APQResolutions 2017

So All People Quilt runs a yearly UFO challenge designed to get people working on old and unfinished projects. And I’ve got plenty of those.

I haven’t been updating in a while, so I’m hoping to get back to updating at least a few times a month and some of those posts will hopefully be about me working on (and finishing?!) some of my UFOs. This list contains just twelve (of many!) and each month APQ will choose a number and that number is the project I’ll attempt to finish in that month, so here’s my twelve…

ONE
All Solids Churn Dash Quilt

This project was begun as part of the Simply Solids Bee in… 2013 (?) and then again in the Stash Bee in 2014. I can’t remember how many blocks I have, either 30 or 42 and they’ll be pieced together like this, staggered with partial blocks on certain columns. I’ve got all my blocks, but need to piece them into a top, which then needs to be basted, quilted, and bound.

TWO
Baby Moda Love Quilt

A baby quilt (or very large mini quilt?) using the Moda Love Charm Quilt pattern. It looks brown in this photo, but it’s actually a burgundy/maroon sort of background. I wanted to put a border on this – it’s only 32″ square – but wasn’t able to track down any of the prints that I thought would work best for a border (namely one of the burgundy/maroon-y ones), so it might just stay a small quilt. Needs to be basted, quilted, and bound.

THREE
Blue Nine Patch Quilt

This was my first project ever and has been a UFO for over 10 years. The top is pieced (the blocks by hand, even!), just needs to be basted, quilted, and bound.

FOUR
Blue-Orange Big Block Quilt
[No existing photo?!]

My second oldest UFO, this was in progress when I moved to Calgary almost 10 years ago. I might be wrong, but I think it’s basted and just waiting to be quilted. For all I know, the pins are rusted into place. I think I won’t like this one much when I fish it out from the closet again, but it’d be good to knock such a long-standing project off the list!

FIVE
Carolyn Friedlander Rando Patchwork Quilt

A truly dreadful photo – I should pull this one out of storage just to get a better shot of it. Needs to be basted, quilted, and bound.

SIX
Charity Quilt-as-you-Go Quilt

This quilt doesn’t look like much in photos because I’ve got so little of it done – 1/6th of the rows – and couldn’t think of a good way to photograph a single column of a quilt. It will be donated to a charity that benefits my younger sister (who is disabled). It’s following a slightly modified Herringbone quilt pattern from Maureen Cracknell’s Craftsy class, Quick Quilt As You Go. I need to finish sewing up the columns of fabric, then piece them into a top, which then gets lightly quilting to hold it and the back together.

SEVEN
Dad’s Quarter Section Quilt

This one is further along than the picture implies – all the blocks are sewn, they just need to be pieced into rows and then a top and then to be basted and bound.

EIGHT
Doctor Who Quilt

I had big plans for the border on this quilt, so most of the quilt is pieced… just the side border needs to be finished. Maybe the answer will be to scale back the border idea,… but I like that border idea. I guess we’ll see what happens! Once the border is worked out, then it needs to be basted, quilted, and bound.

NINE
Halloween Plus Quilt

I usually don’t go for holiday specific quilts, but this one is pretty subtle and in slightly unusual colours – rust, teal blue, deep purple. I don’t have a good photo of it, but the top is completed, it just needs to be basted, quilted, and bound.

TEN
Midnight Mystery QAL Quilt

I really don’t like to finish quilts, do I? This is another, yet another, that just needs to be basted, quilted, and bound.

ELEVEN
Mom’s Hexi Quilt (Confetti Go Lucky)

This one is getting to be a pretty long standing UFO of mine, and as it’s meant to be a gift, I’d really, really like to get it done! It’s partially quilted, but there’s still a long road to go (because I had the GENIUS idea of quilting it with quarter inch spacing around all the main units.. quarter inch!!). Quilting and binding is all that’s left.

TWELVE
Plume Quilt

I seem not to have a picture of this quilt top, which is about throw sized and has been laying around for several years. I wanted to try to quilt feathers on it, but was terrified of trying. I think I’m finally ready to just give the feathers a go, whether they turn out good or bad. So basting, quilting, and binding is all that’s left.

