Happy New Year 2016 and 2015 Recap

Happy New Year to you!  I want to extend my thanks and gratitude to my friends and readers for following me here or in our personal off-line lives. Staying connected is, to me, an important part of life, and the older I get the more I know and appreciate that. I wish you all a happy, healthy, safe and prosperous New Year 2016 from the bottom of my heart.

2015 was, for me, a good, happy and productive year.  Creatively speaking, I was primarily a crazy quilter (crazy quilting; the art form that arose in Victorian times whereby women pieced together fancy fabrics in random patchwork and then embellished it with stitching, beads, etc) for the last 15 years. Crazy quilting is very time consuming (but enjoyable!). It takes a lot of time just to do one block. And while I did do embroidery and crazy quilting this year, my main focus was on traditional quilting. It is refreshing to have finishes come along more often!  

So, here is a pictorial of my finishes this year with minimum commentary. 

Quilt for son Shane

Birch Trees Quilt for DGS Easton

Pow Wow Quilt for DH Bruce

2-layer skirt for DGD London

Here I must insert a picture of Lori Holt, the quilt world’s own Farm Girl herself. I was lucky enough to attend one of her retreats in June.

Lori Holt

2015 was the Year of the Farm Girl in the quilting world, and although my Farm Girl Quilt is not yet assembled, I do have 49 blocks (of 49) completed. I still need to do our pillow shams and then shuffle around and decide on placement. The Farmhouse block, below, represents that huge effort. Watch for my Farm Girl Quilt and matching pillow shams to be completed in the 1st quarter of 2016

Farmhouse block

What Cancer Cannot Do Quilt for Cal

Pink and Green Patchwork Quilt for Emma

Several times during the summer, my dear granddaughter Lauren came to spend the day and we sewed. I have shown pictures of tote bags, zip pouches, etc, that we made during those fun times. But the Piece de Resistance of our combined efforts was this lovely school backpack that Lauren completed just before school started. I am so proud of her!

Lauren and her backpack

The one crazy quilt I finally finished this year was started in 2012. There will be more about this quilt in February after it is published.  I list it here just for a minor reference.  :-)  I also have another CQ finish which is not shown, but will also be in that magazine. Again, more in February.

The Black Needlepoint Crazy Quilt

Farm Girl Cozy Cottage Pillow

Four scrappy pincushions for Christmas presents

Two sets of clothes and quilted play mats for granddaughters

20-21 zip pouches for Christmas gifts (only a few shown here)

17 pillowcases for gifts. Again, only some shown. 

Lighted Christmas Tree Wall Hanging

Rainbow Orbs Quilt, Shams and bedskirt

Rainbow Orbs is, by far, my favorite finish of 2015. Its bright, in-your-face colors bring me joy every time I look at it.  The cats approve, too.

I Spy Quilt

Helen’s Garden Quilt

That pretty much sums up my creative year. What fun it was! And today, New Year’s Day, I will begin straight away on 2016 projects.

Hugs,

Final Finish of 2015 - Helen’s Garden

With the weather being snowy and snuggly over the last week, it was so perfect to spend time in my studio sewing and playing with fabric. It was no surprise that this quilt was whipped out before I realized it!

Helen’s Garden finished at 68 x 84”. I used the Intersections quilt pattern (tutorial on their YouTube Channel and also published in their Block magazine) because it had large pieces that would best show off the gorgeous patterns and colors in this fabric line.  The fabric is also called Helen’s Garden and is by Tamara Kate, one of my favorite designers. She named it after her mother Helen, who loved to garden. My mother was Helen, too, so this quilt was meant to be. It is for ME, to curl up with on the couch when I read or watch TV or whatever. It is the first quilt I have made for myself (well, not counting the bed quilt, Rainbow Orbs).

As it was cold and snowy (as it has been for days - but no complaints here), after snapping the picture above, we came indoors and I just laid it out in the living room.

The back is a vintage sheet in lavender and white check, that I extended with bits of leftover fabric.  The binding was also one of the lighter prints in the line that I didn’t use in the squares because I didn’t feel it contrasted enough with the cream sashing. Quilting was a simple stipple design, and I find that my quilting is getting better. Practice really does help!!

