A Slew of Finishes in January 2018

2018 has really gotten away from me.  It's already June and this is my first blog post!  What are my themes of 2018?  If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times, but I REALLY want to try and use up what I already have this year.  Now, of course I'm sure I'll buy a lot, but I'm really going to focus on using up scraps and using a lot of kits I already have.  January was a huge month with 7 quilt finishes!  Here they are:

This quilt was my first finish of 2018.  I finished it on January 2.  As soon as I saw this kit on Craftsy I knew this would be perfect for my friend's baby boy who was born in March, 2018.  I waited till January to put the binding on so that I could put 2018 on the label in good conscience.

 I quilted this on my Juki and did a spiral with my walking foot.

I used a variegated Fabulux thread that matched the quilt really well.

This next quilt is the sample quilt from my Quick Kahuna pattern that I designed.  The binding was sewn on for some time and I wanted to hand bind it.  I finally got around to it.  I finished this on January 2nd as well.  I guess a cold January day is great for sitting around and hand binding quilts.

This quilt is Pat Sloan's Children's Library BOM.  This was a free online pattern and quilt along.  I just fell in love with the first block and decided to play along.  I followed religiously and completed this quilt right on time.  I had a FQ pack of this awesome fabric and was able to buy enough coordinating fabric online to complete the quilt.  My mom quilted it with a flowered design that coordinates with the fabric.  I finished this quilt on January 27th.  This quilt did contribute to using the FQ pack from my stash, but sadly, I've got a bit of extra from the yardage I bought.  I have made a couple scrap projects with the scraps already though, so I feel pretty good about that.

This quilt is the Tewksbury Piecemakers 2017/2018 Mystery Quilt.  I was the coordinator of the mystery program and helped to select the quilt and distribute the patterns each month.  This was really fun to make.  I used a REALLY  old layer cake I got on clearance, but I think it was perfect for this quilt.  I finished it on January 27th.

I only purchased fabric for the inner and outer borders and used my stash for the backing.  So, this was a great stash-buster, especially considering the ancient layer cake I used.

I had to to some creative piecing to get my stash fabrics to work on the backing.  I think it came out really cute in the end.

My mom quilted this with a really simple swirl pattern that coordinates with the swirls in the fabric.

There were a lot of babies that needed quilts in early 2018, including my Sister-in-Law, Sandra.  Since they didn't know what they were having, I needed something that could work for a boy or a girl. I got this half-yard bundle from Craftsy and thought it would work great for either a boy or a girl.  I realized there was enough fabric to make more than one baby quilt from this, and I had several cute patterns to choose from, so I ended up making three quilts from the pack of fabric!  Why make one quilt, when you can make three?!  Alas, I bought this fabric pack new this year, so it didn't come from my stash, but I did use as much of the remaining fabric as I could in the backing, so I really don't have mush scrap of this left.  This quilt even got a scrappy border to further use up some of the collection.  I finished these three quilts on January 27th.

I made one mega-long backing using the remainder of the half-yard pack and extra coordinating yardage I bought.  My mom quilted these with a jacks pattern which coordinates with some jack shapes on the fabric.

The second quilt was given to a couple of co-workers for their second child, who happened to be a girl.  I really love how this quilt came out with this fabric collection, its just perfect.  The pattern is Casanova from Gudrun Erla.  The white binding on this is a nice touch.

The third quilt is still waiting for its forever home.  This one also has a scrappy border to use up as much of the fabric as possible.

2017 By the Numbers...

I'm taking stock of the projects I've worked on and completed in 2017.  I put 40 entries in my Quilter's Planner.

I started off the year well, by joining the American Patchwork & Quilting's 2017 UFO Challenge.  I wrote down my 12 quilts and thought I'd work on nothing else but these (unless I finished early in a given month). Ha! I was totally wrong, but I did finish a lot and the list helped me to stay motivated for a while.

Here's how the list and the rest of the year broke down:

I completed 5 of the 12 projects on my list (41%)

I made some forward progress on 3 of the projects (25%)

Four of the project are sitting in at the same place they were at the beginning of 2017 (33%)

I've made my new list for 2018 and hope to do a better job of completing those few lingering UFOs that didn't move forward in 2017.  I put the 8 projects that I didn't complete in 2017 on my 2018 list.  I hope this is the year they will all finally be finished.

In 2017 I did complete a lot more than 5 quilts though.  I, in fact, completed 25 projects!  A couple were crafts, including the coffee can caddy (I made 4 of these), vinyl zip bags to hold scraps and projects, and a drawstring bag which was given to my stitch pal.  Considering I work full time and also travel on average once per month for work, I'm really proud of this number of finishes!

Alas, I didn't finish everything I started in 2017.  There are 10 quilts that are not yet finished.  I expect to finish at least 2 in January.  Most of the quilts are down to the quilt & bind stage.  A lot of it comes down to how quickly I can quilt them (or do I just pack them off to my mom for computerized longarm quilting).

This year I also have a goal to get nice pictures of all the quilts I have not already gifted and sell a few of them. I've got two large totes overflowing with quilts that need to find their forever homes one way or another.

