Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Friends and Fellow Quilters!  Thanks for all the times you've come by.  I love to read what you have to say.  Hope to see you throughout 2018.

WIPs Be Gone Report

A WIP in Waiting

Meredithe at Pomegranate and Chintz has reported on her 17 UFOs in 2017 challenge. And it's time I did the same.  Actually, I did report earlier in December - go here.  I was hoping to get to edit the review and show more progress, but that didn't happen.

So I'm going to report on how I've done in the last three years trying to make my WIPs Be Gone.  Starting  1/1/15 when I gave myself the challenge to work on WIPs til today (12/28/17),  here's is what I've discovered.

WIPs finished/or worked on significantly:  20
Charity quilts made:  59
Spontaneous Construction/Commission Quilts/New Projects:  38
So on average I worked or finished per year  7 WIPs 
                                                                      20 charity quilts 
                                                              and  13 newer projects.

Most of the newer projects are finished.  All of the charity quilts are complete also.  So it doesn't look as I am very keen on finishing WIPs.  Yikes!

But looking at the life that happened in those three years, I need to give myself a bit of slack.  First off, half of those charity quilts were made in 2015, then I broke my leg and everything quilt-wise came to a halt for most of the next 6 months - it took a full year to get back to normal.  Slowly I got back into the studio, and then I finished about a fourth of the charity quilts each of the following two years.  Same with the newer projects and WIPs.  Yes, I do favor new projects, but I"m not tired of those remaining WIPs yet.  It's that they're much bigger projects and do take time. And I had several commission quilts this past year.

So as I wrote on Lynn's blog, What a Hoot, "I'm taking a different approach - kind of like Judy Laquidara used to do with her stash reports - just count what you've used and what you've added. So yes, WIPs aren't finishing as fast as I hoped- but I'm going to count only what I've worked on or what new project I'll start for 2018 - 18 at hand at this point. But who knows what I'll add."

PS: Meredithe has mixed it up a bit for next year.  It's 6 & 6 in 2018 - 6 new projects and 6 UFOs.  I'm keeping my 18. Let's see what new things I start.  Go here to read about this highly motivational challenge. 

Happy New Year! Let the 2018 quilting begin.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for all your kindness and support, your comments and suggestions.  You make my heart smile.  See you next year!

On my Design Wall

The quilt is bound (see last post). The block is mailed and the trees are now a table runner top. So new things on the design wall.

I'm calling the first one Morning thru Night Forest.  I'm going to put it aside til July when I do more Christmas sewing.  The block below it is that other medallion I made with units found in the scrap bag.  Must grow to 30 - 36" .  Depends if it's going to the NICU or the clinic.  We'll see.

I used .66 yards between the two projects above and about half of my ORL clue 3  which brings my YTD total to  74.59 yds destashed YTD.  Every little bit helps.  I haven't even started ORL clue 4 yet. But I have been getting acquainted with my new granddaughter. That takes precedence.  Welcome Grace Xinling   She's such a sweetie!

I'm linking to the usual Monday parties:  Oh, Scrap, Sunday Stash, Design Wall Monday, and BOMs Away, and Monday Making.  Don't miss the lovelies there.

Baby Quilt Finish & ORL #3

Quilted, Bound

and ready to turn in tomorrow:

I hurried up and made this top in August. Showed it at Guild, put it in my bag to take home and promptly forgot about it what with the grands coming soon after.  I found it a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd better get her done. An unintentional WIP crosses the finish line.

I'm working on clue three of Bonnie's mystery On Ringo's Lake.  A lot to do, but at least I've started.

This is one I know I won't have finished by Friday as I have the St. Anne's meeting tomorrow and Mom is coming to spend the night.  Guess what we'll be doing?  lol.

I'm  linking to Amanda Jean's Finish it Up Friday, Sarah's Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Myra's Finished Or Not Fridays , and Jennifer's Wednesday Wait Loss. Do go by and see all the lovely postings. Blessings.

