2012 recap: a big year

I’ve been a bit slow with this post – the recap of 2012 and the goals for 2013. Partly because I was away in Vietnam during that week when I usually do all my “past year, next year” organisation, and partly because my computer died at the start of December and I didn’t get around to replacing it until last week. I’ve been doing everything off my work computer which, while sturdy, makes me a bit antsy at times.

And it’s so much easier to 'do' than to 'recap'!

I'd have done a collage of my projects, only I don't have the time right now.

My goals for 2012 were:

1. Finish another 12 quilt tops.
2. Make at least 1 quilt from go to whoa - including the quilting stage, which I usually fob off to someone else.
3. Start making quilts and patterns with an intent to sell.

My results for 2012 were:

1. Not quite. My excuse is that we were doing kitchen renovations from February until August, and I had no sewing space because the kitchen essentially got moved into my sewing room.
2. Yes! The Eternity Quilt. Designed, cut, pieced, quilted, and bound by me!
3. Well, I did some quilt block patterns but they were nothing special. I'm not sure I'm cut out for the 'making patterns to sell' angle - it's not my focus, although I might still make some quilts to sell in future.

2012 Works

California Girl: A very quick project that turned out rather nice. More pastels than I like, but it'll be to someone's taste, I'm sure! (And the photography doesn't help.)

Charmed Prints: A quilt-along with Anne-Marie of Gen X Quilters.

HST Harvest: Using up the FQs of a "harvest themed" fabric collection I bought four years ago and which I don't like anymore. (The colours are Not My Thing at all!)

Floating Wildflowers: For the wedding of a friend in April. Another fabric collection I bought four years ago and hadn't yet used. I like this one better - the dark jewel tones, the design - much more to my tastes!

New York Beauty Blocks: Was to be for a huge NYB quilt-along, but I didn't like the colours I chose. I worked in mostly-solid or monochrome batiks and it just didn't work for me. So I'll make a small hanging from this and do a fullsize (or bigger size) quilt in some other fabric collection.

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner - Scrap Attack: Definitely a pattern to do again in future - love the scrappiness, and the off-white 'backing'. It would be interesting to do this with a layer cake (or jelly roll) and a background fabric...

Azerbaijani scarf for Eurovision: For my friend's Eurovision party back in May!

Two baby quilts: a commission by a friend for her nephew and niece.

mug rug: Part of a mug-rug exchange. Only mine was a bit large - it's more of a soup-bowl rug!

Heirloom: I was trying to do this in the manner of a quilt I saw online, but I think that one was more of a 'coins' style design, which makes a difference - this design is a little too rich for my eye.

Build Me Up Buttercup: I love the fabric, but I don't think the design quite hits me. Yellow (it's actually 'Kona Daffodil' not 'Kona Buttercup' but the name stuck) is not my favourite of colours - I prefer it as an accent, not a theme.

Snowflake block: My first block tutorial! Design is by Madame Parfait, but she never posted the tutorial. This one's a bit rough, and I really need to make a whole quiltload. Perhaps in 2013?

Stepdad’s Cushions: Commissioned by my mum for the stepdad, oh, two years ago. Finally finished this year. Along with her quilt. They now sit in pride of place on their bed.

Batman block: A block tutorial for the Wicked! bloghop in October 2013. I need to use this block - perhaps in a cushion cover?

Eternity: My 2013 nemesis, dreamed up for a church project and completed in a ridiculously short time given its complexity level. Four months from inception to completion, and I did every inch of it, from design to cutting to piecing to quilting.

So that’s 2012, done and dusted!

Up next, 2013 goals.

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Floating Wildflowers

Presenting
Floating Wildflowers!

Size:
60" x 70"
Quilted by:
Jo Nicholls of Thirroul Custom Quilting
Categories:
Favorite Bed Quilt
Favorite Professionally Quilted Quilt

Back when I first started 'quilting for real', circa 2009, my colour and fabric tastes were very different. The quilt shops I'd previously used were more traditional, and so most of what I saw were traditional-style quilts.

I have no idea how I discovered online fabric shopping, or the online blogosphere, but when I did, I found these wonderful 'pre-cut packs' full of a sample of a whole range of fabric! Naturally, there was nothing to do but go on a shopping spree and within a week I'd bought 3 moda pre-cut packs - a fat quarter set, a jelly roll, and a charm pack of each of Harmony, Kansas Winter, and Wildflower Serenade II.

Quite a lot of fabric, and very traditional colours and patterns for the fabrics; it would be tricky to integrate them into the more modern style of quilt I was making these days.

Then a friend of mine announced her engagement to her boyfriend - a country friend turned city girl, who fell in love with a guy who was actually interviewed to go on the reality TV show "The Farmer Wants A Wife" (they decided against him in the end). A mix of the traditional and the modern! Perfect!

I did some laying out to see how it would look:

And a lot of calculations to make sure I had enough fabric to work with, cutting up the layer cakes and fat quarters to ensure I had enough blocks!

Then it was cutting and piecing and sewing...and some unexpected edge-matching!

One thing I like about these kinds of quilts is that it's so very simple to make: just one block made in repeat over and over and all sewn together for a simple yet effective look! I'm all about the simple!

I liked the way this design made the coloured blocks 'float' above the cream/beige background fabric, a dance of blocks across the quilt top:

JAZZ HANDS!

With borders:

And a cat (she's about 6mths at this point, 12 months now):

I sent it to be quilted with Jo Nicholls of Thirroul Custom Quilting - computerised patterns, always classy, always beautifully done! I love using her for my finished quilts, even though I do hope to learn how to FMQ with my own machine.

And finally a binding of dark blue to finish it off!

One thing this quilt highlighted for me is the blurry line between 'traditional' and 'modern' quilting. The colours and patterns of this quilt read 'traditional' to me, but the look of it overall is very 'modern'. I think it's 'modernness' is helped along by the way the squares 'float' in a rather abstract manner due to the cream-beige 'background'.

I suppose purists would argue that 'modern' quilting should be done with modern colours and modern quilt patterns - my Eternity Quilt, for example, would firmly hit the 'modern quilt' mark in colour choice, fabric choice, and design.

And yet most block piecing is based upon a traditional set of blocks - HSTs, flying geese, log cabins - simple and used since someone first thought to take a couple of scraps and sew the edges together to make a bigger piece that was both functional and visually delightful.

So is it modern, or is it traditional? I guess it depends which way you're looking at the quilt - like one of those pictures - now it's a cup, now it's a pair of faces!

Either way, I'm very happy with the result, and my friend was delighted with her wedding present. Which she got four months later on her birthday because her husband managed to lop of the tip of his thumb on his wedding day! It was certainly a memorable day. :)

I wasn't going to enter the Blogger's Quilt Festival this year. I was hoping to have quilted my Scrap Attack so I had something more dramatic. Maybe that will be for next Quilt Festival. Or maybe I'll save the Eternity Quilt for that one. :)

Thanks so much to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for running the Blogger's Quilt Festival again!

Modern Quilts with Traditional Fabrics?

Is it possible to do Modern quilting with Traditional fabrics?

Or does the fabric chosen for a given project necessarily feed into the definition of modern vs. traditional?



The plan for my friend's wedding quilt was to develop an abstract look: the floating dark squares in the yellowish background. (What colour is that, anyway. Mustard? I always thought mustard would be more green or more brown...)



There was much angst and worry over cutting the jelly roll up - would I have enough? What if I didn't - where would I find enough fabric to make up the difference?

I made 81 blocks for a 9x9 quilt...only to discover that I didn't have quite enough fabric for the last block and had to piece together some ends...

Only, as it turned out, I'd made 91 squares. *facepalm*

So the quilt is now 9x10 blocks.



And in the process of putting blocks together, sometimes you do something amazing:


I swear, I couldn't have done that if I tried!