I just received my new quilter's planner mini's in the mail and will get started documenting my progress for 2018!  Happy Quilting Everyone!

Quiltville Mystery - On Ringo Lake - Part 1

Its time for Bonnie Hunter's Annual Mystery Quilt.  This year's theme is On Ringo Lake.  The color palette (aqua, peach & brown) isn't one I'd normally put together, but I decided to go with it.  Once I pulled out all my fabrics it started to grow on me. 

I have a lot of browns, so many in fact, that I ended up making way too many of the brown/neutral strip sets.  I ripped out a few of them because I needed more aqua strip sets.

I finished the blocks the same day the pattern was released and am chomping at the bit for Part 2!  I know this quilt will be a beauty!  You can check out everyone's progress and learn how to join the party here!

6 more finishes - #14-18

I designed this pattern and made this as a sampler for a machine quilting class.  The class focuses on using templates and making your own templates to mark the quilt for FMQ.  The entire quilt was FMQ on my Sweet Sixteen.  I used Fabulux 40 wt. thread and some 50 wt cotton thread.

This quilt is 12" square and was a shop sample for a paper piecing class I taught.  I custom quilted it using 40 wt. Fabulux and 100 wt. Invisafil.

I used my new Lisa Calle 1/16" spacing line ruler toil in around the stars.  Using the ruler is addictive.

I made this Beary Patch quilt for Tim & Karen Maimone's baby at the request of Tim's dad Richard.  This is made mostly from scraps. I quilted it myself on the Sweet Sixteen.  The best part of this is that the baby was born on my birthday!!

I found the perfect pink bear fabric online for the backing.

Last weekend Gudrun Erla gave a trunk show and taught a few workshops for the quilt shop.  I worked on the first day during the trunk show and the quilt-as-you-go table topper workshop.  Gudrun's trunk show was amazing. She has a great story and brought a ton of awesome quilts.  Her presentation was very good and included short tutorial videos demonstrating how to use her rulers and how to make several of her unique blocks.  Since I was working and not participating in the workshop, I was itching to make my own table topper(s)....why make 1 when you can make 3?  This Which Way topper is a great way to use a single charm pack. The 3-D prairie points are fun to make and this topper is super cute.

This is Kaffe Fasset fabric I bought at Quiltique in Las Vegas.  I paid a fortune for the charm pack and wanted to make something special with it.  I think this topper was a great use for it and I love how it turned out.

This topper is made using a winter collection of fabric.  I used a metallic dark teal fabric for the backing and binding.  This was leftover from some kitty-cat place mats and I didn't have enough for the full backing, so I pieced in leftover charm squares.  This one was a stash-buster!

Pieced backing came out really cute.

 

 After making the backing and quilt label I only had this much of the backing/binding fabric left!  Talk about a close call!

 And finally, the first topper I actually made was this Halloween one.  I figured its never too late to decorate for Halloween.  2 days, 3 toppers, 3 charm packs used and some yardage used up as well, I consider that a successful weekend!

 My hand-made glass pumpkin was looking a little lonely on my kitchen table.  With the topper now its looking much more festive.

Four more of finishes - #10-13 for 2017!

First up we have "Batty Lou Boo".  This was a fun little Stitch by Number project from Happy Hollow Designs.  Its similar to paper piecing, but different.  You iron the pattern pieces to the back of your fabric, then cut them out.  Next you Sew them to another piece, similar to foundation piecing.  I enjoyed it and think she came out super cute. I made this entirely from scraps.  She's not finished in the picture because my cats stole her nose before I could glue it on.  So, technically she is completely finished now minus a nose.  I need to find it before I can take a fully finished picture.  Silly kitties.

I stitched in the ditch in the center and quilted parallel lines in the borders and an X in each corner.  Simple and sweet.

 I got a request from a co-worker to make two quilts for his twin nephews who were about to be born.  He wanted a nautical theme.  We poured over patterns and fabrics for about a month until he decided on these two.  The fabric is the Lily and Loom, On Deck collection from Craftsy.  I used Kona, Silver for the background.

The first quilt is from the book New Ways with Jelly Rolls. Its the first pattern I've made from the book.

My mom quilted both quilts with a pattern that has boats and anchors.  Super cute!  I also machine appliquéd the twin's initials on the quilts.

I had a really fun time with this backing.  Since the quilts were so different, I wanted the backing and binding to be the same.  I made one super long backing.  When my mom quilted these she quilted one and then the other without cutting the long backing in-between.  Voila!  Identical backings!

The second quilt was offered as a kit from Craftsy.  Unfortunately the pattern had a mistake and the boat masts were specified to cut at .5" wide when they should have been 1" wide.  I was able to down-size the boat bottoms and make this work out.

The boat quilt kit came with a FQ pack and there was a TON of extra fabric left.  So much that I ended up making another entire baby quilt from the scraps!  This quilt is called Going My Way? and is a Cutie Quilt pattern designed by the fabulous Debby Brown.  The pattern takes 16 fat eights and some yardage for borders and sashing.  I used Kona Silver again for the sashing but everything else was leftovers from making the other two quilts.

I had these quilted with the same boat and anchors pattern as the others.

I used more leftovers on the backing and more Kona Silver to finish it up.