Finished: Simply Solids quilt

I finally finished my oldest quilt that has been patiently sitting around for years.  It was part of a bee from 2013...less than 10 years old, I guess that's not too bad.

I really like parts of this quilt, and am just ok with other parts.  For a bee block, it worked really well!  I like the different greens and the different colors that came from it.

I like the large stripes on an angle, but it was a pain to actually make!  I didn't have enough blue fabric, there were weird angles, and it just wouldn't square up.

I'm also not in love with the quilting.  I did a double ribbon, and it's ok but not great.  I don't have enough control/practice on my midarm to keep the spacing right.

I also don't have a person to give this to.  I've realized it's a bit of a problem and am trying to not make quilts without someone in mind.  But I'll keep it around and hopefully the perfect person will show up.  Since it's solids and not a printed fabric, hopefully it won't go out of style.  Oh, I have some Kona colors for the binding: bonsai, kiwi, olive, honeydew, asparagus, and kelly.

Progress list

Well, it's been a while since I've done a progress update.  There are a few quilts that managed to get started and finished without getting on the list, but oh well.  Progress has slowed down a bit lately, but things are still moving.

1. Minecraft floors.  I finally started this one after having it on my list for quite a while.  It's now over half way done with the quilting.  I just ran out of thread.  Like with #2 on the list, I don't know where I got the large spool of thread.  I think it's Guterman silver, but I'll need to see if that matches and if I can get something larger than the tiny spools.  I really thought I'd have plenty of thread.

2. Scrap quilt. I found some similar grey thread to finish this up, but it hasn't gotten back on the quilter yet.

3. Green stripes.  Finished, Needs pictures

4. Fabric from Christmas.  I started an Irish chain with this fabric.  I just (as in two minutes ago) pulled this out of the closet to finish.  I think my plan had been to add a border around the edge.  When I started thinking about the logistics though, I decided that it was good as is.  It is plenty big enough for a throw quilt.  So...on to the quilter it'll go! 

5. Trying to fit in - left over triangles. The top was finished last night!

6. Scrap bee blocks 2017: All finished, just needs pictures.  Still.  Wow.  It still needed pictures with my last update.  I really need to get on taking finishing pictures.

7. Black scrap quilt.  This needs pictures.

8. Winter quilt.  Since the Irish chain top is finished, I realized this is the only one I have left for piecing!  I don't think I've ever had a problem of "what to create next?", but we'll see if it happens.

9. Temperature quilt.  I need to quilt this.  It's from 2017, so it's rather low on the priority list.

Well, I'm pretty happy with nine items on this list.  After some lists with 22 items it feels rather skimpy almost.

Q3ish

Well, I had meant to post a Q2 update, but in all the COVID craziness it came and went.  So I'm posting this mid-year update, and hopefully by the time I finish it will still be mid-year. :)

1. Baby boy quilt (ZJN).  This is almost all pieced.  I have one more block, to put them all together, and then remove all the paper.  It's not going all that fast but it isn't going all that slowly either.

2. Scrap quilt. I worked on this quite a bit.  Then I ran out of grey thread don't know where I got the original cone.  Due to COVID shut-downs I couldn't go to the store to find a similar color so it's back in the bin.  I have finally gotten into a store, but couldn't find the same color.  So...I'm just using a similar color and hoping that it isn't all that noticeable.  Well, I'll do that once it gets back on the quilter.

3. Green stripes.  This is on the quilter.  I don't love how the quilting is turning out so I'm not working on it very quickly.

4. Fabric from Christmas.  I started an Irish chain with this fabric.  I need more white fabric (Kona).  It is finally back in stock, but I'm hoping a few more colors for other quilts will get back in stock before I make an order.  We'll see what happens.

5. Trying to fit in - left over triangles.  I got this started too, only to run out of Kona Ash and it is still out of stock.  Oh!  I just looked again and the extra wide is in stock.  I could use that instead.

Items that I haven't worked on for a while, but maybe this will be the quarter for them!

