Design Wall Monday - January 3, 2022

Happy New Year!  Here is the picture of my Wedding Ring full sized quilt that was finished in November, 2021.  It is about 75” by 80” and is only on my side of the bed at night (hubby is too warm with a quilt on top of him).

The pattern is from a book called Quick Quilts from the Heart, by Liz Porter and Marianne Fons.  Picture from the book: 

 It was a joint project that my friend Joan Brink and I made at the same time.  She gave me this picture showing both of the quilts being shown in a retreat in Shipshewana, IN :

Joan’s quilt has double batting and is custom machine quilted with beautiful feathers.  Mine is edge to edge machine quilted with pretty hearts and leaves.

My small quilt/doll quilt is still in progress.  I decided to add hsts around the edge, and this is the current status:

My annual assessment/reality check/organization of my quilting hobby is progressing nicely.  I have boxed up a lot of magazines to give away, and am going to divide the remaining ones into seasonal small groups, as I like to look at a group of magazines together at the start of each season.  

Speaking of give aways, does anyone want the book with the above pattern in it?  It has lots of nice patterns with good instructions, and I just discovered I have two copies.  I will send one to anyone who wants it.  If more than one replies, I will have a drawing.  

Here is a quote I saw on the internet and liked:

Please share with us your design walls, and projects that you are starting or finishing in this first week of a new year.  Thanks for participating!  As always, please link back to this particular blog post from somewhere within your post.

And thanks to all of you who encourage others to join our Design Wall Mondays Linky Party.  We will have a lot of finishes in 2022.

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Design Wall Monday - December 27, 2021

Good Morning Quilters!  This is the last Monday in the year.  I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress on UFOs this year, but haven’t tallied up the finished quilts to see for sure.   I think I’ll just look at the UFOs that are left and keep on keeping on.

My latest adventure in paring down and sorting through my quilt hobby collections is:  Quilt Magazines!  I love to look through old quilt magazines, and read the articles, look at the old advertisements, fantasize about making a quilt or two from the issue.   However, I have way too many magazines.

The magazines are now separated from the books and sorted into piles by publisher, year and month of issue, etc.  I am amazed at how many I have.  I am pausing to look at the piles and think about how I want to pare them down.  Right now, I’m thinking of just keeping the very old magazines (1980s)) of which I have several publications that are no longer in business and also keeping just one publisher of the newer magazines.  I am thinking of keeping Better Home & Gardens publications (American Patchwork and Quilting).  I will let you know how the culling project goes. 

My only piecing this week has been to make a small quilt to match my recently finished Wedding Ring quilt.  The small quilt (just a top right now) will finish at 14 inches square.  I am sleeping under the bed sized Wedding Ring quilt, and had the thought the other night that I had not made a small version.  So yesterday, I made one.   Here it is:

I don’t think I showed you the finished bed sized quilt when completed.  I will do that next week, I promise.  I am looking forward to starting a new year, and looking at my hobby with fresh enthusiasm.  How do you feel about starting a new year?

Thanks for all of your great posts that you have linked with Design Wall Mondays during 2021.  Mondays are special as we get to visit so many quilters and see what they are making.  Please link back to this blog post from somewhere within your post, and mention Design Wall Monday in your post.  

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Design Wall Monday - March 22, 2021

 Thanks for all the well wishes and your prayers.  I am feeling much better and am back at getting the two brown and white quilts finished.  They are off the design wall and one is ready to go to the long arm quilter.  Here are two pictures of each side of it hanging over the stairs railing.  I am needing a place to hang up a quilt top for a picture.  There is a new project on the design wall, so I can’t use that for a picture.

I am looking forward to seeing feathered wreaths quilted in the white squares, or something equally pretty that the long arm quilter suggests.

I am also making good progress on the Drunkards Path curved stitching.  I have gone back to the “use 1,000 pins” method as it is fairly mindless to sew them this way.   I am hoping they will all be finished by the end of March. I really do like the pattern when it is together......but sewing convex pieces to concave pieces.....not so much.  

The design wall has a new UFO on it!  I am wondering why I quit working on this quilt when I had about half of it done.   I don’t remember.  But whatever the reason was, it’s on the design wall now and I can see that I have only 14 LeMoyne star blocks yet to sew.  And some of the edge 1/2 stars.  I will be working on this one on Monday nights when my friend Joan comes over.  She is also working on a LeMoyne star quilt.  

I talked about it in early February,  (Here) and am eager to get started again on it.  

What’s going on this week in your sewing room?  Please link up so we can see.  Remember to provide a link back to this blog post from somewhere within your post.  Thanks!

