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Jennie's Finishes 2012

2012 was a good year for finishes! Here are all of the ones I can remember in no particular order

Swoon


Swoon Along button
Swoon craze hit early January and I jumped on board with 18 fat quarters of Happy Mochi Yum Yum - this was my first order of fabrics from the US and it must have been fate that I ordered 18 fat quarters and that was exactly what I needed. I used bright red for the background. The blocks are 24".

I backed the quilt with a good quality sheet, I used my newly acquired free motioin stippling ability to stipple in all of the red of the quilt. I bound it in a beautiful red and white stripe!


I also made a mini Swoon using 12" blocks. I finished it as a practice with my new walking foot. I was a class at my LQS and the lady next to me in the class, Elizabeth, had picked up most of these fabrics. I spent all day watching her using them, and by the end of the day I had a fat quarter of each of the blues, plus the spotty background and the brown I used for the centres.

And as if 12" wasn't small enough, I did a 6" version to include in my Farmer's Wife Quilt.

Oh My Stars


Oh My Stars! (A Quilt-Along)
I decided to do this quilt along in December 2011 and asked for the fabrics for Christmas: Dogwood Trail by Moda with a cream Painters Canvas for the background. The tutorials were fantastic, especially the way of making 4 flying geese units at once, and although I was fed up of pinning long seams with lots of joins by the time I finished, I was thrilled with the end result, which was huge.

Again I stippled in all of the background so that the stars really popped. My Mum must like the finished result because she has it on long term loan (until I finish the quilt she picked the fabrics for). This quilt was also backed with a sheet.

Chasing Chevrons


That Girl... That Quilt
This was another QAL that appeared in late 2011. I discovered Art Gallery fabrics whilst on holiday in 2011 and bought a selection of fat sixteenths and fat eights - I couldn't justify lots of fabric and didn't have a project in mind. This quilt was perfect because it didn't need a lot of the focus fabrics. And I got the background fabrics from the sale section at my LQS. This quilt taught me the basic maths behind half square triangles and I learnt that I don't like starch. I backed it with a Robert Kaufmann flannel, and luckily it was a busy enough fabric to not show the numerous pleats ... oh for a walking foot!


Farmer's Wife


The Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt Quilt-Along

I started the Farmer's Wife quilt in July 2011 and it was the reason I joined Flickr and found loads of great blogs. 111 6" blocks set on point - I love the bright colours of batiks paired with black. I learnt how to foundation piece and got a lot of practice. In February this year it finally clicked how to draft blocks by myself, and from that point I was able to rotary cut more blocks - I don't do templates.

The sashing nearly killed me! It is my least favourite part of making a quilt. I found an extra wide batik at the quilt show at Harrogate in September and bought black wadding polyester/cotton - I don't think I'll bother next time, but the drape of this quilt is lovely. I quilted it in straight lines with my brand new walking foot. I think I need to work on adding borders to quilts, as a few this year have resulted in horrific puckers when I quilt/bind them.

I think these are some of my favourite blocks

Melrose Quilt

Melrose is the name of the fabric range from Red Rooster. My mother-in-law fell in love with the range and bought some to make curtains. Without her knowing, I bought the requirements for the quilt in the free pattern that came with the range. It was supposed to be a Christmas present, but was eventually finished by her birthday in February. This was my first ever attempt at FMQ - I didnt' know it at the time, but there was an issue with the machine which wasn't helping. I love the stripey binding - it's printed on the diagonal so I got this effect without having to cut on the bias.

Yellow Tablecloth


This was for Mum. She had picked the fabrics in Summer 2010 and I finally got it finished at the end of January.

Ambrosia Quilt


I bought the fabrics for this quilt because I liked them. I had a book called Fast Quilts from Fat Quarters and it started off with me messing about with some fabrics I liked and a pattern I wanted to try. I got to a fairly small /baby quilt and couldn't decide what to do, so it sat in the cupboard for months. Then I was visiting Hobby Craft - usually the home of very very expensive fabrics - and found the range all knocked down to half price (about 70% of the price of a normal shop) and they had the most fantastic huge rose print - backing! I bought more fat quarters and increased the quilt size to a full size lap quilt.

