Ben Biggs Revisited

 I pulled out the Ben Biggs project box to take a look at what I have and what I have accomplished so far.

I have not worked on this in several years. It was a free BOM from Sentimental Stitches in 2014/15. 

I am joining  Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Design Wall Monday to complete it.

I decided to get it super organized and number each of the blocks already completed. 

Some of the blocks have the fusible ironed on and edges turned under using Elmer's glue. How I hate stitching through glue by hand, and that is one reason I decided to do this one by machine. 

Many blocks are ready to be glue basted. I love using zip-lock bags to organize blocks. I have spent more time organizing than sewing. 

The corner buds are all cut, fused and ready. The corner leaves are waiting to be fused onto the green fabric. I am using different reds but the same green. 

Some blocks have just the fusible cut out waiting for the fabric.

I have quite a few packets like this in various project boxes. 

Most of the patterns were taped together, ready for placement. I discovered that #24 and #25 are missing. I think I will find a couple of different patterns from other quilts. Something without a lot of small leaves. 

Lots of reproduction fabric in reds and greens. I initially bought these for the CCCQ, but when doing applique, you use less than when piecing, so I discovered. 

The first thing I had done was to make sure I had enough of the same bolt of background fabric. I prewashed it and cut out twenty-five 18-inch squares and four 10X100-inch borders. 

When the border swag patterns were released, I prepped all of them. They are ready for glue basting. I will not attach them to the borders until all the blocks are done and sewn together. I want to make sure they all line up. Not that the originals were. The fun, quirky thing about this quilt is that three borders each had 11 swags, and one had only 10. Now, why did I notice that? I counted them, of course. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: alyciaquilts.finished-or-not.

wendysquiltsandmor

quiltfabrication.midweek-makers

ninamariesayre.off-wall-friday

To-Do Tuesday Mid July

Mid-year-check-in with my 2022 quilting goals is an epic fail. I have not completed anything on the list. I started one new project the Churn Dash SAL with Chooky and friends. Then I was carefully ransacking through many of the project boxes looking for a specific fabric for fussy cutting and got thinking about working on a bunch of different ufos, but really was wanting to cut out more hexies for Lucy since I finally took time to prewash a huge pile of fabrics.

And did I complete the Lucy block I was working on last Sunday? NO. But I did get some stitching done the other day, so some progress.  

I got distracted with our son getting married here at the farm in the spring and making a wedding quilt which was on the big ufo list but not on the 2022 goals list. Can I change the list? And what are the chances of me actually completing all 12 projects on the list before the end of this year? Or, better still, completing any of them at the rate I am going?

I have a long to-do list on my desk upstairs that has more than quilting goals for the week. But, alas, we are going on a road trip next week so that will have to be stretched out for another week. This is the road trip we postponed last week because the local expressway is taking a "shortcut" through our heifer field beside the house. At least that is the term our newly married son used to explain all the smelly asphalt in our yard and a newly paved lane down through the field. They are repaving the expressway and we are getting "free" ground-up asphalt delivered for a mere $100 per load ( about 5 loads each of 4-5 nights) plus $1000 per week rental of the roller packer thingy to level it. My Sweetie wanted to be here when all this was going on. And why are we doing this since we sold the cows? Who knows. My Sweetie has to have something to do. We did bale up a field of second-cut hay this weekend. The expressway is 2 km south of us. 

So my official To-DoTuesday list for the next 2 weeks includes:

1. Progress on Biblical Blocks aka the Wedding Quilt.
2. Cut out more backgrounds of Churn Dash. I am using an assortment of cream Bella Solids. The colours are all cut and ready to make a gazillion HSTs. 
3. Complete Lucy #7 block. This is as far as I got so far.
   
   
   
4. Prep and place the corner buds for Ben Biggs. 
5. Prep some handwork to take on the road trip. Stitching together the paper-lined hexies does not go well in the car. I may pull out a couple of Ella applique blocks that have been sitting in a box for more than a year waiting their turn for completion. 

