Glancing back, 2011 was a very good year.

These are the quilts I finished in 2011. For me, this is a lot of quilts. I started quilting in March of 2010 and I started blogging in March of 2011, so some of you would have seen most of these quilts on this blog already. I want to thank all of you who visit my blog and flickr pages, providing encouragement and support - it is so fun and inspiring to be part of the quilting internet community.



Here are many of the other things I made in 2011. I have not included Quilting Bee Blocks in this group.



This group is mini quilts and swap quilts I made, as well as the mug rug I sent off. I see that I put the fabric basket I sent with the scrap swap in the group above, it seems that mosaic making is not my strong suit.



And the best are last, these are the things that my internet friends have sent to me over this year. Swap items, pay it forward gifts, bee blocks, and the wonderful pillow I won. Although things seem to take a long time to get to my house, I sure have received some wonderful pieces from wonderful quilters.

I hope that you have had a creative and fun 2011. I am looking forward to 2012 where we can all continue our quilting journey. All the best to you and yours for the new year!

p.s. I have linked up to Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day. I hope you visit there and check out everyone's projects.

Best,

Leanne

Winter break

In between the several days of Christmas guests, I managed to sew a few blocks. These HSTs are made by sewing a big double X across two pieces of a layer cake turned right sides together and then cutting a + and then cutting an X. I will photograph it for you next time I make some more units. You get 8 HST units out of that process. Then I trimmed them to size - they are 4" squares.



Here are the 9 blocks I have finished so far. The pattern is called Summer's Blush by Roslyn at Bloom. I am using a Reunion layer cake (by Sweetwater). As I have said, this version is not very blushy but these colours bring out the bold geometric design. I am keen to get to the sashing, which makes the light grey corners into nine patches.



This is one of my favourite Christmas photos, I think. Making the cranberry jelly - the colours always just capture the holiday for me.



And an update for Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap, you can see the FUNC. He is hanging out with the pretty wall quilts in my sewing room. I will try to take him out to see the sights this weekend, as he is off on the road again on Tuesday for sure. These pretty quilts were made for me, the one on the right (the churn dashes - this is the back, I turn it over from time to time)  is from Karen who blogs at KarensCosmos for DQS 11 and the one on the left is from Shevvy who blogs at Shevvy, quilting in London for my pay it forward gift.

I hope you all have been enjoying the holidays, with family, friends and community. I have had the best time - the guests were wonderful, the gifts just right, the food yummy, and now I am enjoying the quiet lazy days at the very end of this year.

Best,

Leanne

Greetings on the Winter Solstice.

I made another 241 Tote (pattern by Anna Graham at Noodlehead here), this one is a Christmas present. It seems that I have succumbed to the urge to make handmade gifts.



The fabrics are Echo by Lotta Jansdotter. I decided to make this bag at the last minute, and in 2.5 hours it was ready to go - this is an easy pattern with a great result and I recommend it. I am not planning any other handmade gifts, unless another last minute urge strikes.



This is the Modern Christmas Table Runner that I received from my secret partner, Vicky, who blogs at Patchwork Palace. It is perfect! It has trees and stars, just what I was hoping for. And she picked fabrics that work perfectly with my cherry coloured table.



It fits exactly right and will be on my table for the holidays. This room has a lot of ambiance - well it is fairly dark all the time - these pictures were taken just after lunch.



Here you can see the quilting details, which are lovely. Thank you Vicky, I am thrilled with this runner!



And look at the cute little owl she also sent me. He is already on my Christmas tree. This owl is made from the most beautiful feeling felt. I had never experienced felt like this so I have already ordered some for me from Vicky's source - Laura at Lupin Handmade and Laura's lovely blog is Bugs and Fishes.

Tomorrow I am hoping to finish working at noon and then start some holidays. Oh, and I have to tell you that the F.U.N.C. has arrived at my house, all the way from Judith in Ireland. I am going to take him out to show him the sights and I think he will have to spend Christmas at my house before I send him on his next journey. I'll see if I can get some pictures before he heads off next week.

