A year in review

I was thinking I hadn't really done much this year, but looking back at my blog posts I see that I have finished a few rather large quilts and some tops. I also have a few more things in progress. They aren't UFO's yet!

For the record, here are the 2012 finishes.
Completed quilts:

Pointless Lone Star, 86 x 86,
pattern by Sarah Fielke

Transformer Stars, 76 x 81,
original design by me

70 x 84 inches.

Texas A&M zigzag quilt, 56 x 76.

Triangle Love, 69 x 84,
modified Chopsticks pattern

Scrappy Churn Dash, 61 x 61,
modified Bonnie Hunter mystery

Tops added to the pile waiting for quilting:

Humble Quilts QAL, 19.5 x 26 inches.

Pandora, 63 x 63.

Monkey Wrench, 69 x 75.

Some non-quilting finishes:

Potholders using this tutorial.

Reversible apron using this tutorial.

And another reversible apron using the same tutorial.

And now I can look forward to the new year. Hope you are having a happy one so far.

End of the year finishes

These two have been finished for a few weeks, but I didn't have both a sunny day and a tall enough quilt holder at the same time until yesterday.

This one is going to my new niece, who was born at the beginning of the month. The size is a bit big for a baby quilt, but I think she'll grow into it. The fabrics are so cheerful they make me smile.

Scrappy Churn Dash, 61 x 61.
My version of Bonnie Hunter's mystery Roll Roll Cotton Boll.

Scrappy Churn Dash back.

This one was claimed by my husband while I was making it. I was surprised, but if he wants it, he can certainly have it. He's worth it.

Love Triangle, 69 x 84
"Chopsticks" pattern by Jaybird Quilts
with some fabric placement changes.

Love Triangle back.

In preparation for the new year, I have updated my UFO list and list of tops that need quilting. I've made backs and binding for all those tops too. Now I just need to get them quilted! 

I also gave my sewing machine a good cleaning and a new needle, and I replaced the blade in my rotary cutter. Wow! I hadn't realized how dull it had gotten until I cut something with the new blade. I'm ready now to quilt those tops, finish those UFO's and, of course, start some new projects in 2013.

The story of a very bossy quilt

Once upon a time (a couple months ago) I found this white dotted fabric and brought it home to keep some of my stash company. The fabric kept begging to become a baby quilt. A churn dash quilt of six-inch blocks to be exact. I pulled some fabrics from my stash, but I needed at least another orange and something to balance the brown with blue spots. And I didn't need to make this baby quilt. I needed to make a gray and yellow one.

I tried to ignore this pile of fabric, but the begging grew louder. The only solution was a trip to the quilt shop, which I was pleasantly surprised to find has expanded into the space next to it! I bought more fabric, not all of which will be used because this is to be a baby quilt after all, not a king. I was a little low on orange fabric anyway so this should all work out.

With the fabric all washed and ironed, I started making the parts of the churn dash blocks so I could arrange them on the wall and see which layout it wanted to be. 

Option 1: Checkerboard

Option 2: Rows

Option 3: Medallion style

Option 4: An X 

Option 5: Four patches

Four patches it was. But a disagreement had developed between the brown with blue dotted fabric and the other fabrics so a butterscotch fabric was substituted.

The butterscotch was better, but not a perfect fit so one orange and one blue-green block were substituted.

The fabric has stopped speaking to me, but I know that if I don't get these blocks sewn together soon the begging will resume. I wish the yellow and gray fabric would speak to me. I need to get that baby quilt started before that baby arrives next month.

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.

An ongoing distraction

In July, I saw this post and thought this would be a great way for someone as anal retentive as I am to make an improve-like block. I so admire them, but can't loosen up enough to be very successful.

After making a few blocks with scrap strips, I thought about making a striped quilt with applique in between. Good plan if I didn't want to finish it. Maybe a medallion. Then I remembered a very, very old UFO using similar colors.

Thank goodness I left myself a fabric legend.

This particular UFO was from a guild challenge. We put the names of quilt blocks, colors and objects into a hat, and five were drawn that we had to incorporate into a wall hanging. Green, orange, frog, mariner's compass and something else was drawn. I had about half the compass, which I'd drafted myself, done.

Why did this become a UFO? Because I drafted the pieces way too small for success.
Years later, I have learned enough to understand this. 

I finished the rest of the compass, but it didn't really work with the other blocks. Colors were right, but not the tone or scale. The compass, despite it's poorly matched points, does not work with the improve ones.

Then I found a block I'd made of leftover half square triangles. I sashed it in dark blues, and then couldn't decide if I liked it or not. I left it on the design wall for a long time before taking it down and putting it away.

This weekend, I saw this post, and decided to make a few star blocks with scraps. The colors I pulled reminded me of this summer's medallion attempt. I've pulled it out and am staring at it again.  

I don't think I like the center. I could make another, but not sure of what I'd put in it. Suggestions welcome. For now, I'm leaving this up to ponder my next move while I sew more arcs. Those arcs take a long time. Three days of quality sewing time, and I am only three-quarters of the way to having enough for a second block.

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.