WIPping Post

(affiliate links to my fabric designs)

2021 Finishes

I'm writing this blog post (or at least this paragraph) on Day 1 of the autumn quarter. It's easier to compose the next quarter's list when I copy from the previous quarter, and it's fun to be able go go through the list again three months later and pull the finishes off the list. Assuming there are finishes.

Yet I've also noticed how difficult it is for me to plan three months in advance, not knowing now what the next 90 days will bring. I decided this is one of my routines I need to cherish and enjoy because even when I don't finish anything, it's fun to go back and look at my WIPs, often forgotten and/or lost in the swarm of everyday routines. And it's exciting to dream about actually finishing projects. Especially when I'm setting goals for the coming year!

I hope to print this photograph from my back door via Spoonflower one day and quilt it!

There were 15 unfinished quilts as I began this list, plus a scrappy one I hadn't added back in October because I was on the road without a computer and had no photos of the project back home. It's on the list now. I've also added a Spoonflower cheater panel I created because I cannot wait to quilt this adorable new fabric!

My Digital Temperature Quilt for the first month of 2021

One of my goals last quarter was a fresh photo for each project. Some of these projects haven't been touched in years, and two of them just need to be sandwiched, quilted and bound. Which means I'm going to have to start thinking about finishing them! I'm now looking forward to shooting new photos of my old projects; I wasn't able to pull all of them out to rephotograph them during the fall quarter, unfortunately. I'm hoping the winter quarter will be kinder to me.

longarm practice front

To escape the depression of New Year's Eve (devastating wildfe just 30 or so miles from me), I pulled out my Spoonflower Christmas fat quarters I designed a couple of years ago but for which I did not have a plan.

These are my crochet snowflake designs photographed by me and collaged into a digital quilt, which I then had printed by Spoonflower. I wasn't entirely happy with the way the first fat quarters turned out. The snowflakes on the red panels had a tint of red, and the snowflakes on the green panels had a tint of green. I guess it's a good thing I didn't do any yellow panels... ha ha ha!!!

I used a dollop of Crest to whiten the snowflakes in my original digital collages. Sorry. Couldn't resist. Actually, I whitened via Photoshop and then had the panels reprinted. (My fat quarter spending sprees occurred during Spoonflower's annual half-price sales in 2018 and 2019, so although I paid for all eight panels, my cost in the long run equaled the price of just four.) Success!!!

longarm practice back

Because I haven't used my longarm in a while, I decided to put the color-corrected fat quarters on the front of a practice quilt and the skewed ones on the back. I began the quilting pretty rusty and stiff, but loosened up and started getting fancier by the third row of snowflake blocks. I discovered after finishing all the quilting that the bobbin tension began messing up toward the end of the project. It's just a practice quilt, so I'm leaving it as is, but I think this will be a(nother) lesson in needle replacement. I did forget to replace the needle before I started this project.

After I finished trimming and squaring up the quilt, I thought I might be able to run into town to the nearest fabric store and pick up a yard of clearance Christmas fabric for the binding. Three days later, I still hadn't had a chance and didn't really want to spend any more money on fabric anyway. So I did the next best thing and went through my Christmas fabric bin, which is not much different than a clearance sale because after-Christmas clearance sales are where most of my Christmas stash fabric was obtained. Many of the pieces are uncut yardage because I've used them as table cloths in the annual craft fair at the office where I work, which we haven't done now for two whole years.

I found two really cute peppermint prints in my Christmas stash bin, but one had a lot of blue and the other was predominantly black. I kept digging and found a green snowflake fabric, and two hours later, my practice quilt was bound! I don't know what I will do with it; but finished without a plan is better than unfinished! And now I'm ready to longarm my next WIP project!

Here is my WIP list for the Ravelry Winter Quarter:

1. Hawaiian Punch

2. Lizard Toes

3. Hexie Booboo

4. Tickled Pink, the Sequel

5. Teal Shadows

6. Goodbye Hollyhock Road

7. Snowflake Strip Bar

8. Green Floral Batik Postage Stamps

9. Giant Dahlia

10. Showcase

11. Venetian Squiggles

12. Moda Blockheads

13. Tiny Triangle Leftovers

14. Matthew's Quilt

15. Green Batik Leftovers Quilt-As-You-Go

16. Scrappy I Spy Neighborhood

17. January 2021 Cheater Panel Temperature Quilt

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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