2020 Finishes

 Oh what a strange year it has been.  Here are the 2020 finishes I can think of for this year.

My favorite is my Garden Party quilt that I gifted to a very dear friend.  Garden Party design by Bonnie Hunter.

I finished the #Spidersewalong quilt and gifted it to our son.  This is a Pen & Paper Design pattern.  This was a sew along on Instagram.  I considered it one big block and figured it wouldn't take long to have a finish.

I finished my Wings of Spring quilt.  Blocks for this quilt were won in the Block Lotto.

I finished this #SSSSQ quilt.  It was a quilt along lead by Kevin the Quilter.

The quilt that is on our bed is my Ohio quilt made with 2.5" squares.  I drew it on graph paper.  It is a huge, California King, quilt.  Certain cities have the city names embroidered on them.  After Garden Party, this is my second favorite quilt that I have made.

This is a simple, but useful finish.  I use it as a mug rug/coaster next to my computer. I made this during the month we used up purple scraps during the RSC20.  In the photo it is sitting on my wool pressing mat that was a splurge for this year.  It was a great investment for pressing quilt blocks.

My husband finished the bathroom in the "other house".  It was a big project for him while he took several months off work during 2020.

I finished the Catchin' Some Rays quilt this year.  This started out as a Slow Sunday Stitching project.  I replaced the applique flowers in the pattern for hexagon flowers.  I wanted to learn how to do that.  This quilt was one of the ones I gifted to my neighbor's granddaughter.

I finished the hand embroidery and cross stitch on this holiday apron.  I found this partially stitched WIP in a bin at a local thrift shop and rescued and finished it.  It was a nice sized project to take along with me to school in my sew-to-go bag.  I do miss working with students but I know my place is home with our son.  He is doing AMAZING with remote learning.

...and don't forget the countless masks...  I didn't make as many as others, but I did make a few.

This ginger bread man table topper was also a finish.  The little blocks also fit into my sew-to-go bag for hand stitching.  It now hangs in my kitchen.

Another favorite finish, Short & Sweet -- pattern by Kim Diehl, was finished early this year.  It was another item started in my sew-to-go bag that I carried with me from place to place.

Happy New Year!

Go Four It

 I made a lot of progress on my Go Four It quilt!  All the blocks are complete.  I just need to put the little rows together for the corner.  I love all the scrappy goodness of this one.

That's my Accuquilt tumbler quilt thrown on the chair behind this quilt.  It gets used often.

The Go Four It pattern can be found in the magazine AMERICAN PATCHWORK & QUILTING, April 2015.  I worked on this as a leader/ender project for quite a while.  It seemed like I would make four-patches with the little pieces left over at the end of the month for various projects of the RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge.)  I hope to have the corner assembled and then add the suggested border in neutrals this week.  I'm probably going to sew a scrappy neutral back for it.

I really wasn't expecting to get this much sewn together this week.  It went together quickly as I watched dvds from the library.  As I look outside my sewing window there is a beautiful blanket of about 8" of snow.  Many of these red squares are left over pieces from my Garden Party quilt (Pattern by Bonnie Hunter) that I finished and gifted on Christmas Eve.

I'm linking up at Beth's blog, Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making.

Garden Party Is Finished! -- 2020 RSC Wrap Up

This week I finished everything on my Garden Party quilt!  I am in love with this quilt.  It may be my all-time favorite quilt that I have completed.

Garden Party is a pattern by Bonnie Hunter.  Oh I love it!  It was raining when I took the photos.  It was Christmas eve.  I quickly rolled it and shoved it into two grocery bags.  I wrote a quick note from Santa and put it on my friend's porch.  I have been working on this quilt making blocks in the colors of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) for a few years.  It all started during a red month and I made little red 9-patches and made some blocks as leader/ender projects.  So MANY of the scraps in this quilt were given to me in little bags that were left on my porch by the same friend that I gifted it.  

