What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Well, we're finally here at 2021. Whew! It's been quite the slog hasn't it? Frankly I am amazed to see so many quilts reach the finish line--17 in all! Somehow my expectations were that the entire year was a total dud, but maybe not in regards to quilting. I've been having so much fun checking out everyone else's 2020 makes, that I almost forgot to do my own end of the year wrap up!

2020 finishes (1)

Autumnal Tulips is a true blue finish now! This has been such a sweet quilt to work on, I almost didn't want it to be finished up. How is it that some quilts start out so impulsively but then somehow end up being an all time fave?

The finished quilt

This is a quilt that has generated quite a bit of interest, here and also on Pinterest {not that I follow any of that very closely}. Surprisingly, a couple people have also requested a pattern.

A full view

So nice to finally have Dried Flowers completely finished! This one was started in July of 2018 and has always felt like a sweet little gem of a quilt. I love when a quilt starts out with a whisper and then gradually morphs into something so much greater than the initial seed of inspiration!

Dried Flowers is completed!

Looking across the ...

Finally brought out the Chunky Tulips for hand work. It feels like a great project for July and I definitely need to get moving on the applique list. These four represent 30% of the blocks being finished so that's a good start!

So pleased with the way this little quilt finished up. Wowsers! Why don't I just give up and make improv. orphan block quilts all of the time? Somehow this ended up being such a joyful, unpretentious little quilt, all quite by happy accident. Maybe because I didn't sweat the details?

Finished quilt!

It was a strange Memorial Day weekend. Usually we're up camping in the woods with a bunch of friends, young adults and teenagers, roasting hotdogs and trying to keep dry. This year we had a houseful of family and a little tiny campfire on the edge of our property. So nice to avoid the big push to get everything ready to go, but also a little bittersweet not being able to share that time with so many of our friends.

Makes me want to go to the beach!

So, even with all the stress and concerns of late, there are two new finishes around here. Funny how the finishes can be so far apart and then on occasion, somehow land on the same week. The first one 'Vintage Coxcombs', was started sometime in 2016 when I couldn't stand it any longer. Just needed to start a sunburst style applique block quilt with vaguely coxcomb details. No official pattern use, just something that I drew up from all sorts of inspiration seeds and cobbled together into a desired look.

Vintage Coxcombs is a completion!

Lots of hand work in the last several weeks. I finally picked the 'Melon Patch' applique back up and just slogged my way through. Why am I doing this? What in the world was I thinking? And then... Oh my, I just love these colors and fabrics. This is gonna be great! And that's generally the gist of this quilt every single time. 

Melon Patch petals all ready to sew onto the background now

Directions From a Local is a true blue finish! The hand quilting went very quickly and then it was just a matter of getting the binding properly attached. A quick look through the stash totes, and no worries, plenty of fabric to choose from for binding possibilities. 

Directions From a Local is finished!

Gather Ye Roses is the first finish of the year! Yay! This quilt is the first in my big basket series, but somehow the last to be a true blue finish. For some reason, I was intimidated at the thought of quilting all that 'blank' cream space around the basket. After stitching on the other two though, then it all felt so much easier. Amazingly enough, procrastination does occasionally pay off...

These quilting lines are 'eyeballed', not carefully measured out for accuracy and precision....