Year End Reckoning and 2023 Goals

 I hope everyone is having a great holiday season, no matter which holidays you celebrate! Christmas Day was pretty quiet around here, my sister came over and had a nice meal with DH and me. 

The day after Christmas a bunch of us went to ZooLights. We piled all the grandkids we had with us on a crocodile statue to snap a pic. A couple of our grandkids spent the night and we played games, and had a good time. 

I hadn't planned on getting much of anything done this week. Our big family get together will actually be January 1st, so I've got stuff to do for that, and I knew there would be several interruptions because the grands are out of school for holiday break, and I'll take time with the grands over quilting every time. 

I did get all of my clue five blocks done for the Chilhowie mystery. I'm hoping we make a lot of progress in the next two clues, because my murder mystery quilt starts the second week of January! 

I was trying to tally up things for 2022. I didn't bother figuring out how much yardage I used on quilts, because I think it's safe to say I used 100 yards of fabric just on the non-quilty things I made this year. 

2 pairs shorts, 2 dresses, 23 pairs of pajama pants, 2 nightgowns, 61 rally bags, 34 bowl cozies, and 88 luggage tags. Add the 24 quilts I finished in 2022, and I am way over the 100 yard dash! 

Here are my empty spools for the year. One of them only has the bottom, because I used up the spool during the month I stayed at a hotel, and I tossed the tube, but kept the bottom to remind myself I finished another spool. That small number of spools represents 9.5 miles of thread. The big cones don't look like much, but they are 2-3 miles of thread each. 

Of my 24 quilt finishes, 11 were UFO's. I'd like to get more UFO's finished in 2023.

Goals for 2023? I've struggled with this one. I do have a few deadline projects. I have at least one baby quilt to make, but I'm expecting that number to go up. I have at least two rally quilts to make, plus the rally bags and whatever other projects I do for that. I also have two grandkids who are wanting new quilts for their birthdays. 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how I worked this year. I allow myself as many starts as I want as long as it's using stash, preferably scraps or a quilt kit. If I need to buy for a specific project I will, but overall I'd like to buy less in 2023. To be fair, almost all my purchases in 2022 were either for a specific project, or they were basics like solids and blenders, or it was fabric from a thrift shop that was dirt cheap. 

I think my biggest goal for 2023 is actually just to empty some project bins and totes. I don't have any empty bins or totes right now, and I'd really like to have a few empty. I have several that I could empty just by assembling the quilt that's in it. For the past couple years I've made it a habit to baste at least one UFO for every new start or deadline quilt I baste. I think I'm going to have to make it a habit to do the same with assembling quilts. Quilt tops don't stress me out, but piles of blocks or quilt parts can. I've gotten pretty good about looking through my quilt closet first when I need a quilt to gift. At least two quilts I gave as gifts this year, I just grabbed quilt tops from the quilt closet and quilted them when I needed them. That's an easy finish, but somehow if I have a quilt top partially done and need a gift, I'm more likely to start a new one than finish the one in pieces for that gift. I'm glad I figured that out about myself, because it rings so true, and now I know I need to get a quilt top assembled before I will count it as an option for a gift. 

If I had to sum up my 2023 goals in a phrase, I'd probably choose,

Keep Calm and Quilt On! 

Really, if I just keep doing what I've been doing, I'll meet my goals. I need to focus a bit more on getting things to quilt top stage, but that's more of an adjustment than a big change. I've been using UFO's and scrap projects as my leaders/enders for the last couple of years, and that's been a huge help. 

I'm calling 2022 a quilting success for me, and I'm hopeful for 2023! 

Prepping for 2023

 It's been a good week of finishing 2022 projects up.

This is the quilt I finished last week, but couldn't show until it was gifted. It should be on the recipients bed by now. 

I've also finished all the Christmas pajamas, be it pants or nightgowns. 

I've got clue 4 done for Chilhowie Mystery quilt too. Here's a couple of the units, but they are all finished.

I also played with the cutoff triangles from clue two, and I made three of these blocks.

This block looks big in the photo, but it's 7" unfinished. I think I'm going to frame with teal to make it a little bit bigger, then make the three blocks into potholders. I don't usually save cutoffs this small, but there were so many of them, I just couldn't throw them away. 

