Thursday, December 31, 2015

dreaming easy as the year ends



a few soccer games, some chat time with my eldest daughter, moments in a rocking chair with a mountain meadow view. that's what it took to get most of the binding completed on this quilt. and a mere 24 minutes prior to the new year, in one last solitary, concentrated effort, it was done before 2015 winked out.

then, unbeknownst to me, when the mr put our sleeping baby away into her own bed after she rang in the new year in ours, he tucked her in with this quilt. so it's already in service. i'm fairly certain she was "dreaming easy" under it as she slept away.

i've completed the tutorial for this easy, breezy checkered arrow pattern here.

a few weeks ago i was contemplating what i'd done in the quilting realm this year and didn't think i had a single finish under my belt. however, a quick scan of the blog showed that i had completed a project or two after all, including two full-size gifted quilts. i imagine i forgot about them because they aren't here anymore. in reality, "dreaming easy" is my 6th finish of the year.


in january, i completed the binding on my younger son's "bandwidth" quilt as well as my baby's "paris daydreams" quilt. i also finished and delivered "little lady" for my newest niece, evelyn. in march, i was able to gift two quilts: "bloom where you are planted" for my friend jill and "aunty charming" for my husband's aunt sue. that was a pretty good first quarter. the rest of the year saw very little sewing and mostly wip work.

the blog has been rather quiet, too. but i did get some tutorials up for my "cinched" pattern and a simple child's fat quarter apron. i may not be a prolific quilter or blogger, but i do enjoy sharing. favequilts.com is a site that has published a few of my tutorials in their collection of free quilting patterns of all sorts. they surprised me last week by telling me i was one of their top 100 bloggers for 2015! my six and one half dozen baby quilt made it into their most popular projects list for the year. go figure! for someone who isn't nearly as active in the online quilting community as she once was or would like to be, that was a pleasant surprise.



they even gave me a button!

you can see all their top projects for the year here.

so what's ahead in 2016? more finishes, i hope! priority goes to my elder son's wonky quilt, of course. then there's the triangle quilt and penny patch 2.0. you know, all the stuff i talked about last time i posted. i have no big plans other than plodding along and getting things done. well, maybe getting my sewing space whipped into shape and covered with some barn doors.

see y'all around next year!

linking up with amanda jean's friday finishes at crazy mom quilts.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

wip wednesday

 sewing time has been sporadic at best lately. still, some is better than none! the quilting projects creep forward, stitch by stitch, and block by block. i thought i'd do a quick wip report to see where my major projects stand. the idea of digging up and photographing the half dozen minor projects did not appeal to me this afternoon. that'll wait until the end of the year review, i suppose.

first, the priority quilt for s1/the boy, is nowhere near complete. after i finished the first row of wonky log cabin blocks, i began to question the design again. but i got over that and started on the second row of 7 blocks, the one and half blocks above being the result so far.

so, no, there wasn't a fab family photo with everyone sporting their personal quilt as a prop. maybe next year! which, coincidentally, will likely be the last year they are all at home. so maybe that will be a better year to commemorate with their quilts and favorite books.

new deadline for the wonky quilt - christmas.

 the next major project in the wings, and the only other one i'm allowed to work on, is the "dreamin' easy" arrow check quilt, which is in the binding phase. i can take this with me to high school soccer games, which just started. this has the added bonus of keeping my lap warm during the games in the chilly fall weather. since i only manage about a few feet a game, this might take the rest of the soccer season to complete!

the third major project, which is pretty far along, is penny patch 2.0. it's top and backing are languishing in the project box i took to (but did not touch at) the cabin this summer. as soon as wonky gets done, this will be sandwiched and quilted.

i even forgot all about the fourth project - my triangle indian summer blanket quilt - because it's buried under the wonky quilt on the design wall. it looks like i have at least one quilt in every phase of quilting: piecing, quilting, binding.

there is no christmas-y sewing going on around here, although there is one little girl who would like to make a six and one half dozen christmas quilt with some fat quarters (stacked on the box above). the other wips, like gypsy wife and sugar block club, will just have to sleep where they are until early spring.

and then it will be time to dream up something new!

but for the winter, i'm buckling down to some slow and steady finishing.
happy sewing, y'all.

linking up to lee's wip wednesday at freshly pieced.