June Accomplishments, 2 more veterans quilts and July goals

Wow, what a month. I suppose that I could have accomplished more things but I doubt it!

First, I finished off the month with the last 2 veterans quilt. My quilt closet is officially empty except for my own quilts, of course. These quilts are cool because they are what I call "bonus" quilts. I used the last bit of wide backing fabric from the bolt and I use scrap batting to squeeze in an extra quilt or 2 from every bolt of fabric and batting. The fabric at the end of a bold is usually about 36" wide. I dye it first and then cut it in half, sew the 2 halves together for one backing that's about 64 x 60, once it's squared up.

I did want to stop here and share some information on how I piece batting. A few years ago I started seeing the fusible batting tape and quickly realized that it's simply a very expensive version of knit garment interfacing. I happen to have a shelf full of interfacing left from my garment making days so I've started cutting it in 2" strips to fuse my batting together. Now, the interfacing that I have is tan or gray so I make sure to use this batting inside dark or busy quilts where this interfacing will not show. For now, this is free for me, but even purchasing interfacing and cutting it myself to 1.5" is so much more economical. At Joann I found a package of batting tape for $8 for 10 yards of 1.5" wide fusible interfacing. The Joann price for Easy Knit interfacing $6/yard and you will get the equivalent of 13 yards of fusible tape just for cutting it yourself!

When I quilt with pieced batting I do try to do a denser quilt pattern (like the 2 in the photo on the right) so that the batting seams will not separate in the wash.

As my Brit friend, Laura, would say, I'm quite chuffed with this photo. Including the 2 quilts that I just finished, that's a total of 22 veterans quilts quilted this month! I'm definitely going back to free motion quilting for veterans quilts. It's twice as fast as a pantograph. 

I'd say that the biggest accomplishment for the month was learning how to time my machine myself. I also learned that my vision is no longer good enough to see this up close but the phone takes great photos that I can enlarge and I'm able to see exactly how everything lines up. 

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But wait, there's more! 
I also took up loom knitting so that I can do yarny things between crochet sessions. I totally messed up my hands by overdoing crochet and loom knitting is going to ne a good alternative. I finished 2 hats and am halfway through a scarf. I did get one crochet baby done and have a wheelchair blanket underway.

I tie dyed some shirts for my little buddy, Eli, and made a Cookie Monster gift bag for them. It's no surprise that he liked the dinosaur toy that Mom got him more than he liked the shirts but I have it on good authority that he is wearing the shirts!

Finally I got the big green quilt top done. I ice dyed the backing last week so this quilt will get loaded for quilting this week.

I guess staying off social media really does pay off. Getting rid of Facebook and Instagram on my phone was a good decision. I do periodically check in via the desktop and I've discovered that I don't miss very much. 

Here are my ending stats:
Starting UFO 8
Finished YTD 3
Started YTD 2
Ending UFO 7
Other major projects - 1
Veterans quilts made -
Veterans quilts quilted - 50
Fabric Postcards - 14
Pet Beds - 6
​​Quilted for others - 2
​Crochet blankets - 5
​Crochet hats - 12
Doll outfits - 7
Placemats - 8
​Pillows - 2
​Donated items - 20
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​My goals for July are:
 Quilt, bind and deliver the green quilt

1. Add the borders to the vulture quilt
2. Make some birthday postcards
3. Cut out some doll outfits
4. Cut out the rest of the veterans kits
5. Pack my vacation projects

All of this is very doable.