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!

My Beautiful Pickle Dish Quilt is Finally Completed!

I told you I was on a finish-it-up roll this year! Still another finish to come if/when I get that other binding on, but enough about that. I finished my Pickle Dish Quilt! So very exciting. This quilt. Yeah. This quilt. Words almost fail me.

My beautiful Pickle Dish Quilt

Whew! This was one of those quilts actually made from a pattern: Material Obsession 2 book, the 'Gypsy Kisses' quilt. It's been on my quilty bucket list forever and one day back in December of 2012, I impulsively decided to go for it. My knees were quaking and I couldn't even totally understand the pattern {a frequent problem with me when it comes to more complex directions}.

It's all done!

I think what tipped me over the edge was the fact that once again I had pulled almost the same exact selection of fabric from out of the depths of my totes. Three times over a period of about six months. Yep, there they were again, demanding to be made into something wonderful. In a moment of weakness, I checked the fabric requirements for that gorgeous pickle dish I had been eyeing and somehow that led to today.

Hanging off our unfinished upstairs deck

I won't say it was easy for me. That foundation piecing absolutely drives me insane. Totally bonkers if you know what I mean. I had to commit and then recommit myself to the task. The work of getting this quilt together was about more than I could endure at times and so it slid to the very bottom of the list, over and over and over. In fact, it took almost two years to get to the quilt-top stage and many times that little bit of progress was in 15 or 30 minute bites of progress. Hey, even that eventually leads somewhere promising!

Loving the applique touch....

I was determined to bring it to a true blue finish this year as I was tired of it languishing in the drawers. This was an incredible quilt journey for me overall. Every tough quilt is a learning curve that we simple cannot undo and greatly adds to our repertoire of skills. I won't say this quilt is a mastery of any particular skills, but I made it through. Learned. Followed through. And now look at the results!

It was entirely hand quilted with mostly #8 Valdani Perle Cotton thread as I just couldn't imagine anything less. I adore the crinkly goodness that was immediately apparent after getting it washed and dried and I just kept looking at it thinking, 'I made this? Me?' Wowsers!

Where the real sewing gets done....

It's a wonderful feeling and I feel so proud. My quilt family has a brand new addition.*wink

Be Still My Heart, I Have a New Lap Quilt

Another finish today! Apparently I'm in the mode. This little quilt somehow snuck it's way into the lineup and just demanded to be. I've long been a fan of Victoria Gertenbach's thread work, but knew I didn't have her artistic flare {go back further on her blog to see even more beautifully done hand work}. So then, when I saw Svetlana's simple, yet lovely quilt, it somehow became 'the quilt'.

Be Still, my new lap quilt

You know about these. The quilts that somehow light a fire of determination where you really didn't know there was enough intensity to even light a match in the first place? Yep. Off I went on my quest to find the perfect pepper cotton fabric. I love how supple the fabric is and how it shines in proper lighting. Also, I was already imagining a cheater way of making the quilt. How about a subtle print that would preclude me from having to mark for stitching lines? If this quilt was going to bully it's way into the lineup, then it certainly didn't need to monopolize all my precious quilting time for the next forever.*wink

Such lovely texture

With pepper cotton fabric apparently on its way out, Just found out it's still available online! I was very limited in color selection, but found myself delighted with the soft seafoam green I found. The backing fabric was a much tougher selection as I didn't want anything to detract from the simplicity of the entire [wholecloth} quilt look. I finally settled on a charcoal fabric with lines of indiscriminate black text. I actually love that the words are indecipherable.

Love, love, love looking at this quilt

Not having to mark my fabric made the hand quilting go very quickly. I ended up using nine different balls of #8 and #12 Perle Cotton thread, some variegated and others plain. The biggest struggle with the entire quilt was the fact that I was having to worry about the consistency of how the stitching was showing up on the backside of the quilt {the green side}, which in fact would eventually become the front side of the quilt. At least in my eyes!

Ooh, how annoying to realize that my normal pattern of stitching is more of a longish stitch {or two or three} and then a very small, little nod to the idea of a stitch. I think it's the long needle I use for the thicker Perle Cotton that makes my rocking motion a lot random that way. More taking out of stitching than I'd like to admit too, but it didn't really interfere with my excitement at seeing this quilt take shape. {And really, lets stop pretending that my stitching will ever be anything close to flawless or that I'd even want it that way if I could somehow convince my fingers to cooperate....}

A closer look at the print fabric backing

I also took extra time trying to find the 'perfect' binding fabric for this quilt. I knew I didn't want a red or other bright colored fabric, but did spend lots of time in my cream and then eventually, the yellow/gold fabric tote playing with possibilities. After a mostly disappointing search in most all of my fabric totes, I finally decided to look in the purple/lavender tote. Imagine my surprise when the fabric that jumped out at me was a brownish purple plaid? It had all the elements I was looking for, including a bit of lightness to subtly break up the long line of color on the outside of the quilt.

