Alrighty! We're getting caught up around here to what I would classify as counting up recent quilts! Today I'm featuring the quilts I made in the year 2014.
102:
I made this quilt for a wonderful teacher who had both my older kids in school. She had her second baby and while I don't do teacher quilts every year, I thought this was a great opportunity to give back a tiny little smidge of appreciation for the love and compassion she heaped on our family for two years. I didn't work from a pattern, I just pulled from my scrap bin and matched colors to make same-colored blocks. The white sashing really gives a crisp look and makes it look a lot more "planned".
103:
This quilt is one of my favorites ever. EVER! And it's MINE! I absolutely loved using a charm pack of Vanessa Christianson's Color Me Happy fabric line to - in essence - "confetti" this quilt. I will be writing and self-publishing this pattern very soon. I spent extra time on the quilting. :)
104:
This was a wonderful little baby quilt for the second nephew on my side of the family. I was exploring the use of solids and really liked the simplicity of the repeating block in muted colors. The white fabric, again, lends to such a crisp look. Quilting stitches on solid fabrics show really well, too - that's a bonus to a gal like me.
105:
This quilt was the saddest quilt to make. I cried and cried and cried as I made it. It really was like therapy for me. A classmate of mine died suddenly last year of a medical event. He was such a sweet and special guy and I grieved deeply for him. I still grieve for his family and think of them often. I gave this quilt to his family as a comfort quilt - just to remind them that they are loved and that their son will not be forgotten, he made such a big impact on my life. This was pieced in an improv style but with a basic plan. It ended up being a large lap/small twin size and I worked on it hard so that it could be finished in four days. I really do like the style and hope to make something similar in the future, hopefully for a happy occasion. I was extremely grateful for having a longarm quilting machine for a situation like this, a quick turnaround for what's usually a much more tedious process.
106:
Easiest quilt ever! I used two great fabric prints to make this quilt with no seaming. It only took a few hours to put together and when paired with the book - this made a wonderful gift for a book-club friend.
107:
This was a super-fun quilt to make. I used a bunch of Cotton + Steel fabrics to make these great "records". I used a free pattern from the Fons & Porter website from which to base this design. I used a fusible product to secure the records onto plain white blocks then used a blanket stitch to raw-edge applique the records in place. Then I sewed all the blocks together and quilted it. I thought the irregularly spaced straight lines mimicked the grooves on a record, so that's how I decided on the quilting. We gave this to friends - who are also in a record club with us - for their wedding. Vinyl is alive and well!
108:
I absolutely loved making this quilt. It's got a little bit of special paper-piecing going on and a whole lot of quilting, just the way I like it. :) This is my own design and we gave it to friends of ours for their first baby girl.
109:
In 2013, I made a two-fabric and three-fabric quilt I designed in this same pattern. This baby quilt was a gift for cousins. Again, solid fabrics really lend themselves to showing the quilting well, so I took some extra time for fancy quilting. It's worth it! I demonstrate drawing the echoed swirls quilting design in this video.
110:
I admit it, I went on a bit of a rampage last year. It wasn't violent, but my sewing/quilting room got worked over pretty good. I found leftover blocks from three different quilts when cleaning and reorganizing and decided to combine them in this one baby quilt. I unified it with allover fancy quilting to make it look like the whole top belonged together. We gave this to cousins for the birth of their baby.
111:
This quilt was another one I hadn't really planned on making in advance, it was just that I found a bunch of the printed fabrics already cut and leftover from another quilt. So, I sewed them into stacks, added a white sashing and borders (my secret weapon) and quilted it up. I ended up giving this to a friend who liked it on Instagram and asked about buying it.
112:
This was yet another quilt that I basically found the pieces leftover from other projects, added the sashing and borders and then quilted it up. We gave this to cousins who had their first baby, a girl. As a general rule, I enjoy quilting the crap out of quilts. There was a fourth quilt top I made based on these found, long abandoned other projects, but I haven't yet quilted and bound it. Maybe it'll make the list of 2015 completed projects?
113:
I had to count this mini quilt in my number of completed projects because after all, I did quilt it and bind it. I'm not "into" minis like some people are into minis, but I do see the appeal. It'll be really great to display someday in my sewing room.
114:
This quilt was one I started in 2008. I even got it to the stage where it was basted with safety pins and partially quilted on my domestic sewing machine, but then I just gave up on it and let it sit around for years. I got it back out, removed the pins, picked out some of the stitching I'd done previously (that I hated) and finished the quilting on my longarm. It's another quilt that stays in our house. It is winter-themed with snowflake prints and the like, but not overpowering enough that it can't be used year-round. This is also my own design.
115:
This quilt was very special because I made it for my mom. I hadn't ever made her a quilt in the nearly 10 years I'd been quilting, so I wanted to correct that situation for Christmas. She loves the quilt! I found the free pattern online and thought it'd look great using fabrics that I'd previously selected for her. I'm so glad I made it, I know it's well used and loved in her home.
116:
And last but certainly not least: this quilt. I reworked an earlier pattern of my own design (no. 103 from this post, actually) in a different colorway and came up with this quilt for my mother-in-law. Just before Christmas of 2014, she received a breast cancer diagnosis. This was made as a comfort quilt and given to her in time for Christmas. I'm so happy to say that she's cancer-free now thanks to early detection and effective treatments and I'm so thankful for that! I know so many that haven't been that fortunate. Life and health are definitely a gift! This pattern will be available soon for purchase.