January 2022 One Monthly Goal Review

Its has been a very successful month for quilting.  The Moondance top is finished :) and I'll get the binding made this weekend.  I'm starting to think about how to quilt it and which top to work on next.  I have a few smaller items on this years UFO list so will probably choose one of those.

I made such good progress on this in January because I went with four friends to a quilt retreat for a week.  Our lockdown rules limit indoor gatherings to five.  It was such a wonderful time to get a way and be with friends and do something I love.  I also got a lesson on how to make a journal with reclaimed paper which was fun.

Late last year I ordered 7 fat quarters from Spoonflower to make a panel One Block Wonder.  I used a digital art piece I created last year called Tempest in a Teacup.   I had used the design helper to choose which piece might work well as a One Block Wonder.   I was amazed at how fast the order came.  From the guidelines I didn't expect to see it until early January and it arrived Christmas Eve.  

Before I left for the retreat, I cut 6 copies into hexies and sewed the hexies together.  Then played a bit on the design wall at home to come up with a layout.  I pinned the rows together so I would have a starting point when I got to the retreat.

After appliqueing for two days straight, my finger needed a break so I put the panel and hexies up on the design wall at the retreat and the ladies helped me tweak the layout a bit 

Then I started taking the rows mostly one at a time from the design wall to the sewing machine on the wool mat.  The rows beside the panels only had two hexies so the rows there all came at once.  I have yellow headed flower pins that I used a sharpie to number and the left most hexie of each row got a number so I could keep them straight.

Since the whole row had to wrap on the wool mat, I also put a plain pin in the left most hexie of the bottom two rows on the mat.  That helped me remember which way things were joining because the pin was always on the left.  It didn't take long to get everything stitched.  I decided I didn't want to trim the points off over the panel so pressed under a seam allowance and appliqued the points to the panel.  By then my finger was feeling somewhat better.

I haven't decided if I'm trimming the points at the side or leaving them.  I won't use a binding for this wall hanging. I also haven't decided exactly how to quilt it.  I'm leaning towards swirls but I'm also think maybe just something like an orange peel.  I may play with this in photoshop a bit before I decide.  

If I ever decide to do this with another piece of my digital art, I think I'll leave the digital signature in place.  I removed it from the tempest piece before I ordered the panels but I think I'd like to have it.  Just need to watch the size.  It might have been fun to see my name swirling in one of the hexies.  

The guild workshop with Phyllis Cullen at the beginning of the month was a lot of fun.  I was worried when we had to send her photos and she prepared the pattern but she went through how to prepare the patterns ourselves in wonderful detail.  This is my piece waiting to be put onto a background and quilted. 

I had planned to go to the long arm studio to quilt my abstraction quilt but the lockdown changed my plans as the studio was closed.  I need to email her and see about an appointment for February as they are lifting some of the restrictions starting Monday.  I'm hoping that means she will be open. 

 linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal Finishes