Indeed, I almost went for a cream binding initially, but just couldn't make myself be convinced the quilt looked the better for it! This mellow, toned down plaid somehow brings the entire quilt together in a way that I love and adore. It makes it unmistakably my quilt, which is quite a feat in such a simple, basic quilt! I mean seriously, how many components are there to quibble over? I remain amazed at how much every single quilt has to teach if we try to pay proper attention to what's it's trying to tell us.

Working on border blocks for two different quilts

My family pretty much thinks I went a little bonkers. 'Mom, it's so plain?' And it didn't help that I kept calling it my 'boring' quilt while chuckling like well, I actually was having real mental slippage. I'm sure at least a few of you understand how much fun I was having...

Saturday was more normal in terms of attitude towards my quilting--I had the gift of a very long day of piecing work, of which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was marvelous to play with the fabric and all the lovely colors, just chain stitching away and not having to think anything through. These will end up being the borders on two similar but different projects. I don't know why I'm working in pairs these days, but whatever works, right?

Ohio Memories Finished and Gifted

I am positively amazed at how much time there is between posts these days. Wowsers, is there anyone out there who even cares anymore? lol  So this is 'Ohio Memories', the quilt I finished up for my parents 50th anniversary. Looking back through the blog, there are very few posts about it. My insecurities about the journey to making it 102" by 102" made me reluctant to post about it during those years. Now I spread the good, bad and ugly with indiscriminate joy! 

A finished Ohio Memories quilt!

I started out with a pattern from the 2002 Quilt Sampler magazine called 'Ohio Memories'. It's one I literally drooled over and then refused to start because I was sure the applique was waay beyond my skill level. Then, sometime in 2010, I decided to quit being a scaredy cat and just made myself start the quilt. Well, the applique was much easier than I ever dreamed--lots of simple, largish pieces with nothing intricate at all. Placement was the very worst part and since I'm not a perfectionist, I only allowed myself to dither for so long and then would start stitching regardless of imagined flaws.

The quilt of many borders! Too big to lay out on the floor properly....

In the original pattern, immediately after the large applique centerpiece was a thin border and then next up was a larger plain border with an embroidered saying all done in redwork. Well, that just drove me crazy, the idea of embroidering so many words. Eventually I decided the quilt needed pieced borders instead, and set about trying to make that happen. Making the decision to mimic the subtle Ohio Stars blocks inside the center was easy. Measuring to make that happen however, was a bit challenging. But the border did finally do what it was supposed to do and only requiring a slight trim of the inside border fabric to all fit and play nicely together.

Looking at the quilting

Then I came up with the bright idea of turning the entire quilt 'on point'. Oh yes! So interesting and I had all the fabric in my stash. ha ha  The best laid plans of mice and men! I threw on a narrow green coping border and then somehow determined the corner setting triangles were going to be the simple square blocks filling in the corners of the quilt. Easy peasy.

Yeah. It should have been. It was at this point, I quickly realized my quilt had lost something important in translation. It seemed to be drowning in pink. Wanting to brighten it up and lose the sickly sweet look, I came up with the idea of adding on the cream triangle overlay border. I had to un-stitch those sewn-on corner blocks, sew the long cream borders onto the inside seam and then carefully draw and cut my cream triangles so I could applique them into place. {You can see the details of that in the previous picture if you are a quilter. And except for the fact that the triangles are raised, most people would never realize.} Nevertheless, it was a choice that pretty much haunted me. Made me wonder at times if in fact, the whole quilt was a total failure. I love the way the cream ties back into the center part of the quilt so well, but have a love/hate relationship with how it also fades into the lighter squares on the corners.

Trying to get a better picture before it started raining again!

We always question our quilting decisions don't we? Before, during and even long after. Thankfully, the machine quilting helped me like those cream triangles a little more. Like I said in a previous post. My friend did an amazing job with what I wanted to have happen with the quilting.

