All my good intentions of documenting my quilting adventures have fallen by the wayside in 2012.....a home break-in in the fall of 2011 threw me for a loop and kept me away from both quilting and blogging.
As we got things sorted out I returned to my quilting but never quite got back to blogging again....sooooo...Although I don't make New Year's resolutions....I so want to do better with this in 2013.
In a nutshell......this is what I have been working on over the past year.
A queen side quilt for our bed....this is the largest quilt I have done so far....90" x 110".....and my first entry into a quilt show. I did the piecing and sent it to a longarm quilter to be quilted. To be honest that feels a little like cheating to me....I want to be able to complete the quilt from start to finish.....but because I REALLY needed new bedding...and because I had plans for four Christmas quilt gifts....I decided that it would be OK to send it out for quilting just this once!! Overall I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.....still have plans to make a couple of pillows from the scraps.
This quilt was made from the "Labyrinth" pattern from Calico Carriage Quilt Designs. Great pattern giving four different size options.
Next I started on twin size quilts for my nieces twins, Anna and Aidan, aged 3 1/2" yrs.
Their baby quilts were the first quilts I had ever made.
These quilts were made from a modified version of the Five yard quilt pattern on the Mill End textiles website. Added a couple of extra borders to make them about 60" x 85".
Next were two flannel lap quilts made for my sons for Christmas. Loved the way these turned out......So soft and cuddly......used wool batting in these which was really nice to work with in combination with the flannels.
These were made from a Pattern called "Scrappy Crossings " by Calico Printworks.
60" x 72" Loved the pattern...there is something about en pointe quilts that really appeal to me.
All four of these quilts I pieced and machine quilted.
Another highlight of my year was the opportunity to take a applique class with Karen Kay Buckley. She is an amazing talent and a wonderful teacher!! Bought scissors that she has developed.......best scissors ever!!
Another thing that I really wanted to purchase from Karen was her wonderful thread bag!! Unfortunately they sold out so quickly at the classes that I was not able to get one when she was in town.
So I put it on my Christmas list LOL and my son came through :)
The bag holds about twice this many threads. You just pop the spool in the bag and thread a needle and bring the thread end out through the ultra suede strip....you just pull on the thread end, cut off a length of thread and applique....no more searching for your threads.....you don't have to remove the spool until its empty!!
Have to share a picture of some unexpected Christmas guests that arrived at our home Christmas evening!
Guess the buck stops here!!!
