Virtual Trunk Show

For the second year in a row, Whims and Fancies is hosting the virtual Trunk full of Quilts. To prepare for this special event, I reviewed all of my 2016 posts. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount and the variety of my creations this year. There are:

• some more traditional quilts, 
• quite a few landscape art quilts, 
• a number of multi-media fibre art creations, and
• one whole cloth quilt.

I'm going to show you a sample of my favourites from each category. 

The Great Hockey Jersey Quilt

Traditional Quilts

A few of my quilts have traveled far this year. My Bali-Flip lap quilt in neutrals went to Denmark after Christmas and then the Great Hockey Jersey Quilt went away to university with my nephew in the fall.

Bali-Flip Lap Quilt

I made two baby quilts this year - the first is an original design, "Beautiful Day" and then the "Fox in a Box", is from a Row House Creations pattern.

Beautiful Day Baby Quilt

Fox in a Box Baby Quilt

Hexagon Runner

I also made two table runners, one for my pen-pal of over 30 years and the other for my first guild swap to a newer quilting friend.

Orange Peel Table Runner

Landscape Art Quilts

This is by far the category with the most projects this year. Part of the reason for this is my ongoing personal Landscape Art Quilt Challenge.

My favourite was made for the Spring Art with Fabric Blog Hop. It's based on a Northern Ontario artist, Sheila Langlois', painting. Although it's not my own design, in my opinion, it's the best work I've done this year.

Light at the end of the tunnel art quilt
based on Sheila Langlois' painting

Another favourite is my Woven Landscape. It was interesting to use weaving in a quilted piece. Since weaving was my first love, I want to explore this further eventually.

Woven Landscape

I also want to mention my Hockey Day in Canada quilt since it will be auctioned off in December as part of our Workplace Charity Campaign.

Hockey Day in Canada

Multi-Media Fibre Art Creations

At the beginning of the year I participated in a few weeks of the Colour Me Positive Art Journal Challenge. I didn't last very long, but I did learn a few techniques for writing on fabric as well as practicing my FMQ.

Week 6 of Colour Me Positive Art Journal Challenge

This piece was done for Week 6 of the Challenge. It was based on His Holiness the Dali Lama's quote, "Be kind wherever possible. It is always possible.” I used fabric markers as well as FMQ.

My favourite multi-media art piece was made at a Needle Felting Play Day with the Out of the Box Fibre Artists Group (OOTB). It was a wonderful day and I created "The Feather" using paper, felt, wool roving, cheese cloth, beads and a pin.

"The Feather"

Whole Cloth Quilt

Finally I finished a whole cloth quilt this year and showed it at the CTQG Quilt Show this spring. It was a piece based on Cindy Needham’s Machine Quilting Wholecloth Quilts on Craftsy. It was incredibly long to FMQ, but a great practicing opportunity!

Floral Fantasy Whole Cloth Quilt

What I've learned:

• My friends say that I'm a prolific quilter - I guess that I should admit that I am. This trunk show, which is only a sampling of my finished quilts this year, is the proof!
• It would seem that some of my best work have been done because I participated in a specific event, be it a quilt show, an online blog hop or challenge, or a course. I keep saying that I don't like deadlines and pressure, but these often help me produce.
• This year, I learned the hard way, the importance of keeping my quilting fun. When I take it too seriously, I tend to over-think, over-do and over-stress. That's not a good place for me. I know that I want to keep learning, but it can't be at any expense. This is a hobby - an important one to me, but not a full-time job. It needs to remain enjoyable.
• I've learned so much more about myself and my quilting since I've taken the time to reflect on creating art through this blog. Thanks for joining me on my journey. 

I've linked this post to the Trunk full of Quilts page. Since I was on holidays last week, I finally had time to read the blog posts. It was a real treat. Check them out!
Also linking in MOP Monday,