A Year in Review: 2013

2013 Finishes

I created/sewed/crafted around 48-ish items in 2013.  I'm too lazy to link these all, but as you can see, I like pinks and turquoise. ;)  Those colors find their way in my projects.

I am grateful that I have the ability and the means to have/support this hobby.  It is my outlet, my therapy, my all.  I love that I am able to sew and make things for others, to give a piece of my heart.  I hope that you all have a prosperous 2014 and may we all create and continue to do what we love!

December Finishes!

All I can say is, phewsh!  I'm glad that's over!  Haha.  Thank you all for your sweet comments on my Holiday ranting post.  I am much better now.  I had last week off of work, got to spend time with family and had lots of fun.  Sorry for my rantings and ravings.  Deep breath.  We are all good now. ;)

After all, it's all about the kids right?  These kids of mine made everything worth it.  ♥   The Pug too. ;)

Moving on.  I was feverishly working to complete 3 quilts for Christmas.  2 out of 3 actually got finished.  #3 is still in the works.

My friend wanted a photo collage quilt for her mom.  This was fun to make, but the photo fabric is terribly fragile and temperamental.  You can't use spray starch or get it wet at all...the print runs and makes a horrible mess.  Trust me, I learned from experience.  My poor friend ended up running out to my house on two separate occasions to bring me new pictures.  Ugh.  BUT, we finished it and I love how it turned out.  And I heard her mom loves it too.  Look at all those adorable kids!!

This one was for my SIL, who has said on a few occasions, When am I ever going to get a quilt from you??
Nuff said.

I LOVE how this turned out.  I used the Joel Dewberry Aviary line and they play so well together.  It was so much fun to make...and EASY.

It was a little hard to make this as my SIL and her family came into town for the holidays and was staying with us.  I was up a few late nights, desperately trying to finish this before she peeked in and saw.  Luckily it was kept secret!  :)

My 3rd quilt is also the Aviary line, but the purple collection for my Dad and Step mom.  I'm hoping to finish this soon.  I've done snowball blocks on that one.  They are fun to make as well...it was my first time making them.

I'd like to do a post soon of all my 2013 finishes.  Coming soon.  Hopefully. ;)

Happy New Year!   ♥

Random Holiday Rants

This is not a quilty, sew-ie post.  This is my 'need to vent' post.  I hope not to offend, but I will keep it short...hopefully.

I have a hard time with Christmas.  Not the holiday itself but rather the stress of it all, and how people become. Not everyone mind you, but overall we get cranky and stressed out about finding the 'right' gift for that someone special or making sure you've got EVERYTHING checked off your list.  I know I get this way.  For the entire freaking month of December....it's a long month.

I'm not a deeply religious person so we won't go there in this post, but I do think that the real true meaning of Christmas totally gets lost in the shuffle and holiday bustle.  I've felt that way for years and it seems that each year gets worse and wears on me more. If I didn't have kids, we would probably skip the whole shabang!  As we were digging out our holiday crap from the storage unit and Robot Husband kept cussing, trust me - I had to say 'Its for the kids!' more than once....and as a reminder to myself.

Today has been one of those days, everything seems to have gone wrong.  Nothing is going as planned and I still have 9 million things to do.  I should have learned by now, I really need to get my crap together early and get it all done ahead of schedule.  Maybe next year right?  Yah, I've said that for the last 10 years....it never gets better or done on time.

Why does everyone turn into raging lunatics?  Especially in a car.  And in the parking lot of Target. 

Okay.  Calm down. 

Notes to self:  

• Remember to be thankful for what we have.  We don't all need 452 presents under the tree. That's not what it's about. Although my new sewing machine under there would be nice and greatly appreciated. ;) JK. Sort of.
• Deep breaths while going to Target - remember to try to not scream at people or use my cart as a weapon
• It's a holiday for crying out loud - it's not the Zombie Apocalypse.  Act like it people. Oh wait, these are notes to 'self''... nah, I'm leaving it. 
• Be giving, be kind, be grateful

Okay.  The next few days, well 7 of them to be exact, I will remind myself of the above.  I may need to come back and read this again, and read it some more, whilst breathing deeply.  Hopefully I don't have a stroke before it's all over.

Remember those 3 quilts I need to make?  Yah, two major calamities have ensued and we are hoping for a miracle.

