Year End Review

One of the many bonuses of blogging, or any type of diary for that matter, is the ability to look back and assess the past year. I like doing that personally, and also reading up on how other bloggers did with their goals for the year. I had stated at the beginning of the year, that my focus was going to be on using up my overflowing scraps. That didn't happen. Somewhere along the line the focus shifted, thanks to the encouragement of my friend Gail, from using up the scraps to finishing up UFOs. So, the scraps didn't get used as much as I'd hoped, but I did finish up quite a few UFOs. Two of them got to finished top stage, and eight of them to completely finished stage. I also did three new projects this year, that have now been added to the top's to be quilted pile. I'm very happy with the amount I got accomplished this past year. I'll do a photo line up.

First off are the tops that I started and finished this year:

   This is my latest finish of a flimsy, a Triple Four Patch, done for the Scrap Happy 2014 colour challenge.

    This is my 2014 New Years day gift to myself. I started this quilt, Three of a Kind by Judy Martin on January 1st, 2014. 

 This is my version of a Blooming Nine Patch. I started this because I'd seen another on the internet, and fell in love. I'd always wanted to do one.

 Both of these next quilts were leader and ender projects that were finished up to the flimsy stage this year.

 And finally, finished Quilts are listed next.

Camp Out, named because of the camping themed fabrics in both the top and the backing, was made from a collection of Nine Patches, received from a guild sponsored swap. There are still more Nine Patches waiting to become something.

This is a quilt named Summer Rental, a design from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. For some unknown reason, I don't have a picture of the full quilt.

Meteor Shower, another design by Judy Martin, started in 2013 and finished this year. I love her patterns. I just might start 2015 by starting another of her quilts.

 In Full Bloom, a design by McKenna Ryan, The was started in my pre-blogging days, so before 2010, but was finally finished this year.

Cactus Rose, a design by Judy Niemeyer, started in 2010, finished in 2014.

Grandmother's Choice, a block of the week, designed by Barbara Blackman from during 2012-2013. This is my last finish of the year, completed on Dec. 30. It's going to a new home as a Christmas gift.

Thanksgiving Leaves, another design by Judy Martin.

Lazy Sunday , a mystery designed by Bonnie Hunter, and published over 4 issues of Quiltmaker magazine.

And finally, there are two smaller projects. This first is the result of a round robin done among four of us from the guild. I did the centre sewing machine and spools border. It was a block in one of the 100 blocks magazines that are put out by Quiltmaker.

 And this little trailer is parked in the location that my imagination decided was the perfect place for a Road Runs Through It, a guild challenge.

And that's it...... my year in pictures. In addition to all these projects of mine, were all of the quilts I was privileged to work on for my wonderful customers. I've documented some of them on this blog over the past year. I have five more left to document, and then this year is done. My excuse for not having them done yet is that some were intended as Christmas gifts, and I didn't want to give the surprises away. The fact that the likelihood that their recipients would see them on my blog is slim, is totally beside the point. Tomorrow, I'll do up a post of what I would like to see happen, God willing, in the coming year.

What I'm working on....

I'm continuing on with the plus sign quilt. The section on the left is all sewn together. I'm adding another nine rows to the bottom, and I think seven more rows to the side. It should end up being a nice size for a lap or snuggle quilt. I'll probably end up donating it, either to the children's aid, or to a women's shelter, once it's all done and quilted. I'm going to work on this some more tonight, and see how much further I can get on it.
I'm linking up to Connie's Linky Tuesday and to the Needle and Thread Network. I'm hoping by this time next week, this will be a finished top.

Slow Sunday Stitching

If I'm doing Sunday stitching, I usually combine this post with the stash report post. However, I haven't done any hand stitching in ages, and hadn't really planned on doing any today either. However, I decided that I really didn't want to do anything else today, and I really want to get back into the hand stitching. I originally had plans on making a whole pile of these Patchwork of the Crosses blocks, but I think I've changed my mind. I came across a wonderful project while blog surfing a while back, found at Faeries and Fibres. However, I'm not a big fan of the basket border, but then I got thinking that, instead of the baskets, I could put these in the corners, and then a partial version of this block in the border. So, now I've got myself all excited about starting a new project. I seem to have dragged Charlene along with me. I know that she's a big fan of hexies and English Paper piecing, so every time I come across an interesting project, I email the link to her for her to look at. Somehow or other, it's worked out that we are both going to do a version of that quilt. And then, to make matters worse, or better, depending on how you look at it, I emailed her the link to this project being done at Lilabelle Lane,  called La Passacaglia.  Well, that kinda snowballed into Charlene and myself, and also Lorna who is a member of the guild, buying the book with the pattern in it. So, there are plans afoot to make that one as well. The goal is to have them done before the next quilt show, two years from now. Who knew I could get into so much trouble from sending a couple of emails. I've ordered the paper shapes for La Passacaglia, and am looking forward to them coming in the mail. Charlene and I will get together later on in January to begin our English Paper Piecing marathon, which should be lots of fun. In the meantime, I'll finish this, and get a start on the other one.
I'm linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Stash Report, Week 52, 2014

Here it is, the end of the year summary report, where the pedal hits the metal, so to speak. I think I did pretty well. At the end of last year I said that I was going to cut back on my buying, and I actually achieved that. Here's the final numbers for the year:

Used this week:                            2 yards
Used this year:                           129.1 yards
Added this week:                              0 yards
Added this year:                         134.75 yards
Balance:                                           5 yards net added

I came awfully close to adding more yesterday, during surfing a couple of sites with sales. One of the sites was advertising free shipping to Canada, so I filled up a shopping cart. However, when I went to check out, there was no place to type in the info to get the free shipping, even though I did everything they said to do. So I emptied the cart and walked away. Then I found another site having a fabulous sale, started putting stuff in the cart, but stopped myself and walked away from that one too. So, no new stuff coming in for the new year.

                           2011                                            2012                                       2013
Used                  154 yards                                  130.8 yards                           125.95 yards
Added               162.5 yards                                164.75 yards                        180.55 yards
Balance          + 8.5 yards                                  +33.95 yards                        +54.6 yards

Compared to the last few years, I've added considerably less. But I also used less than in 2011 or 2012. I beat, just by a little bit, what I used last year.  But I think that is because I concentrated on finishing UFO's this year, and a lot of the fabric in those UFO's had already been counted, since I figure my usage out as I make the individual blocks for a quilt, rather than waiting until a quilt is finished. I had said at the end of last year, that I wanted to focus on using up scraps, but with finishing the UFO's, that didn't happen. So, I'm going to restate that as my goal for this year, to use up scraps. I have a few quilts picked out from books, and a few more designed out in Electric quilt with that goal in mind, so we'll see how it goes. I already have enough background fabrics to do at least two of the projects, so I don't need to add anything to the stash for doing them.
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report

Scrappy Saturday Projects

Today was the last Saturday of the year. I know I'm not really saying anything there that most people don't already know, but it sure is surprising to me just how fast it came around. This was my first year participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. At this time last year, I decided that there were three projects I wanted to work on through the year. I had all kinds of lofty plans that I could work on a different project each Saturday of the month, which gave me a spare Saturday each month, just in case something happened and I fell behind. I don't know who thought I was kidding, besides myself, that I'd ever be able to keep up. However, the good news is that I did get one project to the finished top stage. This Triple Four Patch was finished up at our guild's sew-in days back in November. It's still waiting for quilting.

 Another project that I was working on in the first part of the year were these pinwheels. Once the summer hit, and my sewing time decreased due to being outside more often, these blocks were left to languish. I'm thinking I have enough here to make a small child's quilt. Each block is 14 inches square. I'm just not quite sure what to do with that centre area. I don't particularly want to do another of these blocks. Any ideas out there for what to put in that centre section?

These Bow Ties were another project that I started at the beginning of last year. This is a bit of what the lay out will look like. These stalled because the colours for some of the months were too light to show up against the background fabric I'm using, so it too languished in the colour challenge box. I'm going to pick this one back up and work on it again this year. I think I might be a bit more flexible with the fabric choices for the bow ties this year, and go for multi-coloured prints containing the colour of the month, or at least put in some prints so that the colours flow better.

And then there are these nine patches, made from 1 1/2 inch squares and Kona white. These will work with the lighter colours that are chosen throughout the year that won't work with the bow ties.



These nine patches will eventually end up in this quilt. I need 125 of them. Nine down and 116 to go.
I'm linking up to the last Scrap happy post of the year.

On, or rather, off my needles.....

Or in this case, not on the needles because it's done! My Carabe sweater is finished. All of the ends are sewn in. It needs blocking and buttons and then it will be 100 percent finished and wearable.
 Next up is going to be this cowl, from a pattern in a magazine I was given for Christmas. I showed the picture of the cowl to my daughter, who agreed that it is lovely, and would like it, except that could I please make it longer. I looked at the pattern, saw that it had a pattern repeat of 15 stitches, and said sure, I can do that, just by increasing the number of stitches cast on by 50%. I cast it on yesterday, worked up to the first section of wrapped stitches, and discovered that, instead of it being a fifteen stitch pattern repeat, it's a 30 stitch repeat, and I was fifteen stitches short of the amount needed. So, it has been all ripped out and is waiting to be cast on, again......... sigh!!
It's that time of year, to look back and see exactly what was or was not accomplished. It never occurred to me at the beginning of this year, to set any knitting goals, so I didn't have anything in mind, just kept knitting as the mood took me. The mood took me to the Carabe sweater, pictured up above, and to an On the Grass sweater, a Fly Away Hoodie and a Pinery pull over sweater, all started and finished this year. In addition to the sweaters were four pairs of socks. I had no idea when I started looking all this up for the summary in this post that I'd done that much knitting!! There were several pairs of slippers in there, as well. So, as far as knitting goes, this not setting goals seems to work for getting things accomplished. I have lots of stuff saved in my favourites on Ravelry, but none of them are calling me loudly right now. After all, how many sweaters can a girl use? Maybe I'll get my daughter to look through them and see if there are any she wants. Or, I could use the time I've been knitting for hand piecing quilting projects. Except that, come the evening on some days, my hands want to be busy, but my eyes don't want the fine detail of hand stitching, so we're back to knitting. I'll do the cowl...... all 240 stitches to cast on........ and go from there. It's an easy yarn choice, since I have 3 or 4 hanks of the yarn I used for On the Grass left over.  Then, I have some bulky weight yarn that might work for another pattern in this magazine. And then......... who knows.....

Design Wall Monday, Dec. 22, 2014

There is nothing on my wall today. I've taken down the plus sign section that I'd laid out on the wall, and I'm working on sewing that section together. I've got 14 rows webbed together, with 5 more to go. Then I can start sewing the seams in the other direction. When I get that done, I've told myself the fabric used in that part of the quilt can be totalled for the amount out of the stash. When I get another section of plus signs sewn together, I'll do the same thing. In the meantime, since every good blog post has a picture, these are another reason why there's nothing on my design wall.

Almost three dozen mincemeat tarts. Of course, the amount of mincemeat I had did not equal the number of tart shells I made, so I pulled out and opened a jar of rhubarb pie filling I made last spring. And now, I have rhubarb pie filling without enough tart shells. So, I'm considering making up another batch of pie dough, and hope that it equals out at the end of it. Once I'm done that, I think I'll sew some more. Even though there's nothing to see on my wall, I'll still link up to Judy's Design wall Monday