2014 ALYOF Finishes!

It is that time where I make a bunch of posts recapping last year and looking ahead to this year. First up, my finishes for 2014 ALYOF. For how unaccomplished I feel last year was, I actually met 11 of my 12 goals.

1. December – Completed Anchors Aweigh quilt
Goal post
Finish post

2. November – Completed Kaleidoscope top
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3. October – Finished economy block quilt
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4. September – Finished back for economy block quilt (and Tula Houndstooth quilt)
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5. August – Finished Tula Houndstooth top
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6. July – Finished Economy block top
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7. May – Finished Piggy weighted quilt
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8. April – Finished Bento Block quilt
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9. March – Finished Block of the Month top
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10. February – Finished Piggy top
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11. January – Finished Stack the Deck quilt
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My one failure was in June when I attempted to finish my anchor quilt the first time. I later finished it in December.

Here’s to more in 2015!

December ALYOF: Anchors Aweigh

I finished it!

I actually had it done a couple weeks ago, but we’ve been traveling and then without internet for some time, so once again I am squeezing the post (but not the finish!) in last minute.

I gave it to my parents at our holiday celebration. Then we all headed to Florida which I thought would be perfect for the pictures. That’s my husband and Brother in law you can see through the quilt.

I had some yardage of some of the saltwater prints (unfortunately not the blue ones I wish I had now). In the back I used the coral octopi for the upper portion and the coral seahorses for the lower. I like the contrast of saturation. I separated them with some water related layers from my swap last year.

You can see some of them here. Mostly Neptune and a few others. I also used one of the sand bars for the label.

I believe this is my only ALYOF failure in the 12 months – I tried to finish it in the summer and got overwhelmed with the quilting. I do all my own quilting on my Singer and was trying to be very ambitious and this is a very large quilt (96×96) and I gave up. I decided I needed to just get it done and so “copped out” and just did some meandering horizontal wavy lines.

This was, of course, hardest in the center of the quilt, but I got into good rhythm elsewhere. I do still fight with starts and stops on my singer. No matter how cautious I am it skips and/or knots at those points. I was very good about keeping things well rolled to help with the bulk. Not the elaborate quilting vision I planned, but it works and it got the job done.

Happy New Year! So looking forward to 2015.

Goal Post

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ALYOF December goal

The one ALYOF goal I haven’t met this year was when I planned to quilt my Tula Pink anchor quilt. I’ve been intimidated – by its size, by my vision of what I wanted…. I’d like to give it to my parents for the holiday, but I have to finish it. It has just been sitting on my balcony collecting dust (well, really, other quilt tops). I’ve decided I need to go ahead and bite the bullet, which really means lowering my ambitions and getting it done. Instead of the elaborate swirl design I was hoping for, I think I am going to go with a more simple wavy line deal. I have it rolled up and under my machine ready to go.

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November ALYOF Finish – Kaleidoscope

Wow, so I am just sneaking this in under the wire. I really didn’t think I was going to finish. I have spent my whole vacation slaving away at this. I finished yesterday afternoon, but it was too dark to take pictures til today.

Even though for all the work and triangles this took it is smaller than I expected, it was still taller than my husband, so it is a little hard to see the whole thing in the picture. The edges right now are angled. My intention was to eventually square it up, but I actually kind of like it. I am not sure about binding it though, so I don’t know what I will do in the end.

I got quite good at getting my points in the middle to meet, but not so much where the blocks join. I think that had something to do with inconsistent trimming of the blocks. They are all 10.5″, but may not all be centered properly. I think unless you are looking closely, it isn’t distracting in most cases.

Like most of my tops, I kind of put this together randomly. I matched pairs of triangles first, then built the kaleidoscope center blocks from that, then created a layout and filled in the kaleidoscope outer blocks as needed. I also didn’t want any Kaleidoscopes hanging off the edges, so I spent some time making the “border” to complete all the kaleidoscopes and filling in with diamonds. Like all my quilts, I had a love/hate relationship with it. Now that it is done, I am really pleased with it (a few days ago I hated it), however, if I were to do it again, I think I should take the time and patience to plan ahead. I don’t totally like where the blue backgrounds break into the brown and peach backgrounds. I feel it is different enough to break up the background flow. But not enough that I hate the top. Just a nitpicky now that I have done it.

I have no plans to finish it anytime soon. I have holiday and “special” projects that are going to fill my next couple months, so into the growing wip pile it goes.

Here is my goal post

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November ALYOF goal

I am not feeling very optimistic this month, as we are already a week in and I haven’t touched anything since I finished my economy block. I’ve been tearing my house apart trying to get things cleaned up and out. I am desperately needing to get rid of stuff, but it is really hard for me and there isn’t anywhere to put anything in the meantime. Anyway, that’s what I am up to. Plus there’s the holiday season bearing down on me.

So I’ve been debating between trying to chose between getting another quilt finished (I have three basted and waiting) or trying to finish my kaleidoscope top that is my goal for the year. I am not sure which is more likely to get done… I was tempted to choose quilting since my table is still extended and I’d like to get some more finishes under my belt, but I am at a loss on how to quilt some of these. I have most of my blocks done for my kaleidoscope, so that may be the better way to go.

