May Theme – Rose Garden

A rose garden theme proved to me more difficult than I thought it would. Many of the paper-pieced patterns I looked at were already used. I decided on an easy appliqué pattern, but I didn’t think that the colours we were given showed off the flower as well as it might have. I used some stitching lines to highlight the petals and the leaf, but they don’t show up very well.

April Theme – Ocean

When I saw the theme for the box I thought it would be simple. But when I saw what everyone else had done I knew I had to up my game a bit. I searched for ocean quilt blocks but didn’t find anything that caught my attention. When I was logging into a website, one of the ads had a diver swimming across the page. I couldn’t find a diver silhouette that I liked, but I did find a mermaid that I adapted for this piece.

March Theme – Tea Time

Now this was a theme I didn’t mind dealing with. One of my first quilting projects was a wall hanging for Diane and it included one of these appliquéd tea pots. Once I got the first piece done correctly (and it took a couple of tries) I was able to finish it quite quickly.

February Theme – Pumpkins

This was a little out of season for February. Most of the blocks had already used an appliquéd pumpkin of some sort, so I made a disappearing four patch block. The colour choices could have been better as the centre patch doesn’t show up very well.

January Theme – Bras

I knew this box was in the mix, and I really hoped I would never get it. Now that I’ve had it, I’m really hoping I don’t win it back in the draw!

December Theme – Christmas Tree

Perfect timing for this block!

November Theme – In the Garden

My newly-acquired obsession with English Paper Piecing was put to work for this block.

October Theme – Butterflies

I loved the fabric and didn’t expect to have any problem with making a butterfly. I picked a pattern I hadn’t made, but it was paper-pieced and I do that all the time. Either I had a mental block or the pattern was wrong because I tried it three different times and it still didn’t fit together correctly. By this point I was running out of fabric and had to made-do with what I could put together on my own. Not my best work by a long shot.

September Theme – Nursery Rhymes

I loved the theme and the fabric pieces that were included with this box. I recently saw a pattern in one of my magazines that used novelty fabrics so I immediately had a plan. I added a few of my own novelty fabrics to the square, in a variation of a wonky log cabin. I didn’t like the result so took it all apart and started over again.

Because the fabric was perfect as it was, I added some matching colours along one side and the top. I liked this version much better.

It isn’t often that I choose a pattern based on the quilting (because I usually have no hope of doing the quilting as shown). The straight lines on these really appealed to me and I bookmarked them quite some time ago. When I was planning my trip to Christy’s to celebrate her birthday I decided it was time to give them a try.

I used fabric from my scrap squares for the border. I like the way these turned out and I will definitely be making more.

This was my third Mario so there was no difficulty with the pattern.

I followed my Craftsy lesson and pixelated my own Happy Face photo and then created the grid. The method they teach uses strips of the various colours that are stitched together and then cut into the smaller squares. I like the technique as it gives the piece the pixelated look without as much quilting.

These were gifts for Dylan and Taylor, but they haven’t decided if they will hang on the wall or be used as table toppers.

The pattern came from quiltmaker.com. I think this is the first quilt I’ve made using an actual pattern rather than combining individual blocks.

The fabric was remnants from other projects. Most of the pinks and at least one of the greens were from Emma’s butterfly quilt and the black was from Madison’s cat quilt. I used a soft pink flannel as backing for the piece.

This is also the first large quilt that I have done with a free-motion technique. I used stitch-in-the-ditch around all the frames (yes, there were a lot of knots to tie in) and a loop (in free-motion) for the larger areas of the quilt.

I didn’t originally have a home for the quilt; I thought it might become a Community Quilt but the ladies at the bee said it was too nice. Since the fabrics are rather “girlie” I thought it would be nice for Kathryn as she lives in a house with all boys.