My First 2022 Finish

 

AND my second and third finishes.

First was the guild Mischief Makers Challenge, the little gingham quilt.

I dug out my Bernina and its wonderful walking foot and echo quilted. I love how this turned out. I don't think I can give it away....soooo...

My second finish:

From the scraps of the first. This mug rug was fun to make. Again I don't know if I can give it away. I have a few other red and white project ideas. I still have 4 weeks before the exchange. Hopefully by then I'll make something I'm willing to give away. ;o)

Third finish:

No, I am not showing the same quilt twice. This is 3 of 3 (horrible name, oh well). I finished it exactly like 2 of 3. Both quilts have already been donated.

I am getting close to deciding on a border for the Kool Kaleidoscope quilt. While I've been staring at it and staring at it I went back to my not very local quilt shop to get more fabric - none of the left overs were big enough for a border and at the time I still had no clue. 

I also started a new quilt. This should be quick. The pattern is from the Moda All-Stars Two, Four, Six, Eight Fat-Quarter Quilts book, it is Rookie Vibe by Sandy Gervais.

I'm using the left over fat quarters and scraps from the Lori Holt Prim bundle I purchased a few years ago.

It has been COLD here! Maybe not as cold as the east coast, but cold enough that if I can't find Bella in one of her usual haunts I know to start looking for a large lump under quilts.

Kool Kaleidoscope

 I've been in the mood to sew and got a bit done this past week. 

My Kool Kaleidoscope quilt is ready for borders but I have no idea how I want to finish it. 

I really like the very center, the outer portion is kinda funky - I didn't get enough of an angle on the fabric strips. I can't sew the center together until I make a border decision. I have a few ideas and will probably waste a bit of fabric auditioning ideas.  It is definitely the ultimate mystery and almost impossible to plan. I think, if I make another one, I'll use fewer fabrics and fewer colors. It is an interesting and fun process. Also surprisingly easy.

I picked up a guild community service quilt kit the last time I attended. The kit included already made blocks, border fabric and backing fabric. I finished the top yesterday and got the back made today.

I'll quilt it later this week.

Every other month the guild has a Mischief Makers Challenge - I always debate about participating but the last two have been fun. February's is to make something red and white, it has to be sewn, can be holiday related, no florals, and no pink. It will be a exchange, you take one and get a different one. I really debated about doing this one (also wasn't sure what to make) but decided to go ahead. 

I've been wanting to make a gingham or buffalo plaid quilt for a white. This will finish at 17 inches square. Really easy to make. Took about 3 hours this afternoon start to finish. I'll also quilt it later this week.

Hopefully the good sewing mood will continue cause I have lots to do and am serious thinking about chasing a squirrel ;o)

Hello 2022!

 I hope everyone had  a safe and sane New Year's Eve. We didn't get all of the snow that was predicted but we did get a bit. Today it has rained all day, another good day to sew.

Everyone is doing a recap of 2021, I'm going to also, but first let's recap last week. Did I get all my quilting done? HA! Not even close.

I did finish the rails quilt. 

This is a small quilt 37 x 48. I didn't quilt anything fancy. Stitched in the ditch around the blocks and machined sewed the front and back of the binding. I'll donate it in a couple of weeks.

Then I decided to quilt the green diamond, my second oldest quilt top. I just couldn't decide what to quilt so I started with in the ditch around the green diamonds. 

OMG!!

As I told Rose: Do not ever, never ever, avoid it like the plague, use high loft polyester batting. Quilting it is horrible! I fought it for two days and gave up. It also didn't help that my walking foot was doing more jumping and skipping than walking. :o( All the in the ditch is done. I'll probably free motion quilt a bit in the border, but not as much as I really should do. I'll get out the Bernina so I can use its walking foot to sew on the binding. I think I'll have to sew one side down before I trim it. That stuff also snags on everything. I'm taking it as a lesson learned and Bella will get a new bed.

She kept trying to claim it while I was attempting to quilt it. I just looked at the quilt again and maybe I'm being a little melodramatic. Maybe. I'll give the quilt another chance this week.

Next let's recap my 2021 UFO Challenge list...that I'm very happy with, of the 12 items listed 9 were either finished or significant progress was made. I turned my oldest 20 year old UFO into a quilt top! And quilted my oldest quilt top. Definitely a win.

I really liked participating in the UFO Challenge. It allowed me to not stress or even think about an old project until it's number came up. I've already made my 2022 UFO Challenge list and only found 11 UFOs so number 12 is "free month".  Hehehehe, guess which number came up first? Yup, 12. I swear I had my list made before they chose the number. That means I get to work on anything I want this month. Yippee!! I'll talk more on that in a minute.

The last recap is my UFOs/WIPs spreadsheet. I've been working on an annual spreadsheet of my UFOs/WIPs for a couple of years now and this is also helping me focus and manage my projects and their progress. I didn't think I accomplished much last year until I looked at the numbers.

Not the most readable screenshot but up at the top it says I started the year with 11 UFOs/WIPs and 16 tops that need to be quilted. 

It also says I ended the year with 11 UFOs/WIPs, 13 tops that need to be quilted, and drum roll please....36 completed projects! 18 of the 36 were donation quilts. Not all the projects were quilts, but if I sewed on it, I included it.

Now on to 2022. This month's UFO Challenge free month is the perfect start for the year. I have decided 2022 is going to be a guilt free year. With the exception of my monthly UFO Challenge projects I am going to work on whatever I want. I am not going to feel guilty about unused scraps or really old fabric/kits or making a donation quilt every month. I going to work on whatever I want and chase as many squirrels as I want. I'll still track everything on my spreadsheet, and if a project isn't finished it will probably end up on next years UFO Challenge list, but that is okay. I want to enjoy the time I'm spending quilting, not avoid it like a chore.

