RETIRED!!! Now I can quilt full time!

WOW! I can't believe that after more than 35 years of working, today is the first full weekday of my retired life! I plan to do way more quilting for my family, charities and anyone else who might ask me. I also knit and crochet and have done some cross stitch, embroidery, tatting, smocking and macrame. I have also sewn clothing, Halloween costumes, stuffies and Christmas ornaments. But my favourite craft by far is quilting. After reading quilting blogs for several years, I have decided to set up my own blog to chronicle my own quilting adventures.

Last year I made Christmas stockings for my son and daughter and their partners. This year I made coordinating tree skirts and wall hangings. The tree skirts were made using a ten degree Dresden plate wedge and I cut 36 wedges out of wof strip pieced fabric. I sewed them together using the quilt as you go method and then stitched in the ditch around the rings and bound the edges.

For the owl wall hanging I photocopied an owl from the material and enlarged it to create the appliqué pattern which I glue basted and machine appliquéd. I machine stitched around all the appliqué pieces and then echo quilted the background. For the cat wall hanging I drew a cat shape and cut mirror image cats and fused them with their tails entwined and put ribbon under their necks so I could tie bows. The only quilting I did was grids behind the cats to make it look like they were looking out the window at a snow storm.