A Quick Trip and Getting Back to Business

DH and I took a quick trip to see that new grandbaby! He is a sweetie! We were only gone three days, it was a pretty quick trip. We got to look around the town we lived in when we were first married. We only lived there just under a year, and we haven't really been back since then. We have driven through, but not stopped. It was fun driving by the first places we lived. 

When we got home I tried to get back into sewing, but sometimes it takes me a couple days to decide which thing I want to make priority. I started sewing on a UFO, which is always a good thing thing to work on. I have over 1,000 flying geese units to make for that quilt, so I'm expecting to work on it off and on as I get sick of sewing the same units. 

I keep reading about the Stashbusters Yahoo group pre-cut challenge going on this year. January is charm squares (usually 5" squares), but for the purpose of the challenge they decided any squares would work. I had a stack of 4.5" squares left from cutting apart a weighted blanket that was deemed "too heavy" I had matched the jeweled toned squares with white squares, and decided to make them all into HSTs. My lines were drawn, it was ready to go, and I started all this in December so it's a UFO too. Sewing on either side of the diagonal lines worked well as leaders/enders for my flying geese units, so I started working on two UFO's at once. 

This was the results of two days of sewing diagonal lines. So much pressing to do, and snipping dog ears. All of that is done now, The big HST's are from those 4.5" reclaimed squares, the rectangular units will be Flying Geese units once I sew the other "wing" on, and the basket has bonus HST's that are cut offs from the Flying Geese. They will end up being yet another quilt. All of these quilts are purple/blue/green, and I've made a lot of quilts in that color combination in the last couple years. I'm getting kind of sick of it to be honest, but I have a lot of requests for that combination or similar. 

I sewed diagonal lines for two days, decided to take a break from that, and did some straight piecing. I am using the weighted blankets tops as my leaders/enders for that. 

Since I was getting two HSTs from each set of jewel/white 4.5" squares, I decided I'd make a herringbone quilt. I only have 12 HST's that are not being used in this layout, so I call that a win. When I'm making a quilt from leftovers like this, I never shoot for a particular size quilt, it is what it is. This is just up an the design wall, I'll start assembling it tomorrow. 

I got the rows sewn for two weighted blankets while sewing pairs of HSTs together. I even started on a third. Since I usually just make weighted blankets with two fabrics on top, they are easy to sew together without thinking too much about it. Once I'm sewing the rows together, I'll probably just work on the weighted blankets. All the weighted blankets I'm working on at this point are new starts. 

I haven't been FMQ anything, because I don't have anything basted. I am going to try to do a basting spree late next week, so I need to start figuring out backings too. I have one queen quilt that I gave in and bought an extra wide backing for, so that one may get basted first. I still do best when varying my activities, which leads to working on a bunch of stuff at once. Thankfully my mind can keep it straight, even if my body can't handle as much repetitive work at once anymore!

New Grandkid on the Block

I have a new grandson! The parents don't want me posting much about him, but I have their permission to post a photo.

Look at all that hair!!! This was the first photo taken of him, right after birth. 

Things have been kind of crazy around here. I thought we'd already be back from visiting this little guy, but things are in flux right now, and I'm not even sure the rescheduled trip will work out. We'll see.

I had planned on doing some sewing this week, but I didn't. I did continue with that cutting spree, sub-cut SO many pieces, literally thousands! When I do get to sewing I'll have plenty of projects ready to go.

I've been drawing lines on squares too. I don't mind drawing lines on squares, and if I can get bonus units that need no sliver trimming by drawing two lines on a square, I'll do it. I'd much rather draw lines to sew on than trim units. 

I dropped my favorite ruler for drawing lines today, and I can't find it. I even had the grandkids help me look for it and it seems to have disappeared into a black hole! (or under the washing machine or refrigerator, same thing) If it doesn't turn up in the next couple days, I'm totally buying a replacement. There have been several times I wished I had two of them, so if the first does eventually show up, I won't be sorry to have a duplicate. 

Change of Spree

I had planned to do a basting spree this week, but I changed my plans. I hadn't finished cutting out several projects on my list, so I decided to do a cutting spree instead.

^I cut out fabrics for six weighted blankets. I know I have enough pellets for these, when these are finished I'll evaluate how many pellets I have remaining and cut more, if needed. All of these are new starts. I bought quite a bit of fleece on sale, and I put all of it away while I was working on cutting out these squares. Some of what I put away I will dig back out for backing the weighted blankets, but I work better in a cleared space, so putting fabric away until needed works best for me. 

^Here are five projects I started cutting for in 2018, so these are all on my UFO list. Two of these projects still need sub-cutting, one still needs sashing cut, and one is completely cut out and ready to put on the design wall. A couple of these need lines drawn on squares which I plan to do next week. 

I did finish a non-quilting project. I've got all the baby bibs I was working on finished.

I was trying for a fun mix of boys bibs here. I figure nine bibs gives three days worth, and since most people with little ones do laundry more than once a week, it should be enough. 

I've got company coming tomorrow, and more the next day, so I'm glad I got most of my cutting goals finished this week. 

