For the Tasmanian Bushfire Relief

I finished up the quilt for Jess at The Elven Garden and it will be on the way shortly.
It's a small quilt which washed up to about 39 x 42 inches. I started it on the 11th so it was pretty quick.




Umm, sorry about all the elephant butts. I guess I should have fussy cut those.




I did a simple basket weave kind of quilting. Actually, we did the quilting. My machine is living a few blocks away right now. Her hosts came out when I started up the quilting and took a turn on the machine. See how perfectly, the top dark gray square turned out? They are naturals.




I embroidered the label although didn't have a lot to say. Stay tuned for a bit of dorkiness to add to future quilts.




It's flannel backed, of course. No piecing required and it happened to go really well.




As a bit of added trivia, I used Jess's block tutorial for the woven chevron quilt last year. The turquoise fabric I used in that quilt was perfect for the binding on this one.

This quilt made possible through the generous support of Jim's garage.

Farm Animal Flannel

Brilliant quilt name, I know. I bet you can't guess it's origin. This is a really old quilt top. I would guess Aught Nine or so. I started consolidating my flannel scraps in December and found this completed top with flannel four patches and farm animal mid weight fabric that I got in LA for cheap. I didn't have any trouble with the different weights on the quilting. The big squares got stippling and the four patches are just diagonal lines straight through.

It was 48 x 48 before washing and I will have to check if it shrunk much.




The backing is a lime green dot that I had on hand. Flannel, of course. This was other one on my FAL list so hooray for that.


No definite home for this one but I ordered dorky new labels so it will stay here until those show up.

It's my second finish for the month and shared a photo shoot with the Jungle quilt.



That's three out of ten so far but I think February might be slower due to a trip to Austin for QuiltCon.

Giant Starbursts

I finished two more blocks for my Starbursts quilt to add to blocks from the SD Bee . I love the bright cheery scrappiness so thanks everyone! Since the sun is coming with warmth these days, I laid them out on my deck to see how it is coming together.




Umm, the answer is awesome and HUGE. This is almost half of the blocks. They are not trimmed down since I need to match the thin white strips but still. It's going to be about 78" x 91" and I am not great at imagining what that actually looks like. So I was a bit surprised today. I have a bunch to make myself and the rest are trickling in. I'm not in a hurry though so don't need to rush anyone.

First Finish of he Year

Get ready for a gazibillion photos of the quilting.





















H'okay! The dots are from two polka dot charm swaps I participated in last year. One was with my guild and one was through Flickr.




It's a good size at 54" x 72". The backing is flannel dots as well but its a hot mess with the grey thread in so many different designs. I meant to donate it but am currently hanging on to it as a quilting design sampler.

I quilted most of it with the frame set up half size but finished the edges in the new location.

This quilt made possible through the generous support of Jim's garage.

Elven Garden Tassie Bush Fire Quilt Appeal

One of my potential minions put out a call for quilts today. You can read it here and help if you can.

Since I haven't decided how to run the universe (benevolent, diabolical, iron fist, there are so many options), I volunteered to make a quilt for those affected by the bush fires. Luckily I had not cleaned up from the last quilt so started cutting squares and slapping them up on my design wall.




So tomorrow I can put together the top and decide on backing. A bit of quilting, some binding and I could be done by breakfast. Except I like to sleep at night.




It should end up about 42 x 48, unless I get votes for borders or more blocks.

2013 Finish-A-Long

I'm glad to get back to the Finish-A-Long this year. I participated a few quarters last year but my trip to Turkey kept me from posting finishes and making up new goals. So here we go. It's a big list because I have high hopes for the new year. My general goal is to finish 24 quilts this year as well as a variety of smaller projects.

1. Red and Aqua Greek Crosses - the top is done so I just need to quilt, bind and gift. I know who it's going to and I may see them in person this spring.

2. Grand Bazaar Square Dance - top and backing are ready to go. This one is for me. Please look away from my list last January, this was on it.

3. Origins Original - top and backing are also ready to go. This doesn't have a place to be though yet. (P.S. Mom, that means it's not for you.) It looks like I started this in 2011 so it's not too old in the grand scheme of things.

4. Argyle from Turkey - the top is one piece so it's done, I am short a bit on the backing fabric and trying to decide what to do before I quilt it like crazy.

5. Rainbow Strips - top stage as well. I haven't decided on backing yet and only partially decided on the quilting.

6. Dot Swap Whirlygiggle - quilted and partially bound. I meant to finish this in 2012 but the plague wrecked that plan.

7. N's Great Aunt's Dresden - this just needs repair so I don't know if it counts for the FAL. It was passed over to me by a neighbor who knows I quilt and brought it over on the off chance I would know what to do. Otherwise she was just going to leave it in the alley.

8. Yellow Farm and Flannel - old top that I had completely forgot about it until I was sorting through flannel scraps in December. It is currently on the frame so should be the next thing quilted. Probably. I don't have a photo of it at the moment but this is the fabric.

9. Hometown - this was supposed to be a Christmas present but just didn't make it. I didn't want to rush the quilting just to meet that deadline.

10. Jungle Links - this top went together really quick but again the plague sidelined me. It's been taunting me from my design wall for over a week. Or something. I'm not sure how far we are into this year.

This is by no means all of the projects that I have in progress. I do bounce from project to project a lot but track everything in Excel. So far this year, I have 27 quilts that I would like to make, 22 that I've started and probably enough fabric for a billion more.

Lucky Stars BOM Test Block

I'm using all blue solids for this quilt. Here's the first completed one. The background is Kona Sky.

Mad Paper Piecing Skills

I meant to show you my mad skills but I had to take a nap after printing the templates. And then after picking the fabric.


So here's as far as I got on this project. I have a great plan to restart the year as soon as I feel better. I hear you can get a restart at Trader Joe's. It's probably organic.