Quilter in the Gap 2012 Finish-a-long: Quarter 1

Quilter in the Gap is hosting a "finish-a-long" all year in 2012. This is a great idea for me, since I've apparently turned into a chronic "project starter and abandoner" since I've started sewing.

Oops.

That being said, here's my pre-first-quarter goal list! 

1: T's ticker-tape quilt: This one was supposed to be finished for Christmas, but I got a bit burned out. I'm about 1/3 of the way through attaching the ticker tapes, so I'm pledging to finish those, square it, bind it, and wash it! Finished and gifted - read about it here!

2. K's hexagon quilt: One of the first quilts I started, but definitely not the first one I finished. Oops. Also something that was supposed to be done for Christmas. I'm also about 1/3 of the way finished quilting this one (stitch-in-the-ditch around the hexies), so I will finish quilting it, square it, bind it, and wash it!

3. This extra quilt top: This one was initially the other half of this quilt top. I made it from scraps rather than a proper jelly roll, so I had no idea how many strips to use. I ended up cutting the top in half, and have had this top sitting around since last July. I've got some cutesy pink flannel to pack it wish, so this quarter I'll baste it, quilt it, square it, bind it, and wash it.- FINISHED! Read about the finished project here.

4. Kindle Fire cover: My super duper amazing hubby gave me a Kindle Fire for Christmas (!!!!!), and I found a cute tutorial for making a cover for it. This quarter I'll make it, I promise! I've got this fabric for it - I've had it in the stash for a while (a remnant from Joann), and I think this will be a great project for it. The same coworker who received the other half of UFO 3 told me he wants to see it when I'm done - sounds like I might have a customer? ;) ((This one isn't started yet, so it technically isn't a UFO, but I plan to do it anyway!))

5. Drawstring bag for D: When I was at Joann on black Friday stocking up on flannel for this year, I found this weenie dog flannel with a bright green background. My boss LOVES these critters (she's got three!) so I bought half a yard and am planning to make a drawstring bag for her, since she refuses to carry a purse. Her birthday's in February, so it's a priority!(Another that isn't yet started, so it won't count, but it's still a to-do). (Yeah this ended horribly, and by that I mean in the trash. Bleck.)

6. Another jelly roll race style quilt, because they're quick and easy and I like them! The mother of T and K, who will be receiving UFO 1 and 2, deserves a quilt of her own. I've had these fabrics picked out and cut into strips for a while, so this quarter I'll sew 'em all together, finish the top, find something to back it, baste it, quilt it, square it, bind it, AND wash it!

Alrighty, there ya go! I've got a TON of other things in my head (and on my desk, and in my fabric closet, and on my fabric shelves...), but these are the ones I WILL finish by the end of March!

Christmas Quilt #2

Hi everyone! It's been a few weeks since I've linked up with the Small Blog Meet over at Lily's Quilts - I just baaaaarely qualify for it anymore, since as of this writing I'm at 48! Hopefully we can push it over the top this week, huh?

Well I haven't made one of those fancy collages everyone's making, since I'm still doing recaps of everything I made for Christmas. I managed to gift FIVE quilts for Christmas this year, which I think is pretty darn good considering I only started sewing in November 2010.

This jelly roll race-style quilt went to my father-in-law and his wife. My husband assured me they would like the colors, and indeed they did. :)

I really love some of the prints - the little birds, the dots... the large dot print in the top right? Some of the red dots are actually lady bugs. :)

I backed it with brown flannel - I love how snuggly it makes quilts.

I zig-zagged the quilting, stitch-in-the-ditch. The actual quilting part is my least favorite of any quilt project, I must admit.

All wrapped up and ready for gifting. I'm not sure the kitty cat, Wrench, was particularly impressed with this one. She does have a habit of sleeping on my unfinished quilts, though. :)

You can see another quilt I made for Christmas here, some placemats I made here, and look forward to reading about the other three over the course of the week!

Christmas Quilt #1

At some point over the summer, likely at a family gathering, my sister-in-law mentioned that she'd love to have a quilt. Well, of course she would, who wouldn't want something great that we make, right?? ;)

Anyway, she said she likes red, and she always wears black, and not too long after this conversation, Joann put a bunch of red/white/black/blue fabrics on their red-tag shelf.

I love the jelly roll race quilt style, so this was the first one I made for Christmas this year:

It's backed with black flannel, quilted with red thread in the ditch and with red for the zig-zag machine binding that I did.

This quilt is also an amazing testimony to the power of Shout Color Catchers. See that red, with the white? I threw in two of the Color Catchers and the red didn't run at all. Whoa! Love those things!

So there you have it. Quilt number one for Christmas this year :)

Placemats

Now that Christmas is over I can officially begin the string of "This is what I made for people!" posts, right? Everyone else is doing it, so here's number one for me!

This is really my first year of having any sort of skill whatsoever as a sewist, since I only bought my first machine last November on Black Friday (yes, I've already upgraded!). I'm terrible at gift-giving, and I'll be the first to admit it (see? I just did!) so one day I announced to my coworkers, "Y'all are getting placemats. What colors do you want?"

