UFO List for 2023

My local quilt guild does a challenge every year where they ask their members to make a list of twelve UFOs they have stashed then each month they give us a number and that's the UFO we're supposed to work on that month. I have more than enough unfinished projects right now so it would be worthwhile to participate this year. 

It also pairs well with the PHD in 2023 so I think I'll participate in that as well.

My mostly-final list of UFOs, though I might do a bit of rearranging in the next couple of weeks.

1. Finger Lakes Log Cabin quilting/finishing
2. Diamond Lane in Farmhouse Chic fabrics
3. Aged Elegance bonus crib quilt
4. Flower Paths lap quilt
5. Log Cabin - Purple Green - quilting/finishing
6. Pieces of My Heart quilting/finishing
7. Deco Elegance quilting/finishing
8. Insulated Grocery Shopping Bag
9. Arlington Square quilting/finishing x 2
10. Comet Disaster Block Quilt - pretty sure I'll be taking this one apart again.
11. Broken Bricks Plaid quilting/finishing
12. Morris Garden quilting/finishing

I've got a few more things I might add to the list as well, but I am trying to be realistic about how much I will finish during this coming year.

Linking up with PHD.

I Did It! 7 of 7 Quilts Bound

I hoped to get all seven of my quilted-but-not-bound quilts finished by the end of the year and I made it! The final one is a Broken Bricks scrappy quilt pattern. 

This is actually the very first one I made back in January, when it started out as my first leader-ender project. I quilted it back in October and it's been hanging around waiting for the binding, which is my least favorite part. 

I believe I used Quilter's Dream Green batting in this one, which is actually my favorite of their battings because it is made entirely from recycled bottles. I just used MaxiLock serger thread in turquoise on this one because it is inexpensive and works fine on my Handiquilter.

I quilted it with the Dolce E2E pantograph designed by Christy Dillon. I really love this one too!

I think I am now done sewing for a few days. I've spent so much time in the past two weeks at my sewing machine that I'm tired of it. Time for a break. It will give me a good chance to think about my plans for January. I think I am overdue for a tidy up; my room is such a mess it's getting hard to work in there. I'd also really like to figure out a good system to organize scraps. They've overrun my current system and it's no longer working so it's time to look around for other options.

Well, I hope you all have an enjoyable New Years' holiday. I'll be hanging out with my feet up, not sewing, but possibly some ripping. I have some big quilts that I've decided to take apart and make smaller quilts. LOL

Paducah Log Cabin Finished!

After four hours of wrestling with it to put on the binding, the Paducah Log Cabin is finally done! This is the best I can do for photos right now. Our weather has been rainy and stormy so who knows how long it will take me to get a good photo of it.

I will say it again, this is the Paducah Log Cabin pattern from Judy Martin's Extraordinary Log Cabin Quilts book. I made mine with a number of reproduction William Morris cotton prints. I started this project for my mother-in-law, but there was a miscommunication about the size she needed, so I ended up making her a different quilt and then made this one queen-size (98"x98").

For the batting, I believe I used Quilter's Dream 70-30 batting. I used Glide thread for the first time on this quilt and I'm still learning the correct tension settings, but it went pretty well. I actually edited the pantographs a little bit to add some tacking stitches to the beginning and end of each design because the thread is so slick that stitches will actually unravel which can be really disappointing.

I kept changing my mind about what pantographs to quilt this one with. I made at least 5 different plans, but in the end, I ended up choosing the Midsummer Dream pattern set from MyCreativeStitches because I liked that little knotwork detail, though it is hard to see on the finished quilt. I believe this is the final design I went with.

Linking up with:

• Finished (or Not) Friday
• Friday Foto Fun
• Off the Wall Friday
• Peacock Party
• TGI Finished Friday
• Whoop Whoop

Update later, managed to get a better, but still not great, photo at my quilt guild meeting.

Sanctuary Finished!

