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!

Halloween Quilt Finish

I finished my Halloween quilt Thursday morning and am so thrilled! Quilting went faster than expected and my smallest one cooperated so well for my rush job. This quilt is #1 on my Q4 FAL list and was also my ALYoF Goal for October.

Completed Halloween quilt! I love how this one turned out! I bought this fabric probably a year and a half ago and it has just been sitting in my stash waiting to become something. Hooray for sewing my stash!

I got the idea for the block layout and construction from a tutorial on the Moda Bake Shop. I've made this quilt before in April Showers fabric. It's amazing to me how different they look!

I've never made a quilt with this much black. It was a fun change and a good excuse to use up a whole bunch of black thread that I had on hand from a brand I don't love anymore. The black fabric is Sprinkles from Cotton and Steel. I think it kind of looks like stars. I kept the quilting super simple. I just outlined the blocks in glow-in-the-dark thread. I was thinking of doing more but loved the minimalist thing for this one.

The back of the quilt has a totally different feel from the front. I did this intentionally so it was really a reversible quilt. I love fun backing fabric and this Spellbound print from Cotton and Steel really grabbed me.

Here's a closeup of the back as well as the binding fabric. It's so fun to snuggle under a festive quilt for Halloween!

That's me for the week. Thanks for stopping by! I'm so glad I finished up the quilt with days to spare! I've been a crazy productive woman lately too and have several things ready to show next week as well. This blog is going to be all about finishes for a while. Until then, I'm linking up with Finish It Up Friday and TGIFF.

Hazel Hedgehog Quilt Finish

So excited about this finish! It is #1 on my Q3 FAL list as well as my ALYoF Goal for September. It feels good crossing things off both lists! Also, it is freaking adorable and my daughter is in heaven finally having it completed.

Here it is! I did the twin size of the Hazel Hedgehog pattern which worked out to be 42 different hedgehogs. We decided together (my daughter and I) to do it all in Cotton and Steel basics with Kona solids for the bodies and background.

Miya had fun picking all her favorite colors and prints for the spines. You can see the quilting pretty well in this shot too. I was going for a kind of spiky meander. Some bits are more spiky than others but I love it anyway. It adds fun texture.

Here's just a fun picture of it flopped over the fence. It was a fun angle I haven't tried before.

I thought these Navy triangles from Color Theory by V. and Co. for Moda was perfect for this quilt! They remind me of the spikes. You can also see my customary tag from yardage by Sweetwater for Moda. It's fun to personalize them like this.

One more just because I love this angle on quilts.

That's it for now. I have a few projects I'm also working on but I needed to get this one done for the ALYoF and Q3FAL linkups. Thanks for stopping by! I'm also linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.

Mini House and Crochet Hat Finishes

I am amazed at what I accomplished this week. I made four crochet hats and finished off my Mini House quilt for a swap. I also nearly finished three Sailor Tops from Fancy Tiger Crafts. I love them all and enjoyed crossing things off my Q3 FAL list and adding new items to my Etsy shop. Let's start with the mini...

I am so happy with how this turned out! This crosses off #5 from my Q3 FAL list. It's so much better than I thought it would be. Some of my low volume background isn't as low volume as other things but I love it anyway. I enjoyed the process with this one even though those houses were not quick.

Check out this adorable print for the back! When I saw it I knew it would be perfect for this swap. I got some for the back not even knowing what the front of the mini would look like.

Here's a peek at the quilting. It was a teaser for my partner. these are 1/4" ish lines and were pretty fast even though I ended up having to do almost one hundred of them.

At the risk of getting into overshare territory here is my favorite block. I love everything about this one.

This tag from yardage by Sweetwater for Moda was pretty perfect for the back of this mini.

Moving onto the hats. !!! I can't believe the cuteness of this Hippo hat! You can find it listed in my shop here.

Here it is off a person. Wouldn't this be adorable paired with a Sandra Boynton book as a present? I'm also really liking these colors for it but it would be adorable in grays or blues too for a boy.

