One Monthly Goal: Nine Patch Baby Quilt

I am blessed to be a part of a family of quilters.  My grandmother, two aunts and my sister all share a common obsession, but what's truly lovely is that our shared art form takes all of us in different directions.  It's fairly easy to tell who's is who's just by colour choice and pattern.

My grandmother goes about her quilts a lot different than I do.  Piecing isn't my favourite part, so I do only as much as the quilt requires.  Grandmother, on the other hand, makes many many blocks and auditions them until she is happy.  The rest go in a box and then every couple of years a yummy parcel of treats arrives in my mail box.

I think that some year, I will devote a year to using these blocks - yes, a year.  There are hundreds.  You can click this link to see what I've already done with past Grandma Blocks.

Meanwhile, these 8 looked so particularly delicious that I pieced them together immediately (with a block I made which I hope doesn't look too out of place.

Since this isn't on my list, I want it finished very quickly and thus it is my One Monthly goal for April.  Preferably I want it done in the next two weeks so I can give it away immediately.

I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal

River in the Sky

A friend happened to be at my house while I was sandwiching this quilt.  She helpfully said "This looks like a river in the sky" and thus, the quilt has a better name than Blue Squirrel.

The same helpful quilt namer also suggested the quilt patterns.

This is a finish for #2017FAL - My original post is here.
This is also a finish for One Monthly Goal, my original post is here.

I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish-A-Long

One Monthly Goal: March

My March goal is to completely finish this squirrel that I started in 2016.  This UFO isn't that old, but I'll be glad to have it done because it was a spur of the moment afternoon thing that didn't really have a purpose other than curiosity - not that that's a bad reason to make a quilt 😃 .

I'm linking up to One Monthly Goal

Ruby Laces

Yes!  

This is a finish for #2017FAL - My original post is here.

I started this quilt fairly early on (about 2010).  I was given a shoe box full of strings.  I used the coloured strings to created God's Promise.  The neutrals were sewn into long strips and then cut into 60 degree diamonds.

After that many many fabrics were auditioned for the lattice.  I believe I even took a poll.  Burgundy won.

I made it into a top and promptly tossed in a box.  Last month I took a craftsy class - Angela's Dot-to-Dot quilting and realised this would be the perfect guinea pig for her techniques.  Just for posterity - here are all the fills I used on the edges - a different one in each square!

I'm linking up with:
One Monthly Goal and
Finish-A-Long
Crazy Mom Quilts

One Monthly Goal: February

 

I'm getting lots of help from the blogging world with my to-do lists this year.  It has really served to help motivate me!  Yay!

My goal for February is to finish this quilt.  I'm about half done the quilting which means there is lots left.  I was feeling ambitious when I started it.

I'm linking up to One Monthly Goal.

Little Charmer Wallet

People look at me funny when I say I don't sew, but really it's true!  I just used my zipper foot for the very first time!

The tutorial for this wallet can be found here by Clover and Violet.  Jennie was doing a tutorial for the 2012 Finish-a-Long.  Clover and Violet have a whole ton of similar free patterns here.

Since I've never tried to use a pattern like this before, I make some mistakes, but I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.  The little pocket on the bottom and the hair elastic / button combo veer from the pattern instructions.

The fabric is entirely a set of charm squares from Connecting Threads - the line is called Faux Burlap.

Finish-A-Long 2017

Every year we, as quilters, decide that this year is going to be the year of the UFO (or PHD - project half done).  Every year, the shear amount of projects is overwhelming.

Just recently, I found a support group!

Oh boy!!

Previously I had resolved to to finish 9 quilts this year.  Some of my PHDs go back to 2010.  For reference, I started quilting in 2005.

For the first quarter of 2017 here are the three I want to finish:

The top one has been languishing for 6 years. the bottom left is only two years old but the hand quilting pattern I chose is beating me senseless.  The other is a squirrel from last summer that would be nice to have out of the way.