2023 Planning Party

I cannot believe it's already been another year! Wow, this year went so fast. I didn't actually remember what I'd put on my 2022 list so I had to go back and look for it. First up, I said I wanted to finish an average of one quilt per month. I exceeded that. Since I finished so many scrappy quilts, my count exceeded more than one quilt a month.

Dunrobin quilt for my mother-in-law

Judy Martin's Snake River log cabin quilt, finally finished

Bonus Unbeweavable lap quilt.

Judy Martin's Paducah's log cabin quilt flimsy.

A bonus Rhododentrail Trail lap quilt, mostly following the original pattern.

My version of the first Sewcialites quilt. I created my own layout.

Aged Elegance quilt

My version of the Rhododendron Trail. I changed the sashing.

I also said it would be nice to learn how to applique and foundation piece. Yeah, I forgot about that one, though I did make a quilt with foundation-pieced blocks. I still have a lot to learn and need more practice, but I think I did decent for my first attempt.

Pieces of My Heart flimsy

I said I'd like to quilt the dozen or so flimsies I had accumulated. I was successful on that one. I do still have a couple of my most advanced projects still waiting for quilting mainly because I don't think I've learned how to use my Prostitcher software well enough to do a good job quilting them. In total, I finished quilting 19 of my own flimsies this past year, including scrappy lap quilts.

One of my goals was to be more disciplined about making pillowcases as soon as I finish the bed-size flimsies.  Yeah, I didn't do so good on that one. Though, in fairness, I really just finished quilting the Snake River this month so it's not too late to get pillowcases done before I start using it on a bed. And I didn't make pillowcases to coordinate with the Rhododendron Trail because I just use yellow pillowcases, which I already had. The other two bed-size quilts were made as gifts and we're gifted accordingly. Yes, it would have been nice if I had included matching pillowcases....

Finally, I said I'd like to engage more with my two local quilt guilds. That was mostly a failure, primarily because of the lingering pandemic. I did go to the last meeting of the Northwest Quilters Guild and I do plan to start regularly attending the general meeting. I also will attend any virtual retreats (those held online) but I'm still not ready to attend in-person quilting retreats.

Now for the part where I start looking ahead to 2023. 

I would like to finish twelve donation quilts, an average of one every month, to donate to Comforting Quilts. Most of the patterns only take me a day to piece the small sizes and then they only take an hour or two to quilt them up. I'm sure I can spare that much time from my own projects. LOL

I would like to spend more time learning to use my ProStitcher computer. I know there is a lot I don't understand so I need to spend several hours every month finding and watching whatever educational videos I can find. I would take an in-person class if I could find one that isn't crazy far. Or I may pay for online classes. I still need to look around to figure out what's available. 

I would like to figure out how to quilt my Deco Elegance quilt for my Aunt. I came up with a quilting plan I really like, but the individual blocks exceed my machine's quilting space. So, I either need to figure out how to put the quilt on my frame on a diagonal, or I need to figure out if I can break the quilting design into more than one piece. Most likely, I will put big triangle muslin pieces on the edges and install the quilt on the diagonal so I can quilt the center portions and then take them off to finish the border. 

I would like to make the Jade Garden quilt and the Diamond Lane quilt (in Farmhouse Chic fabrics) before I lose track of why I bought the fabrics.

Jade Garden quilt

Diamond Lane quilt in Farmhouse chic fabrics

I plan to participate in Bonnie Hunter's Chilhowie Mystery Quilt again and Cheryl's Melodic Mystery quilt. (I've been downloading the clues but I haven't started either.) In January, I'm hoping to start pulling my fabrics for both of them and get caught up!

That is it for my official goals. I have other projects I would like to make, but I think they'll have to be in the extra column. I'd like to make gifts for family members, but I still need to decide on patterns. Perhaps I'll get a couple of those done too.

Thanks to Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for helping to keep us all on track with her annual planning party linkup.

Snake River Finished!

FINALLY!, my Snake River Log Cabin is finished. As I mentioned before, this pattern was designed by Judy Martin and is available in Judy Martin's Log Cabin book.

I started making this quilt in Dec 2020 and actually got the flimsy finished in January 2021. But then it just sat; I couldn't bring myself to hire someone to do an edge-to-edge quilting job on it because it was too nice. Nor could I justify the expense of a custom job. So I just hung the flimsy in my closet and moved on to my next project.

Obviously, once I got the long arm I was eager to quilt it, but I felt like I needed to practice with easier projects before I had the confidence to even attempt it. I hadn't actually been planning to quilt this quilt yet, but then I noticed a pantograph in my collection that sprung to my mind as being perfect, for this quilt.

Donna Kleinke's Aspen Border & Corner Set #8904

The shape struck me as being perfect for the Snake River block so I started trying to make a plan.

When I bought my Handiquilter, I also bought the ProStitcher computer and the software is great for playing with different layouts. I spent a lot of hours trying to come up with my plan.

This is the plan I eventually went with.

I will admit I did not stitch it up perfectly. I still have a lot to learn about alignment, but overall I am satisfied with how it turned out.

Linking up with

• Brag About Your Beauties,
• Finished (or Not) Friday
• Peacock Party
• TGI Finished Friday

Tuesday ToDo #59

I have been making steady progress in finishing projects this month. Since my husband and I don't do Xmas anymore, I usually have plenty of time on my hands during December.

I finished labeling and binding my Snake River log cabin quilt. The blog post will be posted soon.

I finished assembling and quilting the Flowers for Nana Girl quilt. It still needs a label and binding. I blogged about it here.

I've been working to finish the Arlington Square quilt which I started as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. To be honest, I am not loving how it looks. It's a little too scrappy for me, so I have decided to make two smaller size quilts rather than one large one and pass them on once they are finished.