This was a custom order Sleepy Owl hat from my shop. The customer wanted it in all white except the lashes and the beak. My usual beak color looks pretty bold but the gray I had just didn't look right. It was so different from the colorful owls I usually make and a fun change.

This crab hat is by far my most popular hat. I just love it in all the sizes. It's adorable for a baby and just hilarious for an adult. This baby size is a result of an order from my shop.

In an effort to refresh my shop selection I also added this new hat pattern. This Monster hat was so fun to make and I'm sure will make a great addition to my shop.

That's me for the week! Thanks for stopping by! I was hoping to get my tops finished so I delayed my post but it's not happening. Got to save something for next week, right? Until then I'm linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.

TB Mini and Miya Quilt Finishes

Miya and I both have something fun to share this week! I finished my Thimble Blossoms mini quilt for the swap I'm in. I also helped Miya finish up her first quilt! It's been a great week. We'll start with mine and then give you a fun picture overload of Miya.

Here's the swap package I mailed out. This is #6 on my Q3FAL list. There is a little pad of paper in the green dots bag. The little zipper pouch has some washi tape, wonder clips, and my favorite chap stick.

I love how this picture shows off the quilting. I went in the ditch around the pieces then filled with pebbles. I adore pebbles! They are so fun and much easier for me that other kinds of free motion quilting.

I also sent a little pouch. I made this with the trimmings of my flying geese for the top. It's small, about five inches square, but great for holding things like wonder clips.

Now on to Miya with her finish! We're so excited that we managed to get this quilt done before her ninth birthday later this month. I love so many things about it! She did all the cutting (except for the big strip down the middle) all the pressing, and all the piecing. I quilted it and bound it.

I even had the perfect tag on hand for this quilt! Miya wrote her name but had me do everything else. The pattern is Daydreams from the book Sunday Morning Quilts. As I was looking up the name of the pattern I noticed we forgot the very outer border. Oops. Oh well, the quilt was already finished at that point and plenty large. You can see the quilting the best in this one. I did a stipple pattern in Miya's choice of variegated thread.

Miya directed the photo shoot for her quilt and I love all the different things she came up with. Here she was showing me how it's plenty big and she has room to grow.

This was her fun way of showing off the backing. It is a print from Color Theory by V. and Co. for Moda that she picked herself. We recently got to spend the afternoon playing with Vanessa and Miya is more in love with her stuff than ever now.

This one just makes me laugh. She went crazy far from me, plopped it on her head, and then had me take a picture. It was supposed the be the amazing floating quilt but you can still see most of her body. :)

We're all pretty excited that this one is finished and ready for use. After she slept with it the first night she said it was the best quilt ever!

Thanks for stopping by! We sure had a fun week. I've started teaching my eldest how to quilt too and it's going well! I also am finishing up a few things that will be fun to share next week. For now I'm linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.

Bags, Pouches, and a Miya Quilt Top!

I had no idea I'd been away from the blog for so long. Life has been busy with trips and guests. I've done some great things this week but I'm most excited for my little girl. Miya finished her first quilt top today! I made some scripture bags with my friend, pouches for my SIL, and finished off my knit cowl. My first finish from my Q3 FAL list. Let's start with the cowl and pouches and end off with a bang.

I love this cowl! This is the same pattern that I learned to knit from and I taught my friend to knit this week and we each made one. I finished mine pretty quickly so I could show her how it was done before she had to go. She made great progress too and was over halfway when she left. I was amazed at how quickly she picked it up!

This is #16 on my Q3FAL list and my first finish of the quarter. I think the color variation on this yarn is so wonderful. It is "kettle dyed" and I may need more in my future. I had this lying around for years waiting for the perfect project and tada!

My friend also loved the scripture bag I made for my son and brought the supplies to make three for her three boys. She made the brown and I made the other two. All I wrote from the original was cutting instructions so we just winged it. They turned out pretty well but kept torquing. As it turns out we were supposed to turn 1/4" in from where we did. Oops. They still look good and the boys loved them.

My fun Sister-in-law is my best customer and she loves these bags. I love them because they are different every time with the different mini charm packs from Moda. She buys these for teacher friends and I just love whipping them up for her. You can find the tutorial here for the Quilted Patchwork Pouch.