I got my Christmas present from DD#2 and DSIL already, and it was exactly what I wanted, and I couldn't be more excited about it! I've done several mystery quilts, but they gave me a subscription to the Murder Mystery Quilt For 2023 it's a Viking themed mystery, and every month  they send you a chapter or two of the mystery story, along with the directions to a quilt block. As the quilt comes together, the designs give you clues to help you solve the mystery! I started pulling some fabrics for that mystery, but I'm not sold on what I pulled, so I may just wait and pull fabrics as the blocks are made. 

Have you ever heard of a Temperature Quilt? I started hearing about them in 2019 or so, and it sounded fun, but I was swamped with wedding quilts at the time, so I put the idea aside. I already have a lot to do for 2023, but I do have a bit of extra time right now, and I knew if I get get the prepwork done now, I could probably make a Temperature Quilt in 2023.

If you google Temperature Quilt, you'll get a lot of different hits and different ideas of how to do one. Most temperature quilts I've seen follow the highs and lows of each day during the year. Some only use the average temperature for the day. Some people add a lot of detail, and add markers for record temps, or track precipitation too. How many colors of fabric you use, and what your temperature spread is varies widely too, and a lot of that is determined by where you live. 

I pulled a rainbow of colors from stash. I've since eliminated one of the greens because I realized cut small they would look too similar. I still have 22 fabrics in play. I needed to figure out what unit I wanted to make, and how I wanted to divide the temperatures in Tucson, Arizona so it would work with 22 representative fabrics. To help me out, I checked out the record highs and lows over the last few years.

Tucson, Arizona record temps in Fahrenheit degrees

2017- high- 116   low- 28

2018- high- 112   low- 26

2019- high- 110   low- 27

2020- high- 113   low- 24

2021- high- 115   low- 30

2022- high- 111   low to date- 26

Tucson's highest temperature ever recorded was 117 degrees in 1990, and the lowest ever recorded was 6 degrees in 1913. We had an outdoor pipe rupture in 2011 when it hit 13 degrees at our house, which is a bit cooler than the airport and the official temperatures. 

Since water freezes at 32 degrees, and we don't usually get much colder than that, my first category (dark purple) is 32 degrees and below. Other places I've lived would need many more cold categories, but for Tucson, I think it will suffice. If we have any crazy single digits in 2023, I may just add another fabric. 

Once I decided the lowest category, I needed to figure out how many degrees each color should represent to get close to our high temps with the remaining 21 fabrics. I chose 4 degree increments. 

Since I really hate hot weather, you better believe I'm hoping to not need the darkest red fabric, 113+. 

As far as what unit you can use for temperature quilts the sky is the limit. Since I know 2023 will be a busy year, I wanted to keep things simple. I am going to make flying geese units, one per day. The main goose will be the high temp of the day, the corners will be the low temp. If it's sunny per usual, the flying geese will point up, if we get rain, it will point down. If we get snow, which does happen occasionally, it will point down and I think I'll applique a tiny snowflake on the goose. Each month will be a column of the quilt. 

I've already cut my fabrics into 2.5" strips. I know I cut way too many strips, but they are jelly rolls sized, so using the extras will not be hard. I don't know how many of each strip I will need, so cutting too many seemed wiser. I didn't want to use one of the fabrics for something else, then not have enough. 

I've got my mini companion angle and mini easy angle packed up with the strips and the color key, so that 2023 project is ready to go. I don't think making one flying geese unit per day will be that hard, and by going simple, it should be easy to catch up if I get sidetracked. 

If I like doing that, maybe in 2024 I'll try the Itty Bitty House challenge, where you mkae a tiny house block every day, or even combine the two, high temp for the roof, low temp for the house....hmmmmm....we'll see! 

24 Quilts Finished in 2022

 If I had to throw out a number of how many quilts I'd like to finish in any given year, I'd likely say 24. There are years I've finished more, in 2019 I finished 37 quilts. There are other years I only finish 3 or 4. 24 is a good number though, it's an average of two per month, and given how many UFO's I have lying around, it's not an unreasonable number. 

I'm a little surprised I actually finished that many quilts this year. I wasn't home two months of this year, and there was another month I couldn't sew due to other obligations. I think the only reason my number is that high is 11 of the quilts were finished quilt tops at the beginning of this year, so all I needed to do was quilt them. 

I can show you number 23 now.

It's such a cheery quilt, it was a good one to quilt in the several cloudy days we've had lately.

I often choose a backing based on what color quilting thread I'm going to use, but this time I backed with teal and quilted with pink. Wow, does the quilting show up on the back! Every mistake shows up too, which is why I often match the backing to the quilting thread. 

