New Year Goals

So I’ve been thinking..... yes I know, that a very dangerous thing to be doing, but still, I’ve been thinking. I have a ton of un-quilted tops in my studio that need to get done. They aren’t going to get done unless I schedule them in. And I know I’m not going to schedule them in unless I think about it ahead of time. So, that’s what I’ve been thinking. As with all thoughts, if I don’t write them down they will go wandering off all over the place never to be found again. So I’m going to write them down here where they will be corralled all in one place. I would like to think that I will be able to get one of my quilts done each month but I know that will be setting myself up for failure so I’ll do every other month. If I keep to it that will make 6 finishes at least.
The first one I really want to get done is a Judy Martin design called Three of a Kind. It’s been waiting since May of 2014 mostly because I haven’t figured out how to quilt it. And I still have no ideas. It won’t be the first on the list to quilt though because I need to get the East to West Mariner’s Compass  quilt that I’ve been working on lately finished and quilted in time for a trunk show in March.
The next one I want to do which has also been waiting a long time was a free design from Moda Bake Shop called Avignon Picnic. The top was finished in May of 2012. This was the best picture of it I could find.
Then there’s one that was designed by Judy Laquidara called Freeze Frame. This top has been finished for almost 7 years, My last blog post on it was April 30, 2011. That’s pretty bad. I think it would look great in Abbie’s room when it is finished.
Then there’s a scrappy 36 patch quilt.It’s been finished since July of 2013.
There’s this one called Black Tie Affair, which was in a Quiltmaker magazine. I originally made it for Abbie, but her Mommy decided she didn’t like it, so it has aged since then. It was finished in October of 2015, so it’s the youngest of all these quilts.
But the oldest of them all is this Round Robin quilt, done before I even was blogging. I think it may be anywhere from 10-15 years old. The hold up has been  how on earth do I quilt this. However, I think I have the mechanics of it figured out, if not the actual designs. And looking at the picture of it here, I’ve got an idea for design too.
So, there is is, in writing and saved on the blog which is a great place to go in order to reference old projects. If I didn’t have this blog I would have no idea of when any of these projects were started or finished. I am hoping to have the piecing on the East to West compass quilt finished before the end of this month and will load it to be quilted in February, perhaps before. I hope this works.

Miscellaneous hand stitching

We’ve had a busy week with family, so there hasn’t been a lot of actual sewing done. The knitting needles have been busy since I can do that while talking and not needing a lot of light. On the hand stitching front, there is another corner unit done for the compasses. And a big accomplishment has been finishing the binding on Friendship Chain. I normally do 2 1/2 inch strips folded in half for bindings which I then finish by machine. But this quilt needed a much narrower binding since I didn’t want to cut off any of the many points around the edge. And a narrow binding means hand stitching. I’m alternating between 2 different knitting projects. A pair of socks - one is finished and the second sock is started- 
and a shawl which I just started last night. 

My requested Christmas gift was a set of interchangeable circular knitting needles and the cords. This shawl is the first project I’m doing with them. I also treated myself to an order of new yarn which has yet to arrive. Three different sock weight yarns and some worsted weight yarn for a new sweater. All were on sale for really good prices. For the sweater it’s Malabrigo Rios which is a yarn I’ve used a few times before and really like. It’s this colour here - A really pretty combination of purples and pinks. I’m looking forward to it arriving. I noticed in the last couple of months working so intensely on hand stitching projects that I was missing knitting. So I’m fitting time for that into my days now. I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then it’s back to the knitting needles.

Compass quilt

I’m still working on the compasses quilt and making good progress. The decision about the outer curved geese that I thought I could leave till the end wound up being made much sooner than I thought it would. It started out sooner because of trying to fit making the curved geese and sewing them on a couple at a time when doing up that first half compass.



It turned out not to work very well doing it that way because they didn’t line up around the curve as nicely as I wanted. But trying it that way meant that I had to decide on fabric and colour sooner than I thought. I ended up going much darker than I thought I would in the fabric choice and it’s a good thing too. The yellow/gold of the earlier round of curved geese would have gotten lost near the grey of the outer background triangle.