I backed it with a blue fabric from my stash.  I almost had enough.  You can see I used a different piece of fabric at the top.  I made this quilt a little bigger than Bonnie's original pattern.  The quilt is square.  It can be put on the bed any way.  I trimmed it so that it did not cut off the points on the edge.  It is not perfectly square.  One corner I had to sacrifice a few points.  BUT I love it and it is BEAUTIFUL.  

My friend didn't notice me sneaking into her driveway.  She noticed it late on Christmas eve when she looked out side to watch the start of the snow.  A few hours after I finished it and took this photo the rain had turned to snow. By Christmas morning we had about 8" of beautiful, fresh snow.  It was definitely a white Christmas.

I'm linking up at Elm Street Quilts because it was my goal this month to finish this quilt.  Woohoo!

I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC20.

Since this is a wrapping-it-up post for 2020, here's a flashback of some of my 2020 RSC projects:

I finished this quilt around Valentine's Day.  It's called Catchin' Some Rays.  It was gifted to the neighbor's granddaughter at Christmas.  It was also a Slow Sunday Stitching project when I made all the little hexagon flowers last year during the pink, orange, and light blue months.

I finished my Sand Castles quilt top.  It needs to be quilted.  This is also a Bonnie Hunter design.

During one of the blue or light blue months I made this quilt back.

It ended up on this Wings of Spring quilt that were blocks won in the Block Lotto 

During a green month I made this quilt back.

It ended up on the back of my #SSSSQ (mystery quilt along with the awesome Kevin the Quilter.)  The colors for this quilt were determined when the cutting happened for pink and green months since I had two large bins of both in my scrap totes.

I got this charity guild quilt out during the dark blue month.  It still remains a flimsy.

During a purple month I whipped together this little mug rug/coaster thing that still sits beside my computer today.

One of my goals for 2021 is to finish this Go Four It quilt that has been a great quilt to use up all those 1.5" squares that I make when I'm working on RSC projects.  I have almost all of the blocks done for this quilt.  The next step is to make the neutral end half blocks.

Catching Up Posts -- Photo Heavy...

 It's been a while since I've posted.  We've been busy.  The internet connections have been slow.  But here we are... I can't believe December is almost done!

The last time I posted about my Garden Party quilt it was finally on the frame and going a little crooked.  I ripped some out and readjusted the way it was loaded.  I'm happy to say it is about half way quilted now and going pretty straight!

In a previous post I mentioned giving some quilts to the neighbor as gifts for her grandkids:

We had a special visit from Santa (one of the parents that got two of the quilts above) that made a special visit to our house.  He may have been the BEST Santa I have ever seen.  He was soooo good and understanding of Owen.  Since he follows Owen on Instagram (@Snider9505) he knows the elves names and such.  It was so personalized and fun.

He brought Owen an art kit.  Owen loves it!

The remote learning continues.  There is no school for two weeks.  A very cool thing happened that kinda gives me a break.  I found a grant to help Owen have online tutors.  I still have to be in the background.  I use this time to piece quilt blocks.  YEAH!  I have received 45 ONE HOUR sessions with two different tutors!  I have found two amazing guys to be Owen's tutors.  Both of them are FLUENT in understanding students with Down syndrome.  The good lord sent them our way!

My husband worked a lot out of town last week.  Facetime is awesome for us!  Isn't he cute?

Last week we had some supper sunny days!  (12/10 and 12/11)  It got up to 60 degrees.  We decided to go magnet fishing.  Owen was soooooo bummed out when we realized that all of the docks where we usually go had been removed from the water for winter.  Bummer.   I decided to take him to a different spot on the same lake.  The water was really down because this is at a dam.

It was so nice to be able to take a break from everything and be outside in the sun!

We were there until it was almost dark.

In a little less than two hours we found a whole peanut jar full of lures, hooks and weights!  We didn't even have to throw out our magnets.  We just walked along the shore.

The next day it was warm again.  This time we took his metal detector.  What a blast.  He found TWO Mcdonald's cups full of lures this time.  (Sorry, no photo.  He hasn't cleaned them yet.  That will be a nice cold-weather garage project for him.)  

The rocks in this photo are usually covered with water when we are there in the warmer months.  They must have just let the water out.  I have marked this time on my calendar for 2021.  It was fun to find a piece of broken fishing line and follow it to a treasure!  We only had to wear a sweatshirt!

One of the cool things we brought home were these three clams.  We put them in our fish tank.  You can see the one clam (with the white "foot" hanging out).  This is how clams move.  Seriously, we think it is super cool!  The next day I got them more rocks at the pet store.  It's fun to look for them going up and down through the rocks--very slowly.

Since then it snowed.  Everything has been white.  We got that wet, heavy snow.  It's so pretty on all of the trees.     This is the view from my chicken yard.

During snowy days we took time to bowl.  Our Saturday morning league seems to be too crowded for my comfort level.  Although we miss our friends, I rather be safe.  When he pre-bowls a league game, they have to give him an empty lane on both sides of him (that's one of the sanctioned rules.)  We go at a time when it is not busy and it's easy to accommodate.  This totally works!

Our elves have been busy.  One day they packed Owen's lunch.  All his stuff was wrapped as a gift.  He loved it!

One day they spent time on the "beach".  Blue left all the frogs out of the jar.  

Unfortunately baby Oliver was too cute and got "touched" while he was on the beach.  He lost his magic power for days.  Here he is in elf hospital with his peppermint drip hanging from a Christmas tree.  He got a get well card and his temperature was monitored regularly.

Meanwhile, Chippy does the "floss".

Owen did NOT like this one.  Spiderman was being a bully and holding Blue over the old toilet in the old bathroom.

Because I made progress on my Garden Party quilt this week, I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy for the RSC20.  

Midweek Making 12.9.20

Another week has passed.  Here's what got done this week:

I only had to rip out a little of the basting on the Garden Party (Bonnie Hunter design) quilt that is on my longarm frame.  It was starting to go a little crooked while quilting.  I re-rolled the quilt top and it went a lot better (this round of quilting.)

I finished the longarm quilting on this crib quilt for a friend.  I quilted it with Tumbling Teddys from Urban Elements.  She was pleased.

She gave me another small crib quilt to longarm.   

I pieced a pile of blocks to move forward my Go Four It quilt.  (This pattern is from AMERICAN PATCHWORK & QUILTING, April 2015.)  I have decided to piece all of the blocks and then assemble the quilt.  (In the past I just made enough for a row.)  I have all of Block A complete!  I need about 20 more of Block B and all of the remaining end to finish the quilt. 

This will give you an idea of what this quilt will look like when it is finished.  It is larger than this now, but I couldn't find the current picture.

I decided to give a few quilts to my neighbors for their grandkids.  The neighbor usually buys eggs from me once in a while.  She was really excited.  I hope the kids like them.  I didn't have anything really masculine for the 5th grade boy, but I hope the colorful one will be okay for him.  She told me they will love them and this photo is the quilts on her dining room table.  I left these quilts on the porch with her eggs:

The elves patiently wait for Owen to do his school work.  He does most of his remote learning from the kitchen table.  They are sitting on my leader/ender spools table topper.  I LOVE this little quilt!

Chippy and Blue escaped the evil elf-eating Christmas tree.

Blue learns the importance of not swallowing gum and shares his newfound knowledge with others.

I currently have 59 on-going projects on my list.  They are separated into stages.  This seems like a lot of projects, but I used to have 93 items on my list.  I love the fact that it has gone down so much.

Pieces Need to be Cut & Sewn

 1.  Cheddar Jack cat pattern from 

 2.  Digging up Bones (Owen's dinosaur quilt)

 3.  Rock Island Campfire Quilt

 4.  Picadilly Circle

 5.  ...And Sew On BOM at Quiet Play (one block to go)

 6.  Go Four It!  Scrappy 4-patches started as leader/ender, June 2017

 7.  Patriotic Folk Animals (from Americana Quilts Book) 8/8/19

 8.  Leah Day Building Blocks QA

 9.  Jelly Roll Rug

10.  Classic Meets Modern BOM

11.  Veggie Patch from Katie Mae Quilts

12.  Mod Mod QA (from Block Lotto, circles w/lines)

13.  Owl's Well That Ends Well (RSC19 project started 1/26/19)

14.  Kevin the Quilter's Sapphire Stars Mystery (started Summer 2017) I can't find it!!!

15.  Temperature QA (changing this project to a table topper)

16.  Kite Girl (RSC14)

17.  Amish Country BOM (from Lynn, Johnna's mom)

18.  Cabins at the Lake (from Fons  Porter Magazine) only one house block complete.)

19.  2.5" Scraps from Dani -- making "cracker" blocks

20.  Waffle Blocks (August 2019 -- RSC19)

21.  Little Houses (3.5" blocks)

22.  Pumpkins & the Beanstalk (a 2nd quilt)

23.  Dresser Scarf (My Grandma's WIP from the 1970's found 1/1/20

24.  Linen & Threads Mystery SAL, Started 1/1/20 for my sew-to-go-bag

25.  Slabs with White Rectangle (RSC14 started -- needs blocks each month)

26.  Bonnie Hunter Box Kite class from March 2017

27.  Unity Quilt Along with Bonnie Hunter (started 4/1/2020)

28.  Orange, pink, grey kite blocks 2015

29.  Maroon Sampler Quilt

30.  Gypsy Wife QA started in August 2017

31.  Kathleen Tracy's 2019 Mystery Quilt Facebook QA started in March, 2019

32.  2016 Plus Blocks (from left over pieces of Soul Searching Blocks

33.  RSC16 Folk Art Birds

Blocks Still Need to be Made

 1.  Bluepatch Mystery Quilt

 2.  Scrap Crystals (RSC15)

 3.  We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler

 4.  Drunkard's Path Variation quilt

 5.  Finding Nemo Scrappy Trip quilt 

Blocks Are Made But Need to be Sewn Together (and/or Some Sashing)

 1.  Block Swap Adventure Orange/Yellow Sampler (2011-2012)

 2.  Cruise blocks won from Libby

 3.  Orange/Blue Fish Blocks That I Won

 4.  Split Stars (blocks won from the Block Lotto, October, 2012)

 5.  African Violet baby quilt (Block Lotto inspired)

 6.  Tall Fly (blocks won from Block Lotto; October 2012)

 7.  Fortune Teller (RSC14)

 8.  Sonja's Windows string quilt

 9.  Block Swap Adventure (2013) Churn Dash Blcoks

10.  Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks 5/17/17 QA

11.  Flower Baskets (blue and white with some applique) Block Lotto win 10/1/18

12. Pre-printed cross stitch pillow sham (May 2018)

13.  Cathy's CRAZY BY DESIGN Dot Dot Dash Bag, Won April, 2018

Quilt Back Needs to be Made (Tops are Done)

1.  Card Trick (pink and blue)

2.  Hunter Green Star Quilt

3.  Good Fortune -- A Bonnie Hunter Mystery started Thanksgiving weekend, 2018

4.  Sand Castles -- Bonnie Hunter string quilt started January, 2019 -- an RSC project

Ready to Longarm

1.  Bubble Gum Pink & Navy Quilt

2.  CM Blue HST  Crib Quilt -- I picked it up 12.4.20 

3.  Soul Searching -- Julianne sent it to me on 8/29/19

4.  Bonnie Hunter Garden Party (started 3.18.17) -- On the frame!

I'm linking up with Midweek Makers  Enjoy all the eye candy at Quilt Fabrication.