Wednesday, December 30, 2015

End of the Year 2015

This year has flown by at amazing speed.

I never even created a post for November and it is already the end of the year.

I just realized that I have some small Christmas quilts that I did in November but never took a picture.  I will try and do that in the light tomorrow.

I did finally finish my November UFO...on Christmas day.  Considering that I wanted to give that quilt to my youngest daughter for Christmas one would have thought I would have gotten it done sooner.

As it is she got to see the quilt top and then I handed it over to my oldest daughter to quilt.  That my take awhile.  Since she returned to working outside the home instead of being an independent contractor she has less time to quilt or sew.

This quilt has been a long time in the making.  It is inspired by Monet's reflections on a lily pond.
The quilt itself is called Reflections.  I began collecting fabric for it after seeing Monet's painting when they were at the local Art Museum.  I collected fabric for at least 10 years, I had enough for at least three quilts by then.  This first appeared on a UFO list in 2011.  That is the year I got a lot of blocks cut.
One year I got all the lines drawn for the stitch and flip corners.  I even sewed a few blocks and got bored.

I decided that this year was the year I would get the quilts done.  I worked on the blocks on and off most of the year.  I rearranged my UFO numbers when it came up to soon in the year.  Then I hit November....no choice now.  I started sewing blocks again.



I got close.  I finally got all the blocks made after Thanksgiving.  The second weekend in December, I got the first quilt laid out.  My daughter hurt her back and so I ended up taking care of grandkids one weekend.  And sewed a row every night after work.  By the weekend before Christmas I had the center together.  I got the first boarder on and started ironing the half square triangles for the second boarder.  Those were all done by the 24th and I almost got all the boarders sewn together after church on Christmas Eve.   The next morning I started sewing at 6:30am and got the second boarders on by about 11am with breaks to cook a ham and make other food for the day and finish wrapping presents.  Third boarder was on by 12:30.  Ham out of the oven at that time and started loading stuff in the car.

Here is a couple of pictures at my daughters house after she opened the gift.  Both girls are standing on the couch to hold it up.  It is huge.


This quilt is King Size.  The second picture shows the colors better but the first one shows the boarders.

One Saturday, I was fighting a cold and did not really do anything but on Sunday I got the last of my Fat Quarter Shop Snapshot blocks cut out.  I sewed the blocks all together on Monday and got most of the sashing on the blocks.

Tuesday I finished sewing the top together.  I did not want it to become a UFO for next year.

Yep, the steps never got scrapped and painted last summer.  I did scrap moss off and was going to work on it but got side tracked.

Today I laid out another Reflections quilt.  I did mention that I had enough blocks for three quilts.  This one will go by my oldest daughter.

I also started working on the back for the Snapshot quilt.

I need to make more progress on quilty stuff before I have to go back to work next Monday.