Plans and Reviews

The project plans for August are taking shape, and I'm eager to share them with you. Mostly, the plans for the month will involve quilts I've had on my yearly goals list and projects "uncovered" when I went digging for that black/gray fabric back in June.

Let's just review those '23 goals, and see how we're doing...

The print is a bit small, but if you click on the list it can be enlarged. It is also linked to my original goals post back in January.

Our tendency as quilters is to fixate on how miserably we are doing at completing our goals, and I could certainly do that, too. However, I am pleased to say that I've been successful in staying on task as far as the goals list is concerned. Now, I may not be on track to complete very many items, but I am sticking to the list - mostly.

I attribute one simple thing to my staying on task - Post-It Notes. I often make the list and then forget the list - I post it in January and then - out of sight, out of mind - I don't see it again unless I think to go back to look at it.

This year, I wrote several of my most-want-to-make quilts on notes and plastered them to my machine. Works like a charm! I see every single day the things I most want to do!

In fact, two of those notes have been removed because they are done! These two notes have been removed from the front of my machine.

 Below is the pine tree quilt. It's inspiration was our trip through the Rocky Mountains and those never-ending, awe-inspiring vistas of jagged, tree-lined mountains.

Pine Tree Quilt, aka Alpine, was finished in late June. It still needs to be quilted, of course.

 The other "finish" took a bit of a turn and became two quilts. I thought I wanted to use my Wm. Morris remnants to make a diamond quilt. But when I pulled out the remnant tub, I realized that I mostly had darker pieces left, and I didn't think the diamond pattern would suit. So I put the Morris fabric aside, and pulled a gazillion floral prints. That became my diamond quilt which I started in Florida back in January-February. I finished the flimsy in April (I think) but I don't see a post about it in my archives. *smh*

To use the WM remnants, I decided to make economy blocks. This suited me, and I proceeded. I have no post that I can find in which I shared this flimsy - I don't even have it on my list of quilts for '23. (I tell you, I am failing big time at keeping this blog up to date and accurate!)

I need to get this flimsy out and do a proper photo shoot of it - I don't think this is the full flimsy, but it's the best I can find. *again,smh*

Anyway, I took one idea - WM diamonds - and turned it into two quilts. 

The one I'm currently working on is  Posies and Polka Dots. I last actively worked on this in November. Then I put it away for the holidays and the Florida months, and basically have only dreamed of it since. How nice to have this back under the needle!

The two pics above show different layouts - can you detect the difference? I couldn't decide which version I wanted, so I have spent a lot of time thinking about this while I make more blocks. I needed more of all three varieties, and that has been very satisfying to work on.

I have rambled enough. I do have an August wrap-up collage to bring tomorrow, plus I'll talk more about those Post-It Notes  -  and who knows what else??

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A New William Morris Project

Exciting news! Finally, I have begun a new project! It has been months since I've been able to say that.

For the longest time, I've wanted to use my rather large stash of William Morris fabrics. The fact that I already have made two quilts with these fabrics, notwithstanding, I sure would love to use the leftovers someway, somehow.

I made Lil' Orphan Scrappy last year. It was a joy to make; it awaits quilting, as most of my quilts do. Here is a pretty decent picture of my flimsy. 

It was a bit harder to locate the first William Morris quilt - Tapestry; I had to go all the way back to 2014 to come up with this one.

Last fall, I nearly began a third quilt with my William Morris fabrics, which by then had been augmented with a donation of WM scraps from quilter friend Becky. Just before making my first cut, I decided that the diamond quilt I had planned to make would just not be very pleasing. My WM stash was dark - lots of navy, black, green and gray. I went a different direction on the diamond quilt, and put the WM fabric aside.

As so many quilters do, I collect quilt pictures from social media. When I come across one that really appeals to me, I save pics in a file and I frequently peruse the pictures saved there. Based on colors alone, one pic I'd saved made with Betsy Chutchian fabrics would translate very well with my WM fabrics. Here's the inspiration pic.

Photo borrowed from Pinterest.

Now, I have even had a further augmentation of my WM stash! Quilter friend Helen brought me more scraps last week! She had some lighter, brighter colors - a welcome addition.

