Best of 2019

Each year, Cheryl invites bloggers to join the best of 2019 link-up and share their 5 best posts of 2019.  And the best part?  We get to define what 'best' means!

 My best of 2019 all correlate to some major things that happened in my life or for my blog.

The first is Briar Rose - my first quilt to hang in a QuiltCon show!  You can read more about the quilt and the show here .  I had great fun stalking my quilt and seeing people stop and look at it!  Briar Rose was also published in Make Modern magazine - a second exciting milestone for me!  (See that post.)

The second is my quilt Linked which also appeared in Make Modern magazine.  Photographing the quilt in a beautiful field of sunflowers made for my best location quilt photo!

The series of posts and tutorials from the Hand Pieced QAL generated the most post views by far.

The posts that regurlarly generate the most views is One Monthly Goal which will be returning in 2020 with great sponsors!

Finally, my post about My Dad's Quilt is the most important one of the year.  Quilts are about giving hugs and my quilt was my stand-in when my dad passed away a few days after I had visited - I wasn't there but my quilt was.

Looking back at my blog activity for a year is always a fun thing to do!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

One Monthly Goal December Finish link-up

Ready to link up your December finishes?

Don't panic - this link-up is open until December 31 at 11:55 pm ET.

Did you see the big sponsor announcement for One Monthly Goal 2020?  Check it out!  I enjoy running the link-up and happy to host the event again next year.

My goal for December was to make my Harry Potter pillows as a gift for my daughter.  I did it!

Now its your turn to link-up.

There will be three winners this month - Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate,  Make Modern is offering a 6 month subscription, and Arlene Stamper and Melissa Harris of The Quilt Company is offering a Camp Sugar Bear BOM pattern and the accessory fabric packet.  

There will also be a bonus winner with a thread prize from Aurifil as a bonus prize - each month you linked up during the year with a successful goal earned you an entry towards the bonus!

Congratulations to Kathryn, Billie, Donna, and Susan - our lucky winners!  (updated 1/5/2020)

Visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags. 

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month. (December Goal Setting Link-up.)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can follow where you are linking.   Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal -December Finish Link-up

Sign up to receive email notifications when the One Monthly Goal linkup is open.  Think of it as a helpful reminder!  Joining the link-up from Instagram -see the tutorial.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a wonderful day! Patty

More Pillows for Christmas

I always like making a handmade gift for each of my kids.  I went with pillows again this year - such a fun project!

These are (of course!) Hermione and Harry!  I used a 20" pillow insert for this one (affiliate link).   The pillow front was back with fusible fleece instead of regular batting and to quilt, I outlined each of the shapes using matching thread.

My son is an indoor rock climbing enthusiast so I made him a pillow filled with the rock shapes he needs to cling to.

I know nothing about rock climbing - except I'm too chicken to give it a try - so I found an image online of a collection of these colorful holds.  I put the image on my ipad and then used my ruler to help me visualize a grid.  I then used graph paper and redrew each of the images.

Everything was raw edge applique using Heat n Bond.

I've started putting zippers into pillow back as sort of a 'faux' invisible zipper.   Perhaps a better tutorial coming in the future, but basically, put fusible fleece on the 2 piece for the back leaving 1/2'' without any fleece on each piece.  Quilt the back pieces - I just do a few walking foot lines for some texture.

Sew these pieces together with 1/2'' seam using a basting stitch.  Your pressed seam will be the width of your zipper!   Carefully pin the zipper and topstitch down.   (I usually put a few pins in from the back and then re-pin from the front and then REMOVE those pins in the back.)

Once the zipper is sewn, open up your basting stitches and you've created a zipper pillow back.

Mom got her VW pillow in the mail and my sister reported that she loves it!  (Read more about that pillow here.)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Have a wonderful day! Patty