2023 Finishes ~ I'm Shocked!

 Hello Quilting Friends!  Grab a cup of whatever and pull up a chair and we'll take a quick look at all the 2023 finishes from my little spot in Podunk.  

 The first 10 pictured are  UFO's.  They are in the order they were finished but there were other finished projects in between some of these.  

I had hoped to finish more UFO's but the rest of this post will explain why I only finished 10.

Somewhere in the early part of the year I decided to make a small gingham quilt for every month of the year.  Each month would be a different color.  They are quick and easy so there would still be plenty of time to finish up UFO's as well.  HAHA!  Setting goals and plans is easy, sticking to them...not so much.

As you can see that plan fell by the wayside.  I only finished six gingham quilts.  As I write this post I'm thinking maybe this coming year I could make six more.  But don't hold your breath because like I said earlier, goals and plans are easy to make but...SQUIRRELL!

Somewhere around mid year I got the crazy idea to rearrange and clean my studio.  Rearranging the studio meant emptying my fabric cabinets.  Emptying the cabinets sent me down the rabbit hole of sorting fabrics into three categories...

 Loved

 Unloved 

and I don't love it but I can keep it  

I considered donating the unloved fabric until I ran across my huge stash of batting scraps. 

Quilts 17 - 23 are made from the unloved fabric and franken-batting.  They are charity quilts for homeless woman with children.

24 -27 Halloween quilts for my daughter and grandkids because while cleaning I found a bunch of Halloween prints I had been collecting for the grandkids quilts.

28 was a quilt for my ex-husband in memory of our son Trever who died in an accident in October 2022.

29 is a camping quilt for Mr. Podunk.

30 a last minute Christmas quilt for my spare bedroom.

31 was me playing around with a Bonnie Hunter quilt pattern. I thought the block was cute but didn't want to make the entire quilt.

32 and 33 Pillows for the grandkids.

34 a pillow for me designed by Corey Yoder as a free quilt block on her YouTube channel.

35.  I'm a slob in the kitchen and needed an apron.

36 is bowl cozies for Mr. Podunk.

Wow!  I'm was shocked to see I had accomplished so much in one year.   So how about you?  Did you meet all your quilty goals for 2023?

Sweet Scrappy HST's

 Hi Friends!  This week I took a little time to wrap up a few loose ends in the studio.  That's a nice way of saying I'm a messy quilter and needed to clean up my mess.

After sorting and organizing the many baskets of scrap fabrics from this years projects I decided it was a good time to sort through these small bins that hold the scrap triangles needing to be made into HST's.  These triangles are from flippy corner cut offs and binding cut offs.  

Sorting them by size and color made piecing them go pretty fast.

I didn't end up with as many as I thought.  I ran out of the larger light fabrics to match up with a dark fabric.  I could cut some white triangles from scraps of white fabric but I prefer they be made organically in the quilting process.  Which means the leftovers triangles can wait until my quilting makes more large white triangles.

I've probably shared this before but I share it again anyway.  Not all my triangles are triangles, as you can see below.  I'll save and use any odd shape.

No reason to cut it into a triangle before sewing.  Just sew a straight line, press and trim. 

My homemade locking HST ruler made the squaring up process much faster.

There was a few more HST's needing to be squared up.  These were from the last few projects.

I ended up with several different sizes of HST's to be added to the stash.

The HST's stash just keeps growing!  Someday I need to start using them.

But that day is not anytime soon.  Back in the storage bins they must go.  Out of sight and out of mind.  

Last Finish For 2023 ~ UFO # 10

 Hey Sweet Friends!  The last UFO for 2023 was one of the smallest projects in the waiting to be quilted pile.  If your interested in it's history  click here.

The table runner was made with the scraps of four other quilts.  One of those quilts was gifted to my son.  So he might as well have a table runner match.  It's fun to finish these old projects, free up some space in the studio, then clutter my sons house with the projects instead of adding them to my HUGE stash of finished quilts.  He already has several quilts, runners and small pillow shams.  We have discussed two more quilts to be made this year to add to his stash of quilts.  I feel blessed to have a family that loves my quilts.  He even said he would take the bright happy girly ones if I wanted to free up more space.

