The finishing continues

Now that my longarm machine is up and running I am trying to catch up with all the tops that have accumulated over the last few years. I can't believe that I had about 30 tops waiting to be quilted - it will take a long time to finish them all but I am making a start.

Here is my Celtic Solstice, Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt from 2013. I am very happy with the colors in this one.

About a year ago I made this quilt called Science Fair. It makes a cute throw in the guest room that until recently was my sewing room.

And today I quilted and bound another Bonnie Hunter quilt, Scrappy Trips, a free pattern available on her blog. I have called it Scrappy Trip to France because I used mostly French General fabrics. I had forgotten how much I like this quilt until I was quilting it, I just love all these pretty prints combined. It is fun getting to know my machine again and to practice a different design with each one. My machine is not computerized so I must free motion quilt all the designs by hand. I need lots of practice!

I also finished another 1/2 size block from My Enchanted Garden. Lots of fun to work with these fabrics and threads!

 

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Another year begins

Once again my year begins with the reveal of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt. This year it is Grand Illusion and I stuck much closer to Bonnie's color suggestions. I really thought I was confused by this one but had actually figured it out beforehand, I just thought I must be wrong because when I laid out one block with the sashing I was not pleased.

But this is a quilt that needs more blocks put together so the secondary pattern comes to life and perhaps a little time to let it grow on you. I admit I do not like it as well as last year's Celtic Solstice but it was a fun experience and it will be perfect in my guest room. I am so happy that I went with a solid white for my neutral and am pleased that the modern brights seem to be working OK. I do love the colors together and look forward to seeing it with the added borders.

The Scrappy Trip to France quilt is also still on my design wall. They are quite the contrast and certainly reflect my eclectic quilting taste.

2014 was a very busy year for me and included another major move. As a result I have very few finishes, though my pile of finished tops grew! I hope to get a good start on getting those completed this year but much of that depends on when DH finishes my sewing room and the longarm can be put up again. My main quilting goal this year is to enjoy the creative journey and to use more of what I already have in the process. I am also hoping to take a good look at my UFO's and my list of "want to make" and prioritize the list. I am finding that with constant inspiration online I get easily distracted to try the newest thing and while that is great, I don't want to neglect projects that I still love. So perhaps my goal should be less computer time!

Wishing all a happy and creative year ahead.

 

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Rachel Meyer block 4 and some simple sewing

Well, my youngest son heads home today after a two week visit. He heads into his last semester of Graduate school so this may be the last time he will be here for such a long visit. On the other hand if he is unable to find a permanent job he may end up living here but at least he has a job planned for summer! It has been nice having him here and having my brother and his family spend some time here on his way to and from Florida. My brother lives in Canada, where I grew up, so our visits are not as often as we would like but it is so nice to catch up when we can. Unfortunately DH, DS and I have all been suffering with some weird cold/respiratory infection so we have not been doing too much this holiday. I did do a little hand stitching and since I had no more Stonefield's blocks prepped I pulled out a 1/2 finished block from my Rachel Meyer quilt and was able to complete it. The original quilt has lots of embroidered details so I am trying to incorporate embroidery into my version. I think this quilt needs to be higher on my list of priorities for 2015!

Just after Christmas I decided to go to my LQS to check out their annual sale. I stocked up on some Kona Snow and found a French General Jelly roll that I wanted to play with. I really wanted a quick simple machine piecing project to work on til the final Grand Illusion Mystery reveal. I had debated doing a New Years mystery sew along but I decided it would be more fun to work on something scrappy that I had been wanting to try. So I started pulling more French General fabrics and some leftover jelly roll strips to make Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trip Around the World.

This quilt has been popular around blogland for the last 2 years and I have loved seeing all the different versions. I originally had planned to do mine in brights but I need something to wrap around the cushion on an antique wicker sofa that will be used in the sitting room next to my sewing studio. DH is still working hard to get the basement finished but it is a huge job so it may be 2016 before I move in! I have a really comfortable chair and ottoman covered in a floral that will also be in the sitting room and two off white chairs and a wicker chaise style chair with yellow cushions so I am trying to pull these things together with lots of pillows and of course quilts. There will also be a guest room and bath room as well as open shelves and closets for quilt storage, I can't wait. Anyway back to my project. I am thinking this could be wrapped around the sofa cushion, or tossed on a chair or hung on a wall to help pull things together. But more important I am using up stuff and having fun.

Once you get the strips cut to size it is just a matter of putting 6 together and making a block. Not much thinking, just fun easy sewing. And I love seeing how the blocks come together.

The first 4 were looking a bit too planned so I began going even more random and added a bit of green to pull in the green of the floral. Now to get back to stitching more of these and to start thinking about what I want to accomplish in 2015.

 

 

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