2019 Year in Review

2019 by the numbers...

5 quilts

4 pillows

5 months of the Shimmer block-a-long with Cluck Cluck Sew.

My Instagram #bestNine2019

 9th Boston MQG Retreat

2900 La Passacaglia pieces put together.

1 High School graduate

145 Books read. Favorites: My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing and My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams

This year has brought many changes.  It's always interesting to look back at what I've accomplished each year.  As I turn my focus to the new year ahead I want to thank everyone who has come along with me on this journey.  You have inspired me, encouraged me and made it fun.  Here's to all the future will bring!

Trim the Tree

Snow came early to New England this year so I used it as an opportunity to hide away in my studio and make something.  I still have a ton of scraps left from various Kate Spain holiday collections so I dragged those out and got started.

This is a great Christmas Tree pattern by Jitka Designs.  The pieces are tiny but since it's paper pieced it's not a problem to get everything lined up.

Tuesday we had a snow day so I was back at it.  I kept the quilting simple and just did a simple grid.  It's almost soothing to just power thru all those straight lines.

And now my foyer is that much more festive!

Trimming the tree with with this week's Brag About Your Beauties Pageant by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty.

Pillow Stats:
Finished pillow is 12" x 16"
Pattern: Christmas Tree by Jitka Design.
Fabrics: Assorted Solstice, Flurry, and Jingle scraps by Kate Spain, Bella Solids Bleached White
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient Bamboo.
Thread: 50 wt. Aurifil in Natural White (2021).

Bonus Triangles

I just can't get enough of this Liberty lawn and Smoky shot cotton combo.  My Liberty Love quilt spawned a ton of bonus triangles so while I was on a roll I went ahead and made matching pillows.

I marked the diagonal lines for the hearts since I was worried about their accuracy but I used my cheater method for the bonus triangles since I trim those down to size.

Of course I start second guessing myself when I actually have to trim them.

The great thing about HSTs is there are so many ways you can arrange them.  I had enough for two pillows but I wanted them to be different.  For the first one I did a radiating design.  I kept the quilting simple and just echo stitched each diamond.

On the second I did an X pattern and enhanced the solid portions with quilted lines.

And now my foyer is filled with love!

Sharing more love with this week's Brag About Your Beauties Pageant by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty.

Pillow Stats:
Finished pillows are 18" x 18"
Fabrics: Assorted Tana Lawns from the Westwood Acres Liberty Club, Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton in Smokey.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: 50 wt. Aurifil in  Grey Blue (1248).

Liberty Love

This may be my new favoritist thing of all time!!!  Ever since I finished my Spoolish quilt I've been jonesing for more ways to use my Liberty stash.  I'd had the idea for this in my head for awhile but finally got started at this year's Boston MQG retreat.  Of course once I got home it got dumped and forgotten until I decided to clean up my studio in yet another attempt to jump start my sewjo.

Once I started sewing the remaining blocks went together quickly and I was able to get them together into a top.  I was lucky to score a last minute session at Burlington Electric Quilters before I went back to work to get this one quilted.

Does anyone else totally stress out about squaring up their quilts?  This one was easy because it had a nice wide border that could just get narrower if I screwed up.

Gratuitous binding shot because it's my favorite part of the process.

Sharing the love with this week's Brag About Your Beauties Pageant by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty.

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilt is 65" x 82"
Pattern:  Adapted from Sweethearts Quilt by Michelle Engel Bencsko for Cloud 9
Fabrics: Assorted Tana Lawns from the Westwood Acres Liberty Club, Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton in Smoky.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Quilting: Timeless Hearts pantograph by Timeless Quilting.
Thread: 50 wt. Aurifil in  Grey Blue (1248), King Tut Red Sea (926).

La Passing Time

My La Passacaglia has been helping me pass the time for quite a while now.

I don't know how I would have made it through all Audrey's activities without something to keep me occupied.

I started this project Audrey's freshman year of high school so it seems fitting that I completed my last rosette at Audrey's final basketball game.  It's hard to believe I won't be watching her cheer anymore.