  

Once again I forgot to add the label before quilting.  I'm not a fan of adding them after quilting so I used a permanent archival pen to hand write a label on the back.  I think I need put a sign on the quilt frame leaders.  A simple sign in big red letters...

??QUILT LABEL??

Frosty's Forest Quilt Finish

Hello Quilty Friends!   I finished this quilt on December 15th but I haven't had time to take pictures and write a blog post.

In an earlier blog post I mentioned how I searched high and low for the quilt pattern because I didn't want to waste time doing quilty math.  But I came up with nothing so I did the quilty math.  On the last of quilting this monster, I took a break, went to Pinterest to search for cookie recipes and what popped up on my home feed?  Yep this quilt!  The designer is Stash Bandit.  It was designed for Quilt Maker Magazine several years ago.  Funny thing... I named my quilt Frosty's Forest, made the label, attached it to the backing before I quilted the quilt.  Then after it's quilted, I find out she named her quilt Frosted Forest!

I'm not sure if my quilt is exactly like her quilt but it's pretty darn close.  My quilt has an on-point setting and finishes at about 94 x 97. 

 Her quilt looks a tad bigger, don't you think?

The quilting on mine was kept simple so I could finish it quickly. Lots of free motion because it's faster than ruler work.

Of course there's always a little ruler work in the ditch and I used rulers in the borders.

The backing fabric on this quilt makes me so happy.  I only wish I could have gotten more of this fabric to make a couple of pillow shams.  Maybe next year Joann's will reprint this Christmas plaid.  Wishful thinking.  

Merry Christmas! ~ Busy Month

 Merry Christmas Quilty Friends!  Wishing you and your family a blessed and joyous day.

Over the last 3 weeks I've been busy with quilting, cooking and last minute shopping.  I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal.  See you soon with a couple of recent quilting finishes.

 

Snowman Christmas Tree

 Isn't this just the cutest Christmas tree?

The tree is at our veterinarians office in the lobby.  I tried really hard to get a good picture of my girl sitting in front of the tree.  But there was just too many distractions/smells.  She had to sniff every last inch of the entire building and the tree.  Which made me wonder how many cats had been in this tree.  HA!

I probably took 15 or more pictures and this was the best I could get, her backside.   We go back later in the month for a nail trim so we'll try again.

  

Quilting The Tree of Life Quilt

Maybe I should have called this one The Redwood Forest.  Measuring 94 x 98, it's one of the largest quilts I've ever made.  And I'm pretty sure it's the largest I've ever quilted on the frame.

As with all of my quilts, I'm quilting using Superior Threads Microquilter 100wt. thread.  It's lightweight, strong and allows the quilting to shine without a heavy look of thread.  Not everyone likes this look, it's a personal preference thing.  Most quilters use this thread for stitch in the ditch or on quilts with lots of backtracking.  I find it easier to use the same thread all the time so I don't need to worry about tension adjustments and I just love the way  it looks on a quilt.

The quilting will be kept fairly simple.  My first thought was to feather her to death but my quilter only has a 15" throat.  These blocks are 16".  Feather quilting, when breaking up the design, is a little more time consuming.  It would require I do a ton of premarking before loading her onto the frame.  I'd really like to have this one quilted by Friday.  So I chose to go a different route.  I still need to do some markings but I can do them as I advance the quilt and straight lines are easier than partial feathers.  Well, at least for me.  To speed things up a little I'll be doing a free motion background fill in the body of the quilt and mixture of free motion and ruler work on the on the trees. Hopefully she will be done and on the bed by this time next week.

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Just a reminder...You can get my Snow On The Farm quilt pattern as a FREE PDF. 

CLICK HERE to go the blog post where you will find the link to the PDF.