabric than I can hope to use up in my lifetime) am joining Quilting Hottie Haven's third annual DaGMT event, and pledge to quilt for at least 20 minutes, every day of the month of February, 2014. In doing so I hope to (make way for more fabric purchases, ensure my children don't someday have to sort through 89 UFOs and then sell them for $5 each at a yard sale) and I think Beth Helfter is brilliant for coming up with this concept and inspiring me to join."

I did this challenge last year, and although I didn't quilt EVERY day, I did do it most days, and got a lot more accomplished than usual.

PS:  Even if you don't join in, take a look at Beth's blog.  It is a lot of fun - she has a great sense of humour!

February 17 and 18

I actually got some sewing done in the last two days!  Having a holiday Monday is great - I get caught up on my housework and my sleep, and still have time for fun.

Even though last week was a bit of a bust, I'm still committed to the Drop and Give me Twenty challenge.


I finished a little project.  This is a pattern by Susie C. Shore designs.  It is a potholder!

You can't see it all that clearly in the photo, but there is an opening under the "icing", and you can put your hand in. It was really quite quick and easy to make up.  The only challenging part was sewing the icing to the back part of the cupcake, because I was sewing through 8 layers of fabric and 4 layers of batting.  But, with my walking foot, it was no problem!
 My Mom's birthday is coming up in a couple weeks, so it will be a fun gift for her.  (Don't mom's always appreciate anything you make for them?)

Drop and Give Me...Um...

OK, OK, I admit it.  I haven't done 20 minutes every day this week.  Turns out work required me to drop and give them a few too.  Darn!

But I did get to sew a few nights, and managed to crank out this.

This is a lovely pattern from Bonnie at Cotton Way.  I purchased it as a kit from Connecting Threads.  I don't know if they have the kit any more - I bought it about a year ago.  But, the pattern is still available at Cotton Way.  You can make it up with quarter dresdens as well.  You could also adapt it to make a plain cover, if you wanted to.

The neighbours probably wondered why I was dragging my ironing board outside in the middle of winter.  Or maybe they didn't.  They may have thought - oh, there they go again!  Mr. CQT has been known to engage in some strange looking construction projects out there from time to time!

Anyway, there's another look.  It was fun and quick to make, and now it is brightening up my sewing room.  Where I WILL have time to sew tomorrow, as it's the Family Day holiday.  Yay!

February 7 - 10

The Drop and Give me Twenty challenge is turning out to be a real motivation for me.  I've been down in my sewing room every day, and 20 minutes has turned into an hour or more on most days. I've finished the Freebie Fifteen top!

Actually, I didn't think it was finished.  After all, I've got 208 hourglass blocks that I made along with the monthly blocks, and they were supposed to be a second border.  But, as soon as I sewed on the first border, the quilt said to me, "Colleen, I am busy enough with all of these complicated blocks.  I do not need a pieced border!"  Well, who am I to argue with a quilt!  So, it's finished.  And I'm glad.

Now, for the backing.  I did buy fabric for the back, online.  When it arrived, it was all wrong.  So wrong!  It is a teal colour, and I thought it looked kind of oceany when I saw it.  (After all, the real name of the quilt is Sand and Sea Glass.)  But the blues in the quilt are more of a sky blue, not teal at all.  I'll save that for a backing for something else, and find new fabric for this one.

So, today, my plan is to clean in my sewing room.  I'm getting distracted by all of the bits of thread and fuzz on the floor!

February 5 and 6

No new photos tonight.  I'm still putting together those Freebie Fifteen blocks.  Chugging along.

Linking up with Quilting Hottie Haven.

February 4

I took a break from the Freebie Fifteen tonight, and worked on the Craftsy February Block.

This one had a set in seam.  There are a LOT of first time quilt makers in this class.  I didn't do a set in seam until my third or fourth quilt.  I'm guessing it is going to be pretty intimidating for the beginners!

The orange is  my focus fabric.  It does have blues and greens in the design, although you can't see them so well in the photo.  I plan to use it in each of the blocks in the quilt.  Hopefully, it will have a unifying effect.

We made three of these.

Linking up with Craftsy and with Quilting Hottie Haven:

February 3

First, to show my progress from yesterday.  I sewed all of the sashings on one side of the blocks, and laid them out to see what arrangement I would like.

I moved them around a bit, but they are all so different from each other, and the colours are so soft that I found it really didn't matter all that much.  However, just to make sure, I marked them all - A1, A2, etc.  I've started sewing the left hand sashing strips on.

Today, these will be put aside for a bit, as I work on a crafting project, for my Manager.  I'll post a picture when it's done.

Tonight, though, no sewing.  It's Downton Abbey night!

Linking up with Quilting Hottie Haven.

February 1 and 2

February 1:  I spent about 45 minutes cutting all of these strips for sashing and a border:

and trimming up these blocks:

Here's a helpful hint.  You'll notice pins in some of those blocks.  They were to be trimmed to 12 1/2 inches. Some of them were a little short on one or two sides.  I put pins on the sides where they were short, so that when I sew on the sashing strips, I'll know to skooch the block over a bit so I catch less than 1/4 inch of it in the seam.  One of the blocks ended up only 12  1/4 inches on every side!  So, I pinned a note to it that says "Really small".  If the block didn't have, oh, a million pieces in it, I probably would have taken it apart and re-sewn it.

February 2:  I'm heading down to the sewing room shortly to start sewing on the sashing strips.

Today is Groundhog Day.  It is brilliantly sunny.  I don't remember a Groundhog Day, here in Alberta, when it has not been brilliantly sunny.  But, truthfully, if winter only lasted 6 more weeks, we'd be dancing.  Usually, it lasts well into April.  But...we do have the sun in the winter, no question!

Linking up to Drop and Give Me Twenty at Quilting Hottie Haven.

I Accept the Challenge!

I need all the help I can get, and hopefully, this WILL help.  This is a challenge over at Quilting Hottie Haven, and all I have to do is put my commitment in writing, and, oh, ya, follow through! So, here goes: I, Colleen (a quilter who is drowning in UFOs) am joining Quilting Hottie Haven's second annual DaGMT event, and pledge to quilt for 20 minutes (or more!) every day of the month of February, 2013. In doing so I hope to use up some small portion of my stash, and open up some space in my sewing room to add more fabric (gasp!  did I say that) and I think Beth Helfter (the Quilting Hottie herself) is brilliant for coming up with this concept and inspiring me to join.
So, now I've joined the 2013 Finish-A-Long, the UFO Along and this challenge.  If I don't get a few projects done this year, it sure isn't the fault of my bloggy friends!