I've also nearly finished quilting my Paducah Log Cabin quilt. There are definitely some mistakes, but I have learned quite a lot on this one. I've been trying to work with Glide thread and it is a challenge, but it stitches up beautifully so I definitely think it's worth the effort to learn how to use it. I've finished quilting the top and bottom borders and all the central blocks, but I still need to rotate the quilt in the frame and finish the last two border edges.

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday and Tuesday ToDo.

Flowers for Nana Girl Quilted!

I really love how this Rainbow Scrap Challenge project has turned out! 

Again, this particular block design is another by Kim Brackett, from her book Scrap Basket Sensations. 

I struggled (again) to pick a pantograph for this one. It is very possible I have too many pantographs. LOL I had three pantographs I was trying to choose between and then at the last moment, I changed my mind and went with something entirely different. I ended up using the Villa Rose Panto 2 by Donna Kleinke of One Song Needle Arts. I used a thread that blended into the creamy background color.

This is another quilt that I will bind at the end of the month after I make the next batch of quilt labels.

Update: It's bound and finished!

Linking up with

Brag About Your Beauties,

Finished (or Not) Friday

Midweek Makers,

Needle & Thread Thursday

Peacock Party

Scrap Happy Saturday

TGI Finished Friday

Thanks for visiting!

Unbeweavable Finished!

My second Unbeweavable quilt is finished! This was actually a quilt I cut out by mistake when I used my Cricut to cut out the first one. I was math-challenged and cut out twice as many pieces as I needed, only these weave in the reverse direction from the first quilt.

I used the Washington's Puzzle block (c. 1900) from my Blockbase software to export the svg file. 

The weaving color design was copied from someone else's design, only they are selling a special ruler to make it, but their minimum size block is 6". My finished blocks are 4". Without my Cricut Maker, I probably would not have attempted to make this, those little pieces would have been too fiddly to cut out by hand. I love my Cricut Maker.

Sadly, I made a quilt label for this quilt and then forgot to sew it on before I bound it. Oh well. I'm still new to making quilt labels so they haven't been added to my mental checklist yet.

For the pantograph, I used the Water Lily Allover pantograph, designed by Darlene Epp. It was included with my ProStitcher software. My goal was to align the pantograph curves so they matched the curves in the quilt. It was a bit of a challenge because I had to size the pantograph larger than the quilt and then crop it down to the dimensions of the quilt.

To be honest, I'm a little disappointed with my pantograph choice as I was not entirely successful in aligning it perfectly. It started out pretty well, but by the end, it was about a quarter-inch off. In future, I will likely be better off sticking with pantographs that align with smaller areas (like a row) or don't bother to use a pantograph that aligns.

On Friday, I'll be linking up with

Brag About Your Beauties

Finished (or Not) Friday

Peacock Party

TGI Finished Friday

Thanks for visiting!

Flowers for Nana Girl Progress

This project had been on my "want to make" list for many years. Joining the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year finally gave me the excuse I needed to get started. This particular block design is another by Kim Brackett, from her book Scrap Basket Sensations. 

For my project, I decided to make these blocks entirely with batik fabrics and I also accidentally changed the block size. I misunderstood a diagram and I hadn't read all the words when I transcribed this design into Electric Quilt. It turned out fine though since I was using scraps and not a jelly roll (and Electric Quilt prints-out templates).

When I pulled out my RSC project bin I found I had finished twelve blocks throughout the year.

My original layout called for a total of sixteen blocks, but as I dug through my batik scraps again, I came up with lots more fabrics and I decided to add another row of four blocks.

I spent most of Saturday cutting out and making the additional eight blocks. Then, on Sunday, I spent nearly the full day making the sashing units and then assembling everything together.

While I was digging through my boxes of unironed fabric I ran across this amazing rainbow batik. It's perfect! I think it will make a great border fabric, and I think there might be just enough for the backing too. I really hope so.

Arlington Square

Since I doubt I'll do another blog post tomorrow (I've been way too busy sewing to write updates), I may as well add a list for this week:

• Finish the borders on the Flowers for Nana Girl lap quilt
• Make the backing and quilt it, too.
• Finish the Arlington Square quilt project too?

I have been really excited about wrapping up these RSC projects by the end of the year. It feels good to finish some UFOs before I move on to Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt.

I'm linking up with

Design Wall Monday

Tuesday ToDo

Thanks for dropping by.

Bloom Quilted - FNwF

And just like that, it is quilted! I love my computer-guided long arm (when it works).

I spent a few hours the past couple of days assembling the Bloom blocks with the sashing and adding the outer borders. (These Bloom quilt blocks were designed by Kim Brackett, from her Scrap Basket Beauties book.) The borders were not scraps, they were from yardage, but all the rest of the materials were scraps.

By Friday evening, I was ready to quilt the Bloom lap quilt for my Friday Night With Friends project. I quickly assembled the backing and I even pieced some leftover batting pieces, which I really hate doing, but I thought it was appropriate for a scrap project. I used Quilter's Dream 70-30 Blend because I had a fairly large chunk of it left over.

I quilted it with the Let Love Bloom 1 pantograph, designed by Christy Dillon. I guess given the name, it seemed appropriate. LOL

I will probably wait until the end of the month to finish the binding as I'd like to make a quilt label for it. I may as well see how many more quilts I can finish this month and then make all the labels at once.

This finishes one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects! Next up, Flowers for Nana's Girl. I need four more blocks and a whole lot of sashing units.

Update later in the month: Bloom is bound and finished!

I'll go ahead and link up with
Brag About Your Beauties 
Finished (or Not) Friday and
Scrap Happy Saturday.