I am trying some new patterns and this one is Kim Brackett's Sanctuary pattern from Scrap Basket Beauties book. It seemed like a fun idea when I changed the orientation of the blocks so the dark pieces were not all in alignment, but I'm not sure it was an improvement.

I'm mainly posting this finish because I really like the pantograph I tried out for this one. It is the  Adrienne pantograph and was designed by Christy Dillon over at mycreativestitches.

It is very likely this quilt will be donated to the Comfort Quilts program, but I might gift it to family or friends. I haven't yet decided.

This was Kim's original block arrangement. I may try this next time.

I'm linking up with Midweek Makers and Oh Scrap!

Tuesday ToDo #60

I have been very busy finishing UFOs this month. I decided before I would let myself start a new project I needed to spend the last couple of months of the year working on UFOs. I don't have to finish them all, but I did want to make a dent in them. I think I have.

This past week I finished the two Arlington Square twin-size flimsies I worked on during the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. My original plan was to make one big quilt, but then I decided I already have too many bed-size quilts so I split the blocks in half and made two smaller quilts. Those blocks are 14" so they're still pretty big.

I finished piecing, quilting, and binding this crib-size Broken Bricks leader-ender project I've had sitting around next to my machine for at least a couple of months. The border on this one is the leftover bits I cut off the Rhododendron Trail after I quilted it so all of it is scraps, except the backing. (This is the photo before I got it bound. I haven't yet taken a photo of it with the binding.) I believe I'll be giving this one to the Comfort Quilts program unless someone in my family gets in touch that they want it before the next quilt guild meeting.

I've finished binding this adorable panel I quilted for our local quilt guild for their Comfort Quilts program. I used some yellow flannel for the backing. The pantograph is a precious Baby Bunny pantograph designed by Donna Kleinke at One Song Needle Arts. It was perfect for this panel.

I've finished labeling and binding the Flowers for Nana Girl lap quilt. Photos will be updated after I have time to take them. This is definitely my favorite of all the RSC projects I worked on. I'll be keeping this one; likely the rest will be gifted to family/friends.

For this coming week, I would very much like to finish all the quilts I've quilted but not yet bound.

Bloom lap quilt

Sanctuary scrappy quilt (for the Comfort Quilts program)

Broken Bricks in purple and blues

Paducah Log Cabin

If there is time, it would also be nice to finish those Arlington Square quilts, but I suspect I will run out of time. Depending on how impatient I am, I may keep working on UFOs during the first couple of weeks of January and then start on Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt.

Thanks to Linda for hosting the Tuesday ToDo for more than a year. I'm sure it is quite a time commitment to make a weekly post and then go and read the posts that folks link. I hope you know your efforts were appreciated.

RSC 2023 Plans

2022 was the first time I participated in Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I learned some things about what I like and what I don't. I've been thinking about how I want to approach 2023. I've realized I don't like super-scrappy projects and I think I need to constrain the colors on my projects to only two or three colors or more carefully plan projects with lots of colors.

For my projects, I want to pick my border fabric and then make the quilt in colors to match, instead of making a quilt and then trying to find something to use for the border. (That is how I end up buying more fabric when I already have mountains of stash.) When a new color is announced, I'll go find a fabric in my stash that will work for the border then pick scraps to go with it.

I do have one project I've been thinking about working on but I won't be able to sew blocks as I go along. I'll be cutting out pieces and then sewing them up at the end. This is the pattern and fabric I'm hoping to use for the border.

I think I will be making blocks for this project. I likely won't be using this border fabric again, but I didn't have the actual fabric imported into Electric Quilt.

And I hope to continue working on my Stained Glass quilt. Last year I finished the red and yellow blocks before it got too hot during the summer to run the iron all day.

I probably will make some really scrappy lap quilts throughout the year, but I'll make them for Comfort Quilts for our local quilt guild and I'll finish them and pass them on throughout the year.

