Tag: Fabric of the Year 2012

Finished: Fabric of the Year 2012

Finished: Fabric of the Year 2012
Finished: Fabric of the Year 2012

I am really excited about this finish! I think it looks really good. I keep looking at the center red/orange/pink shape in the middle and wondering if it is the upside down tip of Italy. No heel on the boot, so probably no hidden messages. 😉

I am pleased that I remembered to put the darker patches on the bottom this year.

You might be wondering why I am so thrilled that a two year old project is finally finished. You are probably wondering why it takes so longer for me to finish these FOTY quilts. I don’t quilt quilts of this size myself and my quilter was going through some personal struggles, so she wasn’t as fast as she normally is. She is back on the saddle, so if I piece FOTY 2013, she can probably get it done in a few months. I need to do my part.

I am thrilled that it is done, because, hey DONE is DONE-Finished-Finito-complete! It means one less UFO/WIP. Who wouldn’t be excited about fewer WIPs?

FOTY 2012 Back
FOTY 2012 Back

DH was my quilt holder of the evening and as he was getting in position, he noticed the back and actually commented on the Philip Jacobs fabric I used for the back. I used it as an opportunity to expound upon the virtues of Philip Jacobs’ design prowess. My own personal audience. 😉

And, did I say: another finish?!? Hooray!

 

 

 

See all Fabric of the Year quilts on the FOTY page.

Two Quilts Return

FOTY 2012 and Fresh Fruit
FOTY 2012 and Fresh Fruit

I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have these two quilts back. Colleen is going great guns on her quilt backlog and I am the lucky recipient.

I was really pleased to get Fabric of the Year 2012 and Fresh Fruit back earlier this week. I was only expecting FOTY 2012 when I dropped off Scrapitude, so Fresh Fruit was a pleasant surprise.

Perhaps it is immodest, but I love the way these two quilts look. FOTY 2012 is one of the best Fabric of the Year quilts so far. I really see how my color work over the years is paying off. I am reinvigorated to get busy on FOTY 2013.

Fresh Fruit was a pattern, as I described in a previous post, and I used the same fabric, but I really love the way it came out. I was planning to give this one away, but I might hang it on the wall for awhile first.

I started in on the binding for FOTY 2012 Thursday night and really got quite far. I do need to make a sleeve, which adds to the time it takes to finish, but I am looking forward to finishing this piece and hanging it up.

FOTY 2012 Back

FOTY 2012
FOTY 2012

I have finally finished the back of FOTY 2012.

I decided to show the front again, one more time, as I don’t know how long it will be before I have it back from the quilter finished.

I have used another Philip Jacobs prints for the back. It turns out I had two pieces that worked well for opposite corners. I was surprised, though, to find the yardage in two pieces as I usually don’t cut up large pieces until I need it. Still, I may have bought it on sale and was only able to get to large pieces rather than one. Alternatively, I could have bought a piece and then decided to buy more. I don’t remember.

I was pleased to take the parts for the back off the design wall. I like the front of this quilt so much and it was great to see it one more time.

FOTY 2012: back
FOTY 2012: back

My only concern with the front is the border. I didn’t put one on and I am pretty sure it doesn’t need one, but still, I wonder.

FOTY 2012: Top Finished

Fabric of the Year 2012 Finished Top
Fabric of the Year 2012 Finished Top

One of the things I love about this quilt is that I get to visit with my fabrics again as I sew the top together. I get to say hello and they get to tell me not to forget them and how they can be used.

I also love the anticipation of finishing this piece and hanging it on my wall and looking at it more often, walking by it every day and remembering the fabrics.

I finished the top yesterday and am very pleased with it.

I probably could have finished the back as well, but finishing this top is some kind of miracle, because of how slow I was moving. Working on it, I think it helped to keep my joints a bit more limber. It could just be a perception, though.

You can see the whole series on the FOTY Gallery Page.

FOTY 2012 Emerges

FOTY 2012 Final Layout
FOTY 2012 Final Layout

Early last week I posted the final patches I was planning on using for FOTY 2012. The CQFA retreat was this past weekend and I worked on the quilt top all weekend. This is the final layout, or nearly the final layout, of Fabric of the Year 2012. I think of this as a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, in some ways. Perhaps I will call this piece Chrysallis?

In this picture, all the pieces are sewn into groups of 2. By the time I left the retreat center, I had started to sew larger chunks together and the upper right hand corner was nearly all sewn.

As usual, I went through my process of hand wringing and chest beating on Friday followed by sewing and intense rearranging on Saturday.

One of the things I really like about working on this at the retreat (remember last year’s retreat?) is that everyone helps. They don’t help by rearranging, though that goes on a bit, but they come by and give me an opinion, there is always someone around to help with tricky placement and they appreciate my process. By appreciate, I meant they let me engage in my process, which, for this project, involves a fair bit of angst. It was all worth it. I am pleased with the way this is coming out.

I think that I may be over the colorwash technique for these pieces. I like the idea of cutting a piece of fabric from each fabric I use or buy during the year, but I think I have done enough of the colorwash exercise for the time being. I am trying to think of something else for 2013. I have some fragments of ideas, but they haven’t coalesced yet.

Last FOTY 2012 Pieces

Last FOTY 2012 Pieces
Last FOTY 2012 Pieces

I may cut a few more, but these are probably the last patches for FOTY 2012 you will see until I sew. I made an effort to press and cut some more pieces. With TFQ’s help I made a little progress.

