Firsts....and the last

Can you believe the year is nearly over? I know I have a hard time believing it...but check the calendar...yep, almost over. It seems the years pass faster and faster with each passing year, and yet this one seemed to last forever...so how does THAT happen?

The last customer quilts of the year went out the door yesterday, and now's the time to sit, take a deep breath, relax, and look after stuff that gets left undone for the most part during the rest of the year. I've been playing with a few projects for me, and have cut out a few quilt bits and pieces to make it easier to sew when I have the time.

So the first quilt to show is a "first quilt"...wonderfully pieced plus appliqué....WOW... and lots of fun to quilt! Not exactly a beginner pattern, it's "Under the Stars" by The Rabbit Factory made in a class at a local quilt store. Certainly a quilt to be proud of, and hopefully to be encouraged by. So congratulations on your first quilt Kathy and I hope your daughter loves it, and thank you for letting me quilt it!

Kathy's Under The Stars

Close-up of the appliqué

Border detail

Back side

The next quilt is a second quilt, and again a pleasure to quilt; flat and square, plus a simple pantograph for a cozy finish to be proud of and a wonderful gift.

And the last 3 quilts of the year; pinwheels of French General by Moda with a simple Baptist Fan treatment with wool batting for a nice cozy feel.

And last but certainly not least these 2 memory quilts made with patches of from the clothing of a loved one...what a wonderful, thoughtful gift!

Memory quilt by Rose

Memory quilt by Rose

A bit of detail of the quilting

Baptist Fan for this one

 a wild and crazy back just for fun

a pretty back showing lots of detail

So the very last thing for me to do on this wet and warm Christmas Eve is to say thank you to all of my wonderful customers for entrusting your quilts to me for quilting...it's been my pleasure, and I hope to see all of you again soon as you travel on your quilting journey.

I wish each and everyone of you a wonderful Christmas filled with family, friends and lots of good things, and a Happy New Year!

Cheers

Busy Days

He who's not busy being born is busy dying.  (Bob Dylan)

People who are busy and happy don't write diaries; they are too busy living. (Robert Heinlein)

 

...wonder if they also don't write blogs...I have to wonder as it gets to be week after week before I find the time to sit down a write in spite of my promise back in the summer to keep at it. So what is it about being busy?

 

Partly it's the time of year when everybody gets caught up in the holiday season, partly it seems to be an age thing...could it be that as we age we actually get less efficient, or is it that we REALLY do have more to do in less time, because we don't have the luxury of looking ahead to an entire lifetime of tomorrows….don’t know the answers, but I sure wish I had the pattern for “TIME” the new and improved version – I’d make me some more!

 

Some of the things keeping me busy aside from the ‘working for a paycheck job’ are customer quilts,  guild projects, and doing some of my own piecing and hopefully over the holidays some quilting for ME…but we’ll see.

 

I finished this one up on the weekend, couldn't find the time to hang it and shoot some pictures; so here  goes.. the quilt is roughly 90" square. The schoolhouse blocks are 12" sampler blocks made into a traditional looking schoolhouse block, each about 21" x 19". Three more blocks on the back. The colours were hard to shoot as the blocks are a batiks in the mossy grey green family. The sashing and borders are a taupe-y mottle. It's a pretty quilt and as a bonus well pieced and flat...yay!

Sashing, and block detail

Roof detail and chimney "smoke"

Block, sashing, and bottom border detail

Back

Back

Full quilt

 

So, lots of stuff to keep me busy including guild projects, and more customer quilts to post, but more about all of that to come...

Cheers