In Hyper-Drive Elf Mode

Christmas is right around the corner. It's been a bit quiet on the blog front as I've been racing to finish projects for Christmas. I have one last quilt to bind today or tomorrow and then a couple pillows to finish by Christmas Eve. I had high hopes to get some zipper pouches done for my coworkers for Christmas and to celebrate my 10-year anniversary with my company, but those will have to wait and be New Year's gifts instead.

I've been a busy little elf, but I can't show you most of the projects I've been working on since the recipients read this here blog. But, I did make a few pillowcases for my family, and since some of them have been gifted, I think it's pretty safe to share them.

I used Kerri's magic pillowcase tutorial to make these, and let me just say that it really is magical!

I made this Crafty Chloe pillowcase for The Middle's 4th birthday back in October.



I cut the fabric wrong for these next three pillowcases - oops - but I think they'll still work fine.







And I made these last two right before Sewing Summit. The colors blend really well with my FFA2 bed quilt. The mister claimed the second one for himself. (It's my favorite too, so sometimes I steal it.)





Speaking of pillowcases, if any of you locals are heading to the SLMQG social tonight, I have a few extra yards of fabric donated by Riley Blake if you'd like to make some pillowcases to donate to Sandy Hook Elementary, which is being organized by Quilter's Corner, a local CT quilt shop (details here). Thanks to Barbie for hooking us up!

And one last random item. Whether or not you've been following along in the Ruby Star Wrap-Along, I wanted to make sure you're aware that Sew, Mama, Sew! is hosting a contest on their blog in conjunction with the wrap-along. If you've made a project from the Ruby Star Wrapping book, you can enter it in their contest to win some pretty amazing prizes. Melody Miller and Sukie will be judging, which is even cooler!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll be back after the holiday to share the projects I've been working like mad to finish!

2012 Tribute to Sew Beautiful Bee - I'll miss you ladies!

I finished up my last bee block of 2012 the other night. I'm kind of sad about it being my last bee block, but happy with how it turned out. Lee sent a gorgeous palette of solids to make these 16.5" unfinished blocks so she can make a quilt like Rita's Chicopee Giant Vintage Star Quilt.



After making blocks comprised of half square triangles (HSTs), I always say I need a break from them. Without fail. But, in this block, there were only six HSTs, trimmed down to 4.5" - totally doable. And I didn't get sick of making them. I may need to make myself a quilt like this one of these days.

As I finished up Lee's block, I thought back over the year and put together this mosaic of blocks that I made and received in 2012 through the Sew Beautiful Bee. Several of us are not continuing on with the bee next year due to other commitments. I'm sad to see our group disband, but understand that all of us have full, busy lives. We plan to keep our connection alive though by having a swap sometime next year, and of course we'll all be keeping tabs on each other through blogs, Flickr, and Instagram.

It's been such a joy getting to know all of you girls over the last two years. I wish you all good luck in your future endeavors!



I'm finishing up a couple quilts for Christmas and then I hope to finish up my Gradated Mod Mosaic quilt that these ladies helped me put together. It'd be pretty amazing if I finished a bee quilt in the same year that I started it!

2012: Year of the Fabric Tracking

After Christmas last year, I decided I wanted to start tracking my fabric. See what comes in and goes out. Angela, one of my fellow Sew Beautiful Bee mates wrote a post about tracking fabric and I wanted to see how tracking my fabric may affect my purchasing decisions. Here's a snapshot of my simple spreadsheet.

I'd like to call your attention to the section that lists my totals.



Holy crap. Nearly 273 yards of fabric. That I bought. This year. That's crazy. That total does include fabric that I received as gifts and didn't pay for. But still. 273 yards! (I tried counting my existing fabric when I started tracking, but I only got through one drawer - hence the 301 yards in my total stash.)

The other total that I want to point out is the total cost. This amount includes the price of the fabric plus shipping and additional sales tax for online purchases. I am a pretty thrifty gal and usually will only buy fabric if it's on sale. If I can't find the fabric that I want on sale, then I buy it online for the best price. I seldom shop at brick and mortar stores. Maybe 15-20% of the time.

Considering the amount of fabric I stashed this year, I was pleased to see that over 160 yards LEFT my stash. That's pretty good in my book.

