I have finished my blocks the December block of the month with my local guild. As a treat for the guild, I did an extra variation this month!
Want to see the rest of the blocks we have been working on? Check out the guild page here for each of the blocks and the guild flickr here for some of our member’s blocks!
Well I didn’t finish all my projects last quarter (I actually did better than I thought I would, which is great). This quarter is all about getting ready for the holidays – for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to make a lot of gifts this year (smart right). Most of these projects are presents for people, so I am not posting too much detail (I doubt most the recipients read this blog, but just to be careful).
1. A Coastal Cruiser pillow. (Finished – Nov. 20th)
2. A Pillow (this one will go with the Coastal Cruiser house, so it has the same background, but will have a different subject) (Finished – Nov 24th)
3. Stockings – With the new addition to our household this year we need another stocking. As my husband and I don’t have any at our house (Christmas was usually spent with one set of parents or the others) I need to make us some as well – at least they will all match! (Finished – Dec 19th)
4. Baby quilt – This quilt is for a special little baby that decided to arrive early – guess she couldn’t wait to meet her parents! That being said now her quilt really needs to done and it is still in pieces (all the pieces have not yet been cut either!). (Finished – Oct 27th)
5. This quilt from my Guild’s Mystery Quilt series needs to be quilted and bound so it can go to its new home this Christmas.
6. A custom quilt for a friend! I have made several baby quilts for her (she loves to give them as shower presents) and I finally get to make on for her to keep! 
7. Why not through this on (would be nice to have it for Halloween) as it just needs to be quilted and bound! I would love to be able to snuggle with my Ghastlies soon!
8. I also have a Ghastlies mug rug that needs to be finished for a present (no pic sorry as I am sure this person looks at the blog!).
Oh dear, 8 projects in less than three months – I better get to work! Hopefully I don’t get distracted with too many side projects over the coming months, although I am sure there will be a few of those as well.
Another finish! I love how finishing off a project that has sat around the sewing room (mostly finished) give you a sense of accomplishment and the energy to keep going on other projects. This pillow was that project for me. It is an orphan block from a quilt (that is sitting waiting to be quilted) that I decided would make a good pillow – then it sat. I have been working on several new projects for various people recently and feeling like I am not getting anything done (especially with a new baby in the house), so I needed something that I would be able to finish in a couple of naps.
I decided to practice my paisley quilting on this pillow, as I love the look but am still not confident enough to do it on a quilt. I think it turned out fairly well, and while it was time consuming it didn’t take as long as I had initially thought.
Now that I feel like I have accomplished something I feel ready to tackle the rest of the quilts that are waiting with deadlines that are coming up soon!
This is my third finish for this quarter’s Finish a-long 2014 (original list here)! Woo hoo!
Linking up to Needle and thread Thursday, Lets Be Social, Sew Cute Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, I quilt Thursday,
I know it is a bit early to be thinking about Christmas, but I am thrilled to finally have this quilt finished. It started 3 years ago when my Husband picked me up some sock monkey fabric with elf monkeys on it! I started looking and found some fabric to go with it and figured out a design. Then it sat, and sat and waited for me to get to it. I came across it almost a year later and fell in love again. This time I got it pieced together in just a couple weeks, and it sat again.
Months later I got it out and did some quilting – strings of Christmas lights! Again other projects came up and this one sat in the to do pile, waiting to be trimmed and bound. I am excited to have this quilt for Christmas this year, finally after years of waiting!
This quilt is backed with some nice flannel to make it nice and cozy in the cold Canadian winters!
This is my second finish for the third quarter of the 2014 Finish along (original list here).
Quilt Stats:
Size: 54″ x 63″
Fabric: Santa’s Little Helper (Moda)
Backing: Funky Monkey Flannel (moda)
Quilting: Free motion Christmas lights, done on Juki
Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursdays, Lets Be Social, I Quilt Thursdays,
I can’t believe that it has been over a month since I last posted! Things have been a little crazy here for the last few weeks – Little Girl is awake and playing more, we did a road trip to visit family and friends and my Husband managed to break his foot. He is on crutches for about 6 weeks and then a walking boot after that. Poor guy can’t carry Little Girl right now and it takes him much longer to get anything done with the crutches. Needless to say not a lot of sewing has been done here recently.
I have managed to get some things done though. Back in July I offered to organize a block of the month for my local quilt guild. I have been spending time planning blocks, making blocks and writing instructions for those. So far 3 blocks and 1 set of instructions done. I am loving the way that they turning out and can’t wait to get working on the rest of the blocks.
Also before the broken foot incident I told a friend I would make a quilt for her for a baby shower. I picked up this cute pattern at Sew Fresh Quilts and love the quilt. Thankfully it comes together fairly easily so I am able to get some put together during Little Girl’s naps. I can’t wait to see it finished and may just have to make another one for Little Girl!
Well, I am trying to make 2014 the year for getting some projects finished – my sewing room has become smaller, so I just won’t have the room for all my unfinished projects, nor the time I used to have to dedicate to them! In an effort to keep working on projects and holding myself accountable for finishing them, I am joining in the Finish Along again! I only completed about 1/2 my list last year, but that was better than finishing nothing and starting a bunch of new ones!
So for this quarter I have a couple of leftover projects and some new ones.