Breathe...breathe....one...two...

♥

Geese...and a pillow

Geese and a confession.
I am terrified of birds.  But I love Owls.  Yah, I know...it doesn't make ANY sense to anyone, including myself.  However, the fact remains that I am still terrified of birds.  Give credit to Hitch's 'The Birds', or that one time that one black bird came into my apartment through the fireplace and proceeded to terrorize me and my poor Shih-Tzu Daisy (who nonetheless hid under the bed)...or just the fact that they are nasty and creepy.  Oh and that they might peck your eyes out if made angry.

Okay - off my tangent about birds.  We have a lovely field in our backyard, across the giant ravine that sits below us.  In the summer we watch the farmers plow it and bundle up hay or whatever it is they are doing in amazement when it is 101 outside.  We've seen families of deer passing by.   In the winter, apparently there is a community/cluster/gaggle? of Canadian Geese that live here.  Yes...they aren't just stopping by, on their way South for the winter.  They've made permanent residence.  It started as about 10 or so, then they all moved in a week or so later.  They are very rude neighbors, honking at all hours of the night.  And there are LOT of them.  However I can't help but find myself bewildered in watching them.  They appear to take flying 'breaks'. Well, that's what I'm calling it....now remember, I'm no bird expert as I'm terrified of birds.  But they are rather interesting.  One will announce it's time to fly - they will all honk and fly around the field, around our houses and then settle on the opposing field.  Then, some time goes by and they will get up and just fly back over to the first field.  Picky geese...

But still, as I'm doing the dishes or walking by the window, I find myself studying them.  And the dogs like to bark at them...to keep quiet.  They don't listen.  It's okay, we can adapt to them.  As Robot Husband finally said after my many questions about geese, they've been coming here for years and years.  Get used to them. We are invading their space.  Okay okay.  ;)  Just don't peck my eyes okay geese?  Deal.

A Pillow.

Thanks to The Sewing Chick for her awesome Noel patchwork pillow tutorial.  I made mine over the weekend and want to make more!  Time hoping to allow.... I, um, might have overextended myself since I have 3 quilts to get done by Christmas Eve.  Here's hoping! ;)

My first time appliqueing, it is hard to get it just perfect, but if you take your time, it's achievable and not that frustrating as I thought it would be. ;)

Here's hoping a happy, safe holiday season to you all!!  Honk Honk!  From the geese too. Ugh... 

♥

Linking up to:

Quilt Story
I Have to Say..

Holiday Sewing

Thanksgiving weekend I holed myself up in the sewing room and made a bunch of crap Holiday stuff.  :)

I LOVE this panel from Winter's Lane, by Kate and Birdie Paper Co.   I first saw it at my LQS and someone had asked the lady if they had more.  She said they sold out the first week it was brought in.  Of course this happens to all panels, so my question is, why then wouldn't the LQS buy extra?  Hmmm...food for thought.  I found mine on Etsy, which happens to be my most reliable place to find exactly the fabric I'm looking for.  Thanks fellow Etsy-ians!  ♥

Don't look to close at the sewing, but this is my favorite one.  Little bunnies wishing you all a Happy Christmas.  ♥

Super easy... I just cut out the 'cards', fused them with interfacing and placed them wrong sides together. Sewed them up, flipped them inside out and top stitched.  Then I braved my local JoAnn's on the Saturday after Black Friday (shudder) and picked up the pom pom's.  I love them.  So fun.

The panel comes with a pillow top in this lovely white pine print.  I ordered extra of the red bird print (sorry didn't get a picture) for the back.  My pillow form is a wee bit too big, but once it is loved and squished for a while, I think it will fit nicely.  Right now it's kinda bulgy.  Of course the next size down was way too small.

Moving on....Hot Pads!  Oh my.  I used Nana & Co's adorable tutorial for the pretty little hot pads.   These were super fun to make, until we get to the bias binding...then not so much.  Really?  Bias binding, why do you suck so bad?

I bought the mint green bias stripes from the Scrumptious line, cut on the bias they are no longer bias striped. Haha!  Didn't even think about that when I was planning this.  Oh well...and as you can see, some of them I cut the stripes are going long wise, which I didn't even notice until now.  :(  Oh well.

