2016 in Review

The end of the year is a good time to look back at what I have accomplished this year and look forward to 2017 as well.

Here are some of my finishes for 2016:

January


This quilt was made for a Syrian refugee child.


I made this pincushion at the London Modern Quilt Guild meeting in January.

February



My husband and I made and installed a design wall in my sewing room.

March


I completed my "in the Coop" chicken quilt.

May



My Stitch and Flip Garden from a Jacquie Gering workshop--flimsy completed.  Hoping to get this one quilted in 2017.

July



Round and Round wall hanging. 

August

I completed my daughter's graduation quilt.

September



Flannel Vortex, made for a friend going through cancer treatments.



Modern Wedge .  There were lots of finishes in the late summer/early fall so I would have quilts to display at the London Friendship Quilters Guild show in October.

October and November










I made lots of pillows to sell at a local craft show and to give as Christmas gifts.  Above are a few of the pillows I made.



Placemats for Meals on Wheels.



Baby quilt



Fall table runner for a hostess gift.

December



Wool Applique sheep for my MIL for Christmas



Bees wall hanging, also for my MIL





Pillows for my nieces. 

As I looked over what I finished in 2016, there were lots of other blog posts showing great progress on other projects.  I need to make a list of goals for 2017--that will be another post. 

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Gifts for My Nieces

We have twin nieces who are heading off to university this fall.  Their parents gave them some items for their dorm rooms for Christmas including duvet covers so I made them pillows for their beds for Christmas.  I made quite a few gifts this year and found myself getting up at 6 am on Christmas Eve to make the last pillow.

The red maple leaf fabric has been in my stash for a while but most of the white prints were recent acquisitions. There are bicycles, snowmen in trucks, birds, a library, maple leaves, a beaver, a lacrosse stick and part of a hockey stick in the white fabrics.  My daughter picked the quilting stitch.  

The second pillow is a Union Jack.  The pillows will go with the international travel theme of their duvet covers. I used Christine's patterns for both of these pillows.  I was happy that both girls loved their pillows!  

Now that I am finished making Christmas gifts, I can get back to my other sewing projects.  Christine and I are already planning our next sewing day!  

Merry Christmas!

This morning, Kathy asked us to post pictures of our handmade ornaments on our Christmas trees.  I snapped a few pictures to share.

My daughter made this ornament for us when she was in grade one.  

She is 25 years old so we have had this one on our tree for several years.

My friend, Pat, made this cross stitch picture for a card which she gave us when we moved into our house.  I made it into an ornament for the tree. 

This was made by my friend, Meridyth, also as a card and then I made it into an ornament. 

Pat knit these for me last year.  

On a hand stitching note, my next project will be English paper piecing, courtesy of Cathy.

She made me this handwork carrying case and some paper piecing papers for Christmas.

This should be a fun project.

Merry Christmas!

Another gift done...the Bee's Knees

Last Summer, during the Row by Row experience shop hop, I picked up a pattern for a row at Quilty Pleasures in Orleans, Ontario.  Although I did not make a row quilt, I decided that this row would make a great table runner for my MIL for Christmas.  Her father was a bee keeper so this pattern was perfect for a gift for her.  I dug through my yellow stash and picked out fabrics for the hexagons. 

The bees are fused onto the background pieced hexagons. I quilted around each hexagon by machine. 

Since bees like flowers, I decided to use this large daisy bring on the back.  The black and white stripe is perfect for the binding.

Once the binding was on, I used perle cotton thread for the trails behind the bees.

Here is the finished runner. I think my MIL will be pleased.

Only one week until Christmas and only (!!!!) two more gifts to make... Yikes.  I need to get busy!  

I Spy...

This past January, my church, along with several other churches sponsored a refugee family from Syria.  The family includes the parents and four young children.  You may remember that some quilting friends and I made sure that they all had quilts for their beds when they arrived in Canada. This first family is expecting a baby any time now and I made the new baby an I Spy quilt a few weeks ago.  The churches always intended to sponsor two families and have recently been told that the second family will be arriving soon.

Earlier this year, Christine, Cathy and I made a double bed quilt for the parents of the second family. Then, we decided to wait to see what other quilts would be needed before proceeding with more quilts.  The new family is made up of grandparents, parents and a one year old child, as well as the aunt of the child.  The quilt we have already made will be for the parents.  (Sorry I don't have a picture of the entire quilt!)

We decided to make an I Spy quilt for the one year old.  We each contributed 40 fabrics to the quilt.  I supplied the green fabric and Christine supplied the blue.  Christine is piecing a flannel back for this quilt and I will likely do the quilting and binding.  

(Sorry for the bad lighting...)

I looked through my quilt collection and found a pretty quilt that I have never used. I made it years ago.  I decided to gift it to the aunt.

 

We showed the quilts at our guild meeting and asked if anyone had a quilt or quilt top at home that they could donate for the grandparents.  The morning after the meeting, I received an email from Maureen saying that she had a quilt top to donate!  Cathy has agreed to quilt it for us once we get some backing.  I love my wonderful quilting friends!  

Sheep wall hanging done!

Tonight was our guild meeting so I worked hard earlier this week to finish the sheep wall hanging so I would have it done for show and tell.  The kit came with six tiny buttons for the eyes.  I managed to keep them in a safe spot and remember where that spot was while I was sewing...

I had to use a very fine needle to sew them on!

I machine quilted this project as I am running out of time to get my Christmas projects done.  

I think my MIL will love it!  It has a label already and I will add a couple of plastic loops at the top corners on the back to hang it up.  

Now, on to the next gift...

Sewing on the Train

Last weekend, I took the train to visit my daughter.  I spent most of my travelling time working on the sheep wall hanging that I am making for my MIL for Christmas.  I managed to finish the buttonhole stitch on the sheep bodies, the hearts, all the flowers and the stems and leaves of three of the flowers. 

The people sitting beside me on each train all asked me about my project. One man told me about his mother who had died recently and who had made crocheted doilies.  He was not sure what to do with all the doilies.  He had children and grandchildren to give them to but he did not want them to just get put in a drawer and forgotten.  I suggested he have them framed and then his family members could hang them on the wall.  He thought this was a great idea and was going to look into it when he got home.  

One evening this week, a friend came over to knit and I sewed on the faces, heads and ears of the sheep.  I also worked on some more stems and leaves.

Only a few more stems and leaves to go!

I hope to put some more stitches in tomorrow for slow Sunday Stitching.  There are some little buttons to add for the eyes too.  Then, it will have to be quilted by hand too.  It's a good thing this is a small wall hanging!  My deadline for this project and other gifts is looming! 

I made another snowman pillow this week for a special order for a friend's friend to give to his wife for Christmas.  The buttons and the mouth are hand stitched so they count for slow stitching this week too.

I am linking up with Kathy for slow Sunday stitching.