The Final Countdown!

I follow Prairie Moon Quilts blog.  Each year she hosts the final countdown listing 3 tasks that are to help with your quilt space organization.  She said she was not going to make it easy on us.  She was right!

The first task is to make a list of all your projects.  She encourages you to include all types of projects.  I have many, many flimsies waiting to be quilted.  My list has all sewing items for now.  The list begins with my projects that are in pieces followed by quilt tops I want to gift.  I will continue the list as my plans change but for now this list will serve the purpose of being able to participate in some challenges that are part of groups I belong to.

The second task is to deal with the scrap pile.  I’ve been doing pretty well keeping these sorted and made a good run at using them last year and the year before.  I didn’t really have to do much with this one so I went into my sewing room and sewed with some 1.5 strips and pieces i had cut.  I have an inspired by photo and have started the 25 patches.

You can see my sketch.  There will be some red introduced in the alternate locks.  I’ll just make it up as I go along!

Day three has you cleaning out a closet.  I’ve done all that with regard to my sewing stuff.  So I’m doing my own interpretation.  I have tubs that I’ve sorted various width strips into.  They’ve been living on my sewing room floor.  I’ve spent the past few days thinking about where I want their home to be.  My options were my shelves in my sewing room or in my stash room.  If I keep them in my sewing room I will have to rehire my UFOs that are in pieces.  It took me a few days of thinking about it and my strip bins will live in the stash room.

I like these prompts.  They usually lead me to improving something in my setup.  Things I’ve been meaning to work on but never seem to get around to.

If you need a decluttering challenge look up Karen Browns, from Just Get It Done,  Declutter Challenge.  This one is a months worth of prompts and can really be applied to any area of your home.

Hope you’re having a good start to your year.

Swooze

Happy New Year 2026

I squeezed in a few more quilt top finishes.

Wiggle Time in Halloween fabrics.

Up next is Tangled.  I have a ton of solids that I rarely use.  I sought out a multi color fabric for background.

I’m a topper in that I seem to make tops and not get them quilted.  This is my big goal in 2026.  To finish lots!

Happy New Year one and all!

Merry Christmas

Sending warm wishes for this holiday season from our house to yours!

November and December Quilts 2025

Even though there is time left in December I’m going to post my quilt tops to date.

First up is Running Doe top-a-long Weave

This is December top-a-long Waverly.  Another one I’d like to make again.

Not much happening in the sewing room.  I have a few tops in progress that I could work on.  My longarm is staring at me but I continue to ignore her.  I really need to jump back in.  It’s blocking my mojo a bit and I can’t let that happen.

October Quilts 2025

October is one of my favorite quilt months!  This is the month that I attend the Wichita Falls American Sewing Guild retreat.  It is hosted at a church camp.  They provide all the meals except on the bonus day.  Usually people bring their lunch and then there is meal sharing or pizza in the evening.  I have a friend that I actually met at this retreat invite me to room with her.  I invited my friend to come along as well as she has attended these retreats in the past and also enjoys them.

My friend and I drive up the day before and stop at favorite quilt spots and eateries.  We stayed at a hotel that had a personal assistant/concierge robot.  The lady at the desk explained how it worked and I was eager to give it a test!  Once we were settled I called down for some more coffee and creamer.  I sat perched at the door, phone in hand ready to take a video.  Not long after I heard a knock at the door and was surprised.  It was the lady from the front desk.  She handed me what I asked for and explained that the robot broke down in the elevator.  She had to pry the supplies from the robot and hand deliver.  I was disappointed.  The next morning I spied the little robot waiting for her repairman.  Boohoo!  Next year!

Here is my October Running doe top Flutterby.  It makes me think of gift boxes with a gold bow.

This is a top designed by Mark Lipinski that he called Idol Results.  It’s a double nine patch.  I plowed through a lot of scraps then FQs and then dipped into yardage.  I added borders while at retreat.  They have lots of space to spread out.  I made the blocks throughout the year.

This is my Carolina Chain courtesy of Bonnie Hunter.  Again a fun trip through the scrap bins.  I think my scraps provided for all the blocks.  I was at another friends house.  I have been helping her declutter her home and get her sewing room arranged.  I spotted this huge print that was sort of a floral is fruit print.  It was almost ugly but all the colors were in my top.  It was a strange cut.  I asked her if I could please have it!  She agreed and said if I didn’t use it to please give it back.  I think there’s a 5ish inch square left!  This is another one where the top was done and I just needed to add borders.

At retreat I brought all the bonus triangles from the Running Doe top-a-long and sewed them together.  There are quite a few.  I brought a kit that is an advent calendar.  I put the base together and have the pockets started.  The instructions say to assemble the whole thing then quilt but I think quilting the vase will be the wiser thing to do.  I also brought all the fabric to cut a Showering Stars quilt.  I think that was it.  A very productive retreat!

I’m leaning toward not joining the Running Doe top-a-long.  I can still sew along if I like the pattern and share my pictures to the group.  I don’t need prizes, although I do love winning them.

June through September Quilts 2025

I’ve decided to speed things up a bit.  It looks like I was only completing my Running Doe tops for the top-a-long.

This is the June top.  Gator Party.  See the little yellow teeth?  

This is the July Running Doe top Jasper.  Catherine designed this one especially for the top-a-long.

Runny Doe for August is Phyllis.

I threw a wrench in the works and made this top.  This is a kit I bought a long time ago.  This is called Daisy Star.  It used panels that have flowers on them cut apart and reassembled.  It was fun to play with the colors.  I made it for a coworker who had a baby after several losses. What’s funny is that person has stopped communicating with me so I may have a bonus baby quilt.  People are odd aren’t they?  This was completed in August.

Septembers top!  Stargazer. I wanted to try to get away from the white backgrounds.  What do y’all think?  It’s definitely different for me.

Almost caught up.  As you can see the organizer loves stars and flippy corners.  I have done the top-a-long for a year now.  I’m not really a fan of star quilts and don’t like flippy corners.  This is making me really wonder about signing up for the next 6 months.  For $10 you get 6 patterns and are entered into a drawing each month if you complete the top.  There’s a grand prize drawing after the 6 months as well.  I’ve been talking to my friends who are doing it trying to get them to sway me one way or another!

May Quilts 2025

I can’t believe I forgot my April Running Doe quilt top.  My favorite of all so far!  I plan to make another.  This is called Sky Diamonds and is a Villa Rosa pattern.

This is my May Running Doe pattern also by Villa Rosa.  It’s called Kaleidoscope.  I used a technique from Maryquilts.com to make the butterflies “flutter”.  See https://maryquilts.com/twisted-9-patch/

This quilt was inspired by a Fabric Cafe 3 yard quilt.  My friend needed a quilt made in an odd size.  I grabbed pen and paper and did some math.  I told her how many yards of each fabric she would need.  She brought her choices to one of our Saturday sews.  I asked her if she wanted me to help her get started.  Within a few hours I completely cut it out and had it mostly sewn together.  She said I should finish it so I did.  This one is languishing on my quilt machine now.

If I could flex my quilting muscle as much as my piecing muscle I’d be in great shape!