New Year's resolution 2009: reflections

Remember this post? In the beginning of January, Rose and I made a promise to ourselves and each other that for 2009 we were going to make what we love! We figured the UFO's weren't going anywhere, but we solemnly promised we wouldn't add anymore UFO's to the list. 2009 has been all about finishing whatever we wanted to start! So how has this been going? During this year I have started seven quilts (wow, is it really that many?):

1. The Sugar Camp Quilt
For me, this was the reason for the resolution in the first place; a deliberation whether to focus on WISPs and UFOs, or start something new. I hate to admit it, but this one is still at the "flimsy without border" stage - however I do still have hopes to finish it before the year is over! A little discipline!?!

2. Red & White Swap sampler
Wohoo! It was a lot of fun working on this one! The girls had done a fabulous job on the blocks! And I had a ball testing out my collection of quilt stencils and trying out different shapes in free motion quilting. The sign-up for this swap was in Dec. 2008, so not really sure if it should count… but the blocks weren’t sewn and swapped till January 2009, so I’ll let it ;o) FINISHED May 8th!!

3. Nanny Sharon's Picnic Quilt
A Threadbare Creations pattern I totally fell in love with when Rose published it back in October last year. It was a quick, easy and fun quilt to make! FINISHED May 24th!! Just in time for picnic season (it now have some tomato sauce and strawberry stains - shows it has been used *lol* - need a wash!)

4. Mini Bear's Paw
A reaction from doing those large quilts, I decided to make a mini - in four days ;o) FINISHED May 27th!

5. Sol's birthday quilt
This was started at DJ class with Hanne in March. This sampler was an experiment with blocks of different sizes - the smallest 4.5" and the largest12". FINISHED ehh... in time for her birthday July 29th!

6. Sister’s Choice jelly roll quilt
My oldest jelly roll was cut up in September - it was slow progress on this project, I was a bit un-inspired and I was spending my stitching time doing DJ blocks and working on some old WISPs. But this week I made the decision to get it done! I brought the binding to quilt guild last night, and I hand stitched quite a bit. Coming home I figured I was on a roll, so I spent a couple more hours on the sofa with needle and thread. And behold, it's FINISHED December 9th!



It has fleece on the back:



Not sure how much I enjoyed quilting fleece... So it's not very heavily quilted :o)

7. Carolina Christmas
This mystery was started in late November, and we are up to clue 5... I still have a little ways to go on step 4... I'm going to give myself a bit of leeway on this one - it is a huge quilt, and it has lots and lots of piecing... if I can get it finished in January I'll be happy!

Looking at my list of finishes I see I have been quite productive over this year, sewing smaller things in between these quilts. And if I can get the Sugar Camp Quilt finished by the new year - I will give myself a pat on the back and say "good girl" ;o)

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Sewing Sunday

I'm back after a short but sweet visit to London :o) It was lovely to spend a couple of days with a good friend! She got me a belated birthday pressie, tickets to the theatre - we went to see Terry Pratchett's Nation at the National Theatre in London:

I'd say it's kind of a crossing between the story of Noah, the Gilgamesh Epos, and Robinson Crusoe - encompassing themes of death and nationhood, and some very Terry Pratchett elements, like a talking parrot with some rather naughty comments ;o)
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I got back late last nigh/early this morning, and had a bit of a sleep in today. Getting up, rain and a dark grey sky greeted me. Not weather to be outdoors! So I have been spending my day with Bernie, finishing up the units for step 3 of Carolina Christmas mystery. All 192 of these strange looking units:
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What on earth will they be used for? I have also a pile of 384 HST units stitched, ready to be pressed and trimmed to 2". These are all cut-offs from the units above, no way I'm throwing out that much fabric - there's the beginning of a whole new quilt here!
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Woohoo! I'll go peek at step 4 now!!!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Carolina Christmas continues

I have been cutting and stitching like mad the last few evenings - and having heaps of fun ;o) Bonnie's mystery has so many little pieces - loving it, but it takes lots of time and my back feels all those hours with Bernie. But step 1 and 2 are all done:

And I have cut all 784 pieces of step 3 - puh! And just barely started piecing...

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That plaid in front is my Dad's shirt ;o) Six of the sets of 4 are done, but all these pieces are going to take time, especially since I double sew all the seams to get those 2" HSTs Bonnie talks about:

There will be a lot of these little guys - 48 of them so far. I can see a whole new quilt coming along here *lol*. I'm going to London for a couple of days, so I won't be able to get back to these till Sunday at the earliest. Have a great end of week!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Weekend quilting

Have you seen that Bonnie have posted part 1 and 2 of the Carolina Christmas mystery? When I saw she had posted the first part on Friday, I just had to start cutting and sewing, and around midnight I was done with the first step:
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Fun, fun, fun!! But I had promised myself (and Rose) that I would quilt my Sister's Choice before doing part 2, and seeing Bonnie had said Sunday... well, Bernie and I have quilted like crazy for a couple of days:
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And now the quilting is done:
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The edges still have to be trimmed, and i have to do the binding, but I figure I will cut the binding and piece that in between all of Bonnie's triangles :o)

My friend Leisha Camden had some visitors from Japan over for a couple of days, and I invited them here for dinner last night - whale stew (yummy!), and home made caramel pudding for dessert (even more yummy!!) - and there is a little left over for me tonight - so today is quilting, not cooking!



Enjoy your first Sunday of Advent!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Rose's new pattern "Teen Dreams"

Ok, so you know I love Rose's designs! From time to time she gives me little sneak peeks at them while they are in progress ;o) Today she released her new pattern "Teen Dreams" - congratulations, sweetie! This is a gorgeous, funky quilt and two very pretty cushions in one pattern pack - a great pattern for beginners as well as those who are experienced quilters. I have been grumbling a lot about needing new cushions for my sofa - and when she showed me the cushions for this pattern, I just had to do a little pre-release sewing! So a transformation from this:



Ugh!! To this:



Pretty!! As you might see my flowers are a bit different from the pattern - a consequence of getting Bernie to work before I had a chance of getting my hands on Rose's templates. I have a feeling there might be a red-white-black version of the other as well, sooner or later :o)

Btw, Rose is having a giveaway of two copies of the new pattern - so pop over to Threadbare and leave her a comment!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida