2019 in Review

2019 was a productive year in my sewing room.  I finished several projects and still have lots on the go to keep me busy in the new year.  I have had a couple of non-sewing relatives ask me what I do with all of the quilts I make.  I keep some, I give some away as gifts and some are charity projects.  In any case, having lots of quilts does not make me want to stop making more.  Sewing relaxes me and feeds my creative soul so I will continue to sew. Here is an overview of my completed projects this year.

January
I signed up for the Coming Home BOM with Sarah Fielke this year.  I made this block book to keep the pieces organized as I worked on the quilt.  I had to take a break from making this quilt to get ready for Christmas but hope to get back at it in the new year.  I have two more borders to make to complete the quilt.  This will be a 2020 goal...

My next January finish was one that should have been done in 2018 as it was a Christmas gift... I made a sewing machine cover for a friend who loves to go camping.

February

In February, my friend Christine and I attended our first Quilt Con in Nashville.  I participated in the Make a Mini, Make a Friend challenge.  Here is the quilt I made for Evie.  It is called Maple Keys from Canada.

The London Modern Guild issued a colour challenge in 2019 for a mini quilt made with black and white plus one other colour.  These mini quilts were on display at our first quilt show in September.

March

My third challenge for 2018 was the snip it, rip it, drop it and pass it challenge issues by the Elgin Piecemakers.  I made a bag for my car stitching with my fabrics.  I use this bag all the time for my current cross stitch or embroidery projects.  It's very handy!



This wall hanging is in my sewing room.  The sewing machine is a Lori Holt pattern.


April

There was lots of sewing going on in April, but no finishes.

May

I made several gift quilts this year.  This one was for my cousin's new grandson in Scotland.



June

A colleague at work retired in June so I made her a zippered pouch.  I made lots  (over 2 dozen!) of these this year so I won't show pictures of all of them here.



The next quilt was a gift for my cousin in England...it was an old UFO that just needed to get done!  We delivered this one in person in August.



This next quilt also now resides in England with my step Grandmother.  The fabrics reminded me of her pretty garden.











July 

Gail's Garden is another older UFO that was completed in 2019.  This quilt was started at a class with Jacquie Gering a few years ago.




August

I gave this quilt to my aunt when we were in Scotland in August.  Purple is her favourite colour.



September

We visited a lot of cousins while in Scotland and England in August and most of them received a small quilted gift--many received zippered pouches or pillow cases made with Canada fabric and one received a Christmas table topper.




October

It was time to get started on the Christmas sewing in October.  I retired at the end of September so suddenly, there was more sewing time after that.  This little wall hanging was donated to the church's Christmas bazaar.



Another baby quilt--this time just to have on hand, ready for gifting. This was an attempt to use up some of my 30's prints.  I still have lots left...




There were lots of zippered pouches made this month too...

November

Another baby quilt in waiting...an attempt to use up my flannel scraps.  No fear--I still have lots left.



December

Yet another baby quilt this month---this time with a Bonnie Hunter pattern...Bricks and Stepping Stones with an I spy theme.  This one will be delivered soon.



Another challenge was completed--this time for the Oxford Guild.  I made a pillow inspired by the colours on a Kleenex box.



I made a pillow for my brother for Christmas using our Dad's shirts. There were more zippered pouches, pillow cases and bowl cozies made in December as well.  My next post will hopefully outline what I hope to accomplish in 2020.

The Handmade Gifts of Christmas

Several friends and family members received homemade gifts this year.  This is my favourite part of Christmas--figuring out what to make and then getting to work in the sewing room to get it all done.  I would rather sew than spend time at the mall shopping for gifts. 

I made this pillow for my brother. As long time readers know, our Dad passed away last year and I decided to make this pillow using his shirts.  The background fabric is Essex Linen in dark grey-my Dad often wore gray flannel pants so this seemed like the perfect background fabric.  My brother lives far from here so I actually just mailed the pillow cover to him and suggested where he could buy the right size of pillow form.   I would like to make myself a pillow too. 

My husband and I were in need of some new pillowcases for our bed.  We have lots of squirrels in our backyard and my husband grew up in a home surrounded by oak trees, so this fabric is very appropriate and fun for our new pillowcases.

My daughter picked out the fabric for her pillowcases in the summertime.  I had hoped she would  forget about it, but she hadn't so was not really surprised when the pillowcases were under the tree.

Almost everyone received a bowl cozy.  I was in full bowl cozy production for a while, with special fabrics picked for each one.  I forgot to take pictures as I was making them but here are the two I made for my husband and I.

I've been hoarding this blue fabric for a while--obviously a favourite in my stash.   The outside of the bowl cozy is little birds.

