It feels like a long month? Still one more week to accomplish projects.

I made three toddler quilts with the layer cake of Thomas the train along with some happy blocks, the Heartstrings challenge for January.  These will get quilted and bound in late spring when I am back in my 'other' home.  I decided on 40 x 50 for the size because I wasn't so sure that parents of a newborn  would appreciate Thomas the Train?  I remember my living room floor being one massive train track when my grandsons were preschool age through to 7 or 8 years of age. They loved creating the tracks and playing with the trains. 

I ended up making two of these butterfly quilts with the fabric purchased at the garage sale a few weeks ago and I have used it up. 

I started cutting out another 3 yard quilt called Jigsaw and the fabrics are from a purchased kit of batiks.  One great thing about batiks is that they don't ravel. 

 The colours came out strange in this picture but I think the lighting was poor late in the evening. 

 

I am working on a Topsy Turvy quilt but decided I want to make it larger and am having to find some alternate fabrics for the centers of the blocks. 

I made this this Illusions quilt from a 3 yard quilt pattern.  It wasn't large enough to I scrapped the  plan in the pattern for a border and made more blocks.  Some are pieced in a strange way to use up my bits.  Nothing was leftover when I finished. 

This is the 5 yard quilt from Connecting Threads and I did change the pattern by making an extra row of blocks and then adding a border to get it a little longer and added wider border on the sides to make it wider.

I dug out some bento blocks that were in the closet on a hanger and there are 17 of them.  I am going to make 13 more and will have enough to make a quilt of Valour.  And, it will count as my Rainbow scrap challenge blocks for January using red fabrics.

I have been productive for the last 10 days. I do think that if I stopped and posted more often, I wouldn't be complaining to myself how long it takes me to write a blogpost! On to my last week in January and will see how much I can finish this month. 

January 13th but it is Thursday - maybe a lucky day for me?

 I am impressed with myself because I am writing a blog post one week after the last one and I actually got a few more projects started with minimal finished.  I worked diligently on my solid colours jelly roll strip to create stratas for the next block/quilt that I making.  I have no idea how many I need or will use but stitched up all of the strips into sets of four.

And, I thought I would lay them out ready to sew.  And I did stitch them.  BIG MISTAKE!

This is how they are supposed to look!  Ooops... a lot of frogstitching while watching back episodes of Yellowstone (yes, we are hooked on the series).

I still have a few more blocks to add the white background to but am laying them out carefully and double checking before the blocks get stitched.  I am NOT going to make the same mistake twice!

The Cool Water quilt finally got a good pressing and has been folded and set aside for the suitcase trip home in March. 

I did make my PBJ (Patterns by Jen) block for January.  The theme this year is spicy and this month it is saffron.  I didn't know saffron was orange although, I guess I should have since I used to cook with it frequently after a trip to Spain in the 1970's.  I can still picture the small, expensive tube of saffron threads that I cherished and used carefully. I am making two blocks, reversed light and darks.

I bought some fabric from a sad garage sale last week.  It is sad because dear Sally cannot return to live here in our village and must stay home for dialysis.  Sally was someone I knew from quilting and will miss her dearly... she had a great smile!  Her friends decided to sell off her fabrics and there was a lot of flannel... wow, loads of it but I have no way to get it from here to home easily so had to pass by that great deal.  However, I was looking for a print that would work for preemie and toddler quilts and these butterflies were perfect.  I pulled out some coordinating fabrics and began cutting squares and strips (because I only have 3 other projects on the go at the moment?).  

This is what I am planning with this fabric.

My stack of Happy Blocks is finished.  Now I have to decide on a size for the quilt tops and should I add in some of my leftover 10" blocks of Thomas the Train fabrics to the quilts?

I continued to make more of these blocks because I wanted the quilt a little larger.

Because this is a 5 yard quilt, there is still some fabric left because the original pattern had 2 borders.  I think I will add one border to get the quilt a little wider and longer.  These are 8" blocks finished and I would like it to be at least 55" wide. 

So, stitching continues with an hour here and another half hour there.  Every bit counts and I am progressing slowly but of course, far more ideas than time.

A New Year - do we dare to say Happy New Year?

 We need to think positive and hope that all those who are suffering with health issues, covid or not, and those that are struggling financially because of the pandemic, as well as those who endured weather disasters,  will start to see an improvement as we work our way through the coming months.  I wish for all my friends and family to be able to hang in there and that small but slow improvements happen in every facet of our lives. 

I am fortunate and appreciate that our decisions have been wise ones although who knew that at the time we decided to head south for the winter months and take a chance on our health.  Being in the sunshine is always good for staying positive and physical fitness has great benefits.  We tend to follow the rules being set at home while here in Arizona to keep ourselves from contracting a cold, flu or virus. So far, so good! 

My last week of December was spent pulling out any fabrics that were a minimum of 1 yard and set aside to be able to put 3 together for the 3 yard quilt patterns.  And, I tidied though hadn't really made much of a mess since our arrival although my sewing space tends to be a dumping ground. 

Christmas is put away for another 11 months and house looks bare but fresh. 

Three quilt tops from December are finished and need to head north in the spring to be quilted and bound.

I also finished a table runner (11 months early for Christmas) plus a mug rug for a gift and small wall hanging that was in my Missouri Star Christmas box and came with the hanger. 

I am working on three other projects at the moment.  I know... crazy to have 3 on the go but one is the leaders/enders project while working on the other two. The first is happy blocks for my Heartstrings group choice for January.  I had to wait for a small package of Thomas the Train fabric to arrive for the centers as I have no children's fabric here in my winter home.  The frames are all from my stash.

 More blocks waiting to be trimmed. 

These are the blocks that are made from a strip set of four fabric and then cut using a special ruler.  Stitch them with a background fabric and you end up with two large blocks. The pattern is Swirls and the ruler is called Twist and Turn.

The fabric strip sets are all sewn and now it is time to cut and sew together with the background fabric. 

I have also started this pattern and realized that it would also qualify for a Heartstrings happy block project.  There are two different squares that get framed.  

I need to work on my January RSC blocks and the colour is red.  Easy!  I just have to decide what blocks I am going to make this year.  

Plus, I have my January block from Patterns by Jen.  This month will be orange fabrics because the theme is spicy and January is saffron. 

My list for the month of January is:

1. HappyBlocks made and quilt tops created.

2. Finish making blocks for Twist and Turn and put into a quilt top

3. Work on the blocks for the 5 yard quilt and create quilt top

4. RSC blocks

5. Pattern by Jen blocks.  I will make two with colours reversed. 

And who knows what else might grab my attention to work on.  Sew many ideas, so little time!