Hell has frozen over!

Or so it feels like. It's a wee bit cool this morning and even the girls were quite happy to be back in the house after about 2 minutes outside! I'm guessing we won't be going to the dog park this morning.

Which is great - more time for sewing! It's the last day of the year and time to review that list of UFOs for 2017. I told you, I'm not throwing in the towel until midnight tonight!

I did NOT get any quilts quilted yesterday. I went to the gym for a class - I never go there on Saturday. Anyway, it was a good class and I came home all relaxed and fired up to sew!

I decided to start with Amish with a Twist II. This was a class that I taught in 2015 so not too old, but old enough! I cut most of the little squares for the second to last border the previous day. I randomly sewed the squares together and when I was pressing the last border, I had a good chuckle. What are the odds that I would end up with TWO squares in the exact order and the exact same position as two pieces in the quilt? That was weird!

Two squares in the border in the same place as the fabrics in the quilt

Hey - that wasn't so bad. Let's move onto the last border which was pretty easy. Big hunks of fabric that only needed one join and cornerstones.

I'm a pretty neat presser, but what the heck happened here? My mind must have wandered, to say the least.

A badly pressed sam

 And it looks even uglier on the back.

Oops - let's try that pressing again!

 Even though I normally join my border strips on the diagonal, I joined these with a straight seam. It meant that I could get away with just two strips for each border and the border is 9 inches wide. It would have been a big waste of fabric.

Squirrel! Oh - I needed an ender and leader project while I was working and I just happened to have two of these blocks cut out. This is the block (designed by me) that appeared in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 16. But now those two blocks are done!

Two blocks - done!

Very versatile block as it can be turned in many different directions.

Another way to position the blocks

 Then it was onto the telephone for hours (or so it seemed) chatting with family members. Oh - can we please get this quilt top done?  So one more push and voila - the top for Amish with a Twist II is DONE!

Amish with a Twist II - top is done!

 It's actually a very nice quilt - I really like it and can't wait to get it quilted! I've resolved that if I'm going to be finishing more quilt tops this year, I had better get my butt in gear and get some of them quilted as I do not want to add to those tubs of tops that are currently sitting there waiting to be done.

Here's a bit better picture of the top - well a quarter of it. It's so big and it was dark by the time I got it finished, it was hard to get a decent picture with just the camera flash.

A quarter of the top - Amish with a Twist II

 Oh, let's take a few minutes to finish trimming those green/white half square triangles which if you were observant came from the blocks that were in the magazine. And that's all I'm saying about for the moment.

Bag of squared up half square triangles

As I was putting on those last two borders, I did have a wee bit of a panic attack. Hmm, all the border fabric appears to be here, but what about the binding? I couldn't find any binding fabric. And I REFUSE to buy any. Well - it was getting late in the day and I knew I wouldn't find what I was looking for. And I was determined to cross this item off my list.

After cutting the big outer border, I had this much fabric left over. I must have intended to use that for the binding! Sound goods to me. I needed 11 strips at 2 ½" wide.

Enough fabric for the binding

 I think the original color was supposed to be purple or something like that, but I think this will work just fine.

Cut, cut, cut and voila - 11 strips. It must have been meant to be because there was just a small scrap leftover.

Eleven strips and a wee bit leftover

 The top and the binding are done! Yeah!

Binding and top - done!

 Time to clean up the project box. We had bought these fusible appliques to go on the back. I seemed to have ended up with a few extra. Anyone want to buy a fusible horse and buggy? And I have a kit (no pattern) that was part of the row by row a couple of years ago that came with two horse and buggy appliques.

Extra fusible appliques of Amish horse and buggy

Now I have added my fusible applique of the horse and buggy to the mix.

Are we done yet?

 Then it was time for me and The Task Master to have a little bit of review and to set the goals for this coming week. For those of you not in the know, The Task Master is simply a plain notebook where I dedicate one page per week to write down the things that I need to get done that week. I'll go into more detail in another post. My list of 12 UFOs for the current year are listed on their own page and the list for 2018 are also listed.

I like to post quotes in my book - something fun to do, but not necessary. I had an extra of this book of positive quotes so I keep it with my Task Master.

The Task Master tools

 While I was very excited with my progress, The Task Master reminded me that I could NOT cross that item off my list just yet because - yep - I still had to make the piping for this quilt. I know - PIPING! I'm not sure why the designer chose piping since that's kind of a fussy thing and the Amish are known for simplicity. Not too worry - I want to make the piping.

I need 11 - 1" strips. Good thing I didn't need more because I had 12" of fabric.

Just enough to get the required amount to make the piping

 Oh yes, forgot to mention that I started a new ender and leader project. When I was tidying up one storage area, I came across this bag of cut bits. Notice that I seemed to be very focused on NOT working on that quilt! Anyway, all the bits were shoved into a bag (very neatly labeled), but I couldn't sew it all crammed up in the bag so I found these containers. They are way too big - I need to find something smaller.

New ender and leader project

 And the bits are small! But I do believe that the entire quilt is cut out.

Small bits - perfect for enders and leaders

 Back to the piping. I had this much leftover after cutting my 11 strips.

Leftover strip from the piping fabric

Then I had to join the strips together and press it in half. Yes - a horrid job since it was only 1" wide. But it got done. And guess what?  YEP -- the binding, the piping, and the top are DONE!!!!   The backing is coming later so I can't get that prepped at this time.

Amish with a Twist II - DONE!

 Didn't you hear that cheer? I'm sure my entire neighborhood heard it! OK - so it was silent cheer - didn't want my family to think I'm off my rocker - well any more than I'm currently off it!

I ran to The Task Master and with her permission, I happily crossed that project off - which was actually two projects because the item also included Amish with a Twist I. I did a count - there were 13 items on that list - one for each month of 2017 and one for December 2016. BUT in total, there were 20 quilts as some of the quilts had been grouped together. What the heck was I thinking??  Obviously, I was new to this goal setting thing and had no clue! Let's hang onto that thought!

When I went to Fabricland earlier this week, it was to buy 25 meters of cording. This is all that remains.

Leftover piping cord

That's what I like - buy something and use it up right away!  I'm going to try and make that my new motto for this year. I'm not sure how successful I'll be, but I'm going to try. We need to have something in our wallets or our heads or attached to our VISA cards that will remind us that we don't need more stuff unless we have an immediate plan for it. I was at the mall the other day with M. We went into a tea place and I ALMOST bought a cute little teapot for using loose tea. I even took it to the cash and then thought that I didn't need it. I put it back on the shelf! We need a code word to make us think before we buy. Hmm - what kind of code word?

 I have a small project in mind where I can use that leftover piping cord so I'm going to dig that out - well, it's already out. Something small that needs to have binding put on it.

I'm close, really close to completing the projects that I committed to in my blog yesterday. There are still TWO quilts that need to have the binding stitched to the front. Let's push and get this done! I got one done this morning.

Binding on construction quilt #3

 That leaves ONE more quilt to put the binding on today. I have all day to do it and it only takes about ½ hour.  If I can't get it done, well, I've no one to disappoint but myself and The Task Master of course!

Let's go back to that UFO list for 2017.  While there were a total of 13 items on the list, in fact, there were 20 quilts on that list. TWENTY! And some of them had to be started almost from scratch. I obviously had dilusions of grandeur! While I completed 6 of the 13 items on the list, in fact, I finished 11 of 20 quilts. Including the one that I'm going to finsih today!  I feel pretty good about that! No I feel FABULOUS and I wouldn't have done it without The Task Master to keep reminding me of what had to be done.

I forgot to post the link to the last QUILTsocial post that I did last Friday. In case you haven't seen it - check it out. There is some really good stuff in how to design a quilt.

I didn't post pictures of the quilting of my table topper, but here's a better look. I'm super happy with it! And if you want to learn machine quilting and free motion quilting, in particular, I'm teaching an awesome class. More details on that in the new year when I post my class listing.

Quilting on the table topper

The back of the table topper

And there you have it - a very successful year in the quilting world for me!

Tomorrow is Monday and I'll be back with more details about The Task Master as I believe there are new people who have joined the Facebook group! I've got some great plans on what to do with my time in 2018 and I can't wait to share them with you. We're all in this together!

Have a wonderful day!!!

Ciao!