Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Year in Review {2019 Finishes}

While this list might not be as long as last year's list, I am very proud of how many of these finishes were longer-term WIPs! I have marked the quilts that were on my WIP list in January with an asterisk.

1.* Blocked Rainbow: This was technically finished in 2018, but I didn't share it on the blog until after we moved in January.


2.* Dashing to the Chapel: This was made for an Island Batik blog hop featuring our Dashing to the Chapel pattern.


3. Stars at Play Mini Quilt: This was my February Island Batik project; I used scraps to make a cool mini quilt. Pattern available here.


4. Blooming Bear Tracks: This baby quilt was a double duty project; it was for a Benartex hop and was made for a sweet little lady born in March! Pattern available here.


5.* Orphan Block Mini Quilt: a quick and easy project to use an orphan block!


6. Twirls and Stripes: This was my "vintage inspired" project, and I am working on a pattern for it!


7.* Drift Away Quilt: This was a wedding gift for a college friend, made (almost) entirely from scraps!


8. Pink Stars Baby Quilt: Another IBA project, made with my Accuquilt cutter!


9. Faboolous Halloween Spooks Table Runner: This is the first of two iterations of this pattern that I made this year!


10.* Daisy Chain Baby Quilt: This is the test quilt that I made from our Daisy Chain pattern; it was finished in 2018, but I didn't share it until May 2019!


11. Plus Sign Quilt: Another IBA project made for our modern challenge!


12. Christmas Churns Quilt: I designed this for Moda Bake Shop using Little Tree by Lella Boutique.


13. Patriotic Table Topper: This really big Dresden Plate mini quilt is the perfect table topper!


14. Artsy Fartsy Hand Tree Mini: I had fun forcing my husband to participate in this project.


15.* Good Fortune Quilt: This was Bonnie Hunter's 2018 mystery quilt; I made half as many center blocks and adjusted the borders to fit.


16.* Double Delight Quilt: Another Bonnie Hunter pattern, this was my scrappy project in Spring 2018.


17.* April Showers Medallion Quilt: This was my Coast to Coast Travelling Bee quilt in 2107, finally finished!


18.* Magnolia Mystery Quilt: This was a mystery quilt that I did in 2017-2018; I modified the pattern slightly from the original.


19. Cotton + Steel Pineapple Log Cabin Quilt: I made the top as part of a Fat Quarter Shop hop.


20. Starburst Wall Hanging: I used our Starbursts pattern for my August IBA project.


21. Ohio Star Baby Quilt: This was an Accuquilt inspired project for Island Batik.


22. Scrappy Star Table Runner: I am on a crusade to crush my scraps, and this project did just that!


23. Moxi Charm Pack Quilt: This top was made on retreat and used up two charm packs I won in a giveaway years ago.


24. Halloween Spooks table runner in Island Batiks: The same, but different from my earlier Halloween Spooks table runner!


25 and 26. Hip to be Square quilts in Little Sir, Little Miss: these quilts are made with our Hip to be Square pattern and will be donated!



27. Faceted Churn Dash: This was such a good scrap buster! Pattern available on Payhip.


28. Jelly Hearts Table Runner: This is a new free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop, made with a jelly roll!


29: Patchwork Stocking: I made this as part of a Fat Quarter Shop hop!


While I had a lot more finishes in 2018, I did make a small dent in some of my WIPs! On to 2020...finally!

Friday, December 27, 2019

Clue #3 Progress {Frolic Mystery Quilt}

When I did the cutting for Clue #2, I did the cutting for Clue #3 as well. Thanks to weekend movie watching, I had all of the diagonals drawn on my background fabric squares in short order.


This is the first unit where I actually used my scrappy fabrics! Rather than mixing both my teal and my dark blue fabrics for this unit, I used only the scrappy dark teal fabrics.

I used seven different dark teal fabrics, a few of which were leftover from the Cotton + Steel half-yards I used for my Pineapple Quilt. There are actually two different zig zag prints but they are very similar! I bought these on clearance years and years ago and used one of them in my Summer on the Coast quilt. The teal and gold arch print came from a traveling quilt goodie box and the dandelion print fabric was used in my Odori quilt.


Like the first two clues, I did make a few extra units for this step, just in case. Unlike the other clues which were strip piecing and sub-cutting, this one took a little bit more time (or a lot more time!) because I needed to trim all of my units. I did make a lot of pretty trash.

