Year End Miscellanea

 

 The last flimsy of 2019. 

St. Louis 16 Patch

40 x 60

This is a Fat Quarter Challenge quilt and when finished will go to Quilts Beyond Borders. 

This is the Fat Quarter that I was challenged to use. 

 One FQ didn't go very far in this quilt but it did determine the color scheme. 

 I combined the FQ with several other fabric scraps and chunks and made ten inch St. Louis Sixteen Patches. 

And that makes 56 flimsies ready for quilting in the New Year according to my new 2020 UFOs page. 

56 must be a magic number.  That is the number of UFOs I finished last year according to my 2019 Finishes page.  Those UFOs amounted to 328.2 yards of stash busted. I actually finished 60 quilts (and one set of placemats and napkins) this year - four of them were not UFOs and were started and actually finished all in 2019. I didn't keep track of the amount of fabric used in those. The long term goal is to actually finish everything I start all in the same year. 

45 of those 60 finishes were gifted or donated (or will be soon. I have a couple of boxes I need to mail). 

9 of the 60 were hand quilted and 1 of those 9 is now on my bed. 

1 is in my grandson's hope chest along with the game that inspired it.

The last quilty purchase for 2019 - backings and thread. 

I didn't buy much fabric in 2019 and most everything came from stash or stash enhanced by gifts from quilty friends. Mostly I buy backings, neutrals and solids or TOTs because those seem to always run low.  I had to go in town to the dentist yesterday so decided to stop by Hobby Lobby on my way home to pick up some thread and check the clearance bin. I bought four yards of each of these that were marked down to $2 or $3 per yard to use for backings. With 56 or more quilts I hope to finish in 2020 these will surely come in handy. 

  

 What's in the bin?

Today I was taking a final count of UFOs that will roll into 2020 and then decided to assess a bin of scraps.  This Parts Department bin was supposed to be full of 4.5 inch parts. I sorted through it to see what was actually in there and to try and decide what to do with what is actually in there. (Goal for 2020 is to empty it completely). 

 First of all there was a small grocery sack of things that did not really belong in there like a little lunch baggie of 3.5 inch bow tie blocks, a lunch baggie of 2.5 inch squares and some 2.5 x 5 lozenges. There were also some 4.5 inch scraps and a small pile of 4.25 inch (unfinished) hourglass blocks leftover from a July 2017 finish called MoROSE Garden.  

I took all those bits and pieces out of there and moved them to different bins. 

 I sorted out a gallon bag full of these little Happy Blocks that finish at 4 inches (2.5 inch centers and 1.5 inch sides). I've made them off and on for several years when I had some cute little novelty print scraps for the centers.  I haven't counted them but I think there's definitely enough for a kid's quilt in there so this will be one of the last new starts of 2019. 

I also kept these blocks separate from the rest because I think I can use them in a Fractured Quilt UFO that needs to have the center ripped out and replaced because I don't think the center blocks go with the rest of the quilt. More on that some other day. 

 So now the rest of the 4.5 inch blocks in the bin are now kind of sorted - one pile of warm colored blocks, two piles of cool color blocks, one pile of brown blocks, one pile of mixed cool and warm colored blocks and one pile of blocks with black in them.  Not sure how I will actually use them yet and they may end up combined with orphans. 

 I actually have a bin  and a bag of 4.5 inch scraps (stacked on top of the 4.5 inch Parts bin). The bag is full of light blue and white 4.5 inch scraps I had pulled to use with orphans in the two orphan block tops I recently completed. I'm thinking I will cut 4.5 inch squares from the cool color scraps and combine them with 4.5 inch cool color parts to make a twin sized quilt. 

The last new start for 2019. 

After lunch I was reading some blogs and saw the new Ad Hoc Improv Quilting prompt is Hourglass. Talk about timely...remember I said I had found leftover Hourglasses in the 4.5 inch parts bin? Well, after I saw the prompt I went and sewed those Hourglasses (or QSTs) together for a medallion center that I hope to move forward with borders the first quarter of 2020. 

 Ok...so maybe this and not the Hourglass Medallion was the last new start of 2019. I received these squares from a quilty friend a few months ago. I've wanted to sash four squares with a 1.5 inch solid strip but didn't have any solids to use so picked up some at Hobby Lobby yesterday when  I picked up those backings. I have some shirt scraps I will mix with these and hope to make a twin sized quilt. 

Or maybe this is the last new start of 2020? 

I also received a pile of 6 inch red floral squares from a quilty friend. That is a weird size so I have had them sitting at the end of my ironing board trying to decide what to do with them. Finally I've decided to cut them in half so they will measure 3x6 and become the starter for a lozenge quilt. I don't have a 3 inch width scrap bin because if I end up with scraps of that width I usually cut the strip in half and throw the pieces in the 1.5 inch scrap bin but I do have some scrap chunks I will cut for lozenges.  I'm aiming for a small donation quilt approximately 40 x 60.