My first project for the year is Ricky Tims' Kool Kaleidoscope. I have my fabric cut and half the strip sets (Ricky calls them strata) are sewn.

He calls this the ultimate mystery quilt. I am so looking forward to seeing what mine will look like. 

Stay tuned, 2022 is gonna be fun.

Snow Days

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Ours was very quiet, and very nice. My niece and her family (including the dogs) spent Christmas Eve eve and day at my mom's. They left for home just before the roads were closed Christmas Eve. 

It has snowed on and off for the last four days and is supposed to snow for the next five days. Yikes! It isn't as bad as it sounds. It has been a heavy wet snow that doesn't really stick. Regardless, I don't really want to drive down my steep driveway or my steep road, so I've been staying nice and warm inside cleaning and sewing.

I only made one thing for Christmas this year.

My niece's boyfriend wanted money for motorcycle parts, but I wanted to have something for him to open besides an envelope, so I made him a motorcycle themed pillowcase and wrapped it and the envelope in a huge box. 

Remember Christina who's nautical quilt I finished in October? She made me an afghan.

 It is a pretty green in real life. She "finger crochets" using a heavy thick chenille like yarn. So soft. Best part is for some reason Bella doesn't like it so I can cuddle up with it and not worry about her getting in my lap and kneading biscuits with her dagger claws.

Christmas night I loaded the 2nd of the 3 quarter log cabin quilts on to the frame. I finished adding the binding today.

I'm on a mission to get all of these quilted before January 1.

None of them are very big and I don't plan on doing any fancy quilting in any of them so hopefully it is doable.

I'll start this one tonight. Mostly in-the-ditch, with maybe X's in each block.

I hope you all have a very happy New Year. See you next year.

Squirrel

 

 I told two different people that I started a squirrel project, they looked at me as though I was nuts and said it looked more like a snowflake than a squirrel.

Are quilters the only ones who know what a squirrel project is?

The snowflake pattern is a freebee by Lake Girl Quilts. I've always wanted to make the larger snowflake pattern by Modern Handcraft but the likelihood of that happening is pretty low so this little quilt was my compromise.  It's supposed to finish at 13 x 13 inches, but mine is 13 x 13.5.  Don't ask.

My Baby Lock did pretty good with the free motion quilting however it did not like some of the bulky seams.  

I have one last minute Christmas present to make and then I'll be ready for wrapping. 

According to the weather app on my phone I could have my first white Christmas. Getting up and down my driveway and hill to get to my mom's could be an adventure.

I hope you all have a warm, safe and very merry Christmas.

Quilting Weather

 It has rained all day today. We even had a little bit of snow this morning. This past week has been dreary, overcast and rainy....perfect quilting weather, but I wouldn't mind seeing a little bit of sun.

The donation quilt I volunteered to quilt is done. From a distance it doesn't look bad but close up...

There were lots of puckers and bunching even before my quilting, unfortunately the quilting contributed more. I found a few other issues as I was quilting it. I'll let the project coordinator know about the issues. It is a cute quilt.

I also got the next clue to my Project Linus quilt finished, "Don't fence me in".

I'm behind on this mystery quilt and the final design has been revealed. Here are all the clues I have finished roughly laid out. Oliver in the doghouse will go in the big empty spot and paper pieced birds with go above. I think I'm going to change up the final layout a bit, I'll decide after I get all the clues made. 

I have been having really good luck finding bargains at a thrift store in Medford. This time it was 6 yards of a nice neutral fabric for $15.

I think it may be old as there is no selvage markings on it. It will make a great back on a future quilt.

I got all my Christmas shopping done last week! So happy. My mom asked for one of her gifts early (she was with me when I bought it and it is a holiday decoration). All the wrapping paper and bows are at her house. My whole family is famous for it's 11th hour wrapping after they get to my mom's house on either Christmas Eve and Day.

So she would have something to unwrap I improvised quilter style. Only problem is I think she liked the fabric and is going to keep it too. 

Green Swirl

 

The green half square triangle swirl is finished! I finished the top in August 2015, I made the HST blocks years before deciding on a pattern.

The top.  Quilted with a large meander.

The pieced back. I used up some really old foliage fat quarters I had in my stash. I used the trimmings from the back to make the quilt binding. I wish I could say I finished my oldest quilt but I can't. I have a flannel flimsy that is older, I just can't decide if I want to use it as a top or a back, so it stays hanging in the closet.

I worked on my Oliver quilt...fire hydrants.

These took a bit of time and paying attention to get them made. I didn't do enough paying attention and cut one of the blocks too short. I didn't fix it. One of the hydrants is about a half inch shorter than the other two. The pattern designer has you sew most of the units oversized then trim them down. By the time I finished all three the "short" one was the same size as the other two.  I'll put the short one in the center.

I volunteered to quilt another person's quilt at the last Quilts for Kids meeting. Smack me up side the head if I ever volunteer again.

The quilt and pattern are very cute but the quality of the sewing is horrible. None of the pinwheels were pressed or squared up before they were sewn into the rows - there are puckers in almost all of them. For about half the rows, the machine tension was bad and the thread was just laying on surface of the fabric. There are patched holes in the fabric (I found another hole and patched it). There were several areas were the edges were not lined up when the seam was sewn and there were gaps in the sewing. 

I seriously thought about taking the whole thing apart, but it isn't my quilt so I don't feel I have right (?? not the right word but I can't think of another) to remake someone else's quilt. I re-enforced seams as much as possible but I didn't take any of the pinwheels apart. The puckers are staying. I'll be loading it onto the frame tomorrow. Wish me luck on the quilting.