January Goals Success

January has been a very productive month quilting wise.  My goals were to finish the blocks for my Long Time Gone class, finish the components of Abstraction and as a bonus complete the top and to finish my Poinsettia block.

These were my Longtime Gone blocks.  We needed to make the two bow tie blocks and the three blocks with flying geese.  All were completed well before the class so I was pleased.  I haven't cut out the pieces we were assigned for next month but that will come soon.

The components for Abstraction went together very quickly and I was thrilled to finish the top.  The binding is also made.  A lady from my guild gave me a quilting suggestion which I rather liked.  I'm still considering the quilting.  I think this may end up waiting until I can get out to the long arm studio.  We are currently under lock down so it will be another month at least.

Finally, the December block from Kathy K Wylie's workshop is now finished.  I almost had a disaster with it.  I'd used a blue washout marker to mark the piece and when I washed the blue marker out, two of the reds ran.  All of them had been washed so I wasn't expecting an issue. Not all instances of the two fabrics ran either.  I re-washed and it got worse.  A google search suggested really hot water (boil the kettle if the tap doesn't give scalding water) and Dawn Ultra and let it soaks for several hours.  All the instructions I read were for completed quilts so they were using bath tubs and soaking for up to 12 hours.  I used my white bucket and let it soak for about 2 hours.  All the red dye is gone from the top so I was thrilled.

I did end up appliquéing the berries.  I'd been debating applique or french knots.  I decided to try some berries and ended up using the appliquick tools to turn all 48 berries.  It took several hours but I was pleased with how they turned out and it wasn't hard to stitch them on.  For reference, here's four of the berries next to my finger.  I ended up using the 3/16 circle on the template although a few were one size smaller.

 I also had really exciting news on Monday morning.  My Cherrrywood challenge piece was accepted as a finalist!  I still haven't posted pictures of it.  I'll wait until after the judging is completed and then put up some photos so they should be in the February One Monthly Goal completion post.  

I hope you had a successful January as well.  Linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal