January OMG - Mission Accomplished

My One Monthly Goal for January is completed, quilted and bound. This was my little Twister quilt that I'm calling "It's A Girl!". Backed with flannel, which is my favorite backing for kids quilts.

To see what projects others completed in the month of January, click here.

The quilt was quilted with a simple pantograph, Angel Wings from Willow Leaf Studio, I think. You almost can't see the quilting because of the cirles in the background fabric, haha. Simple was good in this case.

I've been busy with other quilting projects too all month but very scattered in my approach. Seems like everybody had a new block of the month starting up at the beginning of the year, and I started collecting the instructions for no less than four of them, lol, and I'll be starting another with a friend later this month.
-- Michelle Renee Hiatt is doing a mystery quilt on her blog, Sew On The Go, called Grand Central. I am still working on her last mystery, Ticker Tape Parade, which just finished last month, I think; so I haven't started the Grand Central yet.
-- Alex Anderson's The Quilt Show online has started a BOM from one of Sue Garman's patterns, Afternoon Delight. I saw Sue's quilt a long time ago and always liked it, so I'm collecting the patterns for that one.
-- Moda is hosting their third Blockheads block of the week on their blog, so there are over 50 blocks that will be presented. There are 14 participating designers, each of whom will contribute one or more blocks. I decided to make mine up in batiks that I've had sitting around in the stash for years. The blocks can be made in multiple sizes, so I have to decide what I'll do for a layout before I can start sewing. I think I'm going to go with multiple sizes like the Blockheads 2 Moda hosted in 2018.

--The last one is the only one that is an actual BOM where the instructions and fabrics are shipped every month. Esther's Bloomers is a block of the month by Kim Diehl using her new Heirloom Shirtings collection, and I loved it when I first saw it back in November. It's a 6-month program, so fabric and instructions for multiple sections are shipped every month.

This is the center block. I made a bunch of four patches from a variety of backgrounds to surround it. Some have applique, and I'm still working on those. I think the next installment  ships around the 10th of the month, so I have time yet.

One of my friends will start receiving her Farm Girl Vintage 2 BOM kits later this month. I already bought the book and the fabric collection, so I'll do mine along with her. Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet, who is the designer, has already started a quilt along on her blog, so we'll follow along with that too.

Guess that's enough Blocks of the Month!

This is not a block of the month, just what I hope will be a fast project to make to use up some fabric and which will probably be my One Monthly Goal for February. I'd like it to be a shelter quilt to donate but haven't decided yet. It is Happy Trails from a tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Company using a different setting that I really liked. I modified the size so I could get a larger quilt and also so I could use my Studio 180 rulers, which I have come to love.

I may make some other blue and white scrap quilts this year. I want to make a few more shelter quilts and also some quilts for camp. Next up is a blue and tan snowball quilt with a flying geese border from last month's issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. I've made snowball blocks before but never a whole quilt full, and I think it will be relatively quick. Plus I can use my Studio 180 Corner Pop ruler on the corners so I don't have to draw all those lines on the corner squares. A great invention, those rulers. Wish I'd had them years ago.

A Finished Top and A Finished Quilt

I finished the top of my little Twister quilt this afternoon. The prints in the quilt have little hippos and baby feet and stuff like that. Just a sweet fabric collection and a sweet little quilt. I'm calling it "It's A Girl", which is the name of the fabric collection (Riley Blake). There is an It's a Boy fabric collection too that is still available. It was so simple and quick to make that I look forward to another Twister quilt with a different size ruler.

I like to put flannel on the backs of my baby quilts, and I thought I had some white flannel with a pink dot on it; but I must have used it. So I'm gonna try to get out tomorrow to find something. I have about 50,000 yards of fabric and nothing for the back of this quilt. Sheesh.

Credit where credit is due: from the book, Let's Twist by Marsha Bergren. I saw the border treatment in a photo online, maybe Pinterest, and figured out how to make that myself.

Woodland Scenes was one of my One Monthly Goals for November, but I didn't get it finished until Dec 3. Even though it was last year, I thought I'd go ahead and post it.

The entire quilt, front and back, is flannel. I found a pantograph that had trees, stars and moons on it, and I'm happy with the way the quilting turned out.

I thought I might take this one to camp, but hubby has claimed it and is putting it to good use on his recliner, lol.

Credit where credit is due: posted Nov 3, 19.

New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year to all. It's a new year with a new set of goals and new projects I want to work on. I'm doing the One Monthly Goal again this year--for me it was not 100% successful last year, but it was enough of a motivator that I'll do it again this year. Although I did not list the last one, Woodlands, I did finish 11 quilts, so I'm happy.

For the month of January, my goal is to finish this small baby quilt. My chapter is doing a bucket list challenge this year, and I chose a Twister quilt. To see what others are planning for OMG for January, click here!

I've had the smallest size ruler for years but never used it. There are now 6 different Twister rulers from two different companies in a range of sizes--and I now own all of them. For my challenge, my plan is to make one in each size. This is the first, and if this is the only one I finish, I will have still met the challenge.

This will be a baby quilt for a new baby in the family. The blocks finish to 9", and I'm adding two rounds of borders to bring it up to about 36" square. In the upper left corner of the photograph, I have two border squares set in place, 30 more to go. One seam, should be quick.

The process to make a Twister quilt is not difficult or time consuming--it's actually pretty quick. You must have the Twister ruler though: and I have to say, there is a fair amount of waste, which some people will find unacceptable. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet, so I made myself a template for the border squares instead of using the Twister method, no waste there.

The packaging for each ruler tells you what size squares to cut for the first step. For this quilt, I needed 5" squares--a charm pack would have worked very well. I happened to have a layer cake, so I took one of each print out of the stack and cut them into quarters, which gave me 4 charm packs, essentially. It'll be fun to see how many quilts I can get out of this one layer cake.

The first step for my block was to sew the required number of squares together and  surrounded with strips of background fabric. Making blocks rather than sewing together rows and rows of squares for a whole quilt, as some patterns call for, is an easier way to learn how to do this, I think. Plus I liked the way the blocks looked and the design flexibility that comes with it.

It is not easy to see, but in the photograph, the ruler has been placed for the first cut in the upper left corner of the block. The lines on the ruler are aligned with the seams you have sewn in the block.

Here, the units have all been cut out from the block, and the scraps around the edges and the middles have been removed. Four squares and a border gave me 9 units.

Next, the units are rotated slightly to form a square.....

.... and then they're sewn together to make one block. I love this!

As these are smaller units, larger scale prints probably wouldn't have worked well. Some of mine were a medium scale, and I think they'll be fine. I also knew the prints with white backgrounds wouldn't have enough contrast with my background fabric, but I elected to use them anyway to use them up. Baby won't mind, lol.