Design Wall Monday~January 28, 2013

I've not written for a couple of weeks as I have nothing new to show and what is a blog without pictures? Well I'm sure there are some very nice blogs out there that don't include many pictures but a quilting blog should be visual in my opinion. Looking at last years posts I found many that had the same quilt top on display for four weeks running. I mean how exciting is it to see that I've added another block, or another row, to the same quilt?

I'm writing this week just to keep in touch. I'm working, or not working as the case may be, on the same projects. Okay, I'll refresh your memory. The Pineapple Quilt now has 14 blocks almost finished. I've not chosen the corner color but I am stopping at my LQS today to make that decision. By the way, I just counted those for you. I thought I had 16 blocks which would have kept me on track for my four blocks per week. I'm glad I counted. I will have to find time to do a couple extra this week to get caught up.

I've not worked on my scrappy row quilt. Much. I thought I would add a brown row and a black row to give it some "depth". That really is the word I used in my mind. But putting them with the other rows, I thought "Yuck!" So much for my creative, artistic, fling. I think I will do a scrappy orange row and an aqua/teal row and then finish it off.

 

 

I did dig through my stash and found a fabric I think would work as a nice border for these strips and I've cut the strips into different lengths.

I'm going to play with them to see if I can come up with something like this: http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2013/01/modern-patchwork-glam-garlandsdrip-mashup-finally-finished.html
and make a small quilt. Let nothing go to waste! Looking at this picture I'm thinking "it's doing to take a lot of playing to turn this into something I like."

I'm, of course, still working on Lori Holt's Row A Long. Row Ten is little houses.http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-bee-in-my-bonnet-row-along-row.html I've cut some out and I started sewing one together but....I'm using my old sewing machine (the newer one is going to the shop today) it is just not as smoooooth pulling those little pieces in as the newer machine. So this row may wait until the repair of the newer, 12 years old verus 35 years old, machine.

Another goal for this month was to finish two UFO's. And that was going swimmingly (love that word!) until the machine said "Blech"!  So now I'm saying no new projects, not even Block Lotto, in February. I WILL get four UFO's done. Guess I had better buy some more batting. And then what about this cute Valentines quilt....http://homesweethideaway.blogspot.com/2011/01/rouenneries-valentine-quilt.html I mean I have lots of 2 1/2 squares pre-cut in my scraps, already sorted by color. How long could this take?

The other thing I'm struggling with is repair of my son's old quilt. I had originally made it with poly/cotton fabric. It was years ago and if you wanted solids, cotton solids of a quilting weight were hard to find, you used poly/cotton. I have been searching for a quality equal to what I had but all I've found is very, very lightweight. I even had a very nice person that I found on Ebay send me samples of what they had from New York. Still too light weight. So the search continues.

I hope you are being more productive than I am.

Enjoy!
Toni

New Rules for 2013?

It has been interesting reading my favorite bloggers ideas for what they will accomplish in 2013. Everyone has addressed their new "rules" and promised to finish more UFO's. The nice thing about quilt tops and projects is that they are easy to measure. To quantify. That is if you can find them all! I made a UFO list. I counted 47. Reading the list I know there are some missing. I have memories of them. I don't know if they are missing as in I donated them or if maybe they are smaller and are wrapped in a larger flimsey. I wasn't brave enough to unfold them all.

I just reread my blog posts from last year and found that I set "rules" in January. And then changed the rules in June and still did not meet my goals. It is sad to say that I only FINISHED six new projects and one UFO all of last year. How many new tops/flimseys did I complete?  I didn't count those, but I would safely guess at least 12. 12 new UFO's. How sad!

So.....I'm not writing a new set of rules. I'm not making promises. I'm not joining a Finish Along.  I'm just going to listen to that old commercial in my head. Let it become my mantra "JUST DO IT". I'll continue to do new quilts. How can you help it when there is so much inspiration out there? But I will have to finish, or donate, more, made with love, goodness, than I produce.

Now on to something else. I did not win Block Lotto in December. http://www.blocklotto.com/  Darn! But I has suspected I might not. I mean it is a gamble! But, as mentioned in an earlier post, I made extra blocks just for this eventuality. And here they are roughly thrown up on the design wall. Ignore the right hand side, there are rows of strips behind the blocks. http://www.flickr.com/photos/43767908@N08/8357217149/in/photostream
Sorry there is no picture on this post You will have to take an extra step to see the blocks. For whatever reason blogger isn't letting me browse and upload from my files.

As I had already made two cross type blocks this year I decided to set these blocks on the diagonal which means I will need to add setting triangles.  Hmmmm, when doing such a scrappy quilt, how do you decide what color to use for setting triangles. Anyone have suggestions? I would love to hear them.

Visit Judys Design Wall Monday for more inspiration!
http://www.patchworktimes.com/

Enjoy!
Toni