Finishes For 2011

First thing I finished for 2011 was a little mug rug.  See the date on the picture, didn't happen until February as I was busy trying to complete the quilt in the next picture.

The biggest finish I had was my king size quilt.  I made this longer and wider than I could quilt on my longarm quilting machine. 

Next were 4 little table toppers.  One I gave to my sister in law and one I kept for myself.  The other two went to friends.

I then make a rag quilt for our preschool classroom.  We use this outside to sit on so we can read books.

The jigsaw quilt went to my grandson's preschool teacher that retired.  

This little quilt was made from 1970's flannel.  It was scraps I had leftover after making pj's for myself.

Three table runners made for our quilt retreat.  I made up the simple pattern.  Fun to do!

Twenty coasters I made for a Breast Cancer Survior's dinner.

And last, but not least, the Advent Calendar I made for my grandson and granddaugher.

Not bad, but not near as many finishes as I did in 2010.  I finished many tops but didn't get them to the quilt stage.  So stay tune for tomorrow's post......

Slow

I know I have been doing other things in addition to sewing, but these quarter square triangles are going SLOW.   I know I've been slow at sewing them as I want to be sure that I don't have to redo any of them.  (I have had to redo about 3.)  At first I was pinning, then I gave up with that and have been winging it.

I also have been trimming off the dog ears as I go as I don't want to do them ALL at the end.  I have 60 totally ready to go. They are at the top of this picture. The pile next to the rotary cut still needs to be done.
 

 All of these are waiting to be matched up and sewn.  Slow and steady wins the race!

Soon

Soon all of my little halves of quarter square triangles will be little squares!  And this is what they will become.

I still have lots of halves to put together and I thought of making blocks as I get 4 done.  Then I realized I wanted to be sure there was lots of variety among the blocks.  So I'm sewing them together like step 1 and will wait until I get to step 6 to finish them up.

I'm really thinking it would be so cool to make a scrappy Ohio Star quilt.  This method is so easy.

300

I have 300 of my quarter square triangles sewn together and pressed.
The last 148 are sitting by my sewing machine and on my cutting table.

I really am a messy sewer.  I have fabric all over the sewing room as I'm trying to do many things at once.  I had the great idea to cut red strings as I was cutting my black and light prints.  Yesterday I was going through 5 inch squares that I already have cut, my bins of black, whites/lights, and reds, and my scrap bag of fabric to be cut.  I'm sure that's why it takes me so long to finish a quilt.  I jump all over, rather ADHD like.  Part of it, I know, is because I'm so excited and the other part is because I really want to catch up.  Does this ever happen to you?  Does your sewing room look like it's been ransacked by someone?  Heavens know you wouldn't do that to yourself on purpose!!!! 

Merry Christmas!

Random

My husband and I watched a movie last night so I worked on this flower and finished it!  It's so nice to have some hand work as I have a hard time just watching sometimes.  It really depends on the movie.

I also have 100 half units done for Part 1 of the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt.  Only 348 to go!  LOL

More

I have 25 more little halves cut out and sewn.  A total of 75.  Yeah!  I did get even more blacks and lights out and cut last night.  I want to have as much variety as possible in this scrap quilt.  Plus it's nice to get some of that old fabric out of the bins, cut up for use and ready to go.

I've been cutting extra 1.5 inch strips as I want to make a log cabin quilt next year.  It's one of those quilts that on my list of patterns I'd like to make.  I'll make them like I did my string blocks, one here and one there, whenever I'm at a lost as to what to do for 15 minutes.  And I'm going to make another string quilt too.  Those are so much fun to do.