A new month, unlimited possibilities.....................

As usual at the beginning of a new month, I'm looking ahead to what I want to work on.  The last 18 months have been devoted to emptying storage boxes with partial projects in them.  9 of the quilts last year came from these empty boxes. The bottom supports on my drafting table are a great place to store lots of the boxes.

As I go through more boxes, I'm finding more pieces leftover from previous projects.  These 180 four and a half inch squares are left from the Double 9 patch quilt I made in 2008.  

These 72 green four and a half inch squares are left from a blue and green Double 4 Patch quilt also made in 2008.  I used a lot of the blue leftovers in 2 Bear Paw quilts.  In this post I was trying out layouts of the blocks.

In another box are these 204 batik four and a half inch squares.  A lot of them are leftover from a kit I sold to a friend for a Double 4 patch quilt, maybe from 2 kits.  Now that I have a record of these on my blog, I can refer back to this post if I find a pattern that I want to make that will take this size square.  I also have the 35 purple and green leftover potion of the 4.5" strips to cut into 4 squares of each.

I'll keep looking through things today.  I know I want to press the flannel scraps and cut more tumblers and squares from them.  If I can just get the pain in my back and leg to stop I'll get more done.  I have an appointment this month for a treatment that will possibly work.

January 2026 monthly recap....................

I worked on several things in January and a few of them made it to the finish line.  The floral quilt is mostly fabrics from the 1990s.  It is 52.5" x 71" and the squares are 6".  The pink and gray baby quilt is made of flannel and is 32" x 40".  I'm going to concentrate on lots of baby quilts this year.

The 2 small tops were easy ones with the one on the right only needing its side borders.  I started it in 1991 in a workshop.  I think it will be a nice baby quilt at 30" x 38".  The one in the center was made from blocks that were remains of strata from some previous project paired with a large print of the same colors.  It is 32" x 36".  I have backs already chosen for these 2.  The large top was started on January 21 and finished yesterday.  It is 56" x 80".  Most of the strips were cut somewhere near 2009 when I was teaching a class with that pattern.  I have lots more strips so you will be seeing another Double 4 Patch in a different color range.

There were a few small items.  The table runner is made of Marcia Derse scraps and it is 14.75" x 40".  The back is the same fabric as the binding, the same print as the white borders in the black/gray version of it.  The 2 small mats are close to 8.5" x 11".  They were both already quilted and just needed the stitching around the edges to finish them.  They have a layer of stiff interfacing in them so they lay nice and flat.

I decided I'll show the dishcloths for the month instead of daily when I finish them.  I got 6 done.  Three of them have another yarn added on the corner.  The green tweed one has red tweed added and then I needed a little more so I used the leftover red from the red/green ball.  It looks like I dipped the corner in cranberry juice.

It's hard to get a photo with all three of the blooms in it so this is the best one I got.

There is another flower stalk growing so I have hopes of more blooms later in the month.

The sky was clear last night and the moon was beautiful.  My calendar says the full moon is today and maybe that meant early this morning.

Finished..........(second post today)..........

The binding was cut and sewn on by 4 p.m. today so I had time to go down and photograph it.

This quilt is made of floral fabrics that are mostly from the 1990s, with a few newer ones added in for variety.  They are 6" squares and really show off the beauty of the florals.

This is the binding fabric, black, brown and green.  I picked it because it went best with the back.  I had other choices that I liked with the front but not the back.

The back is one of my favorite floral fabrics and I had been saving it for borders or a back since I had a large piece of it.

I used Hobbs 80/20 batting and it was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz. 

It is 52.5" x 71".

Of all of the photos I have shown of this purple and green double 4 patch, I think this is the truest color.  I did end up taking out the dark block that was in the wrong place and replaced it with a light one.  It is 56" x 80".

 

Sewn, not pressed..........................

The top half of the quilt is folded up so I would have room to design the bottom half.  The blocks on the bottom aren't sewn in this photo.  I changed one because I had a light block where a dark block was supposed to go.

I finished sewing the top at 10 last night and even though the last seams haven't been pressed, I wanted to check it out and make sure I didn't have any blocks turned wrong.  Now seeing the photo I can see I have one dark block where a light one should be.  I'm not sure I'll change it.

These are the 4 leftover blocks.  

The second flower has opened, one more to go.  There is also another bud stalk growing so I have hopes of more blooms.

I chose a binding fabric for the quilt I trimmed.  I need to press it today so I can cut the strips.

 

On the design wall..................

I finally got to the design wall with half of the blocks and created the layout of the top half of the quilt.  I have enough blocks to do a 7 x 10 layout which will yield a top 56" x 80".  That is pretty close to the 60" x 80" that I like.  I started sewing this together last night and will design the bottom half today.  It isn't quite as bright as the photo shows.

The first Amaryllis flower has opened and it is white with red edging on the petals.  I should have a second flower today.

Here is the cute pot the Amaryllis is planted in.  

Two quilts came home yesterday.  Late yesterday afternoon I got this one trimmed and now I need to find a binding fabric.  This one will be done all by machine.

 

Blocks are ready..........

 

I really thought I was going to have blocks up on the design wall yesterday.  I pressed the final batch, sorted them into 2 piles with one light block and one dark block of each combination in it.  Then I took other projects off the design wall to make enough space to design the top half of the quilt.  That was it, no more ambition to get anything done. I'm going to blame the cold weather for it.  We got up to 17 degrees yesterday, a couple degrees higher than they predicted.  We have had sunshine for 2 days in a row, producing a month with higher than average sunshine.  I think that happened in January last year too and then February had lots of overcast days.

While I was in the basement I put away the nine red and black batik fabrics.  They are also Bali batiks from the 1990s, like the black and white ones are.

Onto the last blocks...............

I pressed all of the sewn strips and all 52 of the previously made blocks.  Then it was time last night to sew 18 more blocks.  The bottom 2 were cut from 2 fat eighths so there are only 2 of them, not 4 like the rest.

I cut the last 2 sets of strips.  I changed the green from what I showed yesterday.  The purple one is the one I called the wild card yesterday.  I was able to cut the wide strip along the darkest edge of the fabric and the narrow strip has all of the colors in it.  I'll get this one pressed and sewn into blocks today and then I can go to the design wall.

So how many blocks will I end up with?  I was going for 63 but there will be 52 + 18 + 4 by the time I'm done.  This will give the option of leaving out some of the blocks that don't play well with the others.

It was 5 degrees at 11 p.m. yesterday and still going down.  The next 4 nights are going to be in the single digits too.  Monday and Tuesday we may get up to 30 in the daytime, which is close to our normal high temperature for this time of year.  I have worn my heaviest winter coat more times already this year than I had in the last 4 years.