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

What did I do with the centre of the Kool Kats panel I cut up?

 On Saturday I was asked what did I do with the centre piece I cut out of my Kool Kats panel for my Crazy Cat Quilt.

Remember I share a post on making my Crazy Cats quilt by cut up a panel and creating an original quilt last month.

 

In the end I had the centre part of the panel with some leftovers from the border strips. From these I create a Kool Cats table runner just perfect for the cat lovers out there. I dug into my stash for the backing fabric and leftover batting pieces which I often sew together to create larger pieces. Don't waste them I sew the larger piecing together for small quilts and if they are smaller than 10" square they go into my duster bag for dusting cloths. Lastly I found some blue binding leftover from another project to bind it with.

The panel is still available in my shop if you want to purchase one.

 Until Next Time

Keep Stitching 

Cynthia

Crazy Cat Panel Quilt

This is one of those panels that need a little work to make it work. You could buy 2 panels and sew a border around them to make a simple quilt but I only wanted to use one. It is from the Kool Kats fabric range.

1. I cut it up as the picture below show, just centreing the ruler evenly as you can between the frames.

2. Removed the centre row.

3.Then sewed the next two strips together.

4.Next I took the border print which looks like this.

And cut the cat strips and licorice strips apart.

So I ended up with 4 of each strip.

5. Then I cut 2 licorice stripes off strip.

6. Measure your panel from top to bottom and cut 2 licorice strip to that length and use them to sash your 3 sections of panel together. I pressed to the panel sections.

7. Measure centre panel side to side and cut 2 full licorice strips and 2 cat strips to that measurement and sew them together along the long sides off the strips. Press.

8.  Sew a strip to the top and the other to bottom of your centre. Press.

9. Cut 2  single licorice strip to the same measurement and sew to the top and bottom. I pressed to the cat strip as it is a wider strip.

10. Measure your quilt from top to bottom and cut 2 cat border strips to that length. and sew them to the sides of your quilt.

11. Measure side to side this time and cut the last 2 border strips and sew them to the top and bottom of your quilt. Press to the borders.

12. Now you are ready for quilting. Pin your three layers together with safety pins or baste with basting spray, whatever you prefer. Quilt it as you like. I stitched in the ditch for this one as I didn't want to sew through any of the cats. So no cats were harmed in the making of this quilt but two black cats did get told off for their block re arranging and standing on the quilt when I was trying to quilt it. Cisco behaving himself as I finish the binding off in my lap.

13. Then all you have to do is bind it. I used this Swizzle Stix diagonal stripe for my binding.

Panel and fabrics are all available from Cynthia's Ark online.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

2016 Finish Along Q4 List

Last quarter was a total disaster. I added a couple extra projects to my list and only completed one project on the list. With that said I did get one quilt quilted ready for binding and I made some progress on another one. So this quarter's list looks like this.
1. To quilt and bind my 2015 Quiltmaker Mystery quilt. Auld Lang Stitches Quilt.

 2.  This one is quilted ready for the binding to go on.

3. My Victorian Fling is now ready for quilting, so I got all the blocks together last quarter with borders.That is good. I need to select the backing still and pin it..

4. My Forget Me Not quilt has seen progress in the last quarter but as I am English paper piecing it is taking time. 12 blue blocks to go around in this step after I fix my mistake. 3 on 9 more to go and then it is the last step to do.

5. My Crazy Cat  Panel Quilt just need it's border added and it will be ready for quilting.

6. Lastly my Allietare quilt no progress in the last quarter but the blocks are all made ready to be sewn together.

Let's see if I can make some real progress on this list this quarter. Pop over to She Can Quilt  and check out what everyone else has on their list. You may be inspired to finish some of your  own projects off with us.

Until Next Time 

Keep Stitching

Cynthia