March UFO progress - Land of Lincoln

It is officially a flimsy.  Now, I know that doesn't count as completely done, but considering this was just a bunch of fat quarters at the beginning of the month, I say it is still progress.  It is a pretty big top too!

The pattern calls for some borders, which I haven't decided if I want to add yet.  Part of the problem is that the only brown fabric that I have enough of, I'm not crazy about how it looks next to the rest of the quilt.  I suppose it would make a suitable backing, but I think I should keep looking for something else.  Of course, Lent is not over yet, so I won't be purchasing any border material for at least another week.  :(

Now, I know you are wondering, when will I actually finish this quilt?  Honestly, probably not for a while.  I was just thinking a few days ago what a complete failure I have been at Judy's UFO challenge.  The first month, I rearranged my list so I could work on the quilt that was at the greatest stage of completion.  It is the only quilt on the list that I have actually finished.  February's quilt - well I did get the backing done. It is marked and sandwiched and awaiting quilting - but it is not done.  March, not finished.  As I was thinking all this, I wondered which quilt would be chosen for the April challenge.   I was really hoping it would be one of the small, partially completed quilts on my list. "Please", I thought, "don't let it be those T-shirt quilts for the girls".  While it would help my spring cleaning along to have those done, T-shirt quilting is an involved process.  You have to iron on interfacing to your knit fabrics, then cut it to size, then sew together, then sandwich and quilt as you would a regular quilt.  OK, so that's really one extra step, but I have a lot of little T-shirts to do.  It's going to be a lengthy process, and my April is shortened because next week is Spring Break and we are going on a trip, so no sewing for a while.... So which quilt was chosen for April?  You got it, the T-shirt quilts.

I won't be doing them this month.  There just isn't time, and I have other more important projects that need to be completed first.  Primarily the quilt I have promised for the Hands 2 Help challenge.  I feel a quilt promised to someone else takes priority over one you might be making to live in your own house.  I have a pattern picked out, some of the fabric in my stash to be used, a few additional purchased to be made after Easter, and a quilt to be made for April.  Thus, I will be replacing my T-shirt quilts on my UFO list, with the Hands 2 Help quilt.  And you know what, I feel pretty good about it!

Easter Table runner finished, finally

I finally finished my Easter table runner using my Rollercoaster block.

Yes, it looks different than in the original post because I kept looking at it and thinking as cool as the rolling waves were, they looked a bit uneven since the runner is only 3 blocks across.  If the quilt were bigger, the rolling arrangement would work.  So, I ripped all the seams out and started over. I like the new look better for the runner.  Now, we just have to wait for Easter to arrive.

On a side note, I have managed thus far to keep my vow not to buy any fabric during lent.  I hope I don't go crazy the day after Easter!  Or maybe I do hope that happens...

Lessons learned - LATE

I promised I would have another "lessons learned" post detailing the things I learned from my Name Game Swap Quilt.  Of course that was completed last month.  I got a little distracted in the meantime; please forgive me.  Without further delay:

First here is a picture of the finished quilt:

I drew out the center part on paper at actual size so I could get a feel for the layout (this was a good idea), and then debated how I was going to put my partner's name on the quilt.  Since I had, at the time, just recently finished Carol Doak's paper piecing class and I had her book "300 Paper Pieced Blocks" that included the alphabet, it seemed natural to shrink the letters down to size and add them to the border (this was a good idea too).  At this point, I thought the border would need to be all mini blocks otherwise the weight and drape of it would be off (another good idea) - better to have the whole border be bulky heavy mini's right?  So I chose some other blocks from Carol's book, shrunk them, made a few of my own designs (the sewing machine, spool, and crown), and set to work making them.  Enter lessons learned....

Lesson 1: Not all blocks should be mini's.

If when you print out the pattern, any part of it "disappears" or looks awkward, maybe this isn't the block to miniaturize!

the sky around the lighthouse was really difficult to fit in

Also, if your block has to be broken down into multiple pieces first, then pieced together, maybe this isn't the block to miniaturize.

My self-designed crown has 4 separate pieces that are sewn together just to make the blue part of the block

And finally, if there is something that has both too many pieces AND part of the pattern disappears, this should definitely NOT be a block to miniaturize.

My Union Jack is not meant to look like it is "waving".  This block had 9 pieces just for the flag.  I figured out a few short-cuts to making the stripes, BUT it was still impossible to get them to line up in a 2 inch block.  I even had to add a piece of fabric to the back of the flag to stabilize it to the rest of the block!  The flag deserves more respect.  I thought about throwing the block out completely, but I felt that my quilt really needed to have the British flag on it.  I have since thought of a few alternative ways to try to make this block, but they all still involve multiple pieces - thus, I won't be miniaturizing it in the future!

Lesson 2: Crazy quilting should not be miniaturized either.  I wanted to add some kind of patchwork to the Queen's dress, and as I was going along, I had all these extra little bits that I started sewing together.  I thought it looked cool, BUT when it came to adding it to the dress, it was so much more bulk than there should have been.  I had to double satin stitch it and at a wider width to make sure it was secure and it really stood out from the flat fabric of the rest of the dress.  If I had more time, I would have ripped it out and done something completely different.

Lesson 3: There are things too small for a novice quilter to machine applique perfectly:

Pivoting around all the little spaces in the fingers was hard.  Yes, from a distance you can't really see the extra threads, but up close it is really noticeable.

Lesson 4: When using steam-a-seam or other bonding products with your applique, your needle is going to leave some serious holes which tend not to close up, even with steam, and might allow the batting to show through in some areas:

Again, perhaps not that noticeable from a distance.  But, there was one area, the castle, that I was going to quilt little vines climbing up it.  I got started, and didn't like the look so I ripped it all out.  Because of the steam-a-seam, you could see some of the holes from where the stitching was, even after washing.  Again, from a distance, it looked fine; but close up....  Hopefully, my partner wasn't the type to get out a magnifying glass and scrutinize every little thing!

Lesson 5: Test your marking tools before putting them on your quilt.  I used a black Sewline pencil to outline my cloud shapes so I wouldn't quilt over them.  I have used the white Sewline pencils in the past, and have really liked the way they glide on and wash off.  I assumed the black would be the same.  Application was just as easy, but even after washing, I could still see some of the black lines from the pencil around the clouds.

Perhaps if I had marked my sew lines with the pencil and actually sewn over them, I would see them and wouldn't care.  But because I had marked the areas I didn't want to sew over, I was a bit disappointed that the lines were still showing.

Until next time...