6. Scrap bee blocks 2017: All finished, just needs pictures.

7. Black scrap quilt.  This needs pictures, but the binding is on now.

8. Winter quilt.  I started this, but am just not feeling it.  I think it'll look neat when finished, but am having a hard time staying motivated.  I've been finishing up other items in the meantime, so it still all works out.

9. Temperature quilt.  I need to quilt this.  It's from 2017, so it's rather low on the priority list.

Things that don't count for the Finish-a-long but I want to remember them:
10. Jeweled floors
12. baby boy (JEM)

Q1 FAL

I'm going to try the quarterly finish along this year.  I feel like that's about as often as I've been posting progress updates anyway, so it might be more fun with others.


1. Baby boy quilt (HCP): Piecing is complete and it is the next one up on the quilting frame.  I just oiled the sewing machine, so hopefully everything will run very smoothly!  After I took the picture I realized I don't love this as much as I thought I would.  I love, love, love the individual fabrics, but should have included some solids.  Oh well...I'm not going to change it now.

 

2. E's quilt: She is almost five years old and needs a new quilt!  We went to the fabric store and she had lots of fabric that she liked, but she seemed to gravitate towards brights, rainbows and flowers.  Her mom wants it to be able to grow with her.

3. Meshing solid HSTs: This needs to be quilted.  Densely, so the grey variations aren't so prominent.

4.  Scrap bee blocks 2017: This got all put together and now needs to be quilted.  I also want a scrap backing, so that needs to be pieced.

5. Temperature quilt.  I need to quilt this.  It's from 2017, so it's rather low on the priority list.

6. Rainbow Log Cabin.  I need to decide what to do with this.  I was thinking of making it reversable.  If I don't want to do that, I need to just finish it up!

7. Scrap quilt. Surprise, surprise, it needs to be quilted.

8. Winter quilt.  I have the fabric and an idea for the pattern.  It involves triangles and a sketch is somewhere on the blog.

9. Pillow with green/purple fabric.  I just want to make an easy pillow.  I just need to do it.

10. Black scrap quilt.  This is so close to being finished.  I want to square it up before binding, and the task seems daunting.

11. Wedding quilt left over HST II.  While I don't have a pattern in mind yet, finding one for HSTs will be pretty easy.  I was considering adding in some pink to have a pre-made girl baby blanket.

12. Green stripes.  This isn't square.  I don't really know how to square it up well (or easily), so it's been sitting around for a long time.

Things that don't count for the Finish-a-long...
13. Wedding Quilt left over HST: This needs to be washed and have pictures taken!
14. Jeweled floors

15. Wedding quilt pillows
16. Quilt for Ryan  
17. Trying to fit in - left over triangles
18. Fabric from Christmas

 

January recap

1. Aunt's quilt. I put this on the quilter about half way through January.  The quilting is almost done - maybe one or two more nights, threads need to be buried and the binding attached.  Finishing it is my February goal.

 
2. Rainbow log cabin.  It's all put together!  It's for me, so I'm afraid it is low priority to get on the quilter.

 

3. Simply solids bee quilt.  Piecing is finished, but it isn't very square. I was going to quilt and then square it up, but after looking at the picture I may try to square it up first.  It's my current problem child.

4. Meshing solid HSTs.  I made a bunch of HSTs and am now trimming them up.  (The picture is from earlier when I paired all the colors together.  It should be more like a rainbow then the picture shows.)

5. Temperature quilt.  I'm staying pretty up-to-date with January completed.  Catching up is pretty fast, so I tend to do a week at a time.                               