Seeing these totals has made me realize that I shouldn't buy any fabric in 2013. I'm sure I have well over 150 yards to get through since I had more fabric in my stash before I started tracking my fabric. I also have a boatload of quilts that I've started that need to be finished, such as:

Supernova Quilt

Circle of Circle of Circle of Flying Geese Quilt

Gradated Mod Mosaic Quilt

Granny Squares Quilt

The Middle Child's Quilt

Mom's Quilt

Carpenter's Christmas Quilt

New Nephew's Quilt (like this)

The Mister's Quilt (like this)

The Son's Keep-Warm-in-the-Car Quilt

The Lorax Quilt

I've set a goal for myself to USE MY STASH in 2013! I plan to only allow myself a little leeway in purchasing fabric for quilt backs. But, another goal I have for 2013 is to make more pieced backs (instead of my typical lazy buy-a-sheet-to-back-a-quilt way), so hopefully that'll eliminate the need for me to buy much fabric for backings.

So how about it? Who's with me?

Finished Spring Carnival Kona Solids Pillow

At Sewing Summit last month, I started this English paper pieced (EPP) Spring Carnival pillow in Katy's EPP class using a charm pack of Kona cotton solids in the bright colorway. I finished it up just before Thanksgiving, and I must say that I love how it turned out.

I wanted to quilt this pillow pretty densely so I pulled out my walking foot and set to work quilting in organic straight lines. After 30 minutes or so (I didn't really time it, but it felt like forever), I had only quilted about a 2-3 inch wide section. Ugh. This was going to take a while. So, I set the pillow aside to work on other, more pressing projects. A few days later, I pulled it out again after freemotion quilting (FMQ) on an apron for my husband's aunt to give my mother-in-law and thought I'd try straight-line quilting with my freemotion foot. Huzzah! It was so fast and slick and awesome! I finished the rest of the pillow in the same time it took me to do those 2-3 inches with my walking foot. Definitely a new favorite FMQ technique that I'm sure to use over and over.

For the back, I made another hidden zipper enclosure. I love that the pattern of the back fabric sort of mimics the design on the front. I can't remember the name of this fabric off the top of my head, but I picked it up during Sewing Summit and thought that'd be fitting too. The green zipper flap is Patty Young's Running Stitch in green.

I've entered this pillow in Pink Castle Fabrics Fall for Solids contest over on Threadbias.

Linking up to Kati's At the End of the Hallway.

 

Oh, and I wanted to mention that I survived my first-ever Black Friday shopping experience! My sister has vowed to never go again (once was enough for her), but another sister happily offered to do it again with me next year. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and weekend!

Breeding Like Rabbits: Two Finished Baby Quilts

It seems like everyone I know is pregnant right now. Or just had a baby. It also feels like I've made more baby quilts this year than in the two previous years that I've been quilting.

First up is a quilt for my friend and neighbor, Amy. She is due to have a little girl in a week and a half. Some people who are expecting girls are in one of two campgrounds: "I love pink" or "I hate pink." She's in the "I love pink" camp (hot pink to be exact). I just so happened to have the perfect girly hot pink fabric waiting to be made into a simple patchwork baby quilt.



I received a fat quarter bundle of Joel Dewberry's Heirloom in the Sapphire colorway for Christmas last year. I love the colors, but tend to shy away from making overly girly quilts for myself/my home because I want all the quilts I make to be equally loved by my family. Since there are two boys in the house, I wasn't sure a quilt with this fabric would be loved as much. So, I was really happy to cut some of it up for this quilt. And, I still have plenty of fabric left over for some more girly projects, maybe a couple patchwork skirts for my girls.

As luck would have it, I happened to have a hot pink bed sheet on hand, which I used for the backing. (I know I'm lazy when it comes to making backings, but that's something I'm going to try to work on in 2013.) I used the sheet for the binding too, but added a few small pops of Heirloom. I straight-line quilted on both sides of each seam. It measures about 36 inches square.



Next up is a baby quilt for another friend who's having a boy mid-December. I made a quilt for her daughter when she was born as well. This time I used a couple charm packs of Riley Blake's Super Star. I forget sometimes that the amount of fabric in precuts varies by manufacturer, so I added a border to make this quilt a bit bigger. It measures about 34x39 inches.



I used this dusty blue solid (Kona, but I'm not sure what color) for the backing and binding, adding a few more pops of Super Star for fun. The quilting is organic straight-lines on both sides of each seam.



For those of you in the states, I hope you have a safe Thanksgiving weekend! I'm trying to decide if I want to brave the crowds and pick up some Pellon batting (major sale) at Joann's today.