Here are the 26 finishes from 2017. I sold 6 of them, gifted 2. I am doing a trunk show for the quilt guild in Sandwich IL in April so I will have some new pieces to show them.
Of the quilt tops made in 2017 a few are in the finished quilts photo. Of the ones in this photo 3 were sold, and the rest are waiting their turn to be finished.
I ended the year with 26 quilt tops, down from 40 at the beginning of last year and down from 50 in 2015 and 2016. That really feels good. I make a list my tops in 3 size categories and the most (14) that need finishing are in the large category, longer than 80" on the longest edge. The least (4) are in the medium (67-79" on the longest edge) category. I think this year I will make more in that medium size and less large ones.
I had only one bud on the orange/peach cactus but hope there will be more later.
The second champagne color plant only had one bud too. I am thankful for any blooms.
Yesterday morning it was -13 degrees and it got up to a high of -4 during the day. Today will be warmer, hopefully all the way up to the 7 degrees they have predicted.
I had a very good finishing month in December (7 quilts!) after 3 months of restricted arm movement after my pacemaker surgery. One quilt (the half hexagon 57.5" x 80") was started and finished in December, one had been partially quilted for almost a year waiting to be finished. One had been hand basted right before my surgery waiting to be ditch quilted. I met my goal of finishing 26 quilts in 2017 by working hard all of last month and I'm overjoyed with the results.
I also completed two quilt tops that will wait their turns for finishing.
A Christmas table runner was made and I knitted about a dozen dishcloths. I worked hard on the red crazy pieced blocks but could see I wouldn't get that top finished by the end of the year.
Happy New Year to all of my precious and much appreciated readers. You are my cheering squad, my encouragers and the best audience I could ask for. I appreciate every comment even though I can't respond to the no reply commenters (and that is about a third of you!). Here's hoping the new year will be a healthy one for all of us.
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.
