A look back

    I had a pretty good quilting year in 2013. Going in, I wanted to improve my Free Motion Quilting, and I glad to say I made headway on that goal. I’m not where I want to be, but I’m closer than I was.
    According to my records, I finished 16 projects. Most were older UFOs that I used as practice for my FMQ. I’ve seen other bloggers make collages of their quilts, so I tried it:

From left, top to bottom: Stack of Leaves, Carpenter's Star, Ellie's Paper Dolls, Christmas Diamonds, Asian Kisses, Big Zig, Gabe's Quilt, Scrappy Trips in Blue, Butterfly Whirpool, Texas Braid and Sophie's Butterfly Challenge.

    This is just some of them from this year, but I haven’t been consistent about taking pictures of all my completed quilts, so you’ll have to trust me that there were five more finishes. (Three were charity quilts for the Mansfield Millennium Quilters and I don’t remember why I didn’t get pix of the other two.)
     So, what about this year? Currently I’m working on Bonnie Hunter’s Celtic Solstice Mystery. She revealed a knockout design on Jan. 1 and I have all the pieces and parts done as of this afternoon. I will probably start assembling some of the blocks tomorrow. I’m pondering a design decision on the other set and I won’t make a decision on that until this weekend.
    I chose to make half the number of units required for the king-sized quilt, so I’ll have layout decisions to make too, although I love the quilt so much I may go ahead and make the larger option. Another decision I don’t need to make immediately.
    More on my plans for the New Year in my next post. . .

My list for February

Texas Braid
 

     The picture you see at left is my Texas Chain quilt, which will be finished the next time you see it!
       I started this in October, 2010, and Michele finished the quilting last fall. I WILL bet it bound and labeled in the next month. Why did I drop the ball when I was so close to the end? I'll never understand that!
     Anyway, that's No. 1 on my list for February. But let's look back at January first. I listed four things: 1. Quilt the Carpenter's Star from Judy's feather lessons last year. Fail
2. Finish Christmas Diamonds top, piece backing and send to Michele to quilt. 1/2 done. (I was worried about the size and afraid I couldn't get it to her requirements. She told me 120x120 for the batting would be fine, so I'll go ahead with it.)
3. Make blocks for January Block Lotto. Check! Posted here.
4. Begin cutting scraps with my new Accuquilt Go! Check! (I cut a huge amount of fabric, but it doesn't look like I've made much headway. Another goal to make, hum?)
     So January wasn't too great. I need to do better in February. I also need to be realistic about what I can get accomplished. It's not like I don't have a lot of UFOs sitting around to choose from. Some are almost done, for goodness sake!
     With that in mind, here's what I need to get finished in February:
1. Assemble backing for Christmas Diamonds and get it to Michele.
2. Bind and label the Texas Chain quilt.
3. Finish the blue socks that have been hanging around forever.
4. Layer Sophie's Butterfly Challenge and quilt it.
5. Block Lotto blocks (maybe). I'm not too wild about this month's pattern and I want to see some before I decide to make them.
    A list of five rather than four doesn't look like reality, but the first two  shouldn't take more than a couple days. Am I losing touch with reality? I guess we'll see.
     To be continued. . .
    
    
    

Now what?

    This is where I am on the Texas Braid. I wanted to make a large throw, so I don't want it much bigger than this, but I do think it needs another border. I thought I wanted a blue with cinnamon, but I don't have anything that goes. The ladies in my "late night" group think I should go with a dark blue and I think that would work if I have anything in the right color.

    I haven't had much time to work on it, so maybe this week . . .
    I'm starting to battle seasonal allergies. Is anyone else?
    I'm linking this to Judy's Design Wall Monday to see what everyone else is working on. I know I spend a lot of time each week getting inspiration from all the shared projects!

Design Wall, March 5

   It's really my design sewing table. I'm preparing the parts for a Jelly Roll 1600 quilt. Instead of joining the strips with a diagonal seam, I've decided to insert a 4-patch between them. Also, I've cut this from my stash, so I have fat quarter strips as well as width of fabric ones. I haven't seen that many 1600 quilts, so I don't know how this experiment will work. I love the  look of the black and white with the batiks. The questions is: how will it look when it's assembled? I'll know next week at Quilt Camp. We're going to have a "race" with prizes! It should be fun. The second picture, below, shows a jumble of the fabrics with the 4-patches added to one end. I'll sew them all together and then I'll be ready for the race!

