013 - 022

I've been out of the practice of blogging for several years now, but even I know that when you're boring yourself to death with a blog series, it's time to change it up.  

Because I really hate to completely abandon this idea of counting up my quilts, I'm going to write very briefly about each year of quilting.  I still want to know a number.

Behold: I give you the remaining quilts of 2006!

013:

This is cheating a little bit because I don't have a picture of the actual quilt that I made, but it's just like this table runner, only the stars are all in a hand-dyed maroon fabric.  It's lovely and it was a gift to my mother-in-law for her birthday that summer of 2006.

014:

This was an interesting project because it was my first commissioned quilt.  A coworker of my mom's gave me lots of candlewicking blocks that her mother had made many years before.  I trimmed down all of the blocks, set them with a simple sashing and borders and quilted them up.

015:

And whaddya know? My second commissioned quilt on the heels of the first!  I made this as a large wallhanging for a family friend.  I really loved the scrappy creams of the background blocks contrasted with the rich stars. 

016:

This was a wallhanging for a family friend's wedding gift.  I used a technique I learned from Alex Anderson's Simply Quilts show on HGTV in which half-square triangles are used instead of diamonds.

017:

This was a lap sized quilt that I made for a family friend after he suffered a serious fall and back injury and was laid-up for awhile. 

018:

I took a day class at my LQS on how to make this Fractured Crystals quilt.  We gifted it for a cousin's wedding.

019:

Awww, I still love this quilt!  I gave it to a friend's baby on her 1st birthday.  She's 9 now!

020:

I'm calling this quilt one of mine because I helped a friend make it step-by-step and then I quilted and bound it.  However, my friend bought all of the materials - she gifted it to a nephew.  Cute, cheerful and I wish I would have had better photography skills!

021 and 022:

Dum, dum, DUM! The return of the candlewicking blocks!  I had enough to make two more quilts for the above referenced commission.

012

{I'm counting up and journaling about every quilt I've made over the last 10 years.  Now presenting No. 12.}

I don't remember a lot of specific details about this quilt other than I made it for a friend's wedding.

I love the scrappy backgrounds of the star blocks and a simple meander almost always does the trick.

Pretty cute binding fabric, too!

011

{If you're just joining me, I've been counting up the quilts I've made over the last 10 years, today I'm on No. 11.}

Summer 2006:

First of all, yes: small quilts count!

Second, it was an epiphany when I realized I could make small decorative projects with the quilt making skills I was amassing.  For giving gifts, this realization was especially helpful.

I ordered the star fabrics from Fabric.com - clearance fabric.  I clearly remember having such a limited income at this stage in my life.  It was sale fabric or no fabric.  I still have large quantities of these fabrics in my stash since this project required so little of it.

I used a small stencil to mark the feather wreath, quilted it and then removed the blue water-soluble marker.  I used some micro-stippling within the star blocks and larger-scale loop quilting around the perimeter of the stars.

I can't believe I'm sharing this picture of me! I'd stayed up all night trying to finish this last-minute gift for my grandma's birthday. Not that I got much sleep anyway with a 14 month-old and a 2 month old. :) It kind of sounds like a nightmare to me now - just because I'm so far removed from it - but I have such sweet memories of that stage of life.

010

{I'm writing this series of journal entries about all the quilts I've ever made.  In order. Over the last ten years. Thank you for joining me, we're up to quilt No. 10!}

Summer 2006:

Log Cabin: I just can't quit you!

For this quilt, I used the leftover fabrics I had from making quilt No. 9.  

I was invited to a "personal shower" for a childhood friend and bride-to-be. I honestly didn't understand the concept of a personal shower, it was the first I'd been to.  It was a pre-cursor to the bachelorette party, so a lot of panties and unmentionables were given as gifts.  My oblivious self made a quilt for the occasion. :)

So, let's recap: 

I had just turned 25 years old.

I had one 14 month old baby.

I had one 1 month old baby.

I'm invited to a personal bridal shower for a friend.

I don't buy the gift, I make the gift.  A quilt.

Makes total sense to me! :) I love how obsessed with quilting I was back then, excusing away all rationale and going for it. 

Oh yes, I remember now that I changed up the quilting slightly in the different colored "logs". I do love the look of the dense but consistent quilting.

I do remember my friend loving the quilt so much, making it all so worth it! 

009

{I'm currently writing a series, counting up and journaling every quilt I've made over the last 10 years of quiltmaking.}

Spring 2006:

This quilt.  We're talking pretty grown up stuff here. :) A big departure from the last two I had made.  Really - different from every quilt I'd attempted at this point in time.  And speaking of "point" - the blocks in this layout are on-point.  That was new... and tricky in execution for a first-timer, if I remember correctly.

I designed this quilt to have a large negative space in the center to play up some fancy quilting I was just itching to try.

I had devoured two of Diane Gaudynski books and was totally inspired by her elegant quilting and awesome instructions.  That's why I could pull off this fancy quilting in only my 9th quilt.

I stitched an "M" in the center medallion.  One important lesson I learned from this quilt was that fancy quilting on patterned fabric doesn't show up the best.  Solid fabrics are really best for showing off the quilting.

I had to majorly play with the photo edits above to get the stitching to show up - this is the back side of the quilt.  I didn't have great photo equipment back then nor an eye for photography, a dangerous combination indeed.

We gave this quilt as a wedding gift to my husband's cousin and spouse for their wedding.  I wish I would have been able to keep up on giving wedding quilts to all newly marrieds, but I had to give up that ideal.  Too much time and too much money required, especially for our single-income, baby-having selves 9-10 years ago. 

008

I'm counting up the quilts I've made over the last 10 years of my quilting lyfe.  

Winter 2006:

The name of this game was simplicity and speed. AKA: I had a boy who was just about to turn one and I was 8 months pregnant with by second baby boy.  Oy.  And I had time to quilt?!  Priorities, I guess.

With this quilt there isn't a whole lot to explain, I found a coordinating group of fabrics and let them do the talking.  I kept the quilting also really simple.

This quilt went to my husband's first cousin and his wife who were having their first baby.  Judging by the look of these fabrics, they didn't know the gender of the baby.

You could say this quilt set a precedent: every cousin that had a baby thereafter got a quilt from me. :)