February's ALYOF Goal

My finish goal for February for A Lovely Year of Finishes is one of the many UFO's that I have on my ever growing list of UFO's.  I know my pictures are lacking but it was a very dark day when I took them and is very dark today as well.

 This was one of my first quilting projects.  Being the young naive quilter that I was, I thought that a charm pack which had 42 whole squares in it! was enough to make a whole quilt.  Well, it is, sort of.  If you add in some solid squares, you have enough to make a baby quilt.  So, once I figured out my mistake, that's what I did.  Of course, I don't have a baby nor do I know anyone who has a baby but hopefully I can donate it to my guild's charity.

I made this quilt before I had taken any kind of classes or anything.  I don't think most of the fabric is cut all that straight and I tried to make a border of the blue and white fabric but it just looks like I messed up my cornerstones.  I wasn't trying to make cornerstones and actually didn't know what they were at the time.

It is pieced, back made, sandwiched and halfway quilted.  My goal for February is to finish the quilting and bind it.  I'm going to give it a good pressing and just start the quilting where I left off. It is straight line quilting on either sides of the stitch lines.  Pretty simple.

Quiltcon is happening this month in only about 2 weeks or so. I'm looking forward to that as it will be my first and probably only Quiltcon since they are moving it to the west and east coasts after this year.  Also, because of costs, I think I'm going to lay off traveling for big ol' quilt shows for awhile.
I'm looking forward to meeting some of my favorite bloggers, Elizabeth Dackson - I got into her FMQ class!, Penny Layman - learn how to make paper piecing patterns!, lots of great lectures and I'm going to the Moda party!  Really looking forward to that.

This month is definitely busier than February's usually are and there is no slowing down in sight.

**Linking up to Fiber of All Sorts for ALYOF February goal.
**Linking up to My Quilt Infatuation with Kelly.

Small FInishes for January

Like most quilters, I seem to always be working on a million projects at one time!  And also like most quilters, I also have a life and other responsibilities that prevent me from sewing 24/7.

I mentioned in a previous post that we are building a new house (my husband's idea) and it is taking up lots of my time.  There are phone calls to make, emails to send, websites to look at, choices to make.  It's exhausting.  And we haven't even broken ground yet.  Great huh?  Once things get moving, I do plan to post about it, if for no other reason than to keep a record of it. 

But I did get some sewing time in January and was able to complete a few small finishes.

My son got me the book A Flock of Feathered Stars by Carolyn McCormick for Christmas and I used one of the patterns to make a challenge block for my local guild's quilt show that is coming up in March.  I committed to 2 blocks.  We purchase the fabric kits from the guild for $2 and we have to use the black fabric for the background and the multi colored fabric somewhere in the block.  Here's number one!

 And for number 2, I made the December block from Aurifil's 2014 BOM.  I made my own pattern to paper piece my geese and the block looks a bit wonky to me but it came out the right measurement.

 

I'm also working on a small quilt for donation at the quilt show's silent auction.  Here's a sneak peak!

(Pattern designed by Kristy of Quiet Play)

Also in the works is a Valentine's challenge mini quilt for my modern quilting group but as it's a secret, I'll have to wait until after our next meeting to show it.

And lastly, one more sneak peak.  I took a quilting color class at my local quilt show which was awesome!  We used Prismacolor pencils to color our picture, sandwiched it and now I need to quilt it.  I think I'll also do some thread painting - or at least try.  We'll see how it comes out.

February starts tomorrow.  Fingers crossed I can get more accomplished.