It's almost the end of quilting season

I started this post several weeks ago, but got interrupted before I entered more than the title.  In truth, quilting season finishes about April 1 when spring farm work heats up, daylight savings time makes the evenings longer, and I have usually finished some projects and don't want to start another one that I'll have to put aside over the summer.

This year I made a duvet cover for our daughter and son-in-law from a magazine pattern we found. They chose a collection of beautiful batiks that formed the borders, and I appliqued vines on a central background.    I haven't done a lot of applique work.  But I've really enjoyed what I have done, and I looked forward to adding to my experience.  I think the cover turned out really well; it looks great on their bed, so check it out if you go visit.  I made one pillow sham out of leftover bits and have the pieces cut for another that I should go stitch up for them...but I'm busy writing just now.

I chose a backing and machine quilted a lap/twin size pinwheel pattern quilt in 1930's reproduction prints for which I'd finished the top a year or two ago.  It's cute & I plan to put it in our back bedroom for the summer, where it fits with the antique & just-plain-old furniture we have there.

I settled on a backing for the Storm at Sea quilt for our guest bedroom & sent that out for quilting. I wasn't thrilled with the quilting done by the shop I chose (it was okay but not wonderful), so I met with another machine quilter & liked her and the examples of her work very much. So I left the quilt for our master bedroom with her.  Once I get it back (June) and attach the binding, I'll take some pictures.  It's made from some new fabrics that I found, leftovers from other projects, and bits from my fabric stash; a lovely scrappy quilt in a pattern from the Flynn Quilt Frame Company.  I continued to collect MN author signatures for a quilt I hope to complete next year & I will have to start auditioning fabric for it soon.  I  made  repairs on my daughter's going-to-college quilt and started repairs on my son's going-to-college quilt (I might be able to get that done over the summer).  I spent time ironing scraps so I could roll them up to store (and not have them get all wrinkled again); and created a plan for cutting them into usable shapes for scrap quilts; I even got a bunch cut up.  Theoretically, when I am relaxing in the evenings and don't want to read, I could be cutting scraps and have a ready-made stockpile of pieces available to throw together into a quilt.

And of course some hours were spent just browsing through patterns and thinking/dreaming about which I'd like to try.  I get my hands on pretty much every new quilting book that my library buys and look through them, making copies of patterns I like, or putting the book on a wish list.  There are so many traditional patterns that I really like & haven't tackled yet.  I think a Log Cabin wall hanging would look really nice on our living room wall...

I had hoped to improve my machine quilting last winter - enough that I could do something fancier than straight lines with a little confidence.  But I'm still on straight lines, and hiring machine quilting for larger quilts and for those quilts I really care about.  I've got a bunch of practice squares glued together to start in on next fall, and maybe next winter I'll have a breakthrough, but I'm not holding my breath.  Could it be my sewing machine?  Maybe I need a new one?  Can one have too many sewing machines?

All in all, I'm satisfied with my quilting season, and looking forward to next year.  A wall quilt, the signature quilt, and something appliqued are in my plans.