I was hoping to get this done in time for graduation but didn't quite make it.  It becomes a lot less portable as you start putting it all together but I started with quadrants and then kept joining.

I spent many road trips appliqueing everything down to the background this summer.  Those star points are tough.  If I did it again I think I'd take the time to hand baste around the edges before stitching it down.  Also, I didn't do a good enough job basting this to the background so it doesn't lay as flat as I'd like.  

It feels like the end of an era now that it's finally all together.  Of course I still have to quilt it...  we'll see how long that takes me;-)

Coastal Cabin

It's always sunny somewhere!

I became totally obsessed with these Sunny Isle prints as I worked with them for the Shimmer QAL so I was determined to use up every last bit.  Since I already had a lot of long skinny leftover strips it seemed like a fine time to tackle a log cabin block.

There are a million different ways to make this block but since I was working with such small strips I chose to paper piece them using this free template.

Rather than using paper I used this lightweight foundation.  It's printer ready so I could print directly on it and I didn't risk stretching my blocks (and my sanity) tearing out all the little bits of paper.  The finished blocks are a bit stiffer than normal but for a pillow cover it's fine and actually makes it feel a bit more polished.

4 1/2" blocks are no joke!  With 20 pieces per block this was a rather time intensive project.

It also didn't help that for some reason I thought I was making 12 blocks when I really needed 16.  Fortunately it's fairly mindless sewing so I got to binge watch a couple more episodes of The Great British Bake Off .

And as I hadn't gone insane so far I decided to do a densely quilted crosshatch.  What's a few more hours?

Totally worth it!

And since no scrap could be left behind I used up even more to make a matching wall hanging but somehow forgot to take a single picture of the process.  Now my foyer will always be sunny;-)

Dreaming of getting away to a Sunny Isle with this week's Brag About Your Beauties Pageant by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty.

Pillow Stats:
Finished pillow is 18" x 18"
Pattern: Free templates for Paper pieced 4 1/2" log cabin blocks by Generations Quilt Patterns.
Fabrics: Sunny Isle bundle by Jennifer Paganelli for Free Spirit, Bella Solids in Ash.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: 50wt Aurifil in  Arctic Sky (2612).

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilt is 23" x 23"
Pattern: Adapted from this Broken Herringbone Block tutorial by Freemotion by the River.
Fabrics: Sunny Isle bundle by Jennifer Paganelli for Free Spirit, Bella Solids in Ash.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: 50wt Aurifil in  Arctic Sky (2612).

Shimmer and Sunshine

Things are about to get all Ghastlies around here but I'm still holding on to summer!  Back in January my dear friend Aimee invited me to join her for the Shimmer block-a-long hosted by Cluck Cluck Sew.  I figured this would be a good way to get back my sewjo and it worked (for me at least).

Since this wasn't a project I had actually envisioned I just dug around in my studio and found a bundle I thought would work, in this case Jennifer Paganelli's Sunny Isle.  Since this is a bright and busy (in the best way) collection I matched up solids from my stash for the center spokes to calm things down a bit.

The pattern is very clear and Allison also shared some great tips for making these blocks.  That said, these are rather fiddly and each block has a lot of pieces.  I worked out a system for batch processing them based on which foot I prefer to use.

This probably would have lingered in my TBQ pile but I had some free time and a credit about to expire at Burlington Electric Quilters so I was able to get in at the last minute to quilt this.

And since it's football season it made sense to slap a binding on to have something to keep me entertained and my hands out of the snack bowl.

I'm such a sucker for a striped binding!!!

Holding on to summer with this week's Brag About Your Beauties Pageant by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty.

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilt is 56"x70"
Pattern: Shimmer by Cluck Cluck Sew.
Fabrics: Sunny Isle bundle by Jennifer Paganelli for Free Spirit.  Bella Solids Ash.  Michael Miller Cotton Couture: Kryp, Azure, Raspberry, Carribean, Isle.  Free Spirit Designer Solids: McCaw, Aqua.  Kona: Carnation.
Pantograph: Happy Times.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: King Tut Morning Sky #960