I will pick 3 favorites from each year and starting with 2010 this is my strip pieced Kaleidoscope with all floral small prints. I need to take a new photo with my better camera some day since the photos in 2010 are from 2 cameras ago. I used to make a lot of strip pieced Kaleidoscope quilts because I needed to start a new one each time I taught the class. This one was my favorite.
My next favorite from 2010 is a wallhanging, all plaids and stripes inspired by the cover quilt on "Radiant New York Beauties" by Valori Wells. I printed the paper piecing templates in the book and made a bunch of arcs. Then I played with the arrangement until I liked it and finished it. A close friend owns this one.
The third favorite from 2010 is the Kaffe Fassett fabric Trip Around the World quilt that is in my yellow guest bedroom. This photo was taken before I put the binding on. It is the same fabric as the narrow border.
In 2011 I designed my H quilt inspired by the S quilt in a Kaffe Fassett book. It is almost all Kaffe Fassett fabrics with just a couple batiks thrown into the mix. I needed a few more blocks and decided to add stars. I call it "H: I give it 5 stars". There is a tutorial on my blog for making the H blocks.
My crosses quilt is inspired by another quilt in a Kaffe Fassett book. I have a tutorial for this quilt on my blog too. I used all scraps for this one and a friend owns this one. The quilts with the most fabric choices in them are always favorites.
This was the second Crooked Cobblestone quilt that I designed and the first one to be finished. As much as I loved it, I can't keep them all and I sold this one in one of my pop-up shops. This was one of a series of about 12 wallhangings. I still have a bag with about 150 blocks in it so there may be another one in the future.
2012 was a memorable year for lots of good things including my solo quilt show at a gallery in NC. I finished 26 quilts that year so it was hard to choose just 3. This colorwash has always been my favorite. This was early in my series of batik colorwashes. I sold it so I only have a photo to go back and revisit it.
Sparkling Stars....oh how I struggled to come up with a working order of the blocks. This is about 2/3 of the blocks I made and when I finally removed the ones that weren't working, I ended up with this. I love the vibrancy and of course I LOVE triangles and stars. Lynne Tyler of The Patchery Menagerie blog bought this one from my solo show 2012.
This wallhanging was also in the solo show in NC and I'm so happy it didn't sell because it was so underpriced for the amount of work in it. Click on this for a larger view for the amount of quilting in it. I matched thread to each strip and there are several rows of stitching in each strip. Most strips are in the 1/4" to 1" width range. I probably have 40 hours of quilting in it.
2013 is the year I made my second large bright colorwash with regular printed quilting cottons. This one has so many wonderful fabrics in it
My next 2013 favorite was made with the Strips 'n Curve templates by Louisa L. Smith. I had made many quilts with template sets A and B but never with Kaffe Fassett fabric before this one. I think I need to do another larger one with his fabric.
2013 was the year I started a series of 16 patch quilts during the time of my 99 year old dad's failing health. They were easy to sew, not a lot of thinking, but I put a lot of thought into the colors in each. This one is called "Peony Garden" and I absolutely love this one.
In 2014 two of my favorites are flannel quilts. This one is a paper pieced pattern by Karen K. Stone called Rattlesnake. I named mine Bear Trap because that is what I think it looks like. I had to add 3 crazy pieced blocks in there because the trimmings were stacking up and calling my name.
This is the other favorite flannel quilt. It is a pattern called Windy City in an old Sally Schneider book, "Scrap Happy". I have made this pattern at least twice before and one of those 2 was flannel too. I love scrappy flannel quilts with lots of bright colors scattered through.
The last 2014 favorite is a "Fractured" quilt, inspiration by Kathy Doughty. It doesn't follow her layout since I left out the center rows in this one. This was my second quilt of this quilt block. If you want to see more about the Fractured quilts, that is a label in my Label List on the right sidebar of my blog.
Occasionally someone will comment on the quilt of the day on my blog and say "This quilt doesn't look like your style". Really? I'm not sure what my "style" is. I think I work in all types of fabric and lots of different styles. The 2 consistent things are that they are all pieced (as opposed to applique) and that I use LOTS of different fabrics in every quilt. Comments welcome.
More favorites from a decade tomorrow.........
I decided my next quilt backing was going to be a combination of several long strips from this box. The label has slipped down but it says long strips leftover from backings. It is so full I pulled the batiks out and will start a second box.
Here are the 3 strips I chose for this quilt. I put a note on each strip with approximate measurements and whether it needs to be trimmed to straighten it. These 3 are longer than I need but the best match for colors in the front of the quilt.
