Friday, January 31, 2014

Starting Over... Again, Maybe

LAST DAY of January, 2014... And first blog in a very long time.

I guess I did sort of "Fall Off The End Of The Earth" this last year. 2013 wasn't my best year ever, and quite a few things got lost in the shuffle of living. Some quilting got accomplished, some pieces are still in  the 'flimsy' stage, and some are yet in the 'thinking' stage.

I am getting better on the longarm, thanks to Charlie and the ladies at "Country Lady" in Roseburg... I'm so pleased that she is letting the guild (I finally joined a quilt guild) use one of her big Gammills to quilt the donation quilts we have made/collected. Amazing to be able to practice on a longarm when you don't own a machine! I'm now good enough that I've topstitched three of my own quilts as well as a couple for friends, and about 50 donation quilts for guild.

To recap my quilting year:
I took a quilt class at Charlie's and have a lovely Amish-Style quilt that needs topstitching to show for it. The bright solids really pop against the black. My first quilt using solid fabrics, it has no home yet.

Bonnie Hunter came to our guild in September, and Kerstin and I attended her workshop. Made a string quilt (not my favorite style) called "Spiderweb" and now I'm in love with this quick way to use up scraps that are too small for anything, but too big to discard! After our quilt retreat in a few weeks I'm sure I'll have the borders finished and on, so I can post a photo.

Several of Erin's friends had babies, and were gifted quilts. The Moms and Dads were the ones who seemed most pleased, but the babies looked pretty cute wrapped in their  new quilts.

Finally finished the Hawaiian pillows for Nora and the Kids, they were very appreciative of the gesture.

My table-runner of the month project stalled with only four made. But I've finished "January" now with one day to spare while participating in Judy L's Scrappy Challenge of the Month. I'll post a picture in a separate post so everyone from the challenge doesn't have to slog through the verbiage. I'll make the February runner at the retreat, and March just needs quilting. More of Judy's scrappy challenges will probably come into the picture as table runner Multi-Taskers this year.

I'm off  to the quilt shop to finish topstitching a gift quilt (which I can't show yet either, it is a secret) and do some townie errands. See you all later!