Finish-A-Long 2019

  

Sure, I'm in! A challenge to finish UFOs. It is made for me. I counted approx 67 quilt tops alone on January 1st. As of January 10th, I have already completed 5 of them, but they don't count for this challenge so I will list what I would like to accomplish after January 10th. I have 4x4 wire cubbies (16 cubbies) filled with flimsies. These are the projects from 8 of those cubbies.

These are tops that have been sitting waiting for quilting for anywhere up to 20 years.  Due to my ongoing back challenges, I will be quilting these in the quickest method possible - medium meander.

1. Juvenile eye spy 70x98 - Finished 1/16/19

2. Seahorse Strippie  40x54 - Finished 1/18/19  This has been gifted to Harleigh

3. Pink and Green Tumbler 48x66

4. Pink Railfence 60x60

5. Pink and Purples Tumbler 52x73 - Finished 2/26/19

 6. Batik Alternating Jelly Roll  56x70 - Finished 2/8/19

7. Pink Alternating Jelly Roll  51x58 - Finished 1/23/19

8. Green Pez 50x67 - Finished 1/19/19

 9. Pink and Green Tumbler 2   52x68 - Finished 2/6/19

10. Batik Alternating Jelly Roll 2  56x62

11. Triangles reused 44x49 - Finished 2/10/19

12. Jungle Rainbow 48x53 - Finished 2/26/19

13. Pink Alternating Jelly Roll 2  51x58

14. Bright Happy Blocks   45x63 - Finished 2/1/19

15. Neutral  88x104

16. Scrappy Pineapple Blossom  62x70 - Finished 1/28/19

17. Rainbow Pinwheels

18. Surrounded Nine Patch  53x68 - Finished 2/27/19

19. Disappearing Nine Patch

20. Bright Juvenile Strings   40x58

21. Blue Alternating Nine Patch

22. Yellow Irish Chain

23. 1930 Repro Square in Square

24. Random Charms   56x72

25. Flannel Red Checkerboard  42x52

26. Flannel Log Cabin   56x68 - Finished 3/11/19

27. Blue Offset Logcabin

28. Orange Strippie   41x54 - Finished 3/1/19

29. Orange Strippie 2   41x54 - Finished 3/4/19

30. Batik Charms   58x64 - Finished 1/29/19

32. Black PreCut Charm Challenge Checkerboard - 44x58 - Finished 3/30/19

33. Purple PreCut Charm Challenge   Will be 66x80 - Finished 3/17/19

34. Pastel Roman Stripes   33x44 - Finished 1/31/19

Civil War Finish #5

Quilt top finish #5 is 64x80 and made of 5" Civil War charms. I will update this post when I gather more information about who pieced the top.

Five done, 62 tops to go!! 

2019 Finish #4 and Charm top

Finish #4 is Nana's Garden, it was a Quilt in a Day block. This was a block swap from 2003. This top was assembled soon after that but sat in the "too be quilted" pile waiting for the time needed to quilt feathers in each neutral space.  Never happened and now I wanted it quickly quilted and done. So it is. This was 68x84.

Nana's Garden

This quilt I'm calling Charmed Checkerboard. In an attempt  to use some of my estimated 9000 5" charms I've joined the Precut Party over at Stashbusters/Heartstring. I did the quilt top as a Leader/Ender. Only used 44 charms. 8966 to go.  Still needs to be quilted.

PreCut Party

I have found a wonderful cause to send bed sized quilts to: The Carolina Quilt Project. I will be focusing on quilting bed sized tops from the remaining 63 tops in the pile.

2019 Finishes #2 and #3

On January 1st I guesstimated that I had 40+ quilt tops waiting to be quilted. The next day I took a quick count of those that were "where the were supposed to be while waiting to be quilted". The count was now at 55. Then two days later I had found 12 more in closets and totes. So, currently, the number is at 67.

As so many people do at the beginning of the year I decided to set some basic quilting goals for the year.

1. Quilt these tops
2. Buy no unnecessary fabric
3. Work on UFOs
4. Use the stash
5. Participate in PreCut Party
6. Declutter the Sewing Room

With those goals in mind I have made a list of daily tasks to aim to accomplish. Having several different tasks each day helps to keep my back healthier. It won't happen everyday but here's to hoping it happens a lot.

1. Mount or quilt a top every day - one day mount, next day quilt
2. Spend 1 hour at sewing machine working on UFO
3. Do precut project as L/E
4. Declutter/cleanup one trouble spot
5. Bind 

So far the goals have helped me stay focused and on the tasks that I want. I have now completed two more tops. Finish #2 is from a block swap in 2003 (I think). We called it Chicken Feed but I can't find any blocks online with that name. The top was probably pieced maybe 10 years ago. Now it is done.

