January Progress in 2017

Good morning fellow quilters!  It is a beautiful day here in Michigan, and I have made some progress on my quilting goals:

I have two quilts I made (for the Churn Dashers group display at the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival) all boxed up and ready to put in the mail tomorrow.  They are on their way to Virginia, to a Churn Dasher friend, who will gather all of the group's quilts and get the display ready.  I am hoping to go to the quilt festival in Newport News, VA to see the quilts hanging, but we shall see if I can get there.   It's February 23-26, 2017, if you are in the area and would like to go.

To get them ready, I added hanging sleeves and labels to the backs of a bed quilt and a doll quilt.  I should have taken a picture of the finished quilts, but I will take a picture when I get them back after the show.

While cleaning out my quilt stash, I found a "kit" someone had given me years ago, and at the time, I was confused about the instructions because there was no picture.  I am a very visual learner.  But now, when I looked at it again, I figured it out, and decided to put it together while I was temporarily enlightened.  I have the wall hanging made, and the bias binding cut, waiting for the quilting to happen.  I do not know the fabric designer, but I love the fabric.  I am not inspired yet on how to quilt it.  What do you think?  I am just learning machine quilting, so this will be a good practice piece.

When working on the blocks, I did the mitered corners by hand.  That is, I sewed the dark green strip to the left side, the light green strip to the bottom by machine, and then ironed the miter in place, and hand appliqued it.  It was so easy that way, and I wondered why I haven't done them that way before.l

So, it's one more project out of the unfinished fabric stash, and on it's way to being a finished project. 

What is on your design wall today?  Monday Design Wall Linkup (Here) at the Patchwork Times blog.


Post Script:  Sandra Walker asked me what magazine the "Merry Christmas" sledding pillow was in, because she liked it so much. Original post is (Here)  At the time, I couldn't find the magazine to answer her, but now I have the info.  It was a project in American Patchwork and Quilting, December 2014 issue, and was designed by Tina Lewis.  

New Year Thoughts: Junk Drawers

Sweet little baby girl quilt top made last week.

I was thinking about junk drawers today, and what part of my quilt stash I considered my true stash, and what part was other miscellaneous fabrics.  In other words, When I look at my quilting stash, what are the "junk drawers" of my stash, and my unfinished projects?

My true love in fabrics:  civil war repros.  Most of my antique kitchen cabinet in my quilt room holds fat quarters of civil war repros.

My "other fabrics" stash includes:

1) baby prints, flannels, fabrics that were in my Mom's baby blanket stash

2) red, white and blue patriotic fabrics.  

3) solid color fabrics.  I have one quilt in mind for these guys.

4) plaids, plaids, plaids, two boxes of them

5) Christmas prints, two boxes of them

In 2017, I plan on using up more of my "junk drawer" fabrics, while also concentrating on two unfinished civil war repro projects.

Civil war repro projects:  Jane Stickle quilt and blocks to be made for an exchange with The Churn Dashers, for a future quilt.

"Junk drawer" projects:  Continue making baby quilts, to use up more of the flannels and baby prints.  They are fun to make, and go quickly.

Make a Quilt of Valor using the red, white and blue stash.  Maybe make two?

Finish The Splendid Sampler 100 blocks that were started in 2016, using the floral fabrics.  After that project is complete, the rest of the floral stash can be combined with the baby prints to use for infants.

This week, I made 12 "kits" of baby print squares to sew into baby quilts.  There doesn't seem to be a diminishing of the baby prints stash, but it must happen sometime, if I continue.  I got out the baby bassinet, and put all the kits inside it, to remind me to pull a kit out and assemble a baby quilt top often.  Here's a picture of the bassinet:

The baby quilt laid on the edge with it's backing was this week's quilt top.  I love how the backing (from my Mom's stash) goes with the flannel animal squares on the front (given to me from my friend Dee).  Here's a close-up:

The word for me in 2017, is "perseverance"....as in purposefulness, steadfastness.  Since moving, I now have all of my quilt projects and fabric looked at, sorted, cataloged, and know where I want to go with it.  I am on the journey to tame the tiger!   Eating the elephant, one bite at a time.

Today, I'm linking up with Design Wall Mondays, to join with others about what they are working on today.  (Here)