One lady picked red and black, but then decided she wanted something that would contrast better with her dark wood table. This is what I came up with for her:

Flying geese blocks, with bright happy stripes. They accidentally ended up going in two different directions, so this is who they ended up. They're a set of four - one with the blue stripes and dots, one with the blue stripes and asterisks, and one with purple stripes/dots and one with purple stripes/asterisks. Backed in black, quilted in the ditch and zig-zag machine bound with contrasting white thread. Gray binding left over from finishing our quilt.

Lady 2 asked for "forest colors," and I know from her previous ownership of a yellow SUV that she likes brights, so this is how hers ended up:

I think to have followed the design "properly" the center block should have been yellow, but I picked green instead. Oops? Anyway, the brown prints were all different on each of the four. I was pretty proud that the directional print on the top one ended up all going in the same direction! They were quilted with white, just around some of the squares. The backing fabric was something I had picked up at Joann's and realized I was never going to use - the placemats' recipient liked it, though, because she decided it was kind of Hawaiian, and her family owned a condo there for quite a while. Hooray!

Third coworker said she liked pastels, so here are hers:

These were called some kind of signature block that I found online someplace. The purples are all different on the four of them. The way I put the blocks together formed a pinwheel in the middle of them, which was unplanned but turned out pretty cool! They were backed with something else that was equally floral/pastelly. I quilted them around the inside and outside of the "O" in the middle, so the "O" is reflected on the back, too!

The day I was finally able to finish them, it took me NINE HOURS to get them done. I think I put probably 20 hours in, total for the 12 placemats.

NEVER AGAIN!

Next year, I'm thinking small zippered pouches!

Hoarding...I mean Stashing

Okay so I've gotten a little carried away lately, hoarding stashing fabric. I'm a grown-up, so Christmas presents to myself are completely justified, right?

 

 All either red-tags or remnants from Joann

 

 With a gift card I got from work, I went a little crazy on Amazon. The Little Apples I already had, but I got some Hometown, Circa 1934, Sherbet Pips, Pezzy Prints, and some So Sophie.

Not really stashing, but these squares were from a swap - I look forward to using them for a billboard quilt for our guest bedroom that says "ENJOY YOUR STAY!"

More Joann fabric.

Some Joann fabric, as well as some Michael Miller prints - a yard each of It's a Girl Thing, Bloom Zoology and The Brady Bunch, Jan Turquoise - and a couple charm packs of Reunion.

Okay, yup, maybe a little overboard. But I've got a lot of projects in my head!

How was YOUR fabric Christmas??? :)

Fat Quarter Shop Blogger's Choice Bundle Giveaway

So Quokka Quilts is hosting a super awesome giveaway that I just HAD to get in on. The Fat Quarter Shop has these great "blogger's choice" bundles, were some superstars of the blogging quilter world have chosen 12 of their favorite prints and 3 coordinating solids, and you can buy fat quarter bundles of those custom bundles from FQS.

The giveaway? You choose 12 prints, 3 solids, and get a chance to win your own blogger's choice bundles - but instead of the fat quarter size, you have a chance to win half yard cuts!

So, here's my entry - prints chosen just because they made me feel happy and girly, and because there's no way my husband would want to steal a quilt made from these! ;)

Top Left:  Dazzle Magenta Basketweave

Top Right: Echo Purple Lina

Bottom Left: Palladium Gray Chevron

Bottom Right: Power Pop Cornflower Big Star

Top Left: Bazaar Style Night Moroccan Street

Top Right: Bespoken Aqua Stitchery

Bottom Left: Calypso Swing Pink Soulful

Bottom Right: Calypso Swing Gray Rhythmic Toss

Top Left: Terrain Mist Leaves

Top Right: Cape Ann Cotton Atlantic Blue Folly Cove Dots

Bottom Left: Amelia Cotton Playful Purple Basket Weave

Bottom Right: Tuxedo Collection Gray Stripes

And for my solids:

Top Left: Bella Solids, Tranquil Aqua

Top Right: Bella Solids, Silver

Bottom Left: Bella Solids, Horizon Blue

Okie dokie! There's THIS blogger's choice for a bundle - wish me luck!

books 50 and 51 and 52

I've finished a few books since I posted about them last:

#50, Amy and Isabelle: A Novel, by Elizabeth Strout

#51, Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger

and #52, Monday Mourning, by Kathy Reichs

It is the third one (and my "you've hit your 52 book goal!" book!) that reminded me why I love reading so much. I literally read that book yesterday. As in, the entire thing (okay, all but 10 pages, which I'd read a few days prior), cover to cover. There were parts I was able to skim - thanks to my husband's pursuit of forensic anthropology/entomology as a career, I'm familiar with things like stable isotope analysis - but my word. What a great book.

The thing I loved about it was the surprises - and not always ones that are super relevant to the main plot lines. Like mentions of places I've been to, and seen. For some reason it made me giggle out loud, even though it was in a not-so-hot context. I also enjoyed reading something and saying to Jeff, "Where's the mandibular condyle?" and having him point to it on his own face without bothering to ask why. Reading is generally a solo activity, but reading the Reichs books makes me feel closer to what Jeff does, or hopes to do, anyway.

So there you have it. 52 books in slightly less than 52 weeks! Somehow I packed them all in with my sewing and our home improving. I think my goal for next year will be about the same - I don't manage to sprint through every book like I did that one, so a book a week is right for me. :)