First quilt finish this year

This is the first finish of 2023!

 I wanted to get one of two "great niece " quilts finished. The top was made last year as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I did 4 sets last year. One set I gave away, 2 are tops and one is still just blocks. 

Basting was pretty quick on this one, but finding batting wasn't.  I had to piece together a few smaller white scraps. The only whole batts were cream and those showed through the white background. 

I'm using my favorite pinning tool, which I heard isn't being made any longer. It's called the Kwik Klip. If you'd like one, maybe try Ebay or Etsy? 

So, it took 2 days to quilt the top...I had to work a bit at a time. It's really hard on my shoulders lately (must be getting old).

The backing is a purple and aqua print that my granson, Charlie,  thought Evelyn would like. Her favorite color is purple but I couldn't find a matching purple fabric for binding so I used this aqua gingham. It's cut on the bias, just to look cuter. 

And that's a finish! Evelyn's quilt is done...time to baste her sister's quilt.

 

Another block plus basting a rainbow quilt

Block 3 made. Since I'm starting a new quilt, I'm quilting a previous one.

Today I basted one of my Rainbow scrap challenge quilts. This one will be for my great niece,  Evelyn. I used a purple & blue backing because according to my grandson Charlie, Evie likes purple the best. 

 

I'll be doing two rainbow quilts...two sisters. I'm going to start FMQing this tomorrow so that I have time to add binding... done by Friday? We'll see.

Starting a Family Room Quilt

Here I go again.  Starting a new quilt 😆 My daughter Jenn came over and sorted through my HUGE pile of fabrics I dumped in the family room. I was struggling to choose fabrics that coordinated. She said I had too many so she narrowed them down these.

This is her picks on the floor. I like what she chose...they look perfect. 

I guess paying for that fine arts degree paid off.

The last few days I've gone through a bunch of patterns trying to decide what kind of quilt I wanted. I was thinking something simple. Also, I wanted stars. 

So here's what I picked...an Ohio Star block. These will be the main part of the quilt...20 blocks,  I think. The sashing might be dark or it might be scrappy...flying geese or 1/2 square triangles?..I'll figure that out later. There's even a possibility that I'll skip sashing and just alternate dark and light stars. Still deciding...

So right now, I'm putting the third block together. I'm using a pattern I found in a vintage magazine. It's easy cutting and so far fast sewing. 

 

My SEWJO is back

I finished a top! This is super thrilling for me since lately I just haven't felt like sewing.  I lost my SEWJO in January and just couldn't get it back.

Well, this past weekend we met up with family.  I met a niece for the first time and her two adorable little girls. I have tops made for the little ones but just haven't had the ambition to quilt them. But now I do! 

First I figured I'd get this top off the floor and onto the "to be quilted" pile.

I woke up early, started doing laundry and then decided to go down to the sewing room and, at least, finish the friendship stars...maybe add them to the header and footer.

I did that and forced myself to finish...put it all together. There really wasnt that much to do!

So it's done! It's a top. And I think I have my sewjo back because, as I was having a cup of coffee, staring at my new ottoman, I decided I need a new quilt for this room.

I have mostly blue, gray and white in the upstairs. I needed some warmth so last fall I ordered a new "coffee table". Actually, I found this cute leather ottoman and a tray to serve as a coffee table we can put our feet on. The leather picks up the warm tones in the rug and in my fish picture. 

Now I need a quilt that matches better. I pulled out my Autumn/Halloween quilt for now. But I'm thinking gray beige, blue, and a bit of orange/rust might be nice.

So I guess I back😁 Time to get working on more quilts!

Quilting in 2023

 It's 2023, the year to get my tops quilted! 

I've decided to join @allpeoplequilt on Instagram doing a monthly UFO challenge.  We picked 12 UFOs and number them 1 to 12. All People Quilt will pick a number each month...that's the project to work on and HOPEFULLY finish it.

This is my list. Two of my projects aren't quilts, just sewing that needs to be done. I have an ottoman in the basement family room that has seen it's best days. It needs to be reupholstered desperately. I've had the fabric to do it for over a year. Maybe doing this challenge will be the push I need to do it.