My hands are not working as efficiently as they used to so any progress is slow. My OMG goal for the month is to have fun working on a few different quilt projects and that I am so far. 

Blessings,

Chris

Ben Biggs - The Plan

One of my To-Do Tuesday goals is to pull out Ben Biggs, look over where I am and what needs doing and make a plan to proceed. Judy at smallquiltsanddollquilts. is working on finishing hers and asked if anyone wanted to join her. That is me. I started mine back in 2014 along with many others who collected the pattern free each month from Sentimental Stitches. I don't think the pattern is available anymore.  Count the scallops and see how many you come up with on the original quilt below.

I have 6 blocks completed and there are a total of 25 plus that amazing scalloped border. This picture shows 5 with corner buds but the pile on my table has 6. 

The plan, for now, is to complete the 4 blocks that just need the corner buds. I am doing this by machine, otherwise, it might have been complete by now. That may not be entirely true. I start projects far more than I complete. 

I astound myself with my efficiency at times. (Remember, I have a huge ego) Well, sometimes. I have countless see-through cookie containers neatly labeled with various bits and pieces of projects.

I have a thing for filling and labeling zip-loc baggies. When the patterns were released each month, I started working on them and filed them. I had forgotten how much I like working on several projects at a time with no deadlines. 

I did not meet my June OMG goal yet again as I wanted to complete the wedding quilt. I just was not having fun doing it. The colours are dramatic and I had a mental perception of trying to do the whole thing rather than just one block at a time. Sigh. 

So, my July OMG goal is to have fun working on several different quilts and if a completion happens, that will be a bonus. 

Blessings,

Chris

To-Do Tuesday for the End of June

 1. Make progress on the Biblical Blocks Wedding Quilt.

2. Pull out Ben Biggs. 

3. Make a plan to work on Just one block. 

4. Complete the 8 Churn Dash SAL blocks. 

5. Stitch together a few Lucy hexies. 

6. Figure out how to get the date off the pictures on my camera. 

This should keep me busy for the week. We are considering a road trip to Chester County Pennsylvania just have to decide what days would be best. The little boys will be here with their mom for a couple of days this week to celebrate the end of the school year. Six-year-old David wants to run on top of the big bales and visit Great-Grandma's grave. Our daughter-in-law will be here with two 10-year-old boys for a week and the girls are off to camp next week. Basically, it will be a busy family month. The kind I love best. People in and people out. Then more people. By mid-August everyone will be back to their regular lives and ours will calm down a bit. 

I might even get some writing and quilting done. Linking with Linda at to-do-tuesday.

Blessings,

Chris

August 2021 OMG Goal

 You've heard the expression "Go big or Go home"? I made a preliminary list of 10 things to consider for my Aug OMG goal. I had not yet decided which of the options to choose. I then figured I would probably try to do all of them. Not necessarily for the OMG goal, but just to do all of them. There is something about writing them all down to give a reality check. Planning 10 goals for the month is daunting. But if those same goals are broken down into 2-3 goals per week like for the To-Do Tuesday, then it might be doable. Hmm . . . food for thought. 

1. 50th Anniversary Quilt aka Ella - This came to a screeching halt when we made the decision back in  April to postpone our 50th-anniversary celebration until next year.  Actually, it came to a halt when I set aside everything to finish the doctorate. But I completed that 2 months ago! The anniversary is on Aug 7 and we will have a small family get-together. My Slow Sunday Stitching project could be to continue hand appliqueing on one of the Ella blocks. But which one? There are 12 more to go. 

2. Macaron Mystery QAL - Clue #2 will be posted on Thurs. 

3. Summer 2021 QAL - We are on Clue # 8 and I have been working on that this week. 

4. Poppy's Polka Dot Garden - In order to continue on this new start from last month, I want to either choose a new background or chose a new colour palette or both and start again. 

