Tidy Up Tuesday - A Summer 2024 UFO Club Finish

Welcome to another edition of Tidy Up Tuesday!!  I'm here to share my first UFO finish of the quarter.  It's been a pleasure to make a young man's quilt dreams come true.

If you're on Ravelry you may have already seen it...

This special quilt for a special young man revolves around the following sweatshirt...

... Which was donated to the cause by his mother.  It belonged to her, but she appreciated the fact that he wasn't interested in parting with any of his new shirts as he headed off to campus.

The accompanying shirts...

Shown below in a throw-sized setting, just to see what I had to work with:

Next...

The rearranging began to transform the throw into an XL Twin bed quilt layout.  It took several iterations before I was happy enough to send this photo for recipient approval:

The same thing happened with the addition of the sashing and cornerstones.  Those strips and squares got moved around until things fell into place:

Once recipient approval was received, the columns were sewn...

Pairs were joined...

And...

Sections were assembled:

Here is the completed quilt top:

Special thanks to @britt_quilts for the use of her longarm quilting machine and the help loading the quilt components.  Your machine make that process super scary to me!  Quilt a little, lunch a little...

Quilt a little, art a little and at the end of the day...

It was the first quilting marathon that I've had in many months, but the quilting was DONE:

Only a few steps left!!!

The squaring up is complete...

Attaching the binding...

Complete with a game of "Binding Chicken", but I won with 12 inches to spare:

Finishing the edges - Look!  There's even a scrap of ORANGE shirt making up one of the cornerstones:

Here is the porch swing photo:

The Work Man T-Quilt was completed August 7, 2024 - nearly 10 DAYS prior to Move-In Day.  Whew!!  That was a bit too close for comfort, but thanks to Britt's assist, I got it done.

If any of this looks familiar...

You might have seen a few highlights in a recent RSC post.  My apologies, but I felt the quilt needed a post of its own.

Until next time...

Mark another UFO off the list!!

Design Floor Friday - Another UFO Club Finish

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!!  I'm pleased to share the story of my latest T-quilt.  It's my most recent Spring 2023 (Ravelry) UFO Club finish.  You may have seen bits and pieces of the process on my weekly RSC post, but you didn't get the whole story.

Here it is...

I've been working on a quilt since April.  It started out on the "design bed", but...

Made its way to the studio...

For the addition of sashing, before returning to the "design bed" for further consideration:

After several more back and forths, a quilt top was complete:

Soon enough, it was off on a field trip to the design floor at Finish It Friday...

For the addition of these borders:

No photo, but then it was off to Britt's house for quilting:

She layered up the frame and I did the quilting:

This is what remained to be completed when it was time to head off to our Monthly Evening Bee:

Back in my studio, binding was applied and stitched down:

Finally, the quilt was done!  The construction workers next door advised against a porch swing photo.  Too much clay dust settling there!  Thankfully, helpers were on hand to assist with a porch photo:

Then came delivery day...

One satisfied customer and one joyful quilter:

Special thanks to my friend Sherry for putting in a good word for me!!  Without her, The Nephew Quilt might not have been finished in time for graduation.

Until next time...

Mark another UFO off the list!!!

Sharing with Alycia

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ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC23 - Week 17

Welcome to Week 17 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  This week started with an ending.  The end of a Bucket List experience.  You'll find the link in Wednesday's entry, if you haven't already read the post.

SUNDAY - I realize this is freshly finished UFO quilt top is not PURPLE...

Look, Alycia... PLAID!!! Link takes you to Finished (Or Not) Friday.  :o))

Currently 39 x 47, so it still needs some additional work to stretch it out a bit.

But...

My purchase at Quiltville Inn was the Gypsy Sip n Snip.  I couldn't resist bringing one of the nifty cup holder/trash can (and clip holder) combos which adorned each workstation back for my own studio:

While I was away, the heavy machinery multiplied on the lot next door:

FIVE pieces of equipment can't dampen the excitement of getting to mark off a Bucket List item.

MONDAY - Work was followed by a trip to the grocery store

TUESDAY - Work was followed by my monthly Evening Quilt Bee meeting:

I nearly forgot to take a photo!!

WEDNESDAY - Wonderful Wednesday

I've been building a PURPLE quilt this month.  It's been a really fun RSC project:

Wonder of wonders, you could actually see the dent this has made in my PURPLE scrap basket.

It went from being bulging and overflowing to only half full!!!  I'd call that a success.

Zoom with LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color

This afternoon's big adventure regarding the construction site next door???

Delivery of the largest wood chipper I've ever seen...

Along with...

The longest piece of machinery (presumably a log sizer/cutter) blocking our driveway:

THURSDAY - Work was followed by a quick stop at the grocery store and the pharmacy (because I couldn't POSSIBLY go just ONE time in a week!)  Sigh...

I did some sewing, but I'll share more about that next week

FRIDAY - ABC (Table) SCRAPS Challenge Link Party (It's open until Tuesday night, so there's still plenty of time for you to create an entry using the Y and/or N letter prompts or the color PURPLE!)