At this point, I am terribly behind! I didn't get these HSTs trimmed until this week Monday due to holiday prep and travel. I brought my fabrics for Clue #4 with me to prep and cut but have had too many holiday activities to squeeze that in. Clue #5 actually comes out today and I will be lucky to finish both of these clues by New Year's Day at this point.

Maybe one year, eventually, we won't have to travel for Christmas and I can just stay home and sew. That would be a real Christmas miracle!


Saturday, December 21, 2019

Highlights {Best of 2019}

So apparently this post published before I was actually finished! Oops!

Here are my "Best of 2019" blog posts!

1. Most popular post: Daisy Chain Fabric Pulls

This one actually surprised me, because it isn't a finish post! Our Daisy Chain QAL was the biggest one to date, and this post being as popular as it was reflects that!


2. Most comments on a non-giveaway post: Plus Sign IBA Challenge Quilt

I loved working on this challenge quilt and this quilt was a fun out of the box color scheme for me.


3. Favorite new Honey, Bunny, and Doll pattern: Stars at Play

This pattern is just darling!


4. Favorite WIP finish: April Showers Medallion

For this cateogry, I define "WIP" as any project that was on my WIP list in January 2019. I do wish it was a smidge larger, but I could not be happier with this quilt. It lives in my very red guest room.


5. Favorite non-WIP finish: Christmas Churns

For this category, I picked my favorite finished project that I started and finished in 2019. This was also an easy pick -- my latest MBS pattern, Christmas Churns!


Sharing at the Best of 2019 linky party with Meadow Mist Designs!

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Mosaic Mystery Quilt {Gaggle of Gooses}

I guess that this week just happens to be "mystery quilt catch up week" before my holiday travels!

I was also able to squeeze in the December clues for the Mosaic Mystery Quilt. The directions for December are actually a conglomeration of a few different flying geese and flying geese-esque units.


There are right and left facing half flying geese in two different color combinations, three sets of full flying geese units, and a few half square triangles. 

Because I am using fat quarter cuts for my Fabric B and Fabric C choices (burgundies and pinks), I made my half geese in matching pairs. We'll see if the way that I divvied up my fabric choices with my units will work well in the final quilt design. If I decide that I need to make additional or replacement units, I have extra fabric of all four of the pink fabrics I used. I might not have quite as much extra burgundy to work with, but I will make it work.

Back goes all of my units and fabrics into their rather large project bag -- in January we will start making blocks and assembling the quilt!

Monday, December 16, 2019

Clue #2 Progress {Frolic Mystery Quilt}

Mystery quilt season is in full swing and I am *already* behind!

Clue #2 came out on December 6th. Things have been busy outside of my sewing room so I didn't even get my strips cut for my units until this weekend and I did all of the cutting for Clue #2 and Clue #3 at the same time.

This was another clue for me using my non-scrappy fabrics. It was very quick to zip together my strip sets.


It was also quick to sub-cut all of these units two at a time. I cut a couple more units than are required and I still had a bit of one strip set left just in case.


I also managed to cut all of my squares for making half square triangles in Clue #3.


In an ideal world, I would be able to finish Clue #3 this week and somehow do all of Clue #4 before we leave for our holiday road trip next week, but I know that would be a little bit of a stretch!

Today's post is coming to you a little late courtesy of the first real snow of the season!

Monday, December 9, 2019

Jelly Glazed Hearts Tablerunner {Fat Quarter Shop Hop}

Today I am participating in the Jelly Glazed Hearts tablerunner blog hop with the Fat Quarter Shop! Check out their post on the Jolly Jabber here!

For this project, I picked a mini jelly roll of the new Alma line from the Ruby Star Society and picked one of cream prints for the background fabric.


I picked out eight strips from the jelly roll for my blocks and paired them up.


Next came chopping my strip sets into the correct lengths for each block.


Then I made the heart blocks and added the setting triangles to each block.



This is a really, really long table runner!


I used backing from my stash and quilted this runner with leaves and swirls. I used six of the remaining jelly roll strips to make a scrappy bias binding. (I used this tutorial as my guide.)




This runner is actually just a little bit too big for my table (go figure) so this will likely become a gift!


Check out the other Jelly Glazed Hearts runners on the Jolly Jabber! Get the pattern here! There is also a YouTube video!

Sharing at Wednesday Wait Loss and Needle and Thread Thursday!