More Gifts of Christmas and the Year 2013 in Review

I would like to thank all of you for your kind comments about the shirt quilts I made for my family members from my FIL's shirts. (You can see this post here.) A few people asked about the fiber content of the shirts...most were 100% cotton but a few were a cotton/poly blend and a couple had some wool in them as well. Some of the older shirts that had been washed a lot yielded very flimsy fabric and so I did not worry too much about those ones being on the straight of grain. The quilting is fairly dense on purpose to help hold everything together and keep it all stable. I have a bit of the shirt fabric left but I think I am going to take a break from sewing with shirt fabric for a while...

The sewing elves were very busy at my house this year!  Besides the shirt quilts, I also made my father a lap quilt to keep him warm when he is watching a hockey game on TV or reading a book. I made this quilt entirely from stash fabrics, including a couple of fabrics that I considered to be "uglies" but they go perfectly in this quilt.

All of the colours in this quilt come from the Kaffe fabric that does not show up very well in photos but has enough contrast to stand out when I look at the quilt in person!  My dad knew about the shirt quilts so he was quite surprised that I had made him a quilt as well!

The background and backing are the same fabric--yardage of a batik I bought years ago for a specific project that never got made.

My father has played the fiddle since he was very young and still enjoys getting together with his friends to play tunes together so his quilt is quilted with music notes.

I also made a couple of selvage sewing stools for a couple of friends for Christmas.  I purchase the stools and then make the covers for the seats out of selvages sewn onto a muslin foundation. The first stool was given to Cathy at Eagles Wings Quilts--she did the quilting on the shirt quilts and on my Dad's quilt above on a fairly tight timeline. Thanks, Cathy!

The second stool is for my friend, Pat who is a recent convert to quilting!

I spent some time the other night, going back over my blogposts from 2013 to see how many quilts I finished this year. Many were gifts for others and a few have been added to my own quilt stash.  Here is a list with links to the original posts about the quilts:

1.  The Outhouse quilt that I made for my FIL when he was in the hospital. My MIL sleeps under this one now.
2.  The Scrappy Trips Baseball quilt--this one was given to my BIL for his birthday.
3.  Yellow Brick Road--I gave this to my aunt who broke her leg.
4.  Great Granny Squares. This one lives at my house.
5.  Selvage Spools- I started this one at BIQR 2012 and had it quilted this year. I am keeping this one.
6.  Swoon-this was started in 2012 and finished this year. It lives here.
7.  Bricks and Stepping Stones was made for my aunt and uncle who live in Vancouver, British Columbia.
8.  9 Patch Mystery--a swap done through the London Friendship Quilters' Guild.  Also staying here.
9.  Pinwheel table runner made from leftovers from Swoon. A perfect size for the coffee table in my living room.
10. 3 quilted pillows.  Two for my nieces and one as a birthday gift for my friend, Christine.
11. 5 selavage stools. All were gifts for various quilting friends.
12. 6 shirt quilts for family members. 
13.  My Dad's quilt. (pictures on current post)
14.  Trip Around the World -charity quilt for a child in foster care made by my nieces and myself.
15.  Slab quilt top for Alberta flood victims--assembled by me with blocks made by my quilting friends and me.
16.  Charity quilts for Adult Chemo patients at our local hospital --I made a block each month for each quilt and I also helped to assemble one of the quilts with a partner.
17.  Gwen Marston's Quilt--made by Christine, Carol and I for Gwen for her retirement.

I have a few projects in mind for 2014 including finishing my Indian Orange Peel quilt, Lazy Sunday, and the Stacks baby quilt. We will see where the quilting winds blow...

Here is my last stash report of the year. I ended up in the black, thankfully.

Fabric used in the last week: 1.5 yards
Total fabric used this year: 219.56  yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: 8.0 yards (Christmas gifts! plus two yards for binding)
Total fabric added this year: 163.66 yards
Net fabric used this year: 55.9 yards

Speaking of Christmas gifts, I receive a few quilty gifts this year under the tree...

Those Gwen Marston books are out of print but my husband managed to get them for me online! I look forward to making some more pillows as well.  The fabrics are great additions to my stash. The cement squirrel was a gift to my husband from me. He is a bit squirrelly!
 I will probably continue to keep track of my stash ins and outs again in 2014.  In the meantime, Happy New Year to all of you out there in blogland.