Friday Finish

It keeps raining every time I try to take the quilt outside for some pictures, so here is my indoor attempt for your pleasure: 

This quilt is for a very dear friend of mine from medical school years that just had a baby.  I'm a little late getting it to her, because she had her baby 6 weeks early!  That'll teach me not to procrastinate.

This is my first time using my new machine for FMQ on a real quilt.  I practiced for a while on scraps and then decided to go with a very familiar and easy design for me, so that I could easily get the feel for my new machine.  I stuck with loopy lines with some hearts added in there.  It took me a little longer to quilt than usual, because I was being really cautious, but I'm thrilled to be back at it again.

This quilt is headed out in the mail tomorrow.  Now it's time to get caught up on some Bee blocks and another baby quilt.  Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.  I'm linking up to TGIFF and FMQ Friday.

WIP for the New Year

There's nothing quite like a new sewing machine to get you excited and off and running for the new year: 

I started and finished a baby quilt this week.  I still need to get pictures of the final product, but here's the quilt top:

I completed the Sisters' Ten BOM January Block: Grandmother's Frame.  You make two of each block every month.  I'm using all Kona Solids for this Quilt Along.

Other projects
do.Good Stitches- need to make my January block
Quiet Book - Ugh.  No progress.
Christmas quilt - on hold until it feels like it's close enough to Christmas to start working on it again.

Upcoming projects
Dancing Stars Quilt Along
Baby Quilt for my soon-to-arrive niece

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 2
Completed projects - 1
WIP- 4

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.  

Sewing Bee Results

This past Fall I joined the 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee.  The idea is each of the 6 people in your Hive tell you what colors they want their block to be, and then you choose a block you want to make and sew one for each person in your Hive in the colors of their liking. 

I chose the colors Turquoise, Purple, and Gray with a Black Background and these are 5 blocks that I received in the mail from my Hive members:

Aren't they beautiful?!  I signed up for another round requesting the same colors, so I should get another 5 blocks by the end of February.  I haven't decided which block I want to make for my Hive members yet, but I have plenty of time to decide. 

Animal Garden Windows Quilt Top

I used Kate's Garden Windows block to make this baby quilt.  It came together quickly.  I used Kona Coral for the background color.  I've never used that color before, but it matched perfectly to the theme animal print.

It was freezing and very sunny outside.  You can see my puffy coat in the shadow.  I was wearing my husband's shoes to trudge through the snow in the back yard, and I couldn't feel my fingers by the end of it.  The things we do for a good picture. :)

And the List Expands...

The New Year always brings a bunch of quilt a-longs, and I always have a hard time deciding which ones I want to do vs. how many I can handle doing at once.  This particular year there seems to be a plethora of fun options.  I saw 3 that I'm really tempted to join, so the first thing I did was clean up my fabric stash to figure out what exactly I had to work with.

1- I have a TON of scraps from previous quilts that I think I'm going to use for the Dancing Stars Quilt A-Long.  This is going to be more of a long term project for me since they give you the pattern and you work at the pace you want.

2- I saw Sister's Ten modern BOM and fell in love with the design and blocks they're making over at Gen X Quilters.  It's 2 blocks a month, and I've decided to do an all solids quilt with the Kona Rainbow bundle I got from the do.Good Stitches quilt winnings.  I am a lover of all things Kona, so I'm pretty excited about this one.

from Marmalade Fabrics

3- The last quilt along I'm a bit on the fence about - not because I don't want to participate, but because I'm afraid I'm adding too many projects to my pile all at once.  Alyssa is doing a Skill Builder Quilt Along.   It doesn't start until later in the month, so I have a little time to decide.  I did a Skill Builder last year and loved it.  This one looks very different, and I'm particularly intrigued, because it's a "quilt as you go" for each block.  I've always wanted to do this, so that I could work on some more intricate quilting on a smaller scale.  Oh bother - I'm probably going to end up doing it.  Now I just have to figure out what fabric I'm going to use.

Besides quilt a-longs I have a bunch of projects that need to get done.  I have a couple baby quilts that are time pressing.  A dear friend of mine just had a baby girl six weeks early, so I am caught without a quilt ready for her - oops.  I pieced together all of the blocks yesterday and I hope to have the quilt top put together tonight.

My sister is also expecting a little girl at the end of Spring, and I want to make sure it's done in plenty of time, so that's next on the list.  

It looks like I better get sewing!   

Finish Along Stats

I realized I never technically did a separate post for my Roar Baby Quilt, so I need to do that (according to the official rules of the Finish Along).  Here he is:

(original post of goals for the 4th quarter found here)

I was looking back at my 2012 Finish Along goals for the year, and I'm happy to report that I got 14 out of 15 done.  The only one I didn't finish was the Christmas quilt, and I still made progress on it.  It's now a quilt top at least.  I guess it officially gets moved over to my 2013 goal.  :) I'm now at an all-time low for UFOs with only 3.  That's pretty much amazing, wahoo!  Now if only I could stop myself from starting a bunch of new projects.  Tee hee. 

Squeezing In a Finish...Sort Of

Well, Christmas has past us by and I didn't finish my Christmas quilt (again), but I did manage to finish the quilt top today, and I'm pretty excited to at least have that much done.  At this rate I may even have it finished by next Christmas.  Eh...don't quote me on that though.  :)

The Post Where Choirs of Angels are Singing

Ok- maybe that's a little dramatic, but that's what I heard when I saw my last Christmas gift.  Joel and his family got me a new sewing machine!  Yep- it was all stealth and brought out after all of the presents had been opened.  I freely admit to crying. 

Not only did they get me a sewing machine, but it's a complete upgrade from my last sewing machine, so there is lots of joy in this household again.  :)

My first project involved making my December block for do.Good Stitches.  It's a fun paper-pieced block (Starry Nights) from Fresh Lemons.  The request was for super girlie - mostly pink.