The color of the fabric is more accurate in the first photo, but in this one you can really see the quilting in a different color really jumps out at you. A busier backing would have hidden the quilting too. My FMQ has gotten better over the years, but there's still a lot of the time I feel like hiding it is the safer option. 

The 24th quilt I'll show in a week or two, it's a Christmas gift so I won't show it until it's gifted. I have no qualms about it being opened early, so maybe next week. 

I've got all of clue 3 of Chilhowie Mystery quilt finished. Since I'm not going scrappy there's no reason to show them all. I looked at clue 4 and I have the Accuquilt dies for that step too, so it will be an easy week for me. I saw so many women struggling with the quarter square triangles, and when they are die cut, they couldn't be easier; no dog ears to trim, no sliver trimming, just perfect little blocks. 

I'm still not done the Christmas pajamas! Part of that is because I made finishing the quilt my priority, and part of it is because I've found out that due to growth spurts, the pajamas I already made aren't not going to work for some kids. I've cut out new pajama pants, and now my goal is to get those done and they'll either fit or they won't. I've learned my lesson, I'm never making everyone pajamas for Christmas again. That's not to say I'll never make pajamas again, just not for Christmas. My family is really big and to make that many I had to start too early. If I do it for a birthday or something that's spread out and I'm only making one or two at a time, it's much more reasonable, and less likely to run into these kinds of complications. The good thing about growing kids though, someone will likely grow into the ones that aren't working now. 

Pajama pants and nightgowns are my only before Christmas goals now. The other quilt I would have liked to finish can wait. With only two weeks left of 2022, I'm not going to make myself crazy and be all stressed out for the holidays. Now to come up with ideas for next Christmas that aren't size dependent! 

A 30 Year Search Finally Comes to Fruition

 Compared to kids nowadays, I had few toys as a child. I had a LOT of stuffed animals, and we had some family board games, and I had a couple dolls, but compared to what today's kids often have, it wasn't a lot. I'm glad my parents didn't save all my childhood toys, there was no need to do that. They did save the doll cradle my grandfather made me, which my girls played with, and now it's going through my granddaughters. That was worth saving.

There's only ever been one toy I wished I still had, and I've been looking for it it for 30 years or so. I wished I could have found it when my kids were young, because there's really nothing like it. So what was it? A set of stencils. I know, you're probably thinking you can get stencils everywhere, even a dollar store, and you can, but not like THESE stencils! 

These stencils don't look like anything, you can't always tell what you are going make. I've searched for them in thrift stores, antique shops and online, but the thing is, I couldn't remember the brand name. I used search terms like "turning stencils" or "stencils by the number". The other night I was up late, and I tried "vintage rotating stencils" AHA! that was it! The toy I was remembering went by Rotodraw in the USA, but Rotadraw in the UK. There were various versions of it as well. I saw Rototot, and Rotaword. Once I knew what they were called, finding them on ebay was a breeze.

I ended up buying a lot that had both the regular Rotadraw discs, and the Rotaword. I think I only had three or four discs as a child, maybe even five, but certainly no more than that. Now I've got plenty to share with my grandkids. There is still a Rotodraw set being made, but it's very simplified compared to these. These you have to turn the discs and line up marks multiple times, the version being sold new now only has four settings, and the crank moves the disc the right amount for you. I've always had a hard time explaining how to use these, but thanks to YouTube, Here's a link of how to do it.

https://youtu.be/blI1iSawb0A

This is a close up of the first one I did with these discs. I know stencils are a weird thing to long after from childhood, but I actually think it's the same reasoning behind why I love quilting. You take a bunch of seemingly random shapes, and you put them all together, and it makes something amazing! 

Speaking of amazing, I made it to my sister's craft fair, even with two of my grandsons in tow. 

She had worked hard for months making stuff for the craft fair. Unfortunately, it was raining the day of the fair, and people in southern Arizona aren't used to the rain, so not many people made it out. It was such a shame because she had some great stuff!

I finished pressing all of clue two of the Chilhowie Mystery quilt. I swapped the orange and purple placements from Bonnie's choice, and teal is my neutral. Other than the mystery quilt, everything I've been working on is for Christmas, so no pics of that! I'm not going to be accused of perfection on this quilt, there's a bit of wonkiness going on in these, but nothing so drastic I am going to redo them. They are just my leader/enders for my Christmas project, which takes precedence. I don't like doing knocked off corners as leaders/enders, I find I'm not as accurate as when I chain piece them. Still, I want to play along, and I've got deadlines on other things, so I'll take some imperfections. I'm good at fudging during assembly, so I think it will be fine. On the upside, I'm loving how my colors are are looking together! I've got a guess on what these units will be, but I'll keep my guesses to myself. 

