Merry Christmas and a couple finishes.

Wow, can't believe that Christmas has come and gone.  It flew by this year.  Although I was sewing until the last minute and the fact that I had to move from my sewing room (the spare room) a day early do to something deciding to die in my sister's wall of her house (YUCK!), I was able to finish (almost) all the gifts I had planned.

I made the superhero capes for Chris and puppy.  With freezer paper I made stencils and painted the Superman symbol on both.  (I read this tutorial quite a few times, thanks Polly!) They were a hit!  Oh and they are reversible with black on the back for Batman.

Superman/Super-Construction-Man and Super Puppy

I was able to finish Katie's iPad case to go with her tree skirt.  I was quick and simple, using just one batik print from my stash that looked like something that she would pick.  A quick free motion doodle in the plain black parts and I was done.  She loved it, it fits perfectly in her bag.  And she loved her tree skirt, too.

Cindy loved her apron and matching towels and her Christmas towels, too. (I made mom Christmas towels, too)

Cindy's towels, matching apron, and Mom's towels
(I forgot to get a picture of Cindy's Christmas ones :( )

I did get mom's tree skirt done, but I need to wait until the living room is all cleaned up to get a picture.

And Matt loved his space quilt, but that will get a post all its own.  I love that thing!

It was a great Christmas this year.  Crazy it is over already.  Looking forward to an even better New Year!

Christmas 2012

100 Day Hustle Update

Do you hear the clock ticking...tick tock, like the crocodile from Peter Pan.  Christmas and the end of the year are almost here and I am still working to check off as much on the list as I possibly can.

1. Complete horse show ribbon quilt. - Done! (And sent back to VA)

2. Haunted house mini quilt - Done!

3. T-shirt quilt - Done! (Wohoo!)

4. Matt's space quilt -  Well on its way!  I am quilting it right now :)

5. Mom's blue quilt.  Chopped up a ton of blued into 2.5 inch squares.  Sorry Mom, this will be a project for the new year.  

6. Finish Mom's hand stitched pillows. - They are at the top of the blue pile now instead of the bottom. 

7. Work on my kayak quilt design. - And it still sits waiting... still waiting... not happening til after Christmas. 

8. Patchwork chevron with Lucy's Crab Shack - Nope - this is now a next year project. 

9. Christmas charm quilt - Tree skirt for mom... done!  Post coming soon.  

10. Quilt for Aunt Carol for Christmas. - She wants blue, thinking string quilt, but it must get done since I made one for Aunt Viola and will never hear the end of it (haha).  Ahh... not started... I think I have until the 28th to get it done.  

11. Christmas things for my two sisters
      Katie -
            Tree skirt - done!
             iPad case - not started (This might end up as a birthday gift since it is January 1)
             Table runner - fabrics picked
     Cindy - 
            Apron - fabrics picked
            Edged towels - towels bought, fabrics picked, need to finish

12.  Superhero capes for Christoper and puppy (his favorite stuffed animal).  This one is new, but very necessary.  He just turned 3 and loves superheros so he will get a Superman Cape with one for puppy as Kripto (I had no idea Superman had a dog but he does in the book) and he will get a Batman cape with a Robin cape for puppy.    

And the other additions...

Joined the scrappy stash quilt along... stalled with 20 blocks competed

Finished baby strip quilt for fun.
Whipped up some mini granny square pin cushions.  

Gave Aunt Viola a hug with Aunt Viola's Flower Garden quilt  

Created "Chasing Rain" baby quilt.

Joined the Scrappy Swap (post coming soon)
Joined the postage stamp swap at Curious Quilter.
Made and donated 3 baby quilts to the church for hurricane Sandy victims.
Finished 2 quilts for my sis as gifts for someone else.. (DONE!)
Floor pillows for my nephews for Christmas.  Ummm... this may wait.  

Oh and I need to make a baby quilt to send to a friend in Germany!  She is expecting and we don't think it is a boy anymore (haha).
Oh and I now have 2 Christmas table runners to finish...

Well, here goes to finishing as strongly as possible.  

Calvin and Henry's quilts... take 2

Wow, I have been sewing like made lately trying to finish up everything I have planned.  I know things will be cut, but that doesn't mean I won't try to get done all I can.  My sister, Cindy asked me a while back to make her two quilts for a friend.  She was very specific of what she wanted for colors and patterns.
I came across Riley Blake Fox Trails on sale on Craftsy and immediately snatched up a fat quarter pack.  Then I saw Classic Jurassic on sale at Fat Quarter Shop and thought wohoo, so I go that, too.  Two boys, two fabric bundles, well on my way to getting it done.  Or so I thought... Cindy only wanted parts of the bundles and she didn't want the primary colors of the Classic Jurassic so I edited my fabrics and added some Color Weave by PB textiles (I love the linen look of those fabrics).  On my way again... well... my first quilt top she did not like at all. (She said she wanted a quilt, a regular quilt... ugh!)  I have plans for fun quilting on this, but it will wait until I have time now.

