Q1 - 2020

Last quarter was surprisingly productive!  I'm not really sure what the difference was from previous quarters, but I'll take it!  I dropped my number of WIPs from 16 to 14 and even made progress on eight of those!

So the QAL has moved solely to instagram. It's probably a good move on their part, but I tried Instagram and honestly, didn't love it.  I think there are several reasons for that, which I'm not going to go into here.  So I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do...I could go back to the monthly one, I could still participate in the QAL on Instagram, or I could not do anything.  In the meantime, I'm going to publish my Q1 list because I find it useful for myself as I keep track of where all the projects are.


1. Meshing solid HSTs: I just finished binding it (by hand!) and need to take pictures.

2. Stash Bee 2019:  The blocks are put together and it is on the quilter.

3. Scrap bee blocks 2017: The backing is all done; I just need to quilt it now.  (No picture because I couldn't find the backing.  I think it's in my pile of big stuff (backings, almost finished things, etc.) but since I couldn't easily find it and I'm not linking up to anything, I gave myself a pass.)

4. Rainbow Log Cabin.  After debating for way too long, I made a winter side too.  It needs to be quilted.

5. 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.

6. Black scrap quilt.  I finally trimmed it up and it is ready for binding.  I'm planning on getting the binding fabric today.

7. Quilt for Ryan.  This was finished a few days ago and just needs some pictures.

8. Red quilt (stash bee 2020).  I have January...I finished one block and the rest are slowly coming in!  I'd like to give this as a baby quilt for a baby around February or March. 

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

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

10. Scrap quilt. It needs to be quilted.  Along with so many other things.  It has actually been started, but then I took it off due to other priorities and it hasn't been put back on for a while.

11. 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 but I want to remember them:
12. Jeweled floors
13. Trying to fit in - left over triangles
14. Fabric from Christmas

Heidi's wedding quilt

The wedding quilt is finished!

It's large and therefore hard to get a picture of.  However, it wasn't too large for my quilter, so that was awesome.  The pattern is from the July/Aug '19 issue of Quiltmaker and designed by Sylvia Schaefer.  (The official name is Glow Tiles.)  I'll admit, I didn't like the pattern in the magazine.  It's one of the first patterns I've made from a magazine, so they might all be this way.  There were a few details that were missing so I had to do a lot of flipping the page and using the process of elimination.

I also don't love the quilt.  This also has a few reasons...I'm used to working on smaller quilts and I think I just got bored.  I had some significant problems with the quilter also really threw a damper on things, although by the end of the quilt they were mostly fixed.  There are also a few mistakes in the quilt that I just really don't like.  I'm not sure anyone will ever notice, but...they're there.

Ok, enough of the negative.  Let's talk about the things I do like.  I do like how I quilted this.  In the glow tile part I did a dense stipple, which really made the glow tiles pop.  Outside of that I did some zig-zags, but also added some thread fireworks to make things a bit interesting.  I like using thread so that it stands out from the fabric, but it's a bit nerve-wracking too.  The fireworks on the bottom should be on the bottom side of the mattress and not on the top.

The colors that were used were Kona's Teal Blue, Dark violet, Violet, Orchid, Gold, Curry, and Mustard.

I backed it with minky.  As always.  Because adults love the softness too.

Linking up with Q4 Finish-A-Long (#1)

Baby girl quilt

My mother-in-law finished this quilt for a friend.  I really like how it turned out.

I put loops in the white sashing parts.  I was going to do more on the colored fabrics, but then I saw how they popped and kept it to a minimum.  I'll admit, the quilting that I did end up doing on the colored parts isn't what I envisioned in my head.  I was trying to imitate the design on the white fabric (see two pictures below), and instead ended up with a circuit board component.  Not bad enough to take out, but if I got to do it again I'd do it differently.

HST offset: finished

My best friend growing up recently had her second baby.  I was a bit slow getting the quilt out, but not too bad.

I still had some left over HSTs from the wedding quilt a while ago.  I used some in a different baby blanket, and finished them up here.  Since this one is for a girl, I did add in some pink.  Just a touch.  I also offset the HST rows by half a block.  I'm not sure that I've seen anyone do this before, although I'm sure someone has, and I was curious as to how the final outcome would look.  I didn't want to try and make a specific design because I wasn't actually making the HSTs.

I also added some borders because it felt a bit too small otherwise. 

The quilting is Swirly Whirly from 180 Doodle Quilting Designs.  I used the triangle and strip options, which is one of the first times I've used this nice feature in the book.  I think the quilting came out ok, but I probably could have used some more practice with it.

It's backed with Minky and bound in sateen.  This time I just used a sateen ribbon instead of the special stuff by the quilting aisle.  I thought it worked very well.  (Although I'll admit, I did it on accident.  I was ordering it on Amazon instead of going in person to pick it up and didn't realize that it was normal ribbon.  It explains the huge price difference though.)

Linking up with Q4 Finish-A-Long (#2) 

Star quilt

My mother-in-law "needed" a quick turn around on this quilt.  She had made a girl's quilt, not knowing the gender, and then the baby ended up being a boy.

 

I put loops in the grey and random triangles in the colored section.  Nothing too special, but with different colors and different quilting motifs it comes out special.

Q4 FAL

1. Heidi's Wedding Quilt: I just finished piecing and pressing it.  (I did not enjoy the pressing part!)  I need to trim a bit on the top but it's almost ready for quilting.  I just need to get the new dryer installed so I can prep the backing.  (I'm hoping to finish this within the month.  It's already cold out...)

2. Baby girl quilt (BHS).  I added some pink and put this together with leftover HSTs from another quilt.  The quilting is about half way finished and going quickly.

(The remaining items are hold overs from last quarter.  I did finish [or remove or consolidate] several items though, so I'm down six items!  This is the smallest number on my list in quite some time, and I'm hoping it gets a bit smaller this quarter too!)

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

4. Stash Bee: All the blocks are here, I just need to put them together.

5.  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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

13. Quilt for Ryan.  I found a Bargello quilt pattern that I can scale down to a mini-quilt.  I'll just be using solid scraps for it.

Things that don't count for the Finish-a-long but I want to remember them:
14. Jeweled floors
15. Trying to fit in - left over triangles
16. Fabric from Christmas

Joining the Q4 FAL.

Lego Bricks and Bear

I recently finished a quilt that I designed.  It's been a while since I've designed a quilt from scratch...lately I've seen something that I like and then I adapt it to suit my desires.

Anyway, behold, a Lego Bear surrounded by Lego bricks.

I took the initial pictures and realized I had forgotten to add the mouth as I was looking at the pictures and comparing it to the Lego bear.  It looks a lot better with a mouth.

The bear was used because the baby announcements were Lego scenes.  Both of them had this bear in it... (picture link).  The parents recognized the bear right away, so that was a relief.

This was my first time doing circles.  I don't know what the official term is for what I did, but I folded the fabric over and then zig-zag stitched the circles on.  They weren't perfect by any means, but not too bad.  The colors I used were Kona key lime, corn yellow, citrus, coral, chartreuse, mocha, charcoal, steel, med grey, malibu, straw, pacific, and tomato.

I went with a maze design on the Lego bricks in a matching thread color.  For the teddy bear I put in loops as I thought imitates the fuzziness of stuffed animals.

This was a larger baby quilt than I normally make, and so the backing I got wasn't large enough.  I added some green around the plaid I had originally chosen.

(Part of the Q3 FAL)