The Border Dilemma

I love making the main part of the quilt, but I always struggle with borders. When I mention this to other quilters, they look at me quizzically like it has never been a bump in their road to a finished quilt. But here I am with a center flimsy, or maybe it's not a flimsy when it is a quilt-as-you-go, maybe it's a stiffy, or a stuffy. Anyway, here I am with the center stuffy, trying to find a border from my stash. I originally thought white on white so it didn't compete with the center, but I don't have any more true white on white. It could be the white on off-white I have will look less off-white when it is unfolded to a single layer of fabric. Of all the other fabrics I tried out, only the yellow and purple on the left are possibilities. What do you think?

My Janome voted to just bind it as is. It doesn't like QAYG, at least not the sashing method.

What are you working on this week? Join me at these linkups:
Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese
Whoop! Whoop! at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

End of the Week Progress

Yesterday, the morning started with lead-gray skies. I was out of thread and needed to run over to the next town, and that's when the wind kicked up to thirty miles per hour and I felt like I was being pushed around the road. By the time I left the store, it was 73 degrees. It would have been the perfect day if it weren't for the wind and humidity. By the time I got home, dark clouds were building and after dinner, the rain began. Or should I say the rain pounded. It was deafening and lasted for several hours. Of course the tv weather people were in their element and the 6:00 news ran through the evening programs. There were tornado warnings in the counties north of us as the storm raged through, and then finally, it was quiet again. We woke up to ice on the windsheilds, but the counties north of us had an inch or two of snow. 73 to 29 in eight hours. Only in Texas.

But hey, I got my thread and could continue working on my quilt. It's all about priorities.

This week I finished quilting blocks on four more rows and joined three rows. I was hoping to get some quilting done Saturday, but I was in the kitchen most of the afternoon cooking for today's lunch. Hopefully, I'll have some quilting time this afternoon. This is where I am right now. I'm hoping for a finish by next weekend.

I was happy to get in 15 minutes or more every day on this quilt, and hope my streak continues. It was also nice to get to the backing so the stash report shows a nice loss for a change.

Home Sewn by Us has a To Do party that starts on Tuesday. But my OCD makes me crazy, or crazier, if I start it in the middle of the week, so I'm running Sunday through Saturday.

My To Do list for this week is a little ambitious, at least for me.

1. Finish the center of Snowball Blossom.

2. Find a fabric for the borders, both front and back. I'm afraid this will might require a fabric purchase as I am sure I want a white on white fabric.

3. Take down my design wall and finish the wall behind it. This is a tall order as I haven't really decided what I want to do here.

To see what other people have on their design board and on their sewing reports, join me at these linkups:
15 Minutes to Stitch at Life in Pieces
Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
To Do Tuesday at Home Sewn by Us
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Tuesday Colour at Clever Chameleon Quilting

A New Start for the Sunday Stash

When we were in Branson, I visited Quilts & Quilts Fabric Shoppe. I was only looking for a panel with a travel trailer on it, and while I was searching, so much more jumped in my basket. I hope this is the last new fabric I ever buy, but I know there will be bits and pieces needed to finish quilts.

I have no idea what I'll do with those two fabrics on the right, but aren't they pretty? Luckily, this purchase happened before the first of the year, so I added it into my beginning of the year stash total and don't have to show it as a 2020 purchase. I used a quarter of a yard making backing pieces for the Snowball Blossom quilt. It's not as impressive as cutting all the backing amount, but since I doing the quilt as you go method on this quilt, that's all I used this week.

I'm linking to Sunday Stash at Quilt Paint Create

15 Minute Challenge Week 1 of 2020

Off to a good start this year and I spent New Year's Day making the remaining blocks for the Snowball Blossom Quilt started as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge by soscrappy in 2018. For most quilters, these blocks are very easy, but I cannot seem to get the corners straight doing them the usual way and have have to make them oversized and then cut them down which makes for a lot of extra work. I managed to get in 15 minutes for the next three days and quilted several blocks. I am going to make this a quilt as you go quilt.

I was going to take another full day of quilting yesterday, but my simple project of replacing the grease in my Kitchenaid mixer took nearly all day. I was lucky to get 15 minutes. It's early in the year and I know my numbers will fall off when summer arrives, but for now, my sewing success rate is 100%. I'm not setting a success rate goal until we are finished with all the building and everything related to life on the farm.

Linking up to Kate's 15 Minutes to Stitch at Life in Pieces.

2020 Non-Planning Quilting Goals

Non-Planning? Is there such a thing as planning to not have a plan? I think so.

2019 was an especially odd year in a string of odd years. For years, I happily collected fabrics and patterns, planning someday to get it all done. But as my eyes continued to deteriorate last year, I started to realize that I will NEVER use all the fabric I have, and quite possibly never finish all the quilts I have started. It doesn't help that we are still working on the house and most of my sewing room stuff is in the attic, still boxed up somewhere. I thought I had all my fabric unpacked when I came across two more boxes yesterday, and there is probably more.

My goal for the remainder of 2019 is to clear out a workable sewing space in the attic.

My goals for 2020 are:

1. Have a stay-at-home quilting weekend just for me. Hubby takes his hunting trips, so this is my equivalent and I have some catching up to do. I am going to start New Year's Day and the following day. No cooking, no cleaning, no running errands, no helping Hubby with whatever project he has going. Just me, my sewing, and a full fridge.

2. Finish UFO's as I find them, and work on them until they are finished. My quilting weekends should help with that.

3. Do something every day that moves a project forward, whether it takes 5 minutes or 30 minutes, and whether it is actual sewing, or buying batting, or oiling the sewing machine so it can keep sewing.

Even though these aren't specific goals like most quilter's make when they plan the upcoming year, I am going to link to Quilting Jet Girl's 2020 Planning Party.