Goodbye 2020!

I usually call this my "Looking Back at ..." post but do we really want to look back at 2020?  I think a simple Goodbye is more appropriate this year.  I have been social distancing, wearing my mask and washing my hands, don't think that is too much to asked to keep our community safe.  With many of my activities and trips cancelled I could put more time into my longarm business and this was my busiest year to date!  So many quilters home and finishing projects and bring 2, 4 or even 6 quilts at a time!  

I found myself spending more time with my camera taking pictures of the hummingbirds and bluejays at our feeder and then the surprise arrival of Comet Neowise this summer. 

Our Prairie thunderstorms were a great subject to capture too!

I didn't make too many personal quilts this year though I did make quite a few samples using our Highway 10 Design patterns. I also had fun making bags!

So here are my personal projects that I finished this year.

January 2020

Home Quarter using a Winter Shimmer fat quarter bundle.

May 2020

Waxed Canvas Totes that I gifted!

Level Two Tote made with purple cork and batiks.

August 2020

I made 3 different projects from my North Stars Quilt blocks.

Made another Home Quarter using Jen Kingswell's "Behind the Scenes" wovens.

Ended up making about 8 of these water bottle slings for gifts!

Finished my Hawaiian applique kit that I bought on our trip last year.

Made a blue vinyl Bonnie Bucket purse! 

November 2020

Made a Washboard Road quilt using the Juniper jelly roll.

More Waxed Canvas Totes for gifts!

December 2020

Washboard Road in blue batiks.

Made 3 baby Quarter Sections quilts using Brave Enough to Dream fat quarter bundle.

Pedal to the Metal in Simply Neutral 2 collection.

Funny I didn't think I made much this year so glad I took the time to find all this pictures!  I did have a productive year!

I hope you all are keeping busy with your hobbies while you are stay close to home.  I think 2021 will be another quiet year but will have hope on the horizon.  I'll end this post and year of blogging with the happiest picture I have taken this year, a hummingbird playing in my sprinkler on a hot day!

Pedal to the Metal in Simply Neutral 2

I'm not normally drawn to Black and White quilts but when I saw Northcott's new Simply Neutral 2 line on Keystone Modern Creative's website I had to order it!   I knew that I wanted to make our Highway 10 Designs patterns called Pedal to the Metal with this line as a few years ago I quilted a similar one for a friend that was fabulous.  You can see it here. 

I recently purchased a new pantograph called Time Warp that is very dense in design.  I hesitated at first with using it but thought this is my quilt I should see if I like it before I recommend it to others.  Well glad I did as I just love how it looks and creates a wonderful texture on the quilt.

I used white So Fine on top, grey Bottom Line on the back, and Quilters Dream Blend batting. The backing is also a Simply Neutral 2 fabric, a grey with the same print as the white fabric on the front.

Brave Enough to Dream Quarter Sections Quilt

Now that I'm on my Christmas break I have been playing with a fun fat quarter bundle I purchased from Keystone Modern Creative called Brave Enough to Dream by Dear Stella.  I feel in love with this line because of its northern theme and polar bears.  I added a few brown blender fabrics to the bundle to make it 12 fat quarters and I pieced 3 baby Quarter Sections quilts with the 36 blocks made. 

I made 2 of these quilt using two layers of Dream poly batting and navy Cuddle backing.  I used white So Fine thread and Snow Winds for the pantograph.

The snow was falling pretty heavy as I was taking these photos so I found myself getting distracted from the task on hand and starting taking snowflake photos on the Cuddle backing!

Last week when I finished the first of these three quilts I took it out to Rainy Lake for pictures as I heard the lake had frozen over with very little snow on it. There were a lot of great ice formations along the shoreline.  For this quilt I used one layer of Quilters Dream Blend batting and used a white snowflake backing.  

I didn't walk out there as the ice was only 2 inches thick so I stayed close to shore. This is the view looking west on Rainy Lake toward the causeway near Fort Frances.

And here is what the Rainy River in Emo looks like right now.

Washboard Road in Batiks

I made a second sample of our Highway 10 Designs Washboard Road quilt and this time used batiks fabrics.  I had two blue batik jelly rolls in my stash and pulled out my favorite blues from those two strip bundles to make this quilt, The first roll was called Fade Blue Jeans by Island batik and the second was called Dot Dot Dot by Artisan Batiks.  I used an off white batik for the background and a blue batik for the border.  

I used an off white So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.  It was a lovely foggy/frosty day here so that light actually worked for taking pictures of the true colours of this quilt.

I tried a new pantograph on this one called Serpentine and its not one I think I'll use again! Glad I tried it on my own quilt first as it is tricky to keep the lines perfectly smooth and even.   It is designed more for a computerized longarm and I am hand guided. However I do love how it looks on this quilt, I even lined up the highs with the points on the arrows pointing up and the lows on the points of the arrows pointing down.