ScrapHappy Saturday - End to Begin Anew

 

I love the end of the year! I have energy to finish things so that I can start new projects next year. November is the perfect time to take stock of block collections and figure out what needs to be added and adjusted for quilts this year. Finished quilts this year means no guilt about starting new ones next year? With that goal in mind, I finished the quilting on these churn dash blocks. It took way too long because the thread kept breaking. I went through new needles, new threads and much cleaning of the machine to get it working well again. I will do a close up of the quilting when the binding is done.

This is the final layout for the dots blocks. I have the rows sewed together so far but not the columns. That shouldn't take too long to move along. I think I have a backing for this one which might make it next to the frame. 

Here are a couple of blocks that I am considering for next year. The plus blocks are something I saw on Stitch with Rachel on you tube. They might work as leaders and enders. And the 60 degree stars could be my next handwork pattern. 

First though, I need to finish up the snakes. This will be the final layout. Now I just need to even out all of the rows. Blue and aqua are both 60 inches. I cut out some more green. It looks like yellow will get its turn next. Then I will have some time to prep them before holiday travels when I can sew them together. It's always nice to have a photo and then a little list of how many of each color to make. 

How is your beginning of the end of the year starting to shape up? The weekly linky is below. Please share your progress with us all. 

Scraphappy Saturday - Progress

 I thought it was time to pull out a couple of my block collections to take stock and do a quick evaluation.

First is the dot blocks. I think there is one purple already, but I will add some and think about the color placement. Maybe a color wash kind of arrangement with a bullseye or starburst slightly off center?  I also need to think about what size it should be.  I feel like I am a bit short on green blocks and there is only one purple that has made it through the pipeline. 

Then there are the propeller blocks. These are meant to be set on point. I will ponder the next steps for this as well. About half of the orange blocks were rotating in the opposite direction from the rest. That can be a problem when working on quilts over a long period of time. I will do some reverse sewing and get those fixed before adding some new purple blocks. 

The main progress this week was in quilting. I got the sprouts blocks off the frame on Sunday and then added the binding before quilting circle on Monday. Then I was going strong and took a deep breath to jump into the quilting on the Itty Bitty Log Cabin blocks. I knew that I wanted an all over pattern for these which would not work well on the long arm. Instead, I used a walking foot and just made diamonds from corner to corner around each concentric circle. I will have a lovely binding marathon today and finish both of these up. That is always a nice excuse for catching up on movies or streaming series. I watched 9-5 while I was starting the log cabin quilt, so maybe I will do Steel Magnolias for another Dolly Parton film. I will do the full finished quilt reveal for each of these soon. 

What are your weekend sewing plans? I need to do a bit of a tidy up in my space before I figure out what is next. I hope that you have some lovely purple to play with. 

Weekend Sewing Progress

 

It was a busy weekend of sewing. Knowing that a new term for my graduate classes was starting soon, I wanted to devote as much time as possible to creativity and color. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed today with everything new starting all at once and so I am taking a breath and celebrating the progress that the weekend brought. I had to clear off design wall space by scrunching up the hexies to make room for more churn dash blocks. I think I am at 119 now of the 180 that are needed. I just kept wanting to sew one more block last night until I started sewing the units all turned around and had to unsew a couple of blocks in a row. That was a definite sign that it was time to call it a night. I used up all of my 2 inch propeller and dot blocks and had to pull out crumbs and strings to use as leaders and enders. That is a lot of blue!

Everyone was dragging at work this morning. Coming back to a full week after a lovely and relaxing holiday is never easy. Getting up and doing again this week left us all feeling a bit jet lagged. Next weekend is a short week for Martin Luther King day, so that will help everyone to get back into the groove. I have lots going on, and nothing on the list is getting crossed off as I sit here typing to you all. But it has given me a chance to clear my mind and take a deep cleansing breath. I hope that you all have a week that helps to fill your creative needs. It is far to soon to be looking forward to next weekend. One day at a time! Can you hear the big creaks as my brain shifts gears? I will now go and practice some scholarly academic creativity.