Tree Skirt Finish

Nothing like finishing up a project at the last minute!  :)  My tree finally has a tree skirt and it looks awesome.  I'd been wanting to make one for the last year or so, but of course waited until December to actually start it.

I up-sized a Swoon block to 36" square, quilted it and trimmed the corners because it was just too square.

ready to bind

This was my December finish for A Lovely Year of Finishes and I'm happy to have it ready so early.  I'm squeaking it in to Finish it Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts as well.  

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and some extra finish-it sauce for those last minute projects!

WIP :: 12/17/14

Christmas is coming!!  It'll be nice to be home for the holiday with family and be able to relax and refresh with good food, fun, hugs and hopefully some snow.  I was happy to make it to the park to drive through the light display earlier this week and had a fun time at trivia last night with friends. 

 
Last month while at Hobby Lobby I discovered blank cards in red & green and decided I could craft up my own Christmas cards this year and spread some cheer.  With the help of a 50% sale, I picked up the cards, some stickers, colored Sharpies, washi tape and confetti.  





Of course, I only managed to sit down and work on them this week!  I love how they turned out and was thrilled to drop them in the mail this morning. 

There's still more to cram in this week at work and not-work: packing, cleaning, eating food so it won't go bad, see friends, watch some Christmas movies & Doctor Who episodes, get some sleep and finish up a few projects.

I'm making good progress on my tree skirt so far this week.  Last night I measured my tree base, took a deep breath and cut the quilt so it'd fit around the tree.  I then wrapped it around the tree to be sure and phew - it fit.  I've pulled a red and white print from my stash and made bias binding and some ties.  These just need to be stitched down (hopefully by Friday) so that I can put it under the tree and enjoy it this year.

find me on instagram: @bumblybzs

Meanwhile, I've outlined the center piece of my curved challenge quilt and am stumped on how to finish it.  I want to add some more quilting in the negative space purple, but don't want it to touch or distract from the already stitched echoed lines. I was thinking a line of bubbles or swirly things top-to-bottom, but nothing has been quite right yet.  Any suggestions? (picture to come)

Linking up at Freshly Pieced this week and sending a huge shout out to everyone finishing up those last minute projects!

Sewing for Christmas

Last year I realized I could make a tree skirt for my Christmas tree and fully planned to make one sometime this year and be ahead of the game.  Ha.  haha.

Technically, I'm still ahead of this project and my December A Lovely Year of Finishes project will be to finish this tree skirt.  I up sized a Swoon block so this baby is 36" square and pulled the prints from my stash - a green Kate Spain print, tone-on-tone red dots and a dotty print from Blitzen.  I'll be putting up my ornaments this weekend and hope to have the skirt finished soon to wrap it all up.

Cheer on all of us making that final project for the holidays!  :)

WIP :: 11/12/14

First a bit of show n tell today : I ordered prints of some of my Instagram pictures and got those this past week in the mail.  Absolutely love them!  I ordered through Persnickety Prints - great service, shipping, packaging and the prints are high quality.  I'll be going back for more no doubt.



 I'm determined not to miss WIP this week as there's quilt-like ongoing things here.  Linking up at Freshly Pieced for the week - check out all the good things people are making.



in progress - top of the list

curves challenge - all basted and ready to go.  the pink fabric for backing is from my stash - a remnant table find at Hancock's bought with backings in mind.  first up is some echo quilting on this one.  This is my November ALYOF project completed & linked!  :)

moda love - I have a handful *coughcough* of mini charm packs and pulled out the Moda love quilt pattern that came out recently.  Chose the Color Me Happy and set to cutting - this top is finished and will need some fun quilting.

retreat project - no pictures to keep the surprise, but I've got my share of them with bindings stitched halfway

watercolor - this is almost ready for basting.  The paper stabilizer needs to be taken off, but i have batting & backing cut 'n ready to go.  This will also be fun to quilt with all the different colors & pieces.  I'll spare you the same photo of this one as it's on my FAL Q4 listing here.

That's it for now dear readers!

November ALYOF

Hey everyone!
  I wasn't sure what my monthly project should be for November - but knew I had to commit to something before I missed the deadline.  So this month, I've go to baste my curved wall quilt.  The top is almost finished. [pieces pinned and on the machine currently…]  I'll take a look in my stash for a good backing fabric.

Gotta keep moving on my FAL list as well so this seems like the thing to do it!  Linking up with Fiber of All Sorts for November.

BQF Swoon

Welcome -  

   I'm entering my Swoon quilt to the Large Quilts category for the Fall 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival!

This quilt was a long time in the process and always makes me smile when I see it.  I started it in January of 2012 at quilt retreat using fabrics from JoAnn's and 3 prints that I affectionately call my birthday prints.  These fabrics were purchased with a surprise birthday gift card at a quilt shop in La Plata, MD and paired perfectly with the roll-ups and charms from JoAnn's.

I loved the sea glass look and color of the fabrics so that inspired the quilting designs.  I FMQ sea foam- swirls and pebbles - in all of the white space, backgrounds & sashing.  I found this design in Angela Walters' book and what a perfect fit!  There's also some echo quilting inside the stars at the center of each block.  Of course, I used matching Aurifil threads for the quilting!

I pieced some leftover fabrics from the blocks and solid colors for the backing.  I used my birthday fabric to make the label.  The binding is Sketch in Pool and the actual name of the quilt is Pure Seaglass!  It lives on my bed and I absolutely love it - hope you do too!

Just B

 This was my October ALYOF project so now I've got another mini for my sewing room wall finished!  I added some straight lines through the exclamation point and echoed inside the B for the quilting, with matching Aurifil thread.  