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Design Wall Monday - March. 8, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  My design wall is looking different, and I am making progress on the two brown quilts.  Progress had to show if I kept working on them, right?  Here’s the Drunkard’s Path, which has grown:

And here is the Wedding Ring middle - all in one piece finally:

This quilt has a two inch border around it of brown, and then a wider border of white.  I had fun amusing myself trying to hide the one seam on each of the borders.  Below are pictures of the four borders, front and back:

What have you been doing to amuse yourself this week?  Show us what is on your design wall.  Please link up and tell us what you are working on.  Mention Design Wall Monday somewhere within your post, and don't forget to link back to this Design Wall Monday post.  Thanks!

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Design Wall Monday - March 1, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters! 

March 1st, a new month, and I have been working on the two quilts on my design wall.  Plus other projects as well.  I think March will be a good month of progress on the UFOs.  Here is the design wall: 

Still lots of brown and white, but the Wedding Ring quilt has all the edge triangles now cut, and the rows are getting assembled.  I can see the finish line, which will spur me on.

The Drunkard's Path is moving along nicely too.  I sew a few concave/convex pieces each day:

And when I have enough; sew them into a larger block:

All the convex and concave block pieces are cut and stored in baggies, each holding enough pieces to make the block above.  I think there are about 15 baggies yet to put together.  I am getting better at the curves, that is for sure.  It is slow....take 3-4 stitches with needle down when I stop.....then adjust the fabric, take 3-4 more stitches....repeat.  I think it was named by the person who drank a whole lot while she was sewing this quilt pattern.  

The log cabin quilt has one more block, and I am loving working on it.  (The shiny new project).   Here are the blocks now:

What are you working on?  I am so happy to look through all the pictures and go to your blogs and read about your quilts.  You are such a talented bunch.  Thank you for participating.  Please provide a link back to this blog post somewhere within your post, and also tell your readers about Design Wall Monday.  

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Design Wall Monday - February 15, 2021

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  I hope you got more sewing done this last week than I did!  My design wall hasn’t changed for quite a while, and I am resolved to get things moving there before next Monday.  The two quilts that I seem bogged down on are both brown and neutral.  I think the lack of brighter colors on these two has something to do with my lack of progress on them.  But here’s a picture of the status quo:

I sewed convex/concave pieces (16 pair in each stack) for another three Drunkards Path Blocks:

The embroidery has progressed a little bit on one of the May Basket Blocks.  I am so excited to be thinking about sashing and or setting blocks.  Pink and yellow (30s solids) were both good suggestions for me.  

Remember this from last Monday:

Today:

  

This coming week I plan to look at all of my UFOs (which I was going to do at the start of 2021) but my energy wasn't there then.  Now it is back, and I'm feeling like I can do another list and purge some of the projects.  I love it when the spring cleaning urge hits me.

What are you working on this week?  Thanks for linking with Design Wall Monday every week.  You are all so talented, and it makes my week to look at all of your blogs, and read about what you are working on.  Please link back to this particular post from within your blog.  Also talk about Design Wall Monday so others can join us. 

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Design Wall Monday - November 16, 2020

The weeks keep flying by, don't they?  My index card bundle of UFO projects is still quite large, but some projects are getting finished.  But the year will soon be ending!  For 2021, I think I will relist all my UFOs and work on them in the order of "almost finished" and "nearly complete" separated from "just started" and "fabric and a pattern idea in a box".  

The process of writing down all of my UFOs has prevented me from starting new projects this year.....almost.  Confession time:  My good friend, Joan Brink, comes over on Monday nights for a quilting/sewing evening and recently she shared a new quilt she was starting from an old Fons and Porter book.   I said - "I have that same book, and I like that quilt too!"  And so I broke all of my rules, and started a new quilt in 2020.  I guess if I make the rules, I can break the rules........irrational thinking is quite normal for me.  :)

The book is Quick Quilts from the Heart, and the pattern is "single wedding ring".  "Valley Junction" is the name of the quilt in the book and it is designed by Marilyn Parks.  She features 20 blocks set on point with some neutral squares in between that give lots of space for custom quilting.  

Joan has just completed her quilt top, and I have 15 of the 20 blocks made.  All five of my remaining blocks are cut and ready for assembly.  So this quilt will not set me back on my UFO goals very much, as I hope to get the top ready for the long arm quilter by next week.  

Here is a close-up of my fabric.  There are little red somethings (I'm calling them strawberries) with green leaves at the top.  Of course I had to orientate all the strawberries in the same direction.  lol  It was easy though.

It looks pretty bland right now, but maybe that is the way it will be.   I might add something-something in a border.  Don't know just yet.  I have a solid reddish brown as a possible wide border, but nothing is saying yes right now.

What are you working on this week?  This Covid 19 pandemic is really raging here.  It is good that we have quilting as something to keep us calm during the tempests of the world, right?   And it is the perfect thing to do in solitary when we have to stay put.

Thanks for linking with Design Wall Mondays.  I appreciate all of you so much.  Please link up again this week and show us what you are working on.  And please stay safe and healthy.

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