Winner!

Actually I'm talking about me! After 3 years of participation in the Finish-Along,

I was randomly chosen by Adrianne in the 4th Quarter for my son's Christmas/birthday quilt!

My prize? 

3 Patterns of my choice from Sew Sweetness!  

It was fun browsing through her shop and in the end I chose these 3 great bags. 

Sew Sweetness Tudor Bag

Sew Sweetness Hyacinth Bag

Sew Sweetness Camp Stitchalot Bag

Clearly, I need to put them on my Finish Along list for the year, right? Thank you again Sara and Adrianne!

FMT

Quilter's Planner Cover

I recently had an opportunity to have a girls' sewing weekend with my friend Ms. E who came all the way from Geneva to hang out with me. As usual, there was lots of chatting and snacking with a little shopping & sewing thrown in. We decided our joint venture would be working on our Quilter's Planner covers.

We studied the over 300 pictures at #quiltersplanner on IG and got loads of inspiration and a couple of tips before getting started:
1. A pretty lace bra strap would make a good elastic closure
2. Since the cover fits quite snugly, one might benefit from adding 1/4" to the final size.

After lots of deliberation, I decided that Noteworthy would make a great choice for the main fabric. It's full of doodles, goals and bucket lists - perfect! For the front, I also decided to try a Butterfly Charm Block from Lillyella. I've been searching for a project for these cute butterflies.

Finished product!

For the back cover, I pieced in my label and here you can see the silky elastic strap. I don't know who makes their own bras, but I'm glad to have found this - and in a variety of pretty colors!

 Here you can see the leather bookmark.

 For the inside, we just went with simple slip pockets on the front and back.

Once my cover was complete, I realized that my Ipad would fit in the zipper pocket. The only problem was that I couldn't get it in through the zipper. Since I carry it all the time, I decided it was worth it to alter the zipper tabs a little bit in order to make it work.

Success!!

And here's Ms. E's gorgeous creation

 A sweet Liberty fox and a spool of Aurifil naturally!

We're proud to have added our covers to the (now) more than 400 #quiltersplanner posts! And here's a peek at my pattern in the Nov pages of the planner - so excited! All of the weekly blocks can be found here. thank you again to Stephanie for the opportunity to be published and for a great tool.

Finish Along 2015 & 2016 Quarter 1

Hello again! I am so excited to embark on a 3rd year in the Finish Along. This has given me such a gentle but consistent motivation to get my projects planned at least and I've gotten more completed.

In Q4 of 2015 I had a list of 9 projects to complete, but with travel and little sewing time, I didn't finish much.

1. Finish Birthday quilt.  - Finished!

2. Dusseldorf pouches - Finished and gifted!

3. Paper airplane pouches - not done

4. Quilt for mom - not yet done

5. Quilt for friend's new baby - can't even quite remember which baby this was for lol

6. Quilt the stinking bee quilt that has been hanging around all year - not sure where this is in my sewing jungle.

7. Make something from my toppling stack of Lotta Jansdotter fat quarters - not yet done

8. Christmas table runner - not done

9. Fairy pillow (using PP pattern from Tartan Kiwi) - not done

It was a pleasure having Adrianne from On the Windy Side as host and cheerleader for the 2015 Finish Along!

Bring on 2016! I have 8 quilts in various stages of completion, from a pile of blocks to flimsy tops that I would love to finish this year, but I'll have to work them in 1 at a time. My quilting goals for 2016 include working on my blog photography and having more scheduled sewing time and FINISHING things! Finish Finish Finish!

Speaking of which, here is my Finish Along Quarter 1 list:

1. Commission - comfort quilt for girlfriend

2. Baby quilt for nephew due in March
3. 2 gift place mats for niece and nephew 

4. Succulents wall hanging (Love & Patchwork Mag Issue 19)

5. Playhouses Doll Quilt (Fat Quarterly Issue Issue 9) - partner project for me & little Bean
6. Purple Zippered pouch birthday gift

Wish me luck and I'll be following along with everyone ~ #2016FAL and follow @finishalong on Instagram!
FMT 

2015 - Year in Review

Happy New Year!

Although I don't think I made a formal announcement, I decided last January that this would the year of saying, "NO." It was a difficult decision, but I did not participate in any swaps or bees for the entire year, even though Instagram tempted me many times! In past years I have felt like I was doing a lot of sewing and not having much to show for it in my own home. It is very nice to have quilts made by talented ladies from all over the world hanging on my walls, but I wanted to concentrate on my own projects in 2015. As an added motivation, I did participate in the 2015 Finish Along. I must admit that I did pretty poorly with completing my lists, but I did get more sewing done and even had the chance to teach at a quilting retreat, participate in a new Bloggers hop and had a quilt block published!

January

Preppy Stroller Quilt

Catvent Knitting Bag

February

Graceful Dancer Mini Messenger Bag

March

1 hr basket

Noodlehead divided basket

ballerina pillowcase

April

Stash Bee

Dad's Birthday Quilt

June

Swoosh pouch

Confetti Stars Improv

July

1 hour teacher baskets

September

Treasure Map Block Design

October

Tidal Pool test block for Molli Sparkles

Kitchen Placemats

Drawstring Ballerina tote with zippered shoe pouch

Birch Trees for Patchwork in the Peaks

November

Radschlager pouch

December

Flying circle of geese wreath wall hanging

Star Plus quilt for Jamie

Looking forward to lots more sewing and being super organized (with the help of the Quilter's Planner of course) in 2016!!

FMT

Last bits of sewing 2015 - Star Plus Birthday/Christmas Quilt

Squeaking in just in time for Christmas - tada! My son's birthday quilt was finally finished and put in the washer at about 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve. Ok fine, technically it was Christmas morning. I even had to sneak down and get it out of the dryer around 8 a.m., stuff it into a gift bag and ram it under the tree before he woke up. Luckily, he is very easy to sneak by early in the morning.  His favorite colors are green and orange, so I started out early in the summer with an improv green triangle idea set in a navy background, but I never got farther than one column completed. I've had this set of Simple Marks Summer charm packs for quite awhile without a specific project in mind. These charms, with the addition of Kona white, ash and steel were a great combination for him. This also gave me another opportunity to play with and learn more about EQ7.

blocks finished about 17.5"

fun with basting!

looks pretty good on my own bed - tempting!

All finished!

Quilt Stats:
Fabric: (3) Simple Marks Summer charm packs
             Kona white, steel & ash yardage
Blocks - 17.5" unfinished
Binding - Kona steel, leaf and ash
Finished quilt - 70" x 70"
Inspiration:  Chandelier Quilt along at WeAllSew.com. My hst's and pluses are of equal height & width - measurements, cutting instructions and finished block/quilt sizes from quilt-along were not used.

Last bits of sewing 2015 - Flying circle of geese wreath

Hello!

In an effort to dust off my sewing machine and get myself in the Christmas spirit early in Dec, I decided to try a circle of geese block from Piece by Number - something I've wanted to do for quite awhile!

This pattern was super easy to follow - even for a beginner like me and as a bonus, I was able to use up some Christmas charms from my stash.

I thought about some kind of table covering at first, but it seemed like such a cute little wreath, I went ahead and called it finished after adding some quilting and a printed ribbon.

This went to another friend (via a heated game of Dirty Santa) who has since moved back to America and I'm so glad she took a little something from me with her ;).

Incidentally, I found a really helpful tutorial for adding a hanging loop to a wall quilt. It's genius! Check it out at Winding Bobbins. It's perfect for using a lightweight ribbon to a small wall quilt.

FMT