2020 done and dusted

Well, 2020 is finished, and January 2021 is almost over!  I was quite happy with the amount of sewing I've had time for during 2020.  Only working part-time meant a lot more time in the sewing room.

     

This was the last finish for 2020 (although really the binding got finished off in 2021, but that's OK, right?)  Years ago, I saw a post about the 1600 quilt, where you take a jelly roll and sew the strips end to end, until you get a strip of about 1600".  Then you divide it in half, sew the two halves together, and repeat until you have a quilt top.  I quite enjoyed the process and it did go together quickly.  I've added a border, and pieced a backing of fabrics from (mainly) the same line of fabrics.  The top sat in my quilting box for several years, but was finally brought out and sandwiched a few months ago.  I decided to hand quilt this - big stitch quilting - very haphazardly with no plan in mind.  I'm happy enough with the quilting, which I did finish before Christmas as planned.  And it was easy to do while watching telly.

Finished size:  64.5" x  74.5" (1.65 x 1.9m).  Fabrics: Moda jelly roll (designer unknown, sorry).  Machine pieced and hand quilted.  

I have spent some time this January, going through some of the WIPs and UFOs in my sewing room, and working out what order I will do them in, and what I need to do to finish them off.  And making a list of what I would like to work on.  Some of the time has also been spent on working on scrap fabrics - ironing them, and then cutting into suitable sized pieces ready for other projects.  2 1/2" strips are first, and then 10" squares, followed by lots of smaller sizes.  Of course, I don't always get many pieces from the scrap fabric; it does depend on the size of it.  Strips narrower than 2 1/2" go in my strings box for QAYG blocks.  

I've worked pretty much full time for the last month, and with socialising etc., have had little time in the sewing room, until yesterday.   I worked on some more QAYG blocks - in blues since that seems to be the most common colour in my strings box.  I will just keep on working on these until I can see an actual dent in my strings box, which hasn't happened yet.  

My night-time hand sewing for the next little while will be some EPP, working on Sue Daley's Quatro Quilt.  I did a bit of it in 2019 but then packed it away since I was supposed to be away for 2020.  Now it is out again and I'm slowly working on it.  It is definitely a long term project - and I may get sick of it after a while and put it away again.  

Here are the blocks I've sewn together so far, on my design wall.  

I thought about making a New Year's resolution to try very hard to not start a new project, until I've completed at least five of the unfinished projects I have.  But then I thought, that's not going to happen, so why set myself up for failure!?  I will try to work on UFOs, but no promises.  That way, if I do finish off one or more UFOs languishing in the sewing room, it will be a great achievement.

One very important sewing job I undertook over the Christmas period was the major surgery needed by my granddaughter's favourite bedtime teddy, Lavender Bear.  LB was intended to be a heatpack so was filled with wheat, therefore not conducive to a good wash.  LB had to be gutted, washed and then refilled with polyester stuffing.  She came up very well after the operation, as you can see.