A Lovely Year of Finishes - #1, Sort of

This is the month I'm attempting to finish MANY of the WiPs that have accumulated.  My friend Wendi and fellow ECMQG member has inspired me with all of her completed quilts because of this linky.

Hosted by Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs and Shanna of Fiber of All Sorts, it's a year long nudge that encourages us to finish what we start.  (I should've joined earlier.)



I have good intentions.  I just get sidetracked by other things.  New fabric.  A new project.  Or maybe a challenge or a swap.  It's always something.  Sometimes, it's just because the idea I have in my head needs to sit an perk awhile longer.

However, after completing a quilt last month that had lingered for 18 months (yikes!), I'd like to make another one leave my house so it can be enjoyed and played with and snuggled under like quilts are intended to do. 

This particular quilt was intended for as a baby shower gift quite awhile ago.  Said baby is probably 17 or 18 months old now.  Not exactly a baby.  Time to finish.

Here is the original post.  And here are the pictures of my Peace, Love, & Happyness quilt as it was when I put it away.

The best part now, after all of this time, is I know EXACTLY how I'm going to quilt it.  

I can't wait to get started again.

WIP Wednesday: Three

What can I say?  I've been busy.  We've been busy.  I haven't uploaded pictures.  

But today I did.  Because I have to start somewhere.  Or re-start as the case may be.  And since today is Wednesday, what better place to start than WIP Wednesday hosted by Lee at Freshly Pieced. 

Accountability for all of these projects I start.

In another life, I worked for an accounting firm.  One of the acronyms we used was LIFO - Last In First Out.  Here are SOME of my unfinished, er WIPs, and in true LIFO fashion, they are newest to oldest.

My guild, ECMQG, okay, me really, instigated a small swap of Halloween themed items, or if you preferred, Fall themed items.  Small projects.

This is the just-in-case project because as you know if you've ever participated in an online swap, there always has to be a plan B.   My longtime friend who lives in VA wanted to play, and "just in case" her item didn't make it to Pensacola timely, I wanted a back up for her partner.

Luckily, Dee's item made it, but this was Plan B.  Just in case.  

  

Improv piecing + a mini modern maples block that wasn't turning out like I wanted + a really cool leaf selvage from a great fox print I found at JoAnn's.  Little bits of this and that.  It's going to be a pillow cover. 

The Barbie, is what I've been calling this baby girl quilt I began in late August (probably the day after the new school year began, ha!) because of this inspiring image.

Lots of little thin strips combined and sewn together and cut and arranged and rearranged again in color and value order.  Tons of little scraps being used. Yay!  It's spray basted and ready for quilting.

My third WIP has been sitting for far too long in the basket of quilt tops.  A good 17 months or so. What can I say?  I didn't have an ideal quilting design in mind, and the person to who was waiting for this said she'd wait "forever".  

While I had it laid out on the pool deck for spray basting, quilting inspiration came in the form of the shadows from the screen supports. 

  

Now it's quilted.  The binding is cut.  This one will be finished soon.

Three this week.  If only that Gulf of Mexico and perfect sailing weather weren't calling.

QAYG Inspiration

I fell in love with this pillow the first time I saw it.

Newtown Auction Pillow by letseatgrandpa

Pinned it.  Knew I wanted to make one like it.  Just didn't know when.

Our school's Silent Auction and Gala is in two weeks.  The theme this year is Sand, Sea, and Sky.  Perfect.  I'll make something.  What?  Hmmm...  Something small, because, as I said, Gala is in two weeks.  Let's be honest here, no way would I have a completed quilt within a week, even if I wanted to.  So, how about a really cool pillow?

A perusing of Pinterest, my pins and boards, as well as everyone else's, ALWAYS provides inspiration overload.  At any rate, I kept coming back to this pillow.  My style - scrappy, modern, wonky, improv, and best of all, QAYG!  

I haven't tried QAYG, but have wanted to since last October when several of the Scrappy Stash Quilt Along girls did so.

I was just going to wing it - my normal modus operandi - when I happened to check Cori's blog, Let's Eat Grandpa!, the creative one who designed and that pillow.  Lo and behold, she has a tutorial posted.  Ka-ching!  Thank you Cori!

Sea Pillow WiP

Sea Pillow WiP ready to make into a pillow

Motivated

As I've mentioned previously, I'm really good about starting projects.  Terrible about finishing them.  

Example:  These piles of 2.5" strips.  Halloween fabrics and coordinating others collected over MANY years.  Some from JoAnn's.  Some from Hancock's.  Some from Walmart.  Some good ones from A&E.  

I cut them because I was inspired by this:

Riel's Scrappy Strippy Halloween Quilt was simple.  It was colorful.  It was bright.  It used Halloween fabrics.  It was EARLY October 2011.  Sure, I could do this.  Sure, it would be finished by Halloween.  No problem.

However, my quilting world is never that neat or quick.  Those strips have lingered. 

I keep meaning to get back to them, but something else always catches my attention.

I rifled through them numerous times this past September and October when I was making Trick-or-Eek! bags. 

I pulled some of them out for our guild's, ECMQG, 1 year anniversary scrap swap challenge.  Leslie made me a fantastic table runner!

I pulled from them again two weeks ago when I was creating this little presentation bag for the mini-quilt I entered in a quilt show.

Heck, they were my go to fabrics when I pieced those mini-quilts, Fright Night, for L, and Monste-Madness for Jean.

  
So they're being used.  Just not as I originally thought.

However, I am trying to get back to that original inspiration.  See? (Ok, I need to rotate that picture.)  

  
A little bit each week.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll have a large, bright, scrappy, strippy Halloween quilt this year.

We'll see.  

C is for Chevrons and a Cat

Sunday, as much as I wanted to sew with some of the new fabric I received for my birthday, and with the tiny bit I purchased at the quilt show Friday,  I realized the fabric bomb that had exploded all over the living room and a good portion of the bedroom, needed to be organized.  I also intended to make a list of WIPs.  I'm really good about starting things.  Terrible about finishing them.  

Check in the box for cleaned up better organized.   No check for the WIP list.  No check for playing with new fabric.

BUT, I did pull out a 2+ year old WIP (random width WOF batik strips sewn, well, randomly) and began working it into something else.  

This.  Chevrons.  HST chevrons.  Imperfect HST chevrons, even with lots of starch and PRECISE (no-that's-not-really-my-thing) measuring and cutting.  

My plan is for a small-ish car quilt.  Because I live with someone, who, on road trips, keeps the air conditioner frigid.  Did I mention that same a/c is usually on high too?  And smaller is better, because whenever we travel, we're packed to the gills.

So that's my plan.  Not sure if I eliminated a WIP, but it feels good to work with my batiks again. 

And that is Bella who decided to take a stroll over to her food bowl.  Just as I pressed the shutter button.  LOVE her.