Change of Focus

The first half of 2019 my focus was finishing UFO's, whether they were wedding quilts or not. Although I do hope to wipe out the stack of basted UFO's this year, they won't be my focus for the rest of 2019. My focus will be on new starts.

New starts, when I have so many UFO's? Yes! I already mentioned my plans to give all my grandchildren quillows for Christmas, and I wouldn't mind having a couple for our car as well. 

As you can see, I chain pieced the pink blocks already, and now I'm working on purple. I've already figured out that I'm going to have to go into different sized strips from my scrap user system. It's taking more pieces than I thought to make these quillows. Of course, I also cut for other projects from the same width strips, so maybe if I had only cut for these it would have been enough. I am not worried a bit about it, I'm in no danger of running out of my scrap user system, and the reason I opted for 6" finished rail fence blocks is that I can make that size from any width strips I save. 

I also want to finish up the weighted blankets that I started earlier this year. Keeping them from becoming UFO's is almost as good as a UFO finish. I've already got two takers for the weighted blankets I have yet to finish. 

As if that weren't enough, I am really thinking about all the clothes from my second sister that I need to use to make memory quilts for her family. I went through all the clothes when I received them, and donated what I wasn't planning on using. I still have three large totes of possibilities. Right after she passed away, it was just too much to think about, I was too close to her to be OK working with her clothes. I'm not sure I am up to it even now, but I think as soon as I have a handle on all the quillows, that is what I am going to try to tackle. I'm not planning any fancy quilts from her clothes. I more want her clothes to shine, so I don't want to cut them up too small. I know there will be at least one t-shirt rag quilt, but likely more, and I've already got a plan for scraps from the t-shirts. She didn't have traditional t-shirts, just lots of printed shirts made from cotton knits. I need to buy some flannel for that project, so that at least some of the fabrics will actually "rag". Thankfully, she wore a lot of natural fibers, so the biggest difficulty with the projects will be emotional, not the fabric itself. 

I think I've got plenty to keep me busy.