And That's a Wrap For 2015!

2015 Finishes

Looking back at my 2015 quilty accomplishments I feel a bit overwhelmed at all the quilts brought to the finish line, but also a nagging sense of 'is this it?' So puzzling as the time invested adds up to a whole lot of hours. What's with the 'is this it?' stuff? It must be the UFO's--the quilt tops that I would so love to see finished up and being used. Ah well. There's just never enough time in the day is there? Ten years ago I would have been bouncing up and down with joy at getting through twelve whole quilts, not to mention a little doll quilt and pillow {not pictured}! But don't worry, I'm still happy as can be. There's times I want to pinch myself just to see if it's real. Is this me? A true blue quilter?

Working on my Fire Quilt this past year, I actually gave myself tendinitis, which still plagues me occasionally. Who'd have thunk it? Quilting doesn't seem all that strenuous! But it happened, and luckily I caught it in time to not completely shut down my hand stitching/quilting efforts for the long term. I have learned to {ugh!} pace myself through the days and weeks and not go off on those extreme hand stitching/quilting marathons that are so tempting when a finish is right. around. the. corner.

So... the stats on the 2015 finishes. This is just something I like to take a look at--probably only interesting to me:

• 1 doll quilt
• 1 wall hanging
• 1 baby quilt
• 4 lap-size quilts
• 6 bed-size quilts

• 1 quilt {the doll quilt} was completely machine quilted
• 5 quilts finished with mixed machine and hand quilting {4 using Perle Cotton for hand quilting, 1 with regular hand quilting thread}
• 7 quilts completely hand quilted {3 totally using Perle Cotton, 1 using mix of regular and Perle Cotton threads, and 3 using only regular hand quilting thread}

• 6 quilts in all {old and new} were gifted

I'm obviously working on trying to loosen up and be satisfied with mixing machine quilting with a bit of hand quilting. That was one of my goals for 2015 and it helped me end up with one more quilt finish than last year. Don't know how it's really possible to compare, as every quilt is different in size and stitching application, but it sounds good in theory!

And here's a closer look at my Big Star quilt, one that was finished up earlier in December when my computer was being worked on. The wintry outdoors made the quilt look just a little less vibrant than it actually appears, but my oh my, did this quilt sneak up and melt my heart.

Big Stars finish

I've had an on-again, off-again love affair with this quilt from the very beginning, but am absolutely thrilled to have it finally finished up. It's a permanent reminder to me to try the hard stuff and not give up. I was quite terrified to be sewing these big stars in the first place but while working on the hand quilting found myself touched by all the imperfections and mistakes I kept finding. Do you see them? Good, neither do I {from a distance}. But I know where they are and I'm charmed by them all the same. Because I did it. I won out over the little voice in my head telling me I could never sew this sort of thing. The mistakes are proof that it was indeed, a difficult project for me at the time!

A closer look

I also wrestled with the idea that I was cheating this quilt by not quilting more densely. It wasn't until the quilt was bound, washed and dried that I could more clearly see that this quilt didn't need the heavy quilting after all.*sigh  That slightly looser pattern makes for a much more cuddly, snuggable quilt--something I for one, am always striving for. Why do I even bother to doubt my instincts about these sorts of things? I haven't listened to the quilting police for a very long time. Which means, essentially, that it's been a  royal waste of my time to fret.

Moving forward for 2016, I fully intend to keep hand quilting with both Perle Cotton and regular hand quilting thread, continue making an effort to mix machine quilting with hand quilting, finish new quilt tops up along with older quilt tops so as not to have any sort of disconnect, continue to explore and play with improv. {figure out how to incorporate it into my quilts and make it part of my 'personal style'}, continue on with my love for applique {of course!} including other quilter's patterns plus whatever I dream up. I also want to keep trying to learn and grow, and more importantly, as Sweet P said so very well, keep having fun! Lists and goals are all very well, but quilting is supposed to be my happy place. Have-to's have a way of sucking out all the joy. Here's to another great year of quilting! The journey is never quite what I expected, but it's almost always much, much better than what I originally envisioned.

