2021 quilting | Thousand Needles

In a previous post, I listed all the quilts that I plan to quilt this year. There are 7 of them. In this post, I will list the quilts I’m working on and my plans to get them to the to be quilted stage….

Jan Krentz – Diamond Star quilt. I’m not sure what this one is called but I started this in December (yup, just this past December 2020) in a workshop and I’ve got the inner top finished. I still need to do the border and I’m planning on putting some appliqued pieces in the center to make it pop.

Grassy Creek Clue 3 – finished 12/26/2020

Bonnie Hunter’s 2020 Mystery Quilt, Grassy Creek – I’m currently working on Clue 4.

Scrappy Stars Around the Corner 3/6/2020

I need to figure out where I left on this project. I’m pretty sure I have a bunch of rows pieced together but I’m not sure if this top is done or not. I don’t think so but who knows… It’s been several months since I’ve pulled this project to look at.

Dancing with the Stars Linda Ballard 8/2020

Dancing with the Stars by Linda Ballard – I’m also not sure where I’m at here. I know I ran out of fabrics and I can’t make it a queen size quilt so I need to make a decision on what to do to move forward on this quilt.

Radiant Jewel Quilt by Kimberly Einmo – all the blocks are done and my plan was to get this up oh a design wall at a quilt retreat to figure out where the blocks will go and move forward on it. It looks like that quilt retreat will probably not be happening anytime soon so… we’ll see where we are at when this comes up in queue.

Gardenvale – started in 2020. I need to make a decision as to how I want to move forward on this. It’s been percolating and one of the ideas I’ve been playing with is doing traditional blocks around the new round in these fabrics. I need to do the math to figure out how big I want them to be and how many I will need to fill the round. I love these fabrics. 🙂

Allietare – Bonnie Hunter’s mystery quilt from 2015 – I pulled this out in 2020 to start working on this but I had such difficulty figuring out where I was in clue 1 that I set it aside. I need to put my big girl panties on and just move forward on this one. I did not do too many of these so if I have to start all over, I’m okay with that.

Area Three Mystery Quilt from 2012 SoCal Quilters Run – I actually pulled this out in 2020 to start working on as well but something about it wasn’t sitting well with me. I had a kit of beautiful batiks and about 10-12 instructions and every time I tried to get started, I just couldn’t. So I scrapped it. I pulled the fabric out and it’s now in my basket to pre-wash my fabrics. When that basket gets full it will all go in the wash.

Civil War Diary Quilt – started in 2017 – I’m putting this on the list.

~Happy Quilting!

~Melanie

Here are all the quilt tops I have ready to be quilted.

I still need to prepare backing and the batting.

Part of the hold up (other than being scared of the Q20, and moving, and 2020) was that I didn’t know what design I wanted to use with the Q20. So I dillied and dallied.

Back in the summer, I was given the opportunity to purchase some used quilting rulers. And they’ve been sitting here unused. After some thought and consternation, I decided to eff it all and stop thinking too hard on this. These are not show quilts nor are they the perfect quilts. I enjoyed working on them and love how they turned out. But I don’t need to have the perfect quilting motif.

SoCal Quilt Run 2012 Area 4 Mystery Quilt Kind of June 22, 2020

So the plan for 2021 is to take each ruler and use it on these quilts. I’ll put some effort in that I’ll match what I feel is a good design with the quilt. But that’s it. I don’t want another year to go by before I get theses quilted.

Goal #1- Use the Q20 and get comfortable quilting with it.

Goal #2- Learn how to quilt with a ruler especially the rulers I have. I’d like to take a ruler class when we can do those again and learn tricks and techniques. Until then, I’ll check out YouTube for the tutorials.

SoCal Quilt Run 2012 Area 4 Mystery Quilt Kind of Sept, 2020

So now that that’s been decided, I’m ready to move on to the next step. Prepare the backing.

Provence ~ BOM at my LS – top finished in 2019 (I think)

And then prepare the batting. I have a roll of batt so I will do these all at once. Somewhere I have measurements on all these quilts. But rather than look for those measurements I’m just going to re-measure. And then add the necessary inches to all the sides and cut the batting. I like big quilts so this is not an easy thing to do. But necessary.

There is one extra quilt top not pictured here. I didn’t even piece this quilt. At one of the August treasure hunts my Quilt guild hosts, I purchased a finished top for something like $5. My intention at the time was to use the quilt to practice Free Motion Quilting. Life just got in the way and it sat. That quilt will be finished this year. 🙂

Goal #3- Basting – Settle in a technique that works for me. I haven’t had to baste in years. We’ll really baste. I basted Celtic Solstice some how. I don’t remember. But I’m sure I was on the floor pinning and so don’t want to do that anymore. I had been renting time in a long arm which meant I didn’t have to baste and other than Celtic Solstice all the other quilts ready to be quilted have been waiting. I tried spray basting a long time. And I saw some great YouTube tutorials. I’ll try it out and if I love how it turns out I’ll share the tutorial with you. Until then,

~Happy Quilting!

Melanie

Thousand Needles

Quilting, Scrapbooking, Gardening and whatever else catches my fancy

Tag Archives: 2021 quilting

2021 Quilty plans

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2021 – Tops to be quilted

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