14 in 2014 - Midyear Update

In January, I set a goal to finish 14 UFO quilts in 2014.  Since it's officially mid-year, I thought I would do a little progress report.

1.  Breath of Avignon - this is one of the first modern quilts I started, and I finished it in March. It was made from Breath of  Avignon charm squares by American Jane and white yardage.  The pattern is Avignon Picnic from Moda Bake Shop.  This one was started in May of 2010, so not quite 4 years start-to-finish.  Glad to have this one in the finished pile.  It's story is here.

2.  Basket Blocks - No progress.

3.  Citrus Quilts - This is the last of the four citrus quilts I made with blocks from virtual bees on Flickr.  You can read its story here.  It was finished in June.

4.  Single Girl - I finished the top of this long-time WIP in May.  This one really intimidated me, but in the end, it wasn't nearly as hard as I had imagined it to be.  I hope to maybe long-arm this one sometime this fall when I get back from my summer adventures.  You can read its story (so far) here.

5.  Starflower.  The pattern is by my own lovely daughter and the fabric is Beechwood Park by Janeen Morrison for Free Spirit.  I finished this one in January - my first finish of 2014. 

6.  Modern Maples - This one was made for the ECMQG Modern Maples Challenge.  The fabric is Juggling Summer by Zen Chic.  While it's called "Juggling Summer", it seemed more autumny to me, so I thought it was perfect for an autumny quilt.  I finished this one in April.  It's story is here.

7. Spot On.  The pattern is by Camille Roskelly from her book Simplify, and is one of the quilts that meets my goal to make every quilt in the book.  The fabric is also Juggling Summer by Zen Chic.  I finished this one in January.  You'll find its story here.

8.  Bookshelf Quilt - This one was finished in February.  Its story is here.

9.  Faux String Quilt - the pattern is Heximetry by Ali Winston.  The fabric was from the Stripes that Bind bundle from my favorite little quilt shop.  This one was finished in April.  Its story is here.

10.  Fat Quarter Shop Block of the Month Club quilt - No progress on this one yet.  I have all the blocks done and all the pieces of the finishing kit cut out.  There's still a lot of work to do, but in the end, it will be a lovely quilt.

11.  Grandmother's Flower Garden - And I'm pretty sure I haven't even touched this one yet.  I really need to get it off the shelf and play with it.  I don't know if I will finish this one this year, but I will certainly keep working on it.  Maybe - just maybe - I'll finish it... one day.

11.  Shiny Brite - This one was finished this month.  Its story is here.

12.  Christmas Quilt - No progress.

13.  2011 Craftsy BOM - No progress.

14.  Zig Zag Quilt - No progress.


So, I guess you could say I've finished 8-1/2 of the 14 quilts I hoped to finish in 2014.  Not a bad place to be at mid-year I guess.  I'm sure I won't make any progress at all in July, or through the middle of August, but hopefully, I can get the rest of these (with the possible exception of the GMFG) finished by year end.  Stay tuned!

The Last Citrus Quilt - A 14 in 2014 Finish!

At the ECMQG meeting a couple of weeks ago - just before I got so distracted by the Treasure Map Quilt - I managed to get four quilts sandwiched before I passed out from exhaustion.  This one is the first of those finishes.  And best of all, it's on my 14 in 2014 list, so I'm pretty excited!

The blocks were obtained from the Spring Citrus Surprise Swap on Flickr in 2011, plus at least a couple of rounds of the 3x6 Bee.

In my last post someone asked for better pictures of the individual blockss, so here we go!

This is the fourth quilt I've made out of these Citrus blocks and there variations.  You can see the others here and here and here and here.  As you can see, these blocks have been hanging out awhile.

I FMQ'd with just an all-over loops design.  I love loops because they go so fast.  You're done quilting almost before you know it.  I think this 48x60 quilt took about 1-1/2 hours to quilt.

And I really like sampler quilts.  It always amazes me how you can take all these disparate fabrics and patterns that have nothing in common except color, and combine them to make something that looks like it was planned.

In fact, it's kind of amazing, but several people actually used the same fabrics, which really helps tie the quilt together.

And then when I reorganized my studio a few weeks ago - after I had the quilt top together! - I found three more blocks.  That's a total of 54 blocks and 4 quilts from these citrus blocks!

And those extra blocks look pretty awesome on the back I think.  But I have to say, this just may be enough citrus quilts for me for awhile.

And since my fabrics are organized now - by color! - and visible, I was delighted to find the perfect binding fabric just sitting on the shelf waiting for me to put it to good use!  It was exactly what I wanted for the binding on this quilt.  It's really fabulous to find the perfect thing ready and available and just patiently waiting for the right project, especially when it's already in your stash.  (Kind of justifies hanging on to all this stuff, now doesn't it??)

So what pretty projects have you been playing with lately?

New Month - Old Goals

To show you how much I really don't want to sandwich quilts, I started a new quilt top last weekend.  It's part of Kira's Fresh Flowers QAL..  Of course she started on April 1, but I'm really not good at keeping up with quilt-alongs.  I don't seem to have the gumption to start when everyone else does or the patience to wait for all the instructions.  I seem to do much better when I start when it's almost over.  Somehow, I think I'm missing the point...  You know, the excitement of seeing everyone else's pictures on IG as they choose their fabrics, make their first cuts, sew their blocks step by step, and then finally piece the top.  Nope.  I just can't get on the ball to do that.