Then I FMQ a bumblebee into the border - the first time I've added one to my quilts!  It'll have to be in all of my quilts now as it turned out really well. 

Linking up at Fiber of All Sorts and thinking about what needs to be sewn for November!  Also linking at Finish it Up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts!

on the wall already!

WIP :: 10/15/14

It's been raining for days here (no joke) and coupled with cooler temps, today was a perfect day to be quilting (once I got home from work that is).  After a short walk between the raindrops, I sat down to stitch my curves quilt together and also work on my October project.  I just started watching Once Upon A Time as well, which is great company for sewing.

A few seams didn't quite match up but I love how this turned out!  I plan to make it wall quilt sized and will be adding more of the purple background to the sides for extra width.  

I also quilted up my B! mini (Oct. ALYOF project).  Finally, finally! I remembered to stitch in a little bee into this one.  Now I'll just need to add the bee to all of my quilts in the future.  I just need some binding and can get it up on the wall soon.

yes, I did add an eye after taking the picture

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday. 

Finish Strong for Quarter 4

Well here we are - Quarter 4 of 2014. It's always good to be ambitious towards the end of the year so here's my list.  I'll be linking up at the Littlest Thistle and sitting down at the machine to get these finished!

B! mini quilt - for my wall, need quilting & binding

 TDF quilt - needs just about everything as it's still a pile of fabric & a pattern

Watercolor quilt - can't wait to quilt this one!

Improv quilt - roll over from last quarter as there wasn't any progress here

Curves - working on the table runner from A Quilter's Mixology and turning it into a wall sized quilt

2013 Pantone quilt - quilting, binding, etc. 

I'm sure a few other projects will pop up between finishing these, but that's the fun part!

Case Closed

I only managed 2 finishes this quarter from my original Q3 list - both of the Nancy Drew quilts! 

Quilt Part II is staying home with me so it was fun to take some of my Nancy Drew books outside with the quilt as props for the photo shoot.

Linking up at The Littlest Thistle #331

Mystery Solved

I only managed 2 finishes this quarter from my original Q3 list - both of the Nancy Drew quilts!  

During Momm's visit this weekend, we took quilt Part I to the library for a themed photo shoot - of course.  :)  These quilts needed some classic Nancy Drew props before I send Part I off to it's new home.

Linking up at The Littlest Thistle - #330

October

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”  - Anne of Green Gables

There's not much color change in the trees here yet, but Fall is here with blustery days, changing temperatures, and stunning cloud work morning & night!  I've also got a bag of MacIntosh apples from Momm and biting into a crisp one makes me happy it's Fall.

So I've decided my October project will be to finish my initial mini-quilt.  Something small so that I can get back to enjoying the outdoors this month.  All it needs is some quilting & binding before it goes on the wall.

Linking up at Fiber of All Sorts - Happy Quilting!

Get a Clue!

They're finished! Hooray!  

I made my September goal which was to bind both of my Nancy Drew themed quilts.  As previously stated, these are twin quilts, Parts I & II, and I quilted them both the same.  

I've used two different fabrics for binding - Sketch in yellow and the yellow pathway print from Central Park by Kate Spain.  Yellow was the obvious choice because, of course, Nancy Drew books had yellow covers!

Linking up with Fiber of All Sorts and getting ready to snuggle with a good book and my newest quilt.  I'm hoping to get some better full quilt shots this weekend too!

WIP :: 9/10/214

Hello again WIP Wednesday friends!  There's been a lot of things going on in my sewing room lately and here's a peek at what it entails.

finished
Shield: Made this Captain America shield for TJ as a going away gift.  Used this fun superhero print on the back - it was a big hit!  Intended for a table topper but will work however he wants to use it.

in progress
Nancy Drew: quilted these two, binding made for both and am halfway through attaching the binding.

B! block: Had fun making this wall block for my room from the Moda alphabet letter patterns.  Just need to quilt, bind and hang it up.

up next
Group Challenge: Sunrise table runner from A Quilters Mixology-fabric pulled & templates ready to cut
Pillow for P
Pillow (perhaps) for E


in the pile
Watercolor quilt
TDF runner (still!)
Improv quilt

Linking up at Freshly Pieced today and checking out the other links. 

Happy September

Happy Labor Day!  It's been a great weekend full of Doctor Who, friends, biking, rain storm, hiking and relaxing.  I fit in some quilting too and managed to quilt my Nancy Drew quilt.  Officially titled 'The Secret of the Faraway Friends Part I and Part II'.



My September project is to put the binding on these quilts.  Leaning towards binding it with yellow - just like the books! :)


 Linking up at Fiber of All Sorts for the start of the month.

Summertime Memories Swap

I participated in a Mug Rug swap this summer hosted at Quilting Gallery.  We had to make 2 mug rugs with the summertime memory theme to swap with our assigned partners.  My partner was in Wisconsin and it was a lot of fun working on these!  

I did the sunflowers, because my partner said they were her favorite flower.  They also make me think of summer and all the times I've watched the Tour de France in July.  The days when they ride through all the sunflower fields make me want to go visit them in person!  I cut all the petals free hand and used several stitches to raw-edge appliqué them on.

The second one is a city skyline with free-motioned fireworks across the sky.  What screams summer more than 4th of July fireworks or concerts & fireworks in the park?!  Finishing these up means I made my August goal for ALYOF and I'll be linking these up at Fiber of All Sorts.

Here's what my partner sent!  The box was part of the package and zips shut. I've got a pair of fun mug rugs to use, new patterns to try and some fun quilty themed napkins.  Thanks!   :)