ALYOF-January finish

Hello! Am I still here?

Yup! Slow and steady wins me a goal for the month.

I have 14 blocks finished for the baby's star sampler crib quilt. Now I just have to decide which ones to go in the final quilt. 

Um, not quite right.

Now I switched Crossed Diamonds for the Starshine. Still not quite.

I asked my husband when he came home from the fire station, and he really likes the Crossed Diamonds. It's different than the others, kinda catchy-looking, with a vintage vibe (vintage Maltese Cross!)

So now I have two extra blocks....Pat Sloan's Mystery BOM January block, and the Weathervane. My hubby thought the Weathervane looked too much like the other blocks with the sawtooth stars.

And you can see that I've already put sashing rows together, too, one night this past week. So now, I'm finally ready to assemble the quilt top.

Sampler progress

Here's my progress on the last few days, on the baby's star sampler.

Amish Star, and Weathervane star.

Oh wow. I just counted, and I've done 12 blocks! I still have one more that I've cut out, that I need to sew. Hmmmm. Now I have to decide which ones to include in the quilt, and what I will do with the extra.

I'm pretty excited, because I've done 12 blocks, which is my plan. And baby's first birthday is next week!

And I'm loving having a design wall, even though it's not really finished, nor hung on the wall yet. It's standing on its side, balanced on the back of the table, leaning against the wall it will hang on. I still need to cover the other board. And hubby and I need to go to the hardware store, to figure out what kind of hooks that we will hang them on.

The design wall is great, because I can put pieces up, instead of laying them on the table--clear up my work space a bit. Also, vertically seeing the blocks really helps with layout and visualization. Oh yeah, and my pictures are better, because there's no shadow that my phone casts on the block !

Block of the Month

I need another project like a hole in my head!

But since joining Pat Sloan's Facebook group, I've been watching everyone working on the first block for her 2015 Mystery Block of the Month called Vacation Time. And I really like the block!

This one is very similar to what I have in my head.

So I've been gathering my fabrics. I'm really trying hard to shop my stash for coordinating colors and correct amounts.

I really want to do another purple and aqua quilt.

I don't want the green to dominate. But Pat calls for 4 different greens. I'm just trying to pull green from the green/aqua batik. Maybe the dark greens make them dominate over the aqua?

Or this? And use a bit more purple and aqua (and my beloved Cuzco by Kate Spain).

So I feel like I've been wasting lots of time dithering about it this weekend.

So I quit to start the Amish Star for the baby's quilt.

And what else did I accomplish this week?

Folded Star

4 Corners of Happy by Blue Ribbon Designs from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Vol 10. I won a copy of the volume on the blog tour from Blue Ribbon, and she threw in a little kit to make her block! She used her Accuquilt to cut all the patches for it. I've never worked with die cut patches before, and it was pretty nice. She even pre-fused the appliqué pieces--it was a snap to put together, and blanket-stitch appliqué!

ALYOF January 2015 goal

Happy 2015 !

I'm going to keep going with Sew Bittersweet Design's A Lovely Year of Finishes. It's nice to make a goal and see progress.

My main goal for January:

Finish the blocks for the baby's star sampler! I've got three more.

(After this one:)