I couldn't end the year without also saying 'Thank You' once again to Tim Latimer. I credit him with giving me the initial impetuous {years ago} to be more prolific with my hand quilting via his very inspiring blog.

Scrap Basket in the Fall 2015 Blogger's Quilt Festival

Scrap Basket is my first entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival this fall. This quilt is one that I started a couple years ago very impulsively with a very tiny germ of an idea!

Scrap Basket

The ideas for this quilt seemed to build, change and merge until somehow I ended up with this. So much more than I could ever have imagined at the beginning!

A closer look at the centerpiece

I loved being able to finally incorporate the rolling stone block pattern into one of my quilts and in such an unexpected way. The color combination of this quilt was something that I found myself really pushing and pushing in an effort to make the centerpiece come alive. That red ABC fabric is great fun to use as a background, but it was just a bit dull. There were many fabrics that I felt the quilt needed but they clashed when laid side by side until I finally just went with my gut.

Love how the rolling stones block 'pop' and then recede

I am so in love with the 'newish' folk art look to this quilt. I couldn't even imagine doing anything other than hand quilting on this quilt, but found myself attempting some machine quilting anyway. Yeah, you all know how that ended up being a couple hours worth of seam ripper work. So... #8 Perle Cotton stitching in the centerpiece and regular hand quilting Gutterman thread in the rest of the quilt.

And another look....

After being washed and dried, it more than exceeded my expectations! All in all, I'd say this was one of the more difficult quilts I've ever put together, second guessing myself all the way. But... It was also one of the most fun quilts I've ever pulled together too. It felt exciting and 'right'. It's a ME quilt. And that's why I'm entering it into the Original Design Category.

Don't forget to check out all the other entries into the Quilt Festival! Amy does such a fabulous job with this every single year. My second entry is here if you'd like to go have a look.

Another Experiment With Both Machine and Hand Quilting

So here it is, my Happy Geese quilt! It's been through a lot of changes since I first started it almost ten years ago, blocks completely un-stitched and reset etc.. I was also experimenting with a wonky placement of geese, but wasn't quite as successful as it could have been. I'd do a lot better these days that's for sure!

Happy Geese

The applique is all my own idea, dreamed up from somewhere inside my crazy brain and influenced by my {leftover} applique bits and pieces tote. This quilt has a sewn together, chopped off style {something not everyone appreciates}, but it warms my heart once in a great while. I like to call that my Gwen Marston influence.

All quilted and bound

I machine quilted around all the geese, along the edges of the borders and around those quarter triangle patched squares. Then I left the pointy rectangles alone. Which makes for a sort of puffiness in the quilt after I washed it. In fact all the plaid area in the quilt ended up looking puffy. Hmm.. I guess I could go back and hand quilt those areas, but why? This quilt is going to get sooo much use from my kids. I can already see the hand writing on the wall.

The top dogs (er.. birds)

It just has that sort of informal I'm-begging-you-to abuse-and-misuse-me look doesn't it? Like mom won't notice or care if this one has Cheeto stains on it.... My daughter do love to make sure all their friends have a quilt to sleep with whenever they have a sleepover and some quilts are just more fun than others.

Big stitching around all the applique with Perle Cotton. And wowsers did that go fast! But it adds just a little bit 'more' to the quilt. Glad I took the time. There's just something about that Perle Cotton that gives instant texture. Instant yummy texture I might add.*wink

A primitive look....

One of my daughters told me she loves everything about the quilt except for the plaid fabric which she said was hideous to her. And no, she wasn't being snotty, just honest because I put her on the spot and asked her to critique my quilt. Personally I adore the plaid element as it was one of those fabrics that was given to me years ago instead of being dropped off at the Goodwill. In fact, all the background fabric in this quilt were those sorts of fabrics. Gotta love that thrifty little thrill we get from using them up, challenging ourselves to make something good with them! And too, I think the quilt would be boring without the sparky plaid. Isn't it funny how we all have our very different opinions?

Want to see the stitching on the back side?