Mystery Quilt Beginnings

 I have two mystery quilts that aren't fully assembled yet, which of course didn't stop me from starting another one. Last year's Bonnie Hunter mystery I changed up quite a bit, and I'm making one quilt into two. One of those is almost a top, one of them I still need to make alternate blocks for. 

The Ruby Jubilee Mystery from Quiltmaker magazine I have yet to assemble, though I do have all the parts finished. I think I'm going to change it up a bit too, and I've been too busy to plan that out. 

UFO's don't stress me out enough to stop me from starting something new, so here I go on the Chilhowie Mystery.

I finished Clue 1, and since I'm not going scrappy You get the idea from just a couple of each unit. On this step at least, I'm happy I swapped the purple and orange placements. When you switch up the colors, you never know how you did until the end. I know Bonnie often lures us in on easy step 1's, and I've done enough of her mysteries to know it won't stay this easy. I did find it intriguing that the amount of one of the units she had us make is a prime number....Makes it more mysterious I guess. 

Besides working on clue one which didn't take very long, I made the "last" of the pajama pants. I put last in quotes, because now that I see them done, I think I should have made one persons a different size, so I might be making another pair just in case the ones I made don't fit. I started one of the nightgowns I need to make, it's about half done. 

I've also been working on a couple quilts I want to get done in December. Two are memory quilts, and I thought I was so smart and had it figured out how I was going to make it, until I actually went through the clothes again, and realized my perfect plan wasn't so perfect after all. Now I'm back to square one on those. I think I'm just going to cut apart the clothes and start prepping them with French Fuse, then I'll see what options I actually have. 

The other quilt I want to finish in time for Christmas is coming along nicely. I need to get the border cut soon, because it will be a pieced one, and the blocks are finishing up quickly. 

This weekend I'll have a couple of grandkids and a granddog, so it will be a no sewing zone for a couple days. If I manage any time at all in the studio, I'll try cutting the second clue of Chilhowie once it's out. 

When I came upstairs from sewing one day this week, I saw a coyote napping in my neighbor's driveway. He's a really healthy looking one, and from the reduced number of rabbits in the neighborhood, I have an idea how he got that way 😉 I went outside to take the photo, and he was completely unconcerned about me being out there. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 I hope all that celebrate have a Happy Thanksgiving! This year DD#2 wanted to host, but my day before Thanksgiving prep still looks like any other year. 

I've got the white and wheat rolls done, but I've yet to make a pie so far. Besides rolls and pies, I'm also making one pan of dressing, but my daughters have the rest covered. After the last two weeks of event after event, it's a nice break. 

I haven't had much in the way of sewing time. I am working on a couple Christmas presents I can't show. I did NOT get the table runners done for Thanksgiving. I told DD#2 I hope to have it done in time for Christmas, but we'll see. I still have a lot to do for Christmas, and although my December calendar is not nearly as crazy as November has been, it is filling in.

I can show you some of my current leader/ender blocks.

These 16 patches will finish at 6". Too many of my Wonder Clips are being used to clip the pieces for the 16 patches together, so I'm starting to use these as my leader/ender project just to get some clips back. I have a LOT of 16 patches ready to sew, it could be a while before I actually get a quilt made from them, and I think I'll end up with at least two quilts from them. 

I'm excited about the mystery quilt starting Friday. I know only using one fabric per color will save me a lot of time, and I have enough other projects I need to get finished, that using single fabrics for each color was about the only way I was going to be able to add the mystery quilt in. I am kind of wondering how much I'll like the quilt when it's finished, since I am by nature a very scrappy quilter. I figure since I give most of my quilts away anyway, it doesn't matter that much. Not everyone likes a scrappy quilt.

 I still haven't finished assembling last year's mystery quilt, which I changed up quite a bit. Most of my main quilt is in rows, and the Flying Geese Bonnie intended for the border I used in blocks for a second quilt. I haven't finished the alternate blocks I have planned for that quilt though.

I hope to have more pics next week, when I'm working on more than Christmas stuff!

Rally Hangover

Have you ever worked on something for months, then when it's over, you kind of feel like you have a hangover? You just need to de-stress a bit before you tackle the next big thing? I did so much for the scooter rally last weekend, that Saturday night I told everyone I was going to stay in bed and watch Hallmark movies on Sunday, while they did the last ride of the rally.