This was my first try at full on free motion quilting. I was very relaxed about it because the quilt wasn't for any particular purpose and if it went wrong, I could buy more fabric from my LQS. But it went well. And I got the proper crinkle effect when I washed it!

The fabrics are called Ambrosia. I think they are Westminster fabrics.

Amelia Quilt


Quilts for Siblings Together
In 2011 I made a Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt from the book of the same name by Pam and Nicky Lintott. Another of the quilts in the book caught my eye - the Snowball Sampler. I bought a Jelly Roll of Amelia by Three Sisters for Moda and started off with four blocks. Then Christmas happened and I decided I didn't like the fabric as much. I had all of the background fabrics I needed, but it sat unloved for a few months. Then Lynne from Lily's Quilts launched a quilt drive for the charity Siblings Together and I was inspired to finish it and donate it. It took me a while to get there, but I sent it off in early summer. Hopefully a child loves it's pinkness! I used polyester batting in this quilt for the first time, so it was quicker and easier to wash (foster parents have enough to do without fighting a heavy wet quilt) and it would also be lighter if the quilt was given to a small child. I didn't enjoy the polyester experience!

Incubator Quilts


Early in 2012 two of the locals at my LQS lost Grandchildren within days of their due dates. We wanted to do something. Kim, at the Fat Quarters, launched a campaign for Incubator quilts to be donated to the hospital and given to the parents of premature babies, or of babies born asleep. The quilts are only 16x20". The campaign has now been extended to three hospitals in the North East of England. If you are interested in contributing a quilt or want to start something similar for your local hospital, then get in touch with Kim - in the UK there is a lot of red tape, and she has done a lot of work on developing a plan that will be accepted by the hospitals. Our LQS has donated over 300 quilts and the demand will continue. Here are some of the quilts I've donated.
I entered the white and postage stamp incuabtor quilt in the Bloggers quilt festival in May


Amy's creative side

Joshua's Quilt:

Joshua was born in June weighing 12lb2oz. With a baby that big you need a big quilt. I used the Churn Dash design in a rainbow of colours and backed it with a print from Backyard Baby.

Sebastian's Quilt:

Sebastian was born six weeks early at the end of August and was the other end of the size spectrum. His parents had chosen green for his nursery, so I made a Farmer's Wife quilt in all different greens. He can grow into this quilt, which is currently far to big for him!

Noah's Quilt

It was the year of baby boys and Noah was also born in June. He got a quilt made entirely of flannels.

Twisted Braid

I did this Jelly Roll quilt as a class at my LQS with a Jelly Roll of Cabbages and Roses from Northcott. The perfect colours for a very dear family friend. It sat unquilted until 28th December! I then free motion stippled in the pieced panels and bound it with a scrappy binding made from all the leftover Jelly Roll strips.

Papillon Quilts


My Husband has two lovely Great Aunts and I decided at the start of the year that I would like to make them both quilts for Christmas. Independently I asked both of them what their favourite colour was. I didn't expect them to both say the same - blue. Papillon from Moday came into our LQS and it was the fabric I wanted to use. I avoided the coral colour way, and had two custom Jelly Rolls cut from the blues and creams to use in a Hexagon inspired pattern from Pam and Nicky Lintott's "More Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts". These were quilted in an all-over stipple and backed with an extra-wide calico. They came out quite small, but I really like them, and so did the Great Aunts.


Mod Pop


she can quilt
I love this quilt. Leanne at She Can Quilt pattern tested this design in the summer and I fell in love. How difficult can curved seams be?  Turns out, not too hard if you follow Leanne's pinless tutorial. And I had to overcome my dislike of templates. But it was worth it. I used my stash of Pure from Sweetwater fabrics, plus a few extras to create quite a subtle contrast. I free motion stippled in the background (for 2013 I need to learn some free motion quilting that isn't stippling) and bound in Kona dark brown. This quilt was for Michael's Aunty Barbara and Uncle Gordon for Christmas.


