1. AHQ: I didn’t set a goal for Aussie Heros this month as I needed a break. Break is now over (see below).
2. Personal: Finish the last two Hawaiian Blocks. Still not done (I spent much of that break playing video games so quilting work fell a bit behind). Eh, maybe next month.
3. FAL: Finish the quilting on EB and bind it. Quilting is almost done; I just have the borders left to do, and they’ll be walking foot so fairly fast. The binding won’t take long either. I’ll talk about this in a few days when I post the Q2 finish.
En Bourgogne quilting
Additional Work:
I went up to Sydney for a sewing day with JM and almost completed one top for her (I was working with blocks other people had done and some of them were a bit uneven, so they needed trimming and frames added to bring them up to the required size). No photos though.
My wrists are much improved and I finished the central stars for the next part of Flame Rose without any pain. The rest of the next section comprises 70 green and black units and I don’t anticipate being finished until September at the earliest. I’m determined not to make the same mistake I made in March so hand sewing is restricted to two hours per night.
July goals:
1. AHQ: One quilt, due date 29 July — I’ve already started this and it’s a fairly simple design so no problems are anticipated.
2. Personal: Is it worth nominating the Hawaiian blocks again?
3. FAL: Not sure yet but it definitely won’t be a full-size quilt. Probably a Christmas tree panel … but I still have a few days to make the decision.
I didn’t do any actual quilting today but I did do a fair amount of piecing, both by machine and by hand. The machine work was for an Aussie Hero quilt so no pictures. The hand work was finishing tier 3 on my second Penrose tiling quilt, Flame Rose.
I finished tier 2 on 30 October last year. This is the central portion of the quilt. Flame Rose centre, 2018-10-30
Today I finished tier 3. The picture below shows only one “petal” — there are five altogether, arranged around the centre portion. It looks a lot darker than the centre because it’s photographed at night and on cream, whereas the centre was shot in the day and on white.
Flame Rose Tier 3 2019-03-16
I’m actually impressed that I managed to get so much done in only four and a half months. I have to admit, though, that my wrists are not happy so I’m going to try and take it a little more slowly for the next section. There’s no more yellow/orange/red in the top, the next part is green, and then there will be some browns in the corners. I’m not sure how much I’ll get done before it’s time to switch to actual quilting once the weather cools down, but it doesn’t really matter anyway — this is a personal project with no deadline so it will take as long as it takes.
It may be odd to have a “year in review” as my first real entry but it probably counts as mayhem, so I won’t apologise.
As I state in my “About Dendaria” page, most of my quilting is for Aussie Hero Quilts. I made five quilts and twenty-two laundry bags in 2018, which is about average for me, but since all the quilts and laundry bags are shown on that blog I won’t duplicate them here. I am currently working on a quilt for a recipient, plus I’m doing a scrap Idaho Square Dance which may get a specific recipient or may go to the Wounded Warrior stash.
I haven’t actually completed a quilting project for myself in a few years. My current WIPs include the following:
I finished one quilt top in May, called Pentastic — it’s a Penrose P3 aperiodic tiling design and was done as an EPP project, commencing in December 2015. I love the top but the EPP was very tough on my wrists. It’s absolutely enormous (about 112″ x 106″) and basting wasn’t completed until the end of August, at which time the weather promptly warmed up and it became too hot to sit under a quilt for hours on end. I’ll start the quilting next April when it’s cooler, and with a little luck I’ll have it done by September 2020. NB that is not me in the photo, I’m off to the side and out of the frame.
Within a week of finishing the Pentastic top I started another Penrose P3 design. This one is entitled Flame Rose and is being done as “ordinary” hand piecing. I’m using acrylic templates from the large set for “La Passacaglia” with 2″ sides. It’s coming together very well and will get its own post soon.
I did 18 of 20 Hawaiian appliqué blocks (from the book by Elizabeth Root). I have two more blocks to do and then the quilt will need a border — my intent is to do a meandering vine with small versions of the appliqué motifs.
I worked on some Esther Aliu applique designs – Lily Rose and Diamond Hill. I don’t want to do the given setting for DH (far too much fiddly work, though I admit it looks fantastic) so I’ll combine it with the Lily Rose block in the centre and then work on a suitable appliqué border. Since it will be a wall hanging rather than a quilt I may do some beadwork embellishment. I don’t have any photos of these blocks yet as I’m still working on the embroidery.
My last current project is an autumnal-theme quilt – it’s my own arrangement and quite complex so that will also get its own post in due course.
Like everyone else, I have multiple UFOs, some dating back to the late 1980s, including several tops that need quilting, tops that still need borders, and some block sets that need to be assembled.
For 2019 I will try to stick to the “One Monthly Goal” that has been more or less successful for me over the last few years. I allocate one AHQ and one personal goal per month, so the personal goal tends to be small (“finish two blocks” rather than “finish the whole top”). My overall aims for the year ahead are:
Quilt and bind one top
Complete one top (not the same one!)
Make dust cover for my 9400
Make an igloo for the cats
I have been thinking about participating in the 2019 Finish-A-Long since I can opt for as little as one goal a quarter. I have a few days to make my decision but I’ll probably join in (as long as no one laughs at me for my puny goals)
The Eclectic Needle 