Can you believe it? Two posts in the same week! I’m attempting to make up for my slacking off period during the past month, plus I really have a tonne of photos to catch up on and January is flying by. And speaking of January, doesn’t it seem as though everyone and their blog is doing a ‘finish it up’, ufo type project this year? Well, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon again as it truly worked well for me last year, prompting me to stay on track and finish up some long standing projects. So this year I’ve joined in with Meredithe from Australia, who blogs over at pomegranateandchintz, and she’s doing the 17 in 2017 project. Last year she challenged herself to knit sixteen pairs of beautiful socks throughout the year and posted some lovely photos of those on her blog.
So I’ve made my list and to be perfectly honest, it wasn’t difficult to find seventeen unfinished projects to put on said list – in actuality it was more difficult narrowing it down to only seventeen, ha, ha… I’ve decided to use the printout sheet from allpeoplequilt.com as it provides twelve spaces = twelve months, where I’ve listed at least two projects per month, one piecing project and one quilting project. My reasoning was simple in that the piecing project, once complete, could easily be moved forward in the list to become the quilting project the following month, if need be.
January’s commitment included my Bubby Quilt Along #3, the secret sister quilt, which I can’t share with you yet as Bubby is very snoopy and reads this blog :o) but I can assure you that it is quilted, bound, and labelled, ready for our meet-up in Red Deer in about ten weeks. I made this one a priority and first on my list just to be sure the quilting was done on time, as that always seems to take longer than expected. Now I can go back to work on #1 and #2 quilt tops and do the quilting on those at my leisure. The photos at the top of this post all feature quilt #2, which is my version of Bubby’s selection in our mini quilt challenge. Contrary to quilt #1, where I stayed close to the original design, I changed a few things on this one, including using two different background colours instead of just one and inserting a slightly wider inner border. I’m really happy with how my quilt top turned out and will probably begin quilting this one right away, as I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do.
Next on my list for January was a project that has been on my south facing design wall so long (at least for eight months) that one of the fabrics had faded so badly I had to pick it out of the blocks and replace it with something else. It must have been a poorer quality fabric, perhaps using a cheaper dye for the text print on a cream background, for when I checked some of the other fabrics and blocks there were no signs of fading on them. Thank goodness the overall style of the quilt is somewhat ‘cottagey’ and I had used a selection of low volume fabrics to achieve that effect. This is a quilt that I’m making just for me, which is probably why it has sat unfinished for so long – isn’t that just how it goes?
My quilt is named “Whisper Sweet Nothings” due to the soft low volume fabrics I used and it will be bed size, measuring in at whopping 92″x 92″. It was a pattern and quilt along featured in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine about two years ago and I remember starting it almost immediately after seeing it. Luckily I have all twenty five blocks made, plus the sashing cut out and the little nine patch cornerstones pieced, so all I have to do is sew everything together. As of today, I’m about halfway there and my plan is to get over to the studio this afternoon since the weather seems to be holding out a nice plus 5 degrees celsius. I’m hoping this quilt top will also become my quilting project for February, with no pause in between the piecing process and the quilting. And believe it or not, I’ve got the backing and binding fabrics already set aside for finishing this one. Perhaps it should be my birthday gift to myself this year :o) but that means it will have to be finished the first week of February, yikes! as always, happy stitching, carol
10 weeks!?!? Are you kidding me???? I must get my butt in gear. Love your version of the quilt I chose. Great colour combo with the teal and purple. “Whisper Sweet Nothings is very nice too. Can’t believe you already had fading of some of the blocks in only 8 months! Wow. I have about 5 BOM’s that I am hoping to start in January and it is already over halfway over. Where does the time go?
Yup, ten weeks, as of today! I just about fainted when I realized it was coming that fast.
But it definitely lit a fire under my butt to get my bubby quilt alongs finished up, so that’s a good thing. I’m working hard to stay focused on my goals and have big plans for February’s projects. I hope to have bindings to do on our Bubbification vacation in Red Deer :o)