2012 Wrap Up

2012 was a great year for craftiness!  I learned so much and got to meet so many people through my blog.  I started the blog last October as a way to share my quilts with friends and family and it has become so much more.  I've adored all my followers and the comments people have shared with me.  I've also loved finding other new blogs to inspire me.

I thought it would be fun to have some mosaics of what I've done this year.  First with the crochet...

It seems like this was the year of the hats.  They were also fun to make!  Last year I made my first ever hat and I expected it to be harder than it was.  My favorites are the sock monkey hat and the ripples hat.  To see all my completed crochet projects go here.

 Now on to the Quilts...

I have never made more than one or two a year so this was a huge year for me.  I think the blog inspired me to always have something quilty going on and that made for quite a bit more output.  To see all my completed quilts and links to these posts go here.

My hubby is quite the enabler for my craftiness.  I fully support this and always supply him with ideas of how to spoil me.  This Christmas worked out to be quite the crafty supply day.  I got three books that I can't wait to make things from and this awesome Nancy Drew layer cake from Moda.

He also understands my love for all things scrapbooking and got me a bunch of fancy paper and a new layout book all from Close to my Heart.  Don't know CTMH?  Check out my consultant's site here, it's pretty awesome.

I already have so many things planned for 2013!  I have the fabric for lots of quilts already.  I have even recently started a new one.  I also plan to make my first ever bag, I hope it goes well.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year!

WiP Wednesday: Quilt and Crochet Christmas!

 It's Wednesday again and I have a lot to share this week! I finished my Mom's quilt and got it shipped off for Christmas.  I also got through almost all of the crochet projects for my sister's family for Christmas.  I hope to get though the last one of those today and then get them shipped off. I'm doing well with my works in progress and linking up to WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

First, the finish...

This is a closeup my mom's finish.  I just love how it turned out!  To see more pictures and to read all about it see the finish post here.  This is number 44 in the lineup of quilt's I've made.

I was so close to finishing the cowl scarf for my sister when I ran out of yarn!!  I was so bummed.  The thought of packing up all four kids to get more really didn't appeal to me but the idea of unpicking the whole thing appealed even less.  Thus, we all went off to Joann's to get some more yarn.  Well, they were sold out of this color (!!!) good thing I had to go to Target too or the whole trip would have been a waste.

 

Since I had to unpick it anyway I let the little ones help.  They had so much fun with this!  They'd grab a piece and pull with all their little might it was pretty fun for everyone.  Although I didn't relish the redo.

Here's the finish for the scarf.  You can wear it many many different ways.  The pattern can be found here.

This one is for my nephew.  I was planning on making him a batman hat that I saw on Pinterest but sadly it was just a picture with no pattern and I'm not cool enough to be able to figure that out on my own.  I think batman inspired waves are cool too!  This pattern found here.

I made his Dad the same hat with a different colorway and a little bigger.  I love how this one turned out too but I'm worried it may be a little small.  It fits my hubby but it's a little snug.

I made this Hello Kitty inspired hat for my little niece.  I really like how it turned out especially since I didn't have any sort of pattern to work with.  We love Kitty in my house and I just picked up one of our many kitties and looked at it while I worked.  Now the important question is, does it need a face? I think it would look great either way but I wonder if a bit more work would make it look even better.

My other niece is getting this fabulous hat with a twisty pattern, which can be found here.  I'm excited about how this one is turning out and I hope to get it finished and all of them mailed off today.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great week!

Nana Papillon Quilt Finish!

I finished my Mom's quilt and just in time for Christmas!  I shipped it off yesterday and thankfully they said it should get there with plenty of time.  Before I mailed it off I took a bunch of pictures.  I adore how it turned out and the photo shoot was so fun!

Before we get to that I have to celebrate one of my birthday presents that really helped me finish this quilt...

I got some Wonder Clips for my birthday and they were just amazing!  I usually dread binding, especially straight line binding.  These made it so easy!  I didn't have to stop and yank every two seconds.  They fed really well into the machine and as an added bonus my stitching has never looked more fabulous!

