2022 has been a very quilty year! I met almost all my goals, .....
..... finished nearly everything on my "Sew What" ("to do") list, .....
..... had seventeen finishes for the year, and completed my 400th quilt.
Tomorrow I'll set new goals and update my UFO list. Happy New Year, everyone. May all your quilty dreams come true!
I should have titled this post "Throwback Thursday" because it's about a quilt I made last year and didn't blog about. I'd found a box of HSTs I wanted to do something with, so I put them up on the design wall and had a play day. You know I like those!
The first thing I did was rearrange them into a more random looking design. Next I pulled out a length of fabric I had bought for something and then decided I didn't like it.
Any fabric you don't like almost always looks better when you cut it up into smaller pieces. (That's your tip for today!) I cut out some squares and rectangles and worked them into my design then used the rest of it for borders.
What a difference!
I've been sharing with you the quilts I've been making for my nieces and nephews, the ones who have not received one in a while. I overlooked three of them so thought I'd get caught up on that and do a recap.
The ones I've already posted about are Josh, Ashley, Laura, Nikki, Travis, Paige, Natalie, Emily, Carrie, Karlie, Kourtnie, and Kacie's. (Each name has a link attached in case you'd like to see them.) All of them were made since 2018. Thank goodness, I have a fantastic quilter (Shirley Jackson) I can depend on!
Jason is the one nephew who had never received a quilt from me. When he was born (and I'm embarrassed to tell you how old he is, so I won't) I was crocheting afghans for new babies. I also crocheted a large afghan for him when he was first married. (Oops, that hints at how old he is. Don't pay any attention to that.) Anyway, it was definitely his turn! I named his quilt "Long Time Coming".
For Tim I tore into my box of batik strips (again!) and made a variation of the Jelly Roll Race Quilt, using different size strips and pieces (instead of WOF strips) and sewing some diagonal seams instead of straight. It wasn't nearly big enough to suit me, plus I wanted to change it up, so I added strips around it going in the opposite direction. It ended up plenty big enough, and I ended up with another happy nephew.
Tina's quilt was Amy Walsh's "Zen" pattern. Yes. I used batiks. I've used this pattern before, but this time I sewed some of it in a hotel in Seattle. I've set up a little sewing area in many a hotel. An important thing to pack for that is my Ott sewing light. You know how bad hotel lighting is.
You may remember that, in 2018, I went a little crazy cutting up my batiks into 2.5" strips.
Now, that box looks like this .....
Hooray!
Now all the nieces and nephews have new quilts. (Another Hooray!) Should I start on the great-nieces and nephews? Well, I do have all those scrappy squares I cut up a few years ago.....
Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Quilter, and Super Scrappy.
Since I took a break from blogging during the Pandemic, I missed sharing some of my finishes with you, so I decided to have a little Baby Quilts Show and Tell.
In 2018 I started making a few baby quilts to put back for the great-grands, and only got two finished.
Last year I had two new great-nephews to make quilts for.
For Karsyn, I chose a simple windmill type block and used a cute print from my stash and a coordinating batik.
In January I started the Block of the Month hosted by Sherri McConnell at A Quilting Life. My friend, Denise, is always finding projects to talk me into, and I usually go along with her. I'm always glad, though, so that must be a good thing. The last BOM I made with her, went to my SIL, Jan, and she loved it. I did, too! (You can read about it here.)
This time I decided to go with Christmas fabrics. I started with these -
None of the rest of the prints I used were really very "Christmassy". Maybe you would call them more "classic". If you're really a fan of Christmas you might even call them "boring".
In September when I first shared about the "All Stacked Up" quilt I was working on for my niece (you can read about it here) I really hoped I'd finish it and gift it before the end of the year. And I have!
Shirley Jackson, once again, did a beautiful job quilting it for me. She used the Juliette panto from One Song Needle Arts.
So another loved niece .....
..... has her quilt from Aunt Sandy. Doesn't it look perfect on her new green sofa?
And now every single niece and nephew has received a new quilt at some point during the last five years, most within the last three! I know I've missed posting about several, so I'll catch up with a show and tell soon.
A month ago Aidan's quilt was a top, and now it's a finish. A big finish! 81" by 98" to be exact. It should work okay for a few more years until he's done growing.
It was "fun" (you know what I mean!) man-handling that thing to machine stitch the binding on .....
.....and it was very warm hand-stitching it down. (The weather is not cold enough yet for that!) I didn't even ask Hubby to hold it up for me to take pics because it's so big. I just threw it onto the ground and had a fall photo shoot.
Rennes is the most recent great-nephew to get a quilt from Aunt Sandy. (These little ones just keep coming!)
I bought a few blues and grays when I was in Shipshewana this past summer so I would have enough to make a scrappy version of "Child's Play", a free download from sewcanshe.com.
More HSTs, but I'm getting used to them, so I've stopped complaining!
