Sunshine and Shadow

First things first...I want to finish this quilt top and quilt it as soon as I can, to hang above the couch in the living room.  I was flipping through patterns, trying to find something fairly simple to  on that spot until I have an applique quilt finished.  Above the couch is a great place for wall hangings, the couch is along the left wall as you come into the room, so the quilt isn't immediately obvious as other pictures and things attract your attention, but as you sit down the extra colour or design in the quilt catches you eye.  This Sunshine and Shadow pattern is in a book called The Simple Joys of Quilting by Joan Hanson and Mary Hickey, it is just the right size and presented in just the right colours so there was no fiddling with the pattern or colour scheme.

And, here is a picture of the Remembrance in blue and white, pattern by Kim Diehl in her book Simple Seasons.

A New Year's Reckoning

I have finally finished hand sewing the binding to the blue and white quilt...and I promised myself that no other sewing was allowed until its done...so I'm looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully some peaceful piecing.

For the new year, I have several quilts that need borders or re-setting.  Several  tops to be quilted.  And a few new tops that are in various stages...these I consider to be works in progress...Christmas Traditions, Dear Jane, Blooming Nine Patch, Wheel of Fortune, and one called Pick up Sticks.  Applique quilts in progress include Antique Sampler, My Whimsical Quilt Garden, Stars and Sprigs and parts of Dear Jane.

New quilts that I'll be starting, these are have to do's  for me, is the new Just Takes 2 free mystery block of the month; and, Praire Flowers Encore by Jo Morton.

I'm really looking forward to the Just Takes 2 series, presented by two very talented quilters and inspired by the exhibit “Infinite Variety: Three Hundred Years of Red and White Quilts” .   I will be using kona cotton snow for the "background" and one of the following for the second colour.  The brown is has more red than the picture shows; I have ordered the solid orange which is called persimmon, and I have high hopes for using that.  The red is from the Bonnie Blue Basics line.

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A Quilting Marathon!

Well, I'm just about done, and done in with quilting. I don't think I'll ever do this to myself again. Somehow I ended up quilting four quilts, all with a 'deadline" of sorts, all in about six weeks.

First came the red Thirties Sampler, a design by Eleanor Burns. I wanted that done for my daughter's return home from college, for use in the basement rec room where she hangs out. Bright and large for a couch quilt! (red is so hard to photograph, with a flash it looks awful, without a flash it just looks bad!)

Then came the Jelly Roll Quilt, which I wanted to finish for my niece before it became a Christmas present! I think I finished that one quick, with meandering stitches all over. (hubby took this pic, and I should have checked it before handing over the quilt!)










 
Finally it was time to quilt a Christmas quilt, which was a mystery block of the month by the Fat Quarter Shop. I really enjoyed sewing these bright colours, and the designs of the novelty blocks! This was for my son and his wife for Christmas, but I wanted them to have it for Christmas, or to use during the holiday season, and I was going to be visiting them on the 15th of December, so I wanted it finished by then. And it was!!

I had fun free motion quilting a different little design on each block...I think I used up all of my "library" of free motion designs on this one!





 Then there was a quilt needed for the guest bed. It should have been larger, it could have been the Stars for a New Day top, but ended up to be Remembrance in blue and white, a pattern by Kim Diehl. First I needed to make the quilt bigger than it was, by re-jigging the final border design so it ended up to be 85" square. My Mom will be staying here for New Year's weekend, so I wanted this quilt to be both used that weekend and a present to take home.

I did this quilt all with straight stitches (which makes me laugh, because really so many of these stitched rows are not straight!! lol, but I do the best I can!). My sewing machine has been giving me fits, and needs servicing for a few issues, so I didn't trust that I could confidently free motion any of it. This picture doesn't show the border, which is a wider version of the sashing. Just the binding left to go, which I can do one day next week.