Some of This; Some of That

What with finishing the NICU quilt top, making my geese for ORL, cutting binding for my quilted baby top, and making a Covered in Love block, plus a little tree, I used 1.64 yds from the stash. That brings me to 73.93 yds destashed YTD.

On my design wall, I've got my Covered in Love block, the binding for the quilted baby quilt, and the tree for my table runner.  Yes, it's not the same size as the other on the right, but then not all the trees in the forest are the same either - hehe.  Fact is I couldn't find my templates to make this last tree the same size as the other three.

Off the watch a new episode of the Crown and hand stitch on my almost complete applique block.

I'm linking to Oh, Scrap and Sunday Stash, Design Wall Monday, BOMs Away and Monday Making. Check out their link parties - so much eye candy and news.   Blessings to all.

One NICU Top Finished

Here's my first completed top from that bag of scraps I showed you in the last post.  This is my 6th enlargement of a Nearly Insane block.  Mine is 30" finished.  The Nearly Insane one finishes at 5".  I fussy cut the sheep for the 16 patch. It's a bit dark but I think some Mom will want it for her little boy in the NICU.

I then went on to finish the units for Bonnie's Part 2.  I made my flying geese with the No Waste Method of Patchpieces.

I like this method as I don't have a lot of fabric in the colorway Bonnie chose for the mystery, and this method uses a lot less fabric for making flying geese.  Here's all I had left after making my 50 units.

While I was making them, I did a few more log cabins as leaders and enders. I now have 24 blocks finished and 6 more started.

Lastly, I've been promising my DH a pie, so I finally got a frozen peach filling from the freezer and made a crust, and baked this beauty.  My mom gave me a bunch of peaches back in June.  They were so sweet I didn't put any sugar in the filling.

YUM!

I'm  linking to Amanda Jean's Finish it Up Friday, Sarah's Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Myra's Finished Or Not Fridays , and Jennifer's Wednesday Wait Loss. Do go by and see all the lovely postings. Blessings.

On My Design Wall

I pulled another scrap bag of bits from my closet.  Am using only fabric from this bag to make more baby quilts.

Here is the center block I came up with for another NICU quilt based on Nearly Insane block 12.

These partial blocks below were in the bag .  Another center - both centers measure 15 1/2" square.  This one I'm just going to wing it and see what comes of it.

Started my part 2 of On Ringo Lake.  Have a ways to go. My biggest hang-up is finding neutrals as I've used a ton in the past year. May have to go to a LQS - lol.

What are you up to?  Come by and I'll visit to see your work. I'm linking up to Oh, Scrap!, Design Wall Monday, BOMs Away, Moving it Forward, and Monday Making.

Some of This; Some of That

All I used this week was from the stash was 1/4 yd for the binding of that baby quilt. That brings my YTD total to  72.29 yds destashed.  

I started quilting another baby quilt - This one I made in August, showed it at guild,

and then promptly forgot all about it as I left it in my meeting bag and never took it out. This scrappy baby quilt is so busy, I"m not trying to do much to the front. Above is the back. Just about done with the center of it.  Also I did finish my scrappy medallion baby quilt.

I used about a 1/4th of a good size trash bag of scraps for this one, so that was good.  So many scraps! Sigh.  

Think tomorrow I'll just sit down in the living room and hand stitch on my hexies and applique. Would be nice to  get my circle done already.

I'm linking to Oh, Scrap and Sunday Stash. Check out their link parties - so much eye candy and news.

Quilted, Bound and Ready

Quilted  this was a "pulling out hair FMQ" as I was trying to FMQ around those squares and it was HARD.  They're better than my last attempt - what with all the ones I've done - but it isn't a cake walk yet.  I can go up or down okay, but turning corners or going right to left or left to right still causes me headaches.  I'll stall in the corners and get a build up in thread in the back which I don't like.  I guess I'll just have to keep practices - I know that helps because after doing 36 of them I could see I was better at it.

