Another UFO bites the dust!

Not quilted yet, it has to wait it's turn. When Ambrosina was a baby (born in 1980) my Grandmother gave me a box of scraps and in it was the pattern for these little appliqued birds. I made the blocks long ago but never got the quilt put together. Can you spot the block that didn't get rotated right? That's my humility block, by the time I spotted it it was sewn on all four sides and I didn't want to rip it out. I love this pattern, but I doubt if I will ever do it again although I enjoy applique there are so many other quilts I want to do. But I am one project closer to finishing my UFOs and I pulled another bin off the shelf for tomorrow.

In the top of the bin there is an unfinished stuffed dinosaur, what is below that I don't know but it will be fun to find out!

Tomorrow is the last day of school. The excitement is at a fever pitch. Today Sammy's class is going to the zoo and Ambrosina is going with them. She was excited too, but Sammy was over the moon. I am looking forward to them being home, and as Ambrosina says we have Grandma, Leon's mother, for back up when we need a break. She loves the noise too. So on my next to the last quiet day for the summer I will do what I usually do: Drink my coffee and do my hand work.

Another Drunkard's Path top finished Saturday evening before bedtime. This morning I pieced a back for it, also for another Log Cabin top I finished years ago; in all I have 6 quilts that I have pieced backs for in the last few days and I am ready to baste after I get batting. Three new tops, and three UFOs. A good last few days.

And the final totals are: 863 8 inch Pinwheels.

137 of these blocks of 4 small Pinwheels.

945 four inch Pinwheels.

481 three inch hourglass units.

I haven't decided exactly how each quilt will be put together and what further work I will put in on the blocks, it will be fun though.

Tomorrow I start on the UFOs that are in the cubby holes upstairs. It will be interesting to see what I will find up there; it's been several years since I put the stuff in them. I am sure I will enjoy it.

Ernestine is bare; I put all the Pinwheels under the needle for the last time. I may find a few that need repairs as I sliver trim the ones that I finished today. I also finished all the Drunkard's Path blocks and I will start putting those together tonight in my before bedtime sewing. I ironed them yesterday.

The pink is the back for Log Cabin Heart. I finished that this morning, this has been a week of finishing things. Those rolls in the tub that look like toilet paper are actually rolls of pink fabric in various shades. I had a tub full of them and I have used them for a lot of backs. I bought them from Goodwill, I think they are ends off of rolls of fabric hospital linens were made of. I didn't pay very much and they have been useful for a lot of things. I wish I could find some more of them, but in different colors.

Next week during the week I will piece more backs so that when payday gets here and I can get batting, I will be ready to baste quilts the week after that. I will get six ready, but I am not sure if I will have enough pins for six big quilts. Also I will work on writing the pattern for Log Cabin Heart.

All in all I feel I have earned my afternoon's coffee with my feet up and my hand sewing.

It's done, borders and everything. It's huge 116 x 103.

The top is done, that is. Tomorrow I start piecing the back. Next week after payday I plan to spend a day basting quilts to ready them for quilting and it will be first. This is the biggest quilt that I have made for a long time and I probably will have to spend about 3 weeks quilting it. It's not going to turn into a UFO. Neither is the half square triangle top I finished a couple of weeks ago. By the time I get batting the latest Drunkard's Path top will be done so that one will have to be basted and quilted. So there will be 3 new ones that I will baste, and if I can baste as many as I did last time, there will be 3 UFOs that will be basted. I don't know though, all of the tops ready to be quilted are large, I might not have enough pins. I have been missing the quilting this month, it will be fun to be doing it again. I intend to write the pattern for the Log Cabin Heart, something I have never done before and I don't know how long it will take. The next one I make I don't want to have to redraw, replan and try to decipher ten year old working notes.

But for now, I can just lean back and relax in the glow of a finished project.

Getting there! A few more days should see them done. That will free up a lot of time to work on other things. I have to spend some time sliver trimming them upstairs in the morning to keep up so that time will go for something else. It's been a long haul and I am still not done, the end is in sight.

I got all the strips cut for the last two borders on Log Cabin Heart and even got a start in sewing them. I'm hoping to finish them in the morning and iron them so I can finish the top on Thursday morning. It sounds like a plan!

The first two borders are nearly done. I am going to alternate the other borders with wide dark and narrow light. I didn't make all four at once because I get so easily mixed up I would probably have to do a lot of ripping out. They are going really fast and I hope to finish the borders tomorrow and get them on. My light colored and pink scraps are going to be very low and it looks like I'll be thrift shopping for fabrics on payday. Oh darn! I'm getting anxious to get them done, I have so many other things to finish up there in the sewing corner and the summer is going to be so busy.

It's still not warm enough out under the back porch to wind warp, so I am waiting on that. We are in a cold spell right now and I have even had the heater on a little down here in the afternoons. The Pinwheels are coming along pretty fast now, I almost found the top of the sewing machine last night while I was working.

