PHD in 2021

My friend Sue inspired me to participate in Quilting Gail's PHD in 2021 in an effort to move at least a few of my hundreds of UFOs across the finish line.   

Luckily the rules for this challenge are pretty flexible as I am struggling to decide which 12 projects to choose and I may change my mind as the year progresses. I seriously have some form of quilter's ADD!  Anyway, here's my first pass, in no particular order:

1. Grassy Creek Mystery
2. Frolic! 
3. Christmas Trees  
4. Vintage Rose
5. Village
6. Huguenot Friendship Quilt
7. Clamshells
8. Starlite Skies (PG 2017 BOW)
9. Take it Easy
10. Triangle Gatherings
11. Dresden Star
12. Square Deal

A few of these only require quilting and binding so it should be reasonable to at least get those finished. Others will require considerably more effort...

The toughest part of the challenge for me is committing to finish new starts. I have already started two new projects just since the first of the year. In addition to joining in on Sentimental Stitches' Little Blocks 365 project, I decided my dinosaur-loving grandson needs a quilt for his second birthday. I received the pattern on Saturday and finished stitching two blocks over the weekend. His birthday is Jan 27th so even though I am only making a smaller version, finishing will definitely be a challenge.

I have two T-Rex blocks cut and ready to sew.  These little guys are so stinking cute! 

January 2021 OMG

While I have never been a fan of resolutions, I am starting 2021 with a goal of getting back into the habit of blogging - both posting my own and reading others. The pandemic-inspired virtual explosion of 2020 has provided fantastic opportunities but has also been a bit of a distraction, at least for me.  I have spent way too much time reading Facebook posts and watching videos.  I definitely need to work on surfing less and stitching more in the new year!

One project I would love to start this year is a red & green applique quilt.  I haven't decided on a pattern yet, but would like to reproduce one from my collection.  I pulled out a few of my favorites to decorate for the holidays.  I love them all, but am leaning toward either the one on the top rung or the third one down. 

I have been making slow but steady progress on the Grassy Creek Mystery quilt. As my week of vacation comes to a close I am not even close to being caught up and I am really starting to second-guess my decision to use Bonnie's colors, but I won't give up.  I plan to focus on Grassy Creek as my One Monthly Goal for January, linking up with Elm Street Quilts.  I have now finished clue #3 (shown partly finished here) and am working on clue #4 which should be done this morning.

 

I did finish clue #5 before heading back to catch up on previous clues.  I still need to go back to clue #2 but will work on #6 (released yesterday) first. 


I also had a bit of catching up to do on my Huguenot Friendship blocks.  Once all of the shopping, wrapping, and baking were finished I was able to spend my evenings hand stitching and finished two more of blocks. 

This block gave me fits.  The inside curves on the flower were really tight.  My first attempt at doing it by needle-turn failed miserably. I had stumbled across my Appliquick tools while rearranging my sewing furniture the other day and decided to give them a try for this.  I can't say that I am a fan of having that interfacing material in the block - it feels pretty stiff, especially since there is a lot of fabric underneath it too - but I do think it turned out better than I could have done using any other method. There just wasn't enough seam allowance to prepare the edges with starch.  

I have so many new projects planned for 2021 - I have no self control when it comes to quilting!  I plan to start on the first one, Little Blocks 365, later today if I can decide on fabrics. The blocks are paper pieced (ugh!) and tiny - only 3" finished.  I need to choose fabrics that work in tiny pieces and, most importantly, will not get boring.  Not an easy task!  More to come on that - hopefully I will have progress to report by next week.