This is definitely a period of time where I have way too many projects going at once. Most of what I'm working on are either deadline quilts, or sewing WIPs or UFOs up enough to get them out of my way.
The two quilts I had on my design wall are now sewn up into tops. Right now I'm debating on whether or not to add borders (leaning towards not) so the tops are hanging in the quilt closet.
I finished the FMQ on the quilt I was sewing on last week, and it's trimmed and ready for binding. I had time to bind it this week, I just didn't feel like sewing binding on.
The scooter rally quilt....I've got the center panel fused and cut to size, which allowed me to design the rest of the quilt. Until I had the center panel sorted, and knew the final dimensions of that, designing the full quilt had to wait.
Now that my design wall is free, I can put up the rally quilt as I finish sections. I think this weekend I'll do all the sewing on this panel. It's all fused, but not stitched at all. I haven't decided if I want to keep switching thread colors and match the thread to each section, or if I want to just use a black, brown, or gray and more go for a coloring book outline look. It would be a lot faster to stick to one color, for a couple of reasons. Of course I'd save time because I wouldn't be spending time changing the thread color constantly, but also I'd save time because it would be simplify the areas I need to stitch. To sew the fabric down, I only need to stitch around the outside edges of all the fabrics, and if something is overlapped, I don't have to stitch the edge underneath. Sometimes I think it looks funny when I do change thread colors and only three sides of shape is outlined in that color. I especially find that true when I use a blanket stitch, it seems like it needs to be outlined in each color around every shape. If I opt for a single color I could use a zigzag, sew over every join and call it a day. Yeah, it's pretty obvious applique is not my thing. I do think the steampunk scooter looks pretty good.
I wanted the center panel surrounded by a dark border, but not a plain border. I had a very nice brown blender in stash that would frame the panel nicely, so I fussy cut some of my steampunk fabrics and used the brown to simultaneously frame the fussy cut fabrics and the center panel. I'm not sewing any of the blocks together until I get the center panel applique stitching done. I do like having it on the design wall, so I can see how it's coming along, and can make adjustments or move things around if needed. I've already swapped a couple of blocks since I took this photo.
There will be a row of blocks above and below this section, before borders. I needed to add height to the quilt, and two additional rows will do that. I have already cut the additional blocks and the borders! I have a lot of quilts stall because I don't cut the borders when I cut the rest of the quilt, and I don't have time for this to stall. DH needs photos of the finished quilt for promotional advertising, so it needs to be finished ASAP. All proceeds from the rally raffle go to the local food pantry, so I try to make a quilt people will want to bid on. We have other things to raffle off as well.
I wish I had the time to set aside a week to do a basting spree. I'm currently quilting the last quilt I basted before we went to Yuma. It's just a baby quilt, and I quilted over half of it today. It will be an easy finish tomorrow. I did get another quilt basted this week, so I have one to start quilting next week, but it's a throw and won't take all week to quilt, even at my self-imposed one hour of FMQ per day. I have so many quilt tops that need quilting, and none of my deadline quilts are quilt tops yet. I really try to stick with FMQ every day, so my latest strategy on which quilt to baste next has been a weird one. I've been looking at my fabric shelves, choosing a fabric I want to bust, then looking in the quilt closet to find a quilt top it will work with. All the fabrics on my shelves are over 1 yard pieces, everything one yard and under are in drawers. I'm finding a lot of fabrics that have been languishing are not large enough to back a quilt by themselves, so I've been passing them by. I've already chosen backing fabrics for the next two quilts to baste, and that was the case with both of them. Right now I'm changing to choosing two fabrics to back a quilt, and I'll just piece the backings using two fabrics. Hey, if I can bust two fabrics instead of one it's a bonus!
It's funny, sometimes I look at my stash, and wonder how it got so large, and think I'll never use it all. Then I'll start basting a bunch of quilts, and holes open up on the shelves really quickly and I think maybe I can. Yardage disappears quickly when you are making backings. Widebacks are great, but unless it's at least a twin sized quilt, I try to use regular yardage on the backs.
Things are definitely progressing, and even though I don't have a finish for this week, I'm feeling pretty good about my goals.
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