The Year in Review

It's been a busy year! December 31 seems like a great day to look back on the quilts I made this year.

(If you click on the pictures, it will take you to my Gallery of Quilts.)

 

I've made custom quilts, purses and decorative items for some wonderful customers and friends. This was my year to start making tee shirt quilts and remembrance quilts (out of children's clothes and Grandma's fabric). As you'll see at the bottom of my pictures, I also "branched out" and made purses, coffee cozies, coasters, and lots of other goodies. For the holidays, place mats, a table topper, coasters, window coverings, and on and on :)

This fall, I also started my web site MaryMansonQuilts.com and my Blog. What an adventure, learning the ins and outs of posting and blogging!

Holmes Fine Gifts invited me to be their Guest Artist at the November 4th Friday - Dicken's Holiday in downtown Fayetteville, NC. This was such a great opportunity for me to showcase my quilts, and offer my holiday items for sale.

 

This has been a wonderful year, and I'm looking forward to 2013!

Happy New Years!

Mary

 

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Snow Quilts - This is Amazing!

Somehow I received an email about this guy, and I'm glad I did, the pictures are unbelievable! I looked Simon Beck up and he is legit - he really did these amazing snow quilts.

Artist Simon Beck must really love the cold weather! Along the frozen lakes of Savoie , France, he spends days plodding through the snow in raquettes (snowshoes), creating these sensational patterns of snow art. Working for 5-9 hours a day, each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields! The geometric forms range in mathematical patterns and shapes that create stunning, sometimes 3D, designs when viewed from

higher levels. How long these magnificent geometric forms survive is completely dependent on the weather. Beck designs and redesigns the patterns as new snow falls, sometimes unable to finish a piece due to significant overnight accumulations.

 

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Straightening Up & Reorganizing My Quilt Studio

Instead of a New Year's Resolution -- I've set myself a goal to straighten up and re-organize my quilt studio by the end of the year!

Checked off the To Do list --

• Packed up all the Christmas fabric (well, almost done).  I was determined to use up my stash of Christmas fabric this year. After coasters, place mats  purses, bags, and several quilts and bed runners, it's about 1/2 what it was -- of course I had to buy some fabric on sale but I have a lot less! Take a look at my Quilt Gallery to see some of them!

• Organized all of my accessory, purse and bag making supplies. One of my discoveries this year was purses at thrift stores.  They are inexpensive, and I found new ones that had never been used.  The handles, zippers and trim can be used on my items which saved me a lot of money.

• Got rid of all of the plastic bags I was going to use "someday", and went through some OLD projects I was never going to finish, and either put them back into stash, or let them go.

• Now, to straighten up my stash!  I use shallow plastic bins, and have one for each color.  Some of the solids, and unusual items and multicolored florals go in their own bins.  The fabric on the table in front is new fabric I got for Christmas (love gift certificates!!)

I may do some furniture re-arranging too.  When I've gotten things all organized, I'll post a picture of the entire studio!

Happy Holidays - Painted, Quilted Window Coverings

I wanted to make some window coverings for the windows on either side of my front door.  (They're on the inside, don't let the wreath in the picture confuse you!)  It was time for something new -- so I decided to try painting some designs and then quilting them into 1 foot x 6 foot window coverings.

I found some pictures and traced them onto 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 inch fabric, then painted them, using a combination of acrylic paints, Sharpie color markers for fabric, and fabric markers.  I used a Textile Medium in the acrylic paints, it made the paint go onto the fabric smoother, and kept from getting too stiff.

After painting, I put red and gold borders on, sewed it together and did some basic quilt-in-the-ditch.  I may go back after Christmas and put some more quilting in the pictures.

 This was a really fun project, and went pretty quickly.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Mary

Earbud Pouch - Tutorial

These earbud holders are a great last minute Christmas gift!  I made a couple, they are very simple to make. Here's the link to the tutorial Earbud Pouch Tutorial by Erin Erickson.

Terrific video about binding a quilt

This is one of the best videos I've ever watched - what great ideas on how to bind a quilt!  I'll definitely watch it again -- and use the info when I bind my next quilt.

Finished Blue Christmas Quilt

The Blue Christmas quilt is finished, and I wanted to show it off!  It was a UFO (UnFinished Object) I'd had for a long time, the blue and silver fabric was so pretty I didn't want to cut it until I had the perfect pattern.  The design I used is was 4-Patch blocks alternating with Diamond in a Square. I thought it made such an interesting pattern.

It's currently offered for sale at the Holmes Fine Gifts (Holmes Electric) store in Fayetteville, NC

Blue and silver is a nice change for Christmas!  I machine quilted with a meandering feather pattern that I really like in the center, and a feather border.  The outside border was a meandering loop, I didn't want to distract from the pretty fabric.

My early New Year's resolution is to finish more of these UFO's!

Mary

Pincushion Rings

These pincushion rings are so cute -- and easy to make! They're a great help to us quilters. Thanks Two Peas in a Pod!

Directions - 

• Put 2 holes in a plastic bottle cap (soda, milk, etc.)
• Thread elastic  through the holes, tie on inside of cap (I used a hair elastic)
• Cut fabric at least 1" bigger around than cap
• Sew around edge and gather
• Stuff with batting scraps
• Gather and hot glue to inside of cap
• Glue trim/ribbon around outside of cap - trim if you want

Easy!

Mary

Patchwork Quilt Using Scraps

I finished and delivered this queen sized gift quilt in time for Christmas!  It is made from the recipient's mother's quilt tops and niece and nephew's clothing -- a great remembrance quilt.

Using an all-over Rose and Leaf machine quilting worked well with the patchwork design. Here's a picture of the back so you can see the pattern.

Mary