Our Friday night snow was just enough to cover all of the branches and the ground. Now it will be above freezing for 3 days so it will all melt. That's the way I like it. The older I get the less I like to be outside on slick surfaces.
One of my readers asked if I could show my favorite quilts I have made in the last 10 years. (I showed my favorites from 2019 a couple days ago). Is anyone else interested in seeing them?
I loaded the backing on the longarm on January 1 but didn't get the batting and top loaded until yesterday.
It is now finished, 70.5" x 88". It could be used on a twin/single bed. I did a big loose meander again and used Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.
I was going to piece 5 different 1 yard pieces of flannel together for the back but in the end decided to use the wide flannel backing I bought on sale last month.
The backing is a lighter color than I wanted on this quilt but in the end finished is better than worrying about how I was going to piece the backing. The binding is a stripe and looks good with both sides, machine finished.
This photo is for perspective of the size. The double design wall is 84" x 96".
Now if I could just keep up the pace of one finish a week I would have everything quilted by the end of the year. I think I said that last year or the year before too and it didn't happen.
I mentioned in my 2019 yearly recap post yesterday that I had three favorites that I am keeping. Several people wanted to know which 3 they were.
First is this red/pink crazy pieced quilt. It was SO MUCH work to make this one. I only averaged a few blocks each sewing session. I started out with my scraps and eventually had to cut off of yardage to finish it. It has a lot of fabric in it since there are so many seams and also a huge variety of different fabrics. I know I would never make another one like it and the red/coral/pink colors are in the top group of colors that I love.
The second one is this colorwash which is taller than me. I have never kept a colorwash made with printed quilting cottons that has the bright colors in it. I had sold all the rest of them. This one is made with rectangles instead of squares which I really like. It has over 300 different fabrics in it.
The third one is the African courthouse steps log cabin quilt that I just finished. It has such a large selection of different African fabrics in it which makes it unique. I used the last piece I had of many of the fabrics.
I was looking back through the decade of quilts I have finished and there are some favorites in that bunch too. I try to make enough quilts specifically for sharing and gifting so I don't have to give away my favorites.
I finished 24 quilts in 2019 (compared to 18 in 2018). Nothing is to scale here, just the way Picasa makes a collage. 3 of them are favorites and I will keep them. Many will be gifted.
I finished 22 quilt tops (one not in collage), 4 of them were sold, 10 were made into finished quilts and 9 are in the top photo also. The Kaffe quilt top is for me too and I hope to get it quilted soon using one of the wide Kaffe backing fabrics.
I started the year with 31 quilt tops, but really it was 34 because I found 3 early in the year that weren't written on the list. I ended up with 31 quilt tops so my ratio of new projects to finished is still too high. Am I going to do anything about that? Heck NO. I'm going to have fun and start as many new projects as I want. Some projects might get abandoned and the blocks will go into the orphan block boxes, no guilt.
My indoor garden is doing great. I was afraid there wouldn't be many blooms starting in January because so many of the cacti all bloomed at once in late Nov./early Dec. This orange/peach one has more blooms than last year.
A lot of the blogs are listing accomplishments over the decade of Jan. 1, 2010 to Dec. 31, 2019 and the only stat I can come up for that time period quickly is that I quilted 118 quilts on my longarm machine and 94 quilts on either my Pfaff or my Babylock straight stitch machine. Some of them are wallhangings and others are throws or bed quilts. 8 of them were for Quilts of Valor and one large one was for the store I worked at.
Three finishes in December. African colorwash 28" x 34", Snails Trail 59" x 72" and African log cabin 58.5" x 81" It was right down to the wire finishing the last 2 but I reached my goal of 24 finished quilts for 2019.
Happy New Year everyone!!! I'm such a party animal.....I spent New Year's Eve finishing 2 quilts. I got the Snail's Trail done first: 31 different fabrics in it. I love the textures of the prints playing together. 59" x 72".
The back is a wonderful sale fabric that I'm glad I saved for the perfect quilt. Binding is the same fabric as the back. Machine finished binding.
Next I finished the quilting on the African colorwash. I hadn't done free motion quilting on my Pfaff for many years. Luckily it all worked out well.
This is a belated birthday present for my daughter. Ditch quilted in the center area and free motion quilting in the border.
28" x 34".
The back is another color of the same Stonehenge leopard print.
Now I need work on my monthly recap and my yearly recap collages. I may do a second post today with the monthly recap if all goes well.
