Looking back at 2016

Happy New Year Everyone!!

As today is December 31, I wanted to reflect on what I accomplished in 2016.

I got back full swing into quilting.

Here's the quilts I completed this year.

1 -  Let it snow quilt

2 - Old Tobacco Road quilt

3 - Purple mini 16 patch quilt

4 -  Sundays Best quilt

5 - Hexagon star quilt

6 - hst overload quilt

7 - Blackbird quilt

8 - Family Cottage quilt

9 - Zeus dog quilt

1 - table runner
2 - wool applique table runner
3 - blue scrappy placemat
4 -  two hexagon table topper
5 - two mug rugs
6 - tulip mini quilt
7 - reindeer mini pillow

Plus, I sewed myself and my daughter a few pieces of clothing.
It was my first time really working at making myself clothing.
I was pretty successful too. I've worn all this clothing all year long.
I plan to continue making clothing for myself in 2017.

All in all, I've had a pretty productive year.
 I'm really happy with all that I accomplished in 2016.
 I want to continue sewing and quilting in 2017.

Goals for 2017

Hi everyone,

I've been organizing myself to get some projects completed next year.

I did quite well in 2016 finishing some old UFO's.

I'm hoping that in 2017 I can do the same and maybe even get rid of my UFO list.

I thought I would list the projects I really want to finish in the next 12 months.

1- My Summer Blues Quilt

The last time I worked on this quilt was in August 2011.

It's a quilt top and just needs batting, backing and to be quilted.

This should be an easy one to finish.

2- The Gifts of Grace BOM by Val Laird

The last time I worked on this quilt was in September 2010.

This project was started in July 2010.

I have 5 blocks completed of 9.

I have all the patterns except for block 9.

I'm going to have to get that one.

This is hand embroidery.

3 - Sister's Quilt

The last time I worked on this quilt was in March 2013.

This project was started in April 2009.

I am sewing these block into panels and doing quilt-as-you-go.

I have one panel all quilted and another panel partially quilted.

4 - Millefiore Quilt-along by Katja

I'm working on this quilt as we speak. 

I started this quilt in March 2015.

It's my hand stitching project.

I'm really just at the beginning as I'm still on rosette #1.

I figure this project could take me most of the year, so I'm working on it now.

5 - Rectangle Square Civil War Quilt

I started this quilt in the summer of 2012.

I have some blocks completed.

This quilt doesn't have much progress on it though.

But I have all my fabrics together, and ready to sew.

6- Halloween Blocks

I made these blocks in October of 2012.

I have 2 blocks, and have patterns for more.

But, I'm not sure if I'm going to make a quilt with them or just cushion covers.

7 - Allietare quilt by Bonnie K. Hunter

I never blogged about this quilt as I started to follow her quilt-along and quickly fell off the wagon.

I only have part of step 1 done. I do want to finish this quilt though as I love the pattern.

8 -365 Challenge quilt, Block a day, 2016

I have the blocks done up to the end of March.

Then I stopped, and lost my motivation.

I do want to finish this quilt and intend to work on it in 2017.

9- 1930's farmers wife quilt

I have about a dozen blocks done of this quilt.

I would like to get it done this year.

10 - My Scrappy Medallion Quilt

I'm getting close to having a finished top.

This should be an easy finish, as I love this quilt.

11- Idaho Square Dance Quilt by Bonnie K. Hunter

I have the 25 Idaho Square dance blocks done.

I need to start making the log cabin blocks.

12 - En Provence Quilt Along by Bonnie K. Hunter

I just started this quilt.

I do plan to work on it in between other projects.

Many of these quilts cannot be done over one month. They need several months of continuous work to get completed. So, I will try to organize my time to work on several quilts at once.

When I have a sewing day, pick one project to advance on that day and do as much as I can. The hand sewing quilts will be worked on in the evening when my husband wants me to sit with him and watch TV. The two hand sewing projects on my list are the Millefiore quilt and the Gifts of Grace quilt.

I also want to make a few rainbow quilts with my scraps.

I have some 16 patch blocks that I started two years ago.

I want to use up my scraps as much as possible,

 so I will try to participate in the RSC 2017 hosted by So Scrappy.

I like to have some mindless sewing sometimes. So this will be able to fill that need. 

I want to make some donation quilts with these. 

This is a lot of projects. I can't promise that I won't start any new ones either, as I love to start new projects. It's often what keeps me motivated to sew. But, I am going to continue to try to use up my stash as much as possible, and keep my purchases to a minimum. I usually only need to purchase backings and batting as I don't have a stash of large pieces of fabrics. This is going to be hard for me. I didn't buy a lot of fabric in 2016. And I really missed buying new stuff. I tried to only by fabric on sale. My daughter is going to University in September of 2017. I need to save big time as it is very expensive. So, It's important that I stick to this goal. 

I have a finished flimsy and some mug rugs

Hi everyone, 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Our Christmas was quiet, which was nice. We didn't go overboard with gifts this year and our kids were all very happy with their gifts. It was nice to reduce our stress of buying all the latest gadgets and just keep it simple. 