So now all the half compasses are finished and I’m working on the navy curved geese.

It’s a fiddly process, but enjoyable none the less. Once the 16 curved geese are pieced together I will turn under the inner edge of the geese and appliqué them down to the half compass. Then I reverse appliqué the finished half compass unit to the grey triangle. All of this amounts to a lot of very slow stitching by hand. I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.
And since it’s unlikely that I will be posting anything before Christmas day arrives, I want to wish all who read hear a very merry Christmas!

East to West compasses quilt

I met the goal I set last week of finishing up the curved geese units and I also got them sewn onto the centre of the quilt.



Saturday I cut all the papers I need to English Paper Piece the next sections. I’m working on the large points of the half compasses that will go around what is already finished. I’m using the same fabrics for these compass points as what is in the centre compass. Past that point, I don’t know if the final round of curved geese will also be the gold colour or if I will make them brighter. Right now I’m leaning towards not introducing any new fabrics or colours, but I’ll make a final decision once I get there. If they aren’t gold, they would likely be a teal like the medium points. I’ll be linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

I went to a quilt till you wilt day with the guild on Saturday. But I cheated. The day started at 9 am and was to go until 9 pm.  But I didn’t get there until 1:30. We all know my difficulty with mornings. Even so, I got a lot accomplished. I actually finished a quilt top. I started it at the quilt till you wilt day 2 years ago and then it sat untouched for the most part, until today. It’s an I Spy quilt for our grand daughter Abbie. It just might be done in time for her birthday in January. It needs a backing put together for it and quilting and binding.

I also made up 6 Friendship Star blocks for the comfort quilts our guild makes. I don’t have pictures of those. After all that was done, there was still time to do some hand stitching. Two arcs are finished and the third well under way. This is what they look like up against the compass.

 I like it! They are stitching up pretty quickly. The last 2 might be done by next week and then I can start on the outer half compasses which will also have curved geese around the outside which will unify the whole thing. I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’ve finished Friendship Chain, the top that is. It’s not quilted yet. I still have customer quilts to get done on the long arm before Christmas before I can load one of my own. In the meantime, I’m working on another hand piecing project. Last August I sewed up this Mariner’s Compass. I wanted to do more with this, as the finished compass here is only 16 inches. Not really big enough to do anything with it, besides a pillow, and I don’t need any more of those. So I played around in Electric Quilt 7 and come up with a design that I like. I’ve shared it before.  The colours aren’t the same as what I’m using, and the background fabrics are a bit out of scale, but the layout idea is there. I’ve gotten one of the curved geese arcs almost finished. The pieces are quite small, so they stitch together very quickly. I’m using English Paper Piecing to do these. The arcs will be reverse appliquéd into background triangles. I’ll be linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I am finishing Friendship Chain. It is so very very close now. The last of the chains are done and all sewn together into the last of the rows. The last row is now in the process of being stitched in place.
My friend Charlene and I are doing a trunk show about English Paper Piecing on Thursday evening for our guild. I so very much want to have this done by then so I’m putting on a push to get the last 2 very long seams done by then. I have plans to spend the rest of the afternoon working on that while watching Inspector Morse mysteries.

Once I’ve finished with stitching all this together I need to finish writing up the pattern for this design. Before I can do that I need to stitch up a few extra units so that I can take photos of the process for stitching together the units for the last row. Once that’s done I can finish writing it up and get it to Charlene, who in addition to doing trunk shows with me also graciously does editing on my patterns. I am so blessed to have so many good friends. This quilt is named in honour of them. One of my friends, Susan, who I’ve known for over 30 years now, left a comment on the blog a few weeks ago. I loved the comment so much that it has been incorporated into the introduction for the pattern. She said, and I quote: "This friendship chain quilt is varied and unique not unlike each of our friends who bring a mixture of personalities and colour to our lives.”

So with that goal in mind, I’m going to finish this post and get it linked up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching