First Finishes for 2018

Last year was a dry year for me--only 6 finished quilts, my second worst year since I started keeping track in 2004. 2016 was my best year, with 18 finishes, and some of those were large quilts. I resist making New Year's resolutions; but I can do better, so I'm making two resolutions this
year--make time for more quilting and more blogging. I miss my blogging friends too. Housework will just have to suffer!

I finished Blue Palms for my son yesterday, so named because that was the name on the selvage. It is, of course, a Stack-n-Whack quilt from Bethany Reynolds' first book, Magic Stack-n-Whack Quilts. It's a big quilt--85" x 102"--so I was surprised that every hexagon block was very different.

My quilt group was supposed to have a Stack-n-Whack workshop last year; but something else came up for the instructor, so I went ahead on my own. She is slated to do the workshop for us next month, but I'm debating if I want to do another one right now. I'd like to try one of those One Block Wonder ones; so if I have something in the stash that will work, I might make a small one. Otherwise, I really don't need any more ufo's.

I had just enough of the original 6 yards to add a couple strips on the backing. Which was a really good plan, because I didn't have quite enough. I was never nuts about this fabric, but I was nuts about the colors, and I love how it looks in the hexagons.

And speaking of ufo's, I have over a hundred of them, in various stages of completion--sad, but true--so I go through my list once or twice a year and cull a few that I don't like anymore for one reason or another. This quilter's block case was one of them. I thought it was a great idea, but I wasn't happy with the way it was going together, so it landed in the ufo pile for several years.

I actually dug it out to disassemble it, but I got to looking at it and realized it was almost done, so I finished it. Now I'm glad I did. It's supposed to have a handle attached with grommets, and that may or may not get added. It unfolds completely flat, and it's large enough to hold a stack of 12-1/2" blocks. It's lined with flannel, so it's great to take to a workshop--the blocks stay where they belong in the case. I'd tell you the name of the pattern I used except I can't locate it right now. I think it was probably called Quilter's Block Case, but I couldn't locate it online either.

Update: the pattern is called Graham's Quilter's Block Case, GCC018 from the Graham Cracker Collection, grahamcrackercollection.com

The holidays were pretty crazy--a trip down to Maryland for my MIL's 90th birthday, gift making, Christmas parties, multiple trips to son #1's house, two blizzards, bitter cold weather, and a couple of weekends with Baby Girl. Baby Girl, who is 18 months old now, got a puff quilt for Christmas. We took her to a craft fair, and she liked this; so she and her brother got it for Christmas. No way would I make one of these, would rather pay someone else!

My MIL moved to an assisted living facility last summer. At 90, she is forgetful and sometimes is easily confused, so she needs something on the door of her room to remember where it is. After her Christmas wreath was to come down, I stitched out this hummingbird for her door. There's some foam core inside to give it some stiffness. Now hubby wants one too.

We exchanged ornaments at the Christmas party for Monday Embroidery Group, so I made a couple of these free standing lace ornament covers. They turned out very nicely, but I never got one made for myself. Next year.

I must have made 6 or 7 dishcloths for Christmas. The kids each got two diagonal dishcloths with Christmas colors, plus a couple for us. This one was made from Red Heart Scrubby yarn, a polyester yarn I think. There is practically no absorbency to this yarn, but it scrubs well enough. Red Heart offers this yarn in cotton too, but it's harder to find and there isn't a huge choice for colors. I ordered mine from Amazon.

This is what the yarn looks like, so it's very forgiving if you make mistakes. Like many other novelty yarns, it's also harder to see if you drop a stitch and harder to rip back the work. It's also too busy for a patterned stitch, so a plain round garter stitch pattern worked fine.

After I knit so many dishcloths, I decided I wanted to use up some of the leftovers, so I made one last diagonal dishcloth. Ugly but functional.....

... and it's better than this, lol.

Wanda at Exuberant Color made a lovely dishcloth from leftover bits. I shall aspire to make my leftovers more attractive in the future, lol.

The Halloween quilt is coming nicely but I shall wait until I have a bit more of the top sewn together before I post it again. Still have over a dozen appliques to stitch out. The quilt is not that big--good wallhanging size--but it's lots of work to prepare, stitch and square up these embroideries.

Plus there are several other things I'm working on right now. Hoping to get four finishes in February.