Catching up

I've been working diligently on a customer quilt the past few days, but every once in a while I need a break from cross-hatching.  Two hours is about my max.  So I've also been working away at some of my current projects during my breaks, trying to keep up, and/or catch up, on all my on-going projects.

First, I completed the January blocks for Judy's "Tell it to the Stars" mystery.   I'm having second thoughts about the multi-coloured fabric in there, but hopefully it will work for me in the end.

And, I'm trying to catch up on Bonnie's Celtic Solstice.  Given that the reveal was last week, "catch up" really means finish.  So, here are the final parts - next step is to assemble the blocks.

My quilt is going to be a bit smaller than Bonnie's. I don't need a giant quilt so I made 1/2 the blocks.  I'm kind of glad about that, because the colours aren't really working for me in this quilt.  I like these little bits, but the orange and green in the other sections are too dark - I probably would have been happier with a lighter green.  Oh well.  I have just about enough to make the quilt 4x6 blocks, which should finish around 48x66 - or a bit more if I extend the borders. That will make a lovely donation for Victoria's Quilts.  So, I'll assemble what I have, cut the additional pieces I need to finish the small quilt, and keep going.

I'm linking up over at The Needle and Thread Network.  Drop by to check out more Canadian bloggers and their works in progress.

Design Wall Monday - Jan 6

My design wall today is mostly blue. Fortunately that's not how I'm feeling, but it is the colour of the month over at the rainbow scrap challenge.  So, I put together some more anvil blocks, to go with the 6 leftovers from my New Year's Day quilt (An Oldie but a Goodied, done in reds).  I hope to end the year with another one, in a more scrappy colourway.

Then, I had to make the block for the RSC sampler - a little 6" block.  The original had 9 2" triangles, but I have a box of little triangles that finish at 1.5" - so I put 16 of those together to make a 6" block.  I really like this one, so I may do one of these every month, instead of the sampler.  We'll have to see.  I've been looking for a quilt for the triangles for some time now.

The final blue block is Judy's scrap challenge for January.  She gave us a few different ideas for colouring the block, but I think I like this one most.  It's blue just to fit in the with the RSC colour, and I haven't decided if I'll go ahead and make a bunch more this month, or hold onto it and make one in the RSC colour each month.  I do need to be careful - I could end up with 24 quilts in December, at this rate :)

Last but not least, I made the house blocks for last month's Downtown BOM.  Wow, those were a TON of work!  All those little teeny tiny brown bits under the house took forever.  And, like a fool I stopped in the middle and proceeded to mess up the next step when I came back to it.  Lesson learned - don't put down a paper-piecing project in mid piece.

Drop by Judy's blog for more design walls today.

Stash Report - Jan 5

I headed out to the LQS sale on the 2nd, with a specific goal - backings for 3 quilts.  And after raiding my stash for the latest mysteries, I knew that if I needed any fabric, it was lights.  I was really digging for light fabrics over the holidays. So, I gave myself permission to pick up some from the sale tables.  But that's it, I kept telling myself (hopefully).

I did pretty well - stuck to my plans for the most part. A few extras jumped into my arms, but the few fabrics I just "had to have", I limited myself to just 1 yard of each.
3 backings, lots of lights/neutrals, and a few "just because", for a total of 69 yards in

But then I read Facebook the next morning ...  The store had added a 70% off table!  I HAD to go back, don't you agree? And on the sale table I found flannel - perfect for backings for donations to Victoria's Quilts. And a few more lights (see, I'm still sticking to my "rules").
Sale trip #2 (70% off - who can resist?) - 42 yards in

And then Saturday ...  I was sorting all the pretty new fabrics, and I realized that while I had done a great job picking up neutrals, I really hadn't added any lights in particular colour families.  Plus, there was one more quilt missing a backing.  37 yards later, that's also taken care of.

For usage this year - 3 quilts made this week, from start to borders.  That used a total of 7.25 yards for the large/small pair, and 4.25 yards for the red anvil top.  A total of 11.5 yards out.  That makes the gain a little less horrifying this week :)

Totals for this week:
148 yards in
11 1/2 yards out

Total for the year: 136.5 yards in

Goals for the year - use more than I bring in :)  Actually, I'd like to end up at least 100 yards in the positive, which is doable if I quilt as much as I did last year.  Drop by Judy's blog to see how everyone else did with their New Year's stash busting.

