2021 – Final Thoughts

First off – sorry for the absence. There were some WordPress issues. As a result, my domain name changed. Hopefully that doesn’t throw anyone off!

So Tula update first. The quilt is finished!!! Well, the quilt top … which was the goal! I’ve also basted the top with batting and backing. I had to order some thread and that is in the mail now, so I should be starting in the new year!! I’m not sure if I’m going to use the blue stripes or the purple stripes for the binding. We’ll have to see what happens!

I love how this top looks completed. I was very worried about how it would go together as there was an over-abundance of elements in this quilt. Light to dark from top to bottom, colour spectrum shift from left to right, but it all came together in the end! And taking out a row was the right call. It would have looked strange on a bed as it hung far down the sides of a queen but barely fit length-wise. Now it’s about the same size as the Skilly&Duff quilt shown below. And Husband went out of his way on more than one occasion to mention that he really likes it. High praise coming from him about a colourful quilt!

For Christmas, I spent a solid 2 weeks where I was sewing at least a little bit every day to get 5 (FIVE?!?!) wallets finished for the ladies of the family. I got them all done the night before (true M fashion right??). I only have a picture of 2 of the finished ones as the rest have been gifted already. I’m so happy with the way they turned out! The outer are made of vinyl (the scallop pattern) and cork. The inside is made of quilt cotton. Most of the inside was bought on sale, but the butterflies are (of course!!) from the Tula Daydream line. They are a perfect focal print!

Between Christmas and New Year’s, I decided to get a part of my life organized that I’ve been contemplating for some time. The TV stand!!! In my house, we have a lot of video game/computers type things, so it became a natural dumping ground for cables, consoles, headphones, etc. I started examining the space before the holidays with the intention of getting it all sorted. I decided that we needed to use fabric bins as they would work well in the space, but the size I needed height-wise to fit on the shelf was not a standard size. Getting what I needed from. Amazon or Wayfair was going to be expensive and I did not want to spend a ton of money on this … so I decided to make the bins!!!! I was initially planning on making all of them myself until I ran across an incredible deal on the smaller bins that was cheaper to buy than to make, so I just focused on the bigger ones. I found a pattern online (https://www.awilson.co.uk/how-to-sew-storage-boxes/) that came very close to being exactly what I wanted! I did make 2 changes to the pattern. First, I turned the box inside out when I assembled it. That was necessary because I was using bulky corrugated cardboard instead of thin cereal box cardboard. The button on bottom she suggested left the box bits hanging out in plain view. For the second part, since I wasn’t buttoning the bottom on, I made a sleeve for the box bottom, put the cardboard in the sleeve, tucked in the end, and put it face-down in the bottom. That adequately provides rigidity. Is it a solid box? No, not really, but those boxes will not be pulled out on a regular bases, so it’s firm enough to hold the shape and look good on the shelf.

Finally, the future as I see it:
1. Baby blanket!!!! We have a new baby coming to the family. IN MARCH. And I hadn’t started the new quilt at all beyond picking out the pattern. Well, I now have all the fabric selected/purchased. Come Jan 1, I will be starting to cut into it!
2. Curtains for the kitchen windows. I’ve been trying to get this part done for about a month, but I made a few different mistakes and each time I did, I didn’t have time to come back to it. I need to get those sheers done in January now!
3. Quilting Tula. Now that the top is finished and the quilt is basted, I need to get the quilting done. At the suggestion of Crazy Quilter, I’m going to quilt all the sashing, then bind the quilt, then do the block quilting over the course of the year! That actually sounds like a really cool idea and I’m all for trying new ideas!

2022 promises to be a sew-tactic year. Thanks for coming along with me so far. I’m excited to keep adventuring with you through another circle around the sun!

~M