I'll post more on this quilt later, because I think it's going to be one of my all-time favorites.  In fact, I just love these fabrics. Most of them are right out of the scrap basket (sorted by color, if you must know - I fought it for a long time, but once I did it, I was hooked.)  Anyway, I went shopping last weekend because the drug store was having a sale, and who can resist 60% off???  And those aquas just grabbed me, and I had to use them right now so I started a new quilt. Makes sense, right??

If you haven't seen Kira's Fresh Flowers quilt along, you will want to stop by there and take a look.  I really think this is going to be a gorgeous quilt, and it's a lot of fun to make. 

Sadly, as I said, it's not helping me get my goals accomplished.  It's really time to consider exactly what I expect to accomplish in June.  And since I didn't finish anything in May...  AND since I'm going to go watch the grands at the end of the month...  I guess I'd better get on it.

I'm really hoping to get Shiny Brite quilted and finished.  That one shouldn't be too hard.

And I think I might be able to get the citrus quilt done.

That would get me caught up.  And I really don't want to rush through Single Girl.  I think I'd like to take my time with that one.

So now I have goals.  All of which start with sandwiching quilts.  Alice says I should have a sandwiching party.  Anyone game??   I'll fix dinner...  Guess what's on the menu?

The Merry, Merry Month of May -- a 14 in 2014 update

I honestly don't know whether to be satisfied with May's progress or upset that I didn't actually finish a single quilt in May (with the exception of a couple of baby quilts, that is.)  I am putting it off because of the fact that I just hate sandwiching the darned things.  I would probably actually quilt them if I had the quilt sandwiches ready to go. 

My biggest accomplishment for the month was that I did manage to get this Single Girl quilt top put together after only 4 years of procrastination.  That was huge!  And certainly not as difficult as I had thought it was going to be.

I also finished my Shiny Brite quilt top that I started last Thanksgiving. 

And this one was technically finished in April, but I can't decide whether to put borders on it to make it just a tad bigger and maybe tone down the colors just a little bit.  A white border surrounded by a soft orange or yellow might change the whole look of it.  Maybe let me know what you think in the comments.  This quilt will probably be a Project Linus quilt, so size isn't so much of a big deal.  It currently measures about 48" by 60".

And while technically I made this quilt in April, I put the borders on in May, so I guess this quilt top was also finished this month (although this one is not on my 14 in 2014 list).

And then there was my attempt at curved improv piecing.  I'll finish this one and probably donate it to Project Linus also.  This one was started in March, so it's not a 14 in 2014 finish either, but it is a May finish, as I took it apart and put it back together several times in May before I ended up with this result, which will just have to do.

 

I made this quilt top from start to finish in May.  Luckily, she will send this one off to be long-armed, and I'll probably get it back for binding.  Hopefully there will be more photos then.

And I reorganized my sewing space in May, which is honestly really helping my process.  I still have some more things to find homes for, but I am actually using things from my fabric stash now that I can finally see what I have. 

And here's the other stuff I managed to get done in May. 

Hopefully, I'll make myself sandwich some quilts and I'll have some quilty finishes for June.  Keep your fingers crossed for me, K?

Five Easy Pieces - Part the Third

Way back in the spring of 2011, I participated in the Spring Citrus Surprise Swap.  It was kind of an anything goes swap except for using citrus colors, so I received blocks of all kinds.

I created these blocks for my partners, and in return I got 10 blocks back.

I was so excited by this color palette that I used several rounds of the 3x6 bee to continue to collect blocks in these colors -

sometimes adding pink,

sometimes aqua, or both.  I ended up with more than 50 blocks. 

From all those blocks, last summer I made 3 totally different quilts.  I can honestly say that I liked them all.

These two went to Project Linus, and I kept the third one because Abby liked it best.

So now I have the 4th quilt top all put together.  I' ll get this one quilted soon and I think I will donate it to Project Linus as well.  It will be a delightfully colorful quilt for some little person, don't you think?

Five Easy Pieces - Part II

Well, I never did get around to posting on the blog this weekend, did I?  I didn't get around to putting away those last few little things in my room so I could take pictures, either.  Guess this weekend wasn't very productive.  With that in mind, I'll share the second quilt top in my Five Easy Pieces series.  This is another of the quilts in my 14 in 2014 goal, and it is also one that I took to Stash Bash.  It came home with four of the five rows completed, but not finished.  I had bought some Free Spirit Aqua solid for the sashing, but I only bought 1/2 yard....   If it had been 5/8 yard, I would have had this finished.  It took less than an hour to complete the sashing once I got home.

Photo courtesy of WestWood Acres

While I was in Utah last Thanksgiving, my daughter asked me if I would be the pattern tester for her new quilt design.  Never one to turn down the opportunity to cut fabric into tiny pieces and sew it back together in lovely designs, naturally I obliged. But we had a little miscommunication, and the fabric I used for the background wasn't what she intended and I ended up re-making the blocks and bringing the original blocks home with me to make my own quilt.   This one actually hasn't been sitting in the WIP basket very long.

The pattern is Shiny Brite, designed by my very talented daughter.  I love how the stars in the sashing echo the stars in the block centers.  It makes a lovely Christmas quilt, sort of reminiscent of Christmas baubles hanging on the tree, isn't it?  The fabric is Just for Fun by Creative Thursday for Andover Fabrics.  As mentioned above, I used Free Spirit Aqua for the sashing (since I didn't have any more of the background fabric) and some red dots I had laying around for the star cornerstones.  Even though Amanda used matching sashing in the original and I loved it, I really like the contrast.  The aqua is subtle, but adds a bit of pizzaz I think. 

I'm really happy with this quilt top.  Can't wait to get it quilted!