End of the Year Wrap Up

It was fun to look back on last year's end of the year wrap up so I'm doing it again. It's a good way to see how I've grown and changed over time.

2017

This year has been very productive! So let's start with the stash report. Once again, I didn't do as good as I was hoping, but I am pleased that there was more going out than coming in. This will be the last year of the stash report. I've learned about my spending habits over the last two years. I think I can keep it under control without the report. My goal at the first of the year was to have a net change of more than 48 yards. In November, I was hoping to have 200.  Maybe next year, a shopping trip squashed that goal this month!

Dec In  75
Dec Out  41

YTD In  558
YTD Out  655
Net Change  97

I made 74 quilts, 5 pillows, 6 placemats and 2 table runners this year.  I participated in 4 quilt-a-longs and tested 4 patterns for Myra at Busy Hands Quilts. My goal was to make 40 quilts. I've had a lot of fun quilting this year!

44 quilts - These are my regular yearly quilts. I love making these lap quilts.  These quilt are made  mostly from my stash. I hope I can do this more next year. I have some piles already picked out to make quilts. I just need time to get to them. 

30 customer quilts - These either came from my etsy shop or my friends. I love making quilts for other people because it usually stretches me. I've learned new techniques that I might not try unless someone asked.

 

Goals for 2018

1. Make 40 quilts from my stash.
2. Practice some new free motion quilting.
3. Use the stash as much as possible. 
4. Keep up with cutting and storing the scrap pile.
5. Make some quilts with our old jeans.

 I know these goals are similar to last year, but since I didn't get #2 done, I will try to get to this one this next year.

Happy New Year to all of you!

Best of 2017

 

Cheryl over at Meadow Mist Designs is hosing a best of 2017 linky party! I decided to pick my top 5 by combining the posts with the most comments and the most views.

#5 - King Size Buckeye Beauty

#4 - Scrappy Patchwork

#3 - Stars Over Scott

#2 - Boomerang (there were two of these quilts this year...here is the second one.)

#1 - King Size Rainbow Bargello

It's been a great year and I hope yours has too! Head on over to Cheryl's blog to see what others are sharing.

Snowman and a Minecraft Quilt

Customer orders are done for this month.  I am so excited to take a break for a little bit. Now it's time to get ready for Christmas! Speaking of Christmas, I got the cutest gift ever! You may recognize him from Vicki's blog. It was hard to get a good picture of him hanging in my living room since the whole wall is windows, but he looks amazing!

If you've never heard of Vicki, she is an expert quilter who has been selling table runners with this adorable snowmen on them. This is her table runner below. (She also has a pretty amazing turkey table runner too.)

She also makes quilts, wall hangings, knitted children's sweaters, and handbags. You really should check out her Etsy shop.  She takes custom orders too! Thanks, Vicki!  I love the snowman!

And I'm sneaking in a Minecraft quilt I made for a customer just to keep my records straight. You can find the Minecraft Pattern here.   Email me for the pdf pattern. $10.99 

Merry Christmas Y'all!  

8" Pinwheel Quilt

82 x 102 

One more pinwheel quilt for the year. This one is made from 8" squares and a whole lot of of different fabrics.  It's just like the first one I made here, just with smaller squares.  She did change the binding to Kona Tangerine this time, but the back is still Kona Chartreuse.

I used the Accuquilt 4.5" die to cut all the triangles. There are 640 of them in this quilt!

My rainbow stash has been depleted and now needs to be replenished! Must go shopping!  Linking with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Irish Chain with a Seminole Border

78 x 98 

My friend started this quilt 10 years ago and asked me to finish it for her. She doesn't have much time for quilting and she wanted to give it to her husband for Christmas. She had everything cut for me already so I got to sewing.  I've never made a seminole border before so I was a little nervous if it was going to fit properly.  But it did!

I quilted one of my favorite pantographs on it called Square Spiral. It's a 6" panto. All the fabrics were Moda Marbles.

 

Crossing things off my to do list this week!  I'll be ready for a sewing break soon! (and pie too!)

Custom School Fundraiser Quilt

 50 x 62

When I was asked to make a quilt using kids hand prints, I wasn't really sure how it would work.  I thought I was going to have to cut and send the fabric to my customer and then work with whatever came back.  But she asked for some directions on cutting the fabric and took care of all the hand prints using a 9" square that she was careful to cut straight. I trimmed the blocks to 8.5" trying to center the prints as best I could since she didn't have a rotary cutter.

She choose this dot print for the front, so we used matching solids to border the prints. I picked 2 of each color.

For the back she wanted this coordinating stripped fabric from the Hungry Caterpillar fabric line. I was able to match the seam almost perfectly so you can't see it! It's between a blue and a purple line. i ironed one side first to get the fold in the right place.  I used glue to iron both pieces together. Then I sewed on the fold and trimmed the seam to a quarter inch.

This sure has been a year of making different kinds of quilts. It's getting close to seeing all the different techniques I've tried this year.  Hope you're getting caught up on all your December projects!

Linking with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts