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. . .
    
    
    

Design Bed Monday

     Thanks, Blogger!
     I had this post all ready to go and somehow it got "lost" in the ozone. I cannot express how upset I am!

     Anyway, the quilt at left is my Christmas Diamonds flimsie. It is based on a pattern from Fons & Porter's magazine (Imperial Diamonds).
     I first posted about it almost a year ago, here.
    
     The thing is I modified the pattern to better use the fabric I already had, and my mods have taken a nice, queen-sized project to a monster king-sized one. I don't even have a final measurement because I don't have floor space big enough to lay it out.

     I have an idea, though, and if it works, I will have dimensions to give Michele when I talk to her. My concern is that the batting that I have is 120-inches square, and I think the flimsie is 112 by 113. She wants 4 inches on each side, and that only gives me 3.5. On my last quilt she scolded me for not giving her enough room around the quilt.
     More to come . . .
     In the meantime, I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday. Check out the incredible online inspiration!

Finishes

Butterfly Whirlpool
 

  I've "teased" these two finishes but I didn't have a chance to get an outdoor shot until yesterday. My ever-helpful DH held them up and I was able to shoot them in better light than in my sewing room. It does make a difference, doesn't it?
     I  love making Stack N Whack quilts, so much so that I've made at least four, and one of them lives on our bed. I'm not sure what will happen to these, but they are finally done. I think I started them around 2007 or so, so I think they've aged to perfection!
     The quilting was done on my Janome Horizon. I used a titanium topstitch needle, Bottom Line thread in the bobbin and a combination of Isacord and C&C machine quilting thread on top.
     The butterflies, called Butterfly Whirlpool, have drawn and traced feathers, echoing and stippling behind the feathers. I did free-form feathers in the outer border, and I'm not as happy with those as with the ones I drew. However, I did improve from beginning to end, so I guess that's a win.

Stack o' Leaves

     For the leaves, I did a feathery thingie (technical term) in the centers, squiggles in the star points, and drawn feathers in the green border. I drew bubbles in the narrow peach border and leaves in the outer one. This was the first finish for the year; the butterflies were second, but I'm happier with the butterflies so I placed them at the top of the post.
     I have one more quilt layered and ready to go, but I want to do some piecing for a week or so before I jump on that. I spent time Sunday piecing six Block Lotto Tall Shoo Fly blocks and it was a ton of fun. I want to do more with BL this year. The blocks are going to be rectangles, which I haven't done much with.
     On my Get it Done list:
     1. I have done the stabilizing stitching on the Carpenter's Star quilt, but nothing else. I still have hopes for this.
     2. I have two more border pieces to add to the Christmas Diamonds quilt. Then I need to piece the backing and give it to Michele to quilt. This is a monster-sized king, and I'll be glad to hand it over.
     3. The Block Lotto blocks are done and posted, so check!
     4. I cut some triangles with my Go! cutter, and found I have a defective die. I contacted the seller and they are going to get back to me. Now I really want to test all those other dies to make sure they're OK. I have a 1-year warranty, so I'm pretty sure the defective one will be replaced.
    The bottom line is I have only one check out of four and it's the 20th of the month. I need to get cracking!
     I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday today and I'll add a link Wednesday for WIP Wednesday. Enjoy surfing the creativity!

 

WIP Wednesday

     As usual, I have a lot of projects that I'm working on. The one I'm working on most is the Linus quilt that I'm making in memory of my friend, Susie, who recently died. The pile of fabrics at left was what I started on for that one. I added some solid burgundy and a bright gold for sashing. I'm using a pattern called "Squareville," written by my friend Becki.

     I've made 40 blocks, but I'll only use the best 35 in a 5 by 7 setting with burgundy sashing and gold cornerstones. Here's where I am now:  


     I have the top mostly put together, lacking only a few sashes and cornerstones on the left side and bottom. I webbed the top using a technique I learned from Bonnie Hunter here.

     I haven't taken a picture of the partial top because it's not done and I'm  struggling to show unfinished tops. Blocks on a design wall don't bother me, but tops seem different. I've always only shown finished object at guild and that mindset has carried over to the blog. I guess I need to get over that if I'm going to participate in WIP Wednesday!

     I'm still working on my Smith Mountain Morning from my workshop in Columbus last month with Bonnie Hunter, and my Christmas Diamonds quilt.

     I'm linking today with WIP guest hosted by Felicity. There's lots of quilty goodness to see there!

Design wall Feb 13, 2012

I spent some time last week working on my version of Imperial Diamonds (from Fons & Porter's magazine). I'm calling mine Christmas Diamonds. I made these changes to the pattern:

1. I used charm packs for the larger diamonds instead of 4 1/2 inch squares.
2. I'm cutting the charms into fourths for the smaller squares for the little diamonds.

I've finished the four units like the one above, and have started the five units that go between the larger squares. There's a lot of cutting and sewing still to go before I get the center done. Then I'll decide about the borders. The pattern calls for the same light background and dark diamonds for the second pieced border. I'm thinking about changing it up and using light diamonds and darker background.

I like to get my quilt center together before I make final decisions about borders. Sometimes it makes a difference. These are what some of the little diamonds will look like:

 This has been a fun project so far!

Jeanne