    Quilt Camp is a twice-a-year getaway that I've been attending for 10 years. A group of 25-30 of us gather at a nearby church camp. Well it's near for me, a 30 minute drive. Some of the campers drive for three hours!

    It's a little different than many getaways in that we have to bring all our sewing gear, as well as bedding, bathing supplies and our food if we go early (I do). Because of all that, I try to start getting organized early. I'm planning to take five projects that I will work on, and additional fabrics in case I decide I want to do something different. Because I'm a scrap quilter, I always take a LOT of fabric.

    Texas Braid is packed up and ready to go. I'm to the point where I need to trim the edges and assemble the top. Then I'll decide about the border. I'm iffy on it. I think it will depend on its size.

I'm linking this to Design Wall Monday. http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/03/05/design-wall-monday-march-5-2012
(I know there's a neater way to do this butI don't know how.)

Jeanne

No sewing today

My design wall is the same as a week ago, but I’ve made progress on the Texas Braid quilt. It’s grown to 6 panels, and I’m laying out the next two braids and I’m planning to wait until Quilt Camp next month to lay it out and put the panels together. I’ll have more layout room there, plus almost unlimited time to sew. I’ll also decide about borders there, too. (The two “burrito” shapes behind the strips are panels five and six; the ones on the sewing table are seven and eight.)

In the meantime, I’ll concentrate this week on finishing the next two panels. I’ve already tested my planned border. It’s square on point, and should fit nicely with the braids, It will necessitate a lot more cutting, but I think the overall design will be worth it. As usual with my scrappy quilts, I don’t have a deadline for this, so whatever it takes is what I’ll do. It will be done when I’m happy with it.

Design Wall Feb. 20

I spent the day working on my Texas Braid quilt. As I mentioned before, I got the pattern from Bonnie Hunter’s Leaders & Enders book. I just love the look she gives scrappy quilts!

Of course, I changed it up some. I used 2 1/2 inch strips and adjusted the length to look similar to hers. I already had a boatload of 2 1/2 inch strips and not many 2 inchers. It made sense to go with what I already had. I’m using blues, both light and dark, and a cinnamon Kona Cotton. I have 4 braids done and I think I’ll need 8. Bonnie used 2-inch strips and her braids finished at 6 1/2 inches. My 2 1/2-inch strips made my braids finish around 8 1/2 inches (I think. I haven’t put them together yet.)

I wanted to use up my blue fabrics. I’ve always loved blue and I had a bunch. I’ve decided to use as many as possible in my scrappy quilts this year. Actually I started last year and am continuing the project this year. I haven’t seriously diminished the amount of blue, but I’m going to be working on it!

I started this quilt at a getaway in October, 2010, but put it away to finish more pressing matters. I think I can get it done before the end of the month if I stick to it. I now have a system that makes it pretty simple. I make 2 braids at a time. If you notice, they are mirror images. If I work on 2 at a time, I find I don’t get mixed up with the mirroring. The picture shows my cornerstone units on my machine bed ready to be attached to the growing braid. I press as I go. I tried finger-pressing, but I wasn’t happy with the results.

This is working for me, so I can see the end in sight. I even have a plan for borders. Bonnie didn’t use any, but I have a plan for a pieced border that I think will enhance the overall design.

Jeanne

Hello, World!

Well, I've done it.

I'm finally taking the plunge and making my first post to my blog. Wow. I've been thinking about this for some time and today seems like a good one to start. I thought about starting on a "significant" day, but when? I missed the New Year, my anniversary and my birthday, so I decided to just do it.

This will be a place for me to share what I'm working on, whether it's related to my quilting, knitting or other crafting. I also plan to talk about books I'm reading occasionally, since that's a huge part of who I am.

Right now I'm working on several quilting projects: Imperial Diamonds from Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting ( http://www.shopfonsandporter.com/product/Imperial-Diamonds-Digital-Quilt-Pattern/), Anita's Arrowhead from both Quiltmaker magazine and Anita Grossman Soloman's book (http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1509), and a Texas Braid quilt from Bonnie Hunter's pattern in her Leaders and Enders book. Today I began practice blocks from a block of the month from Homestead Hearth. It's a 60-degree diamond design from History Repeated by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle. More on all that later.

On the knitting front, I'm close to finishing my Liesl sweater by Ysolda Teague and a pair of socks for a dear friend.

I'm reading The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon and The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie.

I'm amazed at how much I've learned just on this first post, and I'm sure I've a long way to go to be able to add all the goodies I see on other blogs that I read. Bear with me on this. I promise I'll learn what I need to know.