Past the January mid point

I have a finished quilt from 2015!  This is the Downton Abby mysterday that I made last year and I had it professionally quilted here in Arizona.  It is a decent size quilt... and way too heavy to push and shove through my Janome 6600.  The binding is on and it is on the 'completed' list.

This is my Summer in the Park top all ready to be quilted.  The pattern is from Missouri Star.  And a great way to use up some of my batik strips though still lots left in the container. 

And Bonnie Hunter's strip twist is also ready to be quilted and will travel home with me to my 'other' house in March. 

 

 

This is what my sewing area looked like this past week... so many projects in progress.  Sometimes I think I must have a touch of ADHD because I keep switching which block is being stitched up through the sewing machine.  I have my Canadiana rail fence strips being sewn and put together and some brown 9 patches are ready to go under the needle.  Step one and two of the split 9 patches using charms are on the ironing board and ready to be pressed while my dotty flying geese are also waiting for some time with the iron and then onto the cutting mat for trimming. In the last picture is a stack of 5" batik squares that I cut from my scrap bin.  I have a plan for those! 

 

My Canadiana rail fence is on the design wall with enough blocks made to start assembling the rows and add this quilt to the completed top pile.  A busy few weeks with the rainy, cooler weather.  Now tennis is taking up more of my time but I have projects lined up beside my machine so I can sew in small moments of time or when a boring football game is on tv and I have no interest in watching!

It is winter weather in Arizona and it rained all day Monday and Tuesday so.... sewing machine has been humming. I have so many projects on the go and am trying to work on two at a time so that some of them get to the finished flimsy stage and my project list is reduced. Once they are a flimsy, they are easier to pack in a suitcase for the return trip home.

I worked on my Summer in the Park Revamped from Missouri Star and have the top completed!  Needs quilting and binding but that will happen in the spring when I get back to my summer home and my home quilting system. I did reduce my brown strips container somewhat but the leftover strips are nicely organized into light, darks and mediums.

And I continue to work on my Summer in the Park original from Missouri star.  The blocks are coming together slowly and I have 24 more left to make as of last night. My container of batik strips does not seem to be any smaller?  But I did sort and organize my batiks into a container of larger pieces or fat quarters, a bag of small scraps and went through all the other pieces and cut them into 5" squares... because I have an idea that I saw on Missouri star yesterday.  More to come on that when some of these other projects in progress get finished to the flimsy stage! 

I have my strip twist (Bonnie Hunter, Quiltville) almost finished.  It is off the design wall and needs pressing and one more quilt top ready for the next step. My leftover green strips are neatly arranged in a container and not nearly as many left as when I started. That feels good! 

I have been keeping up with my 9 patch a day and the stack is getting larger.  Am thinking of how I will set these and probably should be doing either the alternate blocks or adding some more rounds to these blocks... still not sure but if I figured it out and did the next step, it would be a good thing.

My friend Darlene was asking about the split 9 patch so, of course, that motivated me to grab a charm pack and some of my 5" squares that I had in a container and now another project started the last week of 2015 and being worked on between my other projects that are on the go.  I seem to have lots of projects that I am working on all at once but my real goal was to get projects started and turn ideas into a quilting reality and have projects in containers, ready for me to just grab and stitch without too  much planning and cutting.  That way, once the sunshine and warmth returns to Arizona and I am back on the tennis courts for a few hours a day, I will be able to sit and stitch for a few minutes here and there and just turn on the machine and grab fabric from a container and just go for it!

Welcome 2016

I spent some time going over my lists of projects waiting in bags for me to start on them.  And I updated my list of current projects.  Then I went over my list of projects finished in 2015.  Everything is up to date and I have way too many projects that are UFO's and lots of current projects.  The good news is that the list of quilts waiting to be quilted is short but that will change in the next few months!

I did start a new batik summer in the park but forgot to take a picture.  Maybe you will see the progress tomorrow?  But the strip twist from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville site is growing on my design wall.  I pulled out all my 2.5" green strips from my strip bin and am slowly working on this (while working on other projects at the same time)

And I did manage to complete two flannel Christmas pillowcases by the end of yesterday.  A nice finish to 2015. 

Happy New Year to all my readers and hopefully a healthy and productive year for all!