Actually Making Progress!

It's been what feels like years since I've actually quilted!  Between all the shirts and vests, and then the Bionic Gear Bag... Hubby's poor "Family Guy" quilt has been on a back burner.  I think the side projects were partially to blame, but also my indecisiveness on the quilting was also a major factor.  I think I was over-thinking the process and making it out to be more difficult than it needed to be.... resulting in it sitting for the past 6 weeks or so.

So... this weekend I was determined to get it done.  I pulled it off the shelf, dusted it off, and got to work.

Just simple straight-line stitching in the smaller blocks and rectangles, then some diagonal lines in a couple of the larger rectangles.  Then it was time to tackle the 12" square blocks and the 8" square blocks.  Didn't want to do something too crazy or intricate, but they definitely needed something.

On the 12" blocks, I just used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out a star shape out of cardstock that was about 8" x 8", traced it on the block, and then used my FMQ foot.  They're far from perfect, but they look OK.

Then, for the 8" blocks, I used my loopy swirls stencil and just did some FMQ in the block.  Again, far from perfect, but doesn't look terrible.

It's now about 95% done with the binding attached and just needing the hand-stitching done.  Add to that a quilt label (which I still have to make), and it'll be ready to go.  Figures... I am finally going to finish it and we have officially entered Spring here in NE Ohio with temps in the 50s.

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, Fabric Tuesday at A Quilt Story, and Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts

Also linking up to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday and Sew Fresh Quilts' Let's Bee Social

Linking back to Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and I Quilt Thursdays at Pretty Bobbins.

WIP Wednesday: For Grandma

My poor grandma!!!  She came to visit us from PA back at the beginning of August.  The plan was to stay a few weeks with my parents and then a week or two with her sister up in NW Ohio.  Well... that was the plan.  About a week into her stay, she landed herself in the hospital in congestive heart failure :-(  A week in the hospital and she was good to go.  Left to go to visit her sister and within 3 days of her arrival up there, she had to be brought back down to be admitted again.  Another two weeks in the hospital and they finally released her to a nursing home near my house.  It's been nice having her so close, but it's under terrible circumstances :-(

That being said, I decided to bump up grandma's quilt from a Christmas gift to a "sorry you're not feeling well" gift.  I actually managed to get this entire top pieced and ready to go in one evening two weekends ago!

The pattern is Yellow Brick Road and the fabrics are from the Downton Abbey Fat Quarter bundle I got a while ago.  I honestly should have paid more attention when gals were saying to be sure to read the directions completely before starting...  I didn't and ended up with a mega goof!  Instead of three different block layouts, I ended up with only two.  Whoops!  I just did a little adjustment to the layout and all seems to be OK.  Shhhh... no one will ever know :-D

Fast forward to this past weekend and after all the marathon sewing I did to crank out two more of the Comic Book Button-Down shirts for two of Hubby's friends, I buckled down and wanted to get this one basted.  Only one problem.... I was a bit tired when I decided to start basting this.  "Cheated" by not spray basting and relying on just safety pins.  Ended up with a boat-ton of puckering on the back :-(  Being the perfectionist I am, I had to re-do it.  Problem was I was a little too tired to tackle it Saturday.  Put it to bed for the night.

Monday night I decided to take care of pulling out the 150+ pins I put in, re-aligining everything, and then basting again.  I even managed to tear Hubby away from the football game on TV long enough to help :-)  Fortunately, once it was spray basted this time (Yea!), the pinning went by rather quickly.

So excited to be wrapping this one up!  I really want to give it to grandma before she heads back to PA next weekend (that's the plan).  Now it's on to the fun part.... quilting!  My mom convinced me I need to overcome my fear of FMQ.  Just bite the bullet and jump right in, according to her.  Well.. I'm a bit of a chicken.  There was no way I was comfortable enough doing FMQ to even attempt it on a quilt yet!  Then the light bulb went off!  I ran to JoAnn's after work last night, picked up some simple quilt stencils, and came home and started to practice.

First Attempt - Two pieces of muslin with batting inbetween

Tracing the stencil on the fabric was the easy part!  Man, is this a lot more difficult than I imagined it to be!  The butterfly in the top, right-hand corner was the last one I did on this sample.  I can definitely see the improvement, but I still need much more practice!

Attempt #2 - Extra border fabric, muslin backing, and actual thread I'm using in my project

Attempt #2 went MUCH better than the first!  I think I am finally getting the hang of this!  It's going to take a lot of guts, but I think I'm actually going to attempt this design in the 5.5" squares on my quilt :-)  I even got a butterfly border stencil that I want to use in the border.  Hopefully it won't be too hard.  We shall see!

Let's hope this one is finished up by this weekend and I'll have a finish to share!

Linking back to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday and Sew Fresh Quilts' Let's Bee Social