I seem to always start January off with a flurry of activity. Maybe it’s because winter keeps me inside. Maybe it’s because The Final Countdown inspires me with a fresh start. Maybe it’s because I’m all excited to get some stuff done and off my to-do list.

I also usually time travel back to find my oldest UFOs and try to finish up at least one of those during January. This year, I located my oldest UFO, but it requires custom quilting, so it did not get done, because customer stuff always makes my own things take a back seat on the longarm list.

But as I went through my bin of to-be-quilted quilts (did I mention there are 108 of them?), I pulled out about a dozen that are small and will be quick to finish, and a couple of them are fairly old.

It’s been my rule for a couple years now, that if my longarm is empty of customer quilts by Friday afternoon, I can quilt for myself all weekend. And that actually happened one weekend in January!

So I put on a Quilting-for-Myself Marathon, and quilted FIVE quilts. Sadly, two of them were not even on my list. (But I think I finally have the list updated now — unless I find another hidden UFO somewhere!)

Here they are, in no particular order . . .

The Purple Jelly Roll Race quilt. This quilt was made by a fellow guild member one year when we hosted a Jelly Roll Race at our fall retreat. I donated seven homemade jelly rolls to guild members for the race, and offered to quilt the quilts when we were done to donate to our Comfort quilt stash. I think this is finally the last one. (On a side note, doesn’t a homemade jelly roll sound good right about now?)

I made the jelly rolls to use up my 2 1/2″ strips so the lid would fit on the container, but I can tell you now that the lid once again no longer fits. I need to make some more jelly rolls, I guess.

I offered to quilt them so I would have another chance to use up more yardage for the backings and bindings, and some of my larger scrap pieces of batting. It did help, but wow — I could do this annually and I would still have too much fabric!

The Opposing Viewpoints mini quilt. I started this quilt in a workshop with Kelly Ashton, and intended to make a big quilt, but sanity (finally) took over and I downsized the part I had done and turned it into a mini quilt. Now that I have it machine quilted, I’m wishing I had hand quilted it instead, but still, it turned out OK and it will make a cute mini for the wall or a table mat.

Sunbonnet Sue — here’s a biggie. This quilt is a really old one from my list. I started it, then lost one of the applique blocks. Thinking it would turn up, I set the quilt aside, and after three moves, I decided I was never gonna find the missing block, so I finally made another one and finished the top — in 2012. And you know what I’m gonna say next — after I was done, I found the missing block — of course!

This was a free pattern from Keepsake Quilting (no longer available). It was a bit of a trick to get all the triangles in the right places to form those stars. The design wall came in handy for this one.

Also, I used my 30s reproduction scraps to make it. I cannot even begin to count all the quilts I’ve made with my 30s reproduction scraps. Years ago, I originally bought some 30s reproductions to make a Dresden plate quilt (which is also still not finished because I’ve decided to get fancy with it), and evidently, I purchased enough fabric to make 20 quilts! Methinks I overestimated how much I’d need for just one Dresden Plate quilt.

Lil Cowpokes, the plain version. This quilt was made from the blocks in my Lil Cowpokes pattern. The two original quilts had an appliqué center — one of a little cowboy, and one of a little cowgirl — but I also provided this option in the pattern for those who don’t like appliqué. Why I never quilted it until now, I have no idea. The top was finished in 2011.

I had to do a single-fold binding on this one, since I barely had enough fabric. I found this Minky piece in the clearance bin at Sew Sweet Quilt Shop, and it was the perfect size for the back. It sure made this little western-themed quilt snuggly!

And finally, the Orange and Green Pinwheel Baby Quilt. This quilt was totally unplanned. I had triangle trimmings from another quilt, and as usual, couldn’t bear to throw them away, so I turned them into pinwheels. Then I found the perfect print to put with them, and ended up turning them into this sweet baby quilt. I think I finished the top in 2014 at one of the first retreats I attended at Sew Sweet Quilt Shop back when their retreat center was just opened.

So I’m thrilled that FIVE of my older projects are now finished. Well, almost — I obviously need to finish sewing down the bindings on them.

And back before the end of the year, I managed to get the Pink Petals baby quilt quilted as well. I finished the binding on it the other day. This has to be one of my all-time favorite baby quilts. I seriously need to make another one, or two . . . or three. Maybe in other colorways, just to see how they turn out! Did I mention the tutorial is free right HERE?

And I finished the Woodland Baby quilt I made using the leftovers from Brooks’ baby quilt. Getting it bound was my first Final Countdown task, which also made it my first finish of 2023!

And I also finished one vintage quilt from my vintage stash of tops. You can read more about it HERE.

In other studio news, the lid now fits on my bin(s) of blue fabric, and to do that, I HAD to start two new quilts! So I only added to my number of projects in that regard, but hopefully, they’ll be quick to finish as well. (Soon, they’ll be in the to-be-quilted pile, so maybe there’s no hope for me!) And my next goal for my blue fabrics is for it all to fit into one bin instead of two.

To help use up the blues, I cut out all the pieces for a Twist Tie quilt, and have begun stitching. I’ll just keep using it for a leader/ender project for the time being.

However, there are once again triangle trimmings from this quilt, and do you think I can bring myself to get rid of those? NO, I cannot — so there will be one more quilt spawned from these scraps. I’ll have to think up something!

And digging through some scraps my sister gave me, I ran across these triangles. Also, could NOT throw them away, so I decided to stitch them up:

I had just seen Deanna at Wedding Dress Blue post about this quilt, so I hopped over there for the tutorial and am now making another baby quilt to put them in. I got to add in a few pieces from my own stash, helping to use up more blues, and also dipped into my huge box of white solid scraps (for both of these quilts, actually — and it has not made a dent in the white solid scraps, by the way). You can tell I’m using white scraps, since there are at least three different whites in this quilt, but since it’s scrappy, I’m not gonna worry about it.

But wait, that’s not all! I started two other new projects as well. What is wrong with me? Don’t answer that.

In the interest of using up even more scraps, I started THIS quilt — Bailey Avenue, a new pattern by my bestie, Victoria Findlay Wolfe. I love the optical illusion it creates, and I was completely won over by the fact that it is not paper pieced. Here are the fabrics I pulled for that quilt — I’m gonna love this!

And I started another quilt from necktie fabrics for The Necktie Social. More on that later, but it’s gonna be a neat one.

I’ve been chipping away at lots of other projects, too, including making a crate cover for my daughter’s little dog, mending a hoodie for My Cowboy, making three pillowcases, doing a bit of embroidery and appliqué, some knitting in my chair of an evening, and working on customer quilts on the longarm, so I had a busy January. I can only hope that February is just as productive.

I honestly need to try really hard to NOT start anything new, but yesterday was only February 2nd, and what did I do? I started another hexie quilt. Seriously hopeless — but don’t send help — I’m as happy as a pig in mud!