New Year's Quilt in Process

It's that time of year again - time to get a final finish for the old year OR to get your first finish of the new year :)

This is my quilt I'm aiming to finish. It's the 12 blocks from the Threads of Memory block of the month by Barbara Brackman at her Civil War Quilts blog.

I made a setting that added blocks to make it a big quilt.
It will finish around 60 x 84 inches.

Block 12 was released this past Sunday.

Rochester Star for Amy Post and Harriet Jacobs

After this block was made I could then cut up the rest of my Christmas fabric stash to make those 6 middle blocks. As you can see from my calculations, I needed 72 31/2 inch blocks to finish off those middle blocks! I was surprised - and definitely short of fabric!

While my mission was accomplished, I still needed fabric to finish those blocks. I went back into my shelves of fabric and pulled the big pieces of fabric that I had removed from the bin.

I cut the big pieces into 3 1/2 by 12 1/2 inch strips. BUT even here I was short by 2 strips!!

Oh the challenges of working from stash! I really do like this part :)

My solution?

I pulled out the fabrics I had saved for different quilts to see if there was any I could 'borrow' for this quilt.

 I finally have a plan for this one now!
 The rest of it will be made up of my orphan Christmas blocks. I needed to decide how I was going to get this giant stocking onto the quilt.
 Applique, of course!
 And these blues and reds - it finally clicked and I am itching to make this quilt now.

{Long story short - I was able to cut off a strip from each of these reds to use in my current quilt. Yay!}

I didn't take a picture of where I'm at with the quilt at this moment. I decided to piece the top into two halves - one of 3 rows, one of 4 rows.

I've got the 3 rows pieced together - it's on the very bottom of the piles in the photo above. I'm building my backing out of {mostly!} my daughter's stash. That's not really stealing right? She collected fabrics when she was younger and would visit quilt stores with me. I don't think she'll mind when she gets to snuggle under the finished quilt.

It will be 2 pieced backs. I plan to quilt the two parts then join them together. I found a green fabric to use as binding {do I need to admit where?!}

Will I get it done in the next few days? Maybe.
When it is finished it will be full of memories of my year at teachers college, shopping with my daughter over the years, watching my son grow up in the room beside me while I'm quilting, and my supportive husband who went out today to buy the batting that will complete the layers of this quilt.

Wishing you Joy,

Sarah Vee