Well, Sunday came, and I'm not a stay in bed kind of girl, but I also wasn't up to tackling anything major either. I realized I had everything for the last two Christmas boxes I'm going to have to mail, so I wrapped all the gifts for those, packed the boxes, and got them all addressed and ready to go. I'll likely wait until after Thanksgiving to send them, but, hey, at least they are all ready to mail, and I've got that off my to do list. I always watch Hallmark movies while wrapping Christmas presents, so I did half of what I told everyone. 

Monday I was back to making pajama pants, I made two pairs on Monday, then I wrapped the rest of Christmas gifts I have so far. I was already in gift wrapping mode so it made sense, right? I was hoping to get four pairs of pajama pants done on Tuesday, but instead, after DH left for work, I went back to bed and took a NAP! I got two pairs of pajama pants completely finished when I got up, and two pairs to the point of hemming and waistbands.

I'm trying to keep pajama making to Mondays/Tuesdays, but since I hadn't finished the last two I hoped to make this week, I finished those Wednesday morning. Only four pair of pajama pants and two nightgowns left to make for that Christmas project! 

Since DD#2 is hosting Thanksgiving this year, I decided I'd make her a table runner, but I still wanted one too. After thinking about it, I'm opting to double batt (cotton) so hot pans can go directly on them, and I'm backing them with a Christmas runner. They'll be two holidays in the space of one, with ultimate practicality as far as serving food goes. 

I need a huge rectangular runner because I put all the food on my washer/dryer in the kitchen. DD#2 needs a huge square because she has a big kitchen island but the kitchen sink is in the island too, so a square works best for her. 

This is what I've got so far. I need to press the border fabric before I can cut it. I'll be putting the same border fabric on both. I ended up using every leftover leaf block I had, which in effect, crosses a UFO off my list, since I had planned to use those in a quilt. 

For my Christmas side, I am planning on using gift blocks all lined up. I bought some fun fairy frost for the ribbons on the packages. For DD#2's runner, since it's square I'm going to make a big wreath block. I really wanted to use a diagonal stripe for the border on hers, and thankfully JoAnn Fabrics had some in Christmas colors. Someone at the scooter rally had given me a JoAnn gift card as a thank you for all I did, so it was perfect timing! 

DSIL (DD#1's Husband) was sworn in today as a US citizen! We're having a party for him tomorrow at a local park. Besides buying decorations and such, I personally have little to do for that party, which suits me fine. DSIL (DD#2's husband) smoked chickens for the party, and DD#2 is making the cake. In the morning I'll make five gallons of lemonade, then fill our 12 liter thermos with hot water as well as bring some cold water. DH is smoking 20 pounds of pork today, and making BBQ sauce, but I'm not that busy. Other people will bring side dishes. Sunday we're having a party for my sister,  and aside from dessert which DD#2 is making, all the food is on me, which is fine. It's just family so not nearly as many people as the rally or tomorrow's party. 

It's funny that this weekend DD#2 is making all the desserts, because last weekend I made all the desserts, and I'm making most of the desserts for Thanksgiving. 

If you prayed for safety at the rally, I appreciate it. There were a couple minor mishaps but nothing major, just a few bruises. The raffle went better than any other we've done, and although we haven't had time to finish tallying the numbers, the food pantry will be getting at least $750 which we'll match. Not bad for 50 people participating in the rally. The scooter quilt is in California now, with its new owner. 

22nd Finish of 2022

On a good sewing year, my goal is to average finishing 2 quilts per month. I'm right on target for that!

I finished a quilt for my great niece, due next month.

It's the last quilt I'm backing with minky this year.

I've got it all packaged and ready to mail, but I haven't gotten it to the post office yet. 

My Monday/Tuesday plan of making pajama pants is working out pretty well. I've got ten pairs done now! The rest of this week is all scooter rally stuff, but come Monday, I'll be back to sewing pajama pants. If I can get all of those done in November, I'll be doing a happy dance 😊

Today is stuff the rally bags day! Most people have no idea how much work goes on behind the scenes. I'll be doing a lot of cooking for the rally too, and that starts tomorrow. 

I even dragged my sister into this, and she drove me all over town getting stuff for the rally and one of parties next weekend. It took five stores to find coffee stirrers! Who knew they were so hard to find?

