Best of 2019

It's that time of the year again! This is my 2nd time participating in Cheryl Brickey's Best of Linky Party, something I really enjoy because it gives me an excuse to look back onto my year of blogging and projects, and forces me (in a fun way) to pick my favorites.

As I look back onto 2019, I realize that it was a fairly low-volume year. In fact, I only completed 11 quilts in the entirety of 2019 (plus a few wallets and one handbag). But, here are my top 5:

I'm Most Grateful For: Mod Mountains

Earlier this year I experienced my first burnout. For a few months, I just didn't really want to quilt. I couldn't control the passion for quilting when it arrived, and I couldn't control it leaving me, either. But then something happened. Suzy Quilts started a quilt-along for Mod Mountains in April, and something about that stirred up the fire in me, and I felt a renewed passion for quilting.

Favorite Top: Rock Star

It was a very, very close race between Rock Star and Circuit for my favorite quilt top of the year, but at the end Rock Star won out because I'm just so crazy about the fabrics, and I have a thing for star quilts.

Biggest Save: Bridges

I really hated Bridges when I first finished the quilt top. In fact, I couldn't get over how much I hated it, and that's why it got quilted over so many others I have in the stash ... to get it out of my mind! But as a result, I took more liberties with the quilting, experimented, did things I normally wouldn't, and it turned into one of my favorites, to the point that it's now hanging over my fireplace.

Most Inspired: Seahorse Sanctuary

Seahorse Sanctuary is one of my most inspired quilts, both in the fabric selection and the quilting. The inspiration came in the form of putting the seahorse print inside the houses and quilting a little underseas neighborhood. All the houses are "decorated" with different quilting designs, and I really enjoyed this one.

Favorite Finish: Totality

When I finished Totality back in February, I said it was my favorite quilt ever. That still holds true today! Everything about this quilt speaks to me. The graphic pattern, the special fabric I got from Spoonflower, and of course, I love the quilting.

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So that's my 2019. Between months of burnout, fear and loathing in the longarm room, and lots of trips, I didn't get as much done in the sewing room as I would have liked to, but of my finishes, I'm really happy with and proud of each one. Here's to 2020!

A Rocking Duo

When I think of rock stars in the quilting world, there are a lot of names that come to mind. But when I think of someone who literally has the aesthetic of a rock star, I think of no one but Libs Elliott. I absolutely adore her fabrics and her designs, full of skulls, glitter, and fun.

So one can imagine just how much I enjoyed making her Double Trouble pattern with her Greatest Hits Vol I collection. (The black / white fabrics are not from that collection, as I didn't have enough.) I love star quilts, and this one is just pulsating with rhythm and beat! (Maybe because I listened to too much pounding bass while making this.)

Well, I'm totally in love with it! However, while cutting the black and white fabric, I misread the instructions and cut out twice as many. I decided it's time to make another Haphazard quilt, this time in just black and white fabrics. I didn't have enough for a throw-sized quilt, but this 36" x 36" quilt makes a good size of a wallhanging.

I just love it! It looks so graphic and striking. This is my 3rd Haphazard, and I think it's my favorite yet! All in all, it's been a happy week in the quilting studio.

Swooning Over Swoon

Possibly the most exciting but simultaneously the most stressful part of making a quilt for me is fabric selection. Out of the quilts I've made, if I messed up somewhere, that was almost always where I messed up. That's why I love to buy kits.

But once in awhile, I get an idea to marry a quilt pattern with a fabric collection in my stash, and I get so excited about it that I drop everything else. That happened to me when I envisioned Camille Roskelley's Swoon quilt in Katarina Roccella's Mediterraneo collection.

Mediterraneo features amazing saturated colors and beautiful prints that evoke the ambience of the Mediterranean coast. But I was terrified at the same time, because this could either become one of my favorite quilt tops, or fail spectacularly. There's not much in between.

The first thing I did was choose 3 fabrics for each of the 9 Swoon blocks:

Next began the piecing for the Swoon blocks, and these are some really fun blocks to piece. And after they started coming out one by one, arranging them on the design wall was very exciting. These are really big blocks and I didn't want to move them around a lot, so I took a picture of each block and arranged it using an app until I found a layout I liked:

These quilt blocks vibrate with life and color, and that's what I love about them. Though I hate adding borders and sashing, having more negative space will allow them to breathe much better. Fingers-crossed that this will turn out well!