Better late than never

My heart quilt is done - I finished the binding while sitting outside in the autumn sunshine this afternoon. 

Tomorrow, I goes to its new home with my dear friend to provide comfort in her final days.  So much love went into this quilt.  So many tears.  So many memories revisited.  So much love.

Par for the course

It seems I can't sew a quilt together without making a mistake these days.  On my last finish, it was sewing a border on upside down.  On my heart quilt, I forgot a whole row altogether!  Remember my sketch?

I was so excited to finish on Saturday, an August finish as planned.

Do you see how I forgot to piece the row that includes the bottom tip of the heart?  I pinned a spare neutral 9-patch on to see if it made much of a difference...

Yup, it makes a significant difference to me.  Back to piecing 9-patches.  Out with the seam ripper to take off those bottom 4 rows.  An easy fix, but I'm annoyed with myself. 

The goal is to machine quilt it and bind it by the middle of the month, doable, but the kids start coming back to school today, so my time is no longer my own to use as I wish.  Gonna make this a priority.

I'm linking with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

My heart in pieces

My pixelated heart quilt is coming along, one scrappy nine-patch at a time.

My own heart is still struggling to come to terms with my friend's illness, but making this quilt gives me lots of time to reflect and process.

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap.

Switching gears

Yesterday, a good friend learned that she has inoperable pancreatic cancer.  I moved away two years ago, so I can't be there with her in person.  My mind and heart are reeling.  So, I'm doing what I always do when I need to re-center myself - I'm making her a quilt.

I'm starting with the little pixelated heart I made several years ago from 2" squares.

I wanted to echo that heart to make the quilt lap-sized.

It will be full speed ahead for the next couple of weeks as I rush to finish this and get it to her.  Everything else is on hold.  Including my breath.  I'm so scared for her that I am finding it hard to breathe.

Fuck cancer.

Plugging away at my Good Fortune

Finishing up my Sew Many Strips top has inspired me to knock out some more UFOs.  First up...Good Fortune!  So far, the center is done and the first of four borders is on.

And as my leaders and enders project, I've decided to give Kevin the Quilter's Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt a try.  Apparently, all it uses is squares in two contrasting colors, so I pulled out my 2.5" squares in those two colors, along with a couple of 5" squares that I plan to quarter.  Is it possible that I'll be able to make the whole quilt with my precut scraps?

A couple twosies done, many, many, many more to go!

Sew Many Strips DONE!

Despite a long day of playing chauffeur and nursemaid to my family before working tonight, I squeezed in just enough sewing time to fix yesterday's goof and finish the Sew Many Strips top.  I love it!  Time for me to find a longarm quilter so I can get it finished and on my bed.

Turns out, I got a little carried away and made too many border units.  No worries - I really like this border, so I may make just a few more and use them to go around a smaller (baby? lap?) quilt.

Maybe I can make a center out of my overflowing HST bin.

But first, I am determined to finish my Good Fortune quilt top.

Just five more blocks to go before I can sew the center together.  I think I've created all the border units already, but I'd have to double check.  My goal is to have this top done before  Labor Day.  Since I have only two working days left before I get three weeks off, I think it is an achievable goal.

Knocking out the UFOs and busting the stash feels so good!

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

Bad news, good news

The bad news is that I sewed the first outer border of my Sew Many Strips quilt on upside down.

The good news is that I realized my mistake before I sewed on any more borders.

I'm loving how it looks, and am so excited to have it all sewn together!  It takes an awful lot of 1" x 2" (finished) pieces to make a bed-sized quilt.