Now on to my adorable munchkin!! I have been working on teaching all my kids to sew. They've all made a bean bag and a pillow case. Miya showed the most interest in quilting so we started with her first. This is her first quilt top! We're in love!

This is from the book "Sunday Morning Quilts" and was so easy for her to do and great for the scrap busting. We had a few struggles at first but two tricks really helped make this happen. First we used Wonder Clips in place of pins. That way they were easy to remove without shifting the fabric and poking herself. Also, I put two contrasting pieces of washi tape on my machine. One marked the 1/4" seam that she was supposed to keep the fabric lined up with. The second butted up against that and she wasn't supposed to let that one show. I was amazed at how straight her seams were with the addition of the washi tape and the whole thing went much much faster.

We worked together to spray baste it this evening. We did it outside which was a first for me. The grout in our tile floor kept leaving bumps and folds so we thought the cement might work better. It was murder on my knees but this quilt is quite flat. Miya enjoyed helping me smooth out the quilt but still can't manage to press the button to spray the glue which makes me smile.

That's it for this week! I'm going to whip up some Sailor Tops with my mom this weekend (hurray for a visit) and I hope to get Miya's quilt finished quickly. We want it done by the time she turns nine around this time next month. I'm linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.

Foxy Quilt Finish with other bonus Finishes

My goal this week was to finish up my Foxy quilt which is #2 on my Q2FAL list. I did that and then some! Hurray for more productivity! I finished the foxy quilt, a cross stitch project for a swap, a blanket and burp cloth set, and a curvy clutch. At the bottom of this post is my focus for July and my ALYoF goal.

The little guy LOVES orange. Someone recently asked him what his second favorite color was and he said orange. I think that's pretty accurate. I've been working on this quilt forever. Like nine months. It kept getting pushed back and this sweet little guy was so patient with me. Here he's loving it right after I finished the quilting. It still needed to be trimmed and bound at this point but he didn't care.

We had a lot of fun for this photo shoot. The sun was a little bright be he didn't care.

I love this shot of the foxes! There are so many for the twin size.

This quilt sat for so long waiting to be quilted because I wanted to try something new. I was nervous that I would mess it up and so it sat for six months. Then I decided to just go for it and I'm glad I did. I took a quilting class at QuiltCon and the teacher showed us these connected boxes. I loved it for this. Mine are far from perfect but I love them anyway and they were so fun to do. Once I accepted that they'd be wonky I had a blast quilting this one.

Here's the quilt in all it's foxy glory. There are 80 different foxes in 14 different orange prints. My son picked out each one. The background is Kona Ash. Hurray for another crossed off my Q2FAL list!

Also finished this week was this white tiger eyes cross stitch. I really love how this turned out. White tigers aren't really my thing but this is cool. I debated at one point about adding the gray and I'm glad I did. It adds so much depth. This on is on its way to my partner.

When my good friends have babies I make them blanket and burp cloth sets. They are a fun shower gift and so useful. Well, one of these friends loved them so much she bought a set for her cousin. These flamingos and flowers are so fun and I made these in a nap time this week.

A few weeks ago I had a giveaway here and on Instagram for a curvy clutch. One of my local friends won the IG one and she came over today and picked some fabric. I love the pop of color with the pink on this one and that navy print is one of my favorites. The inside is poking out so you can see the lining fabric.

So I have a bunch of little things going right now like the Farm Girl Vintage QAL, swaps, and a secret project or two. I'm also about to start another twin-sized quilt this one a Hazel Hedgehog. I had a hard time picking my ALYoF goal for July with so much happening and then I saw these languishing on my cut table. These are to become the last four swoon blocks for my giant swoon quilt. They white is already cut and most of them marked. I just have to cut the colored prints and sew them together but they keep sitting there so I'm making the completion of these blocks my goal for July.

So that's me this week. I hope to make a lot of progress on things but I'm not close to finishing anything right now so I may have to go back to writing WiP posts. Catch me on Instagram @julieschloemer where I am always quite active. Thanks for stopping by! I'll be linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.