We'll be going camping in just a couple of weeks now, and less than a month after that is our annual trip to Lincoln stopping at the zoo in Omaha. Definitely a busy summer. David and Leon helped Timothy and Rosa move this last weekend. They are quite a bit closer to us now. Hopefully it will warm up enough for me to work on the warp so I can get some weaving time in after we get back from our trips. Ambrosina is talking of another camping trip in August. That will be nice too. Plenty to look forward to, as well as the day to day with the boys home and the house noisy again. That's the best part of summer!

It's complete and all the blocks are rotated the right way. I've decided to put a border on it to make it big enough for a queen size bed. I am going to use the same fabrics and do a piano key border. I think it will look pretty good and make it enough different from the first one to make it interesting. I don't know how long it will take to do the border but I started cutting the pieces before lunch and I will work on it tomorrow morning. So it looks like I will not be starting on UFOs until next week. If they have waited this long, they can wait a while longer.

Still plugging away on my Pinwheels. I wonder if they will be like Bartholomew Huggins Hats, never ending. I know there are way more than 500 of them.

When David was measuring my quilts prior to me listing it online I found a gash in it, about 3 inches long down through all the layers and binding, so it had to happen after it was finished. When I told Ambrosina about it she made a face and said it was probably Sammy, he is fascinated with rotary cutters. It sounds like a five year old. I darned it, but I can't sell it. Someone will be glad to have it. There is no use getting upset, and even if I talk to him about it he won't remember it, small children having the selective memories that they do. It's the price we must pay to have children and grandchildren and I don't think it is too large a price to pay.

I heard a crash out in the sitting room, I had better go see what the cat has done to my piles of quilt blocks and other projects out there.

Log Cabin Heart webbed and ready for the long seams. I had ten extra blocks, I guess I need to learn to count. Well, I have ten ready for the next one. I love this pattern and I am sure I will make another one some time. I was afraid there wouldn't be enough contrast and I see a couple of the fabrics in the wrong place but all in all I am pleased. And thanks to David for being my able and willing assistant. I should be able to finish it in the morning and then I will put it away until next month when I can get some batting. I'll soon start piecing backs so I have those ready when I get the money.

Still not feeling very well, if I am not better in the morning I will go to the walk in clinic tomorrow. I got all my finished quilts listed on Etsy. The blue Log Cabin had way too many flaws, I'll do something else with it. I gave the tan and white Log Cabin to Grace. One of the Pineapples had a big tear in it that had to have happened after it was completed is unsaleable. No idea how that happened. I'll do something with that too.

Anyway, things are starting to get back to normal I am glad to say. I am keeping busy and getting things done, I always feel better when I am useful in some way. Making beautiful and useful things is always good.

I've been really sick. For several days. It is getting old. I started doing a little better yesterday so I started putting together Log Cabin Heart. Yikes! It seems really complicated I don't remember having this much trouble with the first one, but that was so long ago I probably wouldn't anyway.

I had to redraw this diagram with the curves it was too confusing this way.

Then I had miscounted how many of these blocks I needed to make. I actually need 42 of them so I am working on those now and I should be able to finish them tomorrow and get back to assembling the top. I intend to rework my notes, there are other errors that I discovered while I was working.

The blocks that are made are all one colored needed sliver trimming. On the next quilt I might make the narrow/wide strips just for consistency's sake, the same with the long solid blocks. I actually needed to add some extra strips around on some of the blocks. I made copious notes and I will make some correct drawings when I get some graph paper.

Then I started putting the top together, wrong as it happened, that's when I redrew the diagram and that helped. All in all I feel pretty tired, it's also taking longer to put the top together then it usually does. I hope to finish it tomorrow morning.

The plan after that is to start on the bins in the dining room and finish all the UFOs in those. Most of them will be empty after that and I will have a little more storage, which will help some of the clutter in my sewing corner upstairs, it's getting pretty bad with all the stuff I've been working on there. My reference books are stuck in a corner and it would be nice to have them handy.

Our John was down over the weekend. We hadn't seen him for close to 2 years and we have been missing him a lot. He brought his girl friend with him, it was the first time we had met her and she seems very nice. They have been together for several years, but John is a lot like his father; slow. Sweet though.

I'm still not feeling very good, I'm going to take a nap before I start my hand sewing. I might not get a lot done, but I hope I will feel better.

 I had a busy day yesterday. My class was from 1:00-3:00 in the afternoon then I came home and worked on this:

There are approximately 4,000 hand sewn hexagons in it. It's called Grandmother's Flower Garden. I finished it just after 11:00 last night and now I can focus on some other hand sewing that I need to get done; I have a couple of other hexagon tops started but they can wait for a while.

I am going to finish the Log Cabin Heart this week or maybe early next week. I only have about ten blocks to finish. These are the ones that take extra care, also the ones that are the most interesting. It won't take me long to make them unless I make too many mistakes. These are the diagrams for six of the ten blocks. I will have the diagram for the last one tomorrow.

