Day 28: 31 Day Blog Challenge

Random picture of the day: fishing

Linked to: Friday Foto Fun

High Road Quilter Best of 2018

Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs is hosting a linky party. To take part in the link party, simply write a new blog post highlighting your "best" 5 posts from 2018 and linkup.  There is no set way or rules to pick your best, you can pick and highlight your posts anyway you would like.

• Posts with the most comments
• Posts that provoked the best discussions
• Posts showing your favorite 2018 finishes
• Posts of your best tutorials
• Posts that are simply your favorites

I have decided to show my five favorite posts from 2018.  There are a lot to choose from, since I have written a lot of posts this year.

Here they are, in chronological order.  I have deliberately not shown you any of my finished quilts, because I am saving them for my end of the year post. I don't want you to get sick and tired of them before I present them all together in a group shot.





In March, I showed you a fabric mandala my sister made out of some of my fabric scraps.  Besides getting a beautiful present to remind me of my friendship with my sister and a wonderful way to decorate my home, it also gave me a new way to use fabric scraps.

Jourdan Dukes cc by 2.0 via Flickr

In April, I presented 11 Suggestions For How to Avoid Unfinished Quilts. It had all sorts of good ideas about how to get the quilts moving along. Be sure to read the comments as well to see other suggestions by my readers.





In June, I posted The Problem With the Blue where talked about my frustration with my On Ringo Lake quilt and how a change of perspective changed everything.

 
I want to highlight a group of posts instead of a single post. That is my Daily Photographs.
 I tried to take pictures often, not really daily, but close, and show them to you on my blog. There were some camera troubles and such, but I took a lot of pictures this year and shared them with you.  In fact, all of my posts have at least one photo, but I tried to label the ones that are not quilt related as Daily Photographs.


 

Last, but not least, I wanted to highlight my 15 Minutes to Stitch posts. The goal was to stitch 15 minutes every day. I changed the rules a bit and allowed myself to make up time if I missed a day as long as I made it up during the week.  Besides giving me permission to quilt every single day, thereby relieving stress, this challenge has also required me to blog every week so I could report my progress. I didn't keep up with using this image, and over time, simplified the stats I was recording.  I was hoping to finish out the year with a better than 80% success rate and I have met it.

I hope you have enjoyed my 5 Favorite Posts of 2018.

Thrift Store Adventures

Two random pictures in the same day: thrift store finds

I showed these cross stitch projects to you earlier. I  got them for great prices at the thrift store and they are now hanging in my guest room.

The other day I went to the same thrift store and picked up a baby quilt. It was a nine patch quilt in soft reds with a white background alternated with a solid white block. It was slightly faded and had some small stains on the back, but that made it more precious. It was well made and without a thorough examination, I didn't know if it was factory or home made.  It was a super price too, and I thought that I could find a use for it even though I don't have a baby to gift it to. 

I was walking around the store carrying it around (I don't get a cart unless I need it for something I really want to buy. It is my system of avoiding impulse purchases).  A lady asked about it and I told her she could have it.  She doesn't have a baby either but she said she would put it on her bed.

At least now I've made sure it got a good home.

Day 25: 31 Day Blog Challenge

Random picture of the day: I wish for cheese

Day 24: 31 Day Blog Challenge

I did a test run with the fabrics I will be using to see if I can add the sashing and the corner triangles at the same time.  Yes it stays together very well with just pressure from my fingers and does not need any basting.  The corners are small but I think they will work just fine to show the ATC without covering it up too much.

Random picture of the day: ferret.  I picked it because it is red and green with a touch of yellow and white.

I hope you  have a very Happy Christmas Eve and an extraordinary, Merry Christmas!

Day 23: Sewing for the Holidays

My daughter's pillow is finished. She can choose to not use the pillow form if she would rather have a wall hanging. She made this when she was much younger without any prompting for me. The kit was a gift from my mother, I think.

So it is fitting that I used some upholstery fabric my mother gave me for the backing. I used the pair of jeans I saved last week for the upper flap.  I didn't want to use more upholstery fabric because the patterns would clash with each other.