5. Bright Jane - Depending on the RSC color for August, I could resume making the remaining blocks. I had moved away from doing the original blocks a long time ago and have been making other simple two-coloured blocks to add to the ones already made. As it turns out, the colour is aqua and I have all that colour done. 

6. 3030 Quilt - This was a BOM from last year and I got about halfway before starting the Ella BOM. The plan is to take inventory of what is made and what still needs to be made including the incredible center medallion applique and make a plan to continue. 

7. Ben Biggs - The bin has been retrieved from the back hall where it was tucked away with 22 other bins of projects and fabrics 3 years ago when our son and his girls moved in. These were not accessible so got forgotten. The plan is to resume the prep work on the remaining blocks for machine applique and put them up on the design wall.

8. Jazz II - I bought a new sewing machine back in March and have yet to set it up and start playing with it. I ordered $400 of additional presser feet that did not come with it. No wonder the machine was so inexpensive even on sale. It has 12 inches of throat space and I plan to do machine quilting on it. Eventually. The intent is to set it up and practice machine quilting on something. 

9. Little girls cross-stitch - The girls are learning to cross-stitch. They both picked it up quickly and are stitching words onto bookmarks. 

10. BTCT - clean it up and layer ready for big stitch hand quilting. I have been doing some research (aka reading blogs endlessly) and found this series of posts by Wendy from The Peacock Party on hand quilting. 

I have been settling into my new quilt room. Okay. I have been taking up more and more quilting stuff. The room is looking quite cluttered now. Just the way I tend to make all my rooms. I want to get rid of a lot of my fabric but first want to revisit a few projects and make sure I have everything needed to complete them. In order to do this, I have to pull them out, one by one, and make sure. I do not have bins of neatly organized scraps. What I do have, is many well-organized project boxes containing everything needed to make and complete each quilt. The problem is, I am not completing them. And I did start 3 new ones in July. 

My Aug OMG will be to complete # 3 the Summer QAL Mystery to a flimsy. The Linky Party is Aug 24. I should be able to have a flimsy for then.

Until then blessings, 

Chris

Linking with:

party-patchworkquilts    quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

smallquiltsanddollquilts.  boms-away-  .myquiltinfatuation.

First OMG Goal for 2018

This is a tough one to decide. But first, I want to thank Patty for hosting this one-monthly-goal Linky Party. I won the $25 gift certificate from fatquartershop.  My first goal will be to decide how to spend it. They have sales all the time. Will it be fabric? precuts? thread? a new fabric collection? Decisions decisions.

In the meantime,
Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for January is light blue.  There is no light blue in my Dear Jane 2 quilt and the lightest blue I can find that I have not already used for Serendipity is this Jinny Beyer Pallet colour, so I will only be making one row of eight 3 inch flying geese.

Also,
the 2018-ufo-challenge  number is 10 so I should be working on this Biblical Blocks quilt that I want to complete this year, but there is so much to do on it and I am just finishing day 2 of 5 days of little grandchildren sleepovers. The parents all have to work or be in school and the school kids are still on Christmas holidays.


I had intended to switch this month's pick with the 1857 album and I just might



since I have a flimsy!!!!!

But then,
I just realized that it is the 300th birthday of the 1718 Coverlet that I started 3 years ago.
www.facebook.com/1718coverlet/
Why did I stop? I went to Australia, and a bunch of other places and was away 70 days that year, and started the first blocks of the Antique Wedding Sampler, was working on the Ben Biggs, GORF, BTCT, and trying to finish CCCQ. Oh yes, I was sick at least 5 different times with a  bronchial thing, was applying revisions to my book and had a new grandchild.

And why did I not put it on my ufo list for 2018??? I can still change that. Or will I?

