Christmas Quilt Finish!

 Finally!  After waiting eight years I have a Christmas quilt!  In 2004 my mom funded the effort to make her and each of my four siblings and myself a Christmas quilt.  Yup, that's right, six of them!  The fabric was purchased in July, I think and I managed to have five of the six finished in time for Christmas.  AMAZING!  Of course the one that didn't get finished was my own.  Over the years it has always been pushed to the back burner.  Last year I took out the fabric and decided it just wasn't me anymore.

Thus enters this quilt...

Isn't is pretty?!  The pattern is Etchings found at the Moda Bake Shop.  Love!  I was worried it wouldn't look right with my fabric because it didn't divide the same way as hers but I love the bit of scrappy look it has.  The fabric is Ready, Set, Snow! for Moda.

Quilting it was an adventure!  I quilted in the ditch around each of the swirls.  It's nearly impossible to see, even in person so I didn't get a picture.  I started with the walking foot which looked a lot better but was really difficult with the amount of quilt needed to be shoved through the machine.  I then decided to use the FMQ foot.  It was a lot easier and faster but it doesn't look as nice.  I've decided just to not look to closely at it and just be happy that it is finished!  I began this quilt back in January and finished the top in February then it just sat there on the back burner.  I got excited about in again in July when I attempted to spray baste it.  That was an adventure found in this post. 

Also back in 2004 I got a large package of these cute name tags.  They say made by and my name on them.  I just love them!  I think they add just the right touch to my finished quilt.

Of course I picked red binding again.  I just adore red binding lately and on a Christmas quilt it seems extra festive!  The green swirly background is so fun without being over bearing too!  Hurray for another finish under my belt and a Christmas quilt of my very own!

TNT Thursday; Quilter's Roll Clips

 I used to have someone else quilt my quilts for me or I'd try them at home with my regular foot.  They were always such a pain that I resisted picking up the chore of doing it myself again.  Recently I discovered the value of a walking foot and the fun of free motion quilting.  I am in love with doing it myself now and may only send off the really huge ones.  I've found with a little difficulty I can quilt a twin sized at home but I have yet to try anything bigger.  While I was at JoAnn's during coupon commotion I found these Quilter's Roll Clips.  I was excited that something so cheap (I got them for $5) could make my quilting experience better.  I tried them out today and I'm linking up with TNT Thursday with Melissa at Happy Quilting.

Here are the Quilter's Roll Clips in the package just in case you didn't know what they might look like.

I got them out to use them and my cute three year-old Amelia thought they were big earrings.  To give everyone a laugh I tried them on.  I think I could totally rock these given the right outfit and they actually stayed on pretty well, lol.  Not really, well they did stay on but I wouldn't wear them.

Here they are doing their proper job.  They came six to a package and I probably could have used less and maybe I'll do three to a side when I'm working on the middle.

Tightly wound like this gives me so much more room!!  I had no idea my machine could be anything other than a miserable quilt trap!  It made working with it much easier.  I was using the walking foot at this point and needed to pivot a lot!

While in the middle of quilting with the walking foot I thought, "This is dumb!  I should try it with my FMQing foot."  The lines weren't as straight and it took a little getting used to but it was much easier!  I've never tried straight lines with my FMQ foot.  I'd just used a regular then a walking foot before.  This kind of quilt with lots of turning seemed just right.  I'm outlining all the curves in the swirl pattern.  While working with this I found the roll was better positioned off to the side of my machine but I still liked the clips because it kept it all contained.

I loved the clips and would recommend them for keeping this more orderly.  If nothing else they make a fabulous fashion accessory!  Thanks for stopping by!

WiP Wednesday: The Smattering

 I have a bunch of random things I'm working on right now.  I'm trying to get a lot done before my Sister's visit in less than two weeks.  My craft room will be converted to a guest bedroom while she and her family are here and I wanted to get a lot of my works in progress finished up before I have to move my sewing table out.  With a bunch of different crafty things all in various stages of completion I'm linking up to WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

As always, I love to start with the finish.

