Happy New Year. . .

 My fabric is cut for my new quilt.  I cut 4 - 6 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangles and 6 - 2 1/2" squares from each of 40 fabrics.  Total blocks will be 80.  This is what I will be sewing on New Year's Day, beginning my new year doing what I love best.  What do you have planned for your day?  Whatever it is I send my blessings that 2012 will be rich with love, success, and prosperity.

Happy New Year to all!

 

Friday Finishes - Out with the Old

This is the last of the Friday Finishes' column for 2011.  Out with the old is this year's word selection "Action."

I took action in small steps this year.  The small steps have added up and my professional life is changing.  There is still more action to take, but I now find that the word is part of my active vocabulary, a word I think about when new ideas are formulated.

In with the new is my word for 2012 of "Commitment," or follow through.  This word feels like the logical next step to action.  My mind works in a flight of fancy type way, plenty of thoughts and ideas.  Keeping to my action word, some of those thoughts and ideas became reality.  But my weak spot is commitment, following through on those actions.

I found several quotes about commitment that I am incorporating into a wallhanging using new techniques.  I have always liked the idea of drawing on fabric with pen and colored pencils and am playing with that technique for this wallhanging.

My background fabric is muslin.  I will be incorporating a phone book page and some organza and charms into this work.  I was "inspired" (you have to see the article to understand) by Lindsay Ostrom's article in ArtQuiltingStudio Winter 2012.


I have enjoyed having a word of the year rather than New Year's resolutions.  It has allowed me to feel accomplished and continually be aware of where I'm going and how I'm getting there.  There is lots of chatting about selecting a word of the year on various art/quilt blogs right now.  Browse around and see what you can find.  Then take some quiet time and consider a word that would work for you.  I wish you much success with wherever your word might take you in 2012.


Happy New Year!

New Project from New Fabric Gift. . .

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and received everything on your wish list!  My wish list was more than satisfied.  First, and most importantly, my DH and friends got together and gave me a combination birthday/Christmas gift:  an Apple computer!  You may remember that my computer crashed last summer.  I have been working on a PC since but have greatly missed owning an Apple.  It's wonderful to feel at home again with my technology.  

Of course, fabric is always on a quilter's wish list.  The generous lady who owns the quilt shop I work for gave each of us a Moda fat quarter pack.  This is my pack, Basic Grey's Max & Whiskers.  

As I have never owned 40 fat quarters from one line before, this gift is a real luxury.  I already have a new quilt in the works and am cutting away.  It is called "Happy-Go-Lucky" by Camille Roskelley.  The quilt will be a gift for my mom in March.


All of my Santas were very good to me this year.  Thank you to all the great people looking after me.  You make my life richer.

Friday Finishes - Documenting Your Projects

The end of the year is near and it's time to take stock of where I am on projects I've begun over the last few years.  Because I blog, I have a continuous journal of my projects and the status of each.

Projects barely begun;

 Projects begun but at a standstill;

Projects needing quilting;

Projects completed;

And those still on the drawing board.

As I reflect on the status of each, it gives me an opportunity to understand why the quilts are where they are in their completion.  This, in turn, gives me the opportunity to understand who I am as a quilter and what motivates me to be passionate about a project.


Although the majority of you do not blog, I encourage you to in some way document what you do.  Not only does it give you a log of your projects, but it assists you in remembering techniques used, designs imagined, and time to completion.  In our busy lives, we don't often realize how much time goes by and how poor our memory can be.  Documenting our projects takes that burden from us and allows our project details to be available at any time for any purpose.


Happy Friday,

A Last Minute Gift to Make. . .

Only a few days left to get that special someone a gift for Christmas.  I happen to have several special someones that I want to let know how blessed I am to have them in my life.  So I planned and actually made these cute wristlets I found a tutorial for on Javajem's blog. 

 It's a great tutorial, well documented with lots of pictures, and these were fun and easy to make.  I underscored the "actually made" because you don't know how difficult it is for me to follow through on a plan with a deadline.

 You may notice that there is a personalized label in the upper left corner of these wristlets.

These labels were made using this printable organza product from Jacquard.  This is a fun product with lots of design possibilities, especially for incorporating words into your quilts.

I began by typing "Quilt Whimsy" into a Microsoft Word label format,

and printed to get this.

I fused Mistyfuse to the backside of my background fabric.  Be aware that organza has a transparency element to it and the print will be a bit opaque when pulled off the paper backing.  I decided on a common background fabric to attach the organza to that would make the words visible.

The background fabric was cut to size and fused into place on the wristlet.

 As I cut the organza label to size, I elected to pull a few threads from each side to create a small amount of fraying.  The organza was placed on the background fabric

and sewed around the edge with metallic thread.  And, waalaa, I have my own unique label.

Hope your Christmas preparations are well on their way and close to completion.  Merry Christmas to you all.  May it be filled with lots of love and all the goodies you've asked for, especially quilting goodies.


Until next time.