I also put recovering two living pillows as a UFO. This is an easy thing to do but I just keep putting it off. 

So for January APQ picked #3. That's this one,  my gray star quilt.  

The quilting has been started but I stopped when I got really frustrated. I wanted it machine and hand quilted. We'll, as I finished up a section of hand work, I thought I'd put in a bit of fancy free-motion quilting. I did feathers in four corners. But, I used too light of a thread and it looked TERRIBLE. I knew I'd never be happy with how it looked so decided to remove all those stitches.  It took FOREVER and that's when I shelved it. It's ready to be worked on again I just need motivation. 😩  Maybe I should start with some hand quilting. 

End of 2022

 The year is at a close. It seems like a good time to look at what I've accomplished and what I plan to do in 2023.

Plenty of tops were finished off, some of them started over 10 years ago. There's one final top that I'd like to add to the list and that's the #lonestarquilt I'm currently working on.

This top has been challenging. It was supposed to be a 9 patch lone star (9 lone star blocks sewn as a huge 9-patch). I made 4 blocks about 12 years ago then went to make a 5th block more recently. The fifth block ended up smaller. I'm not sure why. So rather than make 8 more stars of the smaller size (I just wanted this UFO done!), I decided to make it a 4-patch and use the odd block separately. The 4-patch idea worked well...love how it looks with the sashing and checkerboard cornerstones. What I didnt like was the size, 59 inches square. I prefer a more "usable" size. So then, with the help of IG friends, I came up with a header and footer to this quilt. 

The 5th #lonestar was split and added top and bottom. I made stars out of leftovers to flank the 1/2 star. Today I need to make 7 more friendship stars to finish this top. 

I'd LOVE to have it done in 2022!

So besides working on this top, I've finished up 2 more grandniece/nephew quilts:

Della's and Lewis's quilts were completed and sent to them. I still have more greatnieces to make quilts for and with any luck those will get completed this year. 

This #rainbowscrapchallengequilt will be going to a great neice. I've made quite a few rainbow quilts through the years. We start them in January (yes, I'll be doing it again this year) by sorting out scraps into color piles, boxes or baggies. Then each month a color is chosen and we make a block or two (or 10😂) out of that color. Do any block you want and as many as you want. 

The rainbow quilt above is from a few years ago. This past year I completed two rainbow tops, gave away one set of blocks and kept the final set to add to in 2023. 

These two #rainbowquilttops were completed and now need quilting.

So! For 2023, I'm going to concentrate on quilting tops. The pile of "to be quilted" is high....maybe 20 tops? It's a lot! I'd like to see how many can get completed this year. It may not be all.... Well, we know it wont be all...but 5 to 10 of them would be a good goal. And even that may be reaching because Al and I plan to sell our house and build next door😱. So I'm also designing a house, drawing the plans up, packing, moving into a rental, building (which includes us laying our own wood floor, painting, landscaping....)....well, you get it. It'll be a busy year! Sound like too much? Yup!😀 Let's see what the year brings🎉

Quilt tops everywhere!

 I'm working on quilt top number 19? I think. The stack of tops is huge...almost overwhelming. But my thought is, get the started quilts all made into tops then slowly quilt them next year. This current one is a #rainbowscrapchallenge quilt. I'm just finishing up a few blocks then I'll sew it together.

I make the block oversize then trim it to a perfect 8-1/2".

The strips are all scraps that were sorted into color piles earlier in the year. I didn't really have a plan with these but then I laid them out in rainbow order and loved it.

And now I want to add a border to each side. I thought a fringe looking border might be cute but as I look at the pictures I'm changing my mind. I may cut large half square triangle blocks instead. We'll see....

This is my pile of tops. Eighteen here...one more almost done. Three more partial tops on my sewing table. I think next year I'll be donating some quilts to the hospital. Plenty to go around! 😱😁

Aqua Dresden blocks

So another UFO will become a top. It's about halfway sewn. I'm keeping the 9 patch blocks but changed up the sashing color.

