Just 9 More Days!!

With just 9 days left in January, I'm looking forward to February because that means I'll have finished my attempt to eliminate 10 UFO's during January.  I might have the attention span of gnat but I'm pushing myself to stay on task and reach the goal!!

This teaching sample is all set together and I'm going to offer it for sale this weekend during the retreat I'm attending along with the extra lattice fabrics and that hunk on the left side!

Fingers crossed someone will love it!!

As I set the hexagons together, I finished off these 8-point stars -- a demonstration set I used when teaching Set-In Piecing Simplified.

(Even though I don't teach this anymore, you can purchase the illustrated teaching guide as a downloadable PDF from my Etsy Shop HERE.)

This is destined to become a child size quilt to donate.  There is none of that cute yellow print left in my stash.  These are 10" blocks so more blocks are needed to get some size going on here.

I contemplated several alternate block options -- first was a square of a cute print that would look nice with the yellow print -- but nothing in the stash. Next simplest option are these 9-patches which I pieced a bit larger and then trimmed to match the stars.  The central square is larger and I was startled when I set the blocks together that the seams of both blocks (almost) line up -- that wasn't a plan -- happy accident!!

At approximately 29" square, I have a ways to go to bring this up to a usable size.

I didn't take a photo of the auditioning for this border -- tried yellow, red, and a white with tiny red stars.  I put all three up on the design wall at the same time -- so much easier to make a decision -- and red won (to my surprise because I was really rooting for yellow).

It's now about 32" square.  Since I want more yellow in the quilt, a visit was made to the yellow stacks.

I pulled out this group to use as some sort of patchwork borders next! 

But that has to wait until Monday because I'm off to a long weekend stitching retreat in Ohio Amish country with my dodecagon quilt top.  I've been working all week during the evenings to get the last five setting units ready for the final assembly of the fourth corner.  My folding table is set up in the middle of the living room to lay out each unit and I have high hopes for my progress this weekend!

I've also been quilting on this delightful log cabin quilt which will go to a woman as she enters a local recovery home this spring to make the final transition back to a full life for herself.  A friend of mine donation this twin size top to the project and if I make at least one pass across the width of the quilt every day, I'll finish the first week of February.  I'm trying to be more intentional about praying for this woman as I stitch -- although she is unknown to me she is already on her journey to health and wholeness and I believe that God knows who she is.  I think this is an important aspect of making things to donate to any cause regardless of the faith you practice.  We do this because we want to share our blessings with others, so why not pray for them along the way as well.

(I'm using my Baptist Fan quilting tutorial with a swirl added -- revisit it HERE for my tips!)

I did indulge in one "new" project this week -- some flannel Valentine pillowcases for my older grandchildren.  Here's a little tip for securing the end of a row of serged stitches -- I use a large-eyed darning needle to thread the end of the stitching chain, then push the needle back under the stitching and pull the chain down into the seam for an inch or more.  It's a nice alternative to using a liquid "sealer" which can be brittle and hard when it dries.

Finally, you might want to avoid a face-to-face with me for a couple weeks until I get tired of carrying around this Christmas gift from my son and daughter-in-law.  

I'll make you look at all 772 pictures of my younger grandchildren!! 

We finally have a decent amount of snow and I'm reveling in all the things about snowy days that I love!  I hope you are getting the seasonal weather you expect at this time of year!

Mary

Linking up HERE with Oh, Scrap this week!

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday HERE!