The last two border however, were not stressful in the slightest. The prior mess and resulting 'fix' maxed me out on the stress part of it I guess! Just a small little pop of color in the thin pink sashing border and then the mixed brown fabric borders all to frame everything in a satisfactory way. Wallah! A finish! I did agonize for months though about the very point of where the green coping strips met up with both the cream triangles and the thin bright pink sashing border. It took pretty much forever to settle on the simple flower applique, but once that was stitched on, I just breathed a big sigh of relief and said 'no more second guessing allowed!'

My awesome helper bee....

The entire quilt top took about two years from start to finish, but then it's been sitting in the drawers for years waiting on this anniversary {and motivation to do the sandwiching and quilting}. I didn't start this quilt with my parents 50th anniversary in mind, but as it grew, I always sort of knew they would be the very best recipients. Of course, things don't work out as planned and even though this quilt has been at my friends for the long-arming since June or July? I only got it back from her about two and a half weeks ago. Luckily I found the binding fabric at the first store I looked in and was able to get the binding completed last Tuesday, then the label attached on Wednesday morning. Whew!

Big congrats for an amazing 50 yrs together!

The anniversary party went together extremely well and it helps that my oldest brother was a florist once upon a time and two of my sister-in-laws do wedding cakes! We were run off our legs putting it together of course--serving a meal for between 150 and 175 people!-- but I think my parents greatly appreciated it. 

There's been the tough years, more sorrows than most deal with, and many, many changes along the way, including the burning down of their home of 40 yrs and now a beautiful new house. They've also had a very bountiful life and so very, many blessings they are not shy to speak of. The big picture boards placed around the reception were wonderful. Such a reflection of their lives and dare I say,  'legacy'?

It was an incredibly emotional week for all of us {I couldn't believe how much it affected me!}, but so sweet to see them enjoy a Thanksgiving with all of their children/grandchildren in town followed by the celebratory anniversary party. So much fun to see them serve cake to each other and smile in a way that shows their continuing love and care for each other. They much deserved having this party and I was very happy to be a part of making it happen--even though my feet hurt like the dickens by the end of Saturday night and I just wanted to crawl into bed for a week!

A Lengthy Post About Summer Finishes and Other Stuff

Okay, wow! This is exhausting trying to learn a new photo editing program. I'm not very good with new techy stuff at all. Or change. In fact, I think this is probably going to be a new chapter in my life all the way around. The new normal is well, just a bit different. My family keeps urging me to continue on with my quilty blogging in spite of the fact that I feel it can't possibly be done 'right' these days.

Some new finishes..

So I'm going to try and lower my expectations, just blog when I can. Not worry about how consistent I am or who might be disappointed. If I disappear for two {or three} weeks then that's just my present life--c'est la vie! Maybe there'll be times I can surprise us all and get in a couple posts a week too. 

Low Volume Scrappiness

Or maybe I'll combine several posts into one, like today. Three finishes this summer! Wowsers. And I thought there was little to no quilting going on. But here they are. The scrappy 'make-piece' quilt was a fast one. Relatively. The quilt top was finished a couple years ago, but the sandwiching and machine quilting only took a couple days. The blocks were all  made strictly out of my scrap bin in a low volume experiment. Then I was scratching my head trying to figure out what to do with them. Aha! Put more color with them obviously! And I adore the country, happy look to my quilt. The organic straight line quilting looked better towards the end of the quilting than the beginning. For the first little while I was gritting my teeth and feeling positive I had made a huge mistake. Thankfully it worked to the good and I'm happy as can be about the end result.

Very snuggable, huggable and lovable....

And I'm just thrilled to have my own bow-tie quilt finally all completed and being put to use. You remember all that was left to finishing this one was the binding? This Bow-ties quilt is all hand pieced quilt block and then machine sewn into rows. Sacrilege to the earnest hand piecers but it's what made sense to me at the time and I don't regret it. Here's my original inspiration for those who have chided me lately about not giving credit where credit is due. As if any quilters anywhere {no matter how famous or art school learned they are} ever truly come up with brand new ideas without years of quilty influence. Seriously folks, we don't have to defend their precious creativity. It really should be able to speak for itself if it's truly original! And most of us homegrown quilters do link back quite a lot actually....

The Bow-Tie quilt is done!!!

I did see some bad hand piecing areas when I was doing the hand quilting tho. At first I thought to fix them as I went and then decided, no. Not necessary. This is the first hand pieced quilt I've ever made. and I'm gonna love it, mistakes and all. Besides, working on this quilt helped give me the confidence to make....

Hand quilting texture is the best....

