In 2013 I worked on a great many quilts, but did not finish any sewing project except that peach dress.

However, this year has been completely different. I have finished four quilts that were all in process last year in the last two months. Here are a couple.This is the back of one I finished for my sister, Susannah. She had a baby last summer, and I usually make one for each new-mom-sister of mine. It just took longer than usual for that one to get done.This is the binding, which I thought very cute, and below you can see the top. I just stitched together a layer cake, and quilted each block with a different free motion pattern.
The pictures below are of the heaviest quilt I have ever made, and the first one I finished on my insane Christmas present (a long arm machine, which my husband explained by saying “We’ve been married almost ten years, and this quilting thing does not seem to be going away.”)

This quilt is a t-shirt / memory quilt my brother asked me to make. It was a major headache in some ways. I had to iron interfacing to the backs of all of the stretchy t-shirts. After extensive fruitless internet searching about what interfacing to use in a t-shirt quilt, I just used the cheapest non-stretch stuff they had at JoAnn. It worked great.

The only problem I had was initially my cruddy iron. It was small, broken, and given to me as a wedding gift. Or maybe I bought it at  a thrift store in college? I can’t remember. After much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth on the first part of the project, I bought the cheapest iron at Costco to replace it. The new iron has a significantly larger footprint, magnificent steam power, and it made the rest of the backing process not nearly so dreadful. Also, my husband’s shirts actually look pressed after I iron them now. Bonus.

I backed, and bound the quilt with cotton fabric. Gray business in the front, bright striped party in the back. This is the final product. It contains t-shirts from his high school and college days and travels, parts of his white shirts, suits and ties from missionary service, and even part of the back of his college graduation gown. Notice my attractive model’s strained neck? I was not kidding. It is a heavy quilt. I warned him it might be five years or so before I got it done, but I had his name in the sibling exchange on both sides of my family for Christmas, so he got a rush job. I am glad, because that was a large heap of shirts and memorabilia to store in my sewing room. I am also glad because I love my brother, and it gave me joy to do this for him.

I have finished a couple more items, too, but I need to photograph them with a better camera than my phone before I post.