24 blocks...........

The pieces fell together into more blocks and now there are 24 ten inch blocks.  What held me up from finishing this earlier was whether I wanted some blocks scrappy.  If you look at the top left block it is made of 2 fabrics, the typical way to make a double 4 patch block.  The block below it is made with 3 fabrics; the big squares aren't the same fabric as the light fabric in the 4 patches.  There are 9 blocks made with 2 fabrics, the rest of the blocks have 3 fabrics.  I tried to match the color and value with the 3rd fabric and did pretty well in most of the blocks.  I think this layout is the final one so I'll sew it together today.  It will be 40" x 60".

All of the leftover red based 4 patches will be sewn into a table runner or 2 placemats and 3 coasters.

All that was left in the box was two 4 patches and 28 of the larger squares.  The 4 patches will go into the Kaffe orphan block box.

Now it is beginning to feel like winter.  We got between 2 and 3 inches of heavy wet snow.  My snow plow guy came and cleared the driveway after I took this photo and I shoveled the porch and sidewalk.  It is supposed to get up to 35 degrees today and tomorrow so I'm not sure how much of this snow will be left when the next storm hits us on Tuesday.

Going through project boxes.............

This box of pieces isn't technically a project but more a start and stop thing.  This is the pile of pieces not sewn into blocks.

First I put the blocks that were sewn into this layout.

Then I tried this layout which is better but doesn't excite me.  I hate to put the pieces back into the project box again so I could just put them into the Kaffe orphan block box and deal with them later.

I got one backing measured and ready to sew together but I need to press the 2 lengths first.  Today is a good day to turn on the iron and press several things.

One of the groups of fabrics to start pressing: some of the blue fabrics for the Bloomers quilt that I want to make.  Some of these have just small areas of blue flowers so the all over print is more multicolor.  I need to fussy cut 3.5", 6.5", 9.5" and 12.5" squares with flowers.

Snow predicted overnight into today so I did the grocery shopping yesterday.

30 blocks....................

The last 5 blocks are finished now for a total of 30.  I decided on a layout of 5 across and 6 down.  One empty project box.

Directions for this block are on Lynn's blog.  She has lots of directions for quilts made with solids and prints and I have 2 finished quilts and 2 tops already made and one more in progress from her blog.

I'm trying to made smaller quilts this year so I can have a little fun with each pattern I choose instead of spending a month on just one quilt.  I have plenty of larger quilts on 2 shelf units in my spare bedroom.  This one is 37.5" x 57" so I could add a 2" border and still use just one width of fabric for the back.  I'll think about that for a couple days.  

Now I need to get busy and seam backings for a few larger quilts.

 

Searching through fabric.............

I was looking for blue and turquoise but a purple sneaked in there.  I matched these with the solid colors for the Shoo Fly blocks.  I decided to search through Kaffe Fassett books last night instead of cutting the pieces for the blocks.

I changed to a lighter color thread on my machine and sewed 2 light green blocks yesterday morning.  The one on the right doesn't look that yellow in person but it is a yellow-green.

Back to searching through Kaffe books: I was looking for repeats of layouts.  He revisits older layouts many times in his books.  Some info for people who have his books:  I found one called Bloomers (in Timeless Themes) is the same layout as Yellow Sunlight (in Bold Blooms) only turned 180 degrees.  The yellow one has a border and Bloomers doesn't.  (Both of those are hard cover books.)  Bloomers is one that I want to make.  In the book it is multicolor fussy cut floral squares in several sizes.  I want to make it in blue with a few green and purples thrown in.  It will take at least a month to cut all of the pieces.

More shoo fly blocks...............

Since I had this project out I decided to make some more blocks yesterday.  Bottom left, bottom row was made Tuesday night.  I had one more block cut out but need to change to a lighter thread on the machine.  These could all use the dark brown thread still there from the last binding I sewed.

This is the variety in the first 17 blocks.  So now I have 23 blocks and I want this to be a small quilt so a  maximum of 36 blocks.  I think I need a few blue and turquoise blocks next.

I was gifted 3 Amaryllis bulbs for Christmas.  I took this photo a couple days ago of the first two blooms.

When I looked at it yesterday I noticed there are 6 buds and/or blooms on each of the 2 stalks.