So, all this quarter I have been linking up my finishes to my goals that I published at the beginning of the quarter here.  But it turns out I had two #6’s !!!  Anyway, I actually set 11 goals, and this finish (which was #5 on the list) makes the 8th of 11.  Not bad, since the goals were meant to be pie-in-the-sky.  Soon we will be linking our 4th quarter finishes up to Adrienne on the Windy Side’s linky party in hopes of winning prizes from great sponsors.

In 2016, the Finish Along will have several hosts, because it has grown in popularity. And no wonder - a great motivator to finish things as well as visiting new blogs and seeing great eye candy. This is NOT limited to quilting; embroiderers, crazy quilters and crafters take note.  You can go HERE to read about the 2016 Finish Along.

My next post will be a sort of recap of the year. I hope you’ll be around!

Hugs,

Catch-up Post and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Are you all ready for Christmas yet?  If so, congrats! If not, why are you sitting there reading this when you still have things to do?  LOL

We are ready here at the Kizerian Love Shack. I may still make a pie or some cookies so I have sweets when the families swing by. But since we are feeding some of them brunch and some of them dinner, and Bruce and don’t generally keep a lot of junk food around the house (because I would eat it), that is a maybe.....

Anyway, I wanted to show you a few things I have finished up in the last two weeks or so. So let’s begin.

First is the Cozy Cottage pillow I made. It is a Lori Holt pattern from her Farm Girl Vintage Calendar for 2016 (which you can buy at the Fat Quarter Shop. It has lots of cute ideas and patterns in it besides the calendar part).  I want to make another one next year in Christmas colors.

Next we have the Milk Cow Block. I have embroidered the eyes, but need to redo them because they are hardly visible. I had a lot of trouble with this pattern and even discovered a couple errors in the directions, so had to recut some pieces. Not my most fun block.

Barn Cat went together smoothly, but I don’t like my fabric choices. Oh well. In the big, busy quilt, these tame fabrics might be a nice place to rest the eyes. Obviously, I still need to embroider eyes, nose and whiskers. Because, what is a cat without whiskers?

All I need now is to finish up the blocks I will use for pillow shams;  the tractor for Bruce and who-knows-what for me.  This will probably begin coming together before the year is out.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In the past I used to supply vintage Victorian postcard images having to do with each respective holiday. This year I decided to show a few decorating vignettes around our house instead.

The first is on our antique sideboard. I love the traditional Christmas colors of red and green and gold. Sometimes other colors appear (orange, blue), but for the most part, this old gal sticks with what she loves.  By the way, in the background you see part of one (of a pair) of carved griffins on this sideboard. The furniture is part of a set that my ex husband and I bought for our larger home with a formal dining room. This is the small sideboard; he took the big one. I got the vitrine (china hutch) and we sold the dining room set with chairs. It was all a matching set that had been imported from Europe. It is circa 1860’s, Dutch. Maybe I will show more pictures sometime.

Below is an antique Father Christmas that my former sister-in-law gifted me one year, back in the 1990’s. It is composite and circa 1900-1915. Father Christmas stays out all year because I love him!

We have 3 bathrooms in our little home. When we remodeled all the bathrooms a few years ago, this main bathroom is the only one where we were able to maintain the original tile (counters, walls and floor). It is usually decorated in a peacock theme (I have shown pictures of that before), but this year I have a few of my older-style ornaments set up here.

In our master bedroom, on the dresser, sits my collection of Willow Tree Angels. At Christmas time, they are graced with two beautiful Christmas-themed postcards, which I bought from one of my favorite crazy quilters, Margreet deReus.

I collect vintage cookie jars, and while this one isn’t vintage (the left one is from the sixties, though), the Fitz & Floyd Snowy Woods Father Christmas jar is one of my favorites. It was produced from 1992-2000 and like all F&F, is highly collectible. What is sweeter than Father Christmas being surrounded by woodland bunnies??

Wow. That makes me want to start collecting again!

Back to sewing, I finished up a spur-of-the-moment idea for the grands; an I-Spy quilt. I had lots of 5” I Spy blocks hanging around since I attended the 2012 Sewing Summit. So, I arranged them, stitched them together, basted, quilted, bound and washed it. Done in two afternoons. It measures 45x45”.  The binding is scrappy leftovers for quilts past.