Here’s hoping

ALYOF: October Finish

OK. I finished my quilt about a week ago, but it has been impossible to get pictures til today. I made a point to make sure I got them done as soon as I could.

Here it is

This is my economy block quilt that I started in April. This is the first quilt I’ve finished since around then too. 😦 However, I have a whole line up to do while my quilting table is extended. I quilted it along the diagonal seams. I want to say it measures around 52×72. My memory may be off.

Here are some closeups of the blocks/quilting

This quilt was supposed to be a graduation gift for my cousin. It is now sort of a combined grad/birthday/holiday quilt. I am just going to hang onto it til holidays and give it to her then.

Here is the back:

There’s a label under the Celebrate girl that I will fill in for her.

 

Yay! It feels good to finally FINALLY finish something. Unfortunately, the next quilt I have to do, I have no idea how to quilt it.

Here is my goal post

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ALYOF October: Economy Block

My goal for this month is to finish my economy block quilt. Top and back are done. I need to baste, quilt, and bind it.

I have no idea how I am going to quilt it. I am tempted to just straight line next to the seams, but that seems boring, right? What would you do?

 

ALYOF September: 2 backs done

My goal for this month was to make a back for my economy block quilt.

Here is the back ~ (This isn’t the best picture. I don’t have large areas to lay things out).

I used 2 prints I had a lot of yardage for. One is the carnival print from Asbury. The other is the monochromatic clock print from Storybook Lane. I also (after much soul searching) sacrificed my precious Celebration fabric. This quilt is, in part, a graduation gift for my cousin (a little late lol) and she seemed appropriate, as did the fun carnival print.

I also finished the back for my Tula houndstooth quilt

Here is the back ~ (Again, I did the best I could. I actually hung it over my balcony and knelt outside my front door to get this picture.)

I soured the web for the Prince Charming raindrops last year when I started making this quilt. I was so scared I wasn’t going to have enough, but I have over a yard to spare plus some good sized scraps. The blocks are made from leftover blocks from the front. The layers are from the layer swap I was in last year. This is huge. It is 98×108. I have no idea how I am going to quilt it.

Here is my goal post.

ALYOF September: I need backs!

So, I know this isn’t sexy, but what I really need to be getting done are backs for all the quilt tops I have piling up, so that I can then finish the quilts! I do piece my backs, so it is a tiny bit of work, but I still tend to push them aside for all the other sewing I want to do. I need to focus on them.

I know I am only supposed to pick one item, so the most important back I need to make is the back for my econoblock:

I also would like to work on the back for my chevron:

And my Tula:

August ALYOF Finish

I’ve been out of town most of the month. So, like, nothing has been getting done. I finally managed to settle in and buckle down on my finish for the month. I am working on my Tula Pink Houndstoothy quilt top. I had finished the blocks back in April at Stash Bash then put them aside and not touched them. I thought it would be a good one for vacation since blocks are done and I just need to assemble, and we have a large garage floor here for me to lay it out on. I’m having problems finding large spaces at my house.

I ran into a slight problem. I had made 132 blocks, intending an 11×12 grid. As I was laying it out, I realized I had duplicated a couple of blocks. Ugh. As I am on vacation, I just brought what I needed and no extra fabric. So, I had to make a decision – either table it til I get home or pull a row. I didn’t want to miss my goal and I had a sneaking feeling if I didn’t get this done here, it would sit on a shelf for another several months again. So I opted to do 10×12, 120 blocks.

This top was born from many (many many) Tula Pink swaps. I was in something like 15 rounds of a Tula Pink layer swap, as well as a couple of charm swaps and a brick swap. I am in all these charm swaps, then have no idea what to do with them. I find simple square layouts boring. This pattern seemed a more interesting alternative. I had more than 100 different prints from the charm swap (there were a few duplicates) and filled in the rest from the brick swap. So I never even actually touched the hundreds of layers I had accumulated (not to mention my own large yardage collection). There may be many more Tula quilts in my future. I had intended also to represent all lines (up to foxfield) but as my charm assortment ultimately dictated my blocks, I am not actually sure I accomplished it. I’ll need to sit down and check. If I had broken into my layers, I would have been able to do it. I am also not sure how successful the rainbow gradient is. Again, if I had hand selected my prints I would have done a better job of it, but I limited myself to what was in the charm swap and did the best I could with it. I thought it made a better layout than random.

I will use the leftover blocks in the back, and I have several yards of the Prince Charming raindrop saved for the back. I am glad I have finally finished it. Am I the only one who doesn’t love a quilt design as much when I am done as when I started? I was so psyched to do this one and now I am kind of over it. lol. This happens a lot. Of course, I have been working on it for a year. I am quite proud to see that my points and lining up and all that are so much improved. I was very happy with how it turned out technically. And now it gets added to the ever growing pile of tops that need backs. I did bring a couple of those with me to work on. One can hope. 🙂

 

Here is my goal post

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