Countdown to Christmas


Last year I made a Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt from a Jelly Roll of Countdown to Christmas by Sweetwater for Moda.  It was the first quilt I totally finished! My mother-in-law proudly took it into work to show some of her colleagues and one of them, Margaret, asked if I would make her one too. I bought all of the fabrics straight away - I had to order the sashing from the US because no one in the UK had any left - and whilst I was at it, I used it as an excuse to a few more fat quarters to my basket - Happy Mochi Yum Yum!

I finally got it finished just before Christmas and I definitely prefer her version to mine! Again - I free motion quilted. The backing is also fantastic.

Sew Intertwined


Sew Intertwined QAL
This was a quilt along hosted by Jenna and Melissa. It came at just the right time. I wanted to make a quilt for my parents' next door neighbour, Aunty Marion, and when I had asked her about her favourite colours, she had said green and purple. I really struggle to find purple. But in July my LQS had a sale and some of the older bolts of fabric reappeared. There was a range with purple and a lovely sage-like green. The range is Cats Amore from Benartex - I avoided the cat prints, and added in a pink. I didn't know what I was going to with it, until this QAL was announced. Though at the beginning, Jenna and Melissa kept very quiet about the partial seams in some of the blocks. This was my first medalion style quilt and my first real attempt at a Dresden.

The tutorials were great and I really enjoyed putting this quilt together, though it's just as well there were lots of bias edges, as quite a lot of tugging and tweaking was required to get the seams to join up. I also managed a pieced back with all of the left over fabrics.


Cushions


I made quite a few cushions this year, mostly for me!

Owl Cushion - a class at my LQS using Thimbleberries fabrics.

Half-square Triangles cushion which I entered in the Festival of Half Square triangles
 I used some of the leftovers from my Swoon in Happy Mochi Yum Yum and did my dense first straight line quilting - I love the front of the cushion, but possibily love the back more!


Lego Cushion: I hadn't intended for this cushion to look like Lego! This was my entry in the Modern Mini Challenge - as I raided my stash for fabrics I realised I didn't have the modern fabrics I wanted. This cushion started off my stash building drive - so far it's last about 7 months. Need to stop soon!

Indian Summer Cushion: the pattern for this was in a quilting magazine I bought last Christmas. It's foundation pieced and I made it for my Gran. The hand quilting finished it off.


Swaps


I joined my first swaps - if my partners hadn't liked any of these I would happily have kept them for myself!

Sewing Machine Cover for the Modern She Made Swap Round 1


with matching pinny

Mug Rug

Swoon-inspired cushion

Hoop La La swap: those little hexies are just 1/4" and the bigger ones 3/4".

Place Mats for round two of the Modern She Made Swap

and coasters and a basket to go with them.

Holiday Ornament Swap.

Other things

And then there were the random things I made in the middle

Tango Challenge

Notebook Cover: Dad's Christmas present in fabrics that totally aren't me!

NYB Placemats:

Sew Sweetness
Mum's Christmas present - she loves batiks! This was my only try at New York Beauty Blocks for the year.

Mug Rug: using the leftovers from my Mini Swoon

Mini Hopscotch: I totally plan on making a full size Hopscotch. But not with templates. I made this only with rotary cutting and the 60degree lines on my ruler - just to check that I could!

My main EPP projects from 2012 remain unfinished, but I did complete two small pieces - a green pincushion and a purple Christmas decoration.


Wassail: made entirely with solids (my first time) and from the Tula Pink Modern Alphabet pattern for the Tula Pink Sew Along. This is a fantastic pattern, and I really want to use it again sometime. The quilting really makes it!

Farmer's Wife Blind Runner:

Farmer's wife in your life
We have a plain boring Ikea blind at the top of our stairs and I had wanted to make something to go on it for months. The Farmer's Wife in Your Life challenge was the push I needed. I picked different blues and made 6 blocks.

ROLL ON 2013!!!

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