2017 Q4 FAL Fail

Not a huge surprise, given that I had my hip replaced at the end of October, but I only got one thing done out of the very long list I'd posted for my first participation in the Finish-A-Long. I really thought I'd want to spend my recovery time by sitting around hand-stitching sleeves and labels, etc.  But sitting was an issue for quite a while, until it wasn't, and then I wanted to move around, not sit around. Sitting still isn't super great, being limited to a 90degree angle for my hip is rather limiting. But hey--I can Walk Again. So it's very very worth it for now.

 I don't have a good overall picture of it quite yet as I'm not up to hanging it up on my design wall. It might not fit now that I think about it, this sucker is big. I had this quilted by the wonderful Colleen Granger at SewLittleTimeQuilting.  The quilt came back to me just in time for me to be able to sew the binding on and finish the label. So that counted as my one and only finish!

It's a huge, king-sized, mostly bullseye quilt comprised of blocks from an online quilt group I belong to, QuiltMavericks. These blocks are from several Swamps (what we call swaps due to an auspicious typo) held over the last 15 years and a few that I made myself as well as some added borders. There are Bento Box squares, and Roman stripe stars also.

I pieced the back and like the way the fabrics I chose go together with the signature blocks.

It was great to have this quilt on my bed as I recovered, having something new and so colorful was very cheery. Plus I got to spend time remembering all the good friends and discussions and support from these quilters, most of whom I've never met in person, but are still real friends nonetheless.

Here's one of the blocks I made myself, a bit offset to get the Buddha and the cat to show.

I'm most disappointed that I didn't get the quilt done about guns in America done in time to submit to the exhibit. I got a very good start on it and then my surgery got scheduled so quickly and my mind honestly just kind of shut down with all the preparation that were involved. I will finish this quilt though, regardless of missing the exhibit, because I found that I actually had something to say about the subject.

Will I try FAL again? Yes, I will and I'm considering what I should put on my list this time. The same list minus the one quilt that I did finish? Maybe less quilts overall? Maybe I should list quilts I Actually want to finish instead of things I Should do?  Would that work better?