Scrappy Blues Beat The January Blues

Does January seem to drag on and on for you? It does for me. So this month I got out all my blue scarps and went to town, cutting up little bricks of blues of every tone and hue.

My Scrappy Blue Quilt is ready for quilting!

 
And what to my wondering eyes did appear, but an excellent variety of blues. I had pastel blues, aquamarines, azures, cobalts, sky blues, peacock blues, teal blues, and even some greens began sneaking into the party!  I didn't even realize I had so many blues to choose from since blue is far from being my Go To Color!

I started out with this:

And ended up with this!

I think, however, that I made an error in the block placement. I have zigzags running kitty corner from bottom to top, but a lot of their paths got messed up and ran into dead ends.

I even turned my cell phone pic into a black and white, so I could 'see' if there were any really bad arrangements of the blocks, or if the zigzag path went where I wanted it to. At one point in laying out the completed blocks, I got so frustrated with it, that I just decided to sew it together the way I had it and call it good.  I'm not even certain if I did lay them out better, if they would even play out with the vision I had in my head.  Pulling out a piece of graph paper and taking a little time to sketch my 'vision' most decidedly would have helped. But I wanted to see the finished quilt!  Oh, yes, I am a woman of little patience, lol!

Getting this quilt top together satisfied my OMG goal for January, and I will get it quilted up and bound for my February OMG goal.  I have other projects in the works, too. And I'm looking forward to getting them finished as well!

Quilting with a smile,
Barb

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2018 First Quarter Finish-A-Long

A week into the new year and I've got my work cut out for me. But it's all good! I'm getting caught up on projects that were MIA, and I'm learning some new things along the way.

Here's what's on my list for first quarter finishes for 2018:

1.  Finish up this colorful table runner.  I picked this up as a kit at the quilt shop in Sisters, Oregon, about three years ago. This week I found it again and decided it was high time to get it pieced, quilted and on my table! Plus it has some wonderful purple, which is this year's Pantone Color of the Year. So trendy, yep, that's me!

2.  Finish up this table topper.  This little gem was part of a QAL about four years ago. I remember wanting to do something really fancy in the centers of the blocks, but I was a fresh, new longarmer at the time and was afraid of messing up. Now, I know that whatever I put in the centers will be just fine. I might say, "I've come a long way, baby!"

3.  I've pulled these fabrics so I can learn curved piecing. I'm taking a class with Ann Peterson on Craftsy, and I must say she is an excellent teacher!  I decided I will learn by doing, so I'm on Lesson One, which is to make a set of placemats. I've even cut out the templates.  My long-term goal is to make a quilt for my son, and it is covered with curved piecing, and paper piecing! I've got my work cut out for me on that one, but it's a goal for another quarter.

4.  This is my scrappy project, which I'd like to finish up in January.  I started it about a year ago, and it's been sitting on my cutting table, shoved clear to the back, all this time. It was lonesome! And it's a great way to use up some scraps. Four blocks down, about 26 more to go. Yikes!

5.  I guess I'd also like to add the quilting and binding of two quilts that have been hanging in my closet for almost two years now. One is a simple patchwork. This will also be my March OMG goal, getting it quilted and bound!

6.  And the other is a large star pattern from Angela Walters.

That should do it! Fun, fun, fun.

Quilting with a smile,
Barb

Linking up with:
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