Pray no one gets hurt at the rally, that's always my worst fear for these things. I'm hoping the raffle raises a lot for the local food pantry. I know they are struggling to keep people fed right now. The weather looks good, so that's one less thing to worry about. I've got a ton to do, so it's a short post today. I hope your weekend goes as well as I'm hoping ours goes!

Need Something Done? Ask a Busy Person

 This morning I told my husband I feel like I've gotten nothing done this week. He told me I've been way too busy to have gotten nothing done. 

I had to stop and think about it. I certainly have not had any quilt finishes this week, though I am about 3/4 of the way finished quilting a baby quilt for a great niece. Four quilts backed with minky in a row is too much for my arm, so I'm quilting shorter periods of time on this one. I think the next quilt I back with minky, I'm going to baste from the back, so the minky is on top. I'll run the risk of getting a pucker on the front, but my arm won't hurt. 

I made four pairs of pajamas pants for DS the Younger's family. I need to mail their Christmas package early, before he's deployed, so they can celebrate Christmas early. I finished those, wrapped all the gifts, and packed the box. DH is off mailing it now. I cheated and bought t-shirts to go with the pajama pants. I still have 16 pairs of pajama pants and two nightgowns to make before Christmas. I made four in one day, so it's totally doable, in fact, my goal is to get them done in November. If I make the nightgowns in December, that's ok, but I want the pajama pants done this month. 

I processed a bunch of scraps, cutting them down for the scrap user system. I told myself that I couldn't put up the Christmas tree until I emptied a big bin of scraps I had. I'm almost done with that, I should be able to finish this weekend or early next week. I like to put up the tree Thanksgiving weekend, so I should be able to do that. 

If anything, I'm getting busier and busier. In the next three weeks, I'm attending two parties, throwing two parties, helping run a weekend long scooter rally, plus there's Thanksgiving. 

DD#2 wants to host Thanksgiving this year, which is fine, but her family keeps getting sick, so I'm making a plan B just in case she can't do it at the last minute. I'm doing the rolls and pies no matter who hosts, so that's no problem. 

I had some leftover leaf blocks, and I found some Thanksgiving fabric in my latest thrift store fabric haul, so I'm thinking about making a Thanksgiving table runner. If I use a couple layers of wool or cotton batting, it works great for putting hot dishes on.

Now to decide which setting to use. I think the fabric I had in stash will make a good border. I already asked DD#2 is she'd like to have it, and I got a resounding yes, so I'll be sewing this together  ASAP. 

The scooter rally is next weekend. I've got all the sewing for that done. I made 50 luggage tags, 50 rally bags, and the quilt for the raffle. This week I wrapped candy bars with a wrapper we printed out.

It's got the club logo on it. Tomorrow DH and I will be filling the rally bags with all the goodies we've gotten for them, some of which was purchased or made, some of which was donated. 

On Thursday I'll be baking jumbo sized cookies for the rally bags, then I'll be making part of the food for the rally breakfast and dinner on Saturday. I'm not making all the food for either meal, which I've done before, so it's not overwhelming for me. If I didn't have so much experience entertaining it might be. 

My South African SIL is getting his American citizenship, and I said I'd throw a party when he got it. I had NO idea the government would work as fast as it did, so now I'll be throwing that on the 19th, but it's more of a group effort. DD#1 reserved a ramada at a local park, I'm in charge of decorations, dinnerware, meat and bread, (DH is smoking the meat for it so that's not even on me) DD#2 is making the cake, and the attendees are bringing all the sides. Outside is a good option for this, and the weather is usually great this time of year. 

My sister's birthday party is the next day, but it's just family and the menu is already decided, so I'll be busy, but not going crazy. Thanksgiving is an unknown, since I don't know for sure if DD#2 will end up hosting or I will. 

After Thanksgiving things calm down a LOT. So much so, that after much self debate, I decided I would join in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt. I still have plenty of projects going to keep me busy, so unlike my usual scrappy preferences, I'm only going to be using four fabrics in the quilt. Scrappy quilts take a lot longer to cut out, and if I limit the fabrics I can easily die cut all the pieces. I have a couple other quilting projects I want to finish in 2022, so by making the mystery quilt cutting faster, I stand a better chance. My fabric choices are these.

