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

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

Late night sewing

For well over a year there have been road work outside my flat - these days they are doing the finishing touches, which means night work. They have not been too much of a bother for me, except for the last couple of nights. Coming home from the cinema last night there was a lot of noice, and not much chance of sleep, and I figured why not get some work done on my Sister's Choice quilt - border sewing galore till way into the night:

It still needs a good press, but aside from that it's ready to be layered and quilted - yey!!!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Slow progress

It has been a few busy weeks, and I haven't had time to sew as much as I would have liked. But at least I can show a little progress on my Sister's Choice quilt:



The JR gave me 16 blocks that finish at 10" (I could probably have gotten a few more, but the contrast wouldn't be as good, better to use those strips in the border) - that does not add up to a very large quilt, so I have used some of the extra yardage I had for lattice, and some of the leftover squares from the block centers for cornerstones. I do have some ideas for borders, just need to find the time to execute them :o)

Take care and be creative!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Sacrilege?

I have (finally?) put my rotary cutter to my oldest jelly roll - Canoe Country by Holly Taylor.



Honestly, it kind of felt like sacrilege! This JR has been part of my stash for such a long time, and I have thought long and hard about what I want to do with it, and not come up with a good answer... So an evening last week I figured why not make some Sister's Choice blocks - I have been looking at this quilt on Quiltville for a long time, loving it! This is how far I have gotten:



They are coming together smoothly, and it looks kind of cute so far :o)

Hope you have had a wonderful weekend!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida