A Year in Review

I'm not making any goals for the New Year, because I'm not done with the ones for 2008. I'm sure you have been wondering what I've been up to this year, and were hoping I'd give you a recap so you don't have to slog through old blog posts. I'd be happy to oblige.

It's been a good year for me overall. There was some drama this summer with relatives which caused me to start a new blog, and now we aren't talking to each other anymore, but since we didn't talk before anyway, the repercussions are bearable. I'm happy we are finally getting a new president. The big issue that is worrying me now is the economy, but I'm young and healthy enough to work and have job(s), so we will be able to ride it out.

The photos that follow are the finished projects, as they appeared on my blog. A lot of my posts are about the Shakespeare in the Park which won't show up in the finished category.















So what's next? I'm going to quilt today and tomorrow, to properly bring in the New Year. I'll be working on the orange crazy quilt. It's been calling me the loudest lately.

Have a Happy New Year, and best wishes for 2009!

Temptation

I am thoroughly enjoying handsewing the binding down of my Purple Parfait quilt. And as I do, my thoughts are wandering about what I am going to make next. The plan is to finish up another one of my UFOs. I did promise Finn two finished quilts, and I have several quilts that simply need quilting. I enjoy quilting, and I want to have all my quilts finished, so there is no reason to not follow through with the plan, right?

As I wander through my blogs, I find a quilt from time to time that strikes my fancy, and I note that I may want to make that someday. Sometimes it is a simple design, that makes me think I can finish it off quickly. Sometimes it is more elaborate and just appeals to me. Today it is this bright orange crazy quilt made by Daniela in Romania. We won't mention that the quilt I am working on was started years ago, and I have a long list of projects I already have started, kitted up, and the recent fabric purchase which will be counted as stash unless I designate it for a project right away. This one - the orange crazy quilt - is definitely being added to the list.

Is My Slip Showing?

Has this happened to you? The top has shrunk during quilting, so when the sandwich is trimmed, it now leaves exposed edges. I tried to pin it really well, especially at the corners, but apparently it wasn't enough.

I've already fixed it, and am working on the binding now. But I was wondering what you do to avoid this sort of thing, and what you do to fix it.

Edited to add: I don't think I was clear when I wrote this post. This is the front of the quilt. I trimmed it by lining up my ruler on a border.

Good News and Bad

I have been unusually calm about my problem from yesterday. I would call it a fiasco or disaster, but my sense of calmness keeps from making this into a bigger problem than it is. I didn't even get the initial heart dropping feeling. It's strange, but it is good. After all, it is only fabric. And since it has been a while since I made the top, the sense of loss (time wasted to make, more time wasted to fix) doesn't feel so strong.

Second good news is that I have scrap fabric. I went straight upstairs to a brown paper lunch bag that has the leftover HSTs from this quilt - this quilt created bunches and bunches of them. Underneath that bag was another bag that contained the scraps. I thought I had forgotten about that second bag, but apparently some part of me knew it was there. Since these are the only scrap bag I have - usually scraps get thrown in a box of random scrap fabrics, it makes me wonder why I was saving them. Was I anticipating this? Or more likely, was I planning on making an applique border?

The bad news isn't all that bad. First I think I gave the pattern away. I remember telling someone I wasn't planning on making this quilt again. I just hated the cutting - each fabric goes in each part if the quilt, so lots of cutting of different shapes. I think I enjoyed the piecing though. Since there are only a few shapes I will have to figure out the size, I think I will be okay, even with the limited amount of scraps I have. I think the original pattern was called Peach Parfait. If you own that pattern, I would really appreciate knowing what size to cut these pieces. Otherwise I'll have to do my own figurin' and you know how that can go.

Second, I used tiny stitches to make this quilt. Maybe because of all the bias seams, I wanted to make sure everything was secure. I was planning on ripping out the whole corner and making it again, but with the bias seams and the tiny stitches, now I am only removing the parts where I got happy with the scissors.

And in case you were wondering. When they say you have to cut corners in this economy, I don't think they meant quilt corners. That doesn't seem to help!

A Scary Sight for Halloween

I put the quilt top on the batting to measure how big I needed to cut the batting - just an estimate since I was cutting it big. I didn't realize that some of the top had folded under. yikes! Now I'm going to have to find scrap fabric - and the pattern - from this top from years ago. Hopefully I have some.