And finally, I cut and pieced my Helen’s Garden quilt last weekend. Yesterday I basted it, and I plan to get quilting on it this evening perhaps.

As this fabric line has a lot of large-print fabrics, I decided to do this easy pattern from Missouri Star Quilts. I did omit the outer border though, because the vintage sheet I am using for the backing was not large enough, even with the addition of an extra column of leftover fabric. I will show pictures of front and back when complete, since I need to do a post for the 2015 Finish-Along. This is one of my 4th quarter goals I didn’t know if I could really get done.

The dragonfly fabric, below left, is my favorite print in the line. I have another yard of it left over, so I will need to mull on how to use it. This fabric is by one of my favorite designers, Tamara Kate.

And I think that catches us up. So all that’s left is for me to wish you a beautiful and Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.  I will be back after Christmas with a final year-end wrap-up post.

Until then,

3rd Quarter Sewing Goals for Finish-Along

No time to waste! I have been participating in the 2015 Finish-Along with Adrienne of On the Windy Side. Each quarter we set our goals, and I only have a day or two left to announce my quarter 3 goals! That is what this post is about. But first, let’s talk about the Q2 finishes.

For second quarter, I had five goals and only finished two; Bruce’s Banjo quilt and the Summer Skirt for London.

However, in my defense, I did finish a lot of blocks that were outside my goal list. For example, I participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC). For that, I finished 7 - 16” blocks (made up of 4, 8.5 inch blocks each) as well as over over 30 12” blocks for the Farm Girl Vintage (FGV) quilt-along and the FGV Retreat we had locally at Thimbles and Threads. Also, it does not take into account the three other unplanned makes; an ironing pad to use with my travel iron, a quilted/pocketed underpad for my Bernina, and a zip pouch for carrying my travel iron.  Most of those have been posted here during the last 3 months, so I can laugh and prove I’m not a slacker!  :-)

But now it is time to set some goals for the 3rd Quarter Finish-Along, and after careful consideration, here is my list:

1.  Black Crazy Quilt Wall Hanging  

This is actually all sewn together now, and the trim is mostly stitched around the inside needlepoint.  I have one seam and one medallion to add, then it is just backing and binding. I have been putting it off because (a) black wool is not particularly appealing to work on in the heat of summer and (b) it will be featured in a magazine in the winter, so I don`t want to really give the finished piece too much exposure before it is published. So I keep waffling on this....

2.  Cancer Quilt for Cal

This quilt is well under way; my friend Mary and I are both going to be working on this (Cal is my friend and her uncle). So far, about half the cutting is done and some of the sewing.  This will go together quickly once it gets our primary focus. And that will likely happen as soon as my Etsy shop sale is over....

3.  Baby Quilt for DGD Oakley

We are expecting another granddaughter, Oakley, in September.  This quilt will be a simple patchwork front in pinks and greens and white. The back is the floral fabric - a vintage sheet - that inspired the color scheme.

 4.  Finish Pretty in Plaid Wallhanging. This is an Anka’s Treasures pattern in Bonnie and Camille’s fabric
 

 5.  Helen’s Garden Quilt

Helen’s Garden is the name of the fabric line I am using. Besides falling in love with the dragonflies and accompanying prints by Tamara Kate last year (it was named for her mother Helen), I love it because my mother was also Helen. It will be a bed-sized quilt for our bed.
By the way, I LOVE Tamara Kate’s new line The Birds and The Bees.

The pattern is from Missouri Star Quilt Company (see pic above); the plain off-white will be used for the sashing and the lavender checked bedsheets (upper left of picture) will be the backing.

6.    Farm Girl Pincushions
 
I’m getting a head start on some of my Christmas sewing.  These pincushions will be for my cousins, etc (my quilty peeps) as part of their Christmas gifts. I think they will all be presented in little zip pouches, which will likely either just happen OR will become Q4 goals.

And one of my supervisors, Alfie (Alfalfa) insisted that I show you how intent he is about quality control.

Alfie checks the measurements of the cut pieces

So, I think that about wraps it up for this post.

I will be back later in the week to show you the latest Farm Girl Blocks....

Until next time,