Bound

This is the more true color of the back.

Ready to gift

I'm  linking to Amanda Jean's Finish it Up Friday, Sarah's Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Myra's Finished Or Not Fridays , and Jennifer's Wednesday Wait Loss. Do go by and see all the lovely postings. Blessings.

Near the End of 2017 - This is what I"ve done with my Challenges

I linked to Judy's UFO Challenge for 2017.  Needed to make a list of 12 WIPs. And I decided to do Meredithe's 17 in 2017 also (I've added 5 at the end of the first list - no, I'm not doing 29 -LOL. Button on the side bar).  Here's my report on them - If  I do anything significant in December, I'll update.
1.  Finish this top from Karen at Faeries and Fibres QAL  (Done)

2.  Finish making the blocks of this scrap log cabin. (Made 16 more)

 3. Make more blocks of Anna's Garden (Made 3 more)

4. Complete my Easy Street top  (Move to 2018 list)

 5. Quilt my Riverside quilt. (Top together and sandwiched)

 6. Add leaves to the nine baskets blocks (Move to 2018 list)

7. Finish this fourth Benjamin Briggs block. (Move to 2018 list)

8. Make the remaining two baskets in the center block of LE (Move to 2018 list)

 9. Make more blocks in this Blog Hop project  all blocks made as of 2/28/17! (Move to 2018 list)

10.  Sandwich and quilt my Mod Block Lotto quilt (Move to 2018 list)

 11. Sandwich and quilt my Carolina Christmas top  (Done)

12.  Make more string blocks - need 8 more.   all made and quilt top completed!

The five more for the 17 for 2017 challenge  (hers are every 3 weeks and is asking only for significant progress:

13.  Bonnie's En Provence

14.  Carol's December BOM win    four blocks made for the four too small and top assembled and quilted. Woohoo - Done!

15.  Japanese placemats  (Move to 2018 list)

16.  Crumb block quilt   crumb top assembled and ready to sandwich and quilt. (Done)

17  Women's Voices top.  (Move to 2018 list)

4 Finishes; 5 with significant progress - 8 not touched.  Better than I thought.

17 UFOs (WIPs in my case) in 2017

At the beginning of the year, I committed to two pushes to get projects done.  This month I didn't work so much on my stated 17. I opted to work on others ( I have many - LOL).  Here's where I made progress:

This is actually not a WIP - just got it last week. Quilted this wall hanging for a giveaway at St. Anne's.  It was already assembled.

First time I FMQed metallic thread.  Click on photo to enlarge. Worked good. I circled Baby Jesus' halo, but the angle doesn't let it show.

Closer to closing this ring of hexagons

Made two blocks and the eagle - still work to be done on him.

Assembled my RSC top - still needs a border.

I hope to do some work on my Listed UFOs/WIPs next month, but I'm not holding my breath.
Off to an anniversary lunch with DH - today is our 49th.  Blessings,

Applique Tuesday

I'm almost done with my Anna's Garden block and time to start prepping the next one.
First I make a copy of the pattern and cut out pieces (cutting in the middle of the lines) very carefully to leave me the outline of the block for placement purposes.

 I also label each part so I'll know exactly where they will go back in the placement page.  I start with the ones that will be tucked under other pieces.

All in a bag now and ready for the next step - fabric and freezer paper. Some may think this is a lot of steps, but one at a time, it's not hard at all.  More later.

What are you up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by and look at your progress.

I'm linking to Connie's Linky Tuesday.  Go see the links at her party.

Some of This; Some of That

The Stash Report:  Made 53 blocks out of scraps for 3.66 yards.  Made my On Ringo Lake  Part 1 units using another .25 yards for a total of 3.91 yards used for the week.  That brings my YTD total to  72.04 yds destashed. 