This past summer, my husband and I were in Scotland for three weeks and I purchased some Scottish fabric in Inverness.  My husband's bowl cozy features Highland cattle.

Everyone in my husband's family and several of my friends received bowl cozies this year.  There will be no more burned hands when getting a bowl of soup out of the microwave!

My slow stitching projects continue to be a welcome break in the midst of the busy-ness of the season. There was some early morning stitching with Finn early in the week...

as well as some car stitching.  No change in colour yet, but soon. 

My daughter and I had some crafting time yesterday afternoon.  She received this kit from her Aunt, Uncle and cousins for Christmas and got started on some of the stitching. The kit is from Diana Watters Handmade.  I made a couple of Christmas ornaments with her kits last year. 

I worked on my snowflake ornament. I found some beads to add to it when the stitching is done.

In the meantime, all of the excitement has worn Finn out!  He took a lot of naps yesterday to recover.

He is up and playing now.  There will be a long walk later today.  Sunday morning, I will be linking up with Kathy and the other slow Sunday stitchers--take a look to see how everyone is relaxing during the holidays.

Embroidery and Gifts

I think I have finally wrapped up all of my Christmas sewing for 2019!  I can't reveal everything I made just yet, but the two recipients of these gifts don't read my blog.  Almost everyone I know has a zipper pouch (Pattern by Noodlehead) and here are the latest ones I made this week.

These are such handy little pouches!

There was some in the car embroidery done this week as well.

Hopefully, a second colour will be added by next week!

Finn and my daughter arrived today for the holidays.  Finn had a bath so he is sweet smelling for Christmas!  Earlier this week, he fell asleep snuggling my daughter's dirty sock.  So charming!

Merry Christmas!    Happy Holidays!  I will check in again with another post after the gifts I made have been opened. In the meantime, check out what all of the slow stitchers have been working on this week at Kathy's blog.

Embroidery and Binding

This has been a busy week in the sewing department!  I have worked on three different hand stitching projects and finished a quilt.   Today, was the monthly meeting of the London Modern Guild and after our "business" meeting and show and tell, there was a delicious pot luck lunch and some Christmas crafts.  I decided to make an embroidered snowflake ornament. 

I traced the pattern onto the fabric with a pen that is almost the same colour as the thread I am using for the embroidery so you will have to look closely to see what is stitched already.  I have used two different colours of thread so far and may add some beads as well.

I also added some more stitches to my tree in my other embroidery project, started last week.

Next, I put together an I Spy baby quilt this week using Bonnie Hunter's Bricks and Stepping Stones pattern.

The top came together quickly and then I quilted it on my DSM with the walking foot, stitching an X in each brick and four-patch.

The binding fabric has been hanging around my sewing room for a few years and even after making the binding for this quilt, it is still not gone!  I cut 5 width of fabric strips, thinking this would be enough, but no, I was short by this much!

I cut another short strip and soon the binding was ready for hand sewing, which I did over the last couple of days, just in time for show and tell at today's guild meeting.

The backing is pieced from some flannel scraps I bought at the guild yard sale a few months ago.  I still have enough for another baby quilt backing.

Here is the finished quilt.  The four patches are made with white and navy blue, although it looks black in the pictures.

I see hours of fun ahead for the baby and his parents as they search for items in the fabrics on this quilt---I spy ice cream, boats, gnomes....

I will be linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers tomorrow morning.

A New Slow Stitching Project

Since I finished Frank last week, I needed a new slow stitching project.  I purchased this kit at QuiltCon last February and it has been waiting in the wings ever since then.  The pattern was already printed on the fabric and all of the threads, a needle, and a wooden hoop were included in the kit. 

There are lots of new to me stitches in this project but I started with some easy backstitch.  I did a running stitching the in curly bit where my thread is now and will do a running stitch back to the main stem, before stitching up to the next curly part. 

I asked my daughter if she had worked on her stitching lately, but alas, she has not, so no pictures of her current picture.  She sent a picture of Finn instead.  This was taken during morning snuggles during coffee time.

Edited:  She did have some stitching time this afternoon and just sent a photo for the blog. Any ideas on what city this might be?

At our last Elgin Piecemakers meeting, we were each given a piece of selvage for colour inspiration and a pattern to make our January block for a comfort quilt.  

The block is called "Art Square".   We are making two blocks for January--I have a colour scheme for the second block but it is not started yet.

There is still lots of secret sewing going on in the sewing room these days.  Most gifts are made now...just a couple more small things to make.   I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday stitchers in the morning.  This is a busy time of year for everyone but most of us manage to do a little slow stitching each week for the link up.  It keeps us sane!