Today was my day off and I was excited to be able to attend Knit Group, but it was canceled this morning.  :o((

That gave me the opportunity to focus on one of my SHOULD DO items:

I worked on the layout for the next T-Quilt.

SATURDAY - It's LINK PARTY day for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  I hope you will join me in visiting Angela @ So Scrappy to see what the RSC Quilters have been up to this week.  She hasn't posted the link yet, but I'll add it when she does.

My contribution to the party...

One scrappy PURPLE project was completed while on retreat last weekend.  I'm not sure whose Orphan Block this was, but it came out of a "Bag of Joy" from my friend Diane:

Update:  The blocks were the extras that my friend Diane shared from a top made in a class

 on Mile a Minute Quilts. She was happy to see it finished table topper.  It was a fun project to work on!

I quilted it (thanks to Stacy for serving as my Design Consultant!), trimmed it into a tumbler shape to preserve the quilting, and bound it with a fabric from my (gifted) stash of Autumnal prints.  This cute turtle fabric was on the back and the turtles are red-violet in color...

But I only have these scraps left, as I gave the remainder of the one-yard cut to Tiffany over the weekend once I cut off the amount needed for the backing.  (Not sure how I missed getting a photo!)

When Carol commented on the unusual shape of the little quilt on Tuesday and said how much she liked it, I promptly gifted it to her because I know how much she enjoys decorating for Halloween:

Here is the photo that Carol took of the backing fabric when I couldn't recall what I had used:

 

Until next time...

Get SCRAPPY!!

Design Floor Friday - The Emergency Quilt

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!!  It's been quite some time since I've added a post to this series.  Today, I'm back with a tale of a very special quilt.  It was a super speedy finish because I was a quilter on a mission!.  The quilt is something new, something old, and something unexpected, all wrapped up into one.  

Let me explain...

You see, my friend had a house fire last week.  It was a total loss.  I was devastated for their family.  When quilters face tragedy, we make a quilt!  That's just what I did when I discovered that I had nothing appropriate ready for gifting to a pre-teen boy.

I knew just what to do, though...

I gathered every Duke shirt in the house and planned a pleasing layout:

On Sunday...

He's a Duke fan and my family just happened to have YEARS worth of Duke T-shirts saved for a quilt.  During last week's Zoom call with Knittingsuek, I deconstructed the shirts:

On Monday...

I went upstairs before work to fire up the heat press:

With time remaining and all the shirts pressed, I cut them to size:

The next step had to wait until my work day was done...

It was then that I went back to the "design bed" for an updated layout, as the proportions were wrong on the 3 x 5 plan.  Going with 4 x 4 felt much better:

Back in the studio, I made the necessary adjustments to the smaller shirts...

And created a feature block for the recipient:

What time is it, Joyful???

Time to stitch the shirts into a quilt top.  First one half...

Followed by pairs of blocks for the second half...

But it was later in the evening than I typically sew, yet the quilt top was done.  Or was it?!  Here's where I left it on Monday night:

HINT:  Do NOT sew later than you should!!!

On Tuesday...

With quilt top (and seam ripper in hand), I headed to work, took out the offending seam that I decided I couldn't live with, and reassembled the quilt top when I got home:

SEW much better when the quilt turns out like the plan!!  The completed quilt top measures 64" square.

By Tuesday night, the quilt was loaded on the longarm and ready for quilting:

ETA...  Sending out a HUGE THANK YOU to Suzanne in Alaska for allowing me to use backing fabric provided for another project.  Please forgive me for neglecting to add this prior to releasing the post).  You saved my from having to take the extra time that it would have required to locate (or purchase) and piece the necessary yardage.  There was even enough leftover to use for binding!  :o))

On Wednesday...

Even though I was scheduled to work late, I left work at lunchtime to knock out what I refer to as semi-custom quilting on the quilt, with the hopes of finishing it before the arranged time for my weekly Zoom call with LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color:

Mission accomplished!!

Once our call was over, the quilt had a date with my rotary cutter so that it could be squared up:

After dinner, it was back up to the studio to apply the binding, but I found that I couldn't stop there!  I simply HAD to stitch the binding down, as well:

 After quilting, trimming and binding, the quilt measures 63" x 64" square-ish.

With that done, the quilt was washed, dried, and ready for gifting, but some better photos to share with you needed to wait until morning:

 After a its tumble through the washer and dryer, the quilt measures 61" x 62" square-ish.

And one final shot of the Emergency T-Quilt, casually tossed on the porch swing:

I'm surprised at how quickly this came together!  Never before have I completed such a large project SEW fast.  It was truly a labor of love and  I'm looking forward to delivering the quilt over the weekend.  Here's hoping he likes it!  I feel fairly confident that he will.

ETA...  Sending out a HUGE THANK YOU to Suzanne in Alaska for allowing me to use backing fabric provided for another project.  Please forgive me for neglecting to add this prior to releasing the post).  You saved my from having to take the extra time that it would have required to locate (or purchase) and piece the necessary yardage.  There was even enough leftover to use for binding!  :o))

Until next time...

Wrap someone in a QUILTY hug!!! 

Sharing with Alycia

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