A Year of New Beginnings and Finishes

I've been quite busy this year as I'm sure you can tell from my lack of posts! First we had the big "UP and MOVE" from Georgia to Oklahoma and all the settling in that goes with a move! I didn't tackle my new sewing studio until April...which meant...no sewing. My room was rather filled with boxes!

I was thrilled when I finally had my new sewing studio organized. 

Early Spring I joined the local quilt guild and HCE organization and soon became busy enough to make up for my time not sewing. 

About mid-year I joined a Dear Jane (Support) Group through the guild and started on my Dear Jane Journey. My hair-brained thoughts were that I would only ever attempt one Dear Jane quilt in my life so I decided I would do three at one time and get it over with! 

I'm doing a Black and White Dear Jane, a Batik Dear Jane, and an embroidered Dear Jane which I'm digitizing myself. So instead of doing the 225 (4 1/2 inch) blocks (with 20 or more pieces per block) for one quilt, I'm doing 675 blocks for three quilts! I think I've completed 9 blocks of the 675! A long journey ahead for sure! But hey, when I'm (ever) done I'll have three Dear Jane quilts and I can then move on to another hair-brained project! My Support Group is awesome and I enjoy spending one evening a month talking the Dear Jane talk. 

 

After joining HCE I became heavily involved with making items to be entered into the local County Fair held mid September. Now...I'm telling you straight...being the city girl that I am, I've never even been to a county fair let alone enter an item to try to win one of those elusive colored ribbons! I entered 19 handmade items and won ribbons on 17! I was feeling really Wowed and accomplished! Here are some of my winning items:

And I've started on my items for the 2016 County Fair:

In late September I hosted our annual Family Sewing Retreat which included my sisters and Mom. My sewing studio and new home were put to the test and I'm pleased to announce that both passed and we all had a grand time sewing, visiting, and shopping together.

I then decided I needed to make quilts to give as Christmas gifts to my in-laws....seven quilts! You can read that post and see the quilts here. I stayed on schedule and finished all seven before Christmas. 

With my busy quilting and sewing schedule this year I really have no time to go back to the rigors of the Nursing world so I think I'll try to stay retired one more year and see what all I can sew and quilt in the coming year. Not to mention the egg-laying chickens I now want to raise, the bigger garden I want to plant come Spring, and the Bees I would like to raise for honey. I'm quickly transforming from city life to country life....and so are our dogs!

What adventures and accomplishments have you had in 2015?

Thanks for visiting and remember to

Live On!

Quilt On!

Quilts as Christmas Gifts

For the past few months I've been steadily piecing and quilting quilts for Christmas gifts. When asked by my in-laws what I've been sewing, my standard answer has been a vague "small projects and table runners" with a quick change of subject. Now that the quilts have been given I can finally reveal them here for all to see!

I was quite pleased with the way the quilts came together and more importantly I had no major issues. I work better with a deadline and stayed on the schedule I created to get them completed before Christmas. I kept all the quilts as a throw size...roughly 60 x 60 inches.

Now for the Reveal! 

(The fingers holding up the quilts belong to my DH who's job was to assign the quilts to the recipients.)

Carolyn and Monty's Quilt

Gary and Jean's Quilt

Linda and Ken's Quilt

Inez's Quilt

Iris's Quilt

Shelby and Frances's Quilt

Michelle and Michael's Quilt

I'm happy to report the quilts were a huge hit with the recipients! I'm also happy to report that the only new fabric I had to purchase were two pieces of backing fabric...the rest came from my stash! Sad to report that I really can't tell I took from my stash! Oh well...I have an entire new year to work on that!

Quilt On!