The teal on the far right will be my neutral. I'll be using the plum for Bonnie's orange, that orangey-red paisley as Bonnie's purple, and black instead of aqua. I have enough of all the fabrics to make the quilt full size, but I might make half the units instead. I haven't decided yet. I still haven't finished last years mystery quilt, which I actually divided and will be making two different quilts from. One of those is in rows, one of those I still need to make alternating blocks for. At least I remembered to write down my plans for all that, so when I get around to it, I won't be trying to figure out what I had in mind. The last couple mystery quilts I've made with men's shirts, and I certainly have enough shirts left to do this in men's shirts too, but using only four fabrics is a stretch for me, and as long as it's all from stash, I'm OK with trying it. Besides I used men's shirts for the Ruby Jubilee mystery, so it's fair to use yardage for this. I just love that plum-ish purple, and I couldn't do that color scrappy from stash, it's a hard color to find. I've been on a teal kick, this is the second full bolt of it I've bought. Maybe after using it as a background on the mystery quilt I'll be ready to move on to another color. 

Finishes Times Four

 It's been a busy week around here! I finished the quilt for the scooter rally, which will be raffled off along with some other items and 100% of the raffle money will go to our local food pantry. 

 I also finished the baby boy quilt I needed.

I used the pattern Easy Street from Easy Peasy 3-Yard Quilts as a jumping off point. I don't know about you, but rare is the time I follow a pattern exactly. This pattern called for 1 yard each of three different fabrics, but I wanted to use five fabrics. I also changed the borders. Also, the pattern called for strip piecing, but I was using directional prints so I changed the cutting and assembly directions. They were easy changes to make, and I enjoyed making the quilt so much, I ordered several more 3 yard quilt books.

This is the back of that quilt. I really have a love/hate relationship with minky. I love the way it feels, and how it shows off the quilting, but it creates so much drag when I'm FMQ that my arm hates it and starts hurting as soon as I start quilting. I always start off thinking, "This would be a great quilt to back with minky". Then when I'm quilting and my arm is hurting I think, "Why did I do this to myself again?". When it's finished and I see a lovely result I think, "Worth it". I'll never use minky as my main backing option, but for some quilts, it's still an option.

Speaking of minky, I had minky scraps from a couple other projects, and I made doll quilts for this baby boy's older sisters. I didn't want the girls jealous that their brother got a softer backing than they did, (And I did NOT use minky on their baby quilts) so I pieced the minky scraps to back their doll quilts. 

The shades of purple aren't the same, and I used different quilting patterns so maybe the girls will be able to tell whose doll quilt is whose. The quilt on the left has some scrappier pinwheels too. 

My next quilt to quilt is another baby quilt that I basted before our Amtrak adventure. That baby is due soon, so that's why it's next in line. It's backed with minky too, one of the purples that I used on one of the doll quilts. 

I have a lot of family stuff coming up, as well as all the preparations for the scooter rally. At least all the sewing projects for that are done. I know I'll be able to finish that last baby quilt without a problem, but I still haven't sewn any of the Christmas pajama pants. I also have a three other quilts I'd love to finish this calendar year. It's not the end of the world if I don't, I just really want them off my to do list. I can only do what I can do, so we'll see. 

On a very happy note, I thought my Singer 201 which is my favorite machine to piece on, was having major issues and needed repair. I finally figured out the machine is fine, and the problem was my surge suppressor power cord! I bought a new cord and all is fine in the sewing room again! 

I Did It My Way

 Have you made the Migrating Geese pattern? It works well as a border, or in rows or columns. It's been in the back of my mind since I first saw a tutorial on YouTube, and I knew I wanted to make it. The thing is, all the video tutorials I found started with the "goose" sections in big squares. This seemed like such a great scrapbuster, but unless it's a novelty fabric I don't cut big squares from scraps. I cut most of my scraps into strips or small squares. I didn't want to cut up fat quarters or larger yardage to do this, I wanted to use my scraps.

I thought surely someone had made a tutorial for using a jelly roll, but I couldn't find one. I knew you could get the same effect by making regular Flying Geese units, then adding squares to the units, alternating right and left sides. The thing is, I really like the look of the big background triangles, and I didn't want all those extra seams. I knew there had to be a way to do it.

Because I need to get this rally quilt finished, I was working with the scraps of the fat quarters I used to make all those scooter blocks. I was originally planning on putting a checkerboard above and below the scooter blocks. I even started the checkerboard. The thing is, I need to make two scooter quilts with the same panel and the same scooter blocks, and I didn't want the same quilt filler on both quilts. I had come up with an idea of how I could make migrating geese using strips, so I put the checkerboard aside for now, and decided to use some scraps to see if I could make two rows of migrating geese for the rally quilt, and I can save the checkerboard for the next quilt. 

