A Lovely Year of Finishes - January

I hopped on board A Lovely Year of Finishes again this year.  I loved having that extra push to finish up projects.  This month I chose to finish up a triangle dinosaur quilt that I had been putting off forever.  I had the fabrics sitting in a pile since the summer and just never got around it it.  I chopped them up finally at the end of December.

January Goal

So at the beginning of the month I sat down and finished up this quilt top and even a second top just because... I mean I had the fabrics already and why not make two when it is so easy as this one.  A good back up for anther baby.  (Which has already been claimed)

I quilted this with simple straight lines, just a presser foot width from the seam lines.  It adds such a fun pattern to the quilt.

It is bound with a fun stripe that complements the colors on the front.

I pulled a fun red chevron for the back.

The quilting looks pretty cool on it, too.  it is kinda busy, but that's ok with me.

Tumbling Dinosaurs
31" x  36"
Cotton Fabrics
Pellon 80/20 blend batting

January... gone so fast

Wow, it is hard to believe that January is already almost over.  I feel like new years was just yesterday!  This month is just flying by.

I haven't done as much sewing this month as I had planned, but I hope to catch up as soon as I feel up to it.

I spent new years this year with a couple friends.  It was very low key, which is totally fine with me.  Sewing and talking... my kind of celebration.  I worked on my Tula Pink blocks from her book 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.

Kayce was learning how to use her little machine so she played with scraps until she felt comfortable and then dove into some I-spy blocks making a burp cloth for Orion.

 I seriously just love this picture of her looking through the throat space on my machine.

And because I have a new years tradition, my 2014 toes in the salt water and sand pic... that water so very cold on my toes.  It was dark because I couldn't get to the little beach earlier in the day so I had to make it lighter, not the best quality, but that is ok.  

I am looking forward to 2014.  So many great things are planned for this year.  Lets hope everything all falls into place to reach my goals.  

Project Quilting Challenge 1 - Strings

It't that time again, time for another season of Project Quilting!  I have been looking forward to this fo so long!!

The first challenge for season 5 is String Along With Me.  I love the look of string quilts and even made a string pillowcase as a challenge project last year.

I had a stack of fabrics sitting on my cut space from a bee block so I decided to stick with that color pallet and jumped right in.  I cut 1.5" and 2" strips off of 15 different fabrics and went to town randomly sewing them together, making sure only not to put two of the same fabrics next to each other.  I chopped up my sewn strips and then made a layout that was a little different than the traditional string quilt.

The quilt was then quilted with a checkered pattern, following the diagonals of the blocks, except the diamond which was just outlined.  It is then bound with a fun grey stripe (that is actually a Christmas print, but I love it!)

The backing a a fun green and blue polka-dot from my stash.  I am making a goal to make all my PQ challenge projects from my stash.

Modern Strings
52" x 52"
Cotton batting
mixture of prints from my stash.
Made in Lanoka Harbor, NJ

Pillowcases and a sham

For Christmas I made the boys, my nephews, a few pillowcases.  Matt had been asking for a space pillow since I gave him his space quilt for Christmas last year.  So for him I made two pillowcases and a pillow sham that all match his quilt.

For Chris I stuck with the superhero theme.  He love Superman so I made him a Superman pillowcase.  

And, he recently has become excited about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... talk about throwback!  I was able to get some fabric and make him a TMNT pillowcase with a blue accent for Leonardo, his favorite.  

These were super easy and fast to make, gotta love gifts like that!

Cindy's Tree Skirt

Yay, the last tree skirt for this year is done!  After I finished up the two tree skirts, Glamorous and Black and White, my sister decided that she wanted a tree skirt for Christmas.  I made my mom and other sister tree skirts last year so it was only fair that she got one, too.  Cindy is particular so I let her pick the fabrics that she wanted in her tree skirt.  From there we decided that she wanted circles on it, like I did my mom's, with reverse applique.  Cindy chose 12 fabrics so no fabric would be repeated in the wedges so I decided that no fabric should be repeated in the balls either.  So glad I joined in a few swaps of Christmas charms the past few years and have a ton of Christmas scraps in my stash.

The balls look great, they are just a lot of work when putting them on each and every wedge.  They each have either one, two, or three balls on each wedge.  They are all different sizes and all specially selected to match each wedge of the quilt perfectly.

This tree skirt is just a bit smaller than the others at 52" in diameter.  Cindy requested it be a bit smaller to fit her space better.  I did that by marking my template just 4 inches smaller so I cut the fabrics smaller to start with.

I think it looks perfect under her tree, it finishes the look.

My mom made her the angel that is on the tree.

I am done with tree skirts for the year, thank goodness.  Now to try and finish up the rest of the items on my to-do list that need to be done before Christmas.

Black and White Tree Skirt

After I finished the Glamorous Tree Skirt I jumped right into another tree skirt that I was asked to make.  The colors I was given to work with were black and white with a touch of silver, grey, gold, green, and red.  I was nervous that this skirt was going to turn out way too dark, but I don't think it did at all.

Using silver machine embroidery thread and doodled free motion snowflakes on the skirt.  Some were free hand and some I traced over the snowflakes on the fabrics.

It is backed with a great deep red that is perfect for the Christmas tree skirt.  This skirt has a 60" diameter so it is nice a large for those perfectly round trees.

I am on a tree skirt roll.  I have one more that I will be sharing soon!

Glamorous Tree Skirt

I have been doing a lot of sewing lately.  I was asked to make a few tree skirts and a few quilts this holiday season.  I tried to get a jump start on the projects in October since I was having surgery at the end of the month and knew that November was going to be a rough month for basting or moving or doing just about anything.

One of the items I was asked to make was a "glamorous" tree skirt.  She asked for rich colors with gold.  

I chose a selection of 6 fabrics, some from my stash and some new, that were the rich golden colors that she wanted.  I used the same pattern that I used for my mom's tree skirt last year that I made.  So glad that I knew exactly where that template was.

I quilted designs into each of the 12 sections before I assembled the skirt, which made it so much easier to maneuver through my machine, using gold thread to add to the sparkle. Once all the pieces were together I machine bound the skirt with a bis binding.

This tree skirt finished with a 60" diameter.

When I delivered the tree skirt she was so very happy.  She inspected each quilted section.  So happy to have one of many projects completed.