I had a goal in 2017 to finish 26 quilts and I made it and it isn't even midnight yet!!
This little quilt with the Old Italian block finished at 37.5" x 46.5", truly a lap quilt size. You can see the source and my beginnings here. I always loved this block when I saw quilts made from it but I think I don't need to make a large quilt from the block. I'm glad I tested it with a small group of fabrics.
On the back is an old batik that I got on sale and bought several yards. I'm glad I finally used some of it.
I'm glad I stuck with this Kaffe fabric half hexagon quilt yesterday and finished the quilting late at night. All I had to do today was trim it and bind it. Binding all by machine.
I used a full width of the rust and black dot fabric and added a long leftover piece of the zig zag print for the backing. They are both Brandon Mably prints. If you click to enlarge the photo you will see I used a wild print for the binding. I like it with both the front and back.
Tomorrow I'll do my December monthly recap and the following day the yearly recap. Those will both take quite a bit of time to assemble.
I finished the last of the red crazy pieced blocks and made 2 extras. The 2 blocks I pulled out are at the right. They were just too different than all the rest. I needed to get this off the design wall since this is my photography wall.
I found the larger lint rollers at Target this year. The label says extra sticky and they do a great job on cleaning the threads off the design wall.
Here is finish # 24 for 2017. I finished the binding by machine.
Here is one more peek at the backing. I'm so happy I finally used that 60" wide Kaffe print.
Here is a sneak peek of what went on the frame yesterday afternoon. I haven't trimmed it yet.
I didn't really intend to quilt another one last night. I was just going to load it but after I did the stitching to hold the top edge I just kept going until it was done. I haven't taken it off the frame yet so I have two bindings to do today.
This is the scene outside my kitchen window when the security light came on....coneflower seed heads with snow on top. It was -2 degrees at 10 last night and it warmed up to 0 by midnight.
I get really irritated with myself when I can't find something. I solved the problem of finding the long strips of backing that are leftover. I put them in one box and always put the box away in the same place. I was looking for a strip of Kaffe fabric to add to a full width piece for my half hexagon quilt.
I label each piece to make retrieval easier.
I found these Kaffe and Brandon fabrics and I think one will work. Then I changed my mind on which quilt I was going to finish but I'll come back to this one today.
This is the one I ended up quilting. I did organic (wonky) straight lines since the piecing is all wonky strips.
For this one I used one of the 60" Kaffe prints that they call decorator weight. It is a little heavier than regular quilting cottons but still soft and flexible. I cut the binding last night and will get that sewn on today as we go down below 0 again. Time to stay inside.
Here is the newest batch of little pieces trimmed off as I create the crazy pieced blocks.
I sort them into groups of matching sizes.
Here are some centers pieced.
I continue to add to them, working on all six blocks at the same time.
They are waiting to be pressed and trimmed but meanwhile I need to make 2 more blocks. I have started them and will work on them today. Then I have to concentrate on finishing something before the end of the year.
We got a little snow yesterday and it sounds like more coming today. It is still cold with another arctic blast headed our way.
Seven more blocks are finished.
I filled in with one block that was missing in yesterday's photo and then put on another row on the right side. If I finished it as is it would measure about 48" x 78". If I add another row across the bottom it would be 56" x 78". I think it will get a border all around like I did on the blue one that I linked to a couple days ago.
It was -7 degrees yesterday morning so Jack Frost visited my kitchen windows.
That is sunlight hitting my neighbor's house. Cold and sunny and all the way up to 8 degrees in the afternoon.
I pressed the blocks I made a couple days ago and trimmed them. These two were started with little 4 patches in the center.
This one has 3 strips sewn together for the center. I always have a little pile of small pieces from trimming the length of strips that are added.
Here is a group of strips to use for another center.
Here they are sewn together along with another started block with a 4 patch center.
I took the finished blocks to the design wall and also added some possible border blocks that I made earlier this year. I either need 1 more block or 15 more crazy pieced blocks depending on how big I want to make this. The blocks will finish at 8".
I spent the whole day with the family yesterday so no progress to show on any projects. I am getting ready to work on another colorwash piece so I laid out my pieces in a light to dark progression of each color. It is going to be about 7 degrees tomorrow so I think I will be staying inside.
I did one more round of baking yesterday while it snowed outside. We will have our white Christmas this year. Now we're going into the deep freeze for over a week so the snow will stay.
A friend gave me this huge denim tote bag and I have used it for 2 years now to carry my gifts to the family party. I will have 2 more tote bags packed with all of the baked goodies.
Merry Christmas everyone......
I spent a lot of time in the kitchen yesterday making 3 more batches of Chex Mix and another batch of fudge. By evening I was ready to go to the design wall and put up all of the finished red crazy pieced blocks. Then I made 5 more blocks but I haven't trimmed them yet. The blocks will finish at 8". I made a mostly blue crazy pieced quilt a few years ago. You can see it here. I'm thinking about doing a border like that one again on this one but I may try a couple other ideas too.
A package came Thursday evening and it said to open immediately. Further instructions inside said to refrigerate it and to consume with 48 hours of receiving it.
They are delicious!
There was a second box in the package.
This one is Truffles!
Yesterday I had a out of state visitor. She comes once a year at Christmas and we caught up on the year's happenings and went to lunch.
Last night I needed to cut into the strips I showed yesterday and "make scraps".
I cut 4 layers at a time. I needed both strips and center chunks.
I cut 2 sizes of both and then made another 4 blocks. I have 32 blocks done and 2 started. I was going to put them up on the design wall but decided it was too late so I'll maybe do that today.
I noticed that the white cactus on the top shelf of the baker's rack is blooming. Now I'm guaranteed some blooms on Christmas day.
I knew this would be another fast finish since it is just a small lap quilt, 34.5" x 44.5". I made the top in May this year with all of the leftover triangle squares from two other projects.
I had a large piece of this black with beige stars batik fabric from the 1990s to use for the backing.
I used the channel lock on my longarm to do randomly spaced straight lines for the quilting pattern.
I knew a beige print would look good with the stars on the back and also would be a good neutral for the colorful front.
I went through all of my red batiks looking for more to use for the crazy pieced blocks. I found 50 that I think will work. Now I need to press them and then cut off a 9" length from each of them. The trimmed size of the blocks is 8.5".
I started making red crazy pieced blocks last year and have worked on them a couple times since then. I'm kind of between projects with all of the holiday preparations so I started to work on some more at night.
Here is a block that is large enough to trim with my 8.5" square ruler.
I try not to have any seam too close to the edge of the block.
I will save some of the larger pieces trimmed off and throw away the rest.
I finished these 3 blocks the first night I worked on them
I made 5 more blocks last night.
Here they are trimmed.
I had 2 more started but I am running out of variety of scraps to work with so I will cut a few pieces off yardage.
