January's NEW FO

A Challenge over at Cat Patches to start something new each month is something I'm trying again this year.  Last year I didn't get many entries, but this year it's on my monthly check sheet!  I'll see how well I can do.

Monday, my sister called me and asked if I had any quilts that were 41 x 42 for her to use as window coverings to block out the light.  I have a quilt that is done that I can send and it's a bit longer, but she said that would work.  Last night I cut strings for another.  I was going to do a different kind of block, but, I ended up doing my favorite "go to" block when I'm in a hurry.  So far I have the center piece done for this quilt now--just need to sew it together, add a border or two and then quilt it.

 

It looks like I'm going to have to devote a day or two to some quilting!  

This is a top from New Years Day Sewing:

 And Saturday I started a Rainbow Challenge to use up scraps.  I finished the center of the top yesterday.  I have some pale pink Kona that I think I'll use as a border.

Then I have the one thing that I finished and originally thought was my only NewFO for January. 

 With all the snow and the horrible air quality here in Utah, I've stayed in and sewed quite a bit.  The air has cleared and I think I'll do some badly needed grocery shopping this afternoon.

Go to NewFO Challenge HERE

Finish Friday Link Here 

Another Snow Day! Oh, I'm Having Sew Much Fun!

More snow today!  It is really piling up.  I haven't seen this much snow since I visited Buffalo, NY in the 60's!

The other day as I went through all my binding cut off corners, I made stars.  Yesterday, while making a doll quilt, I found the cutest fabric and decided to cut it into 6.5 inch squares.  This morning I thought to myself--I think I have the beginnings of another quilt.   YEP!  Sure do!

 

A close up:

I love these wonky stars!  I have so much fun sprinkling them through quilts.  They seem to have my own personality in them!

SEW--back to the sewing table!

 

Repurposed Already!

In its short lifespan of a couple of weeks, I've repurposed this little piece twice.  It started out as a table topper for me to practice my quilting motifs, but then I joined the Doll Quilt Swap and thought after visiting with my partner that this piece would be perfect for her.  Yesterday I worked on the quilting and I just wasn't happy with it.  It had a border and after quilting it, I just whacked it off.

Then I decided that it might make a cute little door hanger thingey for my mother-in-law's door at the Assisted Living place that she lives.  The Christmas swag though beautiful and not in a red/green motif has been up through the month of December and January and it was time for a change.  I finished this little piece this morning.

It sways a little on the borders--my fault for now doing something right--probably trimming after adding a border.  It didn't look so crocked until I quilted it.  It doesn't look as crocked in real life as it does in the photo.  I know that she'll still be pleased and won't see the imperfections. I do wonky quilting better than just structured quilting--I keep trying to make it look computerized and I'm just not that good.  Even with more practice I'm not sure I will.  When I try to do small quilting as in the beige border there is quite a strain on my left eye where I had a detached retina surgery.  So, maybe my quilting will be that--wonky and I should just flow with that.  I am really leaning more to free form quilts and modern quilts where my quilting style lends itself quite well.   With my imperfect quilting and wonky lines, it's done and it's used up some fabric that I really liked--the deep purple with the red birds.  I still have quite a bit of that left and I'll find a use for it I'm sure.

This is my finish for NewFO for January.  ...Now what to do for my partner in the Doll Quilt Swap?...

Linking over to Linky Party Tuesday

Pink Isn't Something I Have a Lot Of

This morning while viewing my blog list, I came upon a scrap challenge ScrapHappy and I had this basket of pink/green scraps and decided to make them into some blocks.

About six hours later, I have these wonky log cabins--I say wonky because sometimes my dyslexia gets the most of me and the blocks aren't quite perfect.  So--wonky they are!

 

These are 12 inch blocks and then I have a stack of 20 blocks that I'll need to add to in order to bring them up to size. 

A little come lately to this challenge, but I feel good about what I have done.  I wanted to take a trip to the store and look for some pinks to add to them so that I could finish, but it is so foggy outside that I decided to stay home.

These blocks can either be used in a quilt, or saved for the June Sunshine Lotto which is pink and green and that's why I had this little basket of scraps.

Pretty good for a Saturday don't ya think?!

