TheNext Project...

... is this.

My friend's mother made this little lap-size quilt for her great niece. She wanted something simple so I helped her figure out a simple 5 inch square layout and then figured the yardage. My friend took her to Joann's to pick out the fabrics. I cut the squares and border pieces. She sewed the squares and border. She did not use 1/4 inch seam allowance. She did not use the same size seam throughout so this quilt is a little wonky. I am sure the great niece will not care, she is 7 months old.

The top is quilting cottons in yellows, greens, blues and red ( the red shows pink, I could not get the colors to adjust). The back is Minkee - a bright fuchsia pink. The binding is a medium mottled blue flannel.

The quilting is almost half finished, then I do the binding. I hope to have this finished and delivered by the end of the week.

I worked a little more on the Christmas paper piecing. I think I will be putting this away for awhile since I have other projects that have deadlines.

I think I need a border of some sort between the center block and the trees,but I am not sure what. I will think about that when I pull it out again.

Quilter's Exchange Blocks

I am trying to organize my Pinterest Boards and I don't think I have posted all of the blocks that I have made so far so here goes.
We are all using Johnny Around the Corner as the frame and our own 6 inch blocks in the center. I chose Dancing Shoofly.

 

January

 

February

The block on the right is mine.

The block on the left is call Crystal. The maker has since changed her block 

as she found this one too difficult and time consuming to make. 

 

March

 

 

April

 

 

May

 

June

 

July

 

 

August

 

 

September

 

October

 

 

 November

 

We decided to skip December since our meeting day fell on Christmas Eve,

so this is the for the January exchange.

There are 16 of us participating so we are nearing the end; only 3 more to go.

 

Paper Piecing

I like to paper piece. I hate to throw away the little scraps I end up with from projects, especially batiks. Paper piecing, especially small blocks, works well to use those small scraps.
I have been printing out these paper piecing blocks from Block of the Day. Here is a link to today's block. You have to sign up. Every day a link to a new block is emailed. You have until the end of the month to print the block. I have been printing them for just over a year now and some of the blocks are repeats. I am slowly piecing them.

 I am making another angel for the upper left and will fill in with the dark blue 'sky'.

There is a block for Mary and Joseph. I may not end up using them because I think they are in the manger with Baby Jesus. :)
There are more cabin and tree blocks.
There are more ornament blocks.
There is a block for a snowman and a candle.

Right now I am thinking the manger as the center with angels above and Mary and Joseph under. Then some sort of border. Then the cabins and trees as a border around the center. Then another border, then the ornaments around. I am not sure the ornaments fit in but we will see.

Or, maybe the ornaments and Santa need to be a separate project.

I am also working on the Pat Sloan 182-Day Solstice Challenge which you can find here.
The challenge is on block 2.
Here are mine so far. I am using Civil War fabric scraps from my stash.

On the right is Block 1 - Churn Dash.
On the left is Block 2 - Day Into Night.

On My Wall

Visit Judy's page here to see what other quilters are working on.

I am working on this t-shirt quilt.

It's another big one - close to100 inches all around. I need to sew on the top and bottom borders then it is ready to quilt.

My goal this year is to finish up UFOs. I have a lot. I stopped counting because I found that to be depressing. I seem to always put other people's projects before my own. Right now I have this T-shirt quilt, 2 more T-shirt quilts to make and quilt, a top that needs quilted, and a retirement quilt to construct and quilt. The retirement quilt has been in the works for a while, but I was waiting for everyone to send me their blocks. While I was waiting I pushed the other projects in front of it. Now I have all the blocks I can proceed with figuring out a layout.

I got interested in Pinterest a few years ago. I started out with a few boards. As I added more and more pins I created more boards trying to keep things organized, especially the quilt ones. I now have 81 boards. The biggest board has 105 pins. It is food pins and I have started new food boards so I can better organize them so I can better find what I am looking for. I know that may not be a lot, compared to some boards I have seen, but I find it easier to find pins if there are not a lot of pins on a board.

Last year I started a board for things I want to try soon - 2016 Pins to Try. Last night I went through and deleted pins I was no longer interested in, moved some to specific boards and what was left went into a new board - 2017 Pins to Try. I then deleted the 2016 Board. Some of the pins are multiples of an idea, some are techniques I want to try, some would make great gifts. There are currently 58 pins on that board. Right now if I tried one a week I would have them finished by this time next year. I know I will add more, but I think that is a good goal. And, it sounds doable, until I remember I go back to work on Jan. 2 and all my energy gets zapped by the end of the day. But, then there is summer break and I have more free time. Until I agree to do another project for someone. But, I am getting better at saying no. I have been telling people I am not taking any more projects until summer 2018 and then I refer them to another quilty person I know. I figure if they don't want to wait that long, it's ok.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family and that you have a great New Year!