2024 Wrap-Up

 It's December 31st already and time to look back to see what I accomplished in my sewing room this year. There are still lots of UFO's hanging on --a starter course for 2025!

January

I used some 4.5" orphan basket blocks to make some pin cushions for my friends who came to my house for a sewing day. 

I took a class with David Owen Hastings and finished off this small quilt "Inspired by Dunnottar Castle". 

I finished knitting a moose hat for my husband--this was a 2023 Christmas gift. 

February

Katie and I participated in the MQG swap at QuiltCon in Raleigh, NC.  Katie is holding the churn dash quilt that I made for her.  My quilt depicts the state of Oregon where Katie lives. 

March

A scrappy nine patch --an attempt to use up some of my 2.5" squares. 

A bunny wall hanging for my MIL's room at her long term care home.  

A baby quilt from a jelly roll for a friend's new grand-daughter. 

I completed my scrappy stars rainbow scrap challenge quilt at a retreat. 

My bunny cross stitch was completed and framed in time for Easter.

April

My big finish in April was my modern sampler quilt. 

May

I finished a nearly 10 year old UFO in May--Overlapping Tiles--a quilt started in the fall of 2014 at a class with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Malby. 

I made 12 blocks for Quilts for Survivors of residential schools using my batiks. These were donated to this group at Quilt Canada in June (delivered by a friend who attended).

I made two Sew Together bags --one for me and one for a friend for her birthday. The first one is mine made with New York City fabric which I bought at QuiltCon. 

I made this one from fabrics in my stash. The outside of the bag is the Kaffe print at the right end of the inside of the bag. 

June

Yet another Sew Together bag for a friend's retirement. 

July

A flannel vortex baby quilt for a friend's baby boy.  I still have lots of flannel scraps left. 

I hand quilted my Put a Ring on It quilt.  I started this quilt during an online class with Latifah Saffir in Feb 2021.

 

August

Another cross stitch finish--Sunflowers. Pattern by Satsuma Street. 

I also made a quilt for my cousin--she likes purple and green.  This was a fun quilt to make from my stash.  The picture was taken before I added a mauve binding. 

My friend, Christine, and I took a barn quilt painting class in August.  Here is my barn quilt. 

September

I started making placemats for Meals on Wheels--an outreach project of the Oxford Quilt Guild.  Here are two of the 12 placemats that I made. 

 

October

I had my Christmas cross stitched framed.  I love the red frame. 

I quilted and bound a quilt for our local hospice which will be opening in the Spring of 2025. I used my batik scraps and the potato chip block pattern to make this quilt. 

November 

I made another potato chip quilt as a gift for another cousin--this one in teal and brown. 

I made some pillows and a table runner for the church Christmas bazaar. 

December

I finished an 80+ year old UFO, started by my husband's great grandmother who died before finishing it. I gave this to my sister in law.

I made my daughter a Sew Together bag for her crochet supplies for Christmas. 

I quilted and bound another UFO--this top was made in one day at the VP challenge day for the Oxford QG.  This will be given away as a baby quilt. 

Phew--I guess I did get lots done in 2024!  Hopefully, there will be lots of productive time spent in my sewing room in 2025.  

Happy New Year from me and the party animal!

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Christmas 2024 has come and gone and we are now in that quieter time between December 25th and New Year's Day. I blogged earlier in the week about some of the gifts I made this year and you can read about them here.  I have been doing some reading and cross stitching every day--ahhhh! The lower left square will eventually be a picture of an owl...

My friend, Pat, knitter extraordinaire, made me these cute Christmas sweater ornaments for our tree.  I'm not sure I could manage to knit something so small!  

Finn loves a squeaky toy and this one was a Big Dill!

My daughter and Finn are here until after January 1st and she has been working on her crochet Christmas blanket every day.  A door, a window and Christmas lights were added to the gingerbread house in the middle of the blanket. 

The Christmas lights border now has a string attaching the lights to each other. 

All of the parts are crocheted together and she has started the gingerbread border. She just taught herself how to crochet this past summer and has learned a lot with this ambitious project.  I think it looks fantastic!  

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. 

The Gifts of Christmas, 2024 Version

We have had a very laid back, relaxing Boxing Day.  The last few days were very busy and we all needed some time to chill.  My husband is giving Finn a belly rub and my daughter is making dinner so I thought I would do a blogpost!  

A few years ago, my husband found an old quilt that originally came from his family farm.  It was very dirty and unfinished--the edges were not straight and it smelled funky. There were very rusty pins holding the edges together--I think the maker intended to finish it but never got around to it.  No one knew who made it. It lived in a plastic bag in our garage for a few years while I thought about what I would do with it.  This fall, I decided I would finish it and took a closer look at how it was made.  It is machine pieced and hand quilted. A couple of friends who know more about antique quilts than I do took a look at it and thought it was likely made in the late 30's or early 40's. My husband took at look at his family tree and found out that his great grandmother died of paralysis three weeks after having a stroke in 1941.  We think she is the one who made the quilt and had it pinned, ready to finish the outer edge but died before she could do this.  Her only daughter, my husband's grandmother was given the unfinished quilt.  As far as we know, she was not a quilter so it was never finished. I decided I needed to add binding before washing it so I trimmed the edges straight, cutting off parts of some blocks in the process.  

I added a gray and white striped binding--I thought it looked like ticking that would have been available at the time the quilt was made.   This picture shows how dirty the quilt was before washing. 

I used Retro Clean and soaked the quilt in cold water to try to remove the stains. Even though I used colour catchers, some of the orange and pink fabrics bled.   The water was not a pretty colour after soaking the quilt.   

It was rinsed in cold water several times and then machine washed on the gentle cycle in my front load washing machine.  I partially dried it in the dryer on gentle again and then laid it flat to finish drying overnight.

It looks much better now but not all of the stains came out. I typed out the story of the quilt, and included a copy of the death certificate that my husband found online.  We gave the quilt to his sister for Christmas. 

The dogs wanted to be in the picture but were not interested in posing.  

This picture was taken before it was washed but shows the quilting. 

I'm glad that I was able to finish my husband's great grandmother's quilt.  It has been waiting to be completed for over 80 years.  Now that is an old UFO!

My SIL asked me to make some covers for two pillows for the bed in her guest room.  They are made from blue Essex linen and have a covered zipper closure on the back. The tutorial for the covered zipper closure is at Sotak Homemade. 

I made a couple of gifts for my daughter.  First, a sew together bag for her crochet and stitching supplies:

The squirrel fabric was a gift from a friend and is from Japan. I fussy cut it so the squirrels danced across the side of the bag.  Unlike the three other Sew Together bags I have made, I quilted the outside panel before making the bag. I used one of my "YO MAMA made it" tags inside the bag on the wool needle landing. 

The fabrics were all in my stash.  I had to get a bit creative as I did not have enough of the pink print for inside the bag. The dotted fabric went with the other fabrics.  The zippered pocket lining are a pale pink Kona solid. 

I added a measuring tape inside the bag as she did not have one of those already.  It gets a bit easier to make the bag each time I have used this pattern.  

My daughter's second handmade gift was a pillow case.  She is a curler and I thought of her when I saw this fabric this past summer. 

There has been some crafting time today--I did some cross stitching and my daughter has been crocheting.  Since there can't be a blogpost without a picture of Finn...here he is helping my daughter with her crochet. 

I hope you are all finding some time to relax and enjoy your time with family and friends this holiday season.