2015 Year in Review

I'm so excited about this post as I have so much awesomeness to share!! I have broken down all of my finishes from the year into categories and made mosaics for your viewing pleasure. ;) I am just amazed at how much I finished. Figuring it out I completed something - from a small simple pouch to a quilt - about every two days!! However, I finished one more thing after I made my mosaics so it will be listed separately. Also, I finished all twelve months of goals for ALYoF! Hurray for productivity!!

First my ALYoF Goals. I finished all twelve months and they are in order here. You can see all the finish and goal posts here. I'm sad to here that ALYoF is going away but I sure love what it has done for my productivity the last few years.

Speaking of productivity I finished up this mini last night!! This is #9 on my Q4 FAL list. It didn't make it into the mini mosaic below. I tried doing free motion paisley quilting again and I love it! I think I'm really getting the hang of it now.

Here are the rest of my minis and pillows for the year. Counting the one above there are 21 minis I finished this year. Seven of them were for swaps and the others were gifts or for our home.

I finished nine quilts this year including the whole-cloth Knuffle Bunny quilt I made this month for my daughter. I tried some new quilting motifs with many of these and love how I'm branching out this year.

I helped each of my three oldest kids make themselves a quilt this year too! They pieced them together and I quilted and bound them. We all feel so proud of our accomplishments here and it's probably my favorite group of finishes.

I made 42 bags and pouches this year!! Crazy! A few of these were fairly simple but many were more complex. That's a lot of zippers!

I fell in love with the Fancy Sailor Top this year and that led to more confidence in garment sewing. I made seven sailor tops and eleven pieces all together.

These random little projects were hard to classify so they got a category all their own. There are 22 projects here from pillow cases to pin cushions and stroller makeovers. I got out of my comfort zone here too trying new things all over the place like 3D sewing and rope bowls.

I also advanced like crazy in my knitting skills. Since learning to knit in October 2014 I have been driving to learn and grow. I completed 19 knitting projects this year and taught myself how to cable and do color work including some pretty fun fair isle hats. I found a quick and easy favorite in the Cowl and made 10 this year for gifts.

Since I have an Etsy Shop where I sell crochet hats it's not surprise I have a lot of finishes here. I don't think this is all of them but it is all I could find pictures of. There are 37 projects here from tiny newborn hats to adult hats and even a crochet blanket. The crab hat is my most popular by far.

That's my year! Wow! I feel crazy productive! 29 of these projects were made mostly if not all from my stash. That's 164 projects completed in all! That's a project finished every 2.23 days. Thanks for being a part of it and I look forward to another awesome and productive year! Thanks for stopping by and keeping up with me!

Christmas Project Roundup

This is the post where I show all the things I made for Christmas for my family. It's one of my favorites and has the added bonus of a bit of review. I'll do a year in review post on Friday. I have one more thing I hope to finish first! As a bonus one of the things I'm sharing was my ALYoF goal for December. I'll start with that one...

Here is my finished ALYoF goal for December.  These are also #15 on my Q4FAL list. I made these five minis for my kids. They're always swooning over the quilts and minis I make and they each have small animals or dolls they adore so I thought it would be fun to whip them up a little something to put in their stocking.

I tried a different quilting motif on each one. This is my favorite! I've been really afraid of branching out and trying new fmqing but I love it! I'm so glad I was brave.

We have a tradition every year that the kids get to pick fabric and we make a pillow case together. They sleep on it the week of Christmas to help them get all excited. I love to see their personalities come out in the fabric they choose! I try to steer them away from mostly white but otherwise let them have free reign.

Last year my Mom and Step-dad told me they'd be coming for Christmas this year. I knew I wanted to make them quilts. It seemed like a great opportunity. I got started early and finished this one way back in March. I used two layers of batting and it is extra warm and cozy, which is great because my Mom is always cold. I love that it's no longer a secret!

I used the same pattern but different fabric for my step-dad's quilt. It's fun how different they look but how they are so connected.

I went a little crazy making all the cowls this year. I'm pretty sure I've made eleven. Six of them were Christmas presents. Here's for my four oldest kids.

I didn't think the baby would want one. I should have known better. I finished the last one and she came over to try it on. Then she was looking in the mirror saying how pretty she was. We went to the store and picked out yarn that day.

Finally my Mom got one too. She's all about this mustard color lately and was excited to find just the yarn she wanted in the store. It went so fast and she kept saying the whole time how she loved that color. It was pretty cute.

