My 2015 Finishes or What Passes For Finished In My Book

Linking up with MeadowMistDesigns Best of 2015 linky party -

2015. Where has it gone? I remember as a child thinking I would be 40 in 2000 and that seemed sooo far away and soooo soooo old. And, here it is 2015 finishing off already. The year 2000 and some. The time goes past so quickly it almost seems unfair to expect me to have some finishes. Really, folks, I would need like a year's notice. Just as well my "status" has changed to this ..........

For me 2015 has been about bee blocks and swaps, many through Instagram. They have been both a hoot and a cause of lots of sleepless nights! I just checked back and my first ig post was 65 weeks ago, so technically 2014. Susan, @Canadianabroad welcomed me to the dark side, and so it continued. And just continued, my new addiction.

I think my first finish was my stateside son's plus quilt, which was posted  to the US just in time for the cold weather. He didn't really want it to be honest, but has since been glad of it. This is my version of a plus quilt, we are a scientific/maths family, apart from me. It rather proves my point that it turned out more like the Finnish flag than a plus quilt. Which is rather ironic, as my original blog name was "finish one quilt before you start another".

One of my first IG swaps headed off to Australia. I made a mini quilt using the walk in the garden block. My recipient, also called Helen, had used  this Little Red Riding Hood fabric, just by coincidence, in her daughter's nursery. So, that was a lucky stroke. This was the #SchnitzelandBoo swap, a fund raiser for animal charities.

My next finish was another IG swap and this was rather nerve wracking. Katy, the Littlest Thistle was my partner. Nerve wracking because Katy is brilliant at what she does, and also teaches sewing. But, lovely because Katy and I have met, we had coffee during the Commonwealth Games. (see, you can meet someone off the internet and not be shipped off to the slave trade). Katy had expressed a liking for the spool thread quilts.  She also has local connections to NI so a reminder of the linen trade seemed appropriate.

Two baby quilts appeared in the line up of finishes this year. One with giraffes for a work colleague's daughter's baby. We have an in joke about what noise our giraffe glove puppet made when I sang songs with the children in work. Apparently male giraffes cough when feeling amorous.

The second baby quilt was a largish floor quilt for a first birthday. The recipient, or rather her parents, love it. I on the other hand hated making it, everything went wrong. Blood, sweat, tears and sewing machine oil. On the plus point it got me a new machine for Christmas.

Things seemed to go in twos this year. I made two tote bags. One for the #ukeasyswap. My swap partner Amanda likes brown, which was great, I had accumulated a lot of brown. It must have sneaked into the house when I wasn't looking.

My second tote was for the Modern Quilt Ireland summer swap. I made a pastel coloured tote for Rose and knitted a little bunny to be guardian of the bag. Both totes included a needle case and pin cushion.

 

A fun swap I took part in, just to try something different, was an doll swap #igdollswap. This was really just to see if I could. This was, I admit. a terrifying prospect. I made 3 dolls in total and posted the most traditional of the three. A traditional rag doll dressed in Liberty fabric with a pink felt jacket.

And before we knew it, it was time for the next round of  #schnitzelandboo swap.. This time I made a small garden inspired wall hanging for Melissa's office using some Liberty fabric hexies. Thankfully Melissa loved it.

The hexies came out to play again, with my last swap of 2015. A bloggy one this time. Our Christmas swap in the Modern Quilters Ireland was a mug rug. I went for the hexies, as I could sew in the evenings and used some Japanese kokka fabric from the Village Haberdashery.

My favourite make of all this year I have kept to the end. It is the heart quilt I made for my cousin. She has had a period of ill health, thankfully behind her, and this was to celebrate her recovery. She loved it, and so did her daughter, who has claimed it for her bed. I loved making this quilt and I loved gifting it. And what was so nice. was that I spotted it on Judith's blog and Sarah's blog, I made my version. Sandra liked it and made her version and so it continued. The quilt that keeps on giving.

Probably the most useful finish, of which I am dead chuffed, not to mention relieved was a skirt for my daughter. She really likes it. I mean, she actually wears it. To work and everything. Praise indeed.

And in between, I made my little finishes for Le Challenge every month, my bee blocks, an ATC swap which was great fun, lots of hexie flower swaps and a few mini mini swaps.  And, have finished 4 quilt tops, nearly quilted 2. Watch out for them this time next year. I know what my husband is thinking, fewer swaps and more finishes. But, its swaps that keep life interesting and keep things fresh. For me anyhow.

Well, This has ended up such a long blog post, hope you are still with me. And I never even mentioned how much I enjoyed the new quilters bee hop or the fabri quilt block hop. That was loads of fun and new friends. And I would love to remind you all of the lovely things I received back. That's for another blog post. Definitely.

All the best and if I don't meet you soon, Happy New Year.
helen x
Linking up with MeadowMistDesigns, Best of 2015 linky party.