A Year of Quilting : :

Early last week we were chatting about our goals and plans for the new year when I mentioned that this year I have finished at least one quilt each month. There was a little pause and then Kevin said, teasing at first, "well, sounds like you should make a calendar!" I'm sure I laughed and then I thought of the blog readers & friends of mine who had suggested this too, and I remembered seeing that one of my favorite bloggers, Julie Williams of Little Cotton Rabbits had made a calender that was super cute and well done. So, why not? Besides all the quilt finishing, I definitely put an extra effort into taking special photos of each of my quilt finishes this year, a calender was beginning to seem like a great way to celebrate my hard work! A couple days passed, the calendar was beginning to slip away on my to-do list, and then I received a surprise & very sweet email from Jayme, who had just read my Making Rows Quilt blog post, struck up a conversation about shooting in snow, and offered to brighten my photos for me since she's a professional photographer. Of course I said, Sure! And the difference was very noticeable, she did a beautiful job, quickly!



I mentioned to her this calendar idea of mine, she was so encouraging and offered to help, and by late evening a calendar was finished!



Matching up a quilt with each month was both the most fun and challenging part! Of course I had to make a few cuts and even forgot about some of my finished quilts altogether! Now that's a sign you've been busy!!

Inside the calender, you'll find  --

: :  January  : :



: :  February  : :



: :  March  : :



: :  April  : :



: :  May  : :



: :  June  : :



: :  July  : :



: :  August  : :



: :  September  : :



: :  October  : :



: :  November  : :



: :  December  : :



Posting my first calendar on my Facebook page and now here makes me feel a little nervous inside, but excited too! And more than anything just so incredibly grateful! For this space, for all of you who I get to share with, for the sweet & generous people like Jayme who I've met through it. It couldn't be more wonderful!!

If you happen to be interested in my calendar  -- they are 12 pages, they measure 12" x 16.5", are printed on high quality satin art paper, and are finished with a durable, white wire binding and hanger! You can find all the details right here! I'm so happy to have made these to gift to family & friends and to offer here for those of you who might like one, too!!

Now I have to ask...which month/quilt is your favorite? Feedback like this is exactly what I'd love to read heading into a new year of quilting! 

Thank you for joining me here and for supporting my work the way you do!  ♥  Maureen 

Scrappy Improv Quilt : :

This weekend I finally finished up my Scrappy Improv quilt! I'm sooo excited!! It took me a little longer than I thought it would -- beginning Friday, continuing into Saturday, with a nice walk and lots of picture taking on Sunday. It feels really good to be finished with this one!



The final measurement is 68" x 80"! This quilt was made using a quilt-as-you-go method, so for finishing I simply added a few long stitches, running both ways, a 1/2" from each of the quilting seams. I chose to leave the pieced backing large and did an easy peasy roll-over binding to finish. If you look back through the posts for this particular quilt, you can see how it all came together. It was quite the process!



The front of my quilt is made up entirely of the scraps I've accumulated from all the projects I've made over this last year or so, and I finished off the back with five different one yard cuts of aqua & red fabrics pieced together randomly. I chose the aqua & red since from way back when I first began sewing I've wanted to make an all aqua and red quilt. Finishing this one with some of the fabrics I've saved for that quilt just seemed like the perfect thing to do.

Here we have two prints from Riley Blake Designs new collections Apple of my Eye, one from Millie's Closet, all from Skye Reve Fabrics. The others are a Riley Blake Red solid and a Michael Miller Red & Aqua Dumb Dots.



Now that's it's finished, if I'm being honest, there are several things I would have done differently with the overall design. Of course there always will be, but if I just look back it really was such a fun project! I didn't plan anything about it, not even the Improv girl in the corner. I just had an idea and decided to give it a go. It was great to have a project that didn't require much thought,  just fun! Now I have this beautiful, large quilt for my family to use, a lot less scraps taking up space in my studio, and a keepsake that is very special to me.



I see a hundred different projects when I look at it, it's wonderful!



 ♥ Maureen