It is tall and even with a stake it was leaning.  First I tried setting the pot into a crock but it still tried to fall over. After I took this photo I tied the stake to the nearest chair so I think I can keep it standing while all 12 flowers open.

The other 2 gift plants are showing life too.  One has a tall stalk with flowers that will open soon and a second bud now starting to grow.  The third one is still a short bud stalk and yesterday I saw a second bud peeking out of the bulb.  I think this should keep me in blooms for about a month.

Yearly recap for 2023................

I had 30 finishes in 2023.  

My goal was to have an average of 2 finished quilts each month = 24.  One month I only had one but I caught up with 3 the next month.  When I got to December I had 4 quilts to finish before Christmas so I knew I was going to exceed my goal of 2.  I also had 2 that were just waiting for binding.  I ended up the month with 2 small colorwash wallhangings for a total of 8 which boosted the year total to 30.

I didn't have a chance of reducing the number of tops by much though because I made 29 new tops.  16 of these were finished in 2023 so they are in both collages.  The rest of the finishes were from my backlog of 42 tops waiting to be quilted.  I start this year with 41 tops begging to be finished.

I worked with fabric groups last year, 4 are Australian fabric, 2 are African fabric, 6 of Kaffe fabric, 2 of flannel, 7 are batik fabrics and 8 with a variety of quilting fabrics.  My goal was to whittle down the stash of Australian and African.  The batik ones used mostly scraps or leftovers from another quilt.  The Kaffe quilts used mostly yardage, some which was already cut in strips and squares the sizes I needed.  I'm rambling a little here trying to figure out what I'm going to be doing this year because I intended to use mostly yardage.

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So what did I do on January 1? 

I put away the leftovers from the green Rosy quilt top.

I pulled out this project.  Lots of plain colors are already cut.  I needed to cut more prints to make more blocks.

I pulled out a bag of green full width less than a quarter yard pieces and found one that didn't need pressing and made one block.

I found 3 more greens that I will use and they need pressing before I can cut any pieces from them.

I also updated the notebook with my quilt tops needing quilting with three pages of sizes.  This page had the least number on it. and at least 5 of these will be quilted by my longarm friend Robin.  The bottom half of each page has room to list all of the new tops of 2024.

Other than that I tried to clean off a table top in my studio and only got halfway through it.  Too many decisions of where to put things.  I took a photo of it but it is too embarrassing to show to you.  Just imagine a real mess, piles created in about 6 months.

December 2023 monthly recap................

 December was my best month for finishes.  Three were just waiting for binding so that was pretty fast.  Four of them were gifts that needed to be finished.  On the left are the two I Spy quilts for my two families of great-grandchildren. (64" x 80.5" and 67.5" x 79").  Next to them are Soft Colorwash and Small Colorwash (20" x 33 and 18" square).  Next is layered churn dash, 77" x 101" and below it flannel baby quilts, 38" square and 39.5" square.  At the right is Batik Stars, 73" x 99".

Only one quilt top was made in December and it was really fun. The green color is so welcome in our brown, black and white winters.  Since we have had so little snow it is mostly brown and black this winter so far.

This one is about 52" x 70", the size I am going to try to stick with this new year.  I still have many 60ish x 80ish ones to quilt.

Speaking of snow, we had flurries for part of the day yesterday and this is the total accumulation, mostly on the Sedum dried blooms.

I need to put my stats on my blog and this one was just finished early evening yesterday.  It is made of mostly Kaffe collective fabrics with at least one African and one batik as well a few other assorted prints.  It is 18" square.  The tiny squares are 1.5" finished.

I used a Kaffe fabric on the back and used folded squares at the top corners on the back to hold the hanging rod.

It has Warm and Natural batting and the top thread is Invisifil in 3 colors.

I started 2023 with 43 tops.  I finished 30 but also made 29 new tops.  Of the tops quilted 14 were older ones and 16 were new tops made in 2023.  I donated one quilt top for a comfort quilt and ended up with 41 tops still waiting to be quilted.  At this rate if I make 30 new tops in 2024 I would need to quilt (or have them longarm quilted by someone else) 6 quilts a month to end up with no tops waiting unfinished at the end of 2024.  Unlikely, I think.  I would like to sell some quilt tops.  Just a lot of thought to finish out 2023.

Happy New Year!