Here's to the close of 2020 and new hope for 2021!

 I thought I would participate in the Best of 2020 linky party hosted by Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs. She has asked that a new blog post be written highlighting the 5 best of my blog post from 2020. Cheryl has left it up to us to determine which post are 'the best'!

The first 'best' up for me is my post from October 31st when I posted about my finish of my Look on the Bright Side quilt. This quilt was made from my participation in the Quiet Play Pattern Club from 2019. All the blocks are paper pieced and designed by Kristy Lea. 

I really enjoyed sewing the paper pieced blocks in rainbow colors and the text blocks!

I picked this post because although this quilt took me longer than usual to finish, I kept working on it and finally finished it~~~no UFO here!

Second 'best' is from my blog post on August 30th. This post showed the finish of my I Spy quilt featuring by grandson. He still loves to take out the quilt and 'spy' all the things on the quilt! There are over 100 things to search for!

My third 'best' is Manifest, a quilt I featured in my May 13th blog post. I designed this quilt for my daughter. She loves very simple designs and sent me some ideas to work with. This quilt also feature some of my natural dyed fabrics!

The fourth 'best' is my Breaking the Rules quilt featured in my March 19th blog post. This quilt was created as part of the #improvtrianglesewalong by Nicholas Ball. I really loved learning this technique and how this quilt turned out! It now hangs in my quilt room.

I quilted it using a dense straight line/matchstick type quilting...much denser than I usually quilt!

Finally, my fifth 'best' is my Orphism quilt. It is based on the Cubism Art movement which is known for it's abstraction and bright colors. This was featured in my 

May 6th blog post.

I really like this quilt that is made with 2 different sizes of HST. The pop of yellow really makes the quilt stand out. 

Well, that is my 5 best! It was hard to pick only 5 out of 20 quilts that I made during 2020, however it was fun to look back through the past year. Hope you enjoyed it!

I'm linking to the Best of 2020 @Meadow Mist Designs.

What are you doing during Coronacation?

It is definitely a crazy time for everyone, everywhere! I hope you are staying safe and taking the mandated precautions! If everyone does their part, we will overcome this pandemic faster! 

I must admit that it already feels like a very long time to be 'in isolation'. When I am crazy busy at work, I long to have time at home in my sewing room but now that I am forced to be home with schools closed, I long for school, my teacher friends and the kiddos! 

So what am I doing to keep myself busy, safe and sane?

First, I finished the quilt top that I showed a peek of in my last post. 

The pattern is called Braque by Melinda Lin. I purchased this pattern a couple of years ago. It is based on the Cubist artist George Barque.

 One of George Barque works

Because of the nature of Cubism, this pattern is loosely written to give you some creative leeway into how to put your quilt together. At first, I had a bit of difficulty allowing myself this freedom. I wanted the pattern to give me directions but as I went along, I enjoyed the process. 

Secondly, I finished my improv triangle quilt that I made following the #improvtrianglesewalong by Nicholas Ball. 

I'm calling this quilt Breaking the Rules! Isn't that what improv is...breaking the rules of traditional piecing? It was fun and challenging!

This is my first attempt at matchstick quilting. It is very densely quilted and I love how it looks!

The backing and binding fabrics have pieces in the front of the quilt. 

I also put a sleeve on this quilt so it could be hung up. It finishes at 27" x 30". 

Linking up to Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop?, Friday Foto Fun, Finished or Not Friday, Beauties Pageant 73, and Peacock Party.

Outside of quilting, I am following along with a #drawtogether activity on Instagram by @wendymac. She is an illustrator that is posting simple drawing lessons (designed for children) everyday at 10PST. My daughter alerted me about this and I am having fun dabbling with a new skill. 

I missed the first day when they learned how to draw a dog. 

Day 2 taught how to draw a tree.

Day 3 taught how to draw a cat all curled up with a bird on its head. 

There are also Lunch doodles with Mo Willems (author and illustrator of children books). Find them at the link or on Youtube. Again these are geared to children but if you are just dabbling in drawing or want to practice a new skill, these are great lessons. They break up the day and give another creative outlet. 

Of coarse, I am still knitting for my charity knitting group even though we can't be together. 

Just days before the isolation mandate, my hubby and I and a few friends were invited to an event at Ignite Glass Studios. The event included each of us making our own glass. Yesterday, these came in the mail! 

These are not perfect by any means but they were fun to make and fun to receive in the mail!

Hope you find ways to learn something new and be creative. We are all in this together! Let's support one another!

What's happening and monthly blocks

I participated in the #improvtrianglesewalong on Instagram hosted by Nicholas Ball, the author of Inspiring Improv. I got the book out of my local library and prepared for the sew-along to start the first week of February. 

The first week we were to start cutting our fabric pulls into random sized squares, rectangles, and triangles.  In week 2, we started sewing the triangles together using his improv triangle method... without measuring or use of rulers.

In week 3, we learned a bit about joining all these triangles together. It was a puzzle to fit all these random blocks together into what he calls a slab. 

Keep making slabs that will eventually fit all together!

This was a fun and challenging sew-along!  

I enjoyed it so much that I was sad when I had to return the book 

to the library. That meant that I needed my own copy!

A great mail day! My very own Inspiring Improv book! 

This still needs to be quilted but I'm debating on whether to add more to make it bigger or leave it as a wall hanging. 

I'm linking to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.

If you are interested in seeing more amazing quilts, go to Instagram and search the #improvtrianglesewalong.

March snuck up fast and the monthly charity blocks and colors were announced! 

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Angela announced the color of teal. 

The first three months!

Linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday.

For the Covered in Love charity, Kat of Kat & Cat Quilts chose a variation of the fence rail block in blue and yellow. Here is the tutorial.

And I started a new project...currently on my design wall! Here is a sneak peek!

I have 2 more sections to piece before I can put this together! Stay tuned!