2015 will be a year of finishes...

Hi everyone,

How is your winter going?

We are still frozen here but that is really just the usual. It is funny to sometimes see even Marley, the ultimate winter-loving dog, just want to go home and snuggle inside. I just follow this white tail plume 'till he turns to go back home...he he.

I hope all of you living round North-Eastern US shore are OK and digging out of blizzard!

So what is this blog post title all about you might ask?

Well, even though I miserably failed last year to do this, I am NOT giving up! I will try again to make THIS year, 2015, a year of finishes and making at least one major quilt a month.

WHY in a world am I doing this?
Well, I really love that idea, but more importantly, I have so many unfinished quilts and ideas I want to materialize!! And not just ANY quilts, some of these are for my loved ones, my closest family!! Really woman. :(

Oh wait, I lied - there is one more very important reason. Truth is, I get distracted so very easily. There I said it. Yup its true and it drives me crazy!
Now, to be fair, sometimes those are not JUST distractions for no good reason, sometimes they are things I have to do for the class I am teaching, or for one deadline or another...but still, the result is the same, right?

So, you see, I just can't give up and I have to keep trying to get better. I do.

First on this list is this colorful, kiddy quilt below. I owe our oldest son a quilt - quilt from his childhood. Its a soccer themed quilt, featuring red stars all over (Red Star is a major soccer team back in Serbia, his favorite team). We designed this quilt many years ago, I started it and then somehow it got pushed aside and forgotten... To the point that I was convinced he would never even want it any more, but guess what? - he DOES! Regardless that he is now thirty one and father already, he still wants his soccer quilt! - SO HE WILL HAVE IT.
It will be my first finish of 2015.

Here is what I have:
Apparently I was quite organized at that time - everything was neatly in one box:

- the pattern I designed in some old version of EQ software:

I even scanned that soccer fabric that is in side triangles, but that old version of EQ still didn't scale fabrics properly so print is almost invisible there. You can see it in the photo below.

- some blocks made, some paper foundations and ALL the pieces for those stars were pre-cut and organized by size and color, in baggies according to placement in the block - WOW!
I think I need to go back to that old self, ha ha!

So - thanks to that organization, it was actually quite straight forward to just pick-up where I left off and start paper-piecing those stars again!

I chain-piece even when doing paper-pieced blocks, specially if everything is pre-cut and organized like this!! LOVE IT. 

Here are B1s and B2s chain-pieced:

And before you know it I had this happy pile of trimmings and 15 blocks ready for final assembly!

 

And of course, I chain-pieced that too! :)

TA-DAH!!

(these are ALL the blocks I made so far - fourty-something of them)

Now, only 45 more to go! Oh, did I mentionthis quilt calls for about 90 of these stars? What in a world was I thinking?? Oh well, they are actually fun to make and I am going to do it in next few days!!

Oh, and remember those distractions I was talking about? 

Yeah - here it is! I need to make a quick sample for the paper-piecing class I will be teaching, so this morning, this was on the machine... 

But aren't these new Cotton + Steel fabrics just so pretty? I am excited to see this one done too, but ran out of time this morning and only got to A3...

When I start the day sewing in the morning then all day long I dream about it, whenever brain is "free" at work... ha ha! Here is how coffee break looked like today - took all my paper foundation prints to work with me, to cut the apart when I have time...and doodled some skirt and blouse I want to make from that beautiful new fabric collection that just came out, ETNO, by Pat Bravo. I really love that one, specially for some lovely skirt and tunic and....

See? Do I need professional help, or what??? :)

Well, maybe I do, but I am also very happy in my crazy life and I am so grateful for it, every day. 
Speaking of grateful, I read a lovely blog post by amazing Anna Maria Horner, so go check it out.

Leaving you with her lovely words and wishing you a wonderful Thursday,
Marija