Fourth Finish of the Year!

 

I finished another UFO. The pile of basted UFO's is down to three, and I hope to get those done in the near future so I can have a big basting spree and have a whole new stack of UFO's ready to finish. 

I have been slipping newer projects in between the UFO's. I just finished quilting another quillow yesterday, and I have the last quillow on my list basted and ready to quilt. 

This scrap quilt is now a quilt top, and hanging in the quilt closet. I have two more quilts from more of these quilt blocks ready to assemble into quilt tops. When busting scraps, I like making quilt tops that use as many scraps as possible. So many scrap patterns are large amounts of background fabric, and that doesn't bust that many scraps. The only yardage in these blocks is the red center squares. 

The alternate blocks for two I Spy quilts are done now, well except for snipping dog ears off the blue/green ones!

I got enough of the alternate blocks for the sunflower quilt done to give them a quick preview on the design wall. I think this is going to be a really pretty quilt. I've been making so many scrap quilts, it's refreshing to work with just a few fabrics, which is funny, because normally I get bored making quilts with only a few fabrics. I guess I just need a lot of different types of projects going on to keep my creativity active. 

Quilt Redemption

 I had two ideas for the title of this post. The one I decided was too long was

How My No-Buy Pledge Both Ruined and Redeemed a Quilt.

Have you ever made a no-buy pledge, and were determined to only use your stash? I go through phases where I do this, sometimes to break bad buying habits, sometimes to save money for something bigger for the studio, sometimes to reduce my stash if it's getting out of hand, and sometimes just because it's a good creative challenge. I won't beat myself up if I don't hold to it, but when I set a no-buy goal, I try to stick to it. 

When I started my newest UFO finish, I was on a no-buy pledge. I wanted to make a Celtic knot quilt, and I started out with these fabrics.

I bought these fabrics when I was brand new quilter, and I had no idea how much fabric it took to make a quilt. I saw the fabric online when I was searching for some Celtic knot trim for a dress I was making DD#2 to wear to a Renaissance Fair. It was easily the most expensive fabric I had purchased at the time, and maybe still is. Because of the price, and the shipping because I imported it from the UK, I was pretty skimpy in my purchase. When I was brave enough to start cutting it up, I realized I didn't have nearly enough fabric to make the size quilt I wanted. 

That's where one of my favorite quilt books came in. I have made multiple quilts using this book, and if you ever want to make a Celtic quilt without applique, this book is gold. 

I wanted to make this pattern, and use the fabrics from the UK in a pieced border. I liked the colors of the original quilt, but I needed to get them closer to the inspiration fabric. I was also trying to stick with only using stash, and I didn't have fabrics that graduated in color like I needed them to. I did the best I could with what I had, and started the quilt.

I was happily piecing the quilt, but when I started assembling it I was horrified. It was not coming out like what I pictured in my head at all. Determined to push through, I started making the pieced border. THAT was really a disaster! I hated it so much I unpicked every block I had made for the border! I decided the quilt center just didn't match the inspiration fabric at all anymore, and I was stuck. I did what most of you have done at one time or another, and I put the quilt in time out. 

During a UFO challenge, I took the quilt center out and looked at it. How could I have made those fabric choices? What had I been thinking? Back in time out it went. 

One day when working on a completely different quilt, I spotted a fabric in stash, and I realized the colors in it were a good match for what I had been calling the Celtic Disaster. I dug the quilt center out of the closet, matched it up with the fabric from stash, and realized I could make it work. 

The fact that the fabric that matched was American Southwest style and the quilt center was Celtic didn't phase me much. I was trying to redeem a quilt I pretty much hated. I added the border, and set it aside again. 

One day while buying some thread, I noticed a variegated thread called Santa Fe, and I realized it would match that quilt too. I'm always a sucker for variegated thread, so I bought it and put it aside to quilt Celtic Disaster. 

I think I needed the time that the quilt was in time out to accept what it was, and not associate it with what it failed to be...what I failed to make it. 