DH was sweet and dropped my Bernina 440 off for a spa treatment. It was overdue for one. Since I don't have anything basted, I'll be piecing on a vintage machine next week. That's not a problem as I do most of my piecing on vintage machines. I plan to work on the string quilt that's been on my design wall for a couple months, and I have LOTS of Flying Geese to make that will be good leaders/enders for string blocks. I've been a bit stressed lately, and string blocks are a great way for me to de-stress a bit. 

First Finish of 2019

I just finished my first quilt for 2019, and it was my oldest UFO!

This quilt started out as Bonnie Hunter's Double Delight mystery quilt from 2008, but a different layout, different borders, and "proper aging" may have morphed it into something else. This quilt is 92x108", so queen sized. 

I'm really excited to get this quilt finished, for several reasons. 

1) It was my oldest UFO, and somewhat of a mental roadblock for me. Having it done should free me to finish more quilts. 

2) I promised myself I wouldn't do another Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt until I was all caught up finishing ones I had started. I still have one more to finish, but it's already a pile of blocks waiting to be assembled, so hopefully I can get that one done before next mystery quilt season. 

3) I was about to be crowned queen of UFO's in my Stashbusters Yahoo group, so I eeked out a finish just in time to avoid that! For the second year in a row, I started in the top ten ladies in waiting, and the list moves fast in January. Now I should drop to the bottom of the list and have some breathing room.

I'm quite happy I got this quilt finished even with a houseful of company. I carved out some time (about an hour) for myself every day, and got those borders quilted. Last of the company left yesterday, so today I pushed and finished the last border and got the binding on.

Tomorrow I'll have some company just for the day, then I think Sunday I'll start a basting spree. That grandbaby due yesterday has his daddy's sense of time and is determined to make a late arrival. Because of that, we've delayed our trip, so I can sneak in a few days of basting some of the quilt tops hanging in the closet. 

2018 Year End Reckoning

2018 was a good quilting year for me! Much better than 2017 where I only finished 3 quilts. 

As usual, I took a photo of my empty spools for the year.

This really isn't a very accurate way of determining how much I've sewn, but I figure from year to year it eventually evens out. I did a lot of quilting this year, but I didn't empty any of my large cones, so none of my quilting thread is counted in this. 

These spools represent 19,035 yards of thread, or 16.5 miles.

I started this year with a UFO list of 53. I finished 19 UFO's this year, with another 6 new start finishes, bringing me to a total of 25 finished quilts for the year. 

The 25 quilts I finished, along with numerous non-quilting projects throughout the year, used about 250 yards of fabric. 

I finished all the goals I had set for myself at the end of 2017. Yup, definitely a good quilting year!

I've been revamping my UFO list for 2019, as well as making a list of quilting goals. 

I listed 51 UFO's for 2019. One of those I am currently quilting on, 20 are quilt tops waiting to be quilted. Probably another dozen are stacks of blocks needing assembly, or at least part of the blocks done. The rest are either cut out or have some units made. I likely have more than 51 UFOs, but I don't see much point in listing more, because I know I can't finish that many quilts in one year. 

My cutting table is a disaster. I'm currently on a cutting spree for several quilts on my 2019 deadline list. The quilts I'm cutting for on my deadline list I did put on my UFO list. I am cutting for a couple more that I'm not planning to work on soon, that have no deadline, so they are more a WIP or WHIMM and aren't going on my UFO list. 

I've been working on my 2019 goals, and although I'm still fiddling with whether or not I'm likely to actually finish them in 2019, here's what I'm attempting.

1) Three wedding quilts for nieces and nephews. All of these are currently being cut out.

2) A quilt for my bed, which is currently being cut out.

3) Baby quilt for grandbaby, Mr. T, due in May, not started.

4) Twin sized quilt for Miss S, started.

5) Twin sized quilt for Mr. J. Fabric collected, need to design before I can start

6) New bed quilt for DD#1, cut out

7) New quilt for DD#2, top done, waiting for quilting

8) Make weighted blankets until I am out of plastic pellets.

I have a couple other quilts I'd like to start and finish in 2019, but for now, this a good list of goals. I'd like to get at least a dozen of the completed quilt tops quilted in 2019, but I'm hoping for more than that. If I can get some of the quilts in blocks assembled into tops that would be great too. 

Moving UFO's to the next step was my method this year, and it was pretty successful. Every time I was assembling a deadline quilt, I grabbed a stack of blocks from a UFO and assembled that too. Everytime I needed a leader/ender project, I looked through my UFO's and looked for units that could be assembled as leaders/enders. I'm not trying to get caught up in a year, I'm just trying to keep momentum going. 

Right now I've got a house full of company. I've got lots going on in January, including more company and an out of town trip. I was hoping for a basting spree in January, but that may end up waiting until February. Until then I'll work on whatever I can. I still have baby bibs to finish, and I have lots of cutting to do. I'm hoping I'm not too high on the 2019 UFO challenge list, but we'll see. I could always finish my quilted mouse pad for a quick finish if I need to.