2022 New Year … New Goals

It’s been a while since I posted anything. The past summer found me on the road more than not. Once again, I had computer issues again so here we are more than six months later. I had to switch over to my laptop as Word Press is no longer working on my iPad which makes it a challenging process for sure.

Long Arm Goals for 2022

During 2021 I retired and purchased myself a new long arm machine. It took forever to be delivered and when it was finally delivered, I ended up on the road for six weeks. I got home and I finally did my first quilt. Then Gammill changed the distribution and consumer channels so that means I had no one locally to get help from.

My First Quilt

During my first quilt, I had many challenges which would be normal – thread breaks, empty bobbins, including moving it from the store where I had a lesson to my own machine.

2022 All People Quilt UFO Resolutions

For 2022, I decided to reset my #APQResolutions to include 12 quilts who had assembled centers. Many need borders or pieced backings. Here are my quilts for this year:

1. Princess Twin Quilt
2. Sunflower lap quilt #2018QPSAL
3. Over & Under lap quilt
4. Mama Gypsy 2018 SAL lap quilt
5. Rainbow Log Cabin quilt
6. Fall Queen quilt
7. Black & Gold Jelly Roll lap quilt (February)
8. May 2020 Pat Sloan’s HST Rainbow lap quilt
9. Sunflower 2018 charm/jelly roll lap quilt
10. Halloween lap quilt
11. Name of Rose Mystery SAL
12. 2008 Jack Be Quick Queen quilt (January)

January Quilt

The first quilt of the year was #12, my Jack Be Quick quilt. I had already loaded it on the long arm (so yes I manipulated where it was on the list so I could get this one done.) In 2021, I had finished adding the borders and piecing the backing. I even had wound the bobbins. I picked a lovely lavendar to quilt this quilt. I did not finish it by the end of the month due to my own procrastination and travel schedule.

It took me three days to actually quilt it on the Gammill Elevate as I basically had to start from scratch since it had been six months since I touched the long arm. Watched a bunch of You Tube videos and called tech support multiple times. Last night it finally finished quilting a lovely hummingbird edge to edge design. All I need to do for this quilt is trim, label, and bind and I will have my first full size finished quilt! To make it even easier, I already made the binding to match the outer border.

What’s up next

I am going to go ahead and quilt another from the list even though this is not it’s month as it is already basted and partially quilted and uses the same thread color that Jack Be Quick used – lavender. I call it my Over & Under quilt which is #3 on the list.

As you can see, I have already ironed out any wrinkles. I need to go through my online library to find an edge to edge that I think will look good. I am thinking something simple so all those interlocking blocks are emphasized.

February Quilt

February’s quilt of the month is #7 which is the Black and Gold Jelly roll quilt. I pulled everything out last night. I had already cut the borders and purchased the backing fabric. While I am working on the other two quilts, I will start sewing on the borders and then check to see if it the backing needs to be pieced. I am not ready to venture into anything but edge to edge right now. I need to get more comfortable with all the steps before exploring the other options available to me on the long arm so there is the need to pick a quilting pattern for this one as well. The fabric is asian with butterflies and flowers. Hopefully I can find some cute butterfly pattern otherwise, I may use the hummingbird pattern as it does have flowers as well.

Finishes for 2022

So far this year I have only two quilty finishes. The first finish was in January. It is a set of fall potholders that I started in October.

My second finish was this week and are some beautiful pink, red, white placemats that I started two years ago. This month I also plan to finish some matching napkins, mug rugs, table runner, and potholders. Wish me good luck on finishing all of those.

Other WIPs

As with most of you, I have tons of WIPs. This month I plan on focusing on just two other projects.

Sunshine Strip Club Quilt

The first is another strip club project that I started back in 2008/2009 called the Sunshine Quilt. I came across it last week when I was looking for projects to work on during my monthly zoom call with my quilty friends. It is a very bright and cheerful project for sure and it appears that I was working on making this a queen size quilt. It is a two block pattern. Block A is a square in a square nine patch. Block B is a hour glass block made with strip sets. All of Block A were done as well as all the strip sets sewn. Since the Zoom call I have finished making all of Block B. Next step is to square up all 81 blocks to 9 1/2 inches and assemble. It is a lot of fun pulling out this project from 10 years ago and working on it.

Blooming Hearts Wall Hanging

This is definitely going to be my number one priority this week so I can hang it up for February. I have 3 other applique wall hangings that I could work on but I have …… put away the backing and binding. When I rearranged the sewing room, I put them somewhere safe. (Can you see me rolling my eyes?) I hate it when I do that. I feel good if I finish this one though.

Final Thoughts

I have no idea if I will get …. a moment of ADHD and work on some other project this month. I did make a Quilt-O (quilting bingo) card for myself. We will see how that goes. I was looking for a more fun way to give myself a To Do list. (LOL!)

Thanks for stopping by. Now that I have finally gotten out of the rut, you should see more regular posts. There are few people out there who do small posts on Tuesdays and Thursday of a specific thing, I may start doing some of that just for a change of pace.

We shall see my quilting friends. Have a great day!!!!

Peggy