Even though I had 17 in for a turkey dinner yesterday, I still found time to look over some of my ufo challenges for the coming year including putting Serendipity up on the design wall to see what blocks still have to be made and what colours  I have to choose from. I also took a few minutes to put in a few hand applique stitches on 3 BTCT blocks I had prepped back in Nov. Don't get too excited. I did not do much house work ahead of time and they helped set the tables, peel potatoes, brought salads and desserts AND washed up most of the dishes. I put all the bones on to simmer overnight and set them on the snow covered porch to chill at 6:30 this morning when the first of 5 grand children got up and the pot is still there probably frozen solid with the deep winter freeze here the past couple of weeks. 

We are having all our employees (at least 10) and most of our grand kids for our annual Maplehurst Farms staff Christmas party here tomorrow night. We order in pizza and play Pictionary to recall highlights from the past year and it is a lot of fun. There are little Paw Patrol pups, Chinese checker pieces, green tractors and cracker crumbs all over the house but, since all our grand children are somewhat OCD, we can get them to do all the pick up, vacuuming and maybe dusting if I remember to pull out the disposable duster thingies. My grandsons LOVE to vacuum and dust and the little girls are really over the top organizers. I could learn a thing or two from them. I can bribe reward them with pizza. 

So, yes, my OMG for this month will be to get that flying geese strip made for Serendipity. 

Blessings,

Chris

Linking with    one-monthly-goal  lovelaughquilt  mid week makers  BOMs Away  let's bee social  needle-and-thread-thursday  can I get a whoop-whoop  slow sunday stitching  needleandthreadnetwork  esther's WOW   patchworktimes 2018-ufo-challenge  pomegranateandchintz 2018-challenge/  

17 ufos in 2017 - Ben Biggs Wedding Quilt

This was the BOM from sentimental stitches and dear jane in 2014-2015. I collected all the blocks when they were free. You have to buy them now but it is worth every penny. Wait! We don't use pennies in Canada anymore. Anyway, I was working on several other hand projects at the time so thought that doing this one by machine applique would be faster. I was wrong. I cannot take a machine with me when I travel. I usually prep and take along several hand applique blocks. I get a lot done that way.

This is all I got done at the Shipshewana retreat earlier this month. 

I have not touched this project since I completed my  first OMG more than a year and a half ago.
This is number 17 on my 17 ufos in 2017. I have all the border swags cut out and fused ready to prep and applique onto the mere 10 inch borders. Four of them. Borders. This will be done by machine.

My plan is to machine quilt each block as I go then connect them together somehow. I don't think I want contrasting sashing strips between the blocks. But I don't have to worry about that for now, do I since I still have about 20 blocks to complete. 

Blessings,
Chris
Linking with: 
http://superscrappy.blogspot.ca/  omg-one-monthly-goal   midweek-makers  BOMs Away  sewfreshquilts   needle-and-thread-thursday   can I get a whoop-whoop   Slow Sunday Stitching   esther's WOW    needleandthreadnetwork   quilter's monday  17ufosin2017.

17 ufos in 2017

Here is a new linky party. I like Parties. This sounds like fun. Choose 17 UFO's (unfinished objects). Make a list and post it. Then work on each of these projects throughout the year.

"The idea is to SUBSTANTIALLY PROGRESS 17 projects over the year and if that means a finish along the way, well that’s a bonus!"  https://pomegranateandchintz.wordpress.com/17-ufos-in-2017/

I was not exactly planning on working on 17 of my unfinished quilts, but I have many more than that number to choose from. And I cannot list new projects I have not yet started. Okay. So here goes:

1. Simple Simon - 2016
   
2. Brown Crazy Patch - 1994
   
3. $10 Civil War Blues - 2011
   
4. Crazy patch  2002.
5. $10 Civil War Stars - 2007
   
6. Disappearing 4-Patch - 2015
7. 1857 Album - 2016
   
8. Dear Jane 2009-2014
   
9. Serendipity - 2012
   
10. Beyond the Cherry Trees - 2014
    
11. Antique Wedding Sampler - 2015
    
12. Shades of Pemberly - 2006
13. Morrell - 2016
    
14. Think of  Me Dear One - 2010
15. Only2 - 2012 
    
16. Bright Jane - 2014
    
17. Ben Biggs - 2014
    

I plan to complete and quilt the first 7 on the list, begin to hand quilt Dear Jane and make some noticeable progress on the rest. Do you like my new helper putting blocks on the wall?