This quilt--my Cactus Basket quilt. I would never have had the courage to sew so many of those diamond shape pieces before the bow-tie quilt. Once I figured out how much simpler some piecing is with hand piecing, well, I was raring to play with a long loved block.

The Cactus Basket Quilt

Learning, growing and trusting in our desire to create takes us many places in quilting. I was able to finish this one quickly even with the chaos in my life because, drumroll.... I first machine quilted in the ditch to stabilize it! Yep, I'm learning to ask first if it's even possible. Honestly I'm not terribly thrilled about the details of where the 'in-the-ditch' stitching meandered out of the ditch, but it's just what it is. This folksy quilt feels so very 'me' regardless. Sometimes I get away from those quilty elements that speak the loudest to {and of} me in my pursuit of something I can't even properly name. Taking this blogging {and piecing} break has given me a much needed new perspective once again.

Loving the lollipop flowers so much.....

It's actually quite refreshing to come back and look through the different quilty projects in all their odd stages. What was I doing here or there? Do I still like it? Does it feel important. Worthy? Will I love it even after it's finished? Am I excited by it or possibly challenged? That can be enough sometimes.

Finally believing --If I can see it, it can be made.....

This break has been good for me in a lot of ways. I'm sure things will be different from here on out, but hopefully not in a negative way. No quilt shows this summer, not a one. I'm still a process quilter at heart and I want to focus more on the in's and out's of  how it all comes together--sometimes magically and sometimes not so much. Working with color and fabric really makes my world a happier place. How about you?

String Play a Reminder to Keep Playing With the Scraps!

Picture heavy post! String Play is a completed quilt now. This is a quilt made almost entirely from my scrap bin. Before quilting her {I want to call the quilt a 'her' for some reason}, I would have said she wasn't one of my favorites. Now I'm completely besotted.

Looking across the quilt

There's just something about a scrap quilt made up of hundreds of little pieces from other quilt projects that really gets to me. Upon starting this quilt, I dug through my scrap bin and pulled out specific colorways. As you can see, this quilt does not have any green--it's not the entire rainbow. For me, a crazy, million-pieced scrap quilt has to have a certain level of control or it just feels like chaos. Which just makes me nervous.

String Play on the railing!

I've come to realize the value of a pre-sort. I pull fabrics in specific colorways, pushing the boundaries as far as I dare. In this case, the yellow and golds included some rust and orangey tones, and of course, plenty of brown. The purples went all the way into black, excluding most lavenders. Pink colors included the entire spectrum from the lightest of pinks clear to the rosiest of red--no bubblegum pinks or tomato reds allowed, but yes on the peachy, apricot pinks! The blues included a wide range as well, starting from lightest of light all the way to almost black and I skipped most of the aqua tones I stumbled across. This kind of 'control' really helps to establish cohesion in the new color family as the quilt strips started being joined together. I tend to leave the different colorways in separate totes while I sew, randomly grabbing the strips as I choose to.

Love seeing the bits and pieces...

When I was working through making the scrap blocks, the only extra fabrics I added were yellow, gold and a reddish purple. They were pieces that I thought might help carry important colors throughout the entire quilt as this is a largish quilt and I was running out pieces from the scrap bin. It helped that a couple of the fabric pieces were very sentimental for me, being pieces from my late grandmothers stash and a shirt from my deceased brother.

All that lovely texture...

Before, I would have said this one was a somber, moody sort. But after quilting her, I've discovered she's a soft, rich, comfort giving quilt and I sincerely doubt she will ever be given away. Honestly, I am feeling as good about making this quilt as any I have ever made. And what does that say about me and my quilting?

Want to curl up with me?

It's a timely reminder to make time for sewing from my scrap bin. There's a lot of joy to be had from taking the bits and pieces and trying to make something beautiful. After the initial fabric sorting, there's also a lot of freedom in grabbing and sewing strips together without worrying about what they'll look like snuggled up next to each other. In this method of quilt making, we'll often find ourselves wincing at the pairing of fabrics we're sewing together. And over and over we'll find ourselves delighting in yet another pairing! It's a different sort of process, but it can be very revealing to those of us who get caught up in controlling the color in our quilts. We have to learn how to let go and just allow the fabric to tell the story it really wants to tell.

It looks like it belongs in my home...

I wish this sort of quilt could have happened around here even ten years ago, but I was too unsure--too insecure about the outcome. I didn't know how to tame the scraps without losing their innate goodness. And I tend to forget now how working with scraps helps me out in the rest of my quilting.