Random picture of the day: dog. Since the floor matches the pillow, I have to show it to you first.

I made some HSTs for the Garden Mosaic quilt. It is just a test to see if I can handle it.  So far, so good.

15 Minutes to Stitch

This week,  I finished hand sewing the binding on the Droid quilt. Also cut and pressed a few triangles for the Sunlight in Winter quilt, and made the pillow for my daughter.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  304 out of 357 sessions
Success Rate: 85%

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch 
Monday Making 
Slow Sunday Stitching  My daughter did most of the slow stitching, putting in all the latch hook knots.  But I did stitch slowly by machine to get all the layers just right. It is my first time sewing a latch hook that I can remember.

Day 22: Quilts Floating in my Head

Random picture of the day: Piano flowerpot

I have so many ideas floating in my head about quilts I want to make. I usually do not write them down, because every day a bunch of new ideas come in and crowd some of the other ones out.  But it is the end of the year, and you are supposed to come up with lists, especially if you are doing a blog challenge to write every day. 

So here are some random ideas floating in my head of things to do for the rest of 2018 and 2019:

1.  Finish the drunkard path quilt. Top is already pieced, and I basted it this week, so progress is being made.

2.  Move other UFOs along to a finished state.  Here are the ones I am thinking of at this point.

• a. trip around the world needs quilting. I had high hopes of adding some kind of applique border, but it might be okay to quilt without fancy borders. I haven't seen the quilt in a long time so I don't know for sure. I know it does have wide borders.  Would a TATW look good with scalloped borders?
• a rail fence from the book Cultural Fusion. It is an awkward size - too big to be a small quilt that fits on the bulletin board and too small to be a wall hanging that fits on my hangers above my couches. The center is made with warm colors. I think I can make the border with cool colors and that will make it look like I did it on purpose and not like I ran out of fabric. Yes I know this quilt was on the list for 2016 and 2017 and 2018.
  
   

3.  Work on the ATC holder.  I've figured out I need many more triangle pieces and was thinking of starting the sewing to see how bad it is before I cut any more. My original plan (dare I say it?), is a 12 x 12 grid, which means 144 spaces, which means 576 triangles.   I am hoping I can find a way to sew on the corners and the sashing at the same time without basting.  I will get some white thread so I can get started and see how bad it is. I reserve the right to limit quantities.

4.  Make a scrap quilt, or two or three. Or a hundred.  I have to reduce the boxes of scraps.  They are contained, but there are too many containers. Instead of getting rid of the scraps, my goal is to sew them up and justify their existence. I have lots of ideas for scrap quilts but I want to keep it simple. Right now I am thinking of another rail fence. I made one with three rails, so maybe one with four rails would be different but still easy.

5. Here's another dare I say it?  I want to make the Mosaic quilt.  The reason I don't want to put that in the scrap quilt list is that this quilt has small triangles, and while the simple block is really perfect for scrap quilts, I think I will have trouble finishing it if I have to cut out so many little pieces, trim triangles, sew them back together over and over again.  I like quilts with repetition, but I tend to get whiney when I make them. So to spare you, I am thinking of making it with yardage.  I am thinking about the impulse buy of yellow fabrics I just bought.  Maybe if I use them in the Mosaic quilt, I can justify their existence too.  . Right now, I am thinking of a two color quilt - a yellow and white one. I was really taken with the blog name Sunshine in Winter, and I think a yellow and white quilt with that name is something I need to have.  I don't know if using the same colors will get monotonous for me.  I am going to make a couple of sample blocks to see.  I have to get some white thread first. I might make the blocks smaller, or use bigger pieces to make the quilt more manageable. I haven't decided yet.

6. Lorna Mahon is going to start a Harry Potter quiltalong which is very tempting. And Bonnie Hunter's mystery is tempting. And retroactively Temucula Quilt's mystery quilt is worth making.

7. Red and white quilts. I want to have a collection of red and white quilts I've made. I keep seeing them in my bloglovin' feed and I can only resist so long.