The year that was

It is always good to look back and see how far one has come over the course of a year. 

I started as a novice quilter and continued to learn something new with every project. This years biggest achievement was free motion quilting. Also did a bit of hand quilting, improv quilt blocks and English Paper Piecing.

I also branched out sewing small items like pouches, bags, hot pads, pillow covers, etc. I would like to get better at making these items. In addition, I experimented sewing with varied materials like minky, outdoor fabric, selvages, voile & fusible interfacing.

In the coming year I already have the following things lined up:

• Participating in the Madrona Road Challenge
• Signed up for the following BOMs. I will learn quite a few new skills along the way primarily paper piecing.
• Skill Builder BOM - hosted by Pile O Fabric
• Lucky Stars BOM - hosted by Don't Call Me Betsy
• And of course workshops and events hosted by the CNJMQG quilt guild.

I am ever thankful for the online quilt community that has supported my learning effort and encouraged me with their kind comments. Hopefully it will be another year full of fun and learning. Happy New Year to all and hope you have a great year ahead.

Linking up to:

The word seems to have spread

Oddly or obviously enough for the first time most of my holiday gifts consisted of quilting parapharnelia. The word about my quilty dabblings seems to have spread. This year I was lucky enough to receive these

In order: 1. My aunt gave me her old serger, a white superlock 2000 she doesn't use anymore. 2. A stack of Northcott Color Works fat quarters in Flower Power Pink. 3. A layer cake of Salt Air from Cosmo Cricket. 4. A fat quarter bundle of Architextures by Carol Friedlander in black colorway. 5. A perpetual calendar with some amazing quilt blocks from Martingale. 6. A silver thimble with Aztec inlay work. 7. A bundle of fabric scraps. 8. Vintage print duck cloth. 9. A fat quarter bundle of Bike Path from Lucky Penny collection by Alison Glass. 

Hmm must tackle some substantial quilt projects in 2013, now that I have no excuses. Also the Serger looks super complicated to thread. Any one can suggest a class I can take locally to acquaint myself with this machine?

Holiday Stockings

One last sewing project before I call it a year. Very soon the house will be filled with family and I doubt will be able to get much sewing done. Anyway I decided to make holiday stockings for my little niece and nephew who will be visiting from Seattle. 

I used this tutorial with a few modifications. I made it reversible, in the sense the front and back of the stocking have a different pattern.

Front of stocking

Back of stocking

I also sealed off the edge under the cuff unlike the tutorial, not a big fan of exposed seams. Kept the quilting to a minimum, just enough to stabilize the layers. The fabric itself is very busy. I thought heavy quilting was not necessary.

The fabric is from Pennington Quilt Works, it was on sale at 25% off when I went by to pick up fabric for the Madrona Road Fabric Challenge. 

I have only made one so far...off to making the second.

Linking up to :

 

100th Post!!!!!

This is the 100th post since I started my blog about a year ago. Quite a milestone. Cannot believe I have had so much to say but it's been a very fun exercise. I have met some talented fellow quilters and have been greatly inspired along the way.

What more fitting for such a milestone than this wide mouthed pouch made using this tutorial from Noodlehead. 

I made this for my mum to carry around her crotchet paraphernalia.

She had been carrying around her project in a Ziploc bag which sprung a hole and she lost one of her crotchet needles. Decided to make her this pouch to avoid anymore needle loses. I modified the pattern a bit to add this cool zipper pocket on the inside to hold the needle.

Fabrics used: Michael Miller Ta Da Dot in Lime Green, Quilter's Linen by Robert Kaufman in Charcoal and Amy Butler's Twilight Peony in Azure from Soul Blossom collection.

Linking up to: Finish it up Friday & 

EPP Cushion Cover

Last night finally finished up the EPP pillow cover I had started as part of the Sewing Confrontations blog series. 

The quilting on the hexagons was something I had seen done on one of the blogs. I cannot find that blog anymore to give proper credit. At last I found it here. It gives a nice texture to the pillow. For the back I used Valori Wells - Wildfield in citrus.

Recently at work they had a seminar about taking pride in your work...a lot of corporate chatter but one thing I got from it was good workmanship. Even aesthetic is subjective but not good workmanship. The reason I mentioned this was because I sealed all the seems on the inside with binding. This way there is no fraying at all and makes one sturdy pillow cover.

Linking up to: Finish it up Friday & TGIFF Fridays