Chicken Feed 2002

Finish #3 is a Triple Four Patch, also a block swap. This was from 2005. The top was probably pieced around 5 years ago and now it's finished.

Triple Four Patch 2005

The current count of flimsies is now 64!!

First Finish in 2019

I have my first finish for 2019. This is a simple charm quilt, set on point. It was meant for my Personal Trainer for Christmas but a little surgery on my shoulder set me back a few weeks. No big deal on the shoulder but no long arm use for a few weeks. So it is now finished. She was married in October and her husband's groomsmen wore red plaid shirts. I thought this would be appropriate. Hope she likes it.

Red Plaid

Patriotic Quilt

Donated this quilt to Piecemakers Guild. 

They are doing a drive to collect quilts for Female Soldiers: Forgotten Heroes. It is "Connecticut’s first and only community-based transitional home exclusively for homeless female Veterans and their young children. Housed at the Nicholas A. Madaras Home, FS:FH provides ten beds for female Veterans and five beds, when available, for their young children. The PFC Nicholas A. Madaras Home is named in tribute to a young soldier from Wilton, CT."

When I heard about this drive went in hunt of patriotic fabric in my stash. What I found was 17 Heartstring blocks and all the precut strings to make the 31 blocks to make a quilt set 6x8. Perfect! Another UFO now finished and warming someone deserving instead.

Ann's Place

This week I was pleased to be able to make a small donation to Ann's Place for their Festival of Trees fundraising weekend. Their mission is to "provide help and hope to individuals and their loved ones living with cancer with a host of free professional services aimed at improving quality of life during and after cancer."  

Lap sized Christmas quit. Kit from Christie's Quilting Boutique. 

I made about 40 key fobs.

Quilt tops to charity

The wonderful donation of fabrics that we received has slowly been turning into quilt tops. Five more tops are finished and along with backs and bindings were mailed to Sarah Craig at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.   That makes 14 quilt tops so far. I'd say I'm almost half way thru the fabric.

I'm so disappointed by the terrible pictures but we have had non stop rain for weeks so these pics were taken one day when it finally stopped raining but we were totally in the shade.

17 H2H quilts

Sarah, over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, is running her annual Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge. I decided to take on the challenge again and got a few of the ladies in my Wednesday quilting group, Quilters with Heart, to join me. We got some of our quilt tops finished for Emily's Quilty Hugs, and also made some tops for Victoria's Quilts Canada.

For Emily:
Some of these tops have been waiting for their turn on the long arm for years!

At least ten years waiting to be quilted.

This was a new project.

This was also about ten years waiting it's turn on the long arm.

This quilt top was made many years ago by one of our friends who has since moved into an assisted living home and we miss her very much.

These next four quilts I made (and yes the blue one has been quilted and bound since the picture) and the other ladies in our group bound them for me.

For Victoria's Quilts Canada: 

We received a donation of four large tubs of beautiful fabric. What a blessing but where to put it all? We saw Sarah's challenge as an opportunity to quickly stitch up some quilt tops, use some of this donated fabric but not add to the huge pile of tops waiting to be quilted.

The first thing we did with the donated fabric was make color piles and then color groupings. Then we cut the first few groupings into tumblers on the GO. The next couple of groupings became 2.5" strips. There are many many more quilt tops to be made but below are the completed tops so far.

These last five I had cut and prepped ahead of time and then sewed up over a rainy weekend.

Thank you to Sarah for the challenge and motivation to get these 17 quilts and tops finished and out my door. It's been fun. Please check out the other wonderful quilts made for these worthy causes.

SaveSave

Bear Tracks

 So excited to finish another very old UFO. The bear paw blocks were made in a Common Threads swap in 2002. They sat for a very long time and I finally found a pattern I love so at a poconos retreat they were pieced into a top about 4-5 years ago. Thanks to quilt-along challenges I have now gotten it quilted and bound. I am thrilled.
My new favorite quilt.

The pattern is called Bear Tracks
http://www.gladcreationsquilts.com/shop/Glad-Creations-Patterns/p/Bear-Tracks-sku-GC165.htm

A Quilt of Memories

Started four years ago when Dad was first in the hospital and then sent home with "six weeks to live". I spent most of my nights staying at the house and brought my sewing machine for the down time. When 6 weeks turned out to be only 18 days, I packed up the project and didn't look at it again for 3 years. I finished the top last winter and have now finally got it done/done, thanks to a quilt along challenge.

I had seen a picture of this quilt somewhere and copied it. I have since learned that it is from Evelyn Sloppy's Strips and Strings book. I don't know if my measurements are anywhere close to hers but it certainly looks the same.