Is it Spring yet?

I hope everyone had a great holiday and spent it well with friends and family.  It's this time of year right after the holidays where I am over the snow and wish it were Spring.  The only thing that is nice this year is being off of work the week between Christmas and New Year.  Lots of quilting going on in my house with lots of progress to getting things finished!  The completed quilts page is now updated with the Treehouse Quilt!

The Steampunk quilt top is finally finished after months of on and off working on it.  The dilemma now is what design to have quilted on it. The quilt is not as scrappy as I've seen others in this pattern; it's made up of entirely "Volume II" by Sweetwater Fabrics.  The red, black, and gray color scheme was the goal, and this fabric collection was perfect.  The interesting thing is with the color choices, I actually see 3 different designs in the blocks.  I see a steering wheel, an "X" with the steering wheel, or the other side "X."  It really just goes to show how color and placement of color can really change the look of a quilt.

The PBQ102 quilt top is also finished!  The big reveal will happen in January 2017 when I have the pattern written for it and ready.  If you caught the sneak peak on Instagram, it's made out of Spectrum fabric by V&Co.  Pretty much V&Co. is an obsession of mine. The colors are so bright and pretty so the quilt looks pretty wicked and I love it!

I had almost forgot about catching up with the Modern Heritage BOM Month 5 blocks.  I was able to finish Month 5 just before Month 6 came in the mail.  These were paper pieced blocks.  I like how paper piecing makes more complex blocks easier to create.

I learned that the wash-away stablizer that I used to sew with for the Technicolor Galaxy is my preferred method because that way I don't need to rip the paper out when I'm done stitching.  I also found out the hard way why Laser Jet printed paper is not the best with irons.  The ink transferred to my iron and I had to quickly clean my iron before touching any of the fabric.  I need an Ink Jet printer for future quilting needs.

I am participating in a mini quilt swap for Modern Quilting Guild and we are swapping in person at QuiltCon2017.  I finished my mini this week too.  I was busy this past week and got so much stuff done.   The quilt is made up for modern hexies.  The modern hexies technique was created by Nicole from Modern Handcraft.  I've been wanting to make a modern hexies quilt and just never got the time to do it.  But it showed up on my partner's mosaic of something that she'd like, so ta da! You know it's a good quilt when I want to keep it for myself!

One of the best "discoveries" this past week was Insul-bright!  I got a sample from Pam (Serendipity Woods) in the Modern Heritage BOM a few months ago, but never got a chance to use it until the holiday present this past month (also from Pam).  It was this cute little Christmas Tree coaster.  I loved making it so much, I ordered some Insul-bright and made some holiday coasters as Christmas gifts!

I also think making pot holders with Insul-bright will be in my future.

As I look back and reflect on this past year for quilting, I realize that I have never loved a crafting hobby as much as I do quilting.  My sewing room has remnants of scrapbooking papers, yarn for crocheting and knitting, wool balls for needle felting, and other miscellaneous craft supplies.  The fabric stash is getting to be the large majority of the room, but as long as I keep making quilts and using it up the anxiety level of my stash is pretty low.  I've grown so much this year from the techniques I've learned and the consistency of my quilting.  I can't wait to see what next year will bring! Next week I'll give the final count of quilts completed for the year just in case I finish another one this week.  I've been on this "finish all the works in progress" mood lately!  My project buckets are getting emptied one by one, just to be filled with new projects for the new year!

12/27-1/3/17 Weekly Goal:
Available time for quilting:
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday AM, Sunday, and Monday

Projects I want to work on:
Modern Heritage BOM
2016 Craftsy BOM
Frivols 9
America's Garden Quilt

Goals for the Projects:
Modern Heritage BOM: Month 6 Blocks
2016 Craftsy BOM: finish April applique on blocks and border
Frivols 9:  Cut out pieces and start sewing this quilt using the pieces as "end-ers" and "lead-ers"
America's Garden Quilt: Cut the squares for this quilt.  (Ultimate goal to use this quilt as the "end-ers" and "lead-ers" for the year)