Looking Back at 2022

Well 2022 was definitely a year I branched out to try new things.   I discovered my love of embroidery again, actually I had only cross stitched before so crewel embroidery was new to me.   Dove right in and found some wonderful modern designers to purchase patterns from on Etsy.  Its important to me to support small businesses and the talent out there is amazing!

  Making sweary words pretty makes me happy!

Lori and I published our 16th pattern for Highway 10 Designs back in April.  This one is called Petal Junction.

I made a Sea Glass wall hanging.

In June made the Deco Quilt and had my friend Wendy quilt it for me on her computerized longarm.

I finished the Trending Quilt-Along quilt in July.

I put together my Queen Bee block swap quilt, I had asked for Butterfly blocks.

Made some more Ruby Waxed Canvas Totes.

Then with all the left over pieces of canvas I made 10 Norfolk pouches.  Sold 6 of them, gifted a few and kept this one for myself. 

Then made 6 Flipping Out pouches.  Sold 4 and kept 2 for myself. 

The Catch All Caddy was a challenge but the pattern was very well written.

I also made a Sewing Machine mat with the same batik fabrics. 

And my final finish of the year was the Embroidery Floral quilt. Think this is my favorite quilt made this year. 

And it matching cross stitch. 

This year was full of unexpected surprises for us.  In July Tim was let go of his job at the gold mine, (change in management) so we found ourselves testing the waters of retirement.  So far so good!   Had a great summer kayaking whenever the wind was calm!  He bought a laser cutter to keep himself busy and to learn something new. He might look for consulting work in the near future but our plans are to stay in Emo for the time being.  It is strange to think we can move anywhere now but have no idea where we want to move! So I'm looking forward to seeing what 2023 holds for us. 

Hope you all have a Healthy and Happy 2023!

Embroidery Flower Quilt

The moment I saw the pattern for the Embroider Flower quilt I knew I had to make it!  The pattern is by Tilda's World and is free on their website. The kit was from Fabriculous and is all made with Tilda Solids. I started working on it at a quilt retreat in October.  It was a lot of cutting 2" squares and I used the Fusible Grid which made the job easier and more enjoyable.  My Wonderclips really came in handy!

Once I finished the top I knew that the best quilting design for this one would be cross hatching.  Since any ruler work on my longarm cause pain in my shoulder/back I knew I had to pace myself and only quilted 30 minutes at a time with lots of break. It was on my machine for 5 days but only took about 7 hours to complete.  I know this is one I can not quilt for clients but it is very doable on a domestic machine.

Next decision was what thread colour to use.  I debated about using MonoPoly but then asked my friend Desley what she would recommend.  She had quilted one and used a blue/green Rasant thread so I looked through my So Fine colours and chose #511. 

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I had to take it slow and steady as the intersections were quite thick using the Fusible Grid and I was getting some thread breakage at those spots.  I was really glad I didn't go with the Monopoly as the thread breakage would have been a lot more.

This quilt is now hanging in my quilt studio so I can enjoy it everyday. 

But that's not the end of the quilt story.  I had an idea that I could cross-stitch this design as well using the quilt pattern.  So I bought a teal 14 count cloth and matched up all 46 fabrics in the quilt to DMC floss.  I taped the fabric number to the floss for easy reference.  

I put it into a 5" hoop.  Looks so tiny compared to the quilt. 

Not sure what I'll work on next...but think I better start some Christmas baking today! 

Christmas Tree Embroidery

Now that I'm on my December break I have been enjoying some quiet stitching time.  This simple but sweet Christmas Tree pattern is by 'Bustle and Sew'.  I stitched it on a ecru Essex Linen using DMC floss.

You might have noticed in the first picture I started making wood Needle Minders.  I made a few with my logo and one with a snowflake in a 1 1/4" diameter and a few sassier ones in a 1 1/2" diameter. 

One for the knitters too!

I used Neodymium magnets and added a coconut shell button to the back magnet to make it easier to separate and grab the second magnet.

I have ordered some Maple, Birch and Cherry 1/8" wood to make some more as I only had one piece of finished Maple to test out this idea.  If your interested in any of these just send me an email at tamarackshack1@gmail.com.  They are $10 for a 1 1/4" and $12 for the 1 1/2" plus shipping.  They can go letter mail which is nice.

UPDATE - I started a new Instagram account, my new name is tamarackshack2.0  

Snowball Quilt and Flipping Out Bags.

Bev made this very pretty Snowball Quilt for a wedding gift for a winter wedding.  She used Art Gallery Colour Master fat quarter Bundle in blues and a low volume Art Gallery background fabric.

I quilted it with the Snow Winds pantograph, used a light grey So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting. 

This is my last client quilt for the year and I have already loaded up my Embroidery Flower quilt on my longarm so hope to share that soon.  I have also been making a lot of bags and made a few more Flipping Out pouches, pattern by Patterns by Annie.

I had some Norrland Fabric left over from my ironing board table project from a few years ago (see here).  I lined them with Northcott Dublin and Canvas blenders.

These are great for holding your quilting tools. I sold 4 very quickly at our last guild meeting. This next one is the one I kept for myself.

Fabric is called Nightfall by Dashwood Studio.  I also added a teal Grunge for the lining and rainbow metal zipper.

I also made a few wood signs that I painted using Fusion Mineral Paint.

The PDF design files for cutting these signs on our laser cutter are from Sunny Sprout Design on Etsy.