A lovely year of finishes - April goal.

I'm struggling with my April goal for the Lovely Year of Finishes.  I've been finishing up so many UFOs, but this month I find myself with a much smaller and more recent stack of flimsies.  So now I need to consider whether I consider finishing up those or put the priority on my ever growing stack of WIPs that I'm piecing.

I've been preparing for an upcoming quilt retreat and what I have prepared doesn't match what I thought my goal would be so now I really need to consider direction and unpacking my little IKEA box.

Do I set a super simple goal like adding the sashing to my pinwheel sampler?  Or something more complex like starting and finishing the hourglass quilt on top there?  Or quilt another flimsy and get those off the list?

Direction. I don't have any.

To avoid repacking my box of crap, I think I've made a decision.  I'm going to finish up my batik plus signs with the blue background.

This one here.  Nice, simple and all ready in a bag in the box.  And so very springy.  There is my April goal.

Can't wait to see what everyone else gets finished this month.

Linking up for:

So what is wrong with this quilt?

Why do I hate it so?

Why do I prefer looking at the back instead of the front?  Maybe it's because the friend this is going to requested tan after I'd made up the front so this is meant to be reversible.

Which worked out well, I think it's absolutely reversible and I totally prefer the back.

I can look at this one in pictures and think it looks great, if a little blurry.  Apparently my camera had a fingerprint on the lens so it wouldn't focus properly. 

But I've hated working on it for awhile now.  In fact, that back?  The red and black bits were meant to be the border for the front until I decided I was done with this quilt and just wanted to finish it.  So I sewed them together in strips, added some color blocking to the outside and called it the backing.

Now here's the thing.  This is the first quilt I'll give away.  I had others that I'd planned to give away, but when I'd finished quilting them, I was unhappy.  My biggest problem has been puckers in the back.  Big, giant puckers.

But not this time!

And the straight line quilting turned out pretty good, even if I did dread every minute of it.

After my last few attempts at quilting previous quilts, I decided to spend some time investigating my problems with the quilting.  What I was doing wrong?  I narrowed it down to two things.  First, my back wasn't taut enough.  I worried about stretching the fabric and didn't smooth it as much as I should have.  I also pinned the living crap out of this quilt - which may account for some of the dislike.  That was a lot of time spent laying on a hardwood floor, fighting with safety pins.  So much that my husband suggested next time we'd try spray basting.

So, I've learned how to layer and baste and I've played a bit with a more interesting pieced back.  I may not like working on this quilt right now, but I do like what I've learned from it.

Maybe I whined just a little too much.

In other news, this quilt and I have a date with a seam ripper.

I love the prints in this beyond all reason and it's time they got used for something other than a quilt both my husband and I don't like.   Sometimes you just have to accept that it isn't going to work and you need to go back to the drawing board.

Those owls are still awesome.

A Lovely Year of Finishes - March Goal

I had a goal in mind for March.   It would be so great if I could finish up my pinwheel sampler in time for the Quilt retreat back home, wouldn't it?

I even received my order from Mad About Patchwork this week.

So I even had my backing fabric for it.  The quilt top is made with Flea Market Fancy and I'm thinking the turquoise stripe would be just what I was looking for.

My order also came with a half yard of this because I liked it.

I have no idea what I'll use it for, but it's awfully cheerful isn't it?  Plus, I never have enough fabric with a white background.

But then I was chatting with a friend on Facebook.  She found out earlier this week she has cancer and she goes for surgery next week.

Last fall, I started work on this quilt during a quilt retreat.

I got all the blocks done, but they need to be trimmed and sewn together.

And then I have red and black and red borders to be added.  I'll be honest, I'm not sold on the hexagon print in this quilt.  Everything else is organic rather than geometric, but whats done is done.

Anyway, the thing is this quilt was in my mind for her.  And now that she's undergoing surgery, it's moved up the list significantly.  I'm not sure I can get it done and mailed off to her as soon as I'd like, but I would like to have it done by the end of March.  Worst case, I deliver it in person over Easter.