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!