Year-end Review

It has been a busy year & I have a tall pile of quilts to show for it.



I ticked off quite a few of the to-dos from my January list. Let's see, I finished 8 quilts that have remained in-house & 5 quilts for donation. There were 2 tops finished -- I'm quilting one now, 1 stack of blocks ready to go together & 4 small tops for donation to finish. (I wish I had kept track of how many yards of Kona Snow I used! 2 finished quilts & 2 quilts-in-progress have all used it -- I guess I was something of a Snow Plow. :-}) There were 2 mini swaps for HMQG, 5 Jane Market Bags -- 4 given away, 1 kept & 4 zipper pouches -- 3 given away, 1 kept. Well, phew! 

I'm now thinking about my list for the coming year. Do you make Quilt-y Resolutions? I've been doing so for a long time, before I started sharing them with my on-line friends. They used to be shorter & less specific than they are now -- "log cabin" vs "x & + blocks using black & white prints & solids (blues?)". But at the top of my list for 2013 -- & all my lists in the future -- will be: Relax, Enjoy the Process. Because I don't really think I enjoyed all my finishes this year. With each one, I was mentally on to the next project rather than just enjoying the one just done. It was more about checking them off than about loving what I love most in the world to do -- QUILTING!

Last finish of the year

And just in time for cold weather -- well, cold for us.

This little quilt --  in spite of all the stars, it just isn't very stellar, in spite of all the birds, it just hasn't got wings. I guess I'll say it has a Good Personality!

I loved the 2.5 inch rolls from Connecting Threads; I have loved for a very long time the fabric I used on the back; I was eager to try making a jelly roll race quilt; this was my first time to attempt the walking foot quilted braids. But sometimes the product is less than the sum of the parts. It was fun to make & quilt though, & it will still keep us warm even if it won't be winning any beauty contests.





And it is starting to grow on me. :-)

Phew!

Boy! I earned this finish!
 
It began innocently enough -- the Low Volume QAL. A perfect opportunity, I thought,  to use up some of the box of scraps left over from several braid quilts I made a few years ago. I dug out the box, sorted some of the pale, swirly, seashell-y, text-y prints, cut them into squares....then, what?

I got out one of my sketchbooks. I hope you have one of these. I have 2 & am nearly ready for a 3rd. I LOVE my sketchbooks! They are filled with drawings & clippings & printouts. They go everywhere with me! Well, I looked through one of them & found this:



Looked like fun, though unfortunately, I used up more Kona Snow than I did scraps from the box. {oh well} The piecing was easy, just squares; the setting together just a bit more challenging.
But the quilting -- again, not complicated -- wobbly walking foot straight lines & free-motion in-the-ditch around the patchwork. It was just the mass of the thing & working on it at a diagonal. THAT was WORK!!! I began referring to this quilt as The Monster, but I think I will name it "Stairs".

 

 

Pippa is always a Big Help when I quilt, but she seemed especially fond of this quilt. Maybe she knew that the colors were quite becoming to her.

Lucky

Two story lines here:

First, I've always said that I never win anything. Grade school carnival cake walks, scratch-off lotteries, blog give-aways -- I come away empty handed every time. I was once one of 3 -- 3! -- who signed up for a blog give-away & I did not win.

Second, I have always admired the quilts & fabrics of Malka Dubrawsky & was very excited when I heard she was coming out with a line of fabric. I thought I was watching carefully for it to come to market but somehow I missed it. I asked a guild friend who is much more clever than me about the comings (& goings) of fabric lines & she told me it had come out some time ago, if I searched, I might find a print or two, but it had come & gone. {sigh}

At the HMQG retreat this past spring, everyone got a goodie bag -- a prize, of sort. I "won" mine for coming in last in the jelly roll race! Everyone's bag had lots of great loot -- patterns, notions, fabric. I got lots of great loot & my greatest loot of all was a layer cake of Stitch in Color by Malka Dubrawsky!!!

I was giddy with pleasure & wanted to use it right away. So my Stitch in Color quilt jumped to the front of my to-do list & came together quite quickly. I've decided to call it "Lucky" -- to remind me that Good Fortune is less about getting stuff than it is about valuing the stuff you already have.

12 in '12 -- a leaner, not a ringer

OK, it is another obscure sports reference! This time: horseshoes!

I am not going to have a finish this month. I have a nearly-finished -- ABB, All But Binding. And the binding is machine-stitched on, but not hand-sewn down. I didn't think that I would be done with the quilting, but that went super fast. I am chipping the rust off of my free-motion "skills" & am fairly pleased with the results. You can sure tell what I did first & what I did last -- my stitches are a bit more even, the movement a bit more fluid. And I bet the boo-boos will get lost after I wash & dry the quilt.



Sorry Amy, Liz & Saf. But the good news is that I will already have a finish -- in just a few days -- for next month!

Addendum:
The good folks hosting the 12 in '12 Challenge said I could include it as a June finish (well, one of them, Saf did & I took it & ran). It is done now, washed & crinkle-liscious from the dryer!

12 in '12

I am posting this a little early this month cuz I am soon heading up to MoKan.
Just one finish this month but I really love it. The row & round robin was the first group thing that HMQG did. This quilt has the talent & love of quite a few of my guild buddies & it means so much to me. I am glad it is now a quilt.

12 in '12

Two this month. This one



and this one

12 in '12

I did an Indiana Jones-style diving slide under the closing door of March to keep up with my finishes this month. Being away for a week, 'recovering' for a week, both knocked me off schedule for 12 finishes in 2012. But these are simple quilts -- easy brick-like patchwork with fleece backs, finished like a pillow (no binding), straight line quilting. All they took was sitting down and doing the work. I made them "teen size" for The Star of Hope Mission. I hope that either a boy or a girl will find warmth & comfort with these quilts.

12 in '12

I neglected to get a proper photo of the corduroy quilt that I finished up back in January. So here it is --



As soon as I got my scrap swap partner's scraps, I very happily and eagerly got to work and finished that project. It is a small finish, just a pillow cover, but a finish all the same. I perhaps shouldn't be showing it until I reveal it to its owner, but I really like it and want to show it off.



My 3rd finish this year was begun and finished this month. I made it for 2 reasons: first, to have across the foot of the bed during our brief, but sometimes chilly, Gulf Coast winters; secondly, I hoped to enter it to possibly hang in the Modern Quilt Guild's exhibition at this year's Quilt Festival. But, it is far too BORING!!! In my mind's eye it was interesting and edgy, but in reality it didn't measure up. The quilting doesn't show, the fabrics are kind of bland, it just turned out flat. Well, it will still keep our toes warm when it is cold and damp. They can't all be winners, right?