Other items still waiting around. 
6. Sunset wall hanging.  I just have the half the binding left to do. It's getting finished, still slowly but steadily.  I also have to bury some threads in the back.
7. scrap quilt #2. 
8. Scrap quilt.  
9. Orphan rocket block. 
10. Jeweled floors.
11. Lost piece (almost whole cloth quilt).  
12. Winter quilt.   
13. fabric from Christmas.   
14. A pillow with green/purple fabric.
15. Quilt nautical quilt.
16. green/white hourglass quilt.
17. baby quilt - possibly pair with another quilt on the list.
18. woodlands quilt.
19. Trying to fit in - left over triangle quilt. 
20. Riley Blake Fabric Challenge.  I have the fabric and ideas are in my head, but nothing for sure yet.
21. baby quilt - possibly pair with another idea TBD 

Hmm, my number seems to be going up instead of down.  Oh well, it's only the beginning of February!

Oops

I was finally trying to finish up the Simply Solids quilt...I needed to add some oddly shaped triangles to the upper right and lower left corners.

So I added some fabric, trimmed, and realized that this was really hard to square up.  Well, I could only move forward and hope it worked.

This was supposed to be a corner.  A 90 degree corner.  It didn't work.  I almost laughed...at least it was obvious that it didn't work.

(This took me a while to post, so you'll be happy to know that I cut and sewed and cut and sewed and I think I have a mostly square top now.  I'm going to quilt it and then reevaluate.)

January update

It's the beginning of a year!  I worked on many of these projects in December and since it is a new year they are all getting a quick recap of where they stand.

1. Space robot quilt. The top is finally done!  I was looking through the archives and realized that my son looked so much younger when I got the initial fabric.  I'm finishing up the backing (hopefully it will be big enough) and then it'll be going on the quilter.  My goal for January is to finish this.

 

 2. Baby quilt.   This is Matrix by Anne of Springleaf Studios.  It is almost done; I'm just waiting on the gender of the baby to be revealed before binding it.

3. The bee hive quilt. I decided I need 30 blocks for this quilt to make it a size that I want.  Blah.  I received about 12 from the bee and am working on more.  It is probably going to take quite a bit longer than I was hoping.

4. A baby quilt.  I found out about a baby that is coming a few months.  So I used Meadow Mist Design's Plus Plus quilt.  I still need to quilt it and then will be waiting on the gender again to determine the binding color. 

 

5. Sunset wall hanging.  I add a semi-circle every once in a while when I'm on a trip.  I forgot my disappearing ink on the last trip so not as much got done as I was hoping.

6. Scrap quilt. I took some off the bottom to add to the top so that the design wouldn't be covered by pillows.  But now it looks too short - I'll need to try and figure out what grey I used and add a bit more to the bottom.

7. Simply solids bee quilt.  The main part is done, now I need to add the side triangles and probably borders.  I dislike working with big pieces, but it needs to be done.

8. scrap quilt #2.  I'm so excited about this one.  I ran out of pepper and need to get more, then I'll be back at it.

9. Quilt Christmas quilt.  This has been quilted and the threads tucked in...all that is left is to take some pictures! 

  

10. A baby quilt.  I have a design idea and the color palette.  I need to order the fabrics and finalize the design.

11. Rainbow log cabin.   It's been set aside, but I'm not really sure why.

12.  Pluses quilt.  I'm a little afraid to open the bag as I think a big mess might be waiting for me...

13. Orphan rocket block.  I think a little bag would be fun.

14. Quilt nautical quilt.  This is still just waiting for quilting.

  
15. Jeweled floors. I have the fabric and a design inspiration, but the quilt design hasn't become apparent yet.  I need to start working on it again.

16. Lost piece (almost whole cloth quilt).  I have the fabric and the ideas.  I really just need some "down time" on the quilter.  Well, and to make it, but shouldn't take much time.

17. Winter quilt.  I have a design figured out and the fabric.  I'm ready to start!  It's also winter time and there isn't much snow, so I expect I'll start this rather soon.

18. fabric from Christmas.  I received some beautiful fabric for Christmas...now I just need to figure out what to do with it.

19. Kids' quilt.  This is kind of a "sew this when a child wants to sew and I don't have anything good for them to sew."  I don't expect a ton of progress.

20. A pillow.  I got this fabric a long time ago for such a purpose - I should use it!