2015 Quilty Year in Review

While I was a bad blogger this year, I definitely squeezed in more time for quilting, and that makes me happy.

 

This quilt is one of my favorites, even though it's from a panel and not particularly challenging in any way. I love Halloween décor and find the holiday just a lot of silly fun.

 

 

Did a couple of these witches....again just silly fun!

 

On a September retreat I stitched up a reaaaaallllly long table runner for my Christmas dining room table from a few packs of charm squares and some holly fabric in my stash.

I also pieced a t-shirt quilt for my son

I took a Gelli painting class...out of my usual comfort zone, but fun, fun, fun!!

Finished a wool autumn wall hanging, and worked on a wool BOM UFO from last year. I find wool a nice break from the machine as well as TV watching friendly.

Had lots of fun at many retreats with friends...sewing and eating and laughing. Had new members come and cherished friends move on

 

Participated in several swaps with local groups...this one, "cracker" block was fun.

Our 4th child was accepted to college at William and Mary, had fun taking their various logos and symbols and turning them into a wall-hanging.

 I continue my membership in the Tidewater Quilter's Guild, and took on the role as web mistress in June.

 

 

Dove into some paper piecing, hexies and a Georgetown Circle. As you can see I have a short attention span, it's really a wonder I finish anything!!

 Took a class at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in February....lots of fun learning a new applique technique.

 Tried knitting with a group of friends...dislike. Makes my hands tense, and frankly don't need another craft obsession...hahahaha.

 

Learned how to make Mondo bags. Made several, love the process and the product!

 

Played with Allison Glass fabrics and hearts....

 

Got sucked into the mini block of the month group...made two. This one I really like!

 

Lost my giant roll of freezer paper.....found it with the foil. My husband did not recognize this important quilting item doesn't go in the kitchen! haha

 Snowmen and hearts....can't go wrong there!

 

All in all a full and fun quilting year. I think what I kept in mind the whole year was that I should enjoy the process, rather than focus on the finish all the time. I do finish a lot, but really it is the Zen

of the whole thing that is valuable in my life. I ponder and solve and plan my life while piecing. I relax and share a lot of good times with friends because of quilting. And that is really where it's at. Happy New Year!

Christmas Swap!

Every year, my dear quilty friends at the beach, engage in a gift swap. We select a fabric, place it in a brown bag and then blindly choose a bag. From that fabric the most wonderful gifts are made, I'll show you in a different post. While in past years we swapped Christmas themed fabrics, we decided to do something different this year and swap batiks!

 

This year I chose to stretch myself a bit, by learning English Paper Piecing. This pattern caught my eye and as is typical for me, I did not consider that perhaps a less complex pattern would be a better start for my first EPP!

 

 So the batik I received was the green zig zag on the muted pinky beige background. I auditioned a few pieces of background for the center star and decided on the dark batik. I wish the pictures were more true to the colors.

I started in July......

 

 

And through the late summer it started taking shape! I used the glue basting method which I really liked. It was quick to make the shapes and easy to remove at the end.

 

I started with a beige background on the first ring....but decided to add a pop of violet in there!

 

Another ring done!

 

Definitely a great football watching recliner activity!

 

The back...fearing what will happen when I take the paper off....

 And ta da!!! The finished product! The recipient was quite happy with it and oddly enough I received a nifty set of placemats made with the fabric that I submitted from the same person that I stitched for. Can't wait to see what they come up with for next year's swap. Merry Merry!!

Allietare! Clue 2

Week 2 of Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery is already here. I actually finished clue 1 all except for pressing. But all 294 of those little buggers are sewn!

 

 

This week we added color to the mix with the red. I cut all my red backgrounds and made sets so I was organized, often a challenge for me!

 

 

 

 

I did decide to mark the lines in the squares. It was well worth the investment of time. 

 

 



Chain piecing went quickly, especially with 2 friends in my dining room sewing with me, and one on Skype!

 

 





 

I was feeling down right confident after the first squares were stitched. But then .....I made a mistake and found out what happens when you stitch on the wrong side of the drawn line! A little bit the wrong way really makes a big difference when you press. Luckily only 5 sets were sewn this way, so a quick bit of unsewing and I was back on my way.

 Soon all was well again, and I was humming along.

These are ready for trimming and will be right on the money when done! So far I am happy with this mystery, though I have a bit of apprehension that Bonnie will throw in the dreaded chevrons next week.

Oh well, first I have to finish clue 2....halfway there and lots of time 'til Friday! I can't wait to see all the finished units at  The Mystery Monday Link-Up Part 2!   Happy sewing!!



Allietare Mystery- Part 1

Well it's time once again for the 2015 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, this year Allietare!

Four of us got together on Sunday to cut and sew clue 1... 294 grey and neutral half square triangles.

Curiously we all chose different methods to achieve our 294....

• Sheryl did the traditional Easy Angle Ruler method using 2 inch strips.
• Chris used her Accuquilt cutter Die 55319, using 2.5" strips, making 24 sets at a time.
• Nancy used a ruler that marks the center and sewing lines on squares, I am not sure of the name.

And I used the Magic 8 method for the first time. You can find a great tutorial on that method on Laugh Yourself Into Stitches Blog or on Craftsy

The basic idea is drawing an "X" corner to corner on the appropriate sized starting triangle, and then sewing a 1/4 inch on each side, then slicing 4 times through the square to yield 8 perfect half square triangles! Look at the tutorial for it to make sense.....

For this mystery I used 4 3/4 because frankly, trimming down to size makes me sad! So I hedged my bets that it would yield an accurate 2 inch unfinished unit!  

Low and behold, it worked!!! Happy dance!!!!

We had dueling Featherweights going......

All done Clue 1! Off to a great start and pleased with the method and results and ready for the Mystery Monday Link-Up Week 1 Now back to finishing my Christmas Mystery swap!