Looking at the pieced backing....

Did you notice the entire quilt was stitched on my machine? I did it. I actually stitched the entire quilt on my recently serviced Bernina! About halfway through the tension started giving me problems again. It was stop and go, fixing and adjusting clear to the end and yes, the machine is going back in the shop once again--for the third time this year.*sigh  I won't bore you with the details. Just hoping this time will be a true-blue fix....

Two More Finishes

Two more quilt finishes and we're not even through with February! These kinda feel like 'cheater' quilts, but then I just want to tell myself to shut up, 'cuz they still count. It took time and effort to cut them out, sew them together and then run them through the machine. The people I gift them too are getting a handmade quilt. And I used up a boatload of my {languishing for over 10 years} flannel stash. Win-win.

Two completed comfort quilts

I had so much trouble with my sewing machine while stitching these quilts. Ripping out long rows of stitching and trying to re-adjust the tension. It's back in the shop again and this time the repair man treated me like an ignoramus. Offered to show me how to thread my machine, adjust the tension and test out the particular thread I was using. Grrr! Does he not realize that I've been using this machine, hard, for 15 years? Honestly, I don't think it's fixed this time either {not for good} and will be back into the shop for a replacement part later. There must be something completely wore out to be causing the tension to lose it's grip with reality while stitching a quilt sandwich. Bernina's are a very sturdy machine and don't usually fuss at the difference between sewing a quilt block or a quilt sandwich.*sigh  So discouraging.

All ready for the labels!

On a good fabulous note, my husband obviously lost his mind for a few minutes. The thread below is what he gave me for an early Valentines Day. I know, totally crazy. Four boxes of Valdani thread just because he loves me.

Hard to believe this is actually mine....

I was almost totally speechless. Woohoo! But that's the kind of guy he is. A card and a little bit of chocolate most Valentines and then something like this just out of the blue. I'm thinking I'll keep him.*wink

The First 2016 Finish

Muddy Creek is now a finished quilt! My first 2016 finish in fact. It was actually quite difficult to get good pictures of this quilt as the center tends to fade in and out depending on the lighting. Not exactly my specialty! And see how yellow the quilt looks here? I will probably never get the whole lighting thing.

Muddy Creek is finished!

I was thrilled to find the perfect binding lurking right at home in my stash totes. One of the fabrics I used for backing fabric had just the right tones to tie everything together the way the quilt needed. And why didn't I think about that specific fabric while I was stitching the quilt? Luckily there was enough leftover and all was good. Any other color would have pulled attention away from the center of the quilt, which obviously, did not need to happen.*wink

A look at the binding

This was my quilt design, from start to finish, although you can be sure that there was influence from snippets of other quilts hiding out in the depths of my brain. I just figured things out border to border like I do so many times and let the quilt talk it's way through any resulting dilemmas. Working this way often makes for a challenge {trying to get pieced borders to fit especially}, but the end result is, in my mind, more charming and 'real'.

A closer look at the center

When I stitched the cross hatching on the purple check, I just started on one end and worked my way around the quilt in a circle. I used the grid of the fabric as my guide and made slight adjustments where the fabric didn't line up precisely {something I never made any attempt to do}. It makes for an interesting intersection when the circle is complete, but to my astonishment, the cross-hatching was only off by about half a grid. Wowsers, I couldn't have planned it any nicer than that! Very easy to make adjustments and have it all join up neatly in the end. Only a dedicated perfectionist is going to realize that my cross-hatching is not lined up perfectly all the way around the quilt! And who cares if they do notice? This post really resonated with me years ago and I confess to allowing it to directly influence how I approach my hand quilting today.

Love how soft it looks it here...

I had so much fun playing with these fabrics and colors, absolutely loving the old fashioned qualities and feel of this quilt. It feels like 'my version' of an antique quilt and I'm anxious to try my hand at it another time in the future. Perhaps with different colors? No matter where I go with quilting, it's the antique style quilts that continually draw me down the garden path.

So much better looking in this light, but the center sort of fades out...

This was a good finish to start the year out especially with all the challenges I've had of late. It's been oh, so relaxing and comforting to stitch on. Not demanding or finicky in the least.

Is anyone ready for the February Quilty 365? I've lost a bunch of followers lately and thought it might be from not posting so often or having a less than exuberant mood this month. Then I realized Google made some changes that forces people to set up an Google account to properly follow. I sincerely hope it doesn't cause problems with the February linkup as that would be frustrating for all of us.