They are not too tricky and I don't foresee them taking too long. Then all that remains is putting the top together. Quilting won't be for a while, I didn't have the money to buy any batting this month. I needed shoes and the car needed tabs; just one of those months. Next month will be better, at least I hope so, you never know.

Anyway, in terms of accomplishment, I have gotten a lot done the last couple of days. Including sweeping and mopping my bedroom. Now it's time to relax with the coffee and the sewing and see what else I can accomplish today.

I found this poor little possum on the sidewalk this morning. It isn't weaned yet and I don't think it will survive. Ambrosina won't let me have it in the house to take care of it, and I haven't found any place that I can take care of it. I put it in a box to at least make it comfortable. It is really a pretty little creature. They make a clicking sound. Poor little guy. I am too soft hearted.

I finished the first half-square triangle top this morning. There are 1,840 triangles in it, it is put away waiting for me to baste and quilt it. I was able to straighten up my sewing corner upstairs this morning after I finished it and got to work on my Log Cabin Heart, which will be the next top I will finish. I am going to draw out the plans for the next set of blocks and post them soon.

I am close to finishing the latest hexagon top, I hope to have pictures of it soon, I'll be working on it this after noon, but I have  a headache so I have been thinking of taking a nap first, it just seems like a nap sort of day; as a matter of fact, David is sleeping right now. Think I'll join him!

I've named this quilt "Perseverance", and it took a great deal of that to finish it. I made the top not long after I was diagnosed PTSD with panic disorder and anxiety and depression. It was at a time when concentrating on anything for more than 5 minutes was difficult or impossible but I kept going back to it. Some of the blocks didn't turn out right; I didn't have enough made obviously so I just added in some flannel squares. I used heavy corduroy, men's polyester suiting (what was I thinking?), flannel, uniform material, canvas duck and denim. It weighs a ton. The quilting was nearly impossible and wasn't helped by a pieced back.

An ugly pieced back.

I started out trying to do a pattern called Ribbon Twist by Jeanne Harrison, but the materials were so dense and uneven it was not turning out the fabrics were swallowing the thread, so I changed to Bubbles-big Bubbles just to get it done. The thread broke constantly, if I got through two circles without breakage I counted myself blessed. I didn't rip out the beginning try at a pattern, it's part of the quilt's story. I bound it in scrap bias left over from some other quilts, it seemed fitting somehow.

I managed to get it done this morning, it was hard to keep at it until I was done but I did. I have come a long way in my healing since I made this top. I am no longer paralyzed by mental illness. I function and work and enjoy life again. In a way this quilt is like the story of my healing: I just kept at it.

That's why I named it Perseverance.

I've been plugging away at the Pinwheels for quite a while now and the pile has gone way down. With both pictures together one can see how many I have gotten through, now is when it gets a little hard to keep at it because they are starting to get a little tedious and it takes all my stick-to-itivity to keep going, but I will.

Upstairs I am over three quarters of the way done with the last basted quilt top.

It has been very difficult to quilt for various reasons which I will go into later, but I am sticking to that too and will breathe a sigh of relief when done. After it's done I will finish the Log Cabin Heart and couple of other tops before I baste again. I forgot to get batting when I shopped so I couldn't baste anyway and I have all the backs to get ready anyway. That too will happen when I get this last one done, hopefully tomorrow. It is a very heavy quilt and I tire easily.

I am nearly done with the latest hexagon top and I have been focusing on that most of the afternoon. About 9 more blocks and then some fill in. When it is done I will take a picture of that.

So right now it's sort of if I am just marking time while I work at finishing several things. I have some clothes that I want to cut out and work on, and an idea for a table topper that I want to make, I just feel that I have to get to a stopping point on the things I am working on right now. The ideas won't go away, I can wait.

What a lovely May 1st. The good thing it's melting fast. The wind was chill but we are hoping it will warm up. I only hope all the budding flowers didn't get frostbitten.

 We did get a picture of this though, Polka Dots. It is a scrap quilt although it may not look like it. It was made from the leftover ends of the strips Ambrosina cuts for Rose. I'm getting a little tired of solids, and the next quilts I make when I am done with the ones I am working on are going to be patterned. I have a long way to go though and I am resisting the impulse to start something more interesting.

 This is the back. I am almost out of orphan blocks so there won't be many more pieced with those.

Stanley Fat Squirrel could not understand why we were messing around with quilts when he wanted to be fed. He will almost take food out of our hands; David fed him.

I started quilting this quilt this morning. It is going to take a while. It is very big and is the last top I made using corduroy and denim which makes it very heavy. I have three other corduroy/denim tops waiting to be quilted, and I will do those first I think and get them out of the way. Don't get me wrong they make a nice quilt, but I get a lot of thread breakage with them and they tire me out. This is the last basted quilt and I think I will take some time and finish a couple of tops that are unfinished in the upstairs sewing area, then I can baste them and they won't turn into UFOs. Meanwhile I will keep plugging away at the Pinwheels down here.

And speaking of Pinwheels, it's now time to go out and get busy on Ernestine, happily the pile is going down pretty fast now.