I finished the Sailboat block from the Jolly Jabber quilt along (You can find here). It took me a while to figure out how I was going to quilt it and ended up going with a wave pattern to mimic water and wind.
This is the last item I finished in 2022. So the next post in finishing projects in 2023 I will show you my process for choosing and what my particular rules are for them.
Although I had hoped to be further along on this quilt I just feel that it should not be rushed. One of the hardest parts of this quilt is picking the fabric each time. I bought fat quarter stacks before I knew what the project was going to be so I need to be careful when it comes to cutting it. Fussy cutting can cause a lot of waste so the thought process for picking the right fabric can take time as well as choosing the outer rounds color as to not be the same as the rosette next to it. It would have been easier to designate a color for each rosette but I really think I will enjoy the outcome of the colors I chose even if it means it will take a little longer. My goal is to finish the top this year. I really like having a hand project to do when I just want to listen to music or podcasts.
You can find the details here on my progress with this quilt.
In many of the quilts I had to finish, a lot of them just needed to be quilted and the binding put on. This one was easy because I sent it to a long arm quilter to quilt it and all I had to do was put the binding on. This is a quilt I made for the little cubby bench I have in my craft room so it is in my craft room colors with cozy Fireside (feels like a teddy bear) fabric on the back.
This is the pattern, Patchwork Swoon by Thimble Blossoms and you can find it here.
Well I didn't finish this quilt last year but it will be added to my unfinished projects for 2023. I did get quite far and this post will get you all up to date on where I'm at. Here are blocks 6 to 15.
Block 6- Blocks 4 and 5 are the reason I fell so far behind because of the issues I had with the sizing so when I saw this one was next I was too scared to start. I really had no reason to because it came together fairly quickly without incident which motivated me to do more but it was probably three month before I actually touched it.
Block 7
Block 8
Block 9
Block 10
Block 11
Block 12
Block 13
Block 14
And finally Block 15
I only have 5 more blocks to go but because they were added to the 2023 list, they will be randomly chosen. I will have more on that when I post about this year's challenge.
You can follow along from the beginning here.
Last year in 2022, I worked to complete 60 creative projects. One of these projects is the Norwood Table Runner from the Tabletastic 2 book by Doug Leko of Antler Quilt Design. I had a lot of fun creating this project and was so inspired that I made 10 more Christmas themed ones for my sisters-in-law. The fabric of this one was vintage looking yet set in a more modern background which added to the overall charm of the project.
In my last post I said I was going to post bunch of projects that I finished in 2022. Well I ended up getting the flu right after and well, with Christmas and all the things that go with that, I really didn't have the energy to post anything. So I will be posting them now. I would have liked to have it done before the end of the year but what can you do.
How many projects did I get done altogether? I counted them up and in total it was thirteen. Not bad considering I did do some other new projects in between. With the thirteen unfinished projects I also painted 21 paintings and did some last minute Christmas gifts for my sisters-in-law which was 10 table runners. Of course since they were last minute I forgot to take pictures of them, but they were other versions of one of my 60 projects that I will share later. I started the My Favorite Color Quilt (which will now go in my unfinished project list for this year) I don't have too much to finish on that one but I ran into some problems that made me put it away until I could look at it in a good light again, lol.
As I went through my list to make this year I don't have 60 projects but 55 (I added some that hadn't been on it last year because I stopped at 60). 55 is the final total of unfinished projects and if I can make sure to finish any new projects I start this year, because I know I will. This year I should see a huge dent put in it. Of course my goal is to finish all of them this year.
Now because I can't remember the order I finished them because I drew numbers out of a hat, I'm just going to post them in the order they are listed.
Remember the table topper I did at the very beginning of 2022? You can find it here. I decided to do another one in a bit brighter colors. It's the Moda Love Charm Table Topper. I'm pretty sure I will be making this one again. I've made three already but it's fun to make and there are so many color options you could do.
Oh dear, I am falling behind.....These are April's blocks for the My Favorite Color Is Sampler Moda Quilt. I really wanted to stay on top of this Block of the Month but I had a little trouble with this one. I accidently cut block 4's pieces too small so instead of redoing the entire thing I had to improvise to make the finished block the right size. I will probably be switching the two blocks in their placement in the finished quilt as I think block 4 will work better in block 5's place. Anyways here are the finished blocks. They are supposed to look exactly the same but I chose to sew a border around block 4 to get the size right.
Block 4
You can follow along from the beginning here.
Until next time...
Finishing my unfinished projects is turning out pretty good so far. I've procrastinated for so long on these projects I can't explain the euphoria I feel every time I get one finished. There is a moment of dread each time I pick a random unfinished project number because I know why I've left some projects undone for so long. They are either very monotonous or they have a level of difficulty that I know I must go into full concentration mode to get it done. Thankfully this project wasn't too bad, although I did let it sit for a couple of weeks before I could come up with how I wanted to quilt it. But alas I got motivated and got it done. Although my free motion quilting still needs a lot of practice to get smooth flowing stitches, I'm okay with how this turned out. After all that is why I made these into wall hangings instead of a full quilt so I could practice free motion quilting.
I started these blocks in 2015 when they were first released by the Fat Quarter Shop on their blog "The Jolly Jabber". They host a lot of fun quilt-a-longs over there. We had just gotten in the fabric "Daysail" by Bonnie & Camille in at the quilt shop I worked at, and I loved the pattern for this! You can sill find the pattern here. It's a free pattern and so fun to do.
I had finished sewing the block together and that is where I stopped. So, the last bit was to quilt it and put binding on. I've only quilted one other of the blocks, but it doesn't have binding on it yet so it is also on my unfinished project list.
Here is the process of finishing this project.
Sandwiching my layers of backing, batting (scraps are great for these small projects) and the pieced top. I used 505 basting spray for this.
I quilted the wall hanging and then trimmed off the extra batting and backing.
Thankfully I bought all the supplies for these wall hangings back when I purchased the fabric so finding matching binding was easy although I'm sure I could have found something similar. I still like the results of hand sewing my binding. It is machine sewn on the top and hand sewn in the back.
Last of all I gave the kitty some eyes by sewing on some black buttons.
I hope you are enjoying the projects and if you are like me with so many unfinished projects, I hope you will follow along with me in getting them finished.
Hi, so despite of finishing sixty unfinished projects this year, I decided to start a new one and I'm going to post here to keep myself accountable so that it actually gets finished when it is supposed to, lol. This quilt Block of the Month is hosted by my local quilt shop Tiny Stitch Quilt Shop. Although sign ups are over for this quilt along you can find the book here. We are using Bella Solids for this quilt but I think some prints would work really well with it as well. The colorway I chose was Carnival Confection.
So, the first and best thing to do is to be organized as we are cutting all our fabric first so everything is ready to sew each month. This was a daunting task, but I picked one fabric a day and finished cutting over a two week period. There are twenty blocks in this quilt, so I labeled large zippered bags from 1-20 and as I cut each fabric I labeled the blocks with the block number, fabric number and size of the block (I've covered those out of respect to the designer of the pattern) and placed each piece in the bag representing the block it belongs to.
I made a fabric chart for reference with the names, numbers and a small swatch of each fabric.
I also set a bag aside for the leftover fabric, which I labeled the fabric name and number.
And now for the fun part! Sewing the first block together. The first block is fairly large measuring 36" squared. (sorry for not getting a picture right after it was freshly ironed)
