Tag Archives: dancing with the stars

2022 Finished Projects

Here are my finishes for 2022.

Dancing with the Stars – Feb. 2022
Mama’s Bukid – Framed March, 2022
Glam Clam – March 2022
April 2022
Hawaiian quilt – May 2022
Rippity doo dah -June 2022
Provence – November 2022

A small project finished: Chirp Block

front
back

Finished tops….

Arabesque – October 2022
Disappearing 9 Patch – October 2022
Lucretia’s Journey – November 2022
Storm at Sea / Snail’s Trail Designer: Wendy Mathson – December 2022

2021 Quilty plans

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 Quick Star 01/01/2021

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 by Moda 7/12/2020

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

My weekly crafty update ~on quilting

Last week I turned my sewing machine on again after 2 weeks of not touching it.

Dancing with the Stars
Still in pieces
Linda Ballard
9/7/2020

I pieced more pieces of Dancing with the Stars so I can make more blocks to fit a queen size quilt. I think I may run out of fabric and I went to Joanns to find something similar and I failed.  It may not be queen size. or, I’ll have to keep hunting.

I do not know why I stopped turning the machine on. It became too hard. My Lowery stand and my big cross stitch frame was in front of my table and the room was just messy enough that I didn’t want to disturb the piles by moving it so I can sew.  That’s not usually something that stops me. In addition, I had enough of a mess on my cutting table that I didn’t want to clean it up so I could cut fabric.  And I was at a perfect stand still in all of my projects. Most WIPs needed something pressed or cut or both before I could move into actually sewing on the machine.  And I didn’t want to press or cut. I wanted to sew.  It’s the kind of motivation or unmotivation -demotivation? – well I was immobilized by my inability to make a decision of what to do next and so did not do anything.  On Labor Day, I finally stopped with the inaction and pressed and put the pieces to Dancing with the Stars under the needle.  🙂

2012 Southern CA
Quilt Run
Area Four
Mystery quilt
3/8/2020

And over the weekend I pulled this quilt from my retreat luggage. I already had the first 2 rows pieced. I sewed all but the final row pieced together. I just ran out of energy and had to call it quits for the week.  I hope to finish the top in the next couple of weeks.

~ keep on quilting!

Melanie

 

2020 Crafty Plans

Over the last 3-4 years I’ve added more crafts to my crafty life and I only have so much time for crafts.  Time is a fixed element.  There is only so much time and I love to do all the things. I quilt, knit, cross stitch and now I’m learning to sew and make project bags, and on and on and on.  Over the holiday break I used my gifted Christmas money to get a bobbin lacemaking kit.  I’ve got a ton of half done projects and plans for other projects but not enough time to do everything I want to do.  So rather than have goals each month of making progress on certain things I’ve decided to dedicate time to different crafts.

To summarize my crazy, I knit on my socks for 15 minutes every morning and 1-2 rows on my high priority knitting project every evening Monday thru Friday.  I cross stitch on my projects every evening Monday thru Friday. I quilt on Saturdays and I sew on Sundays.  Obviously if something comes up like an event or party or meeting, I will not be crafting. As a result, I like to avoid attending events and tend to stay home or hang out with like minded crafty people (just kidding – I still go out and see friends and family, I’m not totally crazy…. yet).

So here is a list of projects I will be working on during the craft times:

Quilting: So even though I’ve added new crafts to my life I still consider myself a Quilter with a capital Q.  And over the next year I want to learn to use my new machine (*more on that later when it arrives).  I want to learn how to service my featherweight, I’m taking a year long Judy Niemeyer class, take the monthly workshops offered by my quilt guild, take the embroidery class offered at my local sewing machine shop, do more hand work, and finish more of my WIPs.

My current WIPs:

Staycation

This is not really a WIP because the top is done. I just need to quilt it. I actually have this and possibly two other tops and a multitude of smaller projects ready to be quilted.  Those are top on my list to finish and will be done when my new machine arrives*.

Good Fortune 

Good Fortune
1/1/2020

I am currently finished with Border #3.  I’m working on the 4th and final border.

Glam Clam

I’ve been doing a row at a time at the various retreats I’ve gone to over the last 2 years and I only have about 3 rows left.

Scrappy Stars – I do not have a good picture of this because this was a mystery quilt from a few years ago and I’m currently on step 4 or something.  I believe that I’m at the point where I start putting the pieces together to make blocks. But right now, there are just a bunch of pieces…

Area One Mystery Quilt – 

This is another project I’ve been working on primarily at retreats.  I actually have two more sets of blocks done and I only have another 2 sets of blocks left before I can start piecing the blocks together. I know that doesn’t make any sense but I’m getting so close to a finish.  Here’s how the center looks which I got done after the above picture was taken.

Craftsy Mystery quilt from a long time ago by Kimberly Einmo.  I cannot remember where I am with this project but I started it at the last retreat I went to.

Area Two  Mystery quilt – I finished all the blocks that I have but apparently I do not have the finishing instructions!  So now I have a bunch of blocks that I have to figure out how to put together.  I will work on this at a retreat because I need a big design space and fellow retreat attendees’ help to decide how to move forward.

Dancing with the Stars by Linda Ballard – I pulled this out and started working on it again at the last retreat I went to and the last time I worked on this was in 2013.

Dancing With the Stars
2-Block A and Snowball

I get a lot of work done at retreats I attend throughout the year. These are formal retreats for my guild, and various retreats offered by shops but I also plan personal retreats with friends and with my family.  I generally work on one project at home and that is currently Good Fortune and when that is done I’ll work through this list in order.

This is a lot for one post so I’m putting my other crafts for other days.

Happy new year!

Melanie