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.

2016--It's A Wrap

The last time I posted was two months ago. I guess that's par for the course. I'd like to try and do better this year. The last several months were busy ones, with our chapter quilt show, fall clean up, winterizing the house and cars, a death in hubby's family and a trip to Maryland for the funeral, hubby's knee surgery, weekends with Baby Girl, the holidays and all that entails, and as much quilting and knitting as I could fit in. I finished 18 quilts in 2016, which is a record for me, and in a variety of sizes, from queen to to miniature. 12 of those were UFOs, and it makes me exceedingly happy to see them finished. 8 were charitable donations for Quilts of Valor and NICU. This year I want to continue to focus on quilts for donation and the UFOs, and I'd like to make some quilts for family as well.

A little over half of the quilts I finished last year were linked in the sidebar. What follows never made it on the blog.

A couple years back, these Turning 20 quilts were going to be one twin-sized; but I changed my mind and threw it in the closet. Last summer I dug it back out and made two crib quilts out of the blocks. One was donated, the other went to my granddaughter. Her room is pink and gray, and the quilt adds a lovely touch of color.

Credit where credit is due: Turning 20 Book 9 by Tricia Cribbs

Charity Baby #3 is called Strip Mine, from a Quilt University class by Patti Anderson. I've seen the pattern all over the place, so it's not unique to her; but her method of construction might be. A good scrap buster and easy enough to sew.

True Blue is a 24" square quilt, from a kit I bought one summer at quilt show. Both the pattern and the fabrics are from Kim Diehl.

Charity Baby #5, Jumping for Joy, was from an article in Quiltmaker Nov/Dec 2016 by Paula Stoddard. That issue arrived at the right time for a quick and easy retreat quilt. I finished the top at our October retreat in Jackman and got it quilted a week or so after.

I was in the mood to make a Christmas quilt this year, so I dug this UFO out of the closet and finished it. I appliqued the snowflakes in the blue blocks with my embroidery machine, then machine quilted it with a snowflake design. I consider it a winter quilt, not really a Christmas quilt. We have lots of gray days in Maine, and I like this quilt because it's cheery.

Warm Wynter Wishes was designed by a friend of mine when she was designing and selling patterns, but this one was never published. After a couple of years of pestering, she finally let me make it. She is now working on a sequel that she plans to share.

The last quilt I finished for 2016 was QOV #3, Stars Over America. I think I used every star fabric I owned, then quilted the whole thing with stars. The stars were paper pieced.

My goal for 2016 was six quilts of valor, which obviously was too ambitious. This year I'm aiming for four.

Credit where credit is due: pattern called Steve's Star, by Steve Bennett (Judy's husband), from Judy Martin's Piece and Play book.

One last project--a selection of small bags for Daughter-in-Law for Christmas. The cloth bags are from Lazy Girl Designs--Sweetpea Pod, Becca, and Fobio. The black vinyl mesh bags are from the pattern Zip It, Screen Play II. My DIL carries a smallish purse, so the large Becca works well for her. Not me, lol, I carry everything under the sun in my purse, so I need a big leather bag.


I will be busy the rest of the week trying to catch up on others' 2016 year end posts. Happy New Year to all.