A note on my accountability - yes, I'm counting stash in this year. But being in Canada I have the issue of buying in meters and using in yards (because pretty much every pattern out there is written in imperial measurements).  So, to keep my sanity, I may purchase 3 meters of a fabric, but I call it "3 yards" for the sake of this report.  Which I figure is fair, because when a pattern says "1 1/2 yards", I just go ahead and buy 1 1/2 meters.

What's up in 2014

As I printed off the instructions for yet another BOM, I thought it might be a good idea to once again list what I'm up to this year, for myself more than anything.  Maybe I'll have a hope of keeping up if I print this out and post it somewhere.

Block the Month Projects

1. Downtown (paper pieced stars and houses)
2. Toes in the Sand (triangles galore, from Jaybird Quilts)
3. Border Creek Station mystery (finish in October)
4. Bonnie Hunter Celtic Solstice mystery (finish in January) 
5. Tell it to the Stars mystery BOM from Patchwork Times 
6. Patchwork Times scrappy challenge
7. Rainbow scrap challenge (which might be combined with the one above, if I pick my colours carefully)

Tops that need quilting:

There are: 1. Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street - Jan 2013; 2. Lattice Squares - April 2013; 3. BBQ - summer 2013; 4. Christmas Wall hanging - Nov 2013; 5. 3-D Maze - Nov 2013; 6 Charity quilt - Dec 2013; 7. Back to Square One - Dec 2013; 8. Pink Diamond Star - Dec 2013; 9. New Year's Eve mystery - Jan 2014; 10. Baby mystery - Jan 2014; 11. Building Blocks - April 2011 (or 2010?); 12. Starburst - early 2012; 13 - colour challenge - 2012; 14. An Oldie but a Goodie - Jan 2014; 15. Retreat Challenge - Nov 2013

In reality, over half of them are from the last 2 months, so I guess that's not so bad.

Now, if I can convince myself not to start anything new until I am caught up on my BOM for the current month, and I can plan to quilt one of my tops each month, I may actually manage to finish the year with fewer UFOs than I started with.

Anyone taking bets on how well that plan works?  :)

January Goals

I enjoyed setting goals each month last year, so I thought I would continue this year.  I'm not sure if the linky over at Patchwork Times is going to continue, but I'll forge ahead on my own if I have to :)

January has started off with a bang.  2 quilts yesterday, in the New Year's Eve mystery (ok, that's not really January), and another one finished today, in the New Year's Day mystery. I had a lot of fun, but I think that two one-day mysteries, in two days is just a bit of overkill. Next year I'll be a bit more selective.

This quilt was fun to make, and is a bit more scrappy than it looks in the picture. But I do wish I'd had the nerve to pull a bunch of different dark fabrics, rather than sticking to one colour.  I guess it would make a good Canadian Quilt of Valor, but more likely it's going to Victoria's Quilts, once I get some flannel for the backing.

Tomorrow's plan is to head to a fabric sale.  I have 3 quilts that need backing, and I'm sure more fabric will jump into my basket while I'm there.  I know, I promised accountability in my stash reports this year - this just means I may be starting with a great big negative number.  But this week's quilt tops will help that situation.

As for January's goals, I need to get back to work. Three customer quilts are languishing on my shelf, so they are priority #1. Then maybe I can get a quilt or two of my own off the UFO pile.

1. quilt 3 customer quilts
2. quilt last year's Bonnie Hunter top what the heck was it called? Easy Street (Thanks Swooze)
3. attach hanging sleeve to swoon quilt, so it can go to the quilt shop for display
4. catch up on Downtown and Tell it to the Stars BOM projects

 Yep, that should keep me busy this month :)  And maybe more importantly - don't start any new projects (hah!).

New Year Mysteries

I spent all day yesterday working on a mystery quilt, and before the end of the night I had it done!  In fact, I had two quilts done, because I resized the top to make it a donation quilt for Victoria's Quilts Canada.  First, I have the full size quilt, with borders as designed for the mystery.

Then, I made a baby quilt out of the leftover blocks. A slight adjustment to the border stretched the quilt into the right size for a child-size donation.

So now I have 2 tops for donation - a great way to end the year I think.

And, I finished my prep work for Merry Mayhem's mystery today.  A ton of little red and grey half-square triangles, ready to become a quilt of some sort.

Happy New Year!

Wishing all my readers the best for the coming year! Here's to lots of quilty times, in good health and happiness.