Quilt of Valor Finish

I managed to complete this Quilt of Valor in a little over three days, I just finished binding it this morning! I made the resolution this year to make an entire Quilt of Valor (QOV) each month as my charity projects for the year. It would not have been good to miss the first month :0 !! This one turned out pretty neat, someone had turned in "orphan blocks" to the QOV table at guild, and others had donated fabric. I enjoy looking through the stash, especially since I have to lugg it around to each guild meeting and QOV workhop, so while "playing fabric" I put these together & really liked how they went together. I had a blast quilting it, perhaps went a little "overboard", but that too fits in with the nautical theme of this quilt! (Grin) Perhaps a sailor or a marine will receive this quilt ?? Although the top was all donated fabric and cannot count towards using my stash, I did use three yards of my stash for the backing, so while I am not ahead with the stash count - I am getting closer! Here is a close up of the the quilting. Happy Quilting !!

Happy New Year!

Just having a bit of trouble getting back into the swing of things now that we have returned from our visit, returned to school and after school activities. I am not excited about cleaning up & organizing my studio. What a mess. I guess the worst part is that there are numerous projects. unfinished (of course) that are a large part of the clutter and I could just pack them away in order to clean up, or actually finish them which is what I should do. I have finished 3 purses that I did not get gone in time for Christmas, so they qualify for two categories! WISPs and Christmas gifts! I added the 1 XMAS project a month button to my side bar to inspire me to get the projects done (on time) this year! I am toying with the idea of figuring out just how may WIP/WISPs I have and listing them on my sidebar. Might be too overwhelming, but may keep me on task. I have noticed that I started out really well last year, completing WISPs, but then I started a slew of projects, MANY which were completed. Bunch that were not. Sigh. Above are the purses; there are only three - they are reversable, the 1st photo is of the "inside" the 2nd is of the outside. I'm not so wild about the plain inside fabric, I do like the black, pink and green fabric for the inside. I guess since there isn't any quilting a busier fabric might be best. Can't say who they're going to though, the larger purses I mean, Christmas is a long ways away and I couldn't spoil the surprise THIS early! I just made the smaller kitty one so that I could use up the scraps from the larger kitty purse! Happy Quilting!

These are photos of some of the purses I managed to complete and mail. I made a really cute on for my Mom who lives in Arizona, but mailed it off early so it would get there in time! (forgot to take a picture, I'll ask her to send me one.) Don't look at the clutter around the room, that'll be tackled next year! ;D

Happy Holidays!

Ho ho ho! I am laughing so I don't freak out because I am so far behind. Almost forgot to post, am leaving for Massachusetts for the holidays, in like oh, 45 minutes, and won't be back until the new year. Busy doesn't begin to describe my recent life, but then, I suppose that is no different from everyone else! The sad thing is, I have done things, mailed them and forgot to take pictures, and I know I have forgotten projects as well, but here is what I remember. One of the guild members generously created an original mystry wallhanging for us to do. I did mine in Thimbleberries Christmas fabric (old stash) and free quilted what was supposed to be pinecones in the centers. I made 7 purses as gifts, but that wasn't enough, I ran out of time on 10 others. Yes, perhaps I was a little unrealistic, just how long could 17 purses take? Well since they are not all the same, and not counting the work on skating costumes and QOV tasks, I guess I was over reaching this time. When I look back on ALL that I was able to accomplish this year, and actually FINISH!! I am so pleased. I have set the bar for next year, and I will start my finishing my 2010 starts and going back and working on all of those other WISPS! I think in the new year when I return and start cleaning up my studio, I will figure out how many actual WISPS I completed, and how many I started. Oh, yeah, I just remembered, I did some extra quilting for other people too, even besides my Gram - now I don't feel so lazy! Now it's time to start the long drive and relax and enjoy the holidays with family! Hope everyone has a wonderful & safe holiday season!!

Fall Finish

I Finished binding this wall hanging last night while watching the Dallas Cowboys get pummeled by the Greenbay Packers - a very satisfying night all around! I have had this panel for about 5 years, maybe more? and was going to cut out parts of it to decorate some small canvas bags, but obviously, never got around to it! I "won" the pretty fall fabric around the panel at the guild's silent auction last month, and was determined to do something with it "sooner" vs my typical "later" so it was nice to finally use some old fabric while I was at it. I still have more of the fall fabric left and am in the midst of more projects with that. I am trying to catch up on my long arming this week. The children's activities have been overwhelming lately, my son's High School Marching Band just had their final competition on Saturday which they won and now they are enjoying their status as completely undefeated this year, the first time in their school's history! (The high school is only 15 yrs old) My daughter also competed Saturday, but in figure skating and she competed in two new routines and placed second in both! It seems time is flying too fast! Back to the sewing room - Happy Quilting!

