Make a Garland

Back in December I won a kit for the Garland quilt by SuzyQuilts and in January she hosted a Sew Along for the pattern. So of course I joined in on that! 

The kit fabrics were solids, in a Christmasy color way, and I added some grunge metallic stars in red and green to the mix. I can't resist adding prints to all solids, and was glad to have just the right shades of the stars to include. 

Making the scrappy strips took some time, but it was fun to mix and match pieces without a plan in mind. Once those strips were finished the rest of the top came together quickly. So far, it's still a top, but it'll be fun to quilt and have ready for winter.

Reindeer Dash

A quick catch-up share today with a mini quilt I made for a Christmas gift. Momm has been eyeing up this geometric reindeer pattern for awhile. Bought the pattern from Quiet Play and started collecting up red scraps on the sly.  ;)

Momm wondered what I was doing with those scraps, but I managed to stay elusive and not give anything away!  Phew. Originally, this was intended to be a birthday gift, but I got behind and it turned into a Christmas gift instead. I know I'm not the only one this happens too!

Quilting this up in ripple circles was a fun choice and really makes the reindeer soar. Momm hung it up on the wall right away so that counts as a gifting-win. Enjoy it Momm!
Linking up with CrazyMomQuilts for another Finish It Up Friday - check out all the great links!

Jingle Jangle

Merry Christmas! It's such a joy to have a long vacation and to be home with family for the holiday! There's a good base of snow on the ground and it's been cold enough to keep it around so we'll have a white Christmas this year. :)

Christmas at home includes baking cookies & our traditional cherry holiday cake; cooking our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Polish city chicken with all the sides; lots of laughs and hugs and fun! The family tree glows at night and is loaded with ornaments- each one has a story from our travels, events, adventures through the years.  

Wishing you a Christmas season that's merry & bright!

Episode VI

Okay so if you've made it this far - yay! After making the Star Wars quilts for dad & my brother I knew I would want one for me! I wanted a Millennium Falcon on mine too, but had to make it a little different from J's. 

I hand stitched the Death Star laser, but kept the trend of quilting in stars and using the glow-in-the-dark thread for this quilt too. I used the rest of the Star Wars fabric for the back and mine is Episode VI - You Rebel Scum! I loved using movie quotes for the names of these quilts.

This was on my Finish Along list for Q4 as Codename: Forest and I'm happy it's finished now! Linking up the final finishes at OntheWindySide. I'll be putting it up on my wall shortly. Here's all three together, now that the other two are in their new homes. 

Getting all three quilted was my December goal for ALYOF and it was nice to finish the year strong with the final linkup at Fiber of All Sorts. Especially since Fiber of All Sorts & Sew are passing the torch on ALYOF. They've done a great job hosting the past few years and motivating so many people! I'm happy to see there are several bloggers willing to keep it going for next year.

Episode V

Now that Christmas is over, I can also share with you my completed secret quilts I made for gifts this year. It started with me taking a workshop with Laura Wasilowski on turning your own idea/inspiration into a quilt. So while making the Episode IV quilt for my dad, I realized my brother would probably want one too. 

This one is Episode V- It's a Trap! and includes a Millennium Falcon and a Death Star. It turned out really well and also includes quilted stars and glow-in-the-dark thread! I used Star Wars fabrics for the backing and wrote my label to look like the opening scroll text - just like the first one. This was a lot of fun to make - happy Christmas J!

This was on my Finish Along Q4 list as Codename: Icetime and am happy to say it's finished and gifted now. Wahoo! Linking up at OntheWindySide one last time.
 

Episode IV

Now that Christmas is over, I can also share with you my completed secret quilts I made for gifts this year. It started with me taking a workshop with Laura Wasilowski on turning your own idea/inspiration into a quilt.  Laura uses raw-edge fusing for her quilts and I had a brainwave that this was how I could make a Death Star quilt for my dad!

I printed out some images from online to get the right size/shape pulled fabrics from my stash (and momm's) and got started making my Death Star!  I love how it turned out -and so did the other participants in the class. I added some hand stitched laser bolts, quilted in some stars in the background and used my glow-in-the-dark thread to add a few stars and the x-wing jet trails.

I used Star Wars fabrics for the backing and wrote my label to look like the opening scroll text.  :) So I named this one Episode IV - That's No Moon! It's already hanging in dad's office - yay! This was on my Q4 list for the Finish Along as Codename: Slapquilt and I'm happy it's finished. Linked up to OntheWindySide for the finish!

trimming the tree

I put my ornaments up on the tree this weekend - starting of course with the newest additions from this year which include:

A small Gullah basket, Ft. Sumter pin & USS Yorktown pin from Charleston, a pin from the Sisters quilt show, a keychain bison from visiting the elk & bison prairie at LBL over the summer and a few DC pieces from Arlington Nat'l Cemetery and Fords Theater. 

 It's always fun to decorate the tree and remember where each one came from and the memories attached!

While it's been in the mid 50s this weekend and doesn't feel like December at. all., I woke up Saturday morning realizing I had 2 weeks to finish up some Christmas gift-quilts.  Eeep! Naturally, finishing these gifts were my first thought for my December goal at A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts so I'll leave you with this picture, from the last post, as there are some surprise elements at play here.

Luckily they aren't too big in size, so putting the finishing touches on them shouldn't be difficult. This elf better get to work! What sort of homemade gifts are you finishing this month?

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!  :)

Merry Quilting!

Phew these last few weeks have been non-stop both at work and out of work and in between!  There's been a little bit of sewing fit into all the busy - both for myself and some for gifts too.

I've been working on my Outdoors quilt and it's been a lot of fun so far.  Lots of thread colors and details and texture are being added to make this one of my favorite projects.  Soon enough I'll need to figure out binding color/fabric and get a label together.  Hooray!

a hiking trail through the trees! (please ignore the loose threads)

My Christmas tree is up as well and it was enjoyable to sit by it while watching the snow fall the other weekend.  Putting up the tree can't be done without the Grinch or other favorite Christmas movies  such as Holiday Inn.  I also got around to watching The Holiday which was a whole lot of fun!

Sometimes inspiration strikes whether there's enough hours in the day or not.  That hit me over the weekend and I hauled out my scrap box, some fusible, some form of Peltex, my iron and scrap paper.  I worked out a few fun wintery designs and made art cards as gifts for my friends. 

 Fun and fairly quick to put together once I had the idea sketched out.  Especially fun to go through my scraps and find the exact right prints - like the one I used for the tree.  Perfection!  


These were a hit and I definitely plan to make more as quick gifts.  Linking these up with Finish It Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts.

Merry Quilting readers!

elf projects

Here's a look at the zip bags I made for gifts this year.  I didn't want to post them earlier and give away the surprise since the recipients sometimes check out new posts.  ;]

**fair warning, this post is picture heavy

It was exciting to figure out fabrics for each person and try out some new tutorials.  I also made turtle bark and put some in each envelope before mailing these zipps out to friends.

all of them together!

Just ignore the fact that I'm addicted to the oval box bag tutorial - I just couldn't stop making them!

I made zip pulls for each with a charm and beads. This one's for C so, of course, the charm is a crown! This print is so fun in everything I've used it in.

Next up was this coffee themed one for L! Her charm was a sea shell to remind her of the beach and I really love the colors.

 

It was a bit trickier to find fabric for S but I really hope she likes it! I loved this one too and used a heart charm for the zip pull.

front

Next up, my first triangle bag for Snaps - in the coolest fabric ever! I love these llamas and used the matching Peruvian blanket fabric from Laurie Wisbrun for the inside. Her charm is a turtle.   :D

 


Then I made one for L after pulling her school colors!  Hers also got a sea shell charm and I dropped it by her desk this week to lots of smiles.