My omg-one-monthly-goal will be to complete Simple Simon since I did not quite finish it last month.

Blessings,
Chris

OMG April Results

So my April One Monthly Goal was to complete the 5 Ben Biggs blocks that I had not completed last month. I did get all the corner buds and leaves prepped and placed in the corners of the blocks.

Then I started the machine applique and this is what I got. Sigh. So, the blocks are almost compete with just the corners still left to applique down. I will take this machine in for servicing this week. It was working perfectly last week for some machine quilting.

 There is a lot of pressure to focus on completing just one specific goal in a lifestyle that just does what it feels like when I feel like it. Maybe this being retired thing is not as productive as it could be.
Blessings,
Chris

April OMG

And the Blue Roses quilt is finally quilted. I started making the thing in 2009 and was planning to have it completed quickly but I was doing my  masters and had started the Dear Jane quilt, so it ended up in  a project box. A friend's daughter was getting married so I offered it to her as a project and she ended up doing all the machine applique and sewed it all together. She now knows the difference between freezer paper on the back and raw edge. She prefers raw edge. I prefer needle turn hand applique, but this is her quilt to give her daughter. I machine quilted it as a whole and struggled with  tension and sore hands, broken needles and fraying thread. I had to change machines to complete it and am so glad I had the binding done half way with the big Brother machine. I also realized that you have to replace your Machinger gloves after a while.

Blue Roses

For my April OMG I plan to complete the 5 blocks for Ben Biggs that I did not get done last month. The pieces are all sitting up front here now that the tables and machines have been cleared of the big quilt.

Ben Biggs

 Blessings,
Chris

First OMG Challenge

I signed up for the OMG challenge - One Monthly Goal - thinking that it should be a piece of cake to complete these 5 Ben Biggs blocks. How wrong I was. I had too much time and did not get to it until today and have to post a blog about it by tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be sitting in a Canadian Guernsey annual meeting all day just like I was exactly a year ago when I cut out all those 140 buds and leaves out of Florianni wash a way fusible in preparation for the corner buds for  this quilt. Sigh.  To my defense, I baby sat sick little girl grand children a lot, was sick myself, took  8 year old Ava to New Brunswick to spend a week visiting Auntie Melanie and her babies, took a blogging break and had no internet for a week because of the ice storm here last week.

Ben Biggs Corner Buds so far

Also, I was machine quilting the Blue Roses quilt and having a most difficult time. My hands hurt a lot as I was trying to move the bulk around, I broke 3 needles on the Brother yesterday and finally switched to the Bernina and after resetting everything, and unstitching one of the blocks I finally completed the thing. In my mind, I could not get at the OMG because I had this thing spread out all over the tables and wanted to complete it first. Did I mention I do not do deadlines well?  

Quilting the Blue Roses

In reality I was having a too much fun working on the 1857 blocks. I had to prep a few to take with me and I ended up stitching a few extra corner leaves in preparation for the blocks to be released on Friday.The bottom 3 are not complete yet and I have not started 2 of the blocks. Those purple leaves with the hearts look a bit dark but maybe its the pink hearts that are a bit light. I am using left over reproduction fabrics from my Dear Jane journey. I did not realize just how many double pinks I had until I cut out lots of leaves using my GO cutter and custom leaf die. Those leaves are really easy to do this way and it takes about a half hour per block.

1857 Blocks so far

So, all in all, my first OMG was not an epic fail so much as I did not give it enough importance to get it done on time. I will try again next month but you will have to wait until April first to see what it will be.

