2014 Wrap Up

What a year. For the first seven months of 2014 I was home with my new daughter, foolishly optimistic about the additional time I would have to do quilting. Alas, my older daughter also insisted on things like being fed and having clean laundry, so I did not get as much time as I would have wished.

If I visit my plan from in January as to what I wanted to get done this year, I discover this:

-Indian Summer Quilt for new baby CHECK! This was a pleasure to finish for my wee baby and was the background for many photo shoots!

-Work on SBC blocks from 2013 CHECK! I got all the blocks done. And the binding made. Still need to make all the sashing, though.

-Rainbow wall hanging quilt for new baby CHECK! Colour Collage was actually the first quilt finish of 2014.

-Cat quilt along blocks Nope. Didn't touch even one.

-Baby quilt for my friend K who is expecting a little boy in April CHECK! Arrows in Flight was made for this sweet little boy.

-Architextures Quilt for my dad. Finally. I should start this one early to make sure it gets done! CHECK! I made Tranquility and delivered it to him for his birthday. And he loves it!

-December: Red and white quilt for my husband's step-grandmother (hard to explain, but she is so lovely and I want to make her one). CHECK! I made Candy Cane and delivered it on Sunday to Nana!
-Pink and green quilt for the twins' older sister, M CHECK! Dollhouses.
-Star Wars quilt for a little boy turning 9 this year CHECK! The Dark Side was a serious hit. His uncle was jealous, actually.

Other projects, if I can:

• I bought some soft books from Jo Ann's that I want to try to make for a few babies I know Well, I made one. So I will count that as a check.
• I want to make a pillow for the baby's room and some for the new pull-out sofa bed in my guest room I did this one, too. I love the matchstick quilting and the colours and learned about scale.
• I plan to make my daughter's SK teacher a book bag for June as a thank you gift (and fill it with some books!) I did make her a bag. And a story pillow. And two crayon roll ups for her young sons. That is a win!

Looking back, I was remarkably productive this year and accomplished most of my list. 

Quilts from top middle, clockwise: Candy Cane, Chandelier, Seeing Spots, Arrows in Flight, Addition, Stone Arrow, Dollhouses, The Dark Side, Summer Dream, Tranquility, Colour Collage, Blueberry Orange Parfait

I made a total of 12 quilts this year even with a new baby in the house. I also made lots of crayon and marker roll ups for my daughter's sixth birthday party and several other small projects (like a mini quilt and a yoga bag) so I am feeling pretty good about this reflection!

Hopefully I can get even more done in the new year. I learned so much and enjoyed quilting so much this year and I think that as my skills improve my enjoyment also improves. Hooray for a great 2014 and here's to a great 2015!

Happy New Year!

Lynn

P.S. I just went back through my blog and, true to form, I forgot two quilts. So I made 14 quilts this year! Mint Julep and Monkey Business:

December Kona Solids

My December Kona solids from Sew Sisters came quite some time ago, but I've been too busy- and there has been too little light- to take a picture.

Here is the inspiration photo. I do like a cute kitty picture!

I don't think my own cats would be as tolerant with a hat and bow on.

And the selections are here:

Left to right: Bone, Ruby, Red and Ivory.

Red is very, very red. Very much a Santa red. The Ruby is more to my taste (which must be why I used a ton of it on my friend's quilt). The Ivory and Bone are pretty interchangeable. The bone has more of an antique colour to it, but both are pretty gentle off-whites.

I think I'm discontinuing my subscription. The solids are stacking up and I'm just not using them. I'm also not as excited every month to receive the package. I think that is a sign to end it, for now. Maybe another subscription is in my future one day!

Lynn

Life is a Highway

I didn't mean to take such a long break from blogging but that long stretch from (Canadian) Thanksgiving to Christmas has been extra busy this year both at work and at home, and blogging fell to the bottom to the "To Do" list. It also doesn't help that this time of year there is essentially zero hours of light where I'm not a work so taking pictures has been impossible.

I have been doing little bits of sewing, including getting Christmas gifts done. The one I wanted to share was this Matchbox Cars holder that my sister-in-law pinned on Pinterest and then sent my way with a nudge and a wink. My two-and-a-half-year-old nephew loves cars and has them all over their basement so I can totally see why she wanted something like this.

I used some fabric from my stash for the strips- they have road signs all over them. I bought iron-on lettering instead of stencilling the letters like in the tutorial because I thought this was much more practical in terms of time and skill level. I finished off the bottom with some car ribbon because the tutorial had very strange measurements and nothing quite worked out properly.

My nephew will receive this gift today so I hope his mom is excited. I really like one detail that you can't see here which is that I made the inside of each pocket the colours of a stop light- two strips each of red, green and yellow tone-on-tone Pearl Bracelets by Lizzy House. It delights me, even if they never notice! The solid is Kona Steel which I did have to order, but I did it at the same time as picking up the Kona Poppy for my friend's shower quilt so it wasn't too bad.

In other news, I recently listed all the baby quilts I need to make in time for March. I found out at the end of December that a male co-worker whom I adore is expecting his second little boy in January. Ack! Move that up the priority list! Below is the pull I made to complete the quilt. I have a very, very simple pattern in mind so I hope it whips up quickly!

Those Ann Keele owls are the foundation of the whole thing. Too cure, right? And see what I mean about lighting? Bah. It is all under lightbulbs lately since there is no natural light to be found these days! I can't wait for spring...

I am still hoping to get that shower quilt done before the end of the year, but I'm not holding my breath. And I have a small gift to make a co-worker for January that I want to get done before I'm back at work on the fifth. I also want to do my annual quilt planning for the year blog as well as my year-end wrap-up blog, so I'll have to make a point of spending some time to write! I feel particularly embarrassed when bloggers whom I follow- like Jenn from A Quarter Inch from the Edge- are blogging regularly even with small babies (or twin newborns in Jenn's case!) and here I am not blogging at all!

Here's to more posts and more sewing time in the near future!

Lynn