New Year

 Happy New Year (a few days late)!  I can't believe it can be 2022 already.  Like a lot of other quilters, I've made my UFO list with good intentions of working or completing one or more every month for the year.  I can gleefully say that I have finished one item from the list this early in the year.   It started out as a fused stained glass block.  I added machine applique, sandwiched and quilted the square and made it into a pillow.

I finished the stained glass block into a 22" square pillow.  The ice dyed fabrics used are my own. 

I love the back of this pillow.  My medallion ice dye looks like an Indian headdress to me.   

I hesitate to join in the National Quilt Museum's Block of the Month program on Facebook for 2022.  This is round 4 and I've participated in every one of them since the very first one, even the Sew Along.  I love the learning ability and process, but tired of samplers which are made into wall hangings.  I simply have enough of those.   But, having finished the pillow and seeing my ice dyes in blocks, I may have to go ahead and do one more year in these fabrics.  I have so many now.  

Another UFO on my list is an orange and teal improv piece.  My improvs are sourced from my scrap bag so they start out pretty small.  I'm trying to be better about using larger pieces and shapes.    

The black pieces are added to break it all up.   Some of these are sewn into larger sections, but now I may add a lot more black and introduce a new color or two.    There is no set direction for this, I just want to keep working at it and see how far it goes.  Maybe it will be a huge quilt, or maybe I'll keep it small and make it into a usable piece of art like a tote bag?  No.  Huge.  For once, I want to go HUGE and see if I really like it.  Most of the time I put the skids on size because it's a LOT of work, sometimes boring and exhausting work.  This is why I absolutely hate pattern making.  Some designer creates a pattern and sells it for anywhere from $15 upwards to $$$ and to me it's just duplicating over and over the same thing.  I get bored with repetitive patterns.  What's the point?   With Improv, there's no pattern, few rules and all the freedom I want.   But, having said that, yes, I have made quilts and things from a pattern.  It's just not something I would do all the time.  Actually, it's hard for me to be proud of doing one of these repetitive patterns.  Originality, artistic, freedom, play, intuitive piecing...this is what excites me.   

FMQ (Free Motion Quilting) is also my "thing".    I love sitting down with a blank quilt and just starting somewhere around the middle working my way outward.  Usually thinking about what I want to fill the space with and go from there.  

This was a BOM last year.  I call it "Butterflies in Flight".  It's hard to see the FMQ, but the entire quilt was not marked beforehand.  It's a lap size just for me, I wont be giving it away.   

It's January, lots of projects left over from last year and a few from past years, so my focus remains on finishing UFO's.  If I decide to do the NQM-BOM, I'll use fabrics I have on hand and/or the iced dyed fabrics I made last year.  The improv orange and teal UFO will be my focus this year and I hope to add on to it, but we'll see.