Here are my units for Bonnie Hunter's mystery: 

They took longer to do as I had to dig into my scraps and some I assembled as 1 1/2" pieces to get the nine-patch.

 And I've started to quilt my Baby Quilt.  Just have most of the small squares to quilt and then I can bind.  I'm aiming to have this done by Friday.  We'll see.

Last, but not least - here's a cactus I photographed in my husband's greenhouse last week. These flowers last about a week before they lose their beauty.  That color is something!

 On my design wall is still the Mother Goose medallion quilt.  I have made the last 24 units and hope to get those sewn together quick, too.  Then maybe I'll have time to get back to my Christmas WIP.  But first I must add some quilting to a Wall Hanging that will be a door prize at our Sewdality's reception after the Anointing of the Sick mass.  Always something - good thing I can carry over my WIP list into 2018.

What are you up to?  Come by and I'll visit to see your work. I'm linking up to Oh, Scrap!, Design Wall Monday, BOMs Away, Moving it Forward, and Monday Making.

Before the Thanksgiving

I was able to put together my 2017 Rainbow Scrap Challenge top:

All the block's are from Pat Sloan's Summer Solstice Quilt Along. I modified them to be 9" blocks instead of her various sizes to get the size quilt I needed. The fabric was whatever I had in my stash that was the color of the month - even the background. I'm learning that one does have to buy larger pieces now and then to have on hand for backgrounds. Now to think of a border.  Any suggestions?

I also was able to finish the first round of leaders and enders around my Mother Goose medallion  as I cooked and baked and visited with my DGSs #1 and 4.  Just have columns of half blocks to add to the sides now, and that baby top will be done.  I'm liking this way of using up scraps.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday or weekend. Blessings!

On this day

I thank you for your friendship.

 Happy Thanksgiving

Here's the Start of

my next baby quilt top using those leader and enders I told you about in my last post.  It's on my design wall now.  As you can see it will be a simple medallion. I wanted a larger print for the center, but couldn't find it!  This Mother Goose one will do.  I'll probably move some of the units here and there.  It's great how the camera can spot things the eye doesn't register - like those two yellows on the right side.  I'll have to rotate one of them or just put it in another side. I'll see.

Found another darling linky party.  This one over in Kiwi Land. It's called sew, stitch, snap, Share.
Go check it out.  I'm also linking to Design Wall Monday, BOMs Away,  Moving it Forward, and Monday Making.

I hope you got to quilt today.  My DD and I are off to the local quilt guild meeting in a bit.

Blessings,

Some of This; Some of That

First the Stash Report:  I made 2 six inch blocks and 1 ten inch block, plus donated a 1/4 yard for 1.03 yards destashed.  New YTD total is 67.13 yds destashed.  Here's the 10" block.  It goes with my eagle quilt.

I thought it would be the hardest to make (well, I did in 2010 when I started this quilt top), but it's been the easiest so far.  One can learn a lot from posts on the Net over time.  The other two are leader and enders for a scrap quilt. As it will be a while before this one is done, you can see it at Sew Very Easy on You-tube. In cutting and making these simple blocks I found a way to be more accurate.

I've randomly selected two of the rectangles

Upon putting right sides together see that one is smaller than the other which is the correct size.  I could throw the one on top away or adjust for it. This can happen when one is cutting scraps piled up for faster cutting.

 So I line up the the smaller square on the side that will not be sewn as below.

 Then I sew a scant 1/4" seam based on the yellow square (which is the right size).

 I press open the seam and measure.  It is exactly the right size.

Lastly, I'm linking to Oh, Scrap, Kathy's Slow Sunday stitching, and Sunday Stash.  We've had company for the last four days.  You know how hectic that can be. So I'm going to sit down in my comfy chair, watch Wallender, and sew some hexies.  I've added a few to this donut.  Five more to go and then I can stitch it to the center.

I hope you get to quilt today.  Have a restful day.  Blessings.