Blocks Be Gone!

So, one set of blocks that have been haunting the closet shelves are gone. First, I made a baby quilt.

Very bright and happy.

Then I took the leftover blocks and made a pile of hot pads. I used the AccuQuilt GO! to cut the circles.

I think they look very summery!

I also finished up a little miniature quilt in process that had been stuffed in a drawer for several years. When I took the photo, I was still tacking down binding so that explains the clips in the corners.

That miniature was an experiment. Believe it or not, the central piecing -- the shoo-fly blocks and the sashing -- was all done on a single foundation using Fold and Sew. It worked but was way too fussy to be a truly viable method. Still, I'm impressed it worked as well as it did!

And then, for this weeks GO! Sew Challenge, I'm working on finishing up another project that has been sitting in the closet for years. (So-o-o-o many of those!) This will be another baby quilt for a charity. This quilt was a round robin. I'm using the GO! dies to finish in some blank areas that I think need some filling. At this stage, I'm just cutting out paper shapes to see how they fit.

We'll see where I am next week. Right now, it just feels right to work on clearing out the old before bringing in any more new.

Bit by Bit

So, progress is being made. I finished the 50 Shades of Red swap miniature. My own true love, bless his heart, says it looks like an alien: "I can see its eyes."

I got the binding done on the Everlasting Tree miniature quilt.

I finished binding the AccuQuilt GO! Fall Medley hexagon hotpads.

And I got a good start on a Blocks Be Gone! project -- as in, I had blocks that have been sitting around for years because they seemed too good to throw away, but I didn't like them enough to finish the quilt. So, this last week, the goal was to make them GO AWAY. I'll have more to show in a few days, but here's part of the process. Using the GO! circle die and making hotpads.

Whew!

Progress is Good

So, here's my first take on the Shades of Red Miniature quilt swap. I decided it was a little too traditional for my partner, so this one is going to stay home with me. I love it, so I don't mind. This center piecing will finish at 7" square. I still need to decide on borders.

After deciding the one above was too traditional, I aimed for a lot more contemporary.

I think that solid red is going to be the border. I like how it lets all the attention go to the center piecing. This foundation is the 13-Square foundation from Miniatures in Minutes. The center piecing finishes at 6 1/2".  The design is a wee variation on the hearts project I put on the website -- this little guy:

It never ceases to amaze me what a difference fabric makes. That more traditional heart went to a swap partner, too. I really need to make one of these little heart minis for me! Though I also have a larger version done in batiks on a 17 by 17 grid.

And just because I was off the web for a while, I didn't show this little guy from a summer swap. The general guideline was that it be six inches or under. My partner requested neutrals with just a pop of color. So, here's another variation on the 13-square foundation (though I only used 11 by 11 in order to make it fit)-- this time based on a Trip Around the World. I called it "Color My World."

 

And a little close-up:

Whew. The next few days it's all about finishing little quilts. I am SO happy to be back in the sewing room!

Ready, Set, GO!

So, 2016 was a challenge in so many ways. I enter 2017 with a sewing room that needs a lot of organization but is, thank you very much, functional. I also limp in after some surgery that's knocked me back several months worth. So it goes. That said, I'm ready to get back up and doing.

A year back I was doing my own personal challenge, the GO! Sew Challenge. I felt like I wasn't using my Accuquilt GO! enough, so I decided that every week I would work on a project that used it in some way. Sometimes it felt intimidating figuring out what I was going to do, but I actually really liked how it kept me moving. So, in that spirit, that's how I'm starting out the new year.

I have two big sewing intentions to begin with -- one, another GO! Sew Challenge, and two, working on finishing up some of the backlog of projects in process.

Week 1. I've pulled out a project I worked on earlier this year -- it uses the Hexagon and Fall Medley dies to create hot pads. I just need to add binding to one of the hot pads and I'll be done.

I think they're pretty darn cute.

I need to make a shades of red quilt for a mini quilt swap and the GO! is great for cutting out triangles trimmed just the way I need for the paper foundations. These will finish at 1 inch square.

Here's a broader view of the quilt in process:

And in the spirit of finishing, I also finally got to quilting the red and white everlasting tree quilt. Now it just needs binding.

So, here it is. A good start, I think.