Blessings,
Chris

Blue Roses

The sun is shining, Spring has arrived and so has the mud. I am taking a blogging break for  a couple of weeks. Going to visit the little boy grand children and I have some deadlines that are looming and I have been ignoring. So need to prep a couple more 1857 blocks and  finish quilting the Blue Roses. I put the binding on by machine. Usually, I stitch the binding to the back of the quilt, turn it over and top stitch it down from the front. I did not realize that I had stitched to the front until I was clipping it over. The mitered corners do turn over neater this way I found.

Blue Roses Binding

I love using these wonder clips for this. They do tire my hands though. It takes a bit of pressure to squeeze them open and my arthritic fingers do not like that.  I started the quilting by stitching in the ditch all around those sashing strips. Then I measured the border, marked it and basted all the way around and trimmed it before  putting on the binding. I still have all the free motion quilting to do in the blocks. This will be a simple scribble of hearts and flowers. I often do it in this order so there is less bulk around the outside for shoving into the machine opening. Sometimes I have a deadline for the quilt and quilt until I run out of time, but the binding is already on. This way, I only have to change the presser feet once. I started out using the walking foot. I will now drop the feed dogs, put in the see-through darning foot and go free motion. I am using a WonderFil wt 80 thread for the first time. It is finer than I am used to but it seems strong enough since I have not had any thread breakage so far.

When I get home I have my one monthly goal of completing 5 Ben Biggs to get done. I still have to prep 20 buds and 20 leaves to machine applique in the corners. I have 3 weeks to get that done. I can do this. 
Also, I have to get another wedding quilt going. And No, it will not be  hand appliqued.

Blessings,
Chris

One Monthly Goal

I have been seeing this OMG logo around blogland lately and wondered if I could join in and be successful. First of all, I have to understand the rules. Set one quilting goal for the month, write a blog post about it and link at the beginning of the month. Then write another blog post at the end of the month to show the completion of this particular goal. I could try it once. I might even succeed.

I found this out on Feb 8th just after the Feb link was closed. Okay, I will aim for March 1-7. Now to choose a doable goal and do it. That sounds easy enough. But what one quilting goal will I choose from the 471 things I am presently doing? It's not like I have to complete an entire quilt during the month. I can choose a doable chunk. I will have to be accountable. My integrity is at stake! Well, maybe not.

So often, I operate out of impulse. I might jump in and start a new quilt because I have all the fabrics and pattern sitting here, forgetting that I have done this a few times in the past couple of years, and  as a result, forgetting that I have many unfinished quilts on the go. When does a work in progress become a UFO? Let's just say, I have a few of each.

Or I operate out of necessity. I committed to completing a specific quilt for a specific person for a specific date. So I put everything else on hold and get it done. Or, I hop on a plane to visit someone and take along a few hand applique blocks. When was the last time I used the sewing machine? Oh, yes, back in November I sewed together all the CCCQ blocks and machine quilted it and bound it and gave it to my aunt for her 90th birthday. That's something I planned and worked towards for a year.

My One Month Goal for March will not be to complete anything. It will be to advance one specific quilt. But which one?   Since I wrote on my 2016 goals to complete, quilt and bind at least one quilt and that being Ben Biggs, then my OMG for March will be to complete 5 blocks that are already started. That is doable. It is machine applique work. Something I cannot take on a plane with me.

These are 5 blocks in progress. I pulled the pictures from my blog.

There will be no less than 4 buds and leaves in each corner of all 25 blocks. That's 100. Each.

I am using a wash-away fuseable called Floriani. I cut out the shapes, pressed them to the back of the fabrics, cut them out, then turned under a scant 1/4 inch and glued the edges under. Yes a lot of work. And I thought this would be a quicker way of doing it.Some of these are already applique down. Now to complete them.

Blessings,
Chris