Best of Life in Pieces for 2016

Hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone already.  The New Year is just around the corner.  It's a good time to reflect on this year, decide what worked and what didn't before nailing down next year's directions for the sewing room.  Cheryl over at Meadow Mist Designs is again hosting the "Best of" linky party, except it's the 2016 version.

Cheryl leaves it up to the blogger to decide what constitutes the "best of" for the linky party.  I considered her suggestions of most views and most comments, but those tended to be posts over pretty much the same two projects.  So following the form of last year's post, my "best of 2016" posts are the projects that I got the most joy out of over the last 12 months.

Number 5: Zombies in Paris
This quilt is one of 4 graduation quilts that needs to be finished before May of 2017.  This project started out one way and ended another.  

Number 4:  Midnight Mystery Quilt
Mystery quilt alongs are one of my most favorite things in blog land.  The 2015 Midnight Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs certainly didn't disappoint. 

Number 3.  Blooms and Butterflies (Back Porch Blooms Sew Along)
When I saw the Back Porch Bloom blocks on Podunk Pretties, I was pretty much in lust, but I was able to resist until Lea Anne started adding in butterfly blocks to the mix and challenged her readers to come up with their own design using these blocks.  Once the design was in EQ, I just had to make it.  

Number 2:  Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt Allietare
My second Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt.  It's fun and educational to stitch along with Bonnie.  And I loved the final quilt.  

Number 1:  Vintage Dresses
The Rainbow Scrap Challenge has been one of my favorite stitch alongs in blog land.  It's amazing what you'll try when you only have to make a few blocks a month.  I'd tried some very simple paper piecing before this pattern, but I didn't realize what I was in for, good thing the plan was to make only two blocks a month. 

Those are my "best" posts for 2016.  You can see more of the best over at Meadow Mist Designs.  

Weekend Stitching: A Drained Brain Finish

It's the middle of August.  Already?  The last half of the year always seems to go faster than the first half of the year.  Wasn't it just June?  Life certainly seems to move at the speed of light sometimes. The last two weeks have been busy, work has been insane.  It's been hard to find time to sew.  I don't have to sew when my schedule gets amped, but finding some quiet time in the sewing room usually helps with the stress levels.  But I've also learned that sewing when my brain is really ready for idle mode isn't usually a good idea.  That tends to result in a later session with a seam ripper.  Thankfully I was able to set the brain to idle  and watch the Olympics while hand stitching the binding to the Midnight Mystery Quilt (Midnight Tulips). 

Midnight Mystery Quilt (Midnight Tulips)  From Meadow Mist Designs

This project was started last July as part of the Midnight Mystery Quilt Along sponsored by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs.  I wanted to get this quilt finished because Cheryl has a new quilt along this year.  There's just less guilt about starting the next mystery if you finished the last one.  Especially when your UFO count is 17.  I'm really happy with the finished project.  It has a bit more modern vibe than what I typically make, but it's good to branch out sometimes.   This quilt is going to be a Christmas gift for Drama Teen's confirmation sponsor.  She's a long time friend of the family and remains one of DT's favorite teachers.  

This quilt has been a bear to photograph. For some reason the red ends up as a ghastly shade of orange if I don't color correct in Photoshop Elements.  It was also really hard to get a decent photo of Trudy's wonderful quilting. 

I really like the red petals she quilted in the center of each star, they are still hard to see in this photo. The quilting in the black background is a simple meander.  Showing the back won't help, it' a pretty busy print.  My justification for starting this mystery was that I'd use up some of my older stash.  So the back was something I had on hand. 

I'd show you the whole back, but those little white flowers are a bit overwhelming in large quantities.  

Midnight Tulips is just my second finish for 2016.  The plan for the year is to finish 8 projects.  It's August, so finishing that many isn't likely.  But Allietare just needs binding, Poinsettias is almost a finished flimsy and Zombies in Paris is close behind.  So it's likely I'll get halfway to my goal this year.  

Linking up with 
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Design Wall Monday