So that is where that is at! Twelve projects desperately in need of finishing! All People Quilt has already revealed their pick for January, so I suppose I can reveal that Number Six – the Quilt as You Go Project is my goal for January! Just as well because it has a due date early in the year, if I’m going to donate it to my charity of choice!

I’ll also be participating in One Monthly Goal, hosted by Elm Street Quilts, and so that same project will be my goal for that linky as well!

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Embroidered Bag from Aalia7

Two days ago I got the most beautiful thing ever in the mail: an embroidered bag from Aalia7, who auctioned off a custom-designed bag at Ofenjen’s Love for Lily auction in December last year. All my attempts to photograph this bag were pretty much miserable failures, so I’m thiefing this photo of Aalia’s to show you the bag itself:

I was really hoping to win this auction because Aalia7 does the most ridiculously beautiful embroidery and I wanted some for me. But then, of course, I had to decide what I wanted on it! Which is awfully hard because I’m very indecisive and who knows if the things I like will come together or just look ridiculous or… I don’t know. Maybe I’m just indecisive. So I threw a lot of ideas at the wall and Aalia7 found a way to make sure all of it stuck 😀

Aalia had proposed the idea of something fandom-related, which I do like, except that I like it in a very subtle way, so mostly I focussed on flowers I like and then jibbered a bit about who/what I like best about Harry Potter. As far as that goes, I’m always a little surprised to find myself liking Neville the best, because he is someone who is very human, but has a really great strength of character. He’s one of the few character who I really think came out better by the end, rather than worse. (I guess Harry himself does improve by the end of things, but I’m not sure I’m ready to forgive him or Rowling for the constant BOOK FIVE SCREAMING BAD BEHAVIOUR.) So for Neville, tucked in the background is a lovely Mimbulus Mimbletonia. In the photo below the Mimbulus is shown most closely on the bottom right corner. (And if you click through, you can open a larger yet version of the photo. I wouldn’t open the largest one – you lose some detail because it’s so very big. You could also look at the rest of Aalia7’s photos of the bag here, including a shot of the lining fabric, which I love.)

All the rest of the plants are “real world” plants: tiger lily, crocus, iris, and jasmine. When I was deciding what I wanted, I sort of focussed on the flowers I really like the most, irises and tiger lilies, and a sentimental favourite, crocuses. I don’t remember how much of this I talked to Aalia7 about, but when I was playing around with ideas, I was thinking a lot about my Grandma, about both my Grandmothers really. My Grandma C died several years ago, and we hadn’t been terribly close, but one of the things I remember about her was going to her house and searching the field behind her house for crocuses every spring. Crocuses are probably the first flower you see where I’m from in Saskatchewan, and their pale purple and sort of dusty green leaves almost blend in with the still winter-dead grasses and plants out in the fields. And they’re only a few inches tall, so they definitely don’t stand out. Both my grandmas lived right near open fields that were never tilled or planted and so were just full of wild everything. Weeds mostly, but also purple and sometimes white or yellow crocuses. My sister and I would pick bouquets of them, which would inevitably wind up in small water glass “vases”.

The reason for the tiger lilies that they are just one of my favourite flowers. I love the vibrant colour, and really they remind me of home because they grow wild in Saskatchewan where I’m from (and they’re the provincial flower and even on the flag). My dad always grew tiger lilies, though not wild ones, in the backyard and I probably got in trouble more often as a kid for getting the dark pollen on my clothes than I did for anything else. Irises are another favourite. My parents grew them in the backyard, and probably both my grandmothers grew them as well. They’re also one of the only flowers I’ll ever buy cut from a store. I don’t know why I find them so lovely, but maybe it’s because they remind me of spring.

The jasmine is a little different. It’s not a plant I’m very familiar with at all, but Aalia7 and I were talking about plant meanings, and I’d mentioned that I’d been looking for something that meant grace, as my middle name means grace. Yellow jasmine is for grace and elegance, and I love how Aalia’s worked them to swirl around the edge of the other flower designs.

This bag is so beautiful I could just frame it or hang it somewhere and stare at it. I hate to think of using it and ruining something! It’s really just exquisite. I love the colour blending in the embroidery and the beading and the texture of it and that all of it is something that’s got some meaning for me. I can’t possibly thank Aalia7 enough. But, you know, thanks! I’m ridiculously pleased to have an Aalia-original 😀