Looking Back at 2014

It’s that time again where I like to look back at the quilts I have finished for myself over the past year.   This year my list is much smaller than in past years but that’s okay as i really don’t need any more quilts.   I have closets and boxes full of new quilts that I just can’t seem to part with so maybe my goal in 2015 is to find the right homes for all these quilts that I have made over the last couple of years.

So here are my quilts for 2014.

February – Perfect Ten quilt made with Under the Australian Sun fabrics that my friend Desley sent me!

February – Lug Nuts, a new Highway 10 Designs pattern.  This was our cover quilt using Little Black Dress 2 fabric.

March – My International Friendship quilt!  The fabrics were sent to me by my friend Laila in Norway and the wool batting used is from Desley in Australia.  This quilt has a great story which you can read here.

May – My original Four Patch Charm Quilt.  This is one of the most popular posts on my blog and has been viewed over 24,000 times!   You can see the tutorial for this quilt here.

July – Quarter Sections, a new Highway 10 Designs pattern.  Our Fat Quarter Friendly pattern was perfect for using my Cupcakery fat quarter bundle.

July – Metro Hoops, a pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful.   I think this is the quilting I am most proud of this year as the design really suited the quilt.

August – Pillows designed by Robinson Designs.  Fun Minkie applique pillows on a batik background.

August – Popsicle Sticks quilt, an Atkinson Designs pattern.   Great pattern for Jelly Rolls and I really like the new panto I used on this one, Deja Vu.

September – 4 simple baby quilts using the Wishes collection.

November – Professional Tote Bag, a pattern by Creative Thimble.

November – Lug Nuts, a Highway 10 Designs pattern.    I wanted to see what our Lug Nuts pattern would look like in blue batiks….okay I just wanted an excuse to make this quilt again as it is so much fun to piece!

December – International Round Robin.   This was a Round Robin I did with Lori, Desley and Bronwyn over the course of a year.  I was the first one to finish mine so hope that lit a fire under those ladies to gets theirs done too! 

December – Day Break Quilt, a pattern by Jaybird Designs.   I have admired this patterns for awhile and was glad Wendy, the owner of Fabriculous quilt shop, convinced me to make it so she could hang it in her shop.

So that is what I made this year and I have to confess that I now only have one quilt top that needs quilting and NO UFO’s!   I keep telling myself I do not need to make anymore quilts, I have too many around here as it is but like many of you I don’t think I can go too long without having a quilting project to work on.  I have a couple of jelly rolls and fat quarter bundles that I should figure out what to do with and I’m not going to buy anymore this year …well I’m going to give it a good try anyway!

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND ALL THE BEST IN 2015!

Day Break Quilt in Batiks!

I’m usually more productive in December when it comes to finishing my own quilt but this year I only had time for two finishes this month.  Here is my Day Break quilt, a Jaybird Designs pattern and I quilted it almost the same as the one I quilted for Lynn a few weeks ago here.    It was a nice coincidence that I received a quilt to quilt that I was also working on myself and that I could quilt them the same so I could have a sample of the quilting.  Sometimes when I create a quilting design I’m really happy with on a clients quilt and then return the quilt to its owner it can be bittersweet.   To work so hard on something and then have to give it back …but then again that’s my job and isn’t it that way it is with all the quilts we make as gifts!

This quilt is made with all batik fabrics and was a kit from a quilt shop in Swan River, Manitoba called Fabriculous.  I’m getting ready to mail this quilt to the shop as it will be hanging there on display so I hope it helps sell kits!  When I get it back I think I’ll hang it in the Shack.

I used white So Fine thread on top and white Bottom Line in the bobbin.   Quilters Dream Blend batting and a solid white backing.  The quilting is all free hand and ruler work.

Northern Lights on Christmas Day

Hope you all had a beautiful Christmas day, ours ended with a beautiful display of Northern Lights at 10pm.  I was already in my pj’s but we bundled up to run outside to get some pictures.   The skies had just cleared as we have had cloud for two weeks so the timing was perfect.   But with clear skies comes very cold temperatures, it was –20’c with a –30’ windchill so I didn’t stay out too long.

I can easily prove these are my pictures as you can see my snow circles in the pictures!

Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year! 

Round Robin Quilted

This week I have been taking it easy and enjoying a bit of a quilting break, well not completely!    I did put my Round Robin on my machine and quilted it up this week and got the binding on as well.  I started by stabilizing the whole quilt with stitch in the ditch as I had no idea what I wanted to quilt on it.  I started with the outer border feathers and from there I decided on the feather motifs for the setting triangles.  I made the pebble borders with alternating big and small pebbles for a different look and had to really focus to get them reasonability even. That was one moment where a computer on my machine would have been nice.   Took a while to decide on what to put in the inner white border but a simple curl feather design seemed to fit nicely.

We have been making more ‘ice balls’ for our deck railing and they go right to the end of the deck now!  I'm now making a bunch for down by the dock too!

The weather has been unseasonably warm here so we have been going for a lot of walk out along our bush trail, packing it well with our snowshoes.   We managed to convince our youngest son to finally walk our trail and I think he might of even enjoyed it!   It has been snowing all week here so the trees are all white with fresh snow so I’m waiting for the sun to peek out to get pictures of my Day Break quilt that I finished over a week ago.    Looks like we might see some sun by the end of the week so I hope to get some pictures of it before New Years.

Christmas Cookies!

 

I’m not one to spend a lot of time in the kitchen but I do enjoy Christmas baking.  This year I found a link to a video on how to decorate this super cute Reindeer cookies and what makes them so clever is you use a Gingerbread man shape and turn it upside down!  I made sugar cookies and decorated them like in the video and really enjoyed the process.  It’s nice to add a new treat to the family favourites.  Here is the link to the video.  Hope to save a few to bring to our guild Christmas party on Tuesday…but no promises, cookies disappear fast here!

New Round Robin Started

Last  year I did a Round Robin with Lori, Desley and Bronwyn and you can see the final results of that project here.   Since we were all really happy with our final quilt top we decided to do this again but this time Desley and Bronwyn made the rules.  This time we are using a point system and different sized blocks are assigned different points.  For Round One we had to make 9 to 12 points worth of blocks using a consistent fabric in some or all of the blocks.  The consistent fabric gets mailed with the blocks each round so there is continuity in all the blocks. 

Here are my blocks and my fabric. 

Here is Lori’s blocks and her fabric.

Here are Bronwyn’s blocks and fabric.

And Desley’s blocks and fabrics.

We are having unseasonably warm weather this week and it got up to +2’c yesterday and will be the same today.  The down side is it has affected my ice and it is no longer clear but looks like frosted glass!  

I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad about this.  Maybe it will clear up over time again.

 

So since it has been warm I’ve been playing out in the snow again!  I love winter!!