I finished up my HST pink quilt for my friend's baby who was born on the 7th of this month.  I adore how it turned out and her super-cute and happy reaction to seeing it completed.  To see more pictures, even one of her sweet baby, follow this link.

Now on to my quilting work in progress...

I also started quilting my Christmas quilt.  I began this quilt back in January and finished the top in February then it just sat there on the back burner.  I got excited about in again in July when I attempted to spray baste it.  That was an adventure found in this post.  Since it was a Christmas quilt I really didn't feel any need to rush it.  Now I'm wanting it done before my craft room briefly becomes a guest bedroom.  It's been sitting in a corner on the floor and I really want it out of the way.  Thus I began the quilting.  I'm going in the ditch around the swirls.  In this block I outlined all the red pieces.  It took me about 30 minutes and there are nine of these in the quilt.  It should go pretty quickly and I might even have it done before my sister gets here in about ten days.

Finally a bit of crochet...

I have really big feet.  Seriously, they are a women's size 13.  Didn't know women's sizes went that large?  Well, they typically don't.  Most of my shoes are either really expensive or men's shoes.  It seriously hampers my cuteness let me tell you.  Another downside to large feet is that I can't really find cute socks that fit me.  I adore wearing cute socks!!  Women's socks make my toes curl over and it's quite uncomfortable.  For years I have sacrificed for fashion but no more!!  I have learned how to crochet my own socks!!!  I'm so excited and the pattern even has an adjustment for huge feet like mine!  Here's my little started bit.  This is after a few hours working on it while hanging out with my kids.  I kept trying it on and my hubby would laugh at me saying he didn't think it was big enough yet.

I haven't has as much time as I'd like to work on them but they are getting bigger.  The yarn is self-striping which is pretty awesome!  I found so many other adorable colors I can't wait!  Although, shortly after I began these socks I went to the men's section at Target and they actually have some super-cute socks on clearance right now for about $2.  They even had some with pink!  I snatched up three pair of cuteness to tide me over until I finish these up, which may not happen until the spring at this point!

Thanks for stopping by and reading about my projects for this week!

HST Pink FInish

I'm excited to post about the HST Pink finish!  It was such a fun quilt to make and my first attempt at an entire quilt of half square triangles.  I chose a chevron pattern and made it kind of scrappy and while I'm typically not a fan of scrappy I just adore how this one came out.  Here's all the details the bold links lead to other posts related to this quilt...

In early April I joined up with the One Thing, One Week Challenge hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side.  I did it to get motivated on my Skill Builder Sampler blocks but as a bonus I won the giveaway for the week.  It was this fat quarter bundle of super pink fabric.  I was excited to get it and then it promptly sat on my shelf for nearly the next five months.

 Enter my cute very pregnant friend.  I was visiting at her house and mentioned that I could make her a quilt for her baby.  She got adorably excited and I couldn't wait to get started.  She was having a cute little girl in two weeks and I was excited to make her a quilt.  I knew I was going to use the pink bundle but I had no idea what to make with it.  I bounced a few ideas around and landed on a bunch of white and pink half square triangles.  I had to supplement a little with some pink from my stash and I already had some white.  On August 28th after only 60 minutes on my Accuquilt Go! I had all 560 little 3" triangles cut.  Hurray for the Go!

I had a lot of interruptions with this quilt.  I had to finish my Tetris quilt, then I made some cute booties and a hat for my other friend.  Her baby was born on September 7th and by the 19th I had all the squares pieced together.

It went pretty quickly after that.  By the next day, the 20th I had the whole top pieced.  I had a bit of a hard time deciding on quilting but I decided to stitch in the ditch along the pink edges to accentuate the zigzag.  I asked for advice here on my blog and on facebook and nearly everyone liked that way better.

