Q3 finish along update

I posted earlier this week about Lucy's Quilt - my one finish in the third quarter finish-a-long however I'm still pretty happy that I've got some near finishes this quarter.

My 3rd quarter list wasn't that big but its the quilting that has let me down again !!

I was hoping to quilt my Mod Pop quilt but after trying to fight my way turning it around in the machine a couple of times using the walking foot I decided that the quilt design I had in my head would only work with free motion quilting!  I had decided to do echo quilting in the "U" shapes and do a spiral in the centre circles - but after having issues with the curves in the U shape I knew I wouldn't be able to do a nice spiral.

I've decided to put it on my list for next year's Year of Free Motion Quliting :)

I also didn't quilt my whirlygig top but it is basted and ready...

I did manage to get one side of my two sided mosaic top done - I'm putting this on my 4th quarter list and hoping for a finish !

from this...

to this...

and after thinking about this quilt for the last few days I'm now thinking I might just make two quilts rather than a double sided quilt !

I also sewed the hexagon quilt together - while I was sewing it together I decided to use a solid at the end of each row and so I got the rows sewn together while I was waiting for the fabric to arrive - I finished sewing the top just before the end of the third quarter - I was going to try to have it finished but it wasn't to be!

from this...

to this...

so with one total finish and two nearly finishes I'm more ahead in my UFO list this quarter than I was in July :)

just a little pink pez !

I've been a bit busy for the past week - starting and finishing my mod pop quilt top !

As soon as I saw Leanne's mod pop quilt-along last year I just had to join in - I LOVED Julie's pattern and immediately thought of using the pezzy print in pink - I'm in love with that sweet little pez :)

At the time of the quilt-along in September last year, I'd also recently joined the totally groovy quilt-along and had purchased a couple of the new Kona colours that Kaufman had just introduced which included azalea - another colour I'm just a bit partial to so I just had to mix them - I actually thought of using some bright pink solid by Moda for this quilt but I wasn't convinced and when I tried out the azalea I thought it was a match made in heaven - well my heaven anyway :)

The totally groovy pattern uses curves as well so I thought I'd be fine with the curves in the mod pop - well a few curves is one thing but 120 curved blocks is quite another!!

Of course, at the time I signed up I didn't really think about how many curved blocks there were - I only just counted them yesterday which I'm thinking was a good idea !

so I'm officially no longer afraid of curves :)

while the quilt-along was underway I managed to make one block - I was making the lap size which requires 8 blocks - I used the curve master and managed to make a couple of ok curves although there was some unpicking involved but I was pretty happy with the block.

Then of course I was behind in other projects I had deadlines for - an excuse for not wanting to sew curves perhaps !! so this quilt was put on hold. When Leanne introduced the 2013 Finish-along I was determined to get this quilt done so put it on my first quarter list!

I spent most of Sunday and Monday week cutting out all of the pieces

and then last week started slowly sewing the curves and blocks together

of course I hadn't sewn a curve since October when I made my first block so when I tried to sew them on the Janome I had all sorts of issues - I sewed up 12 blocks and unpicked 10 ! so quickly decided I had to try something else so I started pinning the blocks which was a bit slower but way better than sewing and unpicking :)

I think the issue with trying to do it on the Janome is that the needle is at the back of the machine whereas on the Elna its at the front so I got the old faithful Elna out and tried again ... what's that saying about a poor tradesman always blames her tools - lol ... it seemed that I'd just lost the knack of being able to sew curves - the ones I sewed without pins all came out uneven as well as a smidge small and didn't lay flat and the blocks that I pinned all turned out the right size and laid flat so I just kept going with the pins.

I also ran into another issue that I hadn't really thought about (I've learnt some great lessons doing this quilt !) that the way I cut the pezzy fabric made a difference as its directional !

When I started to sew them together I noticed that a few of the pez were going in the wrong direction which would have made the quilt look quite different so I needed to re-cut some of the pieces.  I'm planning on having some crazy curved blocks on the back to use up those pieces :)

after sewing most of the weekend I finally pressed the last seam at 10pm on Monday night - I'm so glad its finished as I just love it :)  Hopefully I'll get to take a half-decent photo of it this weekend in the daylight but until then I'm showing the just finished night shot !

I've already worked out the quilting that I'm going to attempt to do which amazes me but of course it won't be quilted by the first quarter of the finish-along deadline which is in a couple of weeks as I have some overdue blocks, some other projects with deadlines, and a mini quilt for a swap that needs to be started !

I'd really like to thank the amazing Leanne of She Can Quilt for the inspiration and Julie of Distant Pickles for the ab fab Mod Pop pattern :)

if you're looking for a fun pattern maybe you should try it too - if you have a fear of curves this quilt will definitely cure that !