A Finish and an Almost Finish

I've finished my guild challenge quilt.  I finished the binding this morning, then stitched the buttons on.  This is a Black & White Plus One challenge.

2020 POP Challenge quilt

I also did the machine quilting on the board game quilt.  I added the last gold star (hand stitched) after I did the machine quilting.

top is quilted

A while back I found this great fabric for the back of this board game quilt.  Unfortunately, I only have enough for one of the board game quilts (there are 5 more waiting to be basted and quilted).

backing for this board game quilt

Isn't that great fabric, with all of the different board games on the fabric?  Now I need to make the binding for this quilt. 

Both of these are for my guilds quilt show.

If you will be in the western Chicago area March 14-15, 2020, please consider coming to the Pride of the Prairie Quilt Show.  I'll have some of my vintage sewing machines at the show.  Our show always has over 300 quilts, so lots of eye candy!  We also have 'Strip Search' (our fabric booth), raffle baskets, a raffle quilt, bake sale, VENDORS!, Magazines, Patterns & Books for sale, and a Silent Auction. We'll be at Richland Grade School, 1919 Caton Farm Road, Crest Hill, IL. 

Not much stitching, I've been sick

Last weekend I got a lot of the hand quilting done on my Challenge quilt, but then I came down with the flu, and all stitching stopped. 

As soon as I thought I was going to recover from the flu, I found out that I have pneumonia.  I've barely moved out of my bed all week. 

I'm finally starting to feel better (still a ways to go) and I finished the hand quilting on the Challenge quilt.  I was 3/4ths of the way done when I got sick.

hand quilting is done

I had thought about using some of my quilting notions stencils for this project....

But decided that this just needed some simple quilting.  I quilted 1/4 inch inside the base and handwheel of the Featherweight, then I stitched inside the 'Singer' letters.

hand quilting on a block

These blocks are only 11 inches each, so I don't really need to do a lot of quilting on them.

The binding is fussy cut, and ready to be stitched on. 

I had planned on adding buttons to each machine in place of the machines brass medallion.   I can't use brass, only black, white or the same color purple as in the purple fabric.  I'd bought white and purple buttons.

My original plan was to use a white button on the purple machine, and purple buttons on the black machines

I could also use white buttons on all of the machines (yes, I need one more white button)

On Saturday, before I got sick, Marilyn and I went to Joann's and I found these purple buttons.  What do you think about them instead?

matching purple 'jewel' buttons

So, what are your thoughts?  Purple on black and white on purple?  All white buttons? or Purple jewel buttons? 

Let me know your thoughts.

Now I think it might be bed time soon.  All this sitting up all day has worn me out.

February Stitching (so far) and a question for you

I've been stitching, I just haven't had time to blog about it.

First, I finished one baby quilt top.  I still haven't had time to stitch the 2nd top together yet.

baby quilt top

I've also finished the last 3 board game tops.  I need to quilt one of them for my guild's quilt show in March.  I'd better get a move on.

board game top

last 2 board game tops

I've also finished another 10 of the striped circle blocks.  I now have 22 blocks finished.

10 more blocks finished

I finally got started on my guild's challenge quilt for the upcoming quilt show.  I've known what I wanted to do for a long time, I just hadn't had time to get stitching on it.

Years ago, back in 2012, I learned how to paper piece with this block.  Here is the block I learned on.  I've never done anything with this block.  I didn't even have a Singer Featherweight until 2016.  Back then, I fused the needle and needle bar, and drew the spool top and bottom on with a marker.  The pattern mentions applique (way too small to applique those parts).

first paper pieced block

Well, the guild challenge is a Black & White challenge.  We can use one other color (has to match the paint chip) as long as it is 25% or less of the quilt.  Well, having a purple Featherweight, I decided to make a Featherweight quilt.  I couldn't use the original block, since it isn't all black & white (it has other colors). 

The finished quilt has to be 24 inches (each side) or less, so a 12 inch block also wasn't going to work.  I reduced the pattern to make a 11 inch (finished) block.  I also wanted 4 blocks.  Here are the 4 finished blocks.

4 Featherweight blocks

I paper pieced the entire thread spool on each block, and added a spool pin doily to each one.  I took 2 spool pin doilies that I had, and threaded some purple embroidery floss thru each of them, then stitched on either side of the middle, and cut them apart. 

one spool pin doily threaded with purple floss, one waiting it's turn

I also wanted to use different black & white fabrics for each machine.  I also embroidered the needle bar and needle on each machine.

Now, my question for you is, should I just sew the blocks together? or, should I put a tiny sashing between the blocks?  I can't add a border, since it would make the quilt too large.

un-shashed

sashed

The sashing fabric shown is scissors.  I'd fussy cut it.

I need to decide quickly, since the quilt show is March 14-15, 2020.  I'm thinking of hand quilting this.  I don't think it needs much quilting, and my machine quilting skills are limited to straight lines.