Doll Quilt Exchange Surely Looks Like Fun!

I just heard from my first swap partner for the Doll Quilt Swap (see side bar).  I'm excited.  I forgot I had a doll!  I had her on top of the small suitcase under the table, but when we were searching for papers I set the doll on the table and put the little quilt I made a year ago under her!

What fun to get a new little quilt to change for the hallway!  This is going to be great fun.

A view of my hall for my swap partner:

I think this is the quilting boost I "sew" badly needed a month ago! 

Looking forward to this.

 

There's Hardly Any Room in my Head for Any More!

It took me awhile to get the fog out of my head from the cold/flu that I had.  I couldn't even begin to think about what to do with the coming year and the projects I wanted to include.  Today, I'm feeling an overload!  It seems like there is more than I can funnel into such a small space!

Over MLK Holiday, we had a grand over for a "sleepover."  She and I had a blast!  We made a carry all:

Post cards for her cousins, but I only have one picture:

These weren't true fabric post cards as we used post cardstock for the back or the address side.  Pink for the girls and red for the boys is how it turned out.

She used my Featherweight and after going over safety and how to start/stop she was let loose to design and this Robot is what she designed and sewed.

before she got up I finished the binding on this little quilt I worked on during January:

 and the backing

So that's two quilts now for Project Linus...and it's still only January.  Now, tomorrow I'll get the blocks off to Sunshine.  Finally got my letter off to the inmate that I write too, so I'm feeling like I've accomplished something today--yeah and even an long phone conversation with my sis.

I got a card ready for a post card swap

This is a true fabric post card with just fabric and it's going to the UK.  I do hope it's okay.  It's my fourth trial run and I decided to finish it up and send it off and work more for next month.  The color looks more yellow than it really is.  It's an ivory fabric probably used in upholstery and I used rayon thread in pink.  I'm not too crazy how the top turned out, but I could spend hours on this and I've got to let go sometime!  

I've got my doll quilt started for sending off in February--see side bar.  I'll show it when it's done.  It started with a spare block in red and I found some fun fabrics.  I was going to use it as a table topper, but it fits the theme for February so well, I'll finish it up for that.  Can't wait to get that done.  I'll be practicing more of my newly learned quilting styles.

We're scrambling for papers for a refi on our house.  Things are looking good and hopefully we can save some of the money that went for interest toward some fun things in 2013!  Getting all the papers together though is like doing tax prep!  UGH!

Quilt Along Fun!

I noticed a cute block on Amy's Creative Side and I decided I wanted to try this one.  It was so easy!

So then I linked on over to Persimmon Dreams for more info and made this log cabin

Sorry they are both a little crooked but they measure 12.5 inches. 

I read about choosing colors for this and decided to go to a lingering fat quarter set I'd purchased a couple of years ago and picked out some colors that would go with the cream colored fabric I found yesterday and off I went.  Go HERE and go to the bottom for selection choice info.  I love Diane's fabric choice, but I'm just starting to get into fabrics like that so I guess I'll go with my "no buy" until I've used up some of my more traditional fabrics.

I added a link to my side bar for easily getting to the "My Favorite Block Quilt Along."

Now I have some HST that I think I'm going to work into Amy's favorite block.  I'll add it later to this post.

A Bright January Finish for a Sunless Day!

The quilt I started Sunday got finished yesterday.  After all my worries, I really quite like it.  Blue and yellow are always bright in a quilt.  Now where to donate.  I think I'll keep it to send to Project Linus--or maybe keep it in my stash for awhile as last year I needed a boys quilt--like really soon!

This is the quilt as I finished it

And then I snapped another picture after it was washed.  The washing does make the quilting seem less irregular.

Some up close pictures of the different motifs I chose

Now, onto another quilting project, but I'll wait a bit before posting.

Hair appointment day!  WhaaHooo!

A cool snapshot DH caught while coming home Tuesday evening just at the right time for this shot.

Linking over to Whoop Whoop 
Linking over to Finished Friday
Linking over to Crazy Mom Quilts 

It's Taking Longer Than I Thought

I started quilting yesterday and thought I'd breeze through it, but it's taken longer than I thought.  I knew I'd need some breaks, but they've been longer than I'd planned. 