Do you ever plan on making/crafting out your holiday gifts, make a crap-ton of them, get SOOO sick of making them you vow never to make them again?  No?  Just me?  Well, I probably won't make these hot pads again, as adorable as they are, I really can't handle the bias binding.

Next we have some matching towels.  The little red deers get me EVERY time.  ♥  So sweet.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, if your iron gets too close to the pom-poms they will melt.  :(  Then you will have to make another unfortunate trip back to JoAnn's to get some iron cleaner.   Sigh.

The Nutcrackers are also fun.  I did one ruffled, one with pom poms.  Which do you like the best?

Then I got tired of making ruffles and pom poms, so this one has a simple ribbon trim.  Equally effective I think.

I had quite the assembly line going, which you have to when you are doing multiple items I think.  I love the quilting on them.

What is on your Christmas to-do?

I have quite a list ahead of me still.
1.  Christmas quilt commissioned to make for my friend's mom
2.  Quilt for SIL (who I'm pretty sure doesn't read my blog, here's hoping)
3.  Quilt for Dad's family
4.  Pam Kitty Morning quilt for Robot Child #1  - This one I have had in the back of my mind for like 3 years.  Haha-I bought the kitty print panel years back, with the plan to make it for her.  She loves kitties. Never happened.  I probably should get on that.   Poor girl.

I hope I can get this all done.....Phewsh.  At least I got those hot pads over with.  ;)

Stay warm!! 

Hugs

♥

Lil' Red

I've done quite a few Little Red Riding Hood quilts.  I never tire of her, she is so sweet and I love the colors.

I've been hoarding my stash of Walk in the Woods for a long time.  I mean LONG.  It's sat on my shelf waiting patiently for me to get to it.  I finally took it out and decided to play with it.  Why did I wait so long?

Then, lo and behold I was at my LQS the other day and they had the grey Mr. Wolf fabric on sale in the back!  What?!? So yah, I grabbed it and had her cut me off a chunk for the back. I almost love the back as much as the front.

I just did some straight line quilting, minimalistic style.  I love how it folds and drapes.  This quilt made it to Instagram and was snatched up by a friend of mine.  Thanks Amanda!  ♥

It's super overcast today. And gloomy.  So pardon the grey gloomy photos. :(  Supposedly the cold front is moving in this week friends.  Our days of sunshine are numbered. BOO.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I spent most of my time in my sewing room making holiday gifts.  Which was A.OK with me as the entire family but me was sick!  I've dowsed myself in Airborne everyday, washed my hands so much they are raw and luckily I haven't gotten their bug.  Phewsh!  Knock on wood - it stays that way.  Mr. Robot Husband has been quarantined to his TV room...he's the sickest of everyone, poor guy. :(

Anyway- I have more to share on holiday sewing but more on that later.  I've enjoyed seeing what everyone has been making for the holidays!  Very inspirational!!  I have WAY too much to make for Christmas...I hope I can get it all done!!

Linked up to:
Freshly Pieced
Quilt Story

Hugs!

♥

Finishes

Custom Out to Sea quilt #1

I've been a busy girl.  I have had 2 custom quilt orders, both with SJ's Out To Sea collection.  Now, if you know me, you can imagine the squeals that ensued when I got these requests.  I love me some SJ fabric.
This is the 1st one.  The 2nd one is still in progress....more to come later.

This is for her 2nd daughter, but her 1st daughters name is Amelia.  So how perfect we happen to have a pirate girl named Amelia. :)  So I fussy cut her and made sure she was in there.

All packaged and ready to go!

Um, I can't remember if I showed this one, but again, it's SJ fabric, with some others thrown in there.  I'm too lazy to go back and see if I have posted this one before, it's been finished for a while, but it just got it's formal photo shoot. ;)  I loved doing this big log cabin block.  It was so much fun.  Other than making sure I had enough yardage for the long size strips, it was easy.

The little girl on the elephant is my favorite.  I want to be her.  With the balloons...and maybe some cupcakes.

And...bibs.  Yup.  I have found SOOO many cute fabrics, destined to become bibs.  I love this little woodland print.  So cute.

Here is the boy set.  Little raccoons...Cute!

I love the little dogs tho.  All I need to do is put the little snaps on the boy sets.  Does anyone else hate those little snaps?  It's like 7 out of 10 actually work right.  So frustrating.  I'll keep practicing...hopefully I can get to 10 out of 10. Haha!

