2016 Finishes

2016 Finishes

 And a few more....

2016 Finishes

Always so interesting to have a year end wrap up post! To my surprise, I finished more quilts in 2016 than ever before in a single year {15 in all!}. That's absolutely because of the machine quilting I made myself do. Nothing fancy that's for sure, but it sure speeds things along. Here's a look at the quilt statistics which are always of interest to me:

• 1 wall hanging
• 2 comfort quilts
• 1 baby quilt
• 6 lap-size quilts
• 5 bed-size quilts

• 1 professionally machine quilted with little bit of hand quilting by me
• 5 machine quilted by me, organic straight lines or cross hatching
• 6 completely hand quilted
• 3 with combination of machine quilting {mostly stitch-in-the-ditch} and hand quilting
• 11 quilts {old & new} given away this year

Perle Cotton {#8 and #12} seemed to be my hand quilting thread choice this year. No traditional hand quilting whatsoever in 2016! I use Valdani every chance I get, especially the variegated threads as I love them so very much, but I also used Presencia and DMC if that's what was available in the appropriate colors. Hand quilting is not going away any time soon with me as it is so very relaxing to have a quilt in the hoop. Plus, I adore the look of a hand quilted quilt. It's extra time and effort but so worth it if you love the look. All the machine quilting done around here is with Aurifil #50 weight thread. It works so well, I won't even try anything else!

At the end of the year I still had 25 completed quilt tops that need to be sandwiched and quilted. Yeah. Sounds like a lot, but I think it's 3 less than last year! Incremental progress to be sure, but I don't think it's possible to quit making {for me} and just concentrate on the finish-it-up stuff. If I can't be making, then I really don't think the interest will be there to finish much of anything. A lovely little catch-22 is what it is! So that's that.

I'm curious about 2017, but mostly I'm just thankful to be able to make quilts that speak to my heart. Ones that I'm not embarrassed to be giving away or see laying across a guest bed. Quilts that challenge me as I'm putting them together, whether in color, layout or technique. Sometimes I just want to pinch myself at how far my quilt-making has progressed! Oh and one other interesting statistic: 2 of these quilts were made from a pattern {with a little bit of applique added by me to make it more interesting} and 3 others were started or at least partially made from a pattern. The rest was just having fun with the creative process!