One of the advantages of keeping a blog is to realize that when you think ... "what have I done for the past month?", there is actually work accomplished to be shown off and recorded!
This year, for the first time, I decided to enter the Trend Tex Challenge for Quilt Canada. The topic is "Stitching a Canadian Memory" (lots of Canadian topics this year with our 150th birthday).
The 5 fabrics arrived in November and after several puzzling days of how to use the multi-coloured fabric, I came up with a sailboat; a variation of the one I did for myself awhile ago in greys & yellows, as well as, a tribute to the first sailboat I see out in the Halifax Harbour in early spring which also is the last one to head to a winter berth for the fall.
The five Trend Tex fat quarters ... they all work well together, but I am not crazy about the patterned block fabric. There are 2 categories to enter: the first in which you can only use their 5 fabrics and the 2nd where you can add fabrics of your own to complete your quilt.
I stuck with the fabrics they sent. I made a mistake when quilting the water, creating lazy water flow then realized with the mainsail at such an angle, I would need to create waves to indicate there was a good wind blowing. After quilting the green in a random pattern, I ended up picking it all out and redoing it with outlines of trees and buildings suggesting the view I have across the harbour.
New Year's Goals are a waste for me ... I never bother keeping them longer than a month, if that, so this year, I shall try to pick out a new goal each month and work on that.
January's goal was to use only scraps while quilting .... I am not sure that I even put a dent in the scrap pile, but I have created 3 single-sized tops that will eventually be quilted for a charitable cause.
This one is a little busy ... but it is with random kid- patterned fabric. Each one has a green centre that matches the sashing; probably should have put a light or white centre to have it stand out a bit more.
I had a little bin full of fabric left from sashings and bindings ... widths varying from 1 inch to 3 inches. Most of the narrower pieces went in to quilt-as-you-go place mats, which still need bindings done, and the rest went to a strippy quilt. The strippy quilt wasn't quite long enough for a single bed so I added extra sashing and borders.
And since there were still days left in January, I decided to use up some scraps according to colour. Here are the turquoises, light blues & light greens. This still needs to be sewn together once I decide how much larger it should be. Again, fabric strip widths are random, leaving the white centres a little wonky.
