The Momentum of January!

 I KNOW!  It's been a month since a blog post, but the quilting/sewing room has been busy.  Also, the laptop has still been doing it's weird thing where it drops internet.  We've even taken it in the repair shop, but it is an undetermined issue.  So, we'll just keep going as is.

So to catch everyone up, I just dumped a bunch of photos into this post and I'll try to hit the highlights of the month.  You might want to find a comfy chair.

First up - Carter has a girlfriend!  Her name is Morgan and she is a high jumper.  We haven't met her yet.  There is potential for this coming weekend as we have planned a trip to Nebraska to see him compete.  However, he is injured, so don't know if that will happen for sure, but we're hopeful.

I finished another barn block in January!  This makes number ELEVEN!  Only one more to go.

Here are all 11 that I have so far........

And this is number 12 which I finally got traced out and started on this weekend.

The current leader/ender project is still going.  I have made several of these during the month.  I can tell that this is probably going to have to be more than one quilt as I still have an enormous pile of 4 patches OR, create a different quilt with the four patches.............stay tuned on that one.

Cici immediately laid claim to the Valentine table runner I put out.  This was completed last year.

I have been working on a baby quilt for a former piano student.  It will be the silo barn quilt from Lori Holt's Vintage Farm Girl books.  There are 4 blocks and each has a different animal..........

The quilt top is pieced and I just finished the embroidery of eyes, tales, and legs that was needed, so it's next up on Lucey the longarm.

I created this wall hanging from a free pattern I found on the internet.  It's all batik scraps.  When I showed it to the resident farmer, he said, "I didn't know we had that much pink in our stash!"  I don't know when he started taking ownership of the stash, but........  needless to say, this was not his favorite.  It was gifted to a friend to hang over her piano.

I am doing a mystery quilt for guild now.  I can't show any photos yet because it's a mystery.  I did spend some time working on the blocks and writing directions and clues.  Esme found it exhausting work.

Remember the 200 half square triangles the resulted from the Scrap Happy quilt?  Well, I played with some different ways to lay them out to create a pillow.  They finish at 1.25".

Lucey the longarm has been busy this month.  There was even a 14-day straight period of quilting!  You are about to see the results of these efforts.  I also quilted 10 table runners and a couple of quilts for my mom.

Here is Scrap Happy getting it's binding on (or being used as a tent).

We made a quick trip to St. Louis to visit Sarah and I delivered this cat panel that I quilted for a wall hanging for her.

Her kitten is still the cutest ever.  One of my friends sent a collar with a bow on it.

We went to church with Sarah and then to her favorite restaurant for brunch.  This was my omlette.  It was delicious.

So now for the parade of finishes..............

The Rudolph pillow which will be a shower gift for a former piano student who is getting married.

And Scrap Happy is done!  It is made from 2.5" squares for the 64 patches and 1.5" squares for the 256 patches.  I really like this quilt.

A close up...........

And the pillow made from the bonus triangles!  I'll save you the counting, only 196 made it into the pillow.  There are still 4 floating around the sewing room somewhere.

David took me to Sew Sweet one day when he was taking something to Brunswick for repairs.  (Isn't it nice that things need to be repaired!)

I picked up this table runner kit and pattern.  It was so much fun to make, I had it pieced the same afternoon I brought it home.  I just love the soft colors.

Then I remembered the fat quarters I had received from our guild Christmas gift exchange..........

I was able to get these to shorter runners from the 5 fat quarters.

And then this one from some leftovers from another quilt............

And here's the quilt............It was a quick sew and a great way to use the bird fabric as the focus.

I also finished Stars and Windows which had been hanging in the TBQ closet for awhile.  It was on Lucey the longarm for about 4 days because I did custom quilting on it.

Here's the close up.  Some was free motion and some was programmed.

And the back.............It yielded lots of bonus half square triangles and I was trying to use up a lot of this fabric as this is the 3rd quilt I have made from it.

And another table runner.  I had seen this on the internet somewhere, so used an old charm pack and made one.  We are going to do this runner as a project night program sometime this year.  So, I am writing directions and making another sample to show a different colorway.

So about 8 of these are on my UFO list and will be shown at our February meeting. 

Which reminds me.............I did show some things and get 3 things checked off at the January meeting.  Below is the Pixel Chain quilt which now resides on our bed.

