2019 Top 10

Today is a day of reflection on the past year and planning for

2020.

I've compiled a picture list of the top 10 projects from the past year

that are posted on the

Creatin' in the Sticks blog.

(the pictures are links to the original post)

#10  

#9

#8

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

And the #1 blog post of the year:

I'm so happy about Wavy Strings going to the International Quilt Festival

and

that certainly helped to take it to the #1 spot for 2019.

The only criteria used to place the top ten were visits to the 2019 posts.

That would, of course, place the quilt blocks that were offered for free at the top of the list.

When I started this list, it was surprising the number of visits that come from

30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days (2017).

Some of the blog posts from that would have made the cut for the top 10 visits in 2019.

I limited this list to 2019 blog posts.

So many other quilts were left out of this list and were just a few visits away from making the cut.

There is a lot to be learned by checking the stats of posts. 

Overall it was a great year!

Have a safe and happy new year.

See you in 2020!

3D - Float Your Hills and Valleys

The December Challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors is

3D

and

today I'm excited to share

Float Your Hills and Valleys.

As an Island Batik Ambassador for 2019

every month there is an ambassador challenge.

December's 3D Challenge is all about using

optical illusions,

textures, trapunto, or whatever else makes

a quilt pop into life.

For this month's project, I started with a block pattern

I had designed for the

A Time For All Seasons Block of the Month

called Waving Stripes.

I added another column to make the block
12" x 12" finished.

Next, I picked Island Batik fabrics for the 3D effect.

The dark green (BE31-G1) and dark blue (BE21-D2) are batik foundations in the blender collection and the grey and white fabrics are in the solid batik collection.

The light blue in called Bluebird and is in the Freedom collection by Kathy Engle.  

The light green (111932612) is from the Petal Pushers collection also by Kathy Engle.

I cut the pieces for the blocks with the Accuquilt GO! Half Square Triangle-2" Finished square (55712)  from the Accuquilt Go! Qube Mix and Match 8" Block

This is my favorite way to make half-square triangles
and
the accuracy is amazing.
Then I chain pieced all those half-square triangles with
Aurifil 50 wt thread in white.

I designed the quilt in Electric Quilt with 3 of the Wavy Stripes blocks 

I quilted the background of Float Your Hills and Valleys on my Handiquilter with

 Glide thread in white.  

The blocks were quilted with straight lines following the wavy stripes with 

Aurifil 50 wt variegated #4670

The binding is Island Batik foundation blender fabric (BE21-D2).

I love the way this quilt looks against the white wall in the bedroom 

and 

that is where it will stay.

You can find the full list of Island Batik ambassadors posting for the 

3D Challenge

by clicking HERE.

This is my last post as an Island Batik Ambassador for 2019.

It's been a super fun year and I want to thank 

Island Batik and the industry partners, Aurifil Thread, Accuquilt, and Hobbs Batting,

 for the great products and super fun challenges.

The experience has been priceless!

Make a Coffee Shop Cup Sleeve

Saturday mornings for hubby and I

are for gathering at our local coffee shop

for a hot beverage and time together.

The only thing that could make it better is a new coffee cup sleeve for those paper cups. 

Our coffee shop doesn't offer them.

Now we have even better ones than cardboard. Cute ones.

Today I am over on the Thermoweb blog with a free pattern for you to make your own too.

Let's make a Coffee Shop Cup Sleeve with HeatNBond Fleece. It will protect your hand from a hot cup and is super fun to grab too.

They are fast to make and would make great gifts/stocking stuffers.

Make them in as many colors as you have fabric because it takes less than a fat quarter.

See you over on the Thermoweb blog!

Color It Red Blog Hop - I'm In

Carol at Just Let Me Quilt

just announced sign-ups for our newest blog hop.

What is a blog hop?

It's like a "show and tell" online.

Our blog hops feature sewing and quilting and are like joining a quilt guild without leaving home.  Once the theme (challenge) is presented we set to work sewing.

We inspire each other with projects, tutorials, or patterns.

You don't necessarily need a blog to join in.  

We can host your project.

Get all the details about the hop

and how to sign up over at Carol's blog:

Just Let Me Quilt

I have just signed up and can't wait to show a little red in February.

December Progress

Does this ever happen to you?

I've been stitching on the Island Batik Ambassador challenge for this month,

3D.

I love these sorts of quilts and have been taking progress pictures as I go.

This morning I was ready to start putting the top together when I saw that one of the half square triangles was going the wrong direction.

I went back and looked at the pictures and, sure enough, there it is in the pictures I took several days ago. 

 I've even shown the pictures to others (hubby) and no one noticed.

I'm so glad I noticed before the quilt went together.

I would have been heartbroken.

The rest of the day just felt "off" after this discovery and I was afraid I might do something like that again.

So I just made more half square triangles with the Accuquilt Go!

and

called it a day.

I missed blogging yesterday for the

31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

 and

 I'm about too late for today (Sunday).

But my Christmas shopping is done and the rest of the month looks to be smooth sailing.

If I can get my stitching mojo right...

Color

I'm participating in the

31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

and

the prompt for yesterday and today are about color.

One of my favorite subjects!

Let Your Passion Shine is a throwback from almost 7 years ago.

On days there hasn't been a sewing project to blog about,

 I've been using

Cheryl's prompts to keep up with the challenge.

Yesterday's prompt was 

Favorite Color

and today,

Least Favorite Color.

Color me RAINBOW!!!

But maybe you already knew that.

I linked the original posts to the pictures above if you would like to know more about the stories.

Yep, I love a lot of colors but especially love them all together.

There are lots of rainbow quilts around here.

This one hasn't made it home from The International Quilt Festival yet.

My least favorite color?

BROWN.

But footballs are brown and I live in the Sticks which is kind of brown.

I guess it works with some quilts but I won't go out of my way to make something in brown.

What's your favorite color?  Do you have a color you don't especially like?
Tell me about it.

Oh, December, You Get the Best of Me

I missed it, December 11th happened and I worked right through it without

making the blog post that I said I wouldn't miss.

I'm participating in the

31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

and

yesterday was a fail.

I am working my tail off to get everyone ready for the holidays.

I would like to tell you that designing quilting and sewing patterns is

all I do, but I am a hairstylist first.

It is my first passion and December is always busy.

I'm afraid my blog is suffering a bit.

Why I signed up to blog every day of December is a mystery to me.

BUT,

I will catch up with my blog tomorrow.

I really do have some sewing going on here

and

some news to announce.

Soon...