It's finished now, and far from my original plan. I don't hate it anymore, that border fabric makes the fabric choices make sense. Had I gone looking for fabric to match those odd color choices I doubt I could have come up with something that worked better. My commitment to work from stash both hindered and salvaged the quilt. 

I obviously still have yet to use my Celtic fabrics from the UK. I have decided to make a medallion quilt out it, with that pillow panel as the center, put on point. I made some blocks that will be one of the borders, but I still have a lot of designing to do on that quilt. If I get a few of my deadline projects done, maybe I'll get that out and start working with it, but at least now I'll feel free to go in a completely different direction, because the disaster that was holding me back is over. 

First Two Finishes of 2021

 I actually finished two quilts last week, but I couldn't say anything about them, because I needed to mail them to my parents and my mom reads my blog. Hi, Mom! 

They got their quilts on Monday, so now I can show them! 

I had enough of my late sister's sweaters to not only make my remaining sister a throw quilt, but I had enough to make quilts for my parents too. I figured something just big enough for them to use in their chairs while watching TV would work just fine.

This is my dad's, made with the same size squares as my sister's quilt. I wanted to make my dad's one row longer, but I was two squares short. I opted to cut two squares from a pair of my sister's jeans to make up the difference. 

You can only cut so many large squares from clothing, so my mom's is made from smaller squares. 

If you ever want to make a quilt from sweaters, let me give you one piece of advice. Use a walking foot! From piecing to quilting, a walking foot is your friend when working with stuff this stretchy. I also used 1/2" seams, which I think was a good plan. 

After making six quilts and two pillow shams from my sister's clothes, I'm pretty much over that project. I'm thankful I was able to make them, but I'm glad to have them finished. 

So now what have a been working on? A few different things actually. I've been FMQ an hour a day on a UFO. I've missed a couple days this week, but I'm making good progress, about 2/3 done and it's a queen sized quilt. I have some ripping to do tonight on that. My bobbin thread got caught on something, so the stitches on the back got all jacked. 15 minutes of quilting turned into an evening of ripping. The stitches were bad enough they'll be pretty easy to rip out. After some toubleshooting, I figured out the problem, so I should be OK for tomorrow's quilting. The sample I stitched out looked great after I fixed the problem. 

I've been assembling a couple UFO's and I finally got in the mood to do some cutting!

The big triangles are for hourglass blocks to be the alternating blocks in two I Spy quilts. The three bins are for my sunflower quilt. While I was cutting out the hourglass blocks, I got an idea for another quilt, then today I had someone ask for a quilt just like that! I love it when God gives me the idea ahead of time! 

I really need to spend a day or two cutting sashing for several quilts. I have way too many bins of finished quilt blocks, and I need to get them to quilt top stage. I'm starting with the quilts that don't need sashing just to reduce my inventory of quilts blocks quickly. 

I can assemble two tops at once (leader/ender style) without any issues IF either or both of these are true. If the blocks in each quilt are different sizes, and/or the colors of the two quilts are drastically different. In this case, both are true. I'm assembling a purple quillow top with 6" blocks, and a black/white log cabin with 7.5" blocks. I always assemble quilts in rows, then sew the rows together, and if I have two quilts ready that follow the rules above, I assemble two at once. It's a great way for me to progress a UFO to quilt top or at least quilt center if I'm adding borders. I'm adding borders less and less these days, so often at least one of them will be a completed top when I finish sewing the rows together. 

The black and white log cabin blocks are super scrappy. I made them for my scrap busting goals, and I ended up with enough blocks for more than one quilt. The first quilt I laid out in an off center barn raising pattern, but I forgot to take a photo. I started laying out the second quilt, and here's the photo of it on my design wall.

I love log cabin blocks, because there are so many cool layout possibilities. Since I have so many blocks, I didn't want to make matching quilts, so I played around and found something I liked, I'm going to add more to this quilt, and it will end up 75x90, same as the off center barn raising quilt I'm assembling now. I'll still have blocks left after two quilts, so when I get those two finished, I'll see how many blocks I still have and decide from there. There's no way I could assemble two different quilts using the same blocks at the same time and not screw something up so I'll keep adding in other quilts as I'm assembling, or I can always use some of the pieces I just cut as leaders/enders if I get tired of assembling quilts. Any way you look at it, progress is progress!

