Best of 2016 Party

Over at Meadow Mist Design, Cheryl is hosting the Best of 2016 Linky party. So when I came across the post inviting all to join I start think what would be considered a Best of 2016 post. Would it be the most liked post over the year or my favourite post of the year or my most challenging post?

So I spend a couple weeks on thinking what would fill my top five posts for the year?

Here we go! My Top Five Post of 2016
In the end I couldn't decide on the fifth post so my top 5.

1. No 1 would have to be my stop on the The Road Home Row Along. It was my most visited post of the year. Plus working with a large group of talented people I learnt some much more about blogging and stuff I had never done before, like running a competition with my post.

2. Back in March I did a tutorial post on my Vintage Sewing Machine Quilt which was one of this year's favourite tutorial. The plan is to do more tutorials in 2017.

3. In May I participated in the Art with Fabric Blog Hop with my post on Cynthia's Garden. My interpretation on Irises by Vincent Van Gogh one of my favourite painting. This was a real challenge working in the form of applique.

4. In October I did another tutorial post on my Crazy Cat Quilt. It was about how you can cut up a panel that wider than in length. Plus there was a follow up post on what I did with the centre piece I don't use that become a matching table runner with the leftover fabric from the quilt. Why waste fabric if you can make something else?

5. Lastly this was the hardest one to pick but it is a current project I am working on. My Hourglass quilt it is one of the fun projects I have worked on. No deadlines helps I think. This is where I am up to on it. You can see the progress from the post to now.

Go and have a look at what others have achieved this year in their Best of 2016 post here.

.http://meadowmistdesigns.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/best-of-2016-linky-party.html

                                       Thanks Cheryl for hosting the Best of 2016 Party

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Cynthia's Garden - Art with Fabric Blog Hop.

This was an exciting project to be invited to do. Select a famous work of art and interpreted in fabric. I had big ideas, maybe a little too big.  Vincent Van Gogh's Irises painting was my choice in the end as I love Irises.

 Taking on this challenge really push me out of my comfort zone, way outside my square so to speak. I am not a painter or drawer so doing an art quilt is something I only try once before using a pattern.  Now trying to use a famous painting for my inspiration  and starting from scratch was somewhat daunting. Plus throw in the fact I am using applique techniques to create it, left me on a few occasions thinking what the hell am I do.

Cynthia's Garden

Here is how my piece went together. A lot of hours of cutting and stitching. The background was first and I started with the quilt sandwich with my background fabrics on top. Next was all the leaves on top of the background. Followed by a long day of stitching all of this in place.

Then came the flowers. It was interesting trying to cut the right sort of shapes. Admittedly there was a lot of scrappy waste at the start but once I got going things moved along..

Lastly I  trimmed and backed my work with a fresh piece of fabric to hide the mess of threads and  I added some extra quilting to join the layers together.
I will never be a world class artist but I am happy with it. It was worth it in the end.
Here are the links to the other participates in this blog hop. I hope you will visit them and enjoy their creations too.

, May 9th, 2016

• Maartje (http://quiltinginamsterdam.blogspot.com)
• Lee Anna (http://lapaylor.blogspot.com/)
• Andrée (http://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com)
• Renee (http://www.quiltsofafeather.com/)

Tuesday, May 10th, 2016

• Kathy (http://qreativequilts.blogspot.com/)
• Yvonne (http://quiltingjetgirl.com/)
• Chris (http://chrissquiltinguniverse.blogspot.com/)
• DeAnna (http://southernbellessewcreative.blogspot.com/)

Wednesday, May 11th, 2016

• Alida (http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/)
• Yanicka (http://yanickahachez.blogspot.com/)
• Heather (http://www.heatherquilts.blogspot.com/)
• Sarah (http://georgiagirlquilts.blogspot.com/)

Thursday, May 12th, 2016

• Cynthia (http://cynthiasark.blogspot.com.au/)
• Janeen (http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com/)
• Wendy (http://www.kwiltkrazy.com)
• Afton (http://www.quiltingmod.blogspot.com/)

Friday, May 13th, 2016

• Carol (http://www.quiltedfabricart.com/)
• Jennifer (http://www.inquiringquilter.com)
• Nina-Marie (http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/)
• Joan (http://www.moosestashquilting.blogspot.com/)
• 
  

 A big Thank you to Alida for the invite to join Art with Fabric Blog hop and her support along the way.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Art with Fabric Blog Hop

                                          
I just thought I would give everyone a heads up about the Art with Fabric Blog Hop is about to start this week. I am participating in it and you will see my post on Thursday the 12th May but in the meantime enjoy some great work from a group of talented quilters. Here is the link to the warm up post by our great hostess Alida.  She has done a wonderful job organising all this.
http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/art-with-fabric-blog-hop-day-0.html

I am sure we are all in for a treat over the next week. I can't wait to see what everyone has been working on. I know myself I pushed myself way out of my comfort zone with this challenge of an art quilt and using a technique I don't use very often. Make sure you pop in on the 12th May to see what I have made and don't forget the others. I will post the list up once the blog hop has been started.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Some Quiet Time

Really! Quiet Time here! I don't think that is quite the correct term to use. Maybe quiet in the sense the sewing machine isn't being used so there is no noise, but there has been plenty of action here. Some I can share and some will have to wait but you won't have to wait too long.

I have been spending plenty of time organise fabrics for our new Block of the Month Pemberley. Here is the post if you have missed it. There is two version on offer the red one which is the one pictured and my version which will have blue borders instead of red ones and inner blue border will become red. Don't forget if you book your spot today you will receive our English Paper Piecing Starter which includes a Sue Daley glue pen, needles, thread and a Cynthia's Ark notepad free with your first month so you can start straight away. Visit Cynthia's Ark to book your spot. Plus we can ship overseas if you are interested and don't live in Australia, The postage may be a little more that is all.

I have been work on special project which I can't share yet but look out for the Art with Fabric Blog Hop starting on the 9th May for what I am up to on this one. I will be sewing on this one over the weekend finally after a false start that require me to re think what I was doing and start from scratch. I am much happier for it.

In among everything I did let myself do the next step on my Tea Party Quilt.  You may have recently seen my Tea Party Table Topper which is for a workshop planned in June.

This quilt is where the inspiration came from. I trimmed up all my blocks ready for the sashing strips to be added. I hope over the weekend I may complete this top, so it will be ready for quilting. Now I have my Pfaff back I am ready to do some quilting and catch up on my quilting pile.

There is lots more in the pipeline included another special weekend store event coming in May, new patterns and special offers. I'm sure there will be plenty of sewing to do especially on my neglected Project Uninterrupted Projects which have been put to one side for the month. You can join us in the Cynthia's Ark Project  Uninterrupted Facebook group and share what you are working on sewing wise.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia