2012: Year in Review

Happy New Year! It's 9 o'clock on January 1st and I'm ready for bed. But, I realized I hadn't posted the mosaics of my 2012 projects. Here's a short and sweet round-up of what I made (and a few things I received) in 2012.

Pillows - I really enjoyed making a few pillows this year. I participated in two rounds of the Pillow Talk Swap on Flickr. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is by far my most favorite swap to participate in. I've been extremely lucky to have been partnered with some really amazing women and this swap has stretched me more than any other.

Bags and Pouches - The zipper has become my new best friend. I've enjoyed experimenting with different sizes of pouches (both the beginning cut fabric size and the gusset depth) and different types of interfacing. There were some days that I felt like a pouch-making machine, and this is definitely one of my favorite go-to, quick gift projects. I also made my favorite bag ever this year: my 241 tote that I use as my purse and get compliments on all the time. Melody Miller's typewriters have been one of my favorite prints of the year.

Quilts - Of course, my main sewing emphasis this year has been on quilts. I managed to make 20 quilts this year, finishing the first two in April (why did I waste those first four months?!). The mister made his first quilt too and I couldn't be a prouder missus. I made a few quilts for Christmas gifts and will be posting about those over the next couple weeks.

Everything Else - I also tried my hand at clothing construction. I am not a seamstress. I have a hard time understanding the three-dimensional aspect to apparel sewing, but even so, I managed to make myself a Washi tunic and The Middle an Easter dress (it's amazing that thing came together as well as it did since I adjusted the bodice measurements myself). The skirts I made The Middle have been a huge success and I'm sure there will be many more in 2013.

I've spent some time mulling over the goals I have for myself in 2013. In years past, I've focused on specific quilts I wanted to make. And to tell you the truth, I don't think I accomplished even 50% of that goal. For 2013 I want to really focus on quality over quantity. I want to enjoy what I'm making and not pick a quilt design based on its level of difficulty. I'm sure I'll still make a few patchwork quilts this year (I really do love simple patchwork), but I want to stretch myself and focus on learning new techniques and making things that I really really love.

I also plan to not buy fabric this year (gasp! Typing that was hard!), with the exception of neutrals for sashing and such. In fact, I will probably buy a bolt of Kona white in the next few days just so I have it on hand all year. I am also going to try to piece more backs so I hopefully can eliminate fabric purchases there too.

Lastly, I have several quilt tops that need to be finished up. I definitely intend to knock those off my to-do list as soon as I can. (I'll probably be sending a few larger quilts your way, Barbie and Kayli!)

Anyway, that's a wrap!

Finally some quilty sewing!

After Christmas, I was so excited to get started on some new projects. You might say I was a little impatient. I felt a little scatterbrained at first trying to decide what new project to start, so I ended up starting three.

One of my quilt plans for 2011 is to make a new quilt for my bed. The mister and I decided to go with the All Star 2 line. My plan is to make square-in-square blocks. Here are the first two.





I'm not sure what the final size blocks will be. These are about 12 inches, but I'm just kind of winging this one. The finished quilt needs to fit our queen-sized bed so I might finish the blocks at around 16 inches. We'll see how they turn out.

I got a baby shower invite in the mail yesterday, so after working on the two blocks last night, I started a quilt top for the baby-to-be. I tried out Oh Fransson's Mixtape pattern, but made a few modifications to speed up the process. I'll talk about this more later as I work on the quilt (it's due by next Friday), but I left out the sashing and I think it came together nicely.



Finally, I decided to start on a Kitchen Windows quilt from Elizabeth Hartman's book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork, using two of the colorways from Far Far Away 2. I wasn't quite sure what fabric to use as the "windows." I initially went with Kona Green Grass to create a lot of contrast between the windows and the background. But, the more I looked at the fabric, I didn't like how the color changed depending on the light. In natural light, the fabric matched the colors in FFA2 nicely, but in florescent light, it totally clashed.



The problem with going with a neutral, though, is that I'm worried the quilt will just get muddled.



Then I had the thought that if I go with the green window sashing, the green might overpower the FFA2 fabrics and stand out more than anything else. I kind of want the FFA2 fabric to be the star of the quilt, so I'm torn.

Any suggestions?

Quilt Hope In

A couple weeks ago, I read about a sweet baby girl who was orphaned in Haiti. The image of her laying in the orphanage with tears streaming down her face was heartbreaking. I've thought of that image often over the last few weeks and it still pulls at my heart strings. Tracey read about the same little girl and decided to take action. She started up Quilt Hope In, which is an Etsy store that will donate 100% of sales to benefit women and children in Haiti through Heartline Ministries. Isn't that wonderful?! And the best part is, you can get involved too. You can make a quilt or other handmade item to donate to the Etsy shop. Head on over to get more details and to make a difference.


While you're at it, check out Tracey's blog right now for a chance to win an AccuQuilt Go! cutter.

Finished Weihnachtsstollen Quilt

I started this quilt back in the summer, but then put it away to work on other projects. I wish I hadn't because then I had to scramble last week to finish it. It was a Christmas present for my mom and I wanted it ready for her to have out the entire month of December. We set up her Christmas decorations yesterday.

This was my first try at a disappearing nine-patch pattern. I like how the design worked out and the colors are great for my mom.



For the quilting, I straight-line quilted 1/4" on each side of the sashing strips, then I quilted concentric squares within each set of blocks. I love the design it created on the back.



It was a nice surprise for my mom Thanksgiving morning. My dad told me yesterday that my mom stops to look at it on her way to the bathroom, which is saying something since she usually doesn't stop for anything when she's gotta go.

Finished Coins for Clara Quilt

I had another quilt-related marathon this weekend. I finished the Coins for Clara quilt. I wanted to try straight-line quilting on a larger scale - since I've only done a little bit on one quilt and a nametag - and I love how it turned out. I thought it would take way more time than it did (I think it was only about an hour and a half's worth of work).


I upped the stitch length to 7 and I think the longer stitches are the look I've been trying to get when I've attempted this in the past. I sewed two seams down each white sashing strips, about 3/4" apart, then turned the quilt and made a grid pattern that mostly outlined each coin section. I then added a few more lines to the middle sections.


I didn't worry about marking the quilt at all. I just let my lines be as straight as they wanted to be. It's a bit organic-looking and I love the non-rigidity of the not-perfectly-straight lines.


The quilting really accents the stacked coin design. Although I want to improve my free-motion skills, it's nice to have a quilt with quilting that looks decent.


In lieu of a separate label that I attached to the quilt back, I opted to write directly on the backing. But then I accidentally stitched right through my name. Oops.


I had some solid green in my stash and it happened to match the fabric collection perfectly so I used it with the brown print for the backing.


I tried a new binding method this time. (I've done the binding differently on every quilt I've made.) I've settled on the width that I like (3 inch strips), but haven't decided on the attaching method. This time, I tried Red Pepper Quilt's machine method. It made the front look pretty good, but I didn't catch the binding underneath a couple times so it looks a little funny. I guess if I had pinned the binding down I wouldn't have had that problem.

So far, I think the binding method I like the best is to attach the first part of the binding to the back of the quilt, then I fold it over to the front and topstitch it down. I've gotten pretty good results with even/straight stitches the last couple times I've used it so I think I'll stick with that method. I want to try hand stitching sometime, but my problem is that I'm too impatient. Even though I think hand stitching looks great, the thought of spending hours doing something by hand that I can do much quicker by machine makes me a little crazy. I'm making a doll quilt for my quilt group's color challenge so maybe I'll try hand sewing the binding on that small quilt.


The quilt measures about 43 inches square, before washing. My washing machine decided to go kaput this weekend and not spin the water out of the clothes. The new washer won't arrive until Friday. I love the washed look so I'm antsy for Friday to get here.

Do you wash your quilts after you've finished them, but before gifting them? There's a good discussion here that I'm totally on the same page with.

Make sure to check out Sew and Tell this week.

Coins for Clara Quilt Top

My SIL had a baby back in July. She's the first baby born in the family since I've started quilting so I thought it'd be fun to make her a quilt. I was going to give her this one originally, but I gave the mama a choice between Freebird and Tweet Tweet. My SIL wanted fabric that was a little more juvenile (this is her first girl after having three boys, after all), so she opted for Tweet Tweet. I had bought a couple charm packs a while back to make Crazy Mom Quilt's stacked coins quilt, but then opted to do something more similar to Oh Fransson's charm square baby quilt.

(As a side note, I folded the top up last night and really should have pressed it before taking pictures this morning, but I'm lazy and this will have to suffice. Just squint and try to pretend there are no wrinkles.)


I made six rows of the coins, separated by one Moda Bella Solids jelly roll strip. To frame the rows, I cut two jelly roll strips in half lengthwise and made a narrow border. Then I took some of the remaining half charms, sewed the short ends together and made a final outer border.

Thanks to my daughter for being such a good helper in her jammies. (She turned two last Friday and we chopped her hair Saturday. She looks so grown up now!)


I think if I were to make this quilt again, I would use fewer fabrics so it's not so busy. Or maybe I would just pick a charm pack that had better contrast throughout. A lot of these fabrics kind of run together and make the quilt a bit busy. But, it should be good visual stimulation for Baby Clara, right?

Patching Up Quilt Top

Back in August, I posted about this straight-edge whirligig/tessellation cross quilt that I was in the process of making. I pulled the blocks out a couple weeks ago and pieced them together into a baby quilt top. I needed some comfort.


Making this quilt top was so therapeutic for me. I know this is a tad personal, but since I know many of you understand how sewing and quilt making can have healing effects on you, I think it's okay to share here. A couple weeks ago I was thrilled to find out that my husband and I were expecting our third child. Sadly, I experienced a miscarriage shortly thereafter. While I was dealing with the grief that comes with a lost pregnancy, I finished this quilt top. I'm calling it Patching Up, an appropriate name for a quilt top that came together under these circumstances.


I may add an outer border to encase those blocks and give an edge for the binding so it doesn't cut off any of the blocks themselves. The back will have a strip of five blocks between two pieces of the same fabric. I figure I have plenty of time to finish this one, so it will likely be something I work on here and there for a while. I'll continue to post my progress as I work on it.

Finished Rocket Me to the Moon

During my time off work last week, I finished the quilt for my son's bed, Rocket Me to the Moon.

I knew I wanted to quilt this one with something other than all-over loops, but it took a little while to decide exactly what I wanted to do. I started by outlining each square with a stitch about 1/4" inside the square on all sides. Then I was going to quilt the blue sashing only. But, then I thought it would be more fun to free-hand stars, planets, moon rocks, and an alien robot within each square instead.

Here are some moon rocks (free-motion pebbles).


Here are some stars.


The planet Saturn on the front.


And how it looks on the back.


And finally, a little alien robot on the front.


And back.


When I finished quilting all the squares, I almost left it at that, but then felt like the sashing was missing something. So, I quilted some wiggly lines vertically and horizontally along every sashing line. I like how it gives each square its own frame.


I bound the quilt in the same rocket wave fabric as the large squares on the quilt top and the waves make nice wavy stripes on the binding.


While the quilt was washing and drying, I made a matching pillowcase with the last of the rocket waves fabric. It was lacking a little something on the end so I appliquéd the same rockets that are on the back of the quilt and on the curtains in my son's room.


I wanted to get a picture of the entire quilt, but the grass was wet this morning and I don't have any helpers today to help me hold the quilt up. Oh well. You get the idea.


Be sure to check out Fabric Tuesdays today.

Charity Quilt Back

I finished piecing the back of the charity quilt on Tuesday and got the quilt basted last night. I normally wouldn't do so much piecing, but I didn't have enough yardage for a solid backing and wanted to try to pull some fabric from my stash. The only extra fabric I bought for the project was the blue swirls yardage for the borders on the top (with leftovers for the back) and the multi-squares that I used on the back.


Since I knew I didn't have enough yardage for a solid back, I started sketching out a design, using some of the leftover triangles from the quilt top. I've realized that I use a scant 1/4 inch seam. That's definitely something to keep in mind when I sketch designs out in the future.


I pulled this orange from my stash, which was leftover from a pillow project earlier in the year. The two shades of orange work well with the oranges in the Frolic line. After piecing this together, it looked like a cute little table runner. I don't use them at my house, but it gave me even more ideas for Christmas presents (like I need more ideas...I already have too many ideas for projects than time to get them made before Christmas).


Here's my little helper trying to hold up part of the backing. (He's starting all-day preschool on Monday and I'm going to be making him a cute little lunch sack and matching reusable sandwich/snack bags - more on that to come.)

The brown is a Kona cotton (I can't remember the exact color) that I bought months ago to go with the jellyroll sampler quilt. Since I didn't end up making the full 12 blocks in the quilt-along, I had plenty of brown fabric to spare. It matched the Frolic line pretty well, but also reminded me of a pair of polyester pants my grandma used to wear.

There's a thin strip between the bottom blue and brown strips. It was a leftover jellyroll strip that I didn't use for the top so I cut it in half lengthwise to add a little separation between the blue and brown.


Do you remember my label debate? After much thought, I decided to go with handwritten labels for a couple reasons. One, it's easier to personalize the quilt because I can write the name of the quilt and who the quilt is for. And two, I think it will be neat to preserve a bit of me in my handwriting. As an added bonus, it will be good to practice my hand-drafting skills that I haven't really used since my interior design college days.


I hope to start the quilting tonight. If I plan this right, I'll be able to finish up the quilt by the first of next week and hand it off to my brother-in-law for the auction.

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