Check out those corners! Mine have never looked as beautiful as they do right here.  I really think the clips get the bulk of the credit for that one.

Even the back side looks amazing! Maybe the rest of you always have corners look this great but I certainly don't and now I've become obsessed with those clips!

I put the quilt down on the floor and my littlest one came running.  He said, "SNUGGLE!" Then he flopped right down on top.  It was pretty adorable.

The rest of the kids then had to try out Nana's quilt.  They all approve.

It has been crazy windy and rainy and yucky here but Saturday, when I finished the quilt, everything cleared up and it was beautiful with no wind.  Although, it was a little cold.  I was excited to get some great outside shots of this one.

I love how you can look down the diagonal rows and follow the lines.  I'm pretty happy with how I lined everything up this time!

Here you can see the front and back sides together.  I really like the bold red on the back.

I knew I wouldn't be able to quilt this queen sized quilt on my home machine so I took it to my favorite quilter in Des Moines.  She did an awesome job and I just love how it turned out!

This quilt is slightly taller than my garage but way taller than my 6'6" husband.  That anything could be taller than him is crazy to me but he couldn't manage to hold it up.  Thus, hangers on the gutters did the trick nicely.

One last picture because I can.  I am so happy with how this one turned out!  A quick word about the pattern though... it was not great.  There were errors on fabric requirements making me get too much of everything and costing an extra $40.  The instructions in places were not very clear at all.  The pieced border bit just said sew it on, not how many squares you'd need so I had to guess and check and do some math.  That's why I got a pattern in the first place.  I know it's a free pattern but I really expect more from the Moda Bake Shop.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest finish!

Wip Wednesday: Quilty Break

After busting my bum on my Mom's quilt and then quickly started into my SIL's quilt I needed a bit of a quilting break.  I took this week to do a bunch of scrapbooking and a couple of crochet projects.  I am planning on crocheting a small thing for my sister, her hubby, and three kids for Christmas.  Good thing those go so fast!  I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

I got even more caught up with my scrapbooks first...

I had so much fun working on these!  To a few closeups click here.  I made 19 two-page layouts for my son's scrapbook.  I am a two years behind so he was just a tiny baby but that makes it more fun seeing my cute little man.

Next I got to work on some crochet projects...

My sister found a buttoned cowl online and asked if I could make it for Christmas.  It looked fast and easy in the picture she sent so I set out in search of the pattern.  Well, the pattern wasn't for sale, only the cowl.  Next I went to trusty ravelry.com and found this pattern for free.  I seriously love free patterns and isn't it just stunning?  Her pictures are way better than mine so if you're not convinced do a quick click.  She also has several other awesome free crochet patterns.  Well, since I loved it so much I made one for me first as a sort of practice run.  You can wear this scarf so many ways but it doesn't come with instructions and I have to play more with it to figure out all the ways.  It should be a fun adventure.

My sister is getting one in cream.  While cream was a choice gray was her first choice.  The pattern used Lion Brand Wool Ease Think and Quick.  I love working with it!  It's so soft and fast!  However, their gray was yucky.  I don't know how to adequately describe.  It was like heather but had chunks of other colors in it here and there.  It looked like you rolled around in leaf bits and got some stuck in your scarf.  Thus, cream it is!  This one just needs the buttons and the ends woven in so it should easily be finished later today.

Thanks for stopping by and here's to another fun week!

Scrapbook Fun

I adore scrapbooking but I've been working so hard trying to get the quilts on my list finished that I haven't taken the time to do it for several months.  This last week I decided it was time for a scrapbook phase and in a few days I made 19 two-page layouts 12" square each page.  I had so much fun doing this and remembering my little Alex back in the day.  I'm a bit behind on my scrapbooking but not horribly so.  I'm in 2010 with all five scrapbooks.  I do a family book and then one for each of my four kids.

Here's a look at what I finished this week...

Here are all 19 together.  This took his scrapbook from May 2010 to September 2010 and I'm loving the jump!