1. Hexagon pillow – I started this pillow over the summer and only have 8 more hexagons that have to be attached, then quilted to make the pillow cover. As I am supposed to being doing a small demo on English Paper Piecing at my Quilt Guild Meeting in February I am hoping to have this mostly done to show as part of the demo (adding borders, removing paper, ect).
2. Star Pillow – I need to get a pillow cover finished for this so it can go down on the reading bench to lean against! My husband was nice enough to custom build the bench, so now I just need to finish up the pillows!
3. The baby Textures quilt – this still needs to be quilted and finished. It has no real recipient, but it would be nice to be able to put it in the finished pile (and to have on hand for a last minute present, the number of people I know having kids seems to grow each week!).
4. Mom’s Pillow – After some renos last year, she is need of a pillow for some new furniture. I am thinking a nice dresdren plate pillow would look great with the other grey and yellow flowers she has going on in the room.
5. Mystery Quilt – I made this quilt with the local guild this year and need to get it basted, quilted and bound. I am hoping to use it as a Christmas present.
6. Star quilt – this is all nicely bound, it just needsto be quilted, in which case I need to pick a pattern to quilt it with.
7. Star of Bears – This quilt needs to be done in the next couple of weeks as the baby this is a present for is due Aug 5th!
8. Christmas Monkeys – this poor quilt keeps getting pushed behind other projects at every stage. All that is left at this point is to bind it and remove all the basting pins!
That seems like a good list with a new baby in the house!
One more baby quilt top done! I feel like I am finally getting some things accomplished in the sewing room these days, which is good as the deadlines (and due dates) are quickly approaching.
I am making this quilt for a cooworker of my Mother’s. The soon to be Mom grew up with the Berenstain Bears, so what better fabric to pick then Moda’s Welcome To Bear Country! I happened to have a couple charm packs around still and found this great pattern on the Moda Bake Shop. It came together quickly in a single afternoon!
I now have the quilt basted and am going to have start quilting it as soon as I can figure out what I am going to do. I am thinking of trying out some stippling with loops or possibly some swirls.
I am working at finishing up the top for the mystery quilt that I am doing with my local Modern Quilt Guild. I have now finished all the individual blocks and am getting ready to put them together! I can’t wait to see how this all comes together!
I have also started cutting into my Micheal Miller Fabric for the Modern Quilt Guild fabric challenge. It is such pretty fabric that it took a bit for me to be able to cut into it, but I am liking how the design is coming together. This is the next quilt on my “must finish soon” list as the contest ends June 23, yikes!
It feels so good to be back in the sewing room (and no longer marking exams!). I have a few projects that I am not juggling as the deadlines are all coming up fast – one of these babies needs to be done in a little over a week for pick up and delivery to an expecting Mom in early May! Apparently I know a lot of people having babies right now, so there are going to be a few baby quilts in my future.
First I am working on yet another Dr. Seuss quilt. This time I am using a pattern from Jaybird Quilts – with my brain still a little tired from marking the last couple months, I wanted something easy with directions to follow! I just finished basting this quilt, and have been starting at it for a day or so trying to decide what quilting to do on it (I have not been able to get a decent picture of the top due to the sewing room still being a disaster – not sure how I am getting anything done in there). Due to timeline, I am thinking an all over stipple might be the way to go, but was debating using the interlocking squares like I did on the Seuss Pods quilt. Oh the decisions!
Next on the list of projects to get done in the next week or two is another baby quilt – this time a grey and yellow quilt using the Breezy pattern from the book Growing up Modern. I fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw the book and couldn’t wait to make one!
I am hoping to get one of these moved into the finished category soon, so I can move onto the third baby quilt that I need to have made this summer and get caught up on my Quilt Guilds Mystery quilt (I am only 2.5 clues behind, lol). Hopefully posting this and linking up to Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation will keep me on track and motivated this weekend! There are some great projects being worked on linked up this week!
So 2013 has finished (well that was a few days ago actually….) and sadly I was not able to finish all the things on my list. Christmas, travel and life seemed to take over all that free time I thought I was going to have once exams were finished.
I was able to get 3 finishes check off the list:
The mug rugs were finished and sent off with my friend on her Christmas travels
The Seuss Stars quilt was finished 2 weeks before the baby was born and able to be gifted to my coworker before she left work for the holidays (she ended up having a little girl on Christmas Day!).
The Pods of Seuss was finally finished as well and while it is at the house still, I know of a little baby on the way that I have in mind for this one as well now.
While the Christmas Monkey quilt was not finished this during 2013, it is basted and now 1/3 of the way quilted. It took me forever to decide how to quilt it – I don’t want to know how many days I sat and starred at this quilt trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it and drawing out sketches. I am happy with what I have picked – now I just have to finish it!
During the entire year of 2013 I was able to finish a total of 11 quilts! I am happy with this as the fall turned out to be way busier than I had expected. Not included in that count is all the other projects I worked on during the year, including a Quilt Bee (more on that later), a few rounds of the Scrappy Trip Along swap, a few pillow covers, mug rugs and pin cushions, finished quilt tops and started quilt tops that are sitting in various states of “in progress”. All in all 2013 was a great year and I am looking forward to an exciting 2014!
Miss Muffet Quilts 