So this week, I have made economy blocks out of my WM stash. Not having a pattern, I made a few trial blocks to get my sizes right. Eventually, I had my plan and have been happily stitching away with these beautiful fabrics.

Those additional colors from Helen have really made a difference in how this quilt looks, and I really am liking it. The inspiration quilt is gorgeous, but I like the version my quilt is becoming. 

My blocks are 5.5" unfinished, so I will need far more blocks than these 30 in order to have a decent quilt top. I have plenty more fabrics to cut and add in, so more blocks will not be a problem. 

 Hang around for awhile! You know I will be bringing updates on my progress. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

William Morris Flimsy

Big reveal! Big freakin' deal! For whatever reason, finishing this quilt top became almost too much for me. Maybe it was knowing that my star points and triangle tips were "off" or maybe it was just so darn big - whatever, I really had to give myself a stern pep talk to get back to the sewing machine to finish it.

It has been laid out on the guest bed for most of this month. The troubles were many. First, I ran short of light fabrics, but determined to stay true to my promise to use the existing stash. Then, I found I hadn't made enough star blocks, so reverse myself and finish up 7 more of those. The outer borders which appear at the top and bottom needed to be made with lights and darks in specific order, so with limited lights, I managed to figure that out. Then the sheer size was daunting, too. 

 

Well, it is now done and hanging on the quilting room wall. I do love it, too. I see a lot of blue, which does not bother me in the least. I pick out some stars that seem pretty, and then I find others that are equally pretty. Gosh, I am glad I made this!

The pattern is Lil' Orphan Scrappy by Lynn Wilder of Sewn Wild Oaks. I bought it 3-4 years ago, and have listed it as a goal for most of those years. This year, it again appeared on my list as did a goal of using my existing William Morris stash. When it occurred to me to join those two goals into one, a great light bulb came on! What a beauty this would be. And, finally the goal is accomplished in 2022. Feels like a huge accomplishment.

Here are a few more random photos. And here are a couple of my earlier posts about making this quilt - here and here.

Can you believe I still have a lot of William Morris fabric left? How can a person make such a big quilt and not use more of this fabric? (I ask rhetorically, heh-heh.)

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Counting Counts

Welcome to the first day of fall!

 

Don't ask me how I managed to do it, but somehow I miscounted the number of stars I made for my William Morris quilt. I was blazing through the construction of this quilt top when I realized I was short by about 6 blocks.

I have the quilt laid out on the guest bed. I've been working my way from the foot of the bed to the top of the bed, and row by row, I am rearranging blocks and pinning rows and checking for the proper zig-zag around the border.

I have the bottom border and the next four rows sewn together. I have the next four rows pinned together.

This was all done on Monday and Tuesday. It was Tuesday night that I realized I was running short on blocks! What!?? I was sure I had counted correctly. But short, so apparently I messed up somewhere.

Initially, I was just going to leave off that last row, sew the border on and call it finished. But the more I thought about it the more I wanted it done right. I still have William Morris fabric in the stash. Just make the necessary blocks and get'er done!

So I spent yesterday making blocks. It was pretty straightforward work, but slow. I needed six, decided to make 7 just to have an extra one to plug in somewhere if variety warranted it. I got three made. Slow going, indeed.
 

This morning I made the other 4. Because I had them all planned out and trimmed, the sewing went so much faster. But going faster isn't necessarily good because if you study those 4 blocks in the photo above, a glaring error awaits my discovery. At the point I was taking the picture, I hadn't yet seen it.

I was preparing to show off individual blocks - some of the ugliest; some of the prettiest. Here's my nomination for ugliest.

This is what you get when you are using what has already been cut, and the supply is limited. Garbage blocks are easily hidden in a quilt as busy as this one promises to be.

This is my nomination for prettiest. I snapped the picture, then saw the mistake. Aaaggghhh! How in the world did this slip past me? Because I was speeding through with my chain piecing - a block got twisted the wrong way in the process.

I grabbed the seam ripper and took the block apart. It didn't take long to set things right.

 

Much better! Worth the extra effort to correct the mistake, but such an aggravation so near to the end of the quilt-making process.

