I have decided to move my blog over to Blogspot: http://contemporarytraditions.blogspot.com/

I hope that you will join me over there and don’t forget to change your bookmarks!

I will leave this blog here as archives so it will be available also.

My first goal for 2009 is to finish up Work in Progress. That would be Dressed for Dinner and Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.

I’d also like to start a Thimbleberries quilt, Winter Memories- start being the key word here. I don’t know that I will be able to finish it this year. It is a combination piecing and applique pattern.

I’m also going to challenge myself to do that River Walk art quilt I was thinking about last year. I’ve learned a lot in the last year that I would like to incorporate into it. I’m also thinking that means I should spend some time at the River Walk collecting inspiration too, right?!! Sounds like a good idea to me!

And lastly, I’m going to post monthly about techniques that I am learning from The Art of Manipulating Fabric. I’m not going to create a finished piece each month with the technique, but I will just do some practice pieces and post photos of those.

****Edited to add: I forgot to mention I also plan to learn to make T-shirt quilts this year… another reason to hang out at the River Walk: collecting t-shirts!! ****

I am looking forward to 2009. It promises to be a quilty year!

I took some time today to review my goals for 2008 to see how I did with them. I did stick to finishing up a few of the goals but completely lost sight of a few others.

One of my main goals for 2008 was to learn how to applique and to finish the Dressed for Dinner quilt that I started in January. I did find an applique process that I like and am comfortable doing but I did not get the quilt finished. It is a little over one half done and will be added to my goals for 2009.

I had wanted to work on one small piece every month based on techniques in the book The Art of Manipulating Fabric. It is a great book with lots of cool things to do with fabric. I completely dropped the ball on this goal. I’ll be considering over the next few days if I want to try for this again next year.

The other plan that I completely lost sight of was to create one art quilt based on inspiration from the San Antonio River Walk. Again, I’ll be considering over the next few days if I should add this to the docket for 2009.

The quilts that I did finish in 2008 are:

Goose Chase

Staying the Course (a collaboration with Debra and Rian)

Antique Stars

Considering all it was a great year.

This is one of my favorite Christmas decorations. It is a hand carved, hand painted wooden Saint Nicholas. My brother-in-law brought him to us from Russia. I think he is precious.

And he carries from me to you wishes for a safe and joyous winter holiday!

I love surfing gardening blogs. They are full of beautiful photos, great ideas and educational fodder. While surfing this week I came across a group of blogs that participate in the Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. One day per month, the 15th of the month specifically, these gardeners list and/or show photos of the flowers that happen to be blooming in their garden that day. It is interesting to see the many different gardens around the country throughout the year.

Even though my blog is a quilter’s blog, I am only an amateur gardener, and I am very late in joining… it’s already the 22nd… I am going to join in the fun of Garden Blogger’s Bloom day with this first post of the blooms in my garden for mid December.

My garden is located in San Antonio, Texas and is located in hardiness zones 8-9. Most of my currently blooming plants are container plants which I do move to cover during our brief freezes. And here they are:

Begonias

Cyclamen

Impatiens

Loquat tree

I just finished quilting this quilt for a friend. It is to go to a soldier returning from his 3rd tour in Iraq. Thanks so much to him and all the other soldiers working to keep us free and safe.

Related posts:

Quilting with Words

Progress!! That’s what I like to see! I’ve made a lot of progress on the Dressed for Dinner quilt lately. I started the applique in January of this year and I am a little over half done with it now. So it seems reasonable to expect it to be finished for fall, 2009.

I started out doing hand applique but have lately switched to machine applique and I am much happier with the results; the look and the time involved. I guess that I’m just a machine sewing gal.

Related posts:

Dressed for Dinner

Dressed for Dinner

Decisions, Decisions

I have been playing around with using  Golden Threads paper to transfer a quilting design to a quilt. It is easy to do and works well. The only drawback is the time involved in picking all the paper out after the quilting is done. Here is a little photo essay of the process.

With a pencil I traced the design on one layer of the paper. I then stacked multiple layers of the paper together with the penciled design on top and stapled through the four corners. I used my DSM-no thread, no bobbin- to sew through all the layers of the paper, following the penciled design. The needle transfers the design to all of the layers by punching holes in the paper.

I then peeled off one layer of the paper for the first block…

and pinned it in place over the block.

Then it is just a matter of sewing over the lines of the design.

It is a great way to transfer a difficult design to many blocks.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I got a chance to use a new panto last week on this bug quilt. The Panto is by Michelle Wyman and is from Willow Leaf Studios. It is called Lotsa Ladybugs. Isn’t it cute?!! It was just perfect for this quilt!