 

And I finished up this Christmas Panel.

And the Glad Tidings wall hanging was finished and shown.  I put these away with the Christmas decorations and will be so excited when I pull them to decorate for next Christmas!

So, if you're keeping track of the 2023 UFO list, which actually had 18 items on it because I found another one after I had made the list, that's 9 things completed!  And maybe there will be another if I get the Silo Barn baby quilt finished before the meeting.  Over half way there!

Willow finds all this math exhausting.

There is no particular reason for this photo other than it was on my camera roll...........

And I thought I would share some of the great Christmas/birthday gifts I received in December for my sewing room.  Here is a new calendar of quilts (with patterns) and a new pin cushion.

Another book full of ideas!

And lighting...........that runs all the way down the room!  And right in the front of the photo are my new red snappers which make loading and unloading quilts easier and faster.

Well, you can relax now.  It's over.  January has definitely been a productive month!

Christi

Happy New Year - Year End and 2022 Review!

 Did you stay up late and celebrate?  We woke up at 10:30 in our respective recliners and moved to the bed for the rest of 2022 and start of 2023.  A good night's sleep is the best way to start a new year, right?

First, let's finish up the Christmas activities.............

Naughty or Nice???

Now how could anything that can sleep like a baby in your arms be on the naughty list!

Well, here's how............

She tried to take over Esme's sleeping spot in the sewing room.............

And then she thought maybe she'd help with the machine quilting.........

And when that didn't work out for her, she thought maybe some machine piecing would need her extra special attention.

And for her efforts, she was dropped over the ledge and down the stairs.

She then tried to take over Esme's spot on the piano.  The result was a new piano light after she sent this one crashing to the floor.  

(of course, you may recall that Esme did this once last summer before learning how to land on the piano without sending things flying off..........We have new piano light shades in our list of favorite things on Amazon for the repeat orders.)

But who can resist that face?  So Santa caved and did give her her own little cat quilt (which fits in the "time out" kennel that Sarah has for her).

And someone else almost made the naughty list.............

With all the cold weather, a dog house was purchased that was big enough for both dogs.

If Kenzie could get in it first, Willow would join her, but if Willow made it in first, Kenzie was left out in the cold.

So, Kenzie got a new sweater to wear.  

So, the truly nice one was Cici who kept watch over the birds at the bird feeder.

Sarah and I hoped that there were some truly good pets somewhere in the world.  We made a stop at the local animal shelter just to check out the cat room while she was home for Christmas........

Remember those cute shelter kittens from a previous post?

Well look how they've grown!  Their momma is no longer in the cage with them.  These two were so loveable..........especially the blonde one, Fred.  

Fred was just so mellow!  I would love to have him, but Sarah and David both said NO.  I tried to convince Sarah to adopt him, so that he could teach her cat how to chill, but she still said NO.

And now the end of the year quilting efforts...........

This wall hanging, called Glad Tidings was finished just before Christmas - still needs quilting - and was made from a charm pack and some background fabric.  It was a free quilt along.

Sarah needed a baby quilt for a gift, so this was started Christmas afternoon and finished up the evening of the 26th.  She chose fabrics from my stash, I did the cutting and piecing, and she laid everything out the way she wanted, and chose the teddy bears for quilting.  I got to choose the triangle block design.

Here's a close up.......

In an effort to clean up the sewing room, I finished piecing this table runner with the leftover parts from a Christmas panel.  Now I have the matching runner, wall hanging, and 2 pillows to quilt and finish for Christmas next year.

And this was a quick sew..............I had been looking for something to use that pretty bird fabric which was given to me, and this fit the bill.  Everything is from my stash (or my mom's stash).

And I used an old charm pack to make this table runner I saw on Facebook.  I will need to SHOP for some binding fabric.

So the quilting wrap up for 2022.............

My UFO list at the start of the year had 15 items on it and 14 were finished!

My new start list had 48 items on it and 32 were finished.  So that leaves 17 items on the UFO list for 2023.  Of that list, about half are smaller items, so maybe it's OK that there are more on the list than last year.  And we're just not going to talk about my IDEA list!  It's endless.  So I'm sure there will be many more starts in 2023.  But we're keeping things manageable.

So that's it folks.  Goodbye 2022 and Hello 2023!

Christi