One Last Broken Bricks

This was my leader-ender project during the past couple of months. I finished piecing it this morning. I made it crib-size so I can donate it to the local quilt guild for their comfort quilts program. These little quilts go really fast.

I used a neat pantograph designed by Donna Kleinke called Daisies Panto 4. It's nice that it doesn't have an obvious direction so you can load your quilt either way and it still looks good. And it stitches out well.

I tried the So Fine thread again that gave me fits on my Rhododendron Trail quilt and today it was fine. Clearly, I got closer to the correct tension this time.

I had this highlighter pink batik that I got with one of my fabric scores. I would likely never use it on the front side, but it was fine for a backing.

So now I have yet another quilt to finish binding in the next week. I have so many to do now, probably more than half a dozen.

Arlington Square Flimsies!

The Arlington Square flimsies are finished! 

This is a nickel quilt designed by Pat Speth from her Nickel Quilts book. This started out as a queen-size quilt but I decided I already have too many bed-size quilts so I made two smaller quilts with half the blocks. They are certainly not perfect, but somewhere mid-way through these quilts I decided done was better.

This is the third finish of my four Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects for the year. The only one I have left is the stained glass quilt and I'll just go ahead and roll it over into next year.

I'm linking up with Scrap Happy Saturday.

Trying to Finish Two More

 ...before the end of the year. I can probably make it. 

This is the Arlington Square quilt pattern. It's a nickel quilt designed by Pat Speth from her Nickel Quilts book. I will admit I accidentally made a change to the pattern that hasn't really turned out. In Pat's original design, she used scrappy squares through the block, not three-in-a-row as I've done here. I'm not entirely sure how I ended up making that change. It was unintentional and it did not improve the pattern.

Anyway, I spent the year making block parts with the rainbow scrap challenge and I'm trying to get this project finished before the end of the year so I can start fresh next year.

Here is where I am at. I made the border pieces then realized I'd need to make a couple more. I'll need to fit my inside sashing to make the blocks work, but I need the finished measurement first. I am not good at the math, but I'll give it my best shot to get this to fit right. 

Then, once I am done with this one, I get to do it all again, because I have another set of this many big blocks. LOL The race is on to finish them both by the end of the month.

Linking up with Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Arlington Square Progress

Arlington Square designed
by Pat Speth

(This post is overdue because last week I managed to drop my fairly new MacBook computer and cracked the screen. Oops. An expensive mistake. So my computer spent the last week in the shop and I was unable to post blog posts until I got it back so I have a lot to put into one post.)

When I originally started Pat Speth's Arlington Square pattern for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I was thinking it might take me two years to finish. One year to finish the block corner pieces, and then the second year to finish assembling the blocks and making the border pieces.

Since I've finished the other two quilts and there are still a couple of weeks left before the end of the year, I decided to try to finish this one as well. That would leave me with only one project rolling over to next year.

I pulled out all the block pieces I made throughout the year and laid most of them out in the photo below. I made about 10 each month and I used whatever scraps I found, including uglies, but I only used white fabrics for the light portion. 

Since I made so many quilts with white scraps this year, I actually ran out of them. Towards the end, I had to start cutting strips off yardage so I figured I might as well cut out the fiddly border on my Cricut. It definitely saved fabric because if I had cut them out by hand, I would have cut 6.5" strips and then clipped off the corner. Instead, I was able to cut out the little white triangles for the pinwheels from that bit of fabric.

After digging around in my scrap boxes for colored waste triangles I found nearly all that I needed.

I've spent a few hours this past week assembling the blocks. I actually made 24 of them, but I have decided I really don't need another bed-size quilt. I already have too many. So, instead, I've decided to make two throw-sized quilts and gift them.  Here is the first batch of blocks assembled. 

I haven't decided if I'm going to carry it on through the borders and then start the second, or build the second set of blocks and work on the borders for both at the same time.

