Cobblestones Finished

I finished the binding on this one today and will take it to Jeni at work tomorrow. I hope she likes it.
The 1st photo is Dan being silly, when I asked him to hold the quilt for a picture. I'm sure he won't be expecting to see this on my blog.....Serves him right huh!





This is my 4th finish for the month of January and although I haven't used a huge quantity of fabric, it still feels good to get some projects done. I haven't done a stashbusting report in 2 weeks and have only used 1/2 yard, so I'm not doing one this week either. I'll catch up next week when I have something to report.

This week I need to quilt a baby quilt for a friend that is due in less than 3 weeks. It's her 3rd baby and I know she's hoping for a girl this time, but I think it's another boy.

I Got Some Quilting Done!

I quilted Jennifer's table runners using a Hearts Panto, White PermaCore thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting.

Then I loaded the quilt that a local 7th grade class made.



They embroidered the 12 Days of Christmas and then added sashing and borders.



What a great job they did and I hope my quilting did it justice.



So Fine thread in a tan and light green, Hobbs 80/20 batting, meander in the blocks, holly leaves in the sashing, feathers and swirls in the borders.

Don't you just love Quilt Shops?

I sent a letter to some of my favorite quilt shops/suppliers asking for door prize donations for my guilds upcoming quilt camp. The theme is "Spring Break In Hawaii" so most of them have a Hawaiian flair. The retreat is actually taking place in frosty Monticello, Indiana, at a golf resort!

The packages have started arriving and I'm just thrilled with them. I'm sure everyone will go home with a wonderful door prize.



Thanks so much to Back Door Quilts, P&B Textiles, Pellon, Quilts n Koi, Flamingo Island Designs, Cherrywood Fabrics and June Taylor. Your generosity in these economic times is much appreciated.

He's Home!

After a very stressful week of changed arrival dates and times, they arrived on Saturday afternoon....this handsome soldier son of mine, who I couldn't be prouder of has served his country well in Afghanistan for a year and is now back on US soil.

Here's Jeff with his wife, his sister Julie, his dad, and I.

Tap, Tap, Tap!

Waiting patiently....

Update 1/22 8pm.....Still waiting for Jeff's return....

Dottie's Tablerunner

Quite some time ago, Dottie gave me this table runner to do the binding on. It got sort of buried in my UFOs, sorry Dottie.

She was confused with the odd angle of the corners. I finished it while watching TV a couple nights ago.

Off to North Carolina today to welcome my son home from Afghanistan.

Stashbusting 2010 - #3

Only 2 yards this week, wide backing. I still only count it as is. The Cobblestones quilt kit included the binding, so I'm not counting that in or out.

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards (still didn't get my red from Janet)
Fabric Added Year to Date - 1 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 2 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 13.5 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 12.5 yards

Cobblestones and the Giraffe Label

I finished the quilting and stitched the binding on this week. I have it all packed up to work on hand stitching the binding in my spare time in North Carolina. I'm sure that Jeff and Dané will want some time to themselves and this will give me something to do.



The batting is Hobbs 80/20, the thread is Permacore eggshell, and the quilting design is Whirlygig by Jodi Beamish.

And the backing:



Here's the label for the pink giraffe quilt, using the flowers that I forgot to put on the front. I wasn't sure of the baby's middle name, so I filled it in at the shower after she opened it. She was thrilled!

From the Design Wall to...

A Completed Top!
I finished this tonight and hope to get it loaded and quilted this week.

I have a co-worker who is going through a rough time and just moved into a new apartment. I think she may need a comfort quilt and this one is just perfect.

Design Wall Monday

This is what was on my wall when I went to work this morning. After dinner, I plan to add to it and start sewing the rows together. I've said it before and I'll say it again....I have a very hard time with random. What makes this one hard is that I need 5 vertical rows of blocks and I can only fit 4 of them on my design wall. I think I need to make an extension for my design wall.

The pattern is a Fig Tree called Cobblestones.

Pillowcases and Cat Pillows

I pulled 3 pieces of "why did I buy this" fabric today and made some cat pillows, because my threads/scrap basket was overflowing. I was able to fill all three of these with what I had smashed down into one wastebasket.



Then I went in search of something a little more eye-pleasing and made these 3 pillowcases. I'll take them to one of the shops near Indy the next time I'm there for the One Million Pillowcase Challenge sponsored by American Patchwork & Quilting.

Stashbusting 2010 - #2

Fabric Added This Week - 1 yards (although I grabbed the wrong bag out of Janet's car, so I couldn't even use my 1 yard of red I bought for bindings)
Fabric Added Year to Date - 1 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 7.5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 11.5 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 10.5 yards

2nd 2010 Finish

But wait.............

I took this photo of the completed pink giraffe quilt:



and then walked into my sewing room to find these:



They are supposed to be appliqued on to the lower left corner after the first border is added on and...
I forgot.
Dan says it's finished, but I'm thinking maybe they need to be hand buttonhole stitched, or maybe not.

2009 In Review

Although I didn't get as much accomplished last year, I still got a significant amount of quilting/sewing done.

I completed 29 bed quilts which include:
4 Queen
6 Twin
7 Lap
12 Baby

Add that to 9 Wall Hangings, 3 Table Runners, and 33 Other projects which include:
6 Bags/Wallets
5 Pillowcases
2 Placemats
8 Stockings
12 Bibs/Burp Cloths

A total of 74 projects, and along with that, I quilted 81 quilts for customers.
Not a bad year after all.

Design Wall - January 4, 2010

Can you believe that I'm making another giraffe quilt? I certainly have gotten a lot of use out of this free pattern.



A good friend is expecting a little girl in February and this one is perfect for her nursery. I went to Janet's house this afternoon and we sewed for a couple hours. It was good to get out of the house and do something other than shopping.

This one is all pink and girly. Here's a close up of the applique:

Stashbusting 2010 - #1

Woo-hoo, what a great way to start off the new year.

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 0 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 4 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 4 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 4 yards

My numbers for last year were so much lower than 2008, stashbusting and UFO finishes alike. I am certainly going to try to have my numbers for 2010 be more like my 2008 numbers. I'm not sure what I did last year, but sure didn't accomplish much.

Do you think I'm reading too many blogs?

Elizabeth's First Birthday

I can't believe that she is a year old already. What a beautiful little girl she is! She started out so daintily eating her cake, but eventually leaned over and took a bite.




Of course, Nana made her a birthday bib to wear. I certainly should use my embroidery machine more often.

Her birthday quilt and the cakes matched her decorations.



Andrew enjoyed some cake and ice cream, and I can't believe how fast he is growing up.

Joy In The New Year Challenge

Jacquie at TallgrassPrairieStudio issued a challenge again last year to help us finish up some things before the end of the year.



For some reason, I can't get the photo of the table runner to be in the collage, so here is a link to that finish.

I finished only 7 of my 8 projected projects for this challenge. I knew that I needed to have all of them finished by Christmas or the end of the year, and the only one not finished by midnight on December 31st, was finished yesterday afternoon and it is Elizabeth's 1st birthday quilt. More on that one later today after her party.