A Couple Goals for the New Year

I haven't really prepared a list of goals for 2021, but I do have one specific goal and that is to finish a queen size quilt that will be a wedding gift for a grandchild.  I think I explained earlier that I wanted to have a quilt for each of my five grandchildren's wedding prepared so that in case I am not here when they do get married, they will each get a quilt.  This is my last one.

I have decided to make an on point medallion quilt.  I have 13 12" blocks made (I will need one more).  I got the block patterns from Barbara Brackman's blog (civilwarquilts.blogspot.com) .  I saw this medallion design on her blog (I believe) and liked it, so I reproduced it.  At least, I thought it was from her blog.  Now I can't find it.  I will need to add sashing so it each side will equal 2 blocks.  The upper left edge has some blue and off white fabric that I will probably use as borders for the medallion.

You might be able to get an idea of the layout from how I put them up on my design wall.  This isn't the final layout, but I saw a lot of medallion quilts in Pinterest with this same design.  Each of the 12" blocks will have a 1" border.  Then I will need to make the setting triangles and make the border - probably 2 or 3 that will make it come out to the size needed.  The setting triangles will probably be blue and I hope I can find a nice border print for the final border.

When I was looking for a medallion pattern to use, this is the quilt that I was inspired by.

In my last post, I showed you some blocks like this and I have made some more and put them in a box.  I have a lot of the pieces cut and will work on this from time to time.

I also cut some pieces to make the same block out of these fabrics.  The squares on the top right will be the center block and the smaller squares will be used to make the points of the star.  These will measure 9" and will be used to possibly make a baby quilt or some table runners.

In between sewing, I am working on family history.  My sister brought a cassette tape that my Dad had made about his life.  I borrowed a tape player from my neighbor and transcribed it - 7 pages!  Then I started looking for more tapes to transcribe that I know we have somewhere, but I couldn't find them anywhere.  While I was looking, I did find a lot of old letters and pictures and I decided to start writing up my life story.  I have 3 pages so far.  I found some old "Date books" - the kind we used to get from card stores - like hallmark.  Actually, my parents had a gift shop and sold Hallmark cards, so 2 of the date books were from their store. The one that say's Gibson was for 1962 and that's the year they bought that store (in Elgin, IL) They got Hallmark cards sometime after that.  I had entered the dates I had with my DH - the first date was January 22, 1960!  It has been fun to find old love letters from him (that I had forgotten about), some things I had written down.  I didn't have a diary, but at times I did write things in a note book.  Luckily, I still had them and also some articles from the school paper, etc.

I will try to post more often from now on.  And visit blogs more often.  It seems like the time is going by so fast and I am so busy.  Isn't it weird?  But I'm finally getting some things done that needed to be done, so that's good.

BACK TO NORMAL?

 

I mentioned in my last post that my sister was visiting.  Well, she left on Monday, January 4.  We exchanged some small gifts and the picture below shows a couple of the gifts.  On the left is her gift to me, which is a kit to make a mini flag.  And on the right is my gift to her, a mini flag that I paper pieced (the pattern was in a magazine that I won a few years ago from Janet.  Isn't it funny that our minds were in sync!

This picture was taken when we went to Oregon City and were walking on the promenade and park above the Willamette River which you can see in the background.

Part of my getting "Back to Normal" was getting back to doing some sewing.  I made this block from Lori Holt's tutorial "Sew your Stash" which is available on YouTube.  I love this block and decided to make a lap quilt with Christmas fabric.  

Yesterday, I made a few more.  These measure at 12 1/2".

I actually did a tiny bit of sewing while my sister was here.  I made a new ironing board cover (made from a canvas type fabric) for my vintage ironing board.  I have had this wooden ironing board for many years.  It is very sturdy and even though I also have a ironing board cover on a chest of drawers, I usually have this one set up.  Mainly,  because the other one always has stuff sitting on it.  

I'm still contemplating posts about last years quilting and this years goals.  I better get busy with it if I plan to do that.  I do enjoy seeing other quilters' reports.  

My Christmas decorations are gradually getting put away.  I have enjoyed them since before Thanksgiving and now it is time to get the house back to normal.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2021!!

 

Happy New Year to my quilting (and non-quilting) blogging friends!  We don't know what 2021 holds for us except for our love of sewing, so I'm sure we will continue making quilts.  I don't know about you, but I have lots of fabrics and scraps that need to be made into quilts.  I haven't made a list of what I did during 2020 yet (and maybe I won't do that), but we had extra time last year and most quilters I know spent some of that time making quilts, finishing quilts and starting new ones.  I finished at least 2 quilts that were ten or more years old UFOs (unfinished objects).  That felt good!

Another thing that I did was donate a few quilts to fire victims and or shelters.  I wish I had donated more, but I will continue to make donation quilts.  

I haven't made a list of goals for 2021, but one of my top priorities is to finish my last grandchild wedding quilt.  I have 5 grandchildren and only one is married at this point and she was given a quilt.  I have 3 more wedding quilts finished and have one more to go so that they will be ready when the time comes.  One doesn't know if one will be here when they do get married, so I wanted to get them done ahead of time.  Right now my unmarried grandchildrens' ages are 25, 12, 12 and 10.  I got the idea of doing this from a lady in a quilt shop several years ago and thought it was a good idea.  If they don't get married, they will get one anyway.

My sister is visiting us now and we have been busy talking, doing some site seeing, making puzzles, etc.  so I haven't had much time for blogging.  We went to an antique shop and I saw this Double Wedding Ring quilt for sale.  It is hand quilted!  I didn't unfold it but it looks really lovely and the price is $160!  I thought it was well worth it,  I'm thinking about going back and seeing how large it is, but doubt if I will buy it.

On Monday we went to Oregon City to see the water fall in the Willamette River and the city elevator that takes you to the top of the cliff where this picture was taken from.  It's not a high water fall, but it is the largest water fall in the northwest US by volume.

We also drove into the Dundee hills and since it was a beautiful, clear day were able to get a good view of Mt. Hood in the distance.

It looks closer than it is - which is approximately 50 miles away.  I never get tired of seeing it!

Thanks for visiting and I look forward to seeing all of your blogs during 2021!