And, today is the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year, but that also means that starting tomorrow the days get longer again, which makes it one of my favourite days of the year.

All the best to you and yours for this holiday season! I hope that you savour the moments, have plenty of laughs, and relax too.

Best,

Leanne

Christmas Stars Quilt - Done in time for the holidays!

My Christmas Stars Quilt is all finished, washed and dried! I started this quilt a long time ago, by Christmas last year I had finished the wonky stars and basted it. Then it went on the pile.



It was always my plan to give hand quilting a try with this quilt, and that is why it stayed on the pile - I did not really know how to hand quilt. Then when Rhonda, from Quilter in the Gap, and Rachel, from Contented, made the Duo QAL with its focus on the quilting, both free motion and hand quilting, I knew it was time to take it off the pile. So as to play along nicely with the QAL, first I made the ROYGBIV Log Cabin Quilt, but then they let me sneak in this one for the hand quilting.

The finished quilt is about 48" x 60" and is made out of Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas fabrics with Kona White. The binding is a light pink flannel with red dots and the back is flannel too.



I used perle cotton and hand stitched around each of the 20 stars. I learned that the stitches are going to be organic, adding texture and colour, not fine needlework. I do love how the hand stitches look, but my very sore fingers are not really fond of this hand stitching - they would rather knit, or do cross stitch, petit point, or embroidery, anything but this.



So, after I outlined the 20 stars, using 4 different colours, I took the quilt to my machine and added big asterisk - * - stars in the resulting empty squares and smaller asterisk stars in the middle of the wonky stars so that there was enough quilting to keep the quilt together. The amount of quilting is still fairly light and the finished quilt is soft and snuggly.



We actually had a little sun this afternoon and so this is a shot before I bound it and washed it. I applied the binding by machine, following the careful coaching that Marianne (The Quilting Edge) provided. Although I clearly need a lot of practice, she is right - it is so much easier and far faster to do the binding by machine.



And this loveliness is from Sarah, Narcoleptic in the Cupboard. Several weeks ago she mentioned that she was happy to give this wonderful fabric away. Well I put my hand up immediately. She sent it to me along with the lovely fabric box and matching perle cotton.



I have decided this little box is perfect for keeping my scissors, seam ripper and other tools that I need handy tidy on my sewing table. They fall off a lot less now.



We did decorate our Christmas tree yesterday but I am still challenged to get a nice overall photo. Here is a little peek instead.

I hope you are enjoying the last week of holiday fun and excitement. I finally made a shopping list and spent a wonderful couple of hours at the bookstore with my kids last night. Despite all the fuss, I love this time of year, with bright lights and shiny ornaments - a time for sharing and for family, friends, and community.

I've added a link to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story and the Needle and Thread Network. There are lovely projects there if you have a minute or to to be inspired.

Best,

Leanne

The winners are....

The Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day (for a week) is over. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in such a huge giveaway event!

Of the 420 entries for the 241 Tote (made with Anna Graham's lovely pattern), Debra has won!



For those of you who did not win, I recommend this pattern. It is easy to follow, and the tote is a fairly quick project.

And of the 763 entries for the Echo fat quarter bundle, by Lotta Jansdotter, (read about her here at Windham Fabrics) Rachael has won!

Congratulations to you both! 

I also am a winner, because I now have a great number of book and movie recommendations for relaxing by the fire over the holidays and baking ideas for this weekend and next week in preparation for the holidays. I have tried to respond to each comment, but there were so many that I was not able to get to all of you. 

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to share their ideas and recommendations with me as you visited all the giveaways. 

And welcome to all the new followers - although following my blog did not give people an extra entry in the contests, I am happy to see that some of my visitors thought they should follow along for the future. 

Now that all that excitement is over, I hope to get back to sewing and baking this weekend. Oh, and time to get some shopping done too. Enjoy the weekend!

Best,

Leanne