At the beginning of the year, I decided that I wanted to follow my own

ideas and create my own quilts, or at least finish projects hanging around

from last year. I did start off the year well but it seems that I am adding

more projects onto my ever increasing list.

At Guild, this past week, Mary,my friend, mentioned a free online

challenge called “The 365 Challenge.” When I checked

out the site, this is what I saw.

“Are you kidding me?” was my response.

But Mary’s enthusiasm and encouragement prevailed. She mentioned

that it only took 5- 10 minutes to complete each 3″ block. How could

I resist? Do you ever find yourself in this boat?

Well, I started the challenge and to be quite honest, it is fun. And

it really does only take 5-10 minutes to complete each block. The

hardest part about the whole thing is picking out the fabric for each

block.

Here are my 29 blocks completed for this month. I am hoping to

have gradated colors going around the whole quilt. For the month

of January, I have picked dark blues. There are lots of color

combinations on their website, so you can pick what colors you

like. You should check it out.

This is a glimpse of just how small these blocks really are. It seems

that each day, the difficulty increases.

Again, the total number of blocks, at the end of the year will be

365. And the completed quilt will measure 90″ x 90″.

Darlene saw Kerry’s, “Friends of Baltimore” Quilt and decided that

she would like me to quilt hers as well. It arrived at my house a

few weeks ago, so I have been diligently working on the SID work

ever since.

Today, I finished the ditch work and am  moving onto filling

in all the background areas. This is always an exciting part for me

as the fun can now begin. I love working on the background fills.

Darlene is quite the appliquer. I can’t even find the stitches that

are holding the applique  pieces down. These quilts really are an honor

and privilege for me to work on. I am amazed that people actually

have that much patience to create one of these masterpieces.

Personally, I think that these quilts are not quilts but actually

works of art.

What do you think?

Switching gears, before Christmas, I was asked to create this cut

baby quilt. The print has monkeys all over it.

A swirl panto was chosen for the quilting design and this

shows up beautifully on the backing.

The backing is comprised of grey minky fabric.

I worked on a purple quilt before with purple minky on the

backing and the purple minky migrated to the front of the

quilt. It actually came up through the stitches. So, be careful

when you use this on the backing of your quilts.

A close up of the stitching. Also, be careful with how you load minky

onto your quilting frame. In one direction, the minky is really

stretchy. And in the other direction, it isn’t.  Ask me how I know?

I made a baby quilt and the minky on the backing stretched horribly.

When I took it off the frame, it had bunched up in some areas. Needless

to say, I was not happy at all. And I ditched the quilt. Some lucky person

will now have the job of picking out all those stitches.

And lastly, this one of the last blocks that I completed

from the Oceans BOM from last year. I am trying hard

to keep on track but some days, I think to myself “Are

you kidding me?”  Maybe,just maybe I have bit off more

than I can chew.  At least, I am not bored.

Have a great week!