Happy Halloween!

It's the 31st already? I feel I've been tricked with how fast this month has gone by - I sure wish I would get treated to an extra week for this month! I started out the month very well, I finished two prayer shawls that the guild was collecting for the church that so generously allows us to hold our QOV workshops for free in their large fellowship hall. I used flannels from my stash and didn't need to buy anything - not even backings! I was also able to get a QOV quilted. I also quilted some quilts for a few other people, not added as part of the OPAM tally, but still satisfying!

Unfortunately I had a lot of extra events to attend or attend to this month that really ate into my time. My daughter is also devoting more time & effort into skating so she has more practices/lessons and she skated in a Halloween show last Saturday, and I had to make the costume for that. My neighbor had her son three weeks ago, and I finally got his quilt finished, and bound last night - my daughter & I brought it over this evening and wouldn't you know I forgot to take a picture of it first! But it's done & delivered and she was so happy, I used a soft minke-like blanket for the backing and it was warm and yet still supple. It also matched the jungle theme in his room! I managed to finish a Christmas present this month, although I am still behind from last month. We held a silent auction at our guild, which was a fund raiser for the Quilts of Valor Committee so naturally I felt quite obligated to bid on a few items . . . Yikes! and couldn't believe how many of them I "won" ooops. It was a lot of fun to get the items home and see it all - much of it had been bundled up into groupings. A kitty lacy doily-like item was between two pieces of fabric, which I hadn't noticed and there was bits of blue and I had a blue stripe that was kind of cute so the very next day after the auction I put together this little wall hanging for my daughter for Christmas. She used to LOVE pink, but now she prefers blue, so I think she'll really like this. I used invisible thread to quilt it, and to attach the kitty doily to a dark blue background, which was a first for me and easier than I had anticipated. I am also using some really pretty fall fabric from the auction on a couple of other projects that I hope will be done by next month! We'll see, won't we ? Happy Halloween!

September?

September is practically gone, hard to believe how fast time is flying by. In some ways we were greatful that this month went by quickly, although I wish I had gotten more quilting done. I was forced to be a single parent for a little over 3 weeks, as my husband had to go to Iraq with several others from his office. We appreciated the fact that it was only 3 weeks instead of a year or more like so many others must do, but we were not happy with the fact that he was out and about visiting various locations while he was there. He arrived safely home Monday night so we are all so happy and relieved! I finished two more cell phone cases from the 2 fat quarters I had quilted, plus I made 2 water bottle identifiers. I have just enough scraps left to make a little credit card holder, but got side tracked before I could finish it. My Niece's friends held a make up baby shower for her, but I could not attend as the children are in school and she is 10 hrs away. I made a black, white & red "play" quilt for Gus, and a simple little jungle print batik quilt for him. I used soft minke-like fabric on the back of both of them. I didn't use batting for the jungle/batik one, so it is lightweight and supple. I doubled 3 oz poly for the play quilt, so it is very, very thick, it's more for him to lay on, and later play on, not so much to use for cover. My husband took the camera to Iraq, so I took photos of the play quilt with my phone. I had quilted two quilts for my Gram, that she made for Gus, and I was in such a hurry to send them off that I forgot to take a photo of the Jungle quilt, as I sent it along with Gram's quilts. I did not make any Christmas presents this month, that makes two months in a row, so now I am falling behind in that ! I sewed together 4 backings and 2 bindings for Quilts of Valor but I need to start longarming some more of those. I have a lot of that to do too! BTW, the play quilt is my own design, and it was a kind of "make it up as you go along" type of thing, it was a lot of fun to make, I tried different techniques, and thought of new ideas as I went along. I have 4 more of these cut out, but with slight variations, I am going to make 1 for each of my children - well then, I guess for my future grandchildren, in case my hands are too useless when that time comes. I used fabrics from my stash, except for the red square and binding I had purchased while at my grams this summer. Boy is my stash count, In and Out way off, it's going to take me a day to figure that out! Let's just hope October is more productive!