Lots of progress this weekend!

I had a 4 wonderful days off from my real job.   Between eating tons of turkey and black Friday shopping I got a ton of sewing in too!  It was helpful that we had a ton of leftovers and I didn't need to cook all weekend.

I decided this year that I needed to do the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt.    It had been a few years since I had done one.    It was Celtic Solstice.  My daughter has since stolen that quilt.  Here is a photo of it on her bed.   I changed the colors from Bonnie's choosen colors and I loved how it came out.

The picture below is my completion of step 1.   I got all the blocks done and assembled.   I was originally going to use Bonnie's colors for this but I think I am going to change it up a bit.  Again.  I bought some coral fabrics from Whittles but I am just not a huge fan of that color.  I am either going to go with yellow or purple.   I have tons of those fabrics so I am going to use whichever one I have most of for the last color.  Probably purple.

I also have 2 baby quilts in progress.   They are identical and are gifts for 2 sisters that are both having babies in January.   I wanted the cousins to have matching quilts.  I managed to get the first one on and off the longarm this weekend.  Feathers in the border with cross hatching in the center.

There is also some machine applique on this quilt as well but I will share that on another post when I have both quilts completed.  The baby shower is this weekend so I better get moving!

Today I am linking up to Bonnie's blog, http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2017/11/on-ringo-lake-mystery-monday-link-up.html.   I can't wait to see everyone's progress!  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

WIP Wednesday - 3/20/2013

This is a sort of work in progress. I finished the binding last night and now it just has to be washed and needs a label. This is a gift for a couple that has a baby due in a few weeks. They haven't picked out a name yet so I haven't decided what to write on it. (Any ideas? I am lost without a name for the baby.)  I also made a cute tote that the quilt fits in out of the leftover fabric. The pattern for this tote was in the same free Craftsy class I talked about here. I changed it a little so I could use those cute owl squares.  I had actually cut those squares up to use in the quilt instead of the white but it was just too busy.  I am glad I went with the white.  

I am also going to make a cute little zipper pouch that a trial pack of wipes should fit in. I am going to stop at Walgreens tomorrow and pick one up so I can be sure.

I machine quilted the swirls in the center with some detail on the applique.

The inner border is a ribbon motif.  The outer is some feathers.  I make my feathers bump bump style and no pre-stitched spine. I mark it with chalk and then make it as I go.  It's easier for me this way.    

Guess I missed a string I need to trim.  Some veins quilted in the leaves.

I made the feathers too close to the edge and the binding cut them off.  :(  Oh well.  I will learn for next time. This is the first time I have made feathers on a quilt to give away.  I have always been to hard on myself thinking they weren't good enough.  

The cute back!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced!  I can't wait to see what everyone else has done this week!

Update on owl quilt!

Yesterday I posted about some frustrations I was having with my baby quilt.  Last night I decided to make two mini quilt sandwiches, one pin basted and one spray basted.  I had not one issue with the pin basted one.  I only had a couple skipped stitches with the spray basted.  Not nearly as many or as bad as with the owl quilt.  So I think its definitely the spray.  I think I may have sprayed too much.  I have used this spray before with no problems so I think its just user error.  :)

So short of ripping it all out, I have to deal with it.  I did find that if I went slower I could feel when the needle was starting to stick.  In these areas I made extra sure I held my quilt securely and as flat as possible and that seemed to help.  It cut down on the times I needed to rip thread out and restart.  I did read that a larger needle might help so I ordered some yesterday to be here today.  I love Amazon.

I am glad this quilt is going to a baby.  It's not my best quilting work.  If the baby destroys it I won't be sad. And to be honest, if this didn't need to be done in two weeks I might just start over.  I should be done the middle of the quilt tonight and then its on to the borders.  I wanted to do feathers there so hopefully I didn't over spray the edges.  I can't wait til this quilt is done!

P.S.  I got so many visitors to my blog yesterday from Freshly Pieced.  And more comments than I ever have!  Thanks everyone.  So glad I decided to start linking up with Lee.

Frustration In Progress

I have renamed this weeks post from WIP to FIP.  I have been working on machine quilting this quilt for a few days now.  For some reason I keep getting skipped stitches.  I have changed my needle, cleaned my machine and tried a new spool of thread.  I tried quilting a sample I made up and my machine worked fine.  The only difference between the sample and the quilt is that I did not use spray baste on the sample.  So my conclusion is that something is going on with my spray basting.  I have used this kind before with no problems.  It's the June Taylor quilting spray they sell at JoAnns.  Maybe it was just a bad bottle or I used too much.  At this point I think all I can do is muddle through and keep fixing it as I go.  Luckily this is just a baby quilt so it won't be quite so dreadful.  UGH.  I just need to get it done.  The baby is due in about 3 weeks and I still have to ship it.

The skipped stitch is hard to see on this one but is on the white part.  

A little more obvious here.  I see three in this picture.  

A bigger picture of the quilt.  

Just showing more of the quilting design.

This week I am linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced.