January Progress Report

I'm excited to make this blog post - I have lots of progress to show on my January UFOs!

My Column Quilt is done, and I love it.  This quilt is made using all scraps, and I used it to practice my Free Motion Quilting.  I'm really happy with the daisies in the purple stripes

and the leaf quilting in the green stripes.  I also love the sunbursts in the yellow stripes

and the Caryl flowers in the red stripes (those could use more practice, but I can live with them).  I don't love the feathers in the blue borders, so I'm not going to show a close-up of those!  I watched Cindy Needham's Craftsy class and got some nice tips, but I obviously need a lot more practice on the feathers.  I did try some different threads on this quilt.  Some of it was quilted with Aurifil cotton and some with Superior polyester.  I stitched in the ditch along all the long lines.  Much as I didn't want to do it, I have to admit it did help a lot, and it looks a lot better as a result.  I guess Cindy was right about that.  I got a sampler pack of threads from Superior, so I'm anxious to try out some of the other threads that came with that.

I've been thinking my machine bindings could use some improvement, so I did the Sharon Schaumber glue thing on this quilt.  The results were better, but still not wonderful.  I think that's something that takes a little practice, too.  I managed to get glue all over everything - this is obviously a technique that will require me to develop some glue skills!

So, anyway, this Column Quilt is done.  It's a very happy looking quilt because of all the bright colors, so I think its name is going to be Happy Go Lucky.  The pattern for this quilt is free here.  I had originally planned to use this as a charity quilt, but I've gotten pretty attached to it with all the hours of quilting (!), so I think I'll make a smaller version to donate.  This one is a twin bed size, which is usually a little big for charity quilts.  A lap size would probably be better, and I still have plenty of these scraps to make another quilt.

Boxy Stars is finished, too; quilted and bound and ready for a new home. 

I did a lot of FMQ practice on this one, too - that same starburst is in the sashing.  I did some loops in the star/box part of the block, and some flowers and leaves in the outer borders.  I'm happy with how this quilt turned out, and it used up a lot of 2 1/2" strips I've had forever.   Our guild is having a scrap workshop on March, and I'm going to show them how to make this quilt and another Bonnie Hunter scrap quilt.  The pattern for this quilt is also free on the Quiltville.com website.  After the workshop, this will be a charity quilt.

Annie decided she wanted to be a pillow with rick rack (thanks for the suggestions!).  I added a double row of baby rickrack, and found four matching red buttons in my grandma's button box, so this has antique buttons in the corners.  She looks right at home on my guest bed with Chatty Kathy (also an antique by now, LOL).  She was my favorite doll when I was little.  She doesn't chat anymore, but she's still in pretty good shape for her age.  This Annie stitchery was really fun to make, and Cleo and Me has an Annie for every month, so I may need to make some more of them.

So, that's my January UFO progress!  I still need to make the little dresses for Nicaragua - that workshop is coming up next Saturday, so I will get going on that then.  One thing about January in Wisconsin - it forces you to stay inside and tackle some quilting.  Our snow mostly melted, but it's pretty cold here now, so it's nice to stay inside and sew.

Thanks for stopping by!