Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Joan gave us a lot of freedom for this blog hop. We could make a quilt with aliens, or we could use quilter speak and address our unfinished objects. I think aliens may help my unfinished projects pile up overnight! I had hoped to finished some of my more long term UFOs, but life gets in the way, which is part of why UFOs develop in the first place. They say the first step is admitting you have a problem. When I look at my sewing area I definitely can admit there is a problem. Next it's usually helpful to evalutate how you've gotten where you are so why do my projects become UFOs? Let's look at a few of them (sadly this is not all of them!) This one became a UFO because I just didn't know how I wanted to quilt it. My plan now is to take it to a friend who teaches longarm quilting and use it as a practice quilt. This one became a UFO because I didn't have a recipient in mind when I made it. The top sits with the backing and even the batting waiting fo

 Carol of  Just let me Quilt  had organized another great blog hop.  Our prompt this time was to create something sun related.  I went through a number of ideas, but kept coming back to the same one.  At m6 quilt retreat this spring, we had a demonstration of Dorset Buttons by a couple of the embroidery ladies.  They thought maybe we quilters could use them for embellishments and gave us each a kit to make two.  When watching the demonstration I thought watching it was mesmerizing but couldn’t see myself making them.  A couple weeks later we had a teacher wellness day and one session was an hour of doing your own crafts.  I wanted something small enough to take to work so I took my kit and realized they were fun and the small ones weren’t nearly as time consuming as I expected.  I am starting to make some into jewelry and wreaths and hoping to sell at some local craft events.   Several of my early buttons My first Dorset Button When I made the pastel wreath, I thought it would take a d

I should have known that signing up for a blog hop at the end of the school year I'd run into challenges... I finished the top for this quilt in March but took my sewing machine for service the week before Easter and needed to have a part replaced.  Of course the part was on backorder so I didn't get my machine back until last week and the quilting just hasn't happened.  The pattern is Iceburg from Villa Rosa Designs. I made a mistake cutting the solid blue, so I had to add some yellows.  The lemon fabrics are bright and cheerful so I’d planned to finish if for hands2help and give it to a friend who has been on the frontlines of healthcare while dealing with some health struggles in her own family.  I won’t make the deadline with quilting but it will still eventually bring some cheer to my friend.  Monday, May 23rd Just Let Me Quilt Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting Karrin's Crazy World Elizabeth Coughlin Designs Scrapdash.com Lianne Makes Stuff lynns blog Tuesday, May 24th C

     I love it when a blog hop encourages me to finish a project I've been meaning to get to.  This one actually gave me the push for two!   Joan  challenged us to make something colorful, or something related to the world.  In March I went to a quilt retreat with my Babushka's project from Fat Cat Patterns (I'm not sure this is still listed on her site and a goal to make a quilted jacket from a sweatshirt.  Either one would fulfill this challenge and I was able to finish both.       I've thought of making a quilted jacket for a long time but the idea of following a garment pattern doesn't appeal to me.  When my friend told me she'd used a sweatshirt for hers I started looking for a button or snap closure sweatshirt at the thrift stores and lucked out just before retreat and found one for $1.  At retreat I seam ripped the arms and sides and created a flat seam to cover with crazy blocks.  I spent the evenings after retreat sewing my crazy blocks together so I

 I've only recently started to enjoy making half square triangles, so when the theme for Time in a Bottle was announced I wasn't sure I'd participate.  I considered making a mug rug for game night with a hourglass applique but since the prompt specifically said the hourglass block I wasn't sure that would work.  Then when I started working on the Oh My Stars quilt I showed last month in the Tickled Pink blog hop, I realized I had a lot of bonus triangles I could use.  I have a tendency to throw those bonus triangles in my scrap bin and add them to crazy blocks but I decided I'd use them to make hourglasses this time.  By the time I trimmed them my hourglass was much smaller than I usually work with, but they weren't so bad to work with, until it came time for quilting.  Between a needle I should have replaced and a lot of joined seams the back has some areas that don't look so great-if it were something that would be seen I'd feel the need to tear it out