2023 Planning Party

I cannot believe it's already been another year! Wow, this year went so fast. I didn't actually remember what I'd put on my 2022 list so I had to go back and look for it. First up, I said I wanted to finish an average of one quilt per month. I exceeded that. Since I finished so many scrappy quilts, my count exceeded more than one quilt a month.

Dunrobin quilt for my mother-in-law

Judy Martin's Snake River log cabin quilt, finally finished

Bonus Unbeweavable lap quilt.

Judy Martin's Paducah's log cabin quilt flimsy.

A bonus Rhododentrail Trail lap quilt, mostly following the original pattern.

My version of the first Sewcialites quilt. I created my own layout.

Aged Elegance quilt

My version of the Rhododendron Trail. I changed the sashing.

I also said it would be nice to learn how to applique and foundation piece. Yeah, I forgot about that one, though I did make a quilt with foundation-pieced blocks. I still have a lot to learn and need more practice, but I think I did decent for my first attempt.

Pieces of My Heart flimsy

I said I'd like to quilt the dozen or so flimsies I had accumulated. I was successful on that one. I do still have a couple of my most advanced projects still waiting for quilting mainly because I don't think I've learned how to use my Prostitcher software well enough to do a good job quilting them. In total, I finished quilting 19 of my own flimsies this past year, including scrappy lap quilts.

One of my goals was to be more disciplined about making pillowcases as soon as I finish the bed-size flimsies.  Yeah, I didn't do so good on that one. Though, in fairness, I really just finished quilting the Snake River this month so it's not too late to get pillowcases done before I start using it on a bed. And I didn't make pillowcases to coordinate with the Rhododendron Trail because I just use yellow pillowcases, which I already had. The other two bed-size quilts were made as gifts and we're gifted accordingly. Yes, it would have been nice if I had included matching pillowcases....

Finally, I said I'd like to engage more with my two local quilt guilds. That was mostly a failure, primarily because of the lingering pandemic. I did go to the last meeting of the Northwest Quilters Guild and I do plan to start regularly attending the general meeting. I also will attend any virtual retreats (those held online) but I'm still not ready to attend in-person quilting retreats.

Now for the part where I start looking ahead to 2023. 

I would like to finish twelve donation quilts, an average of one every month, to donate to Comforting Quilts. Most of the patterns only take me a day to piece the small sizes and then they only take an hour or two to quilt them up. I'm sure I can spare that much time from my own projects. LOL

I would like to spend more time learning to use my ProStitcher computer. I know there is a lot I don't understand so I need to spend several hours every month finding and watching whatever educational videos I can find. I would take an in-person class if I could find one that isn't crazy far. Or I may pay for online classes. I still need to look around to figure out what's available. 

I would like to figure out how to quilt my Deco Elegance quilt for my Aunt. I came up with a quilting plan I really like, but the individual blocks exceed my machine's quilting space. So, I either need to figure out how to put the quilt on my frame on a diagonal, or I need to figure out if I can break the quilting design into more than one piece. Most likely, I will put big triangle muslin pieces on the edges and install the quilt on the diagonal so I can quilt the center portions and then take them off to finish the border. 

I would like to make the Jade Garden quilt and the Diamond Lane quilt (in Farmhouse Chic fabrics) before I lose track of why I bought the fabrics.

Jade Garden quilt

Diamond Lane quilt in Farmhouse chic fabrics

I plan to participate in Bonnie Hunter's Chilhowie Mystery Quilt again and Cheryl's Melodic Mystery quilt. (I've been downloading the clues but I haven't started either.) In January, I'm hoping to start pulling my fabrics for both of them and get caught up!

That is it for my official goals. I have other projects I would like to make, but I think they'll have to be in the extra column. I'd like to make gifts for family members, but I still need to decide on patterns. Perhaps I'll get a couple of those done too.

Thanks to Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for helping to keep us all on track with her annual planning party linkup.