I did do a bit of sewing when I could sneak it in. I made two mug rugs out of scraps of fabric. 

These were easy and fun to make. This project satisfied my sewing itch while I was waiting for my Christmas turkey to cook.  

This morning I also put the borders on the quilt "A Blackbird gathering" by Cheri Payne. I love this little quilt. 

Now I just need to go buy some batting to finish it. I'm all out of batting. 

I'm going to work on my scrappy medallion quilt today too. Hopefully I can finish the round 6 today. We will see how it goes. 

 

 

My finished Buttermilk Basin Mystery 2016 BOM quilt

Hi everyone, 

I did it! I have a finish. 

I didn't know if I would get any of my projects done this month with a new puppy. But I managed to squeeze some time here and there to get it done! Yeah!!!

 Here's a photo outside on the snow. 

Here's a photo taken indoors. 

I hope you like it! 

Thanks so much Stacey @ Buttermilk Basin for sharing such a beautiful pattern with us. 
 

 

Buttermilk Basin Mystery 2016 flimsy done

Hi everyone,

I haven't had much opportunity to sew lately. My puppy Zeus is a handful. Lol! You can't take your eyes off him or he will chew everything. We have to keep him occupied all the time. He is adorable, and we love him already. But wow it's a lot of work. 

Tonight I managed to sneak in a bit of sewing and put the borders on my quilt. I had been working on the hand embroidery and finished it yesterday. Thank goodness for hand stitching because that's all I've been able to do.

So now I have to find a backing and quilt it. It's not very big, so hopefully I can sneak in some time to finish it.

 

Scrappy Medallion Quilt round 6 in progress

Hi everyone, 

My sewing time has been really reduced the last five days as we got a new addition to our family. 

His name is Zeus, and he is a Golden Doodle. He is only 8 weeks old. He is so cute, but requires a lot of attention. 

I did start working on round 6 of my scrappy medallion quilt. 

These are a type of 4 patch block. The blocks are made up of 2, 2 1/2 inch hst's and 2, 2 1/2 inch squares. 

The four corner blocks are different than the others. You can see the difference in picture #4.

I am making 2 blocks at a time. One for each side of the quilt. These blocks are good to use those 2 1/2 inch scrap squares that I have cut up. I use my 2 1/2 inch strips and my easy angle ruler to make the hst's. 

Hope you are liking my progress. 
 

 

Scrappy Medallion Quilt round 5 + a finish

Hi everyone, 

I worked on my scrappy medallion quilt again this week. I got round 5 on. 

This round was very simple. It's made up of low volume 2.5 inch squares. One round of these squares all around the quilt.

I sewed these squares in pairs first. I needed 12 pairs for the first two sides and 13 pairs for the last two sides.  

If you didn't want the quilt any bigger than this, you could stop here. I have another border in my design. So I will keep going. 

I also finished another little table topper for my MIL. 

Here are the two toppers together. 

These are cute and were quick to make. I didn't have to buy anything to make them as the material all came from my stash. 

Hope you like my projects.

Linking to:

Finish it Friday
Can I get a Whoop Whoop!

Scrappy Medallion round 4......

Hi everyone,

I finally got round 4 of my scrappy medallion quilt done. This round took me longer to do as there were more blocks as the quilt got bigger.  

This round was made up of 6.5 inch maple leaf blocks. Here's how they were made up. 

1- cut 3, 2.5 inch squares of the main colour of the block. 

2- cut 1, 2.5 inch square of your background fabric

3- cut 1, 3 inch square out of background fabric. Cut diagonally.
4- cut 1, thin strip of coloured fabric 0.75 inches x 5 inches.

5- cut 2, 3 inch squares of coloured fabric for hst's 

6- cut 2, 3 inch squares of background fabric for hst's 

Make 4 hst's with the 3 inch squares. Use your preferred method to make them. I use a easy angle ruler to make hst's. So I'm able to make my hst's with 2.5 inch strips. You want your hst's to be trimmed to 2.5 inch square.

Now you will make the stem. 

Take your 3 inch square that you cut on the diagonal and your 0.75x5 inch strip of fabric.
 Using a 1/4 inch seam sew your strip to the triangles as shown in the picture above. Then trim your block to 2.5 inches square ensuring that the stem is centred on the diagonal. 

Set your squares to prepare your block. 

Sew your block together. 

It should measure 6.5 inches square.

 For this round you will need 2 black blocks, 2 brown blocks, 2 dark green blocks, 2 light green blocks, 2 dark blue blocks, 2 light blue blocks, 2 yellow blocks, 2 orange blocks, 2 pink blocks, 2 bright red blocks, 2 dark red blocks, 2 raspberry blocks, 2 purple blocks and 2 gray blocks. 

As I was making blocks, I made them in pairs. It made the process a little faster. 

Hope you like how this quilt is coming together.


Linking to:
Main Crush Monday
Oh Scrap!
Moving it forward