HAPPY 2015!

I've been seeing lots of quilt blog posts showing off their many finished quilts from 2014 and listing their goals for the year ahead. I am a little behind on reviewing the past year and making plans for 2015, but here goes!

I was feeling like I hadn't accomplished much with my quilting last year, even though I spent lots of time sewing. However, as I review my lists of quilts started and finished, I am happy with my results and have made good progress on several projects. 

My biggest finish of the year was the Scrappy Sampler quilt. This was begun in 2013 as a block-of-the-month project, and I was thrilled to complete it in the fall.

Scrappy Sampler

Most of my other finishes were baby quilts--one for a co-worker, one for friends, and one for our niece and her husband. 

Bowties baby quilt

Musical Stars baby quilt

Surrounded by Love baby quilt

I headed up a group at work to make a signature quilt when our boss retired at the end of July. It turned out great, and she was so surprised!

Signature Quilt

I also completed several quilt tops this year. One is for Quilts of Valor and will be submitted to them for quilting. Four were very simple pieced tops for the charity quilting at my mother's church. The rest are all at different stages of quilting/completion. At least a few of them should get finished this year.

QOV Bowties

One goal that I achieved this year was limiting my number of new projects. Of the dozen projects I started in 2014, all but four were either finished or at least became quilt tops.  Four other UFOs/WIPs were completed, so my number of UFOs should be the same at the end of 2014 as it was at the beginning of the year.

For 2015, I am keeping my goals rather vague instead of saying something like "I will finish 12 quilts this year." I hope to finish off some of those quilt tops that are so close to completion. I would like to make more Quilts of Valor and also some for children's charities. It would be great to finish up at least one of my old UFOs too.  I hope to be able to find time for quilting every day, even if it is only 15 minutes some days. Any time spent quilting is good for my sanity.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all and HAPPY QUILTING!

Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 9/7/14

I have lots to report this week, both fabric used and fabric added. One project goes back a few months and is finally ready for showing, others are brand new.

A group of us at work joined together to make a signature quilt for the retirement of our boss Carol. I was in charge of the design and getting all the fabrics. We used batiks in many shades of blues, greys, tans and browns. The blocks were joined together and borders added on Friday. Carol always urged us to use a thimble for hand sewing, so we included a thimble block on the front, and the backing fabric is covered with thimbles. I am counting both fabric used and fabric added to my stash for this project. The white fabric for the signature areas was from my stash, as were many of the batiks, but I ended up with the leftovers of other fabrics purchased for the quilt.

Last week I showed the layer cake of "Surrounded by Love" that I had won. I was thinking it would be perfect for a very girly baby quilt with the many prints in pink, red and white. Only a few days later, I got an email from our pregnant niece letting us know that she is having a girl! It's meant to be! Yesterday I went shopping for a solid pink to use with the layer cake, and I also found a flannel print that will be perfect for a backing. That is an addition of 5 yards to my stash. I haven't decided on a baby quilt pattern yet, but I am considering several options.

My other purchase yesterday was this beautiful print from Patty Young's Modkid Studio. There is something I really love about the color combination, and I am thinking it would make a good color palette for a future quilt.

I got inspired to make some new pajama pants this week. I made a pair for myself from a tropical print, and a short pair for my husband, the FSU fan. They aren't quilts, but they are from quilting fabrics, so I am including the fabric used in my stash report.

Totals:
Signature quilt:  2.75 yds. used, 1 yd. added
Baby quilt fabrics:  5 yards added
Grey/teal/yellow print:  1.75 yds. added
2 pair pajama pants:  4.5 yds. used

Used this week:                          7.25 yards
Used year to date:                    100.0 yards

Stashed this week:                     7.75  yards

Stashed year to date:                97.5 yards 

Net year to date:                      2.5 yards used  

Hurray! I made my goal of using at least 100 yards this year (and should go well past that number in the remaining four months.) I'm still hanging on at using up more fabric than I add.

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie in GA