Happy 2023! I know it's already the 14th, but the year is still new. I hope this year brings good things to all of you.
What are your goals for this year? I don't make resolutions, but I sorta kinda made some goals for this year.
Specifically, I would like to reduce my pile of WIPs. In the quilting world, that means Work In Progress. When I started my quilting adventure, my rule to myself was to not let myself grow a pile of UFOs (UnFinished Objects), like most quilters do. My rule was that I could NOT start another project until the last one was quilted and binded and ready to give away. Only ONE quilt at a time!!!!
Alas, woe is me! It's too hard to resist starting new ones before the last one is done. I have several WIPs going on right now, but to be fair to myself, two of them are actually on-the-side projects that I do just here and there. Here now I will attempt to show you what I am working on.
In my last post, I mentioned that we had a house guest for 3 weeks sleeping in my sewing room, so I had to stash my unfinished Halloween quilt in the closet. After she left, I really didn't get in the mood to pull it back out until recently because I knew that I was in the "tying" stage and it's a big king size quilt, so I kept procrastinating on it (and starting new projects). Well, once I did pull it out and start tying it, it was "fun" and I got on a roll, and the best part was that I could do it while watching TV, which helps. It took awhile, but I finally got it all tied, and now I just need to finish the binding. So I keep it on my couch to remind me to work on it. Unfortunately, my cats think I put it there to serve as their new sleeping pad and I can always find a cat curled up on it. So before it gets full of cat hair, I need to get it done.
(sorry, I didn't know the picture would turn out blurry) Anyway, each flower was stitched onto a blue background square using embroidery thread. I chose to use 8" blocks because that seemed the appropriate size for the flowers. Also, I should mention that this is a QAYG quilt (Quilt As You Go), so the batting is already attached. Here I am stitching together the last row of batting on the back.
It's exciting to finally have the last row attached. I have an 8x8 array (64 squares), so 8 rows of 8 blocks. I decided to put sashing between them to separate them, but as you can see, my sashing lines don't always match up. That is my pet peeve about sashing - I can never never never never get it to line up perfectly, no matter how carefully I measure and try to line it up.
So, to help hide those wonky corners, I'm thinking I might cover them up with a hexie or maybe I will make some mini EPP flowers. I'm not sure yet, but if I do that, I need to do it before I add the back panel cuz I don't want my ugly stitching to show up on the back. Unless, I applique them on.
Hmmmmm...........I will have to think about this. As I said, this quilt I was making up as I go. No pattern here to follow.
Other projects are just small ones. I used to buy those Block of the Month kits from JoAnn's whenever they were on sale. But instead of making the quilt I would just use them to make placemats. This is the one that was in the kit.
And then I always like to pull some of my scraps out and make another one using the same pattern.
Since Valentine's Day is the next holiday coming up, I pulled out some Valentine's Day fabrics that I had stashed. So both of these are just waiting for me to quilt and bind. I am still trying to decide how I want to quilt them.
Apparently JoAnn's doesn't sell those kits anymore cuz I can never find them now. But I saved all the patterns that I did get, in case I want to use any of them again. I think I have two more kits left that I haven't put together yet.
Here is another WIP.
I found these Mario Bros. fat quarters at WalMart and immediately thought of Justin because he always liked Mario Bros. So I decided to make him something with it. I chose to use this "Dream Weaver" pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company. This pattern is showing all scrappy colors, so you can't pick up on the weaving pattern very quickly, but I am going to use only four colors (red, orange, green, and blue) so it will look more like a weaving pattern. Anyway, I am putting this one together by hand, so it will take awhile to get it done. I got all my pieces cut out - I just have to watch enough TV to get them all sewn together. It really does help a lot that Chuck usually goes to bed early!
Now for my side projects. I found this book:
And it's got 50 block patterns in it. You can choose which ones you want to make and how many, and then the book has instructions that teach you three different methods of QAYG. So, right now I am just making the blocks one by one, as I have time, and using scraps out of my stash. I'm not in any hurry to get it done. When I have enough blocks made I will make a quilt out of them. I have 11 blocks made so far. I just make a block here and there whenever I feel like sewing something small and quick. I think my favorite part is going through my stash and choosing colors.
My other side project is EPP. Now that is something that is just an on-going never-ending project that I like to do when I'm doing nothing, and it's portable so I take it with me when I travel - not that I travel much, but it's also a backup project to work on while watching TV if I'm not working on anything else. I am using all hexies, and I am using all scraps for this. I will not buy any extra fabric for this project. However, I MIGHT need to buy some for the background color cuz I will need a lot of the same color. But for now I am just making the parts that make up the design.
I found this EPP hexie quilt on Pinterest that I am aiming for. Here is a link if you want to see it (hopefully it will work for you).
So I will have to make 28 large diamonds, 16 large flowers, 55 small flowers, 4 small diamonds, 4 brackets, 8 small triangles, plus extras; this is going to take awhile. But it's fun and relaxing, and I am excited to see it progress as I go. One nice thing about hexie quilts is that if you see a pattern you like, you can easily copy it without needing a pattern or instructions.
After I get at least these first two WIPs done, this is my next project I want to start:
Stephanie gave me this for my birthday LAST year, so I think it's about time I started working on it. I will set a goal to have it completely done by Halloween.
So now you know what I'm up to.
Oh, and I also started gardening!
I don't know if you can see it or not, but my onions are starting to sprout.
So exciting!
I can't start any other seeds until March, but onions need to be started early early early.
At least we are gaining more daylight every day now.
Also exciting!