Here's a picture of the back of the quilt. You can see where I wrestled the quilt around to machine quilt around the geese. First one half of the triangles in a long row, and then the other half. If the quilt would have been any larger I'd have given up after the first try. I hurt my elbow earlier in the year and it was complaining instantly from all that back and forth stuff. You can see the plaid border where there isn't any stitching. Good thing it's not going into a show where the judges would complain about uneven quilting throughout the quilt. lol  It's all good. I used some leftover dark brown binding and found the same fabric to add the length I needed to finish this quilt. It's done, it's done, it's done!!! And I wanna snuggle with it already.....

The Pinwheel Quilt Can Be Marked Off the List

Okay, here it is. A true blue finish! Binding completed and even the label attached. It turned out better than I expected, actually made one of my daughters give the frowny face when I said it was being gifted. 'Mom... why are you giving this one away?'

Playful Pinwheels
Such an original name.....

Because I can and it makes me happy? I offered to save it back for her if she'd rather have the Pinwheel quilt rather than another one. Hmm... On second thought, She'd prefer a different quilt. Unless she could have both?

This one is machine quilted in a green Aurofil thread in between every pinwheel block and throughout the border. Then I came back and big stitched with various colors of #8 perle cotton in the pinwheels. I worked on it a lot during the time we were on level one evacuation and I was trying not to chew off every finger nail from stress and worry.

Looking at a finish!

I didn't mark anything, just lined it up or eyeballed things. {Well, except for the very beginnings of each spiral. I admit to marking the first little bit.} It's a bit rough in places, but I'm pretty happy with it overall. I expect it will get a lot of use, so the machine quilting will help hold it together for a very long time. Being asked to fix quilts is not my idea of a good time.

A scrappy border

Now that it's done, I can see that it does have a bit of charm. Maybe a tiny little bit! Still not my favorite quilt, but I am definitely not ashamed to call it my own. Or gift it. {Please, go snuggle up with this quilt and be happy.} Can quilts actually bring about happiness? I like to think so, if only for a short amount of time.

Closer look at the stitching

Did you want to see the back? I always buy discounted fabric for the backings and just sort of throw them together. This one isn't fabulous, but it does the job and the colors work very well with the front of the quilt--plus, plus.

'Cuz I know you want to see the back

Every time I finish quilting with a mix of both machine and hand quilting, I tell myself this needs to happen more often. It's super fast and looks perfectly acceptable for some quilts. Now I just need to convince myself to DO it...

It's a Finish!

Ooh, I do love this quilt. It's a simple one. Came right out of my scrap bins in fact.

Old Fashioned Strings

But it speaks to my heart and it's helped sooth my frazzled nerves here in the last couple weeks.

It's a finish!

This is the exact kind of quilt that I longed to make back when I first started quilting. On a trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas in 1996, I saw a scrappy quilt hanging from a balcony. I stood there for the longest time, mesmerized by the simple beauty of a scrapped together quilt.

A little closer look...

There's no way to know exactly what that quilt looked like now, after all these years and without a photo, but it still remains a beautiful memory in my minds eye. I am so grateful for the opportunity {and ability} to make the kind of quilts that look like they belong in a home. Being used. Snuggled under. Bringing peace and comfort to me and my own.

Making these kinds of quilts, I have to say that I also feel a tiny bit closer to understanding my grandma. She made quilts for years, hand sewing and/or hand quilting most evenings, using what she had on hand. I like to think she'd get a chuckle out of me hand quilting my quilts when most people don't want to take the time. She personally wasn't at all concerned with the time involved. She was just making space for beauty in her very busy life. How ironic that some of the most stressful situations in my life oft compel me to sit down and spend a bit more time with the handwork--learning the things that grandma already knew and probably couldn't begin to explain to a very young granddaughter....

A Happy Finish

Happy Flowers is finally a true blue finished quilt! Woohoo! It's only been in the hoop since April.... Um, yeah. A couple other quilts sort of nudged it out of the way.

