A Year of Finishes

Today I finished a book, a block and a top. Maybe that's a sign I'll get some things accomplished this year.

The book: "What Alice Forgot" by Liane Moriarty.

The block: No. 40 of the 1718 Coverlet.

The top: Pumpkin Peel from "Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts" by Mary Elizabeth Kinch and Biz Storms.

Work in Progress

Thanks to six hours in a small plane over the Thanksgiving holiday, I have finished appliqueing one of my Pumpkin Peel blocks. 

I tried to prep a second block before my trip, but didn't get enough arcs made. I've been working after work most nights on making more arcs, and now I have enough for another block. These suckers take a long time to make and cover the sewing table in lots of little scraps.

I have a couple quilts waiting for bindings as soon as I clear some space to work on them, and a quilt idea nagging at me for attention. And then, like a squirrel to a dog, I went off in another direction after getting a jolt of inspiration.

A holiday wall hanging of 3-inch wreath blocks. I have the center block sewn and only eight more to go! I'm not sure why I'm gravitating toward applique lately. I don't have the best track record in finishing those projects, and with this weekend's weather in the 60s (15 C), it's hard to believe it's December.

Applique tip

Before, with lots of pins.

Barb shared a great tip in her post about the applique on her Jubilee quilt. She machine basted her vines to the background fabric. Genius!

After, with machine basting.

The other night I machine basted my arcs to the background, and last night I appliqued the inside and part of the outside of one arc. So much easier and faster and a lot less painful than with all those pins! For the next block, I might try my walking foot for the basting to make it easier going over all those seams.

Almost one block

I've got these arcs pieced, stay stitched, trimmed and freed of foundation paper. This is the progress as of Sunday night, which is unchanged as of tonight. I'm debating whether to forge ahead with more arcs or stitch what I have together and applique them to the background. There's time to decide as I won't get back to this until Saturday or Sunday. For the background I plan to use four different cream prints from the stash, one for each block, selected solely because there's sufficient yardage for a giant block.

Small pieces, large obsession

I saw this book mentioned on a blog in early summer (but can't remember where now) and was so taken by the cover quilt that I had the book in my hot little hands a few days later.

This is just a quarter of one of the four blocks. A sixteenth of a quilt. And it's big! Each block is nearly 40 inches square.

I have been happily digging through scraps cutting them into wedges for the arcs and piecing a bit here and there while I tried to stay focused on finishing that last top. I may not have as many lights as darks, and I'll have to wait until I have more sections done to see if that will be a problem. Although it requires applique, the amount should be manageable even for me!