Sometimes things don’t work out.

Last week I said I was going to work on an “After Quilt.” Well, I did, I was trying to turn a piece into a cute stuffed animal. It was a piece of fabric that I glued hearts and teardrops on. Then I free-motioned them down. My plan was to make a cute elephant stuffy. When I sewed a couple of pieces together, it became obvious that it wasn’t going to work. The hearts and teardrops were sticking up and looked ugly. It did not work out … it couldn’t be fixed … (and some of my virtual retreat buddies agreed with me) … so into the trash it went. GASP!!!! I don’t do that! But there was no saving this one! So it died. But have no fear, it’s not going to the landfill! The useless fabric was used in stuffing another stuffy – that I will show you soon.

What’s in the Future?

Yup, I have some plans …

Mystery Quilt: Between December 26 and 31, I plan to have a mystery quilt … right here on the blog. It’ll be a smallish quilt (43″ x 43″) and it’ll be easy to have at least the top done before 2021 becomes a reality! I’ll give the fabric requirements in the near future.

Stay at Home Round Robin: Some blogging friends and I will be doing this, starting in January. More information to come.

I can show you!

This is the mystery quilt that we did at the guild! I was the “lead” for the quilt, so I HAD to make it ahead of time. But, until the guild was given the solution, I couldn’t show you. All of the fabrics were from my stash.

This is not my pattern design: it is from a book. We have permission from the author to use the patterns for the guild. If you are interested in the name of the book – contact me and I’ll tell you. I won’t say the name of the book here because I plan to do more mystery quilts for the guild from the book. And I want it to be a mystery for them!!!

Here are some close-ups of the quilting in the feature blocks. I played with rulers .. using only the teardrop and a 2″ circle ruler. As well, you can see the swirls that I did in the background fabric. The coordinating fabrics (the links) were just stitched in the ditch as I wanted them to pop a bit.

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Design Wall

Piecing:

December Island Batik challenge: This quilt is a CHALLENGE. I planned it out in EQ. It was beautiful. Then, I changed my mind and did something different … it’s still beautiful, but all the measurements became skewed and that became the challenge. I’m sticking to this until it is finished.

Quilting: 

Scrappy 4 patches: The borders are on … but I forgot to take a picture. It is sandwiched – waiting to be quilted.

Stash Report

The mystery quilt (above) used 9.5 meters of fabric. I can’t be bothered to figure out how many yards that is – so I’ve rounded it down to 9.5 yards.

Last week, 2 pillow cases were finished (2 yards) and a table runner (1.5 yards).

No shopping, no fabric added.

• Fabric Used this week     13 yards
• Fabric Used this year:       292.5 yards
• Fabric Bought this week:   0  yards
• Fabric Added this year:      61.5 yards  (my husbands amounts as well)
• Net Fabric used                   231 yards
• Husband’s purchases: 17 yards (which are added into my total amount of Fabric added this year). For those of you who don’t know … my husband often buys more fabric than I do … so, I’m keeping track! Unfortunately, he doesn’t sew!

Stitchin’ Time

I’m aiming for at least 30 minutes a day.

• January – Sept: 290 / 304
• 30 min days/  Nov:   29 / 29
• Total days in 2020: 319 / 332
• Percentage = 96% 

For more Stitchin’ Time, you can check out Kate’s blog: Life in Pieces

TO DO 

I’m linking up to Roseanne & Sue’s “TO DO” Tuesday. Their blog is “Home Sewn by Us.”

Last week’s list:

1. Work on UFO (Scrappy 4 patches) (to flimsy stage) √   done
2. Work on an After Quilt – into the garbage
3. Make Pillow Cases with John Deere fabric √   done
4. Tidy & clean studio for 30 minutes √   done

This week’s list:

1. Complete December IB project
2. Work on Mystery (Dec 26-31)
3. Tidy & clean studio for 30 minutes

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting!    
Gail 

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Linking to:

• Tish @  Tish’s Adventuresin Wonderland
• Sunday Stash @ quiltpaintcreate
• Oh Scrap @  Quilting is More Fun than Housework
• 15 minutes to Stitch @ Life inPieces
• Monday Making @  Love, Laugh, Quilt
• Design Wall Monday @  Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
• To-Do Tuesday @ Home Sewn By Us
• Free Motion Mavericks @ Quilting and Learning – What a combo!