I sorted all of the patches I cut into color groups, so I am pseudo ready to place the patches and then sew. I may not get to sewing this weekend, though I do hope to do enough placement to make some progress sewing.

FOTY 2012 Early January

FOTY 2012 early January
FOTY 2012 early January

I had a good amount of time off over the holidays. I was able to spend some time pressing fabric and cutting pieces for this project. It is a meditative process and was a good way to transition from the difficult last quarter at work to vacation.

The end is drawing near, so I need to speed up the process or work with what I have.

One thing I like about this is that looking at the fabric patches and thinking about the projects on which I am working as well as the new fabrics.

I haven’t taken any kind of inventory of pieces that I have. If I do I can fix any problems, if I don’t it will be a design challenge.

FOTY 2012

FOTY 2012 Late December
FOTY 2012 Late December

While I am making progress on preparing to sew the FOTY 2012, I still have a pile of fabric to press, not to mention the other pile I have to wash AND press. There is no way for me to get it all done, but I will get as much done as possible before I start sewing at the CQFA Retreat in January.

I do enjoy this process, however. I like seeing these photos and thinking about what I made from the fabrics.

I have FOTY 201o hanging in my hallway and I keep walking by thinking “I need to find that fabric; it would be perfect with X project.” That is really fun.

 

FOTY 2012 – Late November

FOTY 2012 Late November
FOTY 2012 Late November

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Yesterday was fun, but I am ready to get back to normal blogging. It was exhausting trying to keep up with the questions and the comments. Look for winners and more tomorrow.

I have been cutting and pressing fabric a little at a time. I realized that I needed to get my act together if I am going to work on this quilt at Retreat at the end of January. I do enjoy looking at the patches on my design wall and thinking about where I bought the fabric, what project I was working on when I cut the smaller squares and future projects I am planning.

I did find that this process was good for putting fabrics together that I might not thought of putting together. I got a Chicopee solids pack (Thanks, Temptress Adrianne!). While those fabrics were waiting to be pressed, they were on top of a large floral by Philip Jacobs and I noticed they all went really well together. There was another dot fabric that was perfect, too. Not sure what I will make, but something.

I have a big stack of fabric to press and cut and another big stack to wash, press and cut.  Not my favorite tasks, but not horrible either. Great for calming me down in stressful situations. Too bad they won’t give me the space to set up an ironing board, iron and cutting mat at work. 😉

FOTY – Late October 2012

FOTY - Late October 2012
FOTY – Late October 2012

The time is really flying by. I was thinking about ordering my turkey next week (maybe the week after). I bought some pumpkin for Thanksgiving and Christmas pies last week in my attempt to get ahead of the major shopping in the next few weeks. I am behind. Behind in blogging, my house feels like a wreck, behind in cutting new and used fabric. Everything.

Case in point: it has been almost two months since I last posted FOTY fabrics. The last blog post was in late August! Gracious!

Still I was able to get some new fabrics cut up. I was also able to scrounge some squares from fabrics I have been using. Are you able to see the projects I was working on in this group?

I see some blocks I made, a journal cover I made and a few fabrics slated for journal covers I will make. One reason I love this project is that it is like a memory book in fabric.

FOTY 2012 -late August

Fabric of the Year 2012
Fabric of the Year 2012

I noodled around enough so I didn’t have time to write a book review, so here is an update the cutting for the Fabric of the Year 2012 quilt. It has been nearly a month since the last update.

For those of you have forgotten or were never in the loop, the rectangles are new fabrics – lots of these are from Quiltology – and the squares are fabrics that were in my stash that I have just recently used.

You can see the pink donation quilt in this edition as well as the Yellow donation quilt and pieces from the A-B-C Challenge.

I am having fun cutting into fabrics that have been around for awhile. That is another good aspect of the donation tops – fabrics get their day in the sun and I get some space in my fabric bins.

I’ll get my act together over the weekend and get you some meaty posts to sink your teeth into. Stay tuned.

FOTY – Mid July

FOTY mid- July
FOTY mid- July

I know the name of this post has mid July in the title and the date of the post is late July. I didn’t have a chance to post it until now.

These are a lot of fabrics that I was able to iron. Also, I finally patches from a few of the QuiltCon solids that I hadn’t cut yet.

Some of the yellows are from the Yellow donation quilt that is in process.

There are a few of the Vintage Modern fabrics I bought recently. I plan to use them for another Stepping Stones (Underground Railroad block) quilt.

FOTY 2012 – Mid May

Fabric of the Year 2012 - Mid May
Fabric of the Year 2012 - Mid May

Many of the fabrics in this group are from the back of the Flowering Snowball. I am also diligently pressing and cutting pieces from fabrics that have been washed. The chair on which I hang just washed fabric is no longer falling over. That is a good thing.

There is some Half Moon fabric there, which I need to figure out how to work into a project. No ideas there yet. I have to say that I really came to like that large grey dot and ended up buying a few yards more to use as a background. This, dear readers, is why I do this project. By working with the fabric a little bit, I find out if I like it during a time where I have a chance to get more. I know I am repeating myself, but perhaps one reader will be enlightened. 😉

Fabrics from the most recent A-B-C Challenge blocks are also represented as are fabrics from the NSGW pillows. Kind of like a fabric diary of my recent work, huh?