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

Chandelier: A Finished Quilt

A neighbour is expecting a little girl on December 31st and I knew I wanted to make her a small baby quilt. This is her second daughter but her first is already almost 11 so I think she is pretty much starting from scratch! I originally planned to make them a sort of wild black, white and neon coloured quilt but I couldn't make it work so I asked for the nursery colours. Can you tell, from this quilt, what the colours are? :)

I used my Tumbler template again as this is very easy to assemble, quick to cut out and still more visually interesting than simple patchwork squares might be (which I also love, don't get me wrong). All of the fabrics came from my stash, including the backing which I picked up at some big sale at Pink Castle Fabrics at least two years ago.

Here is Chandelier:

I bound it using some left over white-on-white binding from my Candy Cane quilt.

The name comes from that Riley Blake fabric with the chandelier. Notice lots of Lotta Jansdotter, plus various pulls from my stash that I don't even know what they are anymore.

I did echo quilting along all the seams and rotated the quilt at the junctions to match up with the tumbled effect of the quilt.

The back is all one fabric, a Moda fabric I picked up ages ago. The soft grey is nice but I'm not thrilled because the white is creamier and the binding is crisper white. But it will do.

The echo line quilting looks cool on the back.

Mom is hoping baby will arrive early, and if she does I'll be ready!

Lynn

November Kona Solids

My November Sew Sisters solids arrived! Normally Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge, who lives several provinces away and gets her bundles later than I do, hates when I post my fabrics because I get my package so much sooner than she does and it ruins the surprise. I think this month I'm safe since I'm sure the arrival of her twins must have her much too busy to check the blog world!!

This was the (somewhat predictable) inspiration photograph. Really, Ontario looks like this in October. By November we are much bleaker and winter has really attacked!

Pretty fall colours.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the colours are all very different from each other which is nice since the last few months have had colours so similar it was hard to distinguish between them.

From the top: Terra Cotta, Mocha, Palm and Natural.

They are all colours I wouldn't choose but they all round out my Kona collection, so I'm pleased. Let's hope we don't get red and green for the December bundle!

Lynn

Baby Quilt Marathon

I will have a very busy first quarter of 2015 thanks to what my friends, neighbours and co-workers have been up to. Namely, getting pregnant. I have a LOT of baby quilts to make as several new additions are on their way. I thought I would share some of them here...and this isn't even all of them!

The first is a quilt for friends who are expecting their second in March. Just as with their first, they have decided not to find out the sex of the baby. As such, their nursery themes are orange and beige jungle. That was a strange combo to do a pull from my stash, that is for sure! I got the pattern from one of my Love Quilting and Patchwork magazines. This one is by Bari J. This is the one I'm working on right now.

I made should have though this one through. There are about a million tiny 1.5" white sashing pieces in each block. Ack!

The next quilt is for a friend/former co-worker expecting her third in three years. Heavens. This time she's having a little girl (her first two are boys). I thought I knew what I was going to do until she shared her vision of the nursery and I ended up pulling a much bolder palette- this is mostly Up Parasol by Heather Bailey. I am going to do a modified Puddle Jumping pattern from Camille Roskelley.

That Lark fabric (far right) appeals to the mom, so I am going to surprise her by using it in this baby quilt!

Then I have another friend/co-worker due in March (I know, right?). I am using a very simple pattern from Quilty magazine and using grey and green as she is expecting a little boy and these are her nursery colours.

I love that these don't read "baby" but that this sweet little boy will have a quilt perfect for tummy time!

And then I have yet another ex-co-worker/friend who is expecting her second, a second girl, also in March. I am loving these colours from a bundle of Brambleberry Ridge by Violet Craft. Now I just need to find a fat eighth-friendly pattern. Any suggestions?

The subtle shine of the gold in these prints is divine.

And then there is the co-worker/friend who is having a little boy (or rather his wife is) by the end of March. (Can you tell what my co-workers were up to at the beginning of the summer?) I am using a free rocket ship quilt pattern from Cloud9 and this awesome bundle from Fabricworm to make a Science/Space themed quilt (the dad is a Science teacher). I hope to surprise them with this!

I love those test tubes and beakers!

There is at least one more April baby for whom I'd like to make a gift, but I am certainly of the mindset that my friends better stop getting pregnant! On the upside, every bit of fabric was from my stash. What better way to use your fabric than on baby quilts for precious wee ones?

Any thoughts for that fat eighth bundle?

Lynn

Mini Sewing Retreat

Thanks to my ever-generous quilty friend A I got to spend several lovely, kid-free hours sewing a couple of Saturdays ago. She offered her home and a few of us came. Unfortunately C had to abandon us for her Nan (when your grandma calls to help at the church bazaar you don't say no!) but CW and K were both able to attend. K made a delicious chili, I brought goodies (including mini Haagen Dazs ice cream...yum) and we sewed and sewed!

K recently bought herself a base-level Janome and it is adorable and wonderful. I could see myself buying one to use as a travel machine because I hauled my big ol' girl and she is HEAVY.

I wanted to work on a few things (and I did) but my main focus was to get the experience and advice of A with a pattern for a yoga mat bag that I wanted to make for a friend at work. She had all these little bits and bobs that I needed (the woven webbing material that I had never heard of, for example, and she was incredibly generous in letting me steal everything I needed). The pattern came from One Yard Wonders which is a great book if you are newer to sewing.

What I wanted to share specifically was that we got to use this cool new circle-cutting tool that she had picked up after attending a quilt show talk that involved a quilt with lots of circles (I think it was Zen Chic she went to see?). She bought this and I was the perfect excuse to break it out and try it together. A and I worked the tool and K took the pictures. Teamwork!

This is the tool. It is very much like the compass you would use in high school math to draw circle, except instead of a place to hold your pencil it has a tiny circular blade.

A held the fabric and I worked the cutter. We did it on a scrap piece first to make sure it would work. The circles were for the bottom of the yoga mat bag. Getting used to how much pressure was necessary was the trickiest part.

Ta da! Two pretty darn perfect- and pretty darn easy circles! The fabric is from my stash, purchased from the discount room at Sew Sisters some time last year.

The bag came together really well (thanks to A's help!!) and I got CW to model it for you here:

Cute, right? (The bag and CW).

I didn't end up using the D-ring that they suggested because I thought this worked really well. A was an amazing help, and CW and K were in awe that I finished something in one short sewing session. They are the newer sewers/quilters and I can only imagine what they will be able to accomplish as their skills grow!

I was so pleased to have a day with wonderful people while sewing. I'm lucky!

Lynn