2020 Part 1

2020 came in with all of the best intentions. My plan was to quilt 20 UFO tops in 2020. It was a great plan. I would squeeze in cross stitch as often as I could but I really wanted to finish quilts.

This is a cute Lizzie Kate design called 6 Snow Belles.

I planned to stitch all 6 on piece of fabric and it would be a Christmas present for one of my daughters.

(Spoiler alert--it did and it's so darn cute!!)

I love a good BOM.

This is from Kathleen Tracy.

I think this is both January and February.

I had a box of Thimbleberry scraps from a friend so used mostly those fabrics.

These were my choices for the Moda Blockheads 3 BOW.

I love the mix of the fabrics.

January was a baby shower for Granddaughter Taylor.

I had to make Dwight the Deer for her and her son.

I used recycled shirts on the back.

It is so snuggly soft.

March 10, 2020

Welcome to the family Bentley Waylon.

We adore you.

💓😍😍😍😍

I joined an ornament of the month club.

I picked this cutie from a magazine.

We didn't get much snow.

Just a day once in a while.

This sampler was my oldest UFO.

It was fun to just quilt the blocks and then join them.

Frolic was the 2019/20 Quiltville mystery.

I love that I used mostly stash  on this one. 

It was fun to just get it done before it turned into a UFO.

Smith Mountain Morning was gifted to Grandson Elliot.

Another Quiltville design.

This log cabin was gifted to daughter Crystal.

Moda Be My Neighbor was gifted to Daughter Dee.

I love knitting socks and I love using up all the scrap yarn.

Sadly these are still in the on the road knitting bag but are close to being finished.

There is still scrap yarn to be used up.

My friend Julie taught me about basting party.

Baste until you run out of pins.

So I get myself all set up and get busy.

Under the table fort are 3 dogs.

The roll of batting goes on the recliner and the table is pushed over to it.

See all those quilts over by the tv. I think they are all waiting their turn. 

I also think they are all finished quilts. 

I honestly don't know if these were before or at the beginning of Covid lockdown.

But that's a story for another post. 

Until then.....thanks for your sweet comments on my return.

Design Wall Monday

 

After finishing my log cabin quilt Saturday,

I went through my UFO list to find something to finish for our oldest grandson.

I didn't see anything I wanted for him,

everything is too feminine.

So I decided to pull out my 2 1/2" batik strips and a stack of books.

After looking at all of them,

marking and looking again, I chose to make Monkey Business.

It's in Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Surprises.

Then I pulled UFO box #7 and 

decided to use the fabric I had set aside for something else for this quilt.

I have that big bin of batik strips but these are all ready to go. 

I think I may even have a great animal print to use for the backing.

Use the stash Judy!

While I was pulling, 

I got out the replacement UFO #12,

(I explained that it in Saturday's post.)

I have 35 12 1/2" blocks.

I'm not sure how I'll set them so I pulled out this Log Cabin book.

I might make another block for a 6x6 setting.

But I'll think about then when #12 is drawn.

In the mean time,

I pin basted February's UFO today.

This is #10 on my list. 

Since the tables were all set up,

I basted a small string quilt too.

And now I'm out of batting on my roll.

Any others basted in the near future will need to have batting pieced for them.

Use the batting scraps Judy! 

Check out all the great design walls at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday

Finish #6 and Changes To The 2019 UFO Challenge List

While cataloging all of my UFOs and explaining to hubby what was happening

and how depressed it was making me with so many tops to finish, 

he suggested I send a big quilt top out to my friend Jane to get quilted.

So which one do I choose? 

I chose this log cabin top to be finish #6 for my goal of 20 Finishes before 2020.

This log cabin is on my 2019 UFO Challenge list as project #12.

I happen to have a set of log cabin blocks that are ready to be made into a top

so I will replace the old #12 with those for the new #12. 

(Is that even legal? 😀) 

I picked out a feathery design and Jane made my quilt fabulous!

What's a good way to get an extra UFO marked off your list?
Use it for the back of a quilt.

These were a stack of 20 16" Turning Twenty blocks.

I just started sewing them together.

No planned lay out, just grab and sew.

Then measure and add some more fabric from the stash.

With all the quilting and binding I've been doing, 

I've irritated my shoulder.

So it's short binding sessions, and then lay it aside for a while.

Miss Polly is making sure I don't overdo. 

 So while "resting", I made 2 more quilt backs.

I'm ready to having another basting party.

The first quilt to be basted will be the UFO for this month. 

Design Wall Monday

UFO busting at it's finest is what is happening on my design wall this week. I pulled out a bin full of SWAN (Swap Without A Name) blocks that were made by a group of internet friends in 2005. For this swap, when it was our turn-2 quilters per month-we sent each of the 23 participants a 12" square of our focus fabric along with any wishes we had for the quilt block. I used some of my stash fabric-the purples, green and peach, I asked for white or WOW background. These needed to be 12 1/2" unfinished, do your best work.  I did have to remake 1 of the blocks but no big deal. I have 4 that just didn't fit so they will be used in the orphan block quilt.

This purple star is my favorite...made by my friend Sonya. I remember her asking if I had any extra purple fabric because she wanted to make me a special block. I did and Oh Boy did she make me a special block. It's called Connecticut from Carol Doak's 50 Paper Pieced Stars book.

Step 1 - Make 20 9 patch blocks for the back using 5" charms. At one of our retreats, I won a huge stack of charms, such a fabulous variety of fabrics-even a Millennium square. I set the stack of charms at the machine, reached over, picked up 2 off the pile and sewed them together, picked up the next pair and the next and next, you get the idea. Then I added the 3rd charm. Pressed those all in one direction, grabbed a few, flipped them around so the seams would butt up to each other. Then did it again until I had 20 blocks.  There are only a few charms left to go into the charm bin. That UFO bag is busted!

Step 2- Make the batting squares.. Since Quilt As You Go is being used on these blocks. (Lots of tutorials on YouTube.) I am able to use up a big bag of batting scraps. All the batting is Hobbs 80/20 from other quilts. Batting scraps bag busted!

Step 3 - Quilt each square-Done!! How much fun I had doing this all week. I pulled out matching thread, filled bobbin with white thread, put on my walking foot and had a blast.  No new thread was purchased but no spools were emptied either. No problem since I didn't want to run out of thread.

Step 4 - Add borders to blocks. I messed up this step. I should have added borders to each block before quilting, 10 with one fabric, 10 with another fabric. I need to do this because the blocks now range in size from 11 3/4" to 12 1/2 ". So I now have to do this by adding backing strips, batting and sashing strips, quilt and cut to 15" since that's the size of my biggest ruler, that's the size I will use. The 9 patch seams will not line up, that doesn't bother me since they will have sashing on them also. I have the fabric to use on the back but I'll buy something coordinating for the front. My stash isn't that deep. I learned a very valuable lesson here.

Step 5 - Make borders.

Step 6 - Join everything together.

Step - Bind, wash, dry, cuddle.

Looks like I have a good plan for the week.  See what everyone is working on today at Patchwork Times.