Here are the quilts (or quilting projects) I completed in 2010. They include: three large-ish lap quilts (two for charity), two smaller lap quilts for my nieces, six mini quilts, six needle cases and Lucy’s art portfolio.

Definitely not a great list of accomplishments. However, lots of quilting projects in progress for 2011 including three large lap quilts ready for quilting and another seven in progress (including my queen-sized bed quilt), four minis to be quilted and one wall hanging almost done.

I probably shouldn’t really start anything new.. haha!

This week’s quilt contest is Your favourite quilt finished in 2010. My favourite would have to be the Springtime Chubby Chicks I made for my folks followed very closely by Flowers in the Wind made for Victoria’s Quilts Canada.

Hurry: You have until tonight (Thursday at midnight) to share your favourite and enter the contest.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I follow more than 150 bloggers via RSS. Well, I should say I was following that many until I purged a couple dozen earlier this week. I removed all but two bloggers that only show summaries in their RSS feeds as I rarely ever get around to clicking through to the sites to read the post.

I thought it would be fun to share with you my top 10 favourite quilting bloggers from 2010. This was a hard list to put together. The first five were easy, it was deciding among the next 15 of my faves which ones to include.

You’ll notice two common themes among my favourites: colour and inspiration. These bloggers stand out for their awesome use of colour, amazing tutorials, inspiring photos, enthusiasm and continuous sharing and teaching. I have learned so much and been inspired beyond my wildest dreams from quilting bloggers this past year.

Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Erin Russek’s One Piece at a Time
2. Melody Johnson’s Fibermania
3. Patsy Thompson Designs
4. Vicki Welsh’s Field Trips in Fiber
5. Wendy’s Ivory Spring
6. LuAnn’s May Your Bobbin Always Be Full
7. Mickey’s It’s a Fibre Life
8. Geta’s Quilting Studio
9. Bradie Sparrow’s A Quilty Kind of Girl
10. Kelly Jackson’s I Have A Notion

Honourable mention goes to Glorious Applique. This a collaborative blog of quilters making patterns created by Kim McLean. This is my daily colour fix and inspires me to improve my applique skills.

I hope you enjoyed my top picks and found a new blogger or two to follow in 2011. I’d love to hear who your favourite quilting bloggers are; please share in the comments below.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Santa delivered this lovely gift to me. The Janome Horizon. Her name is Sasha and we’re becoming very good friends.

I wasn’t planning to make any quilts for Christmas, but I really wanted to play with the new machine. So, I made a couple of very colourful quilts for my nieces, Lucy and Alice.

Lucy will be 5 next month, and started school last September. She’s doing very well and almost reading. I choose the owl fabric for her.

I played with some of the fancy stitches on the machine. I just love them and will be using them creatively in future projects.

Alice turned 2 on October 31st. She’s extremely energetic and always smiling. The fireworks remind me of her.

I did straight line stitching 1/4″ from the seams. This is my first time quilting like this, and it is so much faster than stitching in the ditch. I will be doing more of this type of grid quilting.

Both quilts are backed with a cuddly soft flannel. They are kept in the family room, so they can easily cuddle under them while watching a bit of TV or use them on the floor while playing.

Sasha performed beautifully with both the straight-line stitching and free motion quilting. I can actually use a heavier weight thread in the needle and a thin (Aurifil, Bottom Line) thread in the bobbin and the tension is perfect.

My main quilting goal for 2011 is to improve on my free motion skills. There’s no holding me back now!