Well, that's me for Christmas. I'd say it was a pretty good set. Most of that was from stash which made our dollars stretch quite a bit further this year. I may have to get going for next year! Until then watch for my year in review post on Friday and thanks for stopping by!

Knuffle Bunny and Crab Hat Finishes

I finished up a couple of quick things this week. During Black Friday I went to Fat Quarter Shop and picked up some Knuffle Bunny fabric. It came the next Friday and I finished it by Monday afternoon. My smallest one and I are pretty excited about this one. I also got another order for an adult-sized crab hat. LOVE! First, the quilt...

These prints are Knuffle Bunny from Cloud9 Fabrics. I had a really hard time narrowing down which prints to choose. I wanted this to be a quick and easy whole cloth quilt. I enlisted my Mo Willems obsessed two year-old to help me pick and these are the ones we ended up with.

My littlest one was so excited to match up the fabric with this page in her book. She kept dancing around on my fabric while singing an usual song consisting of the word, "match!"

Since all I had to do was baste, quilt, and bind this went super quickly! I got the fabric on Friday and finished Monday.

I really love both of these prints and the binding is so fun! I love a pop of color or interest on the bindings. You can see I did my regular zigzag method for the binding stitch. I love this because it makes them so sturdy, especially on quilts that I know will be loved and used by my small people.

Here's my smallest, the one this quilt was made for, all ready to read. Ruby just loves this book and having a quilt to match is perfect!

At 40" by 60" this is a great child or lap size quilt and I hope it will be cherished for years to come.

Also this week I made this adult crab hat. You can find this, and many other styles newborn to adult, for sale in my Etsy Shop. This is by far my most popular hat and I just love it still! It cracks me up and I'm getting so fast at whipping them out.

 That's it for me this week. Thanks for stopping by! I hope to have several mini quilts and maybe a cable knit hat to share next week. Until then I'm linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

Small Christmas Quilt and Cowls

 I've been having so much fun working on Christmas themed projects and presents. It's made my crafting time even more enjoyable, if that's even possible. Today I'm going to share the smaller of two Christmas quilts I've been working on and the six cowls I've finished in the last two weeks. First, the quilt...

I love this little quilt! I'm making this Holly's Tree Farm quilt from a kit and had some leftover strips. I didn't want them just lying around so I quickly turned them into a lap quilt. It is about 40" by 60".

I backed the quilt in green minky. It's the first time I've ever tried minky on the back of a quilt and it was easier than I thought it would be. I used a TON of spray glue to baste it and probably could have used a bit more but the quilting went okay. I did the stripes from the same Holly's Tree Farm line for the binding. I love how festive it looks, especially with the green back.

I read somewhere less is more when quilting on minki so I used the serpentine stitch on my machine and went every three inches. You can see it on the green at the top. I used a solid green on the back and variegated thread on the front both from Aurifil.

It really fits with the feel and color scheme of our other decorations and I just love it to pieces! Now I just have to finish the larger more complex quilt to match.

I was amazed when all five kids crowded under this one! They always like to try out my recent finishes but I didn't even think it would be big enough for me let alone five small people. It was adorable and I can already tell this one is going to be loved.

Speaking of love, one of my Aunts just entered the LDS Missionary Training Center to prepare to serve the people in Scotland and Ireland. I'm so excited for her! My mom mentioned that she didn't have a lot of warm stuff being from California and asked that I make her two cowls. I was so happy to help. This is one of them in cream. I tried new yarn, that I didn't love, but the end result is so cute!

Here are the two cowls for my Aunt. The yarn for the red one was awful. I cannot even tell you. It was like a chenille and there was so much drag! Even on my metallic addi turbo needles it was just so slow. Add this to the fact that I had to unpick it six times at various stages I'm just happy it's over. The shape is wrong but it is still warm and super fuzzy.

Before and after my Aunt's cowls I made these four cowls for my oldest kids. The smallest one is getting the Care Bear Pillow I shared on Wednesday instead. These I loved! For the girls I found chunky Red Heart yarn on sale at Joann's. The boys I used three strands of their favorite colors from yarn I had on hand. I'm so excited to give these to them as Christmas presents. They've all loved my cowls so much and have been asking. It was sure hard to work on these in secret and get them finished without anyone seeing them.