I now have the final row in place. All the border blocks are arranged the way I want. Now I sew. Blocks become rows, rows become an ever-growing quilt top. I'm liking it!

It's not very likely that I will finish this top in time for show and tell tomorrow morning, but that's okay. It was a self-imposed deadline, and one that kick-started me to finish this quilt. Truth: I need a kick in the seat every now and then. 

Have a great rest of your first day of fall!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Plans for the Week

I've spent the morning watching coverage of the Queen's funeral. What a great show of respect. I was moved to tears more than once. 

And now I need to redirect my focus to figure out what will be my week's priorities. On Friday we have Frankfort Girls, so it is always nice to have a finish to share with those sweet gals. Maybe I can make that happen this week.

If I find myself being super-industrious, I could have this William Morris top put together.

I haven't touched this green/cream snowball project in about a month. This would be super-easy and fast to stitch together.

Any available stitching time over this past weekend was devoted to hexies. I am really motivated to make more of these, yet I don't have a precise plan at this time. 

Rather than to work on any of the other starts I've made in recent days, I think I MUST focus on William Morris and Snowball.

Check back in with me through the week to see how effectively I maintain my discipline. I really will try!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

William Morris

Don't forget about William! 

Yes, I am still plugging away on my scrappy William Morris quilt, and it has been really tricky since running so low on light/neutrals. I must just accept that this quilt will look very little like the Lynn Wilder quilt Lil' Orphan Scrappy, and I must be okay with this! I am okay with this. My quilt will be lovely, and I am using a big ol' collection of scraps. Win-win.

In the photo above, you see several things I will note. First, some blocks have outer triangles that are dark, some have outer triangles that are light, and one has a mix of light, medium and dark. I will attempt to place the blocks in such a way as to make them look evenly sprinkled throughout the quilt. 

Another thing to note is the outer border - that pointy, zig-zag look. I am trying really hard to maintain this around the entire quilt, thus keeping at least this one feature true to the original.

I've made bunch of border units with the 3 neutrals I still have. They are in short supply! Now I am beginning to stitch the quilt top together. I have it laid out on our guest bed and move blocks around to get the look I want. 

More than likely there will be a gazillion little 'tweaks' as I sew the top together, but I vow that this quilt will be finished with the existing stash. And it will be a beauty. These fabrics are just so freaking luscious!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Missing: Mental Focus

I swear, some days I totally lack an attention span. Most days, maybe. Last Wednesday had me absolutely flitting from project to project, idea to idea and never accomplishing much of anything.

I even mentioned in this post that my willingness to chase squirrels has been in overdrive - I have been doing quite a lot of chasing. 

Here's a recap of last week, as best as I can recall.

SUNDAY - Stitch on some hexies; cut fabric for more hexie-making; prepare little project box for trip.

MONDAY and TUESDAY - In the car; stitching hexies.

WEDNESDAY - Flitting; I couldn't land on anything! Work (minimally) on William Morris quilt; work (minimally) on hexies; clean just one spot in the quilting room; sort patterns; print more patterns (free one from online); think about new projects - tree quilt, leaf quilt, Kaffe quilt, jelly roll quilt and others; scold myself for ignoring Lake Effect; scold myself for ignoring long-arming; scold myself ignoring 9-patch/snowball quilt. 

Whew! Exhausting all that flitting!

THURSDAY - Realize that tomorrow is a Frankfort Girls day, and I don't have a finish to share! Finally decide to put a quilt on the long arm; fix horrible tension issues; quilt the 3-yard quilt; affix the binding.

FRIDAY - Go to quilting (9-noon) at Sheryll's; stitch binding; at home, load a quilt on the long arm; again face tension issues; grumble and dither over this ever-recurring issue; work on William Morris; work on hexies.

Now that I have written it all out, it looks like only Wednesday was a total squirrel day. Add in parts of Thursday (morning) and Friday (afternoon). Why does it seem as though the entire week was like that?

Brains. Who knows how they work?

I have a number of projects to show you, but since we had quilting with the Frankfort Girls on Friday, let me show you Terry's stunning patriotic quilt. I love this, and it looks so simple! She says she is done with patriotic sewing and is officially moving on into fall sewing. I like the way she thinks!

Happy Quilting, Friends!