2016 Quilting Goals - Name Change - Last Quilt Of The Year...

Merry Christmas and I hope your New Year is blessed with happy times and wonderful memories.

My blog name is changing to
I Must Be Off My Bobbin...Dee Dee Quilts

Can't believe how long it took for me to think up a fun name that wasn't already taken!

Here it is again, the time of year when I begin to think about what I might want to accomplish with my quilting for the next 12 months. I didn't do too well on the goals I set for 2015. With the move and living in two house for 1/2 of the year not many goals got crossed off. Hoping to do better in 2016. 

Here goes - 

2016 Quilting Goals...

Ronald McDonald House ~ This has to be my all time favorite place to donate quilts to. My family has been so blessed with good health, not all families are so lucky. I always drop off my quilts between 10 and 11 in the morning as most of the children and their parents are at the hospital. I can't go any later as my heart literally breaks if I see a sick child. I know I am a whimp. As one volunteer told me "sometimes this quilt is the only thing the parents leave with". 

I hope to make 12 quilts for teen boys this year.

Quilts of Valor ~ My 2nd favorite place to donate quilts to. These men and women are willing to give their lives to protect my family, they don't even know who we are. I am so grateful to each and every one of them. The least I can do for their service to our country is provide them with quilts.

I plan on donating 12 quilts to these amazing people.

Gifts ~ Haven't given my grand daughters a quilt in the past few years, this  year they will each get one. These quilts will be large lap quilts as their mothers like things to match, curtain, sheets, rugs, paint, etc.... There will probably be one or two more quilts that will be made for gifting.

Planning for this one is hard, I am going to say 6 quilts will be gifted.

Keepers ~ This will be quilts I keep for our personal use. I will finish the barn quilt, the Bargello, and the Amish Twist. I would like to finish the paper pieced tree quilt (which is going to be a large wall hanging to go on the wall behind our bed).  

I am thinking 6 is a good number.

Others ~ Knowing that no matter how hard I try to stay focused on what I am working on,  there will be many other quilts started. Sometimes I see a quilt on a blog and will immediately stop everything to make it. 

I am just going to guesstimate 4 quilts.

UFOs ~ My plan is not to create any more unfinished quilts! I hope to also finish a couple of quilts that have been lingering for way too long.

If I can finish 3 I will be thrilled.

A total of 43 quilts ~ seems like a lot right now, might have to make some changes to the numbers later on.

Found a small quilt shop about 30 miles from our new house. She has 50 bolts of fabric. I bought 16 yards of this fabric - the whole bolt (she now only has 49 bolts). It is flannel and will be perfect for the backs of baby quilts. 

I finished the stack n whack using the left over block from this quilt.

This quilt is on it's way to bring Christmas cheer to a very good friend whom I have know for 40+ years.

Here are my numbers for 2015 - certainly not what I envisioned for this year. Going to try to keep any fabric purchases to the bare minimum in 2016. Out of the six goals I made for 2015 I only accomplish "one" - a Christmas bed quilt. I think that is pretty pathetic!


Fabric usage  2015 ~

fabric in YTD ~ 47.66

fabric out YTD ~ 209.42

used YTD ~ 161.76

Quilts Finished ~ 18 ~ each quilt will only be counted in one category

QOV ~ 6

RMH ~ 8

UFO ~ 1

New ~ 3

Linking to Patchwork Times Stash Reports

Something New

I finally have another finish.

One of the new friends I've made since moving is the "queen" of Stack and Whacks! She has made more than 200 of them. It is the only type of quilt she is interested in. Bill was fascinated with them.

Of course I agreed to make one. I decided on a Christmas one. Also decided that since it will "probably" be the only one I will ever make I wanted to make it for our bed.

Don't get me wrong, they are beautiful quilts, it is just that there are so many other types of quilts I want to make. This is the fabric I chose. I like the background colors - red, maroon, and two shades of green.

You buy by the repeat in the fabric not yardage so I wasn't sure how much to buy to make a big quilt.  My friend will buy what I don't use. Not crazy abt it and was told the uglier the fabric the prettier the stack and whack quilt will be.    Which is certainly true after looking at my friend's quilts. Glittery fabric, girly fabric just isn't me and I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it.

Since starting this quilt I have come to realize that I am not a fan of making Stack n Whack quilts. I didn't mind the piecing or the cutting. The tacking of all 8 layers together wore me out! It took me  - TWELVE - long hours to tack my components. I did it while watching a Murder She Wrote Marathon. Never - Ever will I make one again. Eight layers made 14 blocks and I needed 64 blocks, so I had to tack 5 - 8 layers stacks.....which made 70 blocks. 

I decided to set my quilt on point which didn't use as many blocks. A friend will be getting a Christmas quilt with the left over blocks!

This is my first quilt that I set on point. So not use to dealing with bias edges around the outside of the top. There are a few wavy areas and I am hoping that once it is washed that some of the glitter (there is a lot of glitter) and the waves will disappear. 

 This quilt is 98x98. Some of the blocks.....I like that the blocks are surrounded with cream as it makes it look like they are floating.

 And these cute snowman are on the back.

Because I struggled with the bias edges and also where the 8 points meet in the center of each block there were some peaks, meandering was the simple way for me to keep the top kinda flat while quilting it.

Linking up to the stash report at Patchwork Times.

Fabric usage  2015 ~

fabric in YTD ~ 31.66

fabric out YTD ~ 198.80

used YTD ~ 167.14

Quilts Finished ~ 17 ~ each quilt will only be counted in one category

QOV ~ 6

RMH ~ 8

UFO ~ 1

New ~ 2