This is one of my favorite layouts.  I get all my patterns from the Close to my Heart pattern books.  This one is in the one called Cherish, I think.  You can find them on Amazon for pretty cheap since CTMH no longer carries them.

I also love this one.  It was my baby's first swim and he wasn't even a month old yet.

He was such an adorable baby!  Can you see why this has been so much fun for me?!

I hope you all are having fun this week with whatever you're doing!

WiP Wednesday: Woven Beginnings

It's Wednesday again and I have another finish and another start to share!  It seems like I'm just a quilting machine lately!  I finished the top for my mom's quilt and sent it off to the quilter on Saturday.  She said it should be finished within two weeks.  That leaves me just enough time to bind it and mail it halfway across the country for Christmas, I hope.  I also began a quilt for my sister-in-law.  I was hoping to have this one finished by Christmas too but that's not going to happen.  Her birthday is in the end of January so now I'm shooting for that.  I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

On to the finish:

This quit is so awesome in person and in the daylight.  This picture was taken at night and doesn't have the best lighting.  After it's quilted and bound I plan on getting a lot of really great shots.  To read more about the finished top go here.

Here's the makings of the next quilt for my SIL.  The fabric is Sentiments by 3 Sisters for Moda.  I didn't realize when I bought it how Christmasy it was but I'm sure it will be fine.  I love how it has a 108" backing selection in the line because that will make the queen size backing so much easier.

 

It took me two days to cut out all the pieces.  It was really nice to work with the jelly rolls on this quilt and my new cutting mat was heaven!  It's 24" by 36" so I had gobs of space.

I finished one of the squares so I could have a sample and see how it was working it up.  It was a little difficult getting all the lines to match up with the strips in between but I think it looks pretty good.  The pattern is Simply Woven found on the Moda Bake Shop.  The pattern is for a twin size quilt but I am going to do half again as many blocks and that will bring it up to a generous queen size at 96" by 108". There will be 72 of this square total.

Finished Papillon Top

I am so excited to actually have a finish to share on Finish it up Friday with Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts.  I've seen so many of my favorite bloggers link up here.  I've been working a solely on a quilt for my mom these past few weeks and the top is finished and it is ready to head to the quilters!!  I've been loving quilting at home recently but this is a generous queen size and just way to big for my machine.  Here's some fun pictures for your viewing enjoyment...

This one is great for seeing the piecing detail.  I just love how it worked up and the alternating pinwheels and stars!

I finished it about 11pm on Wednesday.  Naturally there was horribly lighting but I did the best I could.  I really liked the square pieced boarder around the outside!  The pattern is from Moda Bake Shop and can be found here.

Here it is all ready to head off to the quilter.  It's going to be so beautiful with the red backing and I just adore 100% cotton batting these days.  The swirl of gray binding should look sharp too!  I can't wait to see what she does with it and get it bound.  It is to be a Christmas present for my Mom and I think I'll finish it just in time!

WiP Wednesday: Quilt and Stash

It's Wednesday again and I have so much progress to show for WiP Wednesday!  I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.  I am so excited with the progress on my mom's quilt.  It's going so fast now!  I also got some happy mail in the form of fabric I ordered for my birthday.  Thus the title of this post, quilt and stash!

I finally finished all the star blocks for the center of the quilt.  I was worried these were going to take me forever but they went pretty quickly in the end.  I love how they turned out and I get excited every time I look at those pristine corners.

Okay this picture is just so cool!  I've seen people take pictures of their quilts like this and the sun was perfectly coming into my window to try it.  I love how you can see the piecing detail of the center blocks.

I finished sewing the large center of the quilt together.  I'm in love!  Excuse the poor lighting in this one.  I seem to always have time to sew and take pictures after bedtime which of course means that it's crazy dark in my house.  You get the idea though.  There are two more borders that need to be added to make this queen size.  There is a pieced charm square and then another pinkish red solid one.  I am hoping it will fly together this week.

