DaGMT Update

Hi everyone:

Wow! February is now over and so is the Drop and Give me Twenty challenge. I wasn't sure if I could keep up with doing at least 20 minutes of quilting a day and hesitated to sign up for this, but decided to commit to doing 30 minutes of quilting per day during the month of February. I'm sure glad that I did! I've been able to work on many of my UFO's and also focus on new pattern ideas.

To give you an idea of what I've accomplished this month, here are a few photos.

I was able to finish and publish three patterns this month. Candy Hearts, a stuffed ornament/pincushion or shelf sitter, is a FREE pattern available on my website.

Candy Hearts by Chatterbox Quilts

Another pattern that was completed before Valentine's Day was Sweet Sayings, which combines easy hand embroidery stitches to create a lovely pillow.

Sweet Sayings by Chatterbox Quilts

I also completed Hearts Abloom, a fusible web appliqué wall hanging which features a bouquet of hearts.

Hearts Abloom by Chatterbox Quilts

Now, for the UFO's that I've been working on. I had this sweet cat embroidery completed, but hadn't yet added any borders to it. So, I added some borders. I believe that I was going to cut down the background fabric, but neglected to do this before adding the borders, so... I think I'll stitch these little mice on. This is a Darcy Ashton pattern from her Claire's Cats Volume 1 book.

"Caught You" from Claire's Cats Volume 1 by Darcy Ashton

This wall hanging has been (not) hanging around my quilt studio for several years. I loved the antique letter and stamp fabrics, but was stuck on how to finish quilting it. Since I've recently been watching Cindy Needhan's Craftsy class on free motion quilting, I thought that this would be the perfect project to try out some of her quilting designs. It's almost finished - I just need to quilt the outer border. May try to do some feathers here.

Okay, this is more a WIP than a UFO. I finished the hand embroidery on this pattern and will now need to finish off the appliqué pieces. Hopefully I'll have this pattern ready in time for Halloween!

Black Cat by Chatterbox Quilts

I've recently been experimenting with different uses for my appliqué templates. I traced the Large Peacock appliqué template onto some background fabric and then coloured it in with pencil crayons and then stitched around the individual areas with matching embroidery floss. A few borders and I can now finish quilt it for a small wall hanging - or maybe I'll add a few more blocks and make a larger project. Still thinking about this one.

Large Peacock appliqué template by Chatterbox Quilts

Our guild provides neonatal quilts to one of the local hospitals. I've completed one already, but here is a second one using the slab technique described in Sunday Morning Quilts by Cheryl Arkison and Amanda Jean Nyberg. Just need to quilt this baby up!

Neonatal quilt top

I've also been doing some stitching - I figure anything using a needle and thread can be lumped under "quilting" - and have started (yes, something new) a stitch sampler to try out various stitches, some familiar and some new. Will continue to add to this one and then decide what I want to do with it.

Hand embroidery stitch sampler

In addition to these projects I've been working on other quilty-related items, such as upcoming patterns and other projects. 

Now that February is at a close, I'm hoping to continue this trend through the rest of the year. It's really surprising what you can accomplish when you decide that you're going to do it!

Hope you had a great February too!