Lastly, I had extra time on my hands since my flight home was cancelled due to high winds & storm.  My apartment is super clean now with all that extra time and while catching up on Psych episodes I tried my hand at the wide mouthed bag tutorial.  

It was lots of fun to make! I used scraps to piece the outside panels and used a fun Snoopy fall-themed print for the lining.  I also fussy cut Snoopy for the zip tab. Momm loves Fall and I thought this bag would be perfect for her.  Especially since she hasn't tried this tutorial yet!

Well, that's all of the homemade gifts I made this year and I hope everyone loves them as much as I do.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cheer

Happy December!  I'm already counting down the days left of work before my vacation (12 for anyone interested).  It doesn't feel like December here - this week it's been in the upper 60s/70s so far and that makes it hard to think about candy canes, snow angels and such. 

This year I got my first tree (artificial) and was able to clean enough this weekend to be able to put it up.  I love it!  I carried on tradition by watching White Christmas while putting on the ornaments, each tied on with red yarn.  In our house, our ornaments are keychains or tickets or something from places we've been or things we've done so each one has a story and it's fun to pull them out each year and remember where we got it!  

I have my own small collection of ornaments now that I have my own place and enjoyed putting them on the tree.  Some favorites include: a vacuum tube from my first job, a Toblerone candy bar keychain from our trip to Switzerland, guitar pick from Nashville and an Anne doll from PEI.  The only problem once they are on the tree and you want to find a specific one - it takes ages to spot it!

I also got some other decorations out and was relieved to see that I had enough candles for my Advent wreath this year.  I couldn't find any tall purple or pink candles the other day.  I also drove through the park to see the light display and found a Christmas music radio station.  Now that the tree is finished, I want to make a tree skirt for it - we'll see how that progresses!  It's nice to sit with a book or my computer by the glow of the Christmas tree so here's to you taking time to do the same. :]

handmade giftings

Here's a quick catch-up on the Christmas finishes and projects I made for this year.  

Thundercats - Ho!

First up are the awesome coasters I made for my brother.  These were a spur of the moment kind of inspiration and it didn't take too long to figure out how to make them either!  I found an image of the Thundercats! logo online, printed it out and cut out the outline.  Then I traced it onto black fabric, cut it out and then cut out a circle of red for it to fit into.  From there it was steady, but slow work to machine applique the layers together.  The coasters are finished with a simple pillow turn and top stitch.  I was so happy with how these turned out and J loved them! Success!  :)

front 

back

For mom I made a sewing machine cover that would bring some more color pop! to her sewing room.  She's been wanting to bring more orangey-yellows in since her walls are painted turquoisey-blue.  It was a sneaky project because I asked dad to measure the machine for me so I could make it fit right!  It's also reversible with a blue & white print on the back.  Mom really liked this gift (right?!) and when she's not sewing I'm sure her machine will be dust protected and cute!

are you a fan of delicious flavor?

I found a neat picture on flickr of a pineapple block and was inspired to make a mug rug for Snaps since she was visiting for New Year's.  The first one I started has ended up more of a mini quilt size (18" x 20").  oops!  I have it set aside to finish up for my wall at quilt retreat this year.  Then I refigured my sizing and managed to get it down to mug rug size.  We both watch Psych and there's always a pineapple in the episode somewhere.  So now she has a pineapple of her own.

I'm also working on more mug rugs and my Japanese X + blocks for the swap hosted by Isabella the Cat on flickr here.  I'm so excited to get my blocks shipped off as they have been so much fun to make! They look awesome with scrap fabrics and I look forward to what kind of blocks I'll get back in the swap.  I'll certainly be making these blocks again and again [and again....]. 

So that's what I've been up to on the quilting front.  I got a couple of patterns for Christmas - including Swoon!  Hooray!  I love this pattern and am currently deciding which fabrics I want to use for it. I also got a 'jelly roll' set of batiks - which are a gorgeous blend of blues, yellows, turquoises.  Perfect for feeling summery now that it has turned wintery here!