Im just glad to be getting this done. These blocks were started in 2011...I KNOW! So many old unfinished projects at my house😱 Well, this one was always in the back of my mind. I had loads of different ideas over the years of how to set the aqua blocks.

A few days ago I decided that it was prettiest with red. I had made the nine patches (nine 3-1/2" squares to make a 9-1/2" block )...my sister said keep them so I am.  But I'm glad I switched the sashing color. 

I love the dresdens and I feel like they're taking a backseat in this quilt...but I really dont want to start over-thinking this...otherwise this will end up back in the box for more years. 

One thing I'm happy I did was cut the back away from the dresdens...it cuts out some of the bulk. When it comes time to quilt it, it'll be much easier. I used papers from PaperPieces.com to make the dresdens. AND the papers were left in as I appliqued to make it easy to cut away the back without cutting the dresden flower. 

For the sashing, I cut white, red, dark blue, yellow and medium blue and tested them all out. The yellow and white were just too boring. The red and dark blue made the sashing jump out too much. The medium blue was perfect. So now I'm putting this together as a top.

After 11 years, it feels good to be working towards a finish. This will probably just get put on top of the QUILT TOPS pile but thats progress. Next year I can concentrate on quilting tops👍😁

 

Ocean Waves

Today I had a chance to work on two quilts. This #OceanWavesQuilt top is finished. I put the final rows on then dug around for a scrap of white for the border. The perfect piece was on I picked up at a thrift store not long ago. This was a really fun top to make. It used up quite a few pretty scraps and lots of different whites. 

The #rainbowscrapchallenge was the perfect excuse to try out the Ocean Wave pattern. And making it 7 blocks at a time (7 per month) made it painless. I think I'd like to make one more but this time in the traditional blue & white.

 So after finishing up that top, I spent a little time trying to decide on how to set these dresden blocks. They've been packed away for years and really need to be put into a quilt. I'm still not sure the above setting works for the aqua blocks. The red seems to strong and takes away from the dresdens. So I might not use them...anyone have any ideas or opinions? I only have 16 dresdens. I know I want them on point...just not sure what colors are the best to use with the aqua. My sister says keep it as it is. If I do and dont like the finished product, she'll be the new owner😂

September blocks

 

The color for September (for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge) is blue but since I had already made blue blocks, I decided I'd do brown. I know, I said I don't really care for brown but I needed one more color in this quilt. It was between gray, brown and black. Black seemed to intense and gray not strong enough so I did warm browns. 

I also made one more of green, orange and pink. That gave me enough blocks for a small quilt. I'm going to sew the blocks together now then give it a nice wide white border and then.. ? ...Maybe one more border after that of HSTs.... Or maybe just a bright binding. 

I also made one brown "Building Blocks" block and one in gray. I have a total of 10 of those. They're getting packed away until January. Next year I'll do 10 more, then set them on point for another rainbow quilt. I'm getting quite a collection of rainbow quilts. One is going to a great neice (one already did) and one is for me to keep. No idea what I'll do with the rest. They're just such bright and fun tops to make. 

Sewing on the road

Al and I are on our way to my brother's farm in the U.P. of Michigan. They called us to say they needed help with the harvest...which means they've canned all they are able to and would like us to haul tomatoes and other stuff back home. I usually can tomatoes into sauce each year because my husband (being Italian) requests spagetti about once a week. We go through a LOT of sauce!

So yesterday I dug through my 30's for scraps to for the tumbling blocks quilt so that I could work on it as we travel.

I have quite a few 30's reproductions and originals, that I've collected over 20 years or so. I'm trying to use up all the small pieces in this quilt. And if I need some color that isn't a scrap, I'm cutting one. 

Having these papers cut and pinned to fabric makes basting so much quicker. I prepped about 25 of these diamonds then grabbed a stack of scraps so that I'm not bored in the evening up there.

We are on the road, I'm sewing, he's driving...both of us doing what we love best!