Opps! 2017 Already

Is 2016 really over? I meant to post before it ended but here we are.

If you are reading this, I must thank you for not giving up on me! I refuse to claim being 'too busy'. Everyone is busy. But I did have a pretty productive year as far as quiltmaking goes.





Not having my own grand kids (yet) I have enjoyed making little quilts for other people's darlings.


I've used the Hourglass pattern for a number of quick and easy crib quilts. This one is for Beatrice.

Butterfly Flip is a great pattern by Terri Atkinson, our own Minnesota phenom, and I made two with funky brights, one for Bjorn and one for Greyson. You thought I put in the same photo twice, didn't you? Nope. The blocks are different fabrics and check out the inner borders....but I did use the same adorable owl print as outer borders.

I gained some confidence in my free motion machine quilting in the process.

The big project of the year was a wedding quilt for my son and new (as of September) Daughter-in-Law. I decided to go with something more contemporary.



I found the idea in a book called Block Party (The Modern Quilting Bee) and did it with mostly batik scraps, many of which were donated by friends who work with batiks more than I do. I used mostly 'earth-tones' and went for organic shapes such as rocks, trees, stars, leaves, water, sky, stars. I mixed in regular prints, too.

 It made a complete mess of my sewing room for a long time but it was so much fun.

I even had the two of them come over and sew some of the strips, not showing them the pattern. Dueling sewing machines facing each other - they really got into it. I had hoped they'd just make a strip each to be part of it - but they wouldn't stop, making six each.
" I thought you might just be humoring me!" I said. Heather replied, "I was at first!" Then she offered to come back and do some more.

Design wall

With the magic of long-arm quilting I was able to give it to them at Christmas time.

Full View 96" square

Pieced back

Happy Holidays

 and

 best wishes for a happy and productive 2017!