A Little of This

Here I am, visiting after such a long while. And using a new blogging app to boot. We’ll see how this goes.

I could explore why I’ve taken such a long break from blogging, but I think I’ll just dive in instead — because, hey, quilting is happening.   

First, one of my goals for last year was to finish the Civil War Sampler blocks. And, yo, here it is! A big quilt in a little sewing room. 

I love this quilt top.  I just need to add the borders and send it off to be quilted.  

Then there’s the goals for this year. I’m feeling a really strong need to finish projects in process and I have two projects at the top of the (very long) list.  First up, a project that goes back to 1998. It was a Quilt of the Year at a local quilt shop. I finally got the center New York Beauty put together, the triangle appliqué pieces added, and the squares on point. Fortunately, all the applique had already been done. 

Those fabrics go way back! I still like it though, so cheers for that. Though I can see why I set it aside all those years ago. I was still pretty basic in my quilting back then. Look at the back of this 8-pointed star.

Whoa! What the heck is going on there? I showed it to my quilt group and one friend said, “Just don’t ask a longarmer to quilt in the ditch!” Another suggested I could send it to a quilter I never intended on asking to do a second quilt.  So helpful, my quilt buddies! Now, I could have tried to fix that up more, but I decided this quilt is what it is — some of what I could do back then combined with what I can do now. Though I’d like it on record that while my 8-pointed stars may still lack a little in perfection, they look way better than those first efforts. Meanwhile, I have three more pieced borders to add.  

I made myself happy by making up a rag quilt entirely out of fabric I had on hand — which means it had been sitting around over a decade.  

And because I need some new things going as well, I decided that I might (ever so gingerly) dip my toe in the applique waters.  (Shhh! Don’t tell my friends! If I bomb out spectacularly, I just might want to keep that to myself.) I bought the Appliquilt tools. Then I picked up a couple of boxes from Temecula Quilt Co. to store them in. The one bigger box is perfect for that. I lined the bottoms with bits of wool.  So, so cute. 

I have really enjoyed working on a big quilt again but I still love the little ones, which I why I had to pick up a template for making wee Dresden Plates.

Whew! How do you balance out finishing up the old and starting the new?