Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013 Quiltiness and Beyond!

Besides being a huge fan of Toy Story, I am also proud looking back at this year! It turned out to be extremely productive with my (new!) sewing machine. 16 quilts (5 of which were mini, but sometimes they require just as much work! Amiright?)! 6 of them are still in my possession. I definitely wanted to make things for myself this year, so I'm calling that a win.


1. Sisters' Ten Quilt #1 for my sis, 2. "South" mini quilt, 3. "Mint Chocolate Chip" quilt, 4. Pumpkin Spice Latte -front, 5. "Hoot" baby quilt, 6. Sneak peek - school quilt, 7. "Sedona" - for Layers of Hope 911, 8. Dresden Rainbow - Our Wedding Quilt, 9. "Falling Up" mini quilt, 10. "Summer Fun" Baby Quilt, 11. Argyled, 12. "Butterflies for Emilee", 13. "Birds of a Feather", 14. "Fruit Punch" mini quilt, 15. "Bon Chance" Mini Quilt, 16. Facets of Emerald

Highlights:
Finishing my wedding quilt, Dresden Rainbow, which now resides on our bed. This quilt, which was 3 years in the making, was really a product of all of my skills and fabrics. I love it so, so much. It is definitely my proudest quilting achievement ever, and I'm not sure when the next will come.



I made TWO Sisters' Ten quilts with the awesome BOM at Gen X Quilters! I have the post mostly written up about the journey. Enjoy this picture of the happy first recipient for now!


I won 3rd place in the Quilts category in the Emerald Challenge with Facets of Emerald. That really helped me identify as a quilter who could be taken seriously in the online world.



I joined a bee with the CJMQG and I'm loving it so far. I was hesitant to join at first because of all the deadlines and projects I had going, but I think most of us quilters have similar commitments. 1 block a month hasn't been too much to fuss about. :) I've neglected to post most of the blocks on the blog, so I'll try to do that in the New Year.

I started making quilts and table runners double-sided. I find I save storage space in that way (like, do I really need two separate Thanksgiving and Halloween table runners?),  and that I get to test my skills even more, like with Pumpkin Spice Latte.


1. Untitled, 2. Untitled, 3. Pumpkin Spice Latte quilt back, 4. Pumpkin Spice Latte -front, 5. Winter side - table runner, 6. Thanksgiving side - table runner

I made a lot of other sewing projects, most notably voile scarfs (not all pictured), wrapped wreaths (still obsessed), tote bags, my laptop cover, and my sewing machine cover. Here's to more pillows next year! Also, more clothes sewing. Should probably get on that.



1. Wrenly Voile Scarf - for sister, 2. Fall fabric wrapped wreath, 3. Tote bag - Modernista, 4. A summer skirt for book lovers - AMH Degas/Volumes, 5. Summer fabric wrapped wreath, 6. AMH Laptop Sleeve, 7. "Siriusly", 8. Bloomin' Pillow - Quilt As You Go, 9. Triangle Sewing Machine Cover, AMH fabrics, 10. Tote bags, 11. Modernista Homemade Spring 2013, 12. Spring Wrapped Wreath

I continued with embroidery and I only recently got started back with knitting. I hope to do much more of both of these things in 2014. My SIL was teaching me to cable in Maine, so we'll see where that goes!

I hosted my first (two!) quilt-a-longs this year: Argyled with 1 Choice 4 Quilting and the Lantern QAL! Both can be accessed in full at the "QALs" tab at the top of the blog. I also am currently hosting the Sewing With Certainty series, which runs until February. So far it's been successful and there's been lots of participation! Don't forget to link up about free motion quilting here by Sunday!

Coming in November!

I made more commission t-shirt quilts. These guys are worth the effort once the recipients see them :)