I started all those scooter blocks with one aged muslin fat quarter bundle and some solid white. I can't get any more of the same aged muslin, though I could get some in different colors. I didn't really want to buy any more fabric, so it's really a matter of making what I had work. I had cut a bunch of muslin left from the scooter blocks into 2" strips, and I hadn't used all the strips for the checkerboard yet. I just want a strip of migrating geese to go on top and bottom of the panel, then I'll put the scooter blocks above and below that. After I frame out the panel, it will be 45" wide (finished) and since my strips are 2" wide (1.5" finished) I needed 30 geese per row.

I had been thinking about this for a while, so I had a plan. I was going to try this using a jelly roll first, but now that I wanted it for the rally quilt, that wasn't going to work. I grabbed some men's shirt scraps and tried making a sample just to verify my idea would work. 

This was my first attempt, and I wasn't happy with it. Before I trashed it, I thought about why my points weren't pointy. I realized my scant 1/4" which usually gave me such great results, needed to be a full quarter inch instead. 

I started fiddling with my seam guide, and the next addition was better, but not quite right. I moved the guide a bit more, and the next was spot on! I had the right seam allowance set for this project!

Now, if you are a huge fan of no waste methods, you'll hate this one. BUT, I don't consider bonus triangles waste, since some of my favorite quilts have been made from them. 

Looking at the sample photos, I realized if I wanted to do the sew and flip method and get bonus HST's, the basic formula for making the strips was going to be the finished width of the strip times three plus a half inch seam allowance. If you don't like math, cut three squares from your strip. Sew two squares together, measure that, you'll need it in a minute, then add another square and measure that. I was using 2" cut strips, if you accurately sew 2 2" squares together, the result will be 3.5". add another square and you'll have 5". The formula I suggested uses finished sizes plus seam allowances. The finished size of 2" strips is 1.5" 1.5" x 3= 4.5" plus .5" seam allowance=5". The pieces I needed to cut from the strips was 5".

I said you'd need the measurements of two squares added together, and you do, that's the size of the background squares you need. So my background squares needed to be 3.5"! I like math, but I know a lot of quilters don't, so I'm trying to give an easy method of figuring out sizes for those of you who don't like math. I do plan on doing this using a jelly roll, and those strips are 2.5" wide. The logs for that would be 6.5", and the background squares would be 4.5"

I had the hardest time figuring out how to start and stop the column. I tried a couple different ways, and the method with the least amount of waste it to cut both a background and a colored piece the width of your strip x the width of your squares. I needed two 2" x 3.5" pieces, one colored, one white. 

To make that first log correctly, you need to line them up at right angles to each other, just like sewing binding. 

You can draw a line corner to corner, or use a specialty ruler. I was using my Folded Corner Clipper ruler by Prairie Sky Quilting. I just keep a small cutting mat on my sewing cabinet and cut off the corner right before I sew the seam. This ruler has the diagonal seam allowance built in, so you can just cut and sew. 

I forgot to take a photo of just the bottom log. Here I've already added the second log. Every time the top of your panel has all color, it's time to add a square.  I already have background to the left, so we need to add it to the right. 

Notice I'm now adding a square, which its the height of two logs sewn together. Again I'm using the Folded Corner Clipper, and after I make the cut, I'll be sewing both my main section, and the diagonal seam on my "waste".

Now I've got the first Goose finished, and half of the second one. I also have an interesting bonus HST. Looking at the top of our work, I see background, so it's time to add another colored log. 

There's only color at the top, so it's time to add a square. The last square went on the right, so the next square goes on the left. 

Can you see the migrating geese starting now? 

I realized another tip that's useful is know that it's easier to cut off those corners if you turn the strip.

Any time I'm adding a square to the right side, I have the bottom of the strip towards me.

If I'm adding a square to the left hand side, I put the bottom of my strip to the left. I suppose of you are left-handed, cutting would be easier doing the opposite. 

You just keep going until it's as long as you need. Adding a colored log when there's background at the top, and adding a square when it's all color at the top. When you get to the last log, you only need a background square the same size as your colored strips to do the last knocked off corner. 

The larger background squares would be wasted here. 

I never consider the bonus HST's waste, because I love using them. I made a pretty interesting block from 16 of them. In fact, now I'm wondering if I made borders with this method, if I could make all the blocks for the center from the bonus HST's. I'm sure I'd have to add sashing and cornerstones, and do some MATH, but I'm OK with that. That's an idea for another day!