My machine is a Bernina 180 and my style is wonky--can't seem to get the control some quilters have, but I'm making progress.

My spirals are especially wonky and I hope they look okay with this very traditional style blocks. 

Getting anxious for the finish.  I love seeing them after they are washed.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

This morning the thermometer showed -3 degrees!  Guess I'll be staying in for another day and getting some sewing done! 

We did venture out yesterday to have lunch.  The sun was shining but it was deceptive--it was still cold.  The other morning we woke up to this

 and this

DH has the snow cleared now but the street we live on is still snow packed.  I don't dare take my little car out, as it really needs some new tires.  (sigh)  Thank goodness we have a SUV and hubby has offered to take his jeep to the gym so I can take the SUV to the swim center.  Trouble is, it's just so cold that it's hard for me to breathe that cold air and walk from the parking to the center--so I think I'll either wait for it to warm a bit or just skip today!  

Before the storm hit, I made it to Walmart and bought some little baskets for my newest idea on sorting.  I've had my scraps in a plastic drawer with the darker subdued tones toward the front and the brights toward the back.  When it gets full I just make crumb blocks.  But, I'm going to try something a bit different so I began sorting my scraps into colors--I know a little come lately here, but I'm doing it...:)

I found scraps tucked in many places and they look fuller today, so I may start sewing on them today.

What started all this is my quest for yellow and blue for the Sunshine Quilt Group monthly lotto.  The colors for January are blue and yellow.  I found quite a few 6.5 inch squares of some blue alphabet letters that I've had for some time and decided I'd use it up.

Plenty of the brighter blue and yellow 3.5 strips so I just cut those into squares.  

I also had some pale blue and brown fabric left from my youngest grandson's baby quilt (he's now 3) and I decided it was finally time to use up those spare pieces and strips into a quilt.

 I had enough of that to make a small quilt and enough left over to go into a second quilt.  I "stole" four lotto blocks and ended up with another quilt.

 With some creative use of the pieces I was lucky to get the two quilts.  This pictures just don't do justice to them, so I'll quilt them before I post any pictures.  There's lots of free space on these to practice some of my newly learned quilting techniques and I think I'll break free from piecing today and get started on that.  

I've been a bit lax on blogging lately!  It just seems that winter and the flu sucked a lot more out of me than I thought.  For sure, I'm not a snow enthusiast, but be that as it is the snow was badly needed here and I'm just glad we got MIL into a care facility under one roof so that she doesn't have to walk in the snow!

Happy sewing this week!

2013 is Here! Happy New Year!

The holiday "blur" left my head this morning.  I've been feeling so under the weather for 2 weeks that the thought of even posting was out of the question.  This morning the fog lifted--quit drinking the mushroom tea that was supposed to be great for my flu and took a teaspoon of B-12 instead and drank my usual coffee.  It seemed like my head cleared and I'm getting back to my former form!  So much for what's supposed to be good--well my sis can take it all she wants, but I think I'll politely decline!

I did get a set of quilts to the Project Linus deposit place here in Northern Utah:

I had some fabric that I purchased at the beginning of 2012.  It was such a bargain, but after I got it here, I wasn't too enthralled.  I threw it in a drawer and it happened to be next to a blue that I wasn't too fond of either--so much for some online shopping.

When I was cutting fabrics earlier in November, I found this book and thought of that fabric:

  The pattern called for three coordinating colors and I had on hand some gold and barely enough bubblegum pink.  After I sewed the top, I noticed that Judy advised using a blended fabric rather than a solid--oh well, too late, it was sewn.  

This is a bigger view of the fabric:

 

the quilt ended up looking like this and I may add a border at the bottom and the top before I sandwich it for quilting.

As New Year's Day approached, I decided to use purple strings for a center and try using up some wide assortments of strings.  I think I still have enough for one more, but my drawer holding these is now very much under control.  (Happy New Year to self!)

  So friends, that's all from my little corner of the world.  Still talking a lot with my sis until she goes back from Utah to Georgia for work.  It's a time I look forward to and a time she connects with something other than the small town minutia that pervades my mom's existence.  Gotta have someone to bounce all that stuff off---so she calls me and we laugh!

Happy Sewing!