2017 Quilting Year in Review

2017 was a pretty good year for quilting. I made it to three quilt retreats and finished 24 quilts. I also have 18 quilt tops finished and 37 quilts cut up and ready to go for next year. If it wasn't for my longarm breaking, I probably would have had finished 52 quilts. With that, I think its time to look forward to 2018 and make some goals for the new year. They are pretty much the same as last year's with a couple of additions.

1. Get longarm fixed.
2. Finish 1 quilt a week (52 quilts).
3. Go to three quilt retreats.
4. Finish all UFOs
5. Take a longarm quilting class.
6. Organize quilt stash.
7. Make 4 Quilts of Valor.

It is going to be very challenging year and I'm looking forward to it!

Rainbow Bookcase Quilt Complete!

I didn't think I would complete another quilt this year but I did. I just picked it up at the quilters this afternoon and got to work on adding the binding. I ended up breaking a sewing machine in the process. Its a good excuse to buy a new machine. I was thinking about buying a new one anyway. The two machines that I have are cheap and I think it's time to upgrade for the amount of quilting that I do. It will be well worth it in the long run.

Harley Davdison Quilt Layout

It seems like every t-shirt quilt has it's unique challenges ranging from too few shirts to shirts of various sizes (kids small & adult large in the same quilt). What do you do when you have mostly black shirts and there a lot of them? I know the answer would normally be to add sashing. The quilt is already going to be a pretty good size quilt so that wasn't the answer, plus the person I am making this for doesn't want it. I finally came up with this layout, trying to alternate the really greyed out shirts with the darker ones and spreading the other colors around. I still have eleven blocks left over which I plan on adding to the back of the quilt. I hope to have this one done by the end of the year. We will see what happens!

Fretwork Quilt Top Complete

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving. I know I did. It is by far my favorite holiday. I ended up having 26 people in the house for the feast. After everyone left, I was able to drag out all of my quilting stuff and was able to finish scrap dive quilt top #31. I ran across this pattern on 
http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog/quilting-2/rainbow-quilts-for-scrap-lovers/
RIP Nancy, you were an inspiration to all of us quilters. This pattern comes from Judy Gauthier. It uses 5 1/2 inch and 4 1/2 inch squares. This was the first time I have ever done anything like this and it was actually kind of fun. Can't wait to start another project!

Orphan Block Quilt Top Complete!

This weekend I had planned on working on a t-shirt quilt but instead decided to work on this orphan block quilt. I had a few random pieces left over from making two other orphan block quilts out of my scrap dive fabric. I am amazed I was able to put another one together. This is the 30th quilt I have made out of the fabric I got from the scrap dive. I still have three quilts in progress. I may just make it to 35. We will see what happens!

Iowa State Quilt Complete!

It seems like it has been a while since I have finished a quilt since my longarm has been down. I ended up getting this one quilted by a friend of mine, just in time. It is a wedding gift for my niece. Hopefully they will like it!

Economy Block Quilt Top Complete!

How do you use up a bunch of ugly fabrics that don't go together? Put them in a quilt of course! I am nearing the end of my fabrics I got from the scrap dive at our quilt show last year. Needless to say, it is getting more challenging to figure out what to do with some of these fabrics. I ended up using the economy blocks after I cut up some fabrics for another economy block quilt. It worked out really well since I had a quite a few of the squares already cut up. This makes scrap dive quilt #29. Time to work on #30!