Happy Flowers

I think maybe because the stitching wasn't going to change the look very much? I just didn't feel pressed to get it done and out of the way. Plus, I worked on this quilt a lot when I helped out with my cousin who had the stroke last winter. It seems to be a happy quilt with a fun vibe. And honestly, it felt good to have this hanging around my lap when I was trying to be cheerful. {In case you didn't realize, cheerful doesn't exactly come natural to me at this point in my life.}

A closer look

I don't know that I will ever use linen to make quilt blocks again though. Love the way the fabric feels and it was a fun experiment. Bottom line? It was way too much work for me, making sure these seams don't fray! And I still don't know for absolute positive that they won't, which of course makes me very nervous. You can be sure that I will be checking on this quilt for a long time.

More Happy Flowers

Chances are this quilt will be given away because I always seem to give away the brighter, happier quilts. It just seems easier to gift people with quilts that say 'snuggle up with me and I'll make you smile'. But then I'm the weirdo who thinks quilts might actually have something to say.*wink

Loving those polka dots

From start to finish, this has been a wonderful quilt to work on. Love that the inspiration is from antique quilts with 'love apple' sort of applique flowers too. I always get my very best inspiration from the old ones! Okay, time to link up to Julie's Binding Blitz! It feels really good to have another finish for this year!

The Marsala Quilt and My Doll Quilt Finish

Working with the color 'Marsala' has proved to be irresistible to me. Not sure why as the color is singularly unimpressive, but challenges often make it easier for me to willingly step out of my comfort zone. Good  for all of us, stepping out of our little boxes occasionally .

Getting ready to sew some Crossroads blocks....

Awhile back I found an interesting block called 'Crossroads' or 'Crossed Roads to Texas'. It was in an older book {The Collector's Dictionary of Quilt Names and Patterns by Yvonne M. Khin} that I picked up second hand somewhere. The block has been kind of buzzing around in my quilty thoughts ever since and then, combined with the Marsala idea, it all sort of melded into my latest quilt start.

A few blocks ready to be trimmed and some applique added....

There are no actual directions in the book, but it was easy enough to figure things out. I'll admit to doing some dithering over whether or not to make the circle pieces with applique or curved piecing--both have their advantages. And yes, even though I'm practically drowning in applique work lately, I ended up settling for just that. I am such an admirer of  the primitive and folksy look a little judicious {and imprecise} cutting and sewing can give to a quilt.

Auditioning some potential circles. I think we'll go with a more roundish shape....

Now to find the time. haha I can see that I'm going to have to make another goal list in order to get anything done in that department. Maybe if I eliminate the hours I sleep?*wink

Second finish of the year...

The little doll quilt finished up very nice and after looking through several stores, I finally found the doll bottles I wanted at Fred Meyers. We already attended a bridal shower today and now for my nieces birthday party tonight. Maybe I should skip dinner too?

A 2015 Finish!

Finally, a 2015 finish! Yay me!! I was so dreading getting this quilt washed after the last two quilts with red fabrics had bleeding issues. Well, needless to say it hindered me a bit from wanting to get the binding taken care of in a timely fashion.

Imagine a Quilt is finished!

Thankfully there were NO problems here. I had to wash in cold water first to get the blue wash-out markings to go away. And yes, I did throw in about six color catchers, but they weren't even that pink afterwards. More of a dirty brownish color which I assume was from a mixture of all the dyes? Lovely to see my cream fabrics unblemished by any floating dyes though!

All ready to be snuggled up with....

Really big sigh of relief . And it looks so cozy now. I am a bit addicted to the freestyle baptist fan pattern as you can see. It just seemed like the thing to do on the borders with all the applique. I know it gets in the way of reading the words, but really, only from a distance. Up close the stitching doesn't seem to be a distraction at all. The machine quilting on this quilt was only through the sashing and along the edges of the 9 patches. Everything else is hand quilting. Of course.

Loving that stitching....

You know me and my hand quilting obsession. It's terribly hard to make the decision to do any machine quilting, because I much prefer the look of hand quilting in the style of quilts I make. It's part of what makes me love the finished product.

And now facing the other direction...

This quilt is #3 in the 9-Patch Series I was working on in 2012. It's also the third one to be checked off the list. Wowsers am I making progress here.*wink

And the last picture, promise...

Okay, that's it. Enough about this quilt. I've got others begging for attention too....