I got this Bella by Lotta Jansdotter fat quarter bundle with my birthday money.  It came in the mail yesterday and I was just so excited I couldn't wait to play with it.  Sadly it will probably be at least a month before I can even plan on what to do with it but in the mean time I will oogle it on my shelf!

Also in the mail came this fat quarter bundle of Pirate Matey's.  It is for my seven year-old's quilt.  I was going to do a bunch of five inch circles appliqued in rows to a white background but he has since changed his mind about what he wants for his quilt.  He better figure it out soon because once those borders go on my mom's quilt I'm getting going on this bad boy!

I also joined up with the Nancy Drew blog hop over at Sew We Quilt.  I seriously cannot wait for this one.  My love for all things Nancy Drew could be described as an obsession but I'm sure there are those worse than me.  I already have a plan in motion for this quilt and now I just have to wait for the fabric to be released at the end of this month.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you had a great sewing week too!

WiP Wednesday: Birthday Edition

Yesterday was my birthday.  The big 3-0!  I'm excited to be thirty.  It feels better than twenty.  I'm more confident and sure of myself and my opinions.  I feel like I've been around the block a time or two especially since I now have 8.5 years of marriage and four kids under my belt.  I got a few things done this week in spite of the birthday prep and hoopla but what I'm most excited about are the presents that will help me start new projects!  I'm linking up with Lee and Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

Here I am being the birthday girl.  My hubby blew up thirty balloons, it's a tradition in our house, but he couldn't get all of them in the picture.  I didn't feel like thirty was that big of a number until this point.

Happily I got some fabric mail on my birthday and I was pretty excited.  This is the background and the backing for my SIL's Sentiments quilt that I plan to get working on next week after I wrap up my Moms.

This picture is from my Monday post.  I hoped to make some more progress on my Mom's quilt but I didn't really feel like sewing on my birthday so I skipped it.  It should go together pretty quickly in the next few days.

Also in the birthday mail I got the backing for my Mom's quilt.  I love it!  I put it under the blocks for the front side for a color comparison and I think it is perfect.  It's not too dark and just the right touch of pinky.

My friend invited me to a crafty retreat with her on Saturday. Her mom had paid and was ready to go but at the last minute had to go out of town and I took her spot.  It was fun.  We stayed about five hours and I got some crochet time in.  Sadly I only really have this hat to show for it.  It took three tries because the pattern was wrong.  I keep coming up on that and it's making me doubt my crochet ability but I checked the gauge this time and used the exact same yarn size and hook.  While that was all right on the hat came out baby size.  So I made up my own pattern but I wasn't focusing and increased one too many rows so it was giant size.  Then I had to unpick it all again and finally came up with the right size.  It was an ordeal that took about four hours to do.  I love the result though!

Here's the hat alone so you can see the detail better.  It's so soft being fancy wool and I just love how it feels!

I got some birthday money from my Mom and Step-Dad.  I was so excited but had to take a while to figure out what to use it for.  It was a touch choice and now that it is spent I keep thinking of other things I want.  It's a good thing I have an awesome hubby who buys me crafty things for holidays and I'm not just out of luck (see the bottom of this post for an example).

I got this Wonder Clips.  I've heard many good things about them and I can't wait to try them out.  Since I hope to finish at least two quilt before Christmas I'm sure to do some binding sewing by then.  I'm hoping it will speed up the process making it so I don't have to stop and fold every few inches.

I also bought the circle die for my Accuquilt.  I'm making a quilt for my son that is all circles, 130 at 5" each.  Think twister with pirate fabric.

This is the pirate fabric I'm using.  It just shipped yesterday and I need to get on finishing my mom's quilt before it comes!

My last present was this fabulous fabric.  Isn't it just yummy?!  It's Bella by Lotta Jansdotter and I got one fat quarter of each of the 19 prints.  Want some too?  Get it here.  I have so many in line before I can get to this but I'm excited for it just the same.  If nothing else it will brighten up the shelf of my sewing room.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope I have a lot of progress to show you next week but in the mean time I'm reveling in the birthday haul.