August NewFO's, UFO's & Finishes!

August was a busy month, sewing wise.  I guess it was to make up for the lack of progress earlier in the summer. 

I finished the embroidery on 3 more Harry Potter, The Project of Doom blocks.

Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broom Care

Nature's Nobility A Wizarding Genealogy & Numerology & Gramatica

Sonnets of a Sorcerer & The Standard Book of Spells (Grades 1-6) by Miranda Goshawk

Unfogging the Future by Cassandra Vablotsky

I also made a commision baby quilt.

flannel & Minkee baby quilt

I finished 7 preemie quilts for my small quilt guilds philanthropy project (these go to the local hospitals NICU).

I also started moving in to my youngest son's bedroom, and turning it into my new (shared) sewing space.

This has already been re-arranged again

Hubby bought me some 1" thick insulation boards yesterday, so that I can have some design walls. 

2 3'x7' foam insulation boards

one board is covered now

I have to piece the fabric for the second board.  It will be finished  soon.  Not bad for fabric I found at the thrift store this week for a whopping $2 total. 

I also made a few sets of Bow Tie blocks for a block exchange.  These blocks have to be made on a treadle or hand crank sewing machine. 

1925 Singer 99 hand crank

post WWII Japanese treadle (Victor)

extra blocks, since I ran out of the above colors before I had enough blocks

I also cleaned 3 different vintage sewing machines this month. 

1951 Singer 301A

post WWII Japanese 3/4 size 'Challenge'

1925 Singer 66

How unusual for me, all three of these machines have motors, and all three will keep their motors (at least for now).  The Singer 66 may become a hand crank in the future.  I bought it so that I'd have a machine ready to sell, if I'm asked. 

I also finished my string quilt top for Quilts of Valor. 

Quilts of Valor string quilt top

While looking for a piece of fabric (still haven't found that piece of fabric) I found some UFO's that I'd started for Quilts of Valor, but, hadn't gotten finished.  A while back (like 2+ years ago)  I found several BOM's from Joann Fabrics at the local thrift store.  I grabbed several of them to put together to make some quilt tops for Quilts of Valor.  I'd managed to get all the blocks put together, and even had some of the rows put together, but, all of it got put away and never finished.  There is a very limited amount of space at the sew-ins, and I needed lots of room to lay these pieces out so that I could finish them.  Well, they are finished now.

1st quilt top

2nd quilt top

up close of a block

up close of another block

Joann's block of the month, using what blocks I could find (and NO applique blocks)

Also while hunting for that elusive fabric, I found 2 more Quilts of Valor projects that needed some finishing.  One had all the 4 patch units stitched, it just needed to be sewn together. 

4 patch Quilts of Valor

The last quilt top for Quilts of Valor is using up some 'extra' blocks someone had turned in.  Rita had some rail fence blocks that she didn't think we could use.   She thought they were too 'girly' for a Quilts of Valor quilt.  I took the blocks, came up with a design, bought some black print fabric and....

rail fence Quilts of Valor top

up close of some of the rail fence blocks

I don't think this looks 'girly' at all now.  This is still too small, so, I'm adding a border to it.

tan fabric will be the border

The borders will be added, and all of these tops will be turned in at the next Quilts of Valor sew-in on Tuesday.  Woohoo! 

Don't expect this much to get stitched next month!

I'm linking up with Barbara over at Cat Patches for the 2013 NewFO Challenge.  I'm also linking up with Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  I'll also be linking up with Richard and Tanya Quilts. 

Oh My!  It's September already!!!  Where has this year gone???  I haven't even started Christmas gifts yet.  Oh No!