During the past week, my studio time has mainly centered around helping budding quilters with their projects. In the previoius blog post, I mentioned “Holiday Foliage,” a block of the month quilt my sister-in-law and I worked on during her visit. We finished all twelve blocks! Once she arrived home, Doli laid out the blocks and striped sashing on her dining table. Gray kitty approves, and Doli is doing the happy dance.
My young friend, Tighan, joined the “Beautiful Weekend” class I taught at our local quilt shop in November. She chose the “Patisserie” layer cake from my stash because the soft corals and greens appealed to her.
In December she worked to complete the quilt top, and this week I added borders, quilted, and bound it. I selected sage green thread and the “Abigail” pantograph whose swirls soften the edges of the squares and rectangles.
In the past month I have also guided Tighan’s mother, Melinda, in strip-piecing a bed quilt for her youngest daughter. We used a jelly roll gifted by my friend Karlene for the body of the quilt. Border fabric was from stash and JoAnn’s. The little girl really loves soft blankets and stuffed toys, so Melinda purchased super soft, plush minky for the backing.
Using pale peach thread, I freehanded a watery design with swirls. Melinda used the leftover strips to make a coordinating pillow sham. I bound both quilt and sham with teal polka dot fabric.
For a personal project, I am scrambling to catch up with my one-a-day Bow Tie challenge. I decided to pin the blocks to my design wall according to color family. In this way I can easily see the number of coral, green, yellow, and print blocks and construct roughly the same number in each category.
I have also spent some time noting my Works in Progress and UFOs and listing customer quilt tops I have promised to quilt. Organizational and time mangement experts urge making lists as the first step to completing projects, but my WIP and UFO list is scary! Can I even dare to hope that I will finish half the projects in 2024? Time will tell. Perhaps I shall choose one WIP/UFO to complete each month (and slap my own wrist when I am tempted to start a new project).
How about you? Have you made a list of projects you would love to complete in 2024?
Does list-making motivate you?