Beach Friendship Quilt

I've been asked to do a block exchange at the beach retreat this year (2017) and there are 20 of us participating in it.  We have to have twenty 12 1/2" blocks ready for exchange upon our arrival there.  As usual, I have grand plans and poor time management skills.  I've known about this for EVER and am just now getting around to working on it.  I am in the middle of summer with grands and very little time (of course -- as I said, poor time management skills).  What to do, what to do?  I've got to go simple so that I can sneak in little bits of sewing time.

7/25  Simple it is.  I am involved in another project for a friend the next couple of days so first up is to get these pieces cut.  Then it will become a leader/ender for the block I need to make.  I know that sounds backwards, but this block has 100  1 1/2" squares and easily a fourth of them are HST's.  It'll take a bit of time.  Another reason to keep this simple.

 7/26  Today is "Make the gift block AND work on exchange blocks" day.

During the process of building my gift block, all beach blocks parts are put together.

Why stop now?  If I just keep going, I will be able to knock two things off my list today.

My sweetheart shows up with reinforcements.  Beer and pretzels.  Perfect.  In no time, I have all the blocks finished.  What a great and productive day.  I am ready for the beach exchange and no more worries on this one for awhile.

9/8  Today is the day!!!  All blocks are laid out and we'll all just go round the table, making sure we take one of each one.

The last step is for those of us who want signed blocks.  Let the signing party commence.  I am once such person.  I WANT those signatures.

Before coming to retreat, I decided that I want to do the same thing with this exchange quilt as I did with my Christmas one.  Thus -- more blocks and various sizes are required.  I have already graphed it out once and today I make a few more notes to help it along.

I had brought the materials for one of the blocks with me and start cutting for my Surfside Beach block.  It consists of mostly 1 1/2" squares spelling out exactly where we love to be.

10/15  It's been over a month since I have even thought about this quilt.  Today I pull fabrics for many of the additional blocks that I wish to make.  I have a box of Row by Row H2O fabric and kits from 2015 to put to use here.

I have found a few panels that will work and into the project box they go along with all the exchange blocks.  A few years ago I went nuts and bought a LOT of Judy Houghton small panels.  There are five beach ones I'm putting onto the FRONT of this quilt and the trimmings from the back of A Day at the Beach go into the box too.

1/18  It is a new year and I have new goals.  One of them is to complete at least one beach block per month and the hope is that by September I will have my quilt ready to share.  It's a plan.  We'll see how it works out.  For this month, I'm going back to those little squares I cut out last September.  Today is S-U-R.

1/22  As I put these letters together, Bonnie Hunter's On Ringo Lake setting blocks are along for the ride as leader/enders.  Now I have S-U-R-F-S-I.

Let's keep going.  Add in D-E-B  ---- hahahaha, it's me.

1/23  The rest of the letters are made and laid out.

1/24  Everything is attached together and that's it for January.  Woohoo.  First month of new goal achieved.

2/14  Happy Valentine's Day!  I am spending mine happily sewing away.  This month I am making the string blocks that will finish out the Surfside Beach block and using tons of leftovers from A Day At the Beach and the exchange blocks I made earlier.  I do so love strings and certainly should play in them more often.  My blocks are done and trimmed.

And attached!!  Two months down and a huge part of a row complete.

2/28  Getting a bit of a jump on the next month, I'm cutting the parts for the Pokey Patch turtle block today.  This is from a Quiltmaker Magazine and was originally sized for a crib quilt.  I've mini'd it down to 1 1/2" squares.  I'm cut and ready to go but not sure just when I'll actually put this together.

3/2-3  This month I have decided to use up all those leftover bonus triangles from A Day at the Beach and turn them into pinwheels.  It's definitely been a project for the last two days but I have the two strips I need for filler in the quilt.

They each finish at 2 1/2".

Three months down.  Yay me.

3/23  Since I'm up in Colorado helping my daughter by watching grands for a week, I have a bit of spare time while they are at school.  I only brought hand projects with me and two of the three Row By Row blocks that I am using has come along.  Drawing, drawing, drawing pattern pieces onto the fusible webbing.

3/27  A few spare minutes today allowed me to  iron all the drawn patterns onto the fabrics I will be using for these cute faces.  I'll cut them out upon returning home.

4/10 All the faces are cut and ironed into place.

4/12  Applique has begun.  I'm such a rookie at this but each block I get a little bit better.  I usually only practice on things for myself as these blocks are.

4/13  The applique on the faces block is finished, small edges have been added to get it to the size I need in the quilt and I get another check mark this month.  My favorite parts?  The glasses that show scenes in them and the lip buttons.  My least favorite -- I forgot to back the block with any stabilizer.  Too late now.

5/4  It's my birthday and I'm at retreat.  My favorite animal of all is the sea turtle and thus, this weekend I shall work on my Pokey Pal that is already cut out.  It's one heck of a lot of little pieces.

5/7  Three days later, all the little parts have been made and laid out.  It's time to put it together and add a border to get to the required size.  I LOVE it!!  May's beach block is complete early this month.  That deserves a woohoo!

6/2  The fabrics have come out to play again as I try and cut several blocks ahead.

6/5  All the parts for my turtle applique are cut out.  This is the second block that I took to Colorado where I drew all the parts and did the fusing to the fabric.  Boy, that's a lot of pieces.

6/6  Cutting and laying out three of the upcoming blocks.  I'm starting to worry about time as I really would like to have this top put together to show at the beach retreat in September.

6/25  Anchors Aweigh.  This little guy came together pretty quick today.

6/29  And just because I can -- I put two more together as well.  I still have to applique the whale, but three is pretty good for this month's check mark.