I did the quilting on the 23rd and 24th and after the binding and a quick wash it was ready to deliver on the 25th when I was visiting my friend at her house again.

Since I finished it at nearly 11pm I didn't have the lighting I needed to get a good picture.  I brought my camera and took some photos at her house. It worked out nicely because I got to take a picture of her adorable baby on the quilt I made for her.  Isn't she just precious?!  She was even dressed to match!  I just love making projects for other people especially when they are as excited as my cute friend was over it!

I'm linking up with Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story.

TNT Thursday: A HST Pink Quilt

 I'm excitedly linking up with Try New Things Thursday hosted by Melissa at Happy Quilting.  I have never before made a quilt of all half square triangles.  I'd made a few quilts that had HST in them but never a full one and so I was excited to conquer this new, to me, thing.  Piecing the triangles was kind of monotonous but the rows went together really quickly. As of my post yesterday I only had 112 of my 280 squares sewn together.  Twenty-eight of them were sewn into two rows.  I worked on it through nap time and a little after the kids came home from school and I finished up the whole quilt!  It was pretty impressive.

Here's the completed quilt top.  I just LOVE it!  It went together so fast and the scrappy feel is just what I wanted.  I'm typically not great at making scrappy but I put all the pieces in a big bag and tried not to look as I picked them out.

Now comes the debate of how to quilt it.  I'm totally at a loss and would appreciate help.  I narrowed it down to two different choices...

This is the first choice.  I'd use this template with spray chalk to transfer it and then free-motion quilt it.

This is the other option.  I found this quilt HERE at JAQS Studio.  I love the way it looks and emphasizes the zigzag-ness of it all.  It would be fairly easy to do with my walking foot.

 So what do you think?

WiP Wednesday: A Bit of Pink

 I have returned to my former ways of being a monogamous quilter.  Right now I'm working on a HST quilt for my friend who had her baby not quite two weeks ago.  I like to have them done before the baby is born but in my defense I didn't even plan on giving her one until ten days before the baby is born so I think I'm doing rather well.  This is my favorite work in progress right now and I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

I was so excited when I finished piecing and pressing all those HST together.  There are 280 squares now.  I really had no idea what I wanted to do with them.  This is my first time making a quilt of all HST!  There are so many different layouts to choose from!  I narrowed it down to four different ways and then my hubby helped me pick the winning layout.  It's a scrappy chevron.  There's a picture at the bottom of what I've put together.

Chain piecing is my new friend but I admit it's kind of a struggle when I forget how many I've pieced together.  To help me keep track I cut them apart after I have seven sewn together.  Seven makes one row of this quilt which is 14 squares across and 19 down.  I've made 7 of 10 odd rows and 1 of 9 even rows.

I couldn't resist taking a break from the chain piecing and seeing what it will look like in the end.  Pardon the glare!  This is about 42" across and will be the final width.  I love the scrappy look this time even though I'm usually not a fan.  I think it helps that all my white pieces are the same.  I can't wait to see it get bigger so I'd better get back to work!

Thanks for stopping by!  Check out more fun projects on this weeks linkup at Freshly Pieced!

Love It, Pin It, Win It! - LIttle Rays of Sunshite

 

 The Moda Bake Shop is one of my favorite places on the internet.  There are so many different free tutorial available for creating everything from quilts to backpacks to purses.  Currently they have a contest going involving two of my favorite things, Moda Bake Shop and Pinterest.  As part of the contest we are to pin our favorite recipes with the tags: #modabakeshop #modafabrics #lovepinwin.  There was another option where we could blog about our favorite recipe for another chance to win.

It was nearly impossible for me to pick my favorite recipe!  I have a full pinboard stuffed with nearly all Bake Shop quilts.  In the end after much indecision I landed on  Little Rays of Sunshine by Katie from Calico Hutch.  

I love how it is the zigzag pattern I love (and am seeing nearly everywhere these days) but with a bit of flare involving the stripes and triangles!  It's so cute and I can't wait to give it a try!