Sorry for the cell phone pic.

So I went back to the drawing board and came up with these tops.  Of course that was after spending two days being cranky about her objection to the circle top I created.  I decided on a simple subway tile pattern.  

Calvin's Quilt

Calvin is 2 and he loves dinosaurs.  She got him a book and a stuffed dinosaur to go with the quilt.  I can see him yelling. "dinosaur... arrrrr!".  His quilt measures 42"x 48".

 Henry is 6 months and is just a little cutie.  He watches everything and takes it in like a little old man so the argyle and plaid match his personality.  His quilt measures 36" x 42".

Henry's Quilt

A strip down the back and some straight line quilting finish the quilts.  The boys share a room so I wanted them to match, but be special just for each of them.  

Cindy is very happy with Calvin and Henry's quilts take 2.  Thanks goodness because there would not have been a take 3.  Another thing off my 100 Day Hustle list.

I will be linking up this week to Linky Party Tuesday at Freemotion by the River and to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

The Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned before, but I recently joined a modern quilt guild.  It is the Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild.  We are a brand new group and it is such a fun group of girls to hang with once a month.  We have met a few times and are setting up the organization, I am looking forward to all the things that we will do as a group.

We did our first swap of fat quarters during our first meeting and at this one we swapped pot holders that we made with the fat quarters.

My pot holders I brought... I forgot to take a group one.  

  And of course we shared our projects...

 

Me showing the 3D quilt, they got to see it with the glasses! 

Shannon showing her modern log cabin.

Bonnie with her Christmas Weave quilt. 

and her tree wall hanging... love those!

Diane showing off her Christmas tree... it sparkles!

Michelle is working on hand applique and
embroidery.  

We all loved them! 

And we are also doing a quilt for Quilt Con.  We received our set of blocks last month so as a group we decided to make some more blocks and add them to the quilt.  Mom and I made our and brought them with us.  Well that is, I made mine and mom designed hers and I sewed it for her.

Mine... love those curves.

Mom's... her Hawaiian islands.  (She just came back
from vacation)

Love this group and can't wait to see what the new year will bring

And the Winner is...

Wow, so many great comments to read!  And yay for new followers!  thanks so much to everyone for participating.  It was interesting to read the reasons for using and not using batiks.  It is clearly a love or hate type of fabrics.  I love them, have for years.  The back of my tetris quilt is made entirely of batiks so when I feel like it I just flip it and use the other side.

Well, on to what everyone is waiting for, the winner of my giveaway is...

Congratulations to...
NinjaEema

I love batiks. I have a friend with a boho flair, and whenever I make gifts for her or her kids, I go with batiks.

I will be emailing you shortly.  

Thanks to everyone!  I am thinking maybe another giveaway in the new year on my 1 year blog-iversary.  Crazy to think that it will be coming up in less than a month!  

On a roll...

This has been a busy week for me.  I had a few days of the house to myself so I have taken advantage of the quiet time and sewed as much as possible.  I also threw in a little marmalade making.  I am on a crafty roll here.

One big project that I put a huge dent in is Matthew's Christmas present.  I am making him a space quilt using all different space fabrics cut into triangles.

 I had just a bit done the other night, just grabbing them and randomly piecing until I decided I needed to lay it out to make sure there were going to be no pieces touching.

So now this is what I am up to, the bottom 6 rows are all together and I just need to attach the top 5.  Wohoo, I am on my way.

 Of course then comes the basting and quilting, which takes forever, but it will be worth it.  Oh, did I mention that I bought the 3-d space fabric by Hoffman California?  That is the only new fabric that I bought for this quilt (the rest was stash).  It looks cool with the 3-d glasses and some of the other fabrics have the same look.  I am wondering if it has to do with the shading.

I think I got a little carried away with the size on it, well miscalculated.  I meant for it to be about 66 to 68" wide (perfect for a twin), but right now it is measuring around 74".  I know I will be trimming it down and it will shrink a little, but oops.  Well, it will just hang a little longer and make a great quilt to build forts with.

Off to do some more sewing.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

So I am a little late to the party, but I decided to participate in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day (week).  I hope you stick around and take a look at my fun projects.

I have an obsession with little tiny squares and have used them in all different projects like my Tetris Quilt.

Or the baby quilt I made for an amazing friend's little girl...

So I have decided to give away 50 2.5" assorted charm squares to share in my love of those tiny squares with someone else.  

In order to enter my little giveaway I have a question for you to answer... 

Do you like to sew with batiks?  If you don't, why not?

I would love it if you became a follower, but it is not required to win.  

Thanks for entering!  I will ship internationally.  Just make sure I can contact you.  I will close comments and pick a winner on Friday, Dec 7 at 5pm.

Thanks for stopping by!