7/18  It's time to draw again.  I am working on the octopus this month and the pattern doesn't really break down the individual pieces, thus, I am giving it the old college try.

7/20  All pieces are cut out and I'm off to the ironing board to fuse these on.  Dang, this is a cute block but I'm pretty sure I'm not up to this advanced of applique.

7/21  Still drawing.  I have just a few blocks left.  One is an umbrella so I am working on it today.

7/24  I am doing a beach pillow exchange and have decided to applique the blocks.  I know, crazy right?  If I don't keep trying, I'll never get better though.  While at it, the whale takes a turn under the needle and put it in the DONE column.

7/25  The umbrella block and my surfin' van are cut and ironed on.  More applique.  Goodness, it seems like that is all I'm doing.  (These haven't been trimmed down to size yet.)

7/26  My favorite block is the turtle block and it is also the most intimidating, thus it has been put off quite a bit.  Today, it's starting to come together.  First, on the applique sheet.

I also have to make the bias tape for the vines.  Here is where things get really scary to me.  I have done this once before on a round robin, but I was super scared then also.

Everything onto the fabric.  Using pins to hold the vines in place and I also see that the Mama turtle needs the vine lowered so that the leave is not just floating.  I'll fix that.

7/27  Applique everywhere.  I am working multiple blocks at once by color.  That's as far as I'm getting today as my back hurts after a couple of hours.

8/13  I still have two blocks left.  They are both paper pieced and I have selected the fabrics and printed all the papers.  Today is the day to get them worked on.

One done.  The second is pieced.  It needs the embroidery and that's an evening project.

Stitching (I guess you could call it that as it is NOT my best work) is complete and both blocks are finished and ready  for installation.

8/20  Back at the machine for another couple of hours nets me two more finished blocks.  The surfboard wound up being so skinny that the stitching covered the whole thing.

8/21  And the octopus are finished, including embroidery.  Soooo many mistakes on this one.

8/26  I am finally getting excited and have to lay this out to see what all I still need.  Looks like just the turtle block is missing and the Judy Houghton panels will need to be biggie sized.  Hopefully not too many others are off.

8/28  Even though the last block is not put together yet, I am anxious and start attaching parts together, seeing how it all fits.  So far, so good.

8/29  Turtle applique has begun.  I get all the greens done except the vine.  I'll bury threads and sew the vine on tonight.

More blocks coming together.

Fabric for both borders and binding have been selected.  This was NOT easy.

Since I'm waiting on the last block, I can't set anymore of this.  So . . . . I pick it all up and start throwing out parts for a backing.  I've been collecting stuff since 2015 and have quite a bit of fun fat quarters and panels just for this occasion.  Additionally, some have been gifted to me and I love them all.

The center gets started today but I am not really thrilled with the way the ocean panel is laying.  I think perhaps it wasn't cut correctly.  Back apart it comes and is on the agenda to fix tomorrow.

Burying threads and doing some embroidery on the turtle block this evening.

8/30  I have received the greatest gift on my beach quilt.  My VERY talented and amazing quilter friend has offered to get it quilted before the beach.  OMG.  I really need to kick it in gear now.  Today the back MUST be completed so that I can finish the top tomorrow and deliver it to her.  Tick, tick, tick . . . that clock just won't slow down.  Sew, sew, sew and finally --- I have  backing.  It seems sooooo big.  Oh well.

Here are some close ups of the various areas.  It's pretty fun.

 While sewing, if I needed a leader/ender -- the borders and binding took their turns.  All are ready for installation.

I've let this dang turtle block intimidate me long enough.  Tonight the vine is going ON.

I've decided to just use a straight stitch as the fabric is turned under everywhere.  My sweet 301 does a wonderful job and this is so much easier than I built it up in my mind.  Crazy how we do that to ourselves.  Now to trim the block and add it's upper and lower borders to achieve the 12 1/2" I need in the quilt.  Yeah, quite a bit on the right is coming off, but it will still be off center.  My oops as I just started laying things out and ironing without thinking about the actual size of the block.  It is what it is.

8/31  Today is the day!!  I am going to deliver everything to Maria so  . . . .  time to be focused.  I have an early morning meeting but one free half hour beforehand has me in the studio finishing off the applique on the flowers of the last block.  A quick burying of threads and this baby is ready to trim and size up to 12 1/2".

Since almost everything else is finished, I just add the row of pinwheels and a small single strip to be at the correct size.  Blocks to the left, blocks to the right (yes, I switched them around from earlier) and an attachment of the lower row.  It is now ready to meet the Mother Ship.

One seam later --- there we have it.

I'm so happy that the borders are all made and ready to go.  I do two at a time so that means only four more trips to the sewing machine.  After two trips -- the inner borders are on.  Yep, bright yellow.

Two last trips and my outside turtle border is also in place.  Everything gets a quick press and I am off to Maria's.  One of my goals for August had been to accomplish this.  It feels good to complete that goal -- even if it IS the last day of the month.

9/4  Label is made and I will bind this sweetheart at the beach retreat.

9/8 It's a beautiful night at the beach and Maria is presenting with my quilt.  First the back -

And then the beautiful front.

The quilting is amazing and I am in awe.  It's nothing new when it comes to Maria's quilting, but this time it is MINE to keep.

I cannot tell her enough times how thankful I am.  The tears are just flowing.

And TA-DA - before binding (yep, keep reading this massive memory post).

9/9 Settling in on the sofa, my needle and thread begin their work and by the afternoon, it is finished.  Oh my.  This is just divine.  Outside I go for two final pictures.

What a fun friendship journey this has been.  This sweetheart will always be at the beach with me help me to stay grounded when I am not there.  Love, love, love so much.