The Glad Game

 Have you ever seen the old Disney movie, Pollyanna? I think there's been a remake, but I'm thinking of the one from 1960 with Hayley Mills. Although Pollyanna has much she could be depressed about, she chooses to play "The Glad Game". Basically she has an attitude of gratitude, and that movie has impacted my thinking more than any movie I've ever watched. If I find myself getting depressed, playing "The Glad Game" and concentrating on all I have to be thankful for goes a long way in pulling me out of my funk. 

Life is pretty crazy right now. People are completely stressed out and some are acting out of control and irrationally. The state I live in has the highest incidence of Covid 19 IN THE WORLD! DH has a very bad back, and he took a different nursing job to lessen the chance of hurting his back (again) at work. We were/are in complete agreement on him changing jobs, but it was a 20% pay CUT! (Ouch!) DH has been exposed to Covid just as much in the new job as his Emergency Room job, and we were hoping that would be less. We currently have a broken relationship with one of our adult kids that's not by our choosing, and that hurts. If I choose to concentrate on the bad stuff, of which there is plenty, I would just stop doing much of anything. 

Instead of focusing on the negative, I choose to play "The Glad Game". I can't do anything about the unrest in my country, but I can make sure to not to add to it. I can't stop the Covid numbers from going up, but I can choose to act responsibly. 

I am thankful for a lovely home to stay in, especially since I've rarely been leaving it. I am thankful for my stash, and the fact that even with a large pay cut I can keep quilting. I am glad I can still contribute to others. I'm thankful that so far DH has not caught Covid, even though he's been exposed repeatedly. Getting used to DH's new work hours has been difficult, but thankfully, 4:45 AM doesn't seem quite as early to get up anymore. 

I'm thankful that my other kids have really stepped up and given us support through this tough time with one of them. 

There is so much good if we choose to look for it. I know a lot of people are not in nearly as good a place as we are, but we've not always been in this good of a place either. I remember the days of having five kids to feed and an empty pantry, but somehow, we made it through. I still had things to be thankful for. I remember living in 839 sq feet with a family of seven, and I still had things to be thankful for. I remember digging through the couch and jacket pockets for the change so we could come up with the rest of the rent money, and I still had things to be thankful for. 

In comparison to those days, being thankful for what we have now may be easy, but that doesn't mean we don't still get stressed out and situations are always favorable. 

I decided to write this as an encouragement. So many people are discouraged, and worried, and losing hope. Can you think of anything you can be glad about, anything to be thankful for? Some days it's hard to think of anything, especially if you are struggling with depression. So many things we think of as bad, have a flip side. Is your house a mess? Look at how many things you have to clutter up the place! Have you gained the dreaded Covid 19 (pounds)? You've had food to eat. Have you lost someone like I lost one of my sisters? It's a process, but I am so thankful for the memories I have of her, the times we shared, the love I still have for her. I will always miss her, but I am so glad she was a part of my life. 

I'm not trying to make light of hard times, please don't take it that way. There have been times I've been so stressed out I have to hunt for something to be thankful for. Sometimes I have to concentrate on the smallest things. I've had days where the best I could say was that I saw an animal outside my window that reminded me there's life out there. 

Lest this only be a philosophical post, but still in the interest of moving forward with life, I dug out a UFO that's been basted for exactly two years! I originally had plans of doing some complicated quilting on it, but I've learned, if I plan to do fancy quilting, but I'm not passionate enough about it to do it right then, it's not happening. Two years in timeout is long enough, and this quilt is getting finished. 

Just meandering again? Yup, but finished is better than perfect, and a basted quilt isn't usable, where a finished quilt with simple quilting is. 

I'm trying to get back into my FMQ one hour per day, before doing other sewing, and I didn't have a deadline quilt ready to quilt, so a UFO it is! Something I got to be thankful for today? My bobbin ran out just as my hour was up, so I changed bobbins and tomorrow I can start with a full bobbin!