First Finishes of 2023

 I may be working on several things at once, but I did finish two quilts this week, both UFO's. 

This one is a fun one I made with leftover stripsets from a big bargello quilt I made a few years ago. Even with the black spacers the quilt was too narrow, so I got creative and only added pieced borders to the sides. I did put that narrow strip of black on the top and bottom, but I couldn't add too much or it would be too narrow again. This is a throw sized quilt.

This is just a baby sized quilt, but again, a quilt made with leftovers from another quilt. 

I've been working on assembling quilts this week too.

I made this using the Studio 10" Crazy Quilt block die. Let me tell you, there will be more of these in my future! That die was a dream to use, and it sewed up so easily! I wanted a 30 block quilt with lots of variety, so I took 30 fat quarters from stash. My Studio cutter can cut 10 layers of fabric at once, so it only took three passes to cut out the blocks. I took all the remaining fabric and cut it all in 2.5" strips. I had enough to make the border for this quilt, and I'm making another quilt with rows of the same border strips. I only need to sew borders on that one, so I should be able to show it to you next week.

I had just enough of this fabric in stash to back the crazy quilt. Is that a good match or what? I basted the crazy quilt this morning, but it's not next in line for quilting.

I did baste both the memory quilts this week, and I'm half done quilting the first one of those. Trying to adequately FMQ without sewing through the paint on the t-shirts is an adventure.  Some t-shirts you can get away with quilting through it, but others you'll crack the design and/or shred your thread. The silk screens ones usually do OK, the vinyl transfers not so much. 

I didn't end up basting in the living room. I'm just basting on my cutting table. Something came up and having two tables in the living room wasn't going to work out. I usually baste several quilts per day when I baste in the living room, but since I'm having to cut things too, I'm just basting one quilt per day, and then I have use of my cutting table part of the day. 

The Ruby Jubilee Mystery quilt I showed on the design wall last week is moving along. I've got all the spacer pieces cut now, and I think I have enough pieces for the piano key border. I'm opting to not do the HST border. The HST border looks fantastic in the original quilt, I'm just not feeling like making that many HST's right now, which would all have to be cut.  I think I've only got three chunks left to assemble then I can start putting the top together. The inner border is supposed to be one fabric, but since I'm using men's shirts for the quilt, I have to piece it too, one shirt isn't enough fabric. I'm just piecing different fabric strips together until I have enough. 

I'm working on bits that need to be done so I can assemble more quilts too. I've been piecing borders, piecing sashing, piecing backings. My sewing room is looking a bit better as I get some things assembled, but my fabric room is looking worse. I haven't been taking the time to deal with the cut offs from backings and batting as I baste quilts, so those are just piling up. 

I did finish the January column for my Temperature quilt. It's easy to see January ended cooler than it began. 

One good thing about staying so busy, I've had no desire to buy any fabric, I'm too busy sewing it up!