Catching Up (Again)!

I’m not sure where the time goes - seems like this year has flown by!  I keep snapping photos of projects with the intention of posting but then weeks go by and a post never seems to materialize. I have lots of catching up to do!

Earlier this year (Easter Sunday, to be exact) I finished The Village quilt.  It was gifted to a wonderful friend that hosted my daughter for four months while she completed her last optometry rotation in Kansas City.  It was such a fun quilt to make - I think I might have to make another one for me one of these days.

I finally finished my 2021 Quiltville Mystery top at a retreat in July.  I decided to go with an alternative setting I borrowed from a post I saw on Facebook since I wasn't a huge fan of Bonnie's final layout. My color choices turned out to be a bit odd when all together, but I’m okay with it. I think I will let this obe be my last - I don’t intend to get sucked into the mystery fervor this year.  I just have too many other things I’d rather work on!

I will save my latest adventures in rug hooking for another post to avoid this one getting insanely long. My most recent quilt-related trip was to Primitive Gatherings, a.k.a. Quilter’s Heaven.  I managed to get quite a bit accomplished while there.  I worked on my Oh Say Can You Sew, completing steps two and three, and then worked a bit on my Stars All Around summer block project.

I also got started on Moda’s Letters to Santa stitch-along. These words are so fun to make but eat up considerably more fabric than I expected.  I had to do a little web-surfing and order more so “Christmas” can match “Merry”. The fabric arrived over the weekend and is starched and ready to go if I get any sewing time this weekend.

That’s enough for this time around. I am determined to not let another six months lapse before my next post!

January Progress + February OMG

I actually had a start and finish in January - that doesn't happen often in my world!  I finished my grandson's dinosaur quilt a full 48 hours before we celebrated his birthday. I'm especially happy that it was 100% pulled from my stash, even the backing. He was so excited when he opened it! 

I took a fun workshop with Candy Grisham through my local quilt guild.  I needed to focus on making dinosaurs so I mostly listened and didn't sew much, but I did get a couple of Dresden plates started. It was a fantastic class that covered techniques for making a bunch of different styles of plates.  I definitely plan to make more.


As far as my OMG project is concerned, I have to admit that when I first saw the mystery quilt reveal in early January I was not a fan. I was too far along to just quit and throw it all away, but still had too much to do to be inspired to keep working on it.  I dragged my feet a bit (making dinosaurs) but then was relieved to see a Facebook post with an alternative setting using the same components that I liked much better!  It inspired me to continue working on the quilt and I am happy to say that I now have 15 of the 25 blocks complete. I will be constructing the center as it is shown below, using the gray string blocks and other pieces in the borders.  I think it will turn out okay.


I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal to share my January progress (even though I missed the deadline LOL) and to set my February goal, which is to continue working on my Grassy Creek Mystery quilt.  I am hoping that I can get the rest of the top constructed this month and move this one off of my list!

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.  

Grassy Creek Week #1

I got off to a strong start on this year's mystery thanks to an easy first clue.  I had it finished before Thanksgiving weekend was over, even with working on a few other projects.

I was late to the party on this one - I think Pat Sloan ran a quilt along with this pattern in October - but I absolutely love it!  I actually fired up the new AccuQuilt cutter I purchased over the summer and cut all my 2.5" strips and squares. So far I have four blocks completed.  They are large - like 18.5" - so I think nine will make a nice throw to use as a Christmas decoration (maybe next Christmas?).  


I was also inspired by a new quilting friend I met through TAS to start on the Huguenot Friendship quilt.  We are up to our fourth block.  Here are my first two:




I haven't done quite as well with the second and third clues on the mystery - Christmas projects to finish and other "to dos" have limited my time at the sewing machine.  I'm a bit unsure how I feel about some of the color combinations thus far, but I will have faith that it all will actually work together in the end. 

I'm looking forward to my time off at the end of the year to catch up on the mystery and to hopefully finish organizing my sewing space - can't believe it's been almost two years since I moved to the basement and it still isn't finished!