Thursday, December 29, 2011

2011 Quilting Recap and 2012 Quilting goals

It is the end of the year, and it is now time to reflect on the old year and think about resolutions for the new year.

2011 Quilting Review

This has not been a very quilty year for me.  I have spent a great deal of time working at work, working on genealogy, and writing articles for HubPages and elsewhere.  Weaving has also taken a great deal of my time this year.    Besides the finished projects I am showing on this blog, I have also made progress on several other projects, but not to completion. I worked on the Thangles BOM, made a DJ block, and quilted my Moldy Crackers quilt.   If I continue to make that type of progress this year, there will be some completed quilts to show for it.

Here are the quilts I finished this year. There is lots of variety.

This was a little quilt for Kate's Another Little quilt Swap that I finished early in the year.







The Simply Squares quilt was finished in May, even though I forgot the quilt reveal until October. It was one of the rare projects that I worked on start to finish without letting it marinate.



Celebrate was my happiest achievement this year, because this quilt did languish for a long time while I decided what to do with it. I promised a better picture, but I'm not sure I delivered since part of it is cut off.




And don't forget the postcards I made in my last post!


2012 Quilting Goals

I don't think 2012 will be a year for quilting for me either in terms of getting a large number of quilts finished. I am not giving up quilting by any means.   I will definitely continue to work on quilting as much as possible, and try to get more done, and hopefully get a chance to get started on some of the ones that are waiting in line.  I think there should be at least three or four quilts finished this year.  I want to focus on quality, and make progress on the quilts that have applique and lots of little pieces and take longer to make.  They have already been started and I just need to keep making progress even though it feels very slow.

It will be a few weeks until the denim rug is finished, and I want to get a large portfolio of articles written on HubPages, and focus on my job.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Avatar Fabric Postcards

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas.

I had a lovely time making these avatar fabric postcards.  I have written up directions on how to make them and posted them on HubPages: How to Make a Fabric Avatar Postcard.



She looks like she is curtsying.  "Pleased to make your acquaintance."  I know I need to be working on my BOMs, but they are so serious, and I just wanted to play.


I think they turned out pretty good.  Do you have any ideas for their names?

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Still Weaving


I am so excited that  I am finally weaving with denim!  It is a great feeling to finally be working on the denim part of the denim rug.  In quilting, you think you are done when you have made a top, but there is a lot of work still left to do to finish up a quilt.  In weaving, there is a lot more front end work, so that when you actually get to weaving, there isn't much left to do except finish off the ends.

Those raw edges sticking out are  where the strip ended, and I turned it to make a continuous strip. I think it adds character.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Quilt Related Post

Are you sitting down?  I don't want you to go into  shock that I have written a second post so close in time to my first one.  Or that I might actually have content that relates to my header and blog name.






All right, I have to admit that I didn't actually do any quilting.  I really wanted to save you from the trauma.  See how nice I am.  I simply went to the store to pick up the last of my block of the months.  And their BOM marketing ploy worked, since I did wind up buying some fabric as well while I was there.  I am going to use a star setting, and use the fabric shown to make some of the stars around the BOMs. Who knows, maybe next time, I will have some completed blocks to show you.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Finally Weaving!


I have been going to a weaving class for many weeks now, and diligently measuring threads, and putting them on the loom.  Once you put the threads on the heddles, you have to put them through the thing that looks like a comb.  I made several mistakes at the end that required some rework, and some more rework.  Yesterday - do you hear the music? - I was able to finish the last of the corrections and actually start to weave!  It is such a relief to actually get to the part that I thought weaving was all about!

Of course, this means I had better get to cutting those denim strips so I don't run out and can actually weave when I go class.

Another big accomplishment for me this week is that I received the Hub of the Day accolade on HubPages for my How to Make a Quilt Label.  I don't think it was my best work, but I will take any accolade I am given.

And the biggest news is that I have finished the 100 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge I was doing over at HubPages.  I am not going to be doing anything like that anytime soon.  For now, I am going to go back and edit some hubs to incorporate the new things I have done, and see what I can do about making each hub the best it can be.

I also now have time to have a life, which means I can get back to reading blogs and hubs and commenting.  So sorry I haven't had the time to come visit you as often as I would like.  I have missed all of you.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Stripping with Denim

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Denim strips

I am sorry it has been so long since I wrote in here.  I entered a challenge on HubPages to write 100 articles in 30 days, and that has been very challenging. It has taken me a lot longer than I thought it would have.  You can see my articles on Millionaire Tips,Hubpages.com you are interested.

I continue to go to the weaving class, we skipped another one because my sister was going to chaperone at a camp, and I didn't want to get too ahead of her.  I have been cutting my old jeans into denim strips to weave.  Unfortunately, I made several errors in the threading process, so this week I had to re-do a bunch of it. I still have to redo some more things when I go next week. Having a loom is supposed to make things easier, but I am not sure it wouldn't have been faster to weave manually.  I am sure once I stop making the mistakes, it will go faster.

I have to cut up a lot more jeans too.  We had Thanksgiving off, and I felt I would have a lot of time to cut strips in those two weeks, but somehow time got away from me and I didn't cut any!