Brutal Honesty {January 2020}

Happy New Year!

December (and honestly November too) was a complete blur and I barely scratched the surface of my to do list -- I even put off a project I had originally planned as a Christmas gift. There were a lot of days where all my brain could handle after work was snuggling on the couch with tea and a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Just for fun, I went through and put asterisks by the projects that were on this list one year ago. (Or maybe not for fun, maybe more for personal accountability.)

Completed tops:
1.* Breezy Blooms C2C Bee -- No progress
2.* Radiant Jewel Quilt -- Pinned, ready to quilt, have thread
3. Daisy Chain Quilt -- No progress
4. Rail Fence Baby Quilt -- Have leftover flannel for backing.

Tops partially finished:
5.* Romantic Garden Quilt -- No progress
6.* Monthly Wall Hangings -- No progress
7.* Pineapple Stash Bee Blocks -- No progress
8. Not Quite Christmas Ribbons -- No progress

Just blocks and units:
9.* Sew Kitschy Blocks -- No progress
10.* Cubicle Quilts -- No progress
11.* Happy Houses blocks -- No progress
12.* Birthstone blocks -- No progress
13. Jingle Bell Square -- I made 6 blocks in December and a lot of block units for future use. I really wanted this to be a finished top in 2019, but alas, I still need to make about a dozen blocks.
14. Big Block C2C Bee Quilt -- No Progress
15. Marigold Quilt -- No Progress
16. Pave the Way Quilt -- No Progress

Quilt alongs and long term projects:
17. Monthly Island Batik Ambassador projects -- In December, I took a semi-unplanned but much needed break. In January, I will be showing off what arrived in my newest IBA box and sharing some scrappy project ideas!

18. Mosaic Mystery Quilt -- I have completed all of the units and in January we will start putting the quilt top together!

19. Frolic Mystery Quilt -- I have completed clues 1 through 3, and have started on clue 5! I need to get some additional aqua fabric for clue #4, but should be able to work on clue #6 in the meantime.

My UFO for December was my Romantic Garden quilt and that did not get touched. I'm not sure if I am going to continue with the previous "UFO of the month" system I was using because it was not very effective for me.

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!

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!

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!

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!