What we did at Sit n Sew

I love having Monday Sewing back to back with Sit n Sew. Sewing with friends is ..... well - it's therapy, it's what keeps me sane and the things that I get done and the things that I learn - no comparison. If you don't have a chance to sew with friends, well - you're missing out on something very special.

Let's see what everyone was working on at Sunday Sit n Sew. I tell you the new dates for 2019 filled up faster than I could get the e-mails read!!!!  I wish I had a bigger space.

Ronda had been agonizing (not really) but she wasn't sure what to bring. She doesn't have too many UFOs. Maybe she does and she is ignoring them? So she grabbed two packs of pre-cut strips that each contained 24 strips. One was red, one was green. She decided to make a jelly roll race quilt, except that it wasn't a race unless she was timing herself!

Randomly, she called out "red? or green?" And then she added that color of strip to her long piece.

Joining the strips

Once the strips were joined which didn't seem to take that long, she was off. Here she is on the second pass of sewing the strips together.

Step two of sewing the strips together

And what to do with those long strips????  They fit nicely on the floor.

The strips waiting to be sewn

And here's the final quilt. OH look - we had a lonely dog visit us. No one was upstairs to keep her company and she creeps down the stairs and then bounds into the studio. "Look at me! I'm cute and someone needs to pet me!" She also thinks she should test all the quilts.

An unwelcome visitor

 Here's the final quilt. Not sure where that one white strip came from.  But it looks good and it's still the fastest way to get a lap sized quilt top made. We could have thrown that on the long arm and it could have gone home as a quilt!

Jelly roll race quilt

France finished her blue/white quilt minus the borders. I wasn't on my toes to get a picture of it, but it looks gorgeous!!  She dug out The Little Lacie Bag (Border Creek Station). She also had the intention of using it as a carrying case for her little iron. See the heat-resistant material on the right? There's a story behind this bag. She's been bringing it to the Sit n Sew days all year and every month, there's been some issue with it! I don't think it got completed - NEXT YEAR!!!  I think France should write this on her 2019 list of UFOs to finish!

The Little Lacie Bag - kit, lining, and pattern

 Surprise - Liz brought something to piece instead of her big applique project. This was a block of the month at a shop that has since closed. The top is now done and it'll be donated to her guild's community projects. Yeah - one more done!

Liz's quilt top - DONE

Diane was working on her nine-patches. She's making a Blooming Nine-Patch quilt. Not sure if that is the name of the pattern she's following - might be called something else. It's from a different book than I made mine years ago! Let's just say that there's a LOT of nine-patches to be made. Just Google Blooming Nine-Patch if you don't know what it looks like.

Diane's nine-patches

Anyone recognize this quilt??  It's actually a panel and Elaine was quilting it which she got finished and trimmed. It was originally a quilt pattern by Possibilities - Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith. Years and years ago. It was so popular that they reprinted it as a panel as it's a bit of a challenge to piece with all those hexagons and triangles and also hard to find all those I Spy fabrics. Well, not hard to find, but costly unless you buy a kit. 

Elaine's I Spy panel - quilted

 Around the perimeter of the border are some printed words of items in the panel.  The original had embroidered words around the edge. She had purchased several of these panels and this is the last one!!!  I know I have a quilt top somewhere around the house that is waiting to be quilted or needs a backing and binding made.

Words on the border of some of the items in the I Spy

Shoot - Linda was tucked in the corner and I missed what she was working on. Oh yes - one of the silicone oven mitts. Hmm. That's all I'm going to say because I have a feeling the pattern isn't the best.

I worked on Audra's quilt. I was working on the applique and since I had used mostly the same fabrics in the two applique blocks, I did the stitching on both at the same time so I wouldn't have to keep changing the thread color. 

Applique block - Number One - DONE

Applique block - Number Two - DONE

Then I started to sew the blocks together. Oops - they are NOT all the same size. I knew that was going to be a problem, but I don't deal with the problems until it's time. Some of the blocks got a wee bit of a sashing on them and the first row is together.

Row One - together!!!

I had to stop working on it after the others left because I needed to get to that magazine quilt. I like to work on those quilts by myself. I made good progress on it after they left and then last night, I was going full speed. The blocks are almost completed and I've started to sew the blocks together. I figure another hour (OK - make that two) and the top will be together. The backing has to be made and loaded. Unfortunately, this quilt needs to have custom quilting and the binding and a sleeve. It might not quite make the courier today. But first thing in the morning it'll be gone. ACK!

After Monday sewing and while I was working on the magazine quilt, I got one of Audra's quilts done. This was from Quilt in a Day called the Underground Railway quilt. Thankfully she did the small blocks. It did not take long to quilt. And I read on the QuiltPath User's Group of another fix for that USB error message I got on the long arm. I disconnected the piece and so far so good. I love when fixes are FREE. 

Underground Railroad quilt - QUILTED

The binding is made for this quilt and after this magazine quilt gets out of the house, I plan to hit the rest of her quilts full force to try and get them all done. Won't take long, but will take a couple of days. It's all scheduled! I have the Task Master to thank for that!

On that note, I'd better get moving. Everything takes longer than we plan - I want to know why that is? I'm not needing to do any ripping, but just the process of sewing (accurately), pressing (accurately) and whatever - it all takes more time than we think.

Oh yes - so I'm sewing away last night and listening to my audiobook. I'm up to Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton. Then, POOF! - the book stops working. Hm - this is the second time this has happened to me. I'm going with Helen Anne's theory that the book didn't download completely. So I "returned" the book so I could redownload it. NOPE - someone has it on hold so I have to wait!!!  No - I don't want to wait - I want it now!!!  Oh well.

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!!!