Skills I learned this year:
  • Machine binding thanks to the fabulous Ashley
  • Curve piecing (omg!)
  • Using a walking foot
  • Circle quilting
  • Baptist fan quilting
  • Accurate-as-heck-and-so-proud-of-it HSTs
Goals for 2014:
  • Enjoy other forms of relaxing more often. Only recently did I start to realize how much I missed free reading, so I started reading Divergent (the other two hopefully this week, because I'm totally addicted!). I also have The Fault in Our Stars (what can I say, I love my YA fiction), The Luminaries, and a bunch of random books on my shelf to get to.
  • Take really nice pictures of the apartment and discuss my new decor/continue Project Color My Apartment!
  • Start and finish (by December) a medallion quilt with my AMH collection. I'm itching to start this and I've started sketching... maybe one step or border a month? I probably won't start until February.
  •  Work on and finish the guild banner for the CJMQG. Also, come up with some really great ideas for the guild (I'm the new president for 2014!).
  • Write a tutorial for my string snowflake quilt in the banner - I've had a couple of requests and I've been meaning to do it. First I need to finish the quilt - maybe this week?
  • LEARN HOW TO PAPER PIECE. FOR REAL THIS TIME. I might need your help, guys. I'm just not getting it.
  • Continue mixing straight line and FMQ quilting. Try different combinations.
  • Finish my second Sisters' Ten quilt and take awesome pictures of both.
  • Use much more of my stash.
  • Put the phone away. Instagram is awesome (@quiltyhabit if you are on there) and I love it, but I need to police myself better. 'Nuff said.
What you can expect here at Quilty Habit in 2014:
  • Many more finished quilts and tutorials!
  • More collaboration with Nicole over at 1 Choice 4 Quilting!
  • A color series? We'll see?
  • I'm contemplating a blog hop. This organization may or may not happen very soon, if I can get my act together (sorry I'm being so vague about all this but hopefully it will all be clear soon!)
  • More geeky sewing (always) (teehee). <----This goal was here last year too, so yeah, it's never going away. 
  • More stuff that I haven't even thought to put in vague terms yet. :)
Happy New Year!!

Linking up to 2013 Year in Review with Sarah Quilts and Play Crafts, and Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts.

 

21 comments:

  1. What beautiful photos, a great year of makes! Love the double sided idea... Happy 2014

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  2. I put together a collage of my works today. Isn't it wonderful that we have a hobby (habit) that surrounds us with such beautiful things all year long. Good luck on your goals, Im still working on setting mine.

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  3. Wow that's a pretty prolific year! Good going.

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  4. Fantastic accomplishments this year. Congratulations.

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  5. Absolutely my favorite of your quilts is your wedding quilt. Though, seriously, I have such similar fabric tastes to yours that I pretty much love anything you put together! Congratulations on doing some for-you sewing this year. I relate to several of your goals (ahem separate self from IG and actually do some work) and I will be interested to see where you take them. Happy new year, and best of 2014 to you!

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  6. So many pretties this year! I can't believe how productive you've been! Very interested to see your medallion quilt come together, I totally want to make one too. I have some good resources on paperpiecing, I can send you my favorite tutorial if you want, it was the one that finally made things click for me!

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  7. Wow! What a year! Your wedding quilt is still my favourite and you'll soon see my hearts quilt which was partly inspired by your quilt! I wish you both all the best for 2014.

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  8. Oh, wow! You made some gorgeous quilts this year.

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  9. Jess I absolutely love your blog - your quilts and everything else you have made are amazing. I hope 2014 is a great year for you - I am with you on putting the phone away and starting to read again - one of my goals too. I have done well - just finished 2 books in 2 days!

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  10. What a busy year you had! Hope 2014 is just as productive and exciting - I'll be reading along with your paper piecing goal bc I've done it and still only sorta get it (I know I don't like it, but I want to at least be able to do it for bees and such : ) Happy New Year!

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  11. Your quilts are beautiful! I hope you achieve all your goals and have lots of fun too.

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  12. Wow! What an amazing array of quilted goodness. My fave is your rainbow giant dresden quilt!

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  13. AWESOME is all I can say. I am in love with the rainbow dresden! Such fantastic work, eager to see what you do this year. Found you via Lily's Fresh Sewing.

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  14. Your wedding rainbow dresden quilt is so gorgeous!! I can only imagine how wonderful it'd be to see it on the bed every day. :D Good luck with the paper piecing! I am now somewhat addicted to it, so be careful of that, once you get the hang of it. :)
    Thanks for linking up to the Year in Review link party!

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  15. OMG you are so busy! I love all your quilts and the colours you picked for the first Sisters quilt look amazing!

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  16. You have got some really beautiful finishes in there! Your rainbow Dresden and those maple leaves! Love! I hope 2014 is kind to you. Looking forward to all your creations .
    E

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  17. Wow Bright and beautiful...that is you!!! Love your work and I have been watching you all year. Great quilts.

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  18. Great mosaic. I like all those rainbowy projects the most!

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  19. Love all the beautiful quilts this year! I am loving reading everyones posts on the sewing with certainty too! Cant wait to follow along in 2014:)

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  20. Totally love your quilts! Amazing colours

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  21. I agree that the Dresden is your quilt of the year! Gorgeous!! A medallion quilt with AMH? That sounds extremely exciting so please get on that right away. ;) Can't wait to see what you do in 2014.

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