Judy's July Challenge Report

It's time for another monthly challenge report from Judy Laquidara's UFO challenge.

July was a pretty good month for me...I quilted 7 tops.

Crumb King.. thousands of pieces ... tiny pieces

Windmills on Selvages....selvage blocks with AccuQuilt cut diamond shapes

Jazz Club .... a panel i cut apart and added stuff to

MQR 2 color challenge....i chose blue and green...2.5x4.5" pieces

Scrappy Hearts....Heart shapes cut with AccuQuilt from crumb blocks...and more crumb blocks as border

Under the Sea...machine embroidered blocks with added fusible fish and turtles cut from a scrap piece of fabric

Selvage Surrounded Hearts....little hearts cut from a piece of fabric and bordered in selvages

For once, I quilted more than I pieced this month. Piecing includes....

BBQ....machine embroidered blocks on various red fabrics...improvisationally pieced.

MQR 2 color challenge top was pieced this month

Scrubs Scraps...I acquired tons of scraps from my cousin who sews scrubs, so, I made a bunch of blocks and bordered them in red and white stripe.

To celebrate the 4th...I made a flag quilt. all blocks and stars cut with my AccuQuilt machine.

The embroidery that I am working on now includes...

5x7 alphabet letters done on the embroidery machine. I am using various whites to applique the pieces and using only shades of brown threads to do the seam designs.  I have 4 more letters to finish.

After acquiring my scrubs scraps, I decided they would make a cute alphabet, too. so, i am using the same 5x7 pattern and using scraps for the pieces but not doing the seam designs. they are all on blue flannel backgrounds. i have 7 more to finish.

And that is my month....it was a good one. how was yours?

Windmills on Selvages

I pieced this one back in February of this year. It is 60x72". 

I pieced a bunch of selvage blocks and then decided they needed 'something'.  I used a diamond cutter from my AccuQuilt machine and cut out graphic pieces. 

I left the ragged edges but sewed them down with a fancy stitch on my machine.

The piecing of the selvages was done in yellow thread...and the windmills were sewed down in yellow thread, so I quilted it with a dark yellow/gold thread. and the binding is pieces of striped fabrics that i had that have yellow in them...a yellow and white...a yellow and green...and a different yellow and white and a yellow, white and red. i love using up bits of fabrics that just seemed to be waiting for me to find a good use for them.

The back is a muslin. I used a Baptist Fan Quilt E-Z board. I didn't always get it lined up perfectly, but i'm ok with that. 

Glide dark yellow/gold thread for the top; Bottom Line Off White for the bobbin.

This makes 7 quilts that got quilted in July....that makes me happy.

Scrubs Scraps Crazy Quilt top

I've been cutting and playing with these scrubs scraps for about a week now. I've cut a lot of selvages....and have tons to go.

I sewed together larger pieces and made 8" blocks and this is the top they became.

It is 70x87".  It took me a week to put it together.

Here are some close-ups. I love those tennis shoes

And the Loralie ladies are super cute.

There are sophisticated cats. haha

This little frog in the tulips just tickles me.

There is a sports block.

I can make many more of these....but am coming up with different designs.  stay tuned. haha

Alphabet blocks

I am almost finished with the embroidery brown and white alphabet blocks. Have done through V and waiting for the rest of the alphabet to be released.

While these are being embroidered, I've been cutting 4.5" squares from scrubs fabrics for an I Spy quilt...and got to thinking that I could use some of the pieces for alphabet blocks, too.

So, I started those and got through E today. They go a lot faster when you don't put the designs on the seams. I am using blue flannel for the backgrounds and different bright colored thread for the outside stitches.

A combination alphabet and I Spy quilt. wonder how many alphabet quilts I have made over the years.....dozens, I'm sure.

But, when an idea strikes you, you have to go with it. haha

Under the Sea

While I was at my sister's back in February, babysitting her dogs, this is one of the tops that I pieced together. The embroidery in the blocks are from a CD called Under the Sea by Anita Goodesign. It has the mylar in it, so they are sparkly.  I added the fusible fish and coral just for fun because I had a bit of that fabric left and thought I would use it up.

I just did some wavy, watery lines going across and quilting around things as I went.

I sewed the fusible fish and turtles and coral down as I came to them.

Some of the fish are together....you should never swim alone, you know. haha

I love the octopus. These designs are really rather colorful.

A couple of the designs are not really things that go under the sea....but I didn't design them.

And I like that I used the 'pieces' of fish that were cut in the fabric, too. I had the perfect piece of fabric for the binding with the blue, green, pink and yellow colors from the scrub scraps pile.

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The back is a blue and white print that I had enough to fit. The quilt is 38x48.

Glide Hawaiian Blue for the top; Bottom Line off white for the bobbin.

MQR 2 Color Challenge

Blue and Green....that's my 2 colors. I had plenty of those scraps, so this was easy. I cut pieces 2.5" x 4.5" and put them together. the pieces going horizontally alternate the 2 colors. the pieces going vertically have the green on the left and the blue on the right. It is 72x80".

Now, here is where you get to shake your head and laugh at me. I wanted this to go quickly. The colors reminded me of water, so I put a fish panto on it. But it seemed too dense and I didn't want to take forever quilting it. So, the second row I switched to a seashell panto. That was too dense, too. Those were both Debra Geissler pantos.

So, I switched again to a Sew-Phie Quilts panto called Florine's Flowers. Nope, didn't like that one either.

Finally, fourth row....and the rest of it....got Country Garden by Golden Threads. That went quick enough to suit me. sheesh!!

This is the back. I used 2 different pieces of green...more stash off the shelves. And the binding was the same green with the ivy.

Glide Cobalt Blue for the top and So Fine Off White for the bobbin. 

I pieced a second one, but haven't quilted it yet.

MQR Color Challenge #2

I showed you my first color challenge top...the green and blue...a few weeks ago. It was so easy to cut and construct that I decided to do another.

This time, my 2 colors were black and ...... "everything else". haha    it seems the older i get, the less I follow the 'rules'. haha

Here is how I drew it out on graph paper. I love graph paper. When I went to the city to visit my sister last weekend, I stopped in a Staples office supply place and got a pad of graph paper that measures 11x16.....i won't have to tape so many pages together if i want to draw a larger quilt.

These are so simple to put together, I just might make another one.

But, for now, I am off on another project....or 3. haha

Mid-year Empty Spool Report

It's that time of year again...time to count the empty thread spools. So far this year, I have emptied 51 spools.

Not too bad. Strange how most of those spools come from embroidery thread. hahahaha

I'm thinking I should make 100 by the end of the year.

Scrappy Hearts

Once I showed this top to my sister, she insisted on having it, so I had to get it quilted since I am going visiting on Friday.

I just pieced this a couple of weeks ago, so this might be a record for time from piecing to quilting. haha   it is 63x69. i lost an inch each direction in the quilting.

I had made crumb blocks.....like I used in the border....and used my AccuQuilt heart die to cut them from the crumb blocks. 

I stitched around them on each individual block before piecing and quilting.

I like putting the crumb blocks as a border, too. I'll have to remember that to do it again. Binding was leftover pieces from other quilts.

The back is a blue and white stripe flannel. Panto is Amaze Me by Urban Elementz.

Top thread was Glide Cobalt Blue; bobbin was Bottom Line White.