Here's a closeup of one of the three stranded cowls. I used red, orange, and yellow for this one. It is for my youngest who really adores all things orange, fire, and firemen. I thought this would look like fire and it is even better than I imagined!

That's me for the week, thanks for stopping by! I have a few more presents to finish and share as well as a small Knuffle Bunny quilt that I'm so excited to finish and share! Until then I'm linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

Care Bear Finish, ALYoF, and other WiPs

This is a multi-tasking post today. I finished another thing off my Q4 FAL list - #19 the Care Bear Cross stitch. I'm also going to cover my ALYoF goal for the month and my Christmas Quilts I've been working on. First, the pillow...

My youngest is two and she adores all things Care Bears. These are her two bears, well, one she commandeered from her sister. She drags these little things around everywhere and cannot sleep without them. I saw this Care Bear pattern and had to have it for her. I ended up turning it into a pillow for her bed.

Here's a closeup of just the bears. This was such a fun pattern to work on. I love the detail on their little belly badges.

I used a Micron pen to write on the back of the pillow like a quilt tag. I think it's fun to know when and why things were made. You know I make so many things I can't possibly keep them all in my head. This was also a cute way to preserve my handwriting for her.

Next up is my ALYoF goal for December. My kids all want mini quilts for their animals, dolls, and things. I figured I'm make it really simple since I had to make five. I'd like to finish these before Christmas. They are all made from a mini charm pack and just need to be quilted and bound. Easy peasy, I hope.

Speaking of Christmas this is my Christmas quilt I'm working on right now. I super puffy heart love this!! I have one row complete and have to make nine more for a lap/twin size. I already have all the stuff I need to finish it but time. I hope to find some of that too before Christmas.

I had a bunch of strips left over from the above quilt and didn't want to add any more to my stash so I sewed them up into a nice lap quilt. Here it is all basted with a minky back.

I read somewhere that less is more when quilting on minky so I went with a serpentine stitch every 3"ish. I used a variegated thread from Aurifil and really love the colors and texture it gave.

I'm up to the binding stage on this one. I have attached it now I just need to flip and stitch. I hope to have it finished by Friday to share.

That's me for now. A lot of Christmas themed or Christmas gift sewing going on here. That's means more finishes to come! I also have several cowls to share later in the week. Until then I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday. Thanks for stopping by!

Amelia Canyon Quilt Finish

I'm so excited to share Amelia's quilt with you today! She finished it over a week ago but it's been crazy around here and I'm just now being able to sit and write about it. Amelia is six and this was her first quilt. I helped her baste, quilt, and bind it so I put it on my Q4 FAL list as number three. This was also my ALYoF goal for November. Prepare for an adorable picture overload!

She chose a layer cake of Canyon by Kate Spain for Moda to use for her quilt. We just did simple patchwork for this as it was her first attempt at a quilt. She has sewn other things before like pillow cases and bean bags.

It's just so pretty and she did so well at lining up the seams. We used washi tape on the machine as a guide for her to follow. We also used wonder clips to keep the pieces together. I find they are safer for the kids than pins and much easier to place and remove.

I love putting tags on my quilts and this one is especially cute because Amelia wrote her own name. I did the rest of the tag. It matches so well too! This is from yardage by Sweetwater for Moda.

Amelia picked both the thread color and the style of quilting. I think the meander is the perfect choice for this one. She said she likes it because it makes "little puffy bits I like to poke".

Here she is relaxing on it and enjoying the feeling of accomplishing something big!

Like my other two kids who made their own quilts I let Amelia lead in the photo shoot. I like this one. She looks snug as a bug.

This one is also fun with the quilt flowing behind her. There were a lot of funny outtakes with this one and her little arms were getting tired holding up that much quilt so high while running.

Here's the backing she chose more of that same line - Canyon by Kate Spain. I love the texture of the quilting in this picture as well.

Isn't she freaking adorable?!

Well, That's it for this week! Thanks for stopping by and checking out her finish. I'm linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

Also, this week I was part of a block hop to promote my friend's new book. Check it out in this post and visit the other stops on the hop...

Nov. 16 - Lee at Freshly Pieced
Nov. 17 - AnneMarie at Gen X Quilters
Nov. 18 - Leanne at She Can Quilt
Nov. 19 - Julie at That's Sew Julie
Nov. 20 - Lyn guest-blogging at Flourishing Palms