Quilting is in my Blood

I am joining the weekly To-Do Tuesday Linky Party hosted by my friend, Roseanne, at Home Sewn By Us. I find goal-setting to be extremely helpful to get more accomplished, and since I’m always trying to get one more project done, I’m all for a little extra push and/or encouragement.

To-Do for the week of December 23rd-December 30th:

1. Finish my Medallion Lantern quilt top. – √ Done

To-Do #1

I got it done!!! I don’t think I’ve ever been this ready to finish up a quilt top. Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting received it on Monday and can start working her quilting magic on it soon. I still need to make the binding, but that can wait a couple weeks or so. I desperately need a break from this project! I felt like its indentured servant!!! Below is a photo of the completed queen-size quilt top for my stepson, Drew (rotated 180 degrees from previous pics):

To-Do for the week of December 31st through January 6th

1. Sew the four chevron arms for my 60” x 60” Stargazer quilt that I just started working on again (how I’ve missed you, my precious solid fabrics!). Mine has some of the same colors as Rebecca Bryan’s Stargazer quilt, but I have substituted purple solids for the green fabrics in her quilt. Below is the center unit that I got sewn on Sunday.
2. Go to Fancy Tigers Craft store when I get away to Denver on Friday. I’m also really looking forward to seeing my friend, Karla, and enjoying a wonderful meal with her at Venice Ristorante.
3. Make two more Pearson Tree Farm blocks. I follow @kidgiddy on Instagram and read her heartbreaking post this past weekend about a man in her town being murdered. She is in the process of making a quilt for his wife, and she has enough blocks for her quilt. But Kerry would also like to make quilts for his two adult children and has asked if people would sign up to make blocks using different tree blocks she has designed. The pattern is provided free of charge. She needs these blocks by January 10th. I’ve signed up to make three blocks, and all of mine will be paper-pieced, but she has an adorable patchwork tree for people who prefer traditional piecing. Go to @kidgiddy on Instagram for more details, and the link to sign up to make blocks for quilts for the Pearson children is in her profile. Below is a pic of the block I completed yesterday:

Linking up to Home Sewn By Us: To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update Linky #21.

I am joining the weekly To-Do Tuesday Linky Party hosted by my friend, Roseanne, at Home Sewn By Us. I find goal-setting to be extremely helpful to get more accomplished, and since I’m always trying to get one more project done, I’m all for a little extra push and/or encouragement.

To-Do for the week of December 17th-December 22nd:

1. Finish sewing the triangles on the Medallion Lantern blocks. – √ Done
2. Start sewing the Medallion Lantern blocks into rows. – √ Done
3. Finish writing my 2020 Quilting Goals post. – √ Done

To-Do #1

I used two different golds for the triangles to form the diamonds in the center of the Medallion Lantern blocks. The gold absolutely shows up inside the grey lanterns which I’ve found is a good thing (looks like a light in the lantern—stealing that description from Diann with Little Penguin Quilts), but any discrepancies with lining up the triangle points are also highlighted. I’ve definitely ripped out and fixed a fair amount of seams.

To-Do #2

I‘ve actually gotten four of the six rows made, but I’m not going to show them yet. I’ll write a December ‘19 OMG Finished post in a day or two and show a pic of the first four rows. I was going to do a two-fer with my TGIFF post that I wrote for the TGIFF linky party that Roseanne hosted this past Friday, but I have more info to share and a better photo, so I’ll feel better writing a specific OMG finish post.

To-Do #3

I really enjoy writing these yearly quilting goal posts to reflect on where I’ve been in my quilting journey and re-evaluate where I want to go in the future. Of course after I think I’m finished and have published the post, I think of one more thing that I wanted to include. In this case, I’m thinking of making a temperature quilt for 2020. I wanted to make one for 2019 but got way too busy. Maybe I’ll be able to get one done for the coming year.

To-Do for the week of December 24th through December 30th

1. Get ‘er done! I need to get my Medallion Lantern quilt top finished! I am honestly tired of working on it and definitely of talking/writing about it!
2. Cut my backing fabric, World Globes Seven Seas, to size for long-arm quilting.

I’d like to take a moment to wish all who celebrate Christmas, a wonderful Christmas.

Linking up to Home Sewn By Us: To-Do Tuesday Linky #20.

I am joining the weekly To-Do Tuesday Linky Party hosted by my friend, Roseanne, at Home Sewn By Us. I find goal-setting to be extremely helpful to get more accomplished, and since I’m always trying to get one more project done, I’m all for a little extra push and/or encouragement.

To-Do for the week of December 10th-December 16th:

1. Make more Medallion Lantern blocks using the Metro Medallion pattern and hopefully finish making the last 10 blocks. – √ Done

To-Do #1

Even though I gave myself an out in my last To-Do post in case I hit a wall and couldn’t finish making the last 10 Medallion Lantern blocks, I did indeed get them finished by early Saturday afternoon, but you will have to take my word on that. It didn’t make any sense to take photos of these blocks as they were all duplicates of blocks I’ve previously made for this project. Because these blocks are fairly large (13 1/2” X 16 1/2” unfinished), and I’ve made 42 of them, they won’t easily fit on my design boards, especially since I have closed off my back room to keep the house warmer. I tried to use my full-size bed pinning the blocks that didn’t fit on the bed to the sides and end, but I really couldn’t get a good overall look. So I took photos of all the different blocks and printed them up at Walgreen’s using a 50% online coupon including duplicates of some blocks and triplicates of two different blocks. I then pasted a small fabric swatch in the center of each photo, and then pinned them on my design board along with one of the actual blocks. I found this method of designing easy and quite useful, and the “blocks” were re-arranged several times. They were re-arranged another time or two after the photo below was taken.

The next step was for my best friend, Mary, and I to decide on the fabrics that we wanted to use on the corners of each block that form diamonds in the lighter grey background fabric lanterns. We ended up opting for a simple repeating pattern using yellow gold triangles and triangles made from a more matte gold fabric. I got the triangles cut early Sunday and started sewing them on the corners of the blocks. Below is a pic that shows 9 of the blocks with the alternating colored triangles sewn on them:

To-Do for the week of December 17th through December 23rd

1. Finish sewing triangles on the corners of the Medallion Lantern blocks.
2. Start sewing the blocks into rows.
3. Finish writing my 2020 Quilting Goals post to join the #2020PlanningParty hosted by my friend, Yvonne, at Quilting Jetgirl. You might want to join in because she has lots of prizes available from several different sponsors. I really enjoy the process of looking back on the past year and prioritizing what I want to accomplish quilting-wise in the coming year.

Linking up to Home Sewn By Us: To-Do Tuesday Linky 19.

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My December ‘19 One Monthly Goal is to make 28 more blocks for the Medallion Lanterns queen-size quilt I am making for my stepson, Drew, using the Sew Kind of Wonderful Metro Medallion pattern.  The color palette that I am using for this quilt is grey, taupe, black, silver, gold, and maroon. The background fabric is a luscious Cloud 9 Cirrus Solid in Shadow. The dark grey borders around the lanterns are made from Essex linen in Charcoal. The print fabrics for the lanterns are a combination of fabrics from my stash (some of which I wish I had bought more way back when!) as well as fabrics I’ve been ordering the past few months. I’m using 21 different fabrics two times each in this quilt. Below are the 14 blocks I have sewn so far:

I anticipate in January I will be sewing triangles on the corners of the blocks to form diamonds in the centers of the light grey lanterns (see link to pattern above to see what I’m talking about!), but I will wait to do that until I have all 42 blocks sewn for this quilt top.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: Dec ‘19 OMG.