Lookback at 2021

2021 was a very busy year. One of the things I wanted to do was work on my pile of UFO quilt tops and I am happy to say that I did manage to get quite a few of them done. In fact I only started a handful of new projects and of those only three of them remain UFO's. The number of finishes is much bigger.

For my annual quilt retreat to Arizona in February I made hostess gifts and an extra for me and one for a gift game. I made 15" square ironing boards. The hostesses loved them and were able to do a little pressing at their workstations without having to go the common ironing station set up. I love having mine at my sewing machine so I can press as I go without having to get up.

I created three "kits" for the retreat. I spend an evening cutting into my green and brown stash cutting for these. This one is for a large bargello I found at @saija_elina over on Instagram. I finished sewing the top at the retreat because is was so easy. The second kit is made into blocks and I need to put them into a top. The third kit is still just a kit waiting for a bit of time to create something with it.

I had also been given a small top at the 2020 retreat to quilt and gift to a charity. It is the one above with just the stripes pieced with muslin. When I was getting it ready for the 2021 retreat I decided it was just too small. I went thru my UFO blocks and found some from a swap for Civil War blocks. I picked a group of them, put a strip locks at the top and bottom, added a border, and was thrilled with the result. I tried a new freeform leafed feather design and took it to the retreat where one of the ladies added the binding.

We had a challenge at the retreat again this year and I made this adorable little owl wallhanging out of the "ugly fabric" I really had fun putting this one together and tried quite a few new techniques. I love the freeform allover quilting because I did many things and never got bored.

 

I pulled out the little UFO I had added a border to in late 2020 and decided to just have fun with the quilting. I was inspired by new feather design by  @bethanne.whitearbor over on Instagram and decided to see if I could figure out how to do it..............yup! I really enjoyed playing with the background of this with a modified McTavish interspersed with strings of pearls..........love how that came out. I also did some of my pebbles.

In the prior photo you can see the pattern pieces for this bag. I tried loading a few things on the longarm that were small when I did my little wall hanging. On a side note the slippers were a fail and I am still planning on modifying them. I love this little bag I sewed up and use it as a little hanging basket.

I also quilted for others. My friend Dee made this stunning applique top and sent it to me for quilting. Her workmanship was amazing and I spent 6 weeks transforming it into a finished quilt.  

I do love McTavishing on applique and it added just the right background along with  feathers.

I finished the top I had started a the Arizona retreat and took it on an outing for a photoshoot. This is in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

I pulled out another UFO and spent a few weeks on the quilting. I did a similar design from a prior quilt I had made in the same color way.

Once I finished my top I decided it too needed a photoshoot. I took quite a few photos of it in the Rocky Mountain National Park. I am really enjoying combining my love of photography and quilting and doing these photoshoots of my finished quilts.

I quilted another UFO started at a retreat in 2015. I am really pleased how this one quilted out. I stared at it for two weeks on the machine before I even took the first stitch but once I did it all came together. I sewed a few garments in the meantime.

I also had fun with photoshoots. Here is the little block I pulled from the UFO bin in all its glory. I have a few other things I need to pull out that are kind of along this line and make them into finished projects in 2022.

I think this is one of my favorite finishes in 2021 and I did another photoshoot of it.

I have been really slack on labeling my quilts. I made this little label for the quilt in the last photo. I need to do more of these in 2022.

I pulled out a well seasoned UFO out of the bin. A king sized top I had pieced many years ago. The blocks were from a block swap. I just did a simple allover design. The people holding it in this photoshoot are strangers. I asked if they would hold it for me and they did. The young woman was admiring the quilt the whole time.

I started up my Enchanting Quilts Longarm service again and quilted this adorable panel for a lady. Panels are so much fun because there are no seams and you can just enjoy outlining and adding texture.

What a fun panel. The customer said she wanted to keep it instead of gifting it. I told her to get another panel for herself. We will see if that happens.

Another well seasoned UFO from the bin. I spent quite a few weeks on this beauty. Again made from block swaps for the 3" nine patch blocks and then set together in a setting of stars. I used a ton of my dark and light scraps to put this together in the early 2000's I did this photo shoot at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

At the very end of the year I turned my attention to 3 amazing customer quilts with some new custom quilt designs I created. These took about 2 months start to finish and really stretched my skills. I am pretty happy with the combination of ruler work and free motion.

This was my favorite of the 3 custom projects. I loved the vibrant colors and I used quite a number of rulers which I labeled to make sure I reached for the right one at the right time.

This one was an amazing pieced project and I spent two weeks trying to figure out the quilting. In the end I am really pleased with how it all came together.

 I ended the year of my quilting adventures by playing with a little designing. This little drawing will be waiting for me when I get back in the quilting studio. The design is just a loose plan but it is a start of some great ideas for this fun little project I started in the summer of 2016 while we were in Oregon. I designed to border for a place to do some fun quilting. I am planning on a double batting on this as well. It will be the first project I will load on the machine in 2022. My plan is to try to diminish that pile of UFO tops with beautiful quilt designs. I also want to dig into the UFO bin that holds blocks and unfinished pieces of quilts. Some just need borders and others need a lot of thought and design. One thought I have is to pull out all the blocks again and see if maybe I should do an orphan block type of project to use some of those one of a kind blocks. I could also use some of them as back art. The goal is to use what I have and any project started will be something that I will not put away till I have finished it at least as a top.