I have a million and a 1/2 Christmas projects I need to get started on.  Stress!!!  What are you all planning on making for Christmas gifts?  If any?  I overextend myself every year, then I am a Grinch.  Hopefully I can finish them up in good time this year.  Fingers crossed.

Linking up to:
Quilt Story

A Bag for Grandpa

Quilted Messenger Bag

My poor sweet Grandpa has been in the hospital.  I went up to see him and we were chatting and there was this little blue flowery purse on his bed.  I asked him why Grandma had left her purse there when she went home.  He laughed and told me it was his.

No lie.  What?!?  He explained that he had been looking for a bag, that was padded to hold his tablet in so it would be protected in case he dropped it or whatever and he didn't have to hold it.  AND it was on sale for $8.00.  Well, I'm not going lie folks, I let my sick Grandpa have it.  Don't judge me, yet.

Me:  Grandpa!  This is a girls purse!
Grandpa:  But I like it.  It keeps my tablet safe.
Me:  Grandpa!  I can make you one.  A manly one, and for free!
Grandpa:  No, I'll give you some $.
Me:  Nope.  I'd PAY money to see you not wearing a girls purse anymore...thanks.  This is unacceptable!
Grandpa laughed.  We continued to laugh about it for quite some time, everyone who came in got to hear the story....but Grandpa never let go of his 'purse'.

Now, some of you might be thinking, this girl is so rude!  Here is her poor grandpa, sick and she's complaining about his bag?  Let me s'plain.  As quilters, it is our duty, our job if you will, to ensure that our loved ones have items (quilts, bags, potholders etc.) that make them happy...and that they can use in their day to day lives.  Right?

So, I left the hospital for a mission to find my Grandpa some manly fabric, so I could make him a manly bag. I don't know about you guys, but when I go to my LQS, I NEVER see fabric that screams to me, this is manly!  Um, the selection is very sparse-if any.

I knew I wanted the black cross-hatch fabric, but what to go with it?  I went back and forth on the comma print, but they looked good together, and smart!  So I bought them and went home to create.

The next day, I made it..., realized I didn't have a zipper that wasn't hot pink or purple or some other neon offending color.  Thank goodness for JoAnn's and for being so close!  I ran and got a nice lovely grey zipper.

Bag on a tree - it's like Nature's own coat rack

 My favorite part is the little tags for the hardware for the straps.  I love the little peak of commas. 

I took this bag to my Grandpa on Friday.  He loved it.  He tried it out, his tablet fit perfect, he wore it cross body style...my personal mission was complete.  It was even the same size as the original 'purse'!  I totally guessed there folks.  Phewsh.

I've never felt so much joy in giving someone something.  It totally made my day.  As I sat and visited with my G&G, I would look over and he'd be fingering the details and looking it over, back and forth.  And then he never let it go while I was there.

Tears.

It was all I felt I could do.  We have to let the Dr's do their thing, and as I sat there in his hospital room, I felt completely helpless.  But I could do this.  And I know that he will use this and can take it with him to his treatments and he will know how much I love him. Always.

Linking up to:
Quilt Story
Anything Goes Monday

♥

Happy Halloween!

So, in the move I realized the girls pumpkins for trick-or-treating is in storage, somewhere.  Since I am still slightly traumatized over the move AND I despise the storage unit, I decided I wasn't about to go over there digging through stuff in hopes to find the $1.00 pumpkins.  Nor was I about to buy another TWO MORE! So, Robot Husband suggested making them bags.  Well duh.  Of course!  They take up much less space than those stupid pumpkins AND I don't have to go to the storage unit. Score!  That man of mine is a genius. ;)

So, I just ran to JoAnn's and bought some Halloween fabric.  I don't ever buy fabric from JoAnn's, but since these are just for bags, and they did have some cute selections, I caved.  Oh, and I had like 3 50% off coupons.  I'm a sucker for a coupon people.

The lady in front of me had a cart full of pretty much all of the Halloween fabric, but I managed to grab these before she got her mitts on all of them.  Robot Child #2 wanted the bats on hers, Robot Child #1 was less demanding.  The bats are also inside.  These will work nicely tonight for some trick-or-treating fun!  And yah, this is the extent of my holiday sewing.  Wink.

Well, I'm off to the Kindergarten parade.  :)

Hope you all have a Happy Halloween!

♥