Quilted.........and rows sewn...........

This photo might not look different than the one yesterday but the Kaffe orphan block quilt is quilted now.  I took it off the frame but haven't trimmed it yet.

I quilted it with a large meander to keep it nice and soft.  Dense quilting shrinks the quilt as well as making it stiffer.  I couldn't afford to lose any size on this one.  I originally thought I would put a border on it to make it a little larger but nothing I tried really worked so it is just barely large enough for my nap quilt.

After adding one new fabric I sewed the top 5 rows together on the flannel tumbler quilt.  I will need to fold it in half to get it high enough on the design wall to fit the bottom 6 rows on there when I design them.  It is hard to calculate the width of a quilt made with the tumblers because of their shape and the fact that the points will be trimmed off the sides.  Now that it is partially sewn I measured it across a short seam and it looks like it will be 71" wide.  I'm planning 11 rows down and the tumblers measure 9" that way so it will be 99" long.  Actually I could stop at 10 rows (90") and save the rest of the tumblers for another quilt.

Loaded and ready to quilt............

The backing is pressed, the 3 layers are loaded and ready for quilting.  Maybe today it will happen.

I have been dividing the tumblers into 2 groups as I cut them. There are 2 each of most of the fabrics and 4 each of 2 fabrics.  There are 60 here and 56 waiting.  I need to make 4 more crazy pieced blocks for an even 60.  If I make 11 rows of 11 I will need one more block.  As soon as I move some of the pieces to different positions I can sew the top 5 rows together and move that piece higher up on the wall and design the second half of 6 rows.

Flannel scraps..............

When cutting the 9" tumbler shapes with my Studio die cutter I have left and right leftover pieces.  It is considered wasteful by most people who don't have a die cutter.

However it is only wasteful if you don't use them.  I decided there will be a few tumbler shapes cut from the crazy pieced blocks made from those pieces.

I made 4 of them while watching TV last night.  There are enough pieces to make 4 more blocks but I'm going to press these and cut them to see if I need to assemble them any differently to not have seams in the seam allowance.  I have all of the tumblers I need already cut for the quilt so I'll probably add another row to use the crazy pieced ones too.

I got the backing made for my Kaffe orphan quilt and found a piece of batting that is just about right for it.  I'll probably get the backing pressed and get it loaded on the longarm today.  It is going to be a cold day so I'm not leaving the house.

Delivered to my door............

A friend sent me a special treat to start the new year with.  I might have eaten two pieces already.

I tried to convince myself to piece a couple backings but all I pieced were more triangle squares.  There are 24 in each stack.

And while watching the 10 o'clock news I finished this dishcloth.

Maybe today I will sew some of those long seams in backings.

 

Backing chosen...........

I searched for a backing for the orphan block quilt yesterday.  Red was going to be my first choice and I found a 3 yard piece of this one.

This is one of those older Kaffe fabrics, 2007, that sell for $45-60 a yard on ebay and on the Facebook group that sells and trades Kaffe fabric.  This one is #94 and he is up to #183 now.  When I bought this one I figured it might be a backing because of the scale of the design.

I cut more flannel tumbler shapes yesterday.  I need to turn on the iron and press the remaining fabric choices before I can finish the cutting.  

I sewed more 2" finished triangle squares as my mindless sewing while I watched TV last night.

In the spirit of "love thyself" I made some heart shaped ice cubes for my beloved Dr. Pepper treat.  If you look close you will see Batman on the mug.  It is one of the series of Batman theme glass mugs that were given out at McDonald's back in the mid 1990s.  I made sure both of my kids had sets of them and then I collected a few for myself which grandchildren enjoyed using at my house.  The other 2 that I have are both the Riddler.

It is going to go down to 0 by this morning.  Winter is really here now, cold air and snow on the ground.  We only got about 2" of snow which is plenty.  About 30 miles north got 4-5" of snow.  My son dropped by yesterday morning and shoveled my sidewalk and porch.  My faithful snow plow guy plowed late Saturday evening.  I was inside where it was warm.

 

Top 9 on Instagram.....new quilt.....nature...

On Instagram you can have an app select the 9 posts that got the most likes.  These are in order from left to right, row to row from the most likes in the top left position.  That happens to be one of my most favorite too.  If you notice there are 2 pink quilts, which leads me to believe we need more pink in the world.  In the second place is what is called a reel, a continuous playing post going through all of the photos and then starting over again.  My account is @exuberantcolor if you want to check it out.  I post more on my blog than I put on Instagram because I like to tell the details and typing on that tiny phone screen isn't in my top 9 favorite things to do.

I started cutting 9" flannel tumbler blocks for a large quilt.  I have 2 each of the fabrics here for a total of 60.

I need 40 more tumblers so I pulled 5 more fabrics to cut.  I'll continue looking today for more to add.

Here is a quilt I made previously with 9" flannel tumblers.

I forgot to put this photo in my post yesterday.  I have at least 10 buds on this orange plant.  I see a bud on my white plant too and the second stalk on the red Amaryllis is growing.  My indoor winter garden is doing well.

Thank you everyone for your good wishes for the new year.  I decided to take a day off from answering comments but will back to it today.

Yearly recap...2021........

 I had 16 complete finishes in 2021.  Two of them were pretty old waiting for their turn.  8 of them were pieced in 2021 and will also be in the quilt tops collage.  The other 6 were pieced in 2020.  

I finished 3 table runners and made 19 table mats that are 8.5" x 11".

I made 27 quilt tops.  8 were quilted in 2021, 6 were sold, and the remaining 13 will wait their turn to be quilted or sold.  What this means is I have 5 more tops waiting to be finished than I did at the end of 2020.

I think my biggest accomplishment of the year was the big landscaping project.  I had to dig out plants I wanted to save for 2 weeks, replanting some in the back garden, the rest in pots.  Then after the front loader dug out all of the invasive plants and bushes and many tree roots and brought in 5" of new soil I had a month long project of planting in the cleaned up space.  Next summer I will take photos of the filled in plants and post comparison photos of freshly planted and one year later.  It was hard work and I really have a hard time believing I did it at 80 years old in our hot and dry summer.

I don't choose a word of the year or make resolutions.  Every day is a gift and I am thankful for every one of them.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!