The Best of 2019 at Life In Pieces

As 2019 winds down, I start to look back at the year.  Cheryl over at Meadow Mist Designs encourages a review of the year's blog posts in her 5th "Best of" linky party. 

So here is my Best of 2019 Life in Pieces posts.  

1.  Most Views (615):  November One Monthly Goal - Bordering Twinkle Stars.

Twinkle Stars

Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

I'm still working to get the borders on this quilt, but I keep getting side tracked with new projects. Twinkle Stars started as a Rainbow Scrap challenge project. Hopefully it will make it all the way to finished quilt early in 2020. 

2. Most Comments (34):  Finally a Finish

 Sophia's Closet (Vintage Dresses)
block pattern by Charise Randell

Vintage Dresses (Sophia's Closet) is another long time favorite project.  Getting this project to the finish line is one of my biggest accomplishments for 2019.  

3.  My Second Favorite Finish:  Finally A Finish (apparently this is a favorite blog title for 2019 too).  
 

Inverted Star (Second Star to the Right)
 Inverted Star block by Jessica Boschem of Common Threads available from Blueprint 

Inverted Stars is another Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt that's been a lot of fun to work on.  Adding on the alternating up/down star border was so worth the effort.  Vintage Dresses is my favorite finish, but this quilt is a very close second.  

4.  My Favorite New Project:  Stormy Stuff

Storm at SeaPaper Piecing Class by Carrie Randell (Quilter's Hideaway)

Storm at Sea was a class offered by the local quilt shop. When My Guy saw my planned colors and layout, he said this one should go on our bed when it's done.  So that's the plan. I've still a couple of borders to add to finish this one off. Hopefully that will happen early in 2020.  

5.  Most Linky Party Participants (13): Week 3 of 2019

The 15 Minutes to Stitch linky party goes live every Sunday.  Since 2011 it's been one of my weekly goals to stitch for at least 15 minutes each day. It helps me keep my projects moving. The linky party started in later 2011, but I stopped it in 2012 or 2013 due to lack of interest.  In 2017, there was enough interest in the concept to start up a new linky party.  The plan is to continue the linky party in 2020.  

That's my top 5 for 2019.  You can see more "Best Of's" over at Meadow Mist Designs.  

Finally A Finish!

It's been a nice long weekend. I have some vacation that has to be used or I give it back, so I was able to take last Friday off.  It's been nice to get some extra time in the sewing room for a change.  I used my time wisely, Vintage Dresses is finally finished. 

 Sophia's Closet (Vintage Dresses)
block pattern by Charise Randell
Started January 10, 2016
Completed November 1, 2019

Trudy custom quilted it, some of the dresses have some very cool details.

I can't pick a favorite dress from the set, I like all of them. 

The backing is a Connecting Threads sale fabric that I had ordered specifically to use for backing a quilt.   

When it came time to draft a label, I didn't want to just keep using the pattern name, I wanted to give it my own spin.  My Guy vetoed most of my ideas. He said that the quilt is too sophisticated to have a quirky name.  So I looked at photos of well known actresses from the 50's and decided that Sophia Loren's wardrobe had dresses of the right vintage and style. So this quit became Sophia's Closet. 

This label isn't anything like the one I'd been working on.  The first label just looked so drab when I did the test print that I decided a new bright one was really needed.  This one definitely worked and the blue gingham dress blends perfectly with the backing. 

Sophia's Closet was started in January 2016 as my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for that year.  The goal was to finish two blocks in each color per month.  That's the only way I'd ever finish such complicated blocks. This was my first introduction to complex paper piecing. It didn't always go smoothly, but I really loved how the blocks worked out. The finished quilt is full/queen sized (sorry I never remember to write down the final measurements).   

For now, the quilt is going to stay with me.  Eventually it may go live with someone else, but I want to enjoy it for a bit before turning loose of it. 

Linking up with the normal beginning of the week linky parties:  Monday Making and Monday Design Wall.  Vintage Dresses/Sophia's Closet is on my 2019 Finish Along 4th quarter list, so I'll be linking up with the last Finish Along post for 2019 in January when that becomes active.  

To Do Tuesday - Moving Along

Last week was my first go at "To Do Tuesday", the weekly to do list linky party hosted by Home Sewn By Us. Focusing on fewer projects did make a difference in moving those projects further along the road to finished.  Even so, I didn't finish the whole list.  

Weekly To Do List (10/22/2019)
1. Vintage Dresses - bind
2. Mosaic Mystery - finish clue 2✔
3. 2019 Christmas Mystery - finish clue 3
4. Twinkle Stars - finish sewing rows together✔

Only two check marks, but that's better than none, so I'll take that.  Actually there was good progress on binding Vintage Dresses and I did get the first block of Clue 3 cut out ready for assembly.  It feels nice to check things off the list. I just need to be careful keep the list reasonable each week.  Here's the to do list for this week.  

Weekly To Do List (10/29/2019)


1.  Vintage Dresses - finish binding

The label got made and the binding got sewn to the front, now I just need to finish hand stitching it to the back. I've turned one corner, so that should be doable.  I'd like to get this one finished off by Thursday as it's my October One Monthly Goal. 

2.  Finish Pieced Border for Twinkle Stars

Making the blocks should go pretty fast.  It will take longer to stitch them all together and then stitch them to the quilt.  But as I've got one afternoon and Friday off this week, that should be doable.

3.  Finish Clue 3 for the 2019 Christmas Mystery Quilt. 

The strips are cut, but they aren't pinned correctly (I unpicked two seams before I realized they weren't lined up correctly).  Two blocks will come out of these strip sets and there's a third block to be done this week.  I've picked out the fabrics for it, but haven't cut out the pieces for it yet.  

I'm really tempted to add a #4 to the list, but my goals are to move quilts to the finish line and keep up with current quilt alongs. To do that I need to concentrate my time on just a few projects.  So that's my list for this week. You can see more weekly plans over at Home Sewn by Us.