It Finally Got Quilted!!!!

If you have been following along for the past few years you know that I love working with hexagons. My very first hexie project I started back in the spring of 2009, it was the traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt using 1" hexagons. It took 5 long years to hand piece the queen size quilt top. Then it sat, and sat, and sat some more... waiting for me to quilt it. OK just to shed some light on why it has sat so long to be quilted, well... if truth be told after it took so long to piece it I couldn't stand to look at it any longer. Yup I was so mentally DONE with that quilt, LOL. Finally I decided it sat long enough and I just needed to push myself to quilt it, so it could be bound and be out of sight...period :)

 Here is the whole quilt finally quilted...it took 8 hours to quilt!

 

 I used a pantograph called "Jessie's Swirls" and scaled it down so that the quilting was pretty dense.

  

Here is the close up of the quilting. Now that the quilt is FINALLY done! I actually like how it turned out. Will I do another grandmother's flower garden quilt? Not on your life! But will I be doing more hexie quilts? Of course, in fact the 1/2" hexie quilt I started last year (or maybe a little bit before that) is half way done.
 

 

 This is just a couple of the blocks for the 1/2" scrappy hexies, I have 22 of them done out of 36 that I want to have for the quilt. Just looking at them makes me smile...love all the color!

 

  

But a quilt this size requires A LOT of little hexies. Here's a pic of me cutting some more from my stash using the accuquilt go. When it is finished I will let you know how many hexies it took to make this quilt...here's a little hint; thousands!

 

Working On My UFO's

After my last post where I fessed up about my UFO's I got busy on trying to reduced the number of them. I am happy to say that I am making progress on them. Here are a few pics of what I have been up to....

 

This is my nephew Tommy's  memory quilt from his father's clothing.

 

This is my niece Kristin's memory quilt from her father's clothing.

 

& this is my other niece Jessie's memory quilt in progress from her father's clothing.

 

This is a preview of my leaders & enders split 9 patch blocks being sewn into a quilt top (will post the full pic of it when I get it quilted).

 

This is my Celtic Solstice Jr. quilt which I am also happy to report is now finished and is waiting to be quilted.

 

My hand pieced Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that is FINALLY done (only took 5 years) and is also waiting to be quilted.

 

And finally yes, my Hocuspocusville Quilt is now being worked on as well. I am 1/2 way done stitching block 8 and I have traced the remaining patterns on the fabric for blocks 9,10,11,12.      

 

 Remember this one? I finished piecing this quilt back in 2011 but it sat, and sat waiting to be quilted...well today I quilted it!!!

  

 

 I quilted a panto called Spring Garland on it. Now it will wait until cooler weather so I can bind it.

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come here at Gecko Quilts, a lot more UFO finishes and reducing the spreadsheet number of UFOs...I think my word for 2015 will be UFO :0)

 

My List?

Every New Year it's always the same, quilters all over the world make their lists of UFO's that they plan on finishing for the year. They always have good intentions when they make them, promising themselves that this year will be different then the previous years. Just like any other (OK, most) resolutions they all start out with full steam but then after a month or two the steam starts to fizzle out.

I talk from experience, this has happen to me most years. So when people started coming out on the blogs with their UFO lists or what seems to be very popular right now their "WORD" for the year. I am just shaking my head thinking skeptical thoughts, lol. That doesn't mean that I don't have hopes of getting things done this year off my list (yes I do have a spreadsheet of projects that I would like to finish...I wouldn't be a quilter if I didn't ;0) ). But I am not going to declare that I plan on getting "X" projects done this year or that my word for the year is "?" But I do have some progress of things that I can share.

 

OK besides that I would like to have the binding on this one before Halloween 2014, what I would like more is to be able to locate the missing bonus triangles I got from making this quilt. I placed them in a Ziploc freezer bag, stashed them somewhere and now for the life of me can't find them :0(   

Need to turn this house upside down (maybe this summer) to try and locate them.

 

I have added 2 of the 4 borders that will go onto Ralph & Jess' Celtic Solstice quilt. Since I originally planned on making the king size of this quilt  but ended up only using some of the units to make it a queen size instead. I was trying to figure out what to do with the left over units. Well I figure if I just make a few more units here and there I will have enough to make the 75" X 75" version of this quilt to keep for myself. :0) I love bonus quilts!

 

This is block #7 of Hocuspocusville, done. Even though I don't post much lately on this progress there is some being made.

 

Here is block #8 started. Will it get done this year? Who knows but as long as I keep going back to it, someday the quilt will be finished.

 

  

 Here is my Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt. I had high hopes of getting this one done last year and it would have been done if it weren't for the fact that I took bits of it apart several times because I wasn't happy with it. Now it has a better chance of getting done this year. I just need to add a few white hexie borders around the quilt to get it to the size I need. Yes it would be easier if I just appliqued the top to a non- hexie border. But I already have the hexies cut. LOL  

When I am not working on a customer quilt, I try to get some time in either piecing a top on my sewing machine or quilting one of my own tops that have been hanging around. And then at night I usually work on my hand work projects...like the Hocuspocusville quilt, the hexie quilt or maybe something new I want to learn (been wanting to teach myself hand applique)...this maybe the year.   

 

  

Oh and this project has been nagging at me to get done for the past year or so. After I made my applique Gecko wall quilt for my office, I wanted to add fabric covered wood letters above my window in the office to go with it. Well this week I finally took the plunged and cut the letters out of the fabric and modge podged them onto the letters "Gecko" for Gecko Quilts, just in case I forget where I am, lol Anyways as soon as that drys I will sand down the edges and add another coat of modge podge. Then up on the wall they go.

Even though I am not officially declaring "X" amount of projects to be finished this year I do hope to get a few more crossed off my list. As for my word for the year it is "Perseverance".

 

 

Update on My Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt

So I have been meaning to post an update on my grandmothers flower garden quilt for some time now...but May has been a very BUSY month with school ending for the summer, my son graduating from high school and of course my DH turning 50!!!

 

The center with all of the flowers is done! I am waiting on some more Kona Cotton (honey dew) fabric so I can finish the border and toss it on my long arm. I am aiming for it to be finished (quilted & bound) before the end of summer. So far it has taken me just a little over 4 years of not always working on it, to get it to this stage. Will give more info on it after it is quilted.

  

Long Over Due GFG Quilt Update

I haven't posted much on my progress of my grandmother's flower garden quilt, I know it's long over due. But I have been working on it (slowly that is) and there is some progress since I last posted about it.....

Here is a picture of it so far. All of the flowers are done, I just have to piece them into the quilt top and then add a white appliqued border to it. It has been about 3 years in the making now and I am sick and tired of looking at it unfinished. Plus it isn't as portable as it once was which is making it more and more difficult to find time to finish it. I have even thought about reducing the size of it to be a smaller quilt than what I originally intended it to be. But then I thought what would I do with the rest of the flowers that were already made and then decided not to reduce the size of the quilt and just push on through until it was finished, whenever that will be, could be another 3 years, but I hope it doesn't take that long.   

  

GFG Quilt Update

I have been making progress on my GFG quilt. It has been 2 years now since I started it and here are some pics of it, still a work in progress... 

  

I started off with just a few flowers...

Then my flower garden started to grow...

And grow...

Until I had so many flowers that I needed to add some pathways.

Which is where I am at now.