December/January. Mission Accomplished!

     With all the excitement of Christmas, having all our family and other guests with us on Christmas Day, and coming and going for weeks afterward, there wasn't time to do a blog post in December. Now it's mid-January, but I'm happy to say that I did reach my goal of a quilt a month for 2015!  Hooray! In, fact, I exceeded it, by making a second Bird of Wisdom wall-hanging, as well as finishing the disappearing nine-patch I was working on in November. This a a pattern I found on the Missouri Star Quilt Co. website called the Window Pane Disappearing Nine-Patch. I wanted to try it, to see if I enjoyed making the pattern. So I choose a mixture of softer coloured pieces from my scrap stash, with one brighter fabric for contrast, and got to work. I used white fabric for the window-pane sashing and made it a crib-size quilt. Here it is:

Window Pane Disappearing Nine-Patch

This was a fun and easy pattern to make and if I try it again (there are so many patterns waiting to be tried!) I'll use a darker fabric for the sashing, which should change the look substantially.

Until next month, 

Happy Quilting!

November Quilt

     Another month, another quilt.

     The pattern for this one is "Pioneer Braid," also sometimes called "Prairie Braid." I've wanted to try this pattern for quite a while and when I saw a picture with the diamonds in the middle of the braid, I decided that was what I wanted to do. Purple and teal is one of my favourite colour combinations and I've had the striped fabric for the sashing and borders for quite a while. It all came together with the white diamonds and black binding echoing the pattern in the border fabric.
It's about double the size in the photo, as I draped it over my ironing board to take the picture.
     December is always a busy month, so it will be quite a challenge to complete another quilt, but I still have a baby quilt top made, which I just have to finish off. So perhaps I'll make my target of a-quilt-a-month in 2015.

October Quilts

October has found me busy quilting. I've actually been working on three or four projects but have only finished one. The rest are in various stages of incompletion. A full size quilt has gone to be quilted before I finish hand appliqueing some cherry blossoms to the surface.  A single bed coverlet is basted ready to be quilted by me; and a third is a little baby quilt top which I decided to make from scrap fabrics, to try a pattern before I used it in a larger quilt. Hopefully the last two of these will be finished in November.
But I did complete another "bird" wall-hanging. This is my own design and I love its simplicity and  the effect of the red cardinals on the white background is striking. I called it "Let there be Peace." Here it is.

So, far I'm on track for my "quilt-a-month" plan. 

Check in November to see what's new.

September Quilts

Moving (slowly) along with my attempt to finish a quilt-a-month through 2015, I must admit that I didn't finish anything in August, due to travel and visitors. So I'm trying to make up for it in September. So far I have finished one lap quilt and two wall-hangings.

Floral Pizzazz

     The first quilt is  a bright, bold lap-quilt which I called "Floral Pizzazz". The pattern is from Judy Sisneros' book "9-patch Pizzazz". This is a great pattern for using up large-scale prints and I had fun putting the quilt together from some fabrics which have been lying in my stash, just waiting for the right pattern to come along. Judy's was just perfect.
     I wanted a change from the more traditional quilting that I have been doing and when I saw Kim Caskey's "Bird of Wisdom" wall quilt at Earthly Goods quilt shop, I had no trouble deciding to buy the pattern and make my own version. It was a lot of fun to make and while I was finishing it, my mind was roaming among the possible variations of it that I could make. The words on the side are "Live, Love, Laugh, Listen, Learn."
      I finished it the second day and inspired by Kim's ideas began another one almost right away.

Bird of Wisdom

As you can see, I changed the bird to an owl and decided instead of strips to use a pieced panel below the bird. The words of wisdom on the side are: "Coincidence is God's Way of Doing Miracles Anonymously. " I still have more ideas and can't wait to start the next variation. (Sorry the angle of the photo distorts the quilt.)

Wise Old Owl 

How thankful I am to other quilters whose patterns are such a pleasure to work with and which stir my own creativity in the process.

To all my friends who like quilts and quilting, have a great day!

Quilts for June and July

     June and July haven't been very productive for me, as far as quilting goes. What with visitors, summer activities and general  lethargy, I haven't accomplished much. In the meantime, here are two "multi-fabric" quilts I finished earlier in the year to be counted for June and July, so I'm still on track for my "Quilt-a-Month" project.
     The first is "anything goes" Wonky Diamonds sewn from an over-flowing box of strips with no particular colour pattern beyond  using lighter fabrics for the diamonds and darker ones for the background stripes. A quick and easy pattern with a "piano-key" border.

Wonky Diamonds

     The next is made from a lot of fabrics I collected on a trip to Australia many years ago. I cut out the initial pieces and arranged them on my design wall according to a picture I had seen in an Australian magazine. That pattern just didn't work very well with the fabrics I had, so they were put away for a long time. Always, in the back of my mind, was the feeling that I must do something with them. I finally chose to use the " quilt as-you-go" pattern, and after using the same pieces, but rearranging the fabrics, I ended up with the quilt below. The back is a mixture of fabrics from my stash, including some Australian and Indonesian fabrics.

Aussie Multi-fabric Quilt  -front

 

Aussie Quilt back 

 

 

I've recently started another quilt - a much more elaborate pattern - which I will have to send out to be quilted and then

 add three-dimensional floral appliques to the quilt top.  This will take a while, and, as I'll be travelling in August, I'll have to play "catch-up" in September to keep on track.  In the meantime, there's no shortage of patterns and ideas to play with.
That's the fun of being a quilter!

Two more quilts for March and April

 March's Quilt:  Zig-Zag Rail Fence

Zig-Zag Rail fence

Here is my take on a "modern" quilt. I used the traditional rail fence pattern, but put the blocks "on point. "  It is laid sideways on a bed in order to get the whole quilt in the photo.
The second picture below is the back of the same quilt.

 

 

April's Quilt is a simple Disappearing Nine-Patch baby quilt. Easy to do and quick to finish. A fun project.

 

 

For May's Quilt I'm finishing a UFQ that I started several years ago. The pattern I had in mind for a collection of fabrics on hand  just didn't work, so I had to re-think it. Check the blog in May for the finished (I hope!) project.

Resolutions

     I don't normally make "New Year's" resolutions, but as a quilter, I make resolutions all during the year, such as: I will try to make all my seams even; I will try to work more slowly and carefully to prevent " reverse sewing", I will use up as much of my stash as I can, before buying more fabric. In fact, I find myself making these resolutions over and over again, year after year!
     But this year, having got off to a good quilting start with "Grace's Butterflies" quilt in January, I decided I would try to finish at least one quilt a month. They don't have to be large quilts. I don't make many large quilts any more, but at the end of the year I would have the satisfaction of having achieved my aim with twelve quilts completed. So far I'm right on target or perhaps even a little bit ahead. Below are photos of two quilts I completed in February. The first is a "baby-size" quilt using bright pinks, white and a dash of lime green. The block pattern is a traditional album block.

 

      While in Hawaii in January I purchased a packet of pre-cut five-inch squares of Hawaiian prints. I combined them with fabrics from my stash to make the quilt you see below. This quilt is larger than the one above; approximately 50 x 60 inches. The photo is slightly at an angle. The quilt is actually even on both sides!

 

 

I've already started on my next project. With any luck you'll be able to see that in April.

Happy Quilting!