December is here

It's a busy month with all the excitement about the upcoming Holiday and New Year. Can't believe 2014 has come and is almost gone. I've done much this year and have much to be thankful for. Looking back,  I seemed to do everything slightly over the top in 2014.
Travel (Spain, Bolivia, Houston, Hawaii, Florida).  Quilt (14 more or less- that's almost 1 a month, but who am I kidding, some months were busier than others). Friends (celebrating new ones and old ones- here's to all of you). Planning (exciting new Bees and quilt designs, it's not even 2015 and I'm looking most forward to Bee Sewcial- you can follow our crazy antics on Instagram: look for #BeeSewcial). I can't post too many photos yet but soon the barrage will come.

So as not to have a post without pictures, here are some December highlights.

Birthday Bandy December is for Jennifer. Thankfully she let us all in on the wish list a little early. (Thank goodness, I want to keep those Holiday trips to the post office at a minimum).

 
Here is the deal on these pictures, I used some beautiful Italian linen and precious Japanese linen prints. I improv and curved pieced and then quilted my way to a few fun bags. Jennifer said she liked metallics. So do I. So metallic quilting was definitely going to happen (again).

2 pouches, one metal clasped the other with a drawstring. (Drawstring pattern by sotakhandmade)

interior shots, love the reds!

A Holiday pillow from our Dachshund to the family who looks after her when we travel.

And a few more pictures from the "White Out" quilt-in-progress. Metallic fabrics and threads in this beauty for my special girl. All in all I think I'll use 4 different metallic threads on the top and kept the bobbins filled with my go to Aurifil 100% cotton (this time I'm using a pale variegated spool).

 

I've made some more progress but you'll have to wait just a bit more to get the full story behind the quilt. Let's just say it will be Derived Inspiration No.3 "White Out" when all is said and done. And I will have done a few new things with this quilt too. Although I wish I had the mad skills to quilt this like Angela, I'm daring to use only metallic threads and I don't want to cause any problems, so I'm sticking to the straight and narrow. I may over quilt in a few places, but we'll see how much I'm still liking metallic thread when I'm done. (It's a queen sized quilt).

May the remainder of 2014 be good to all of you and I look forward to hearing from you in 2015!