2018 has been a year of transition for me. First thing I did last January was retire from my job. That brought about a lot of changes in my life and routines. I can honestly say that I do not miss the commute that I had. I did enjoy the work and the people. But the commute was horrible.
I figured I would have a ton of spare time but somehow I have filled it. I had signed up for an exercise class but I hurt myself in class and took months to recover. Then we started babysitting an infant. She has kept my husband busy with me helping out. I have sewn more that ever this year, but not as much as I thought I would. Partly because I am still attempting to organize our house since the move and continue to purge. I really need to purge some fabric. I also need to find quick and easy quilts to make that I can donate to charity to use up fabric. Currently, I am feeling bit overwhelmed by the quantity of fabric I have. In the old house, it was scattered through out the house and I never really knew how much I owned. Now it is all visible and can be an assault on the senses.
So that leads into my goals for 2019.
First off I will have to find my UFO's. I have several.
So far my UFO list includes the following:
1. Quilt Mini Bobbin Quilt
2. Figgy Christmas Quilt - three block done, two cut out.
3. 4 Patch Lattice Quilt - all cut out.
4. Paintbox Quilt - all cut out
5. On Ringo Lake - complete thru step 2
6. Sea Etchings - mostly cut out.
7. Bee-autiful Embroidered Quilt - two blocks embroidered (This is hand embroidered so it will be a stretch to complete.)
8. Star Machine Embroidered Quilt - all but 8 blocks embroidered. Some rows sewn together.
9. Made in America - three blocks embroidered
10. Flock Blocks - 4 block completed, 1 needs applique. several more to make
11. Stitch down binding on Reflections quilt - binding attached. also need to repair a spot.
12. Stitch binding down on 6 other quilts. - one started.
13. Round the World Christmas Quilt - Needs Borders cut and added
14. Christmas Baubles Mini Quilt - Needs Quilted
15. Leader and Ender Quilt -
16. How to built a Snowman x 4 - One done.
17. Modern Vintage x 2 -
OK those are the ones I can think of right off the top of my head. As you can see I have more than 12. However, I did do more than 12 last year and some of these are close to finished. I will commit to 12 but try for more.
Last year I was able to complete all of my UFO's from my list by the end of October. I had pulled in a few more so I actually finished more that 12 during the year. I actually have 15 that were quilted and bound and in most cases gifted. I completed 26 tops this year. Some of mine and some that I did for my daughter. I want to up that number for 2019.
The most recent ones I completed were started in September to be given as Christmas presents for three of my grandsons.
In September, I started a quilt called Around the Corner using Michael Miller fabric called Happy Tones with an Essentials Charcoal by Wilmington Fabrics. The fabric was chosen by my grandson from my stash. The quilt is backed with Minky. I only had to buy the backing for this quilt.
In October, after I finished that quilt I started one called Fruit Slices. It was a kit from Craftsy that I had gotten on sale the previous year. It uses the Craftsy Boundless Fabric. This grandson wanted Neon colors this was a close as I had. It is also backed with Minky. Again I only had to buy backing.
In November, I started a Churn Dash quilt for my oldest grandson. I used a lot of the Science Fair fabric in black and gray this is the only quilt I had bought any fabric for to complete the top. He had told me his favorite color was black. The kid is very into Science and Math and wants to be an Aerospace Engineer. Again this quilt is backed in Minky that I bought.
Since these kids are all getting tall I made sure to make the quilts long enough for them. The reason I went with them getting the quilts this year was because of their height. All the previous quilts I had made them were getting to short. Because of the size and Minky my quilt holder was having trouble holding these up for as long as it took me to get the pictures.
All in all I was happy that I did not have to buy all the fabric for each of the quilts but for the most part used stash.
This top is now on the long arm and should be quilted this week. This was a really old UFO. I was noticing that some of the fabric in this top is from the 70's. However, not my oldest. I think the fabric is some of my oldest but this is only about 8 years old as a project.
In December, I also completed a couple of mini quilt tops. Unfortunately, not in time for Christmas since I was madly binding Christmas gifts. These are a Moda pattern called Christmas Baubles from I think about 2015. I used Jingle by Kate Spain.
I am trying to remember if I sewed anything else. I do have the center of an around the world done that I need to cut borders and attach. That was about it.
