2018 Quilt Wrap Up

Here it is the last day of 2018.

I was thinking about the quilts I have finished this year.

I completed ten of them.

I also managed to meet some of my goals for 2018.

Most of my goals fell to the wayside. I'm OK with that.

I quilt for fun. I'm not worried about all the things I didn't accomplish on my list.

I'm excited for the things I learned and quilts that got done.

That's what counts.

I made collages of the finished quilts by size for a quilt parade.

They go from mini to full size.

Two mini quilts.

They are fun as always.

The one on the left is my favorite mini so far. 

Two table runners.

Baby gifts.

Technically the two on the right are doll quilts.

The pinwheel quilt is one of my favorite baby quilts.

Last but not least the full and twin sized quilts.

I finished the full sized blue jean quilt in January and we've used it all year long.

The twin quilt was my first weighted quilt.

That's not all that got done this year with quilts.

I have a few flimsy finishes as well.

A flimsy is a completed top that hasn't been quilted yet.

These should be celebrated too!

I finally finished this hexagon table runner top.

This is my oldest UFO (Unfinished Object).

I'm hoping to get it quilted this year.

This has been on the back burner for so long I almost forgot about this top.

It is probably the craziest one I've done but I love it!

It was part of a sew along I participated in the spring of this year.

It still needs batting and backing.

I have no ideas for the back yet.

I'm hopeful to get it quilted this year as well.

Last but not least is this crummy photo of part of the back of a quilt that's a gift.

I really don't want to spoil this one so I'm not showing the front.

I really like this one and it will be worth the wait.

It's currently on the hand quilting frame.

I'm hoping to have it done by May.

So that was my quilting adventure this year.

Except for the aforementioned three quilts,

I'm not really making many official goals for the coming year.

I'm keeping most of them to myself this time.

:)

Lil' Runner

 So I had this grand idea of making a little table runner and selling it.

I made it completely out of the stash and scraps I had on hand.

I didn't use a pattern and sort of threw things together.

It was quite simple to make.

It has two adorable snowmen on it.

Somehow I managed to quilt right through his eye... oops.

Cheerful little guy.

Simple holly fabric for the backing.

It came together so smoothly and quickly.

I only had one problem.

It appears to be wonky and won't lie flat.

I'm not exactly sure what caused it.

My suspicion is the fabric I used for the binding because it was fine before I added it.

So I'm keeping my little table runner.

That is fine with me.

I like the snowmen.

Finished project #26

12 1/4" x 23 1/4"

machine quilted

Million Little Pieces

It all started with a mouse.

A dead smelly mouse.

That's what prompted us to tear apart our walk-in closet.

The good news is that we found the offending deceased mouse and disposed of it.

Now that has lead to a deep cleaning of said smelly closet.

Upon this sidetracked adventure I decided to open my trunk.

It was a high school graduation present.

It's mostly full of my childhood things that were special to me.

There's a few other odd and end things that have made their way in there too.

I came across a small paper bag full of post cards.

Most of them were ones that I bought over the years.

A few of them, however, were from my dad and step mom.

Six post cards that lead to my heart melting into a million pieces.

My dad and Marilyn drove tandem for a while and they loved it.

I remembered getting these cards in the mail.

And the tears just flowed...

(Actually, the tears started on Thanksgiving and finding these sent me over the edge.

That's OK it's a good cry. I know it's temporary.)

Typically Papa and Marilyn were on the road for several weeks at a time.

Crisscrossing this great country of ours.

That thought wasn't lost on them.

They knew they were seeing many things most people don't get to see.

They loved seeing the different parts of the county.

Royals Stadium.

My dad was a Royals and Chiefs fan.

As a youth he spent many summers in Kansas City with his aunt.

He and I often commiserated on who had the worst team in baseball: Cubs or Royals.

Many years it was a toss up.

It was quite ironic that the Royals won the World Series the year he was killed.

Then the Cubs won the following year.

They loved sharing where they were.

Their job took them all over the place.

Six postcards. Six states.

Montana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, California.

Post cards.. before the days of email and cell phones.

They told of the weather. One even mentions 7 tornadoes!

They told what they were hauling (I almost always asked).

They hauled everything you can imagine.

One load was candy and another load was 3,500 sweet heart cups.

They hauled everything from ultra fancy toilets to stuffed animals to filter parts to food.

It was always fun to find out what they were hauling.

Aggravating Whoops

This is part of a quilt backing I'm piecing for yet another project.

Everything was going great until I started measuring for the next step.

That's what I get for admiring my nice straight seams and the fast progress I was making.

You know, pride before a fall.

The measuring didn't show any problems in length. Good for me!

I discovered something wrong with a piece of sashing. Bad for me.

That sashing happened to be a pieced shashing... and it's seam was facing the wrong side up.

Grrr.

Not only was it wrong side up but it was in the middle of this large section.

That meant I had to rip out four long seams to fix it.

Not a thrilling moment.

I'm still baffled as to how I managed to miss seeing it before this point!

Quite aggravating.

A close up of the offending seam.

It was a pretty looking seam, except for the fact you could see it from the front!

One of the boys said to leave it there.

I just couldn't do that. It would get caught on things.

So I grabbed a seam ripper and started ripping.

After a few tries I got pretty good at ripping several inches at a time in one motion.

It's more like unzipping a seam.

I didn't even poke any holes in my fabric!

It took a few hours but I had everything sewn back together like before...

only with all the fabric facing the right way!

I'm really hoping to have this backing done soon.

I need to get this project on the quilting frame ASAP.