today is brought to you by the letter F

as in F for FINISHED!   [also Friday, Fifteen, February, Fun] 

Mostly for the Finish though! 

I put the last stitch into the binding for my Summer Sampler quilt tonight and had to share pictures right away.  It's my February finish for the Year of finishes and one of my Finish Along projects - so I'm excited to have this one checked off the list and onto the couch for snuggles!    :)


Tomorrow I'll give it a label, take some daylight photos and send it through the dryer for those loveable crinkles.  Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday as well.  

Finish it!

Some of you know I'm on a mission to finish up some WIPs/UFOs this year!  I joined up with the 1st Quarter of the Finish A Long over at she can quilt.  That definitely motivated me to work on quilting my Summer Sampler quilt!  

 It still needs some work before it's complete, so I'm linking in with the Year of Finishes over at Fiber of All Sorts and choosing this quilt as my February project!  I'm determined to finish quilting and bind this quilt so I can snuggle with it.  :)  Right now, each of the blocks are quilted so I need to tie off some threads, quilt the sashing & borders then bind & label the quilt.  Hmmm...that sounds like a lot but shouldn't be a problem- bring it on February!  I'm also linking up over at Lee's WIP Wednesday as well - since it is top of the pile for finishes!

blocks quilted - ready to tackle the sashing

a whole weekend of quilting!

Last weekend was the 4th year for Quilt Retreat with Momm!  It was lots of fun as always and we even got snow on Saturday.  The views of Lake Michigan from our sewing room are spectacular.  Good food, good friends, lots of laughs, and lots of quilting!  This year Momm & I decided to make the same pattern in different fabrics.  I ended up with 3 finished tops at the end of the weekend, even though my goal this year to to finish up some WIPs!  Hopefully these won't be waiting too long before they get finished.

I started with a baby quilt for baby BAM!  That was quick to piece together and is super cute. There's no pictures because it's a surprise for a certain Queen C.  :)   First up, Science Fair by Jaybird Quilts - what a fun pattern!  Originally I had a solid royal blue to use for the background, but once I put it up on the design wall it didn't work as all the colors got muddied.  Luckily momm  had enough of this grey print that I could use.  Thanks momm!  :D 

These are X plus blocks I got in a Flickr swap last year and are on my 1st quarter Finish a Long list.  It was fun to arrange and sew them together into a quilt top just the right size for using in the car or hanging on my entry way wall.

Sunday Snapshot #14

Lots of good things going on this weekend::

Hockey returned Saturday *finally* and it was a pretty great opening game Chicago vs. L.A. to start off the season.  Wahoo!  

I had a great GS program at work, even though only 2 out of 7 came.  They had a good time making their rainbow little quilts and really enjoyed seeing all the quilts in the gallery.  It's not always easy to go to work on the weekends, but for these programs it's definitely worth it.

The organizing bug struck again this afternoon and I have another bag of items to take to Goodwill.  Plus, my apt. is a little tidier.  :)

And the Ravens just advanced to the Super Bowl!  How exciting and I bet my friends back in B'more are gonna have a good time celebrating that.

Lastly, I finished quilting the blocks in my Summer Sampler quilt!  This has been patiently waiting until I could come up with an idea for quilting......and continued to wait until I decided I just needed to start stitching!  It helped to join in with the Finish A Long, because it lends some serious motivation to sitting down at the machine.  

Isn't this shot of the back awesome?! You can see the fun confetti dot print I used as backing & the blocks.

I knew what I wanted in several blocks, and just kept working with the rest until the right idea came around.  To help figure it out I printed out a picture of the quilt top, put it in a page protector sheet and used a dry erase marker to draw designs and see how they look.  Easy to try out different things without having to rip out stitches.  Now I'll just be working on what to quilt in the sashing & border.

A bit wordier than normal for the Sunday Snapshot so I'm signing off!  Linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday too.  Go check out all the great things people are creating!

WIP :: 1/16/13

Back in the groove with my first WIP Wednesday in 2013!  The last week or so has been full of progress of the non-quilting variety.  
I've been cleaning/sorting/organizing *everything*!  Seriously, everything.  Closets, sewing room, fabric, work desk, work files, etc.  It's been great and allowed me to free up space and figure out what I have to use, but it has cut into my quilting time.  I determined to change that this week and finally managed a few hours at my machine tonight.


I signed up for the 2013 Finish A Long over at She Can Quilt, hoping to find motivation to finish off some lingering quilts.  I managed to baste my Summer Sampler last week and dived on into the quilting.  There's a general plan for what I want - something different in the grey background in each block - and I managed 4 blocks tonight!  So excited to see it come together.

Here's the Greek Cross block I pebbled quilted in, and after stippling in the Virginia Star block realized my feed dogs were still up!  Oops.  I couldn't believe how nicely I could FMQ with the feed dogs up. Who knew?!  I did lower them before continuing onto the next blocks.  **edit: using the Super Slider cancelled out having the feed dogs up**

Am also looking forward to the 4th annual Quilt Retreat with Momm and am planning quilts.  I plan on making Jaybirds Science Fair with these fabrics:

I've also wanted to do the Kaleidoscope quilt from Don't Call Me Betsy's QAL and will have that in these colors too:

Linking up over at Lee's this week and keeping my motivation in high gear!

Finish A Long : Quarter 1

My main quilty goal for this year is to work on finishing up some of my UFOs/WIPs.  There are a number of them waiting patiently to become a real quilt.  ;)   To help keep me motivated, I'm joining in on the 2013 Finish A Long over at SheCanQuilt, so here's my First Quarter list. 

1. Summer Sampler Quilt
I participated in this a couple summers ago and loved working on the blocks.  I have the backing and binding all-ready to go, so I need to bring it to work with me to baste on the table space.

2. Psalm quilt
This is a quilt I made for me using some lovely batiks and the Yellow Brick Road pattern.  It's sat for several years as just the top and backing fabric, so now it's time to finish this one up too.  I find it amusing that it was the first of three quilts I pieced with this pattern, but the last to be finished!

3. I have these great X and + blocks from a Flickr swap last year that are calling to be made into a completed quilt.  Not sure if I want to make 2 smaller pieces out of these, so we'll see how it turns out!



Short list, but they will involve some massive wrangling on the machine.  Wish me luck!

a look back on 2012

Happy New Year!

Here's a look at what I finished in 2012.  As I went through my photos I was impressed with all I've gotten done in the last year.  

I'm making some plans/goals for 2013 and really want to finish up some of my WIPs.  I have a handful of quilt tops that are ready to baste & quilt and really want to see them ready for snuggles.  Hoping to stay motivated on the WIP finishes by joining the Finish A Long over at She Can Quilt this year.  It's hard to pick a favorite from the year - so just enjoy.  :)

the quilts

I tackled a new skill this year - sewing with zippers!  I loved every one I've put in so far and have even taught it to my Junior Quilters.  I know there will be more of these in the upcoming year too.  I also tried out curves on a test block and want to spend more time with those as well.

Pictured here: my first zipper ever, an iPad case and mug rugs.  So much fun.  

front

Finally, as it was a Christmas gift, the quilt for J - Pixelated Blues!
  
It was well received and destined for lots of snuggles.  The binding uses the darkest & lightest fabrics and frames it up nicely. 

back

The back has a stripe of the gradated colors with two shades of grey. It really shows off the quilting- a large X through the center and echoed lines all the way out to the edges using dark, medium & light grey threads.

back detail

I'm linking up over at Lily's Quilts for the Fresh Sewing Day and the Small Blog Meet Up today! come check out all the great updates and inspirations!