The First 2015 Finishes!

I just finished the two dumbest projects ever!!!!!  Not because they’re not really nice things, but because they took so long.

I think I quilted this quilt 10 years ago.

It’s an old Moda Christmas line that included a panel with each letter of the alphabet.  I quilted it soon after I got my longarm, which may have been about 2004.

I finished stitching the binding this morning.  Good grief!  How lame is that?  So, it’s packed away in the quilt closet, ready for Christmas of 2015.  I’m pretty sure I had it on the bed in the bus one year.  I guess I used it without the binding being stitched down.

My other dumb finish is a sweater for My Hero.

The reason it’s dumb is that I think I started it about 8 years ago.  I worked on it about a year ago, and then put it away with part of one sleeve left to complete.  That’s really dumb!  I even had the seaming done on one side before I abandoned it.  So I finished it on Saturday while hanging out at my sisters house.

It’s a really nice sweater and the neckline finishing is probably some of the best I’ve ever done.  The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cotton Denim Aran, and it’s long discontinued.  I loved knitting with it though and I love the sweater.  I may have to pick up stitches at the bottom and knit ribbed band.  It seems like it may be a little short.  I’ll have My Hero try it on and then decide.

I’m actually home alone for a while today.  I’m going to enjoy it by cleaning my kitchen.  (That was sarcasm.  I don’t really enjoy cleaning anything!)  I need some order in my life!!!  After that, I’m heading for my sewing room to do a little cleanup before it gets out of control again.  And then I may work at finishing up a couple of quilts that are nearly done.

And…I have leftover ham, so I think some wild rice soup is on the menu.

I’ll be back soon with some weaving that The Genius did, and a finish for me.

 

Giving Thanks and Other Endeavors

Thanksgiving weekend was great.  I think I’m still recovering from the amount of food prepared and consumed.  My parents were here for six days, and Dad cooked several of the nights.  He was depressed because we banned him from the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day.  Otherwise, we gave him free reign.

There were 16 of us around here a lot of the time.  We ate, watched football (yuck!), knit, made puzzles, napped, sang, and ate some more.

I’ve stepped it up to a new kind of crazy and decided to knit Christmas lights.

I purchased the pattern from kooklacreations on etsy.  I’m not sure how many I’ll make yet, because I’m not sure where I’m even going to put them.  They just loooked fun to make.  And they are!

I finally got around to stitching the binding on a beautiful Christmas quilt!

The pattern is Vintage Holiday by Camille Roskelly of Thimbleblossoms.  You can purchase the pattern here.

If you google Vintage Holiday quilt, you’ll see lots of Camille’s signature aqua and red, and a few traditional green and red quilts, but nothing like mine.  I used a Hoffman Christmas line but I’m not sure what it was called.

I fussy cut a lot of the fabrics.

I love the border fabric!!!

This chevron block may be my favorite.

My goal was to be able to decorate my railing in 30 seconds.  I think I succeeded!

I was getting frustrated last night, because I feel like I’m not finishing anything.  I have knitting, spinning, weaving, and quilting projects going and I want to work on all of them.  So instead, I wandered around my house yesterday, cleaning up messes and trying to decide what I want to work on, and not doing any of them.  So last night, the girls were cyber Monday shopping and I knit most of a cowl.  I finished it this morning.

The pattern is Rainbow Twist by Thao Nguyen and it’s a freebie!  The yarn is one skein of Malabrigo Rasta.  The whole time I was working on it, I was wondering why I was bothering to make it.  I didn’t think I’d ever wear it.  When I tried it on this morning, I loved it.  I think I’ll wear it a lot.  It’s so soft and I made it loose enough so I don’t feel like I’m choking.

And now for the model shot!

In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I did take this in my pjs.  And yes, it’s almost noon and I’m still wearing my lovely flannel pajamas.  Notice I did put red lipstick on to match!

And now it’s time to get dressed and decide which crafty endeavor I’m going to tackle this afternoon.

Drum Roll, Please!!!!!

After three and a half months, the Kid’s World Quilt is complete and is hanging on the wall in its new home.

First of all, the back story.  I got a call from our pastor in March asking if I’d be interested in making a quilt for a wall in the new kids addition at our church.  I immediately said yes.  Originally it was going to hang over a stairway.  After some discussion between the powers that be that decorated, it was decided it would hang on a two story wall at the front of the building.

On March 26th, I headed to Grubers and bought fabric.  The next day, I started the quilt.

First the grass, and then the sky.  The next step was the sun.  By the end of April, the tree was added.  In May, I started making birds and animals.    In June, there were flowers and bugs added.  On June 29, the larger of the two quilt pieces was on the quilt machine.  It came off the machine at 2 AM on July 4th.  The second piece came off the longarm on July 9th.  We had a binding party the next week.

On July 17th, the quilts were hung.  The two pieces together are 12 feet wide and 14 feet 3 inches tall.  That’s a two story wall they’re hanging on.

 

This little red guy may be one of my favorites.  There were circles in the fabric, so I just quilted around them.

 

Thank you, Mickey Depre, for letting me “borrow” the idea for the ant!

My favorite funky flowers.  They look a little bit like modern hollyhocks.

The idea for the little girl came from Carol’s flickr account.  (Check out her blog for some seriously fun stuff!)  Then I had to draw the little boy.  Have I mentioned that I can’t draw!

Who doesn’t love a puppy???

By the last day, I was seriously sick of machine quilting.  If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know that I have a hate-hate relationship with my longarm quilting machine.  The very last thing I quilted were the rays of the sun.

Well, waddayaknow!!!!!  There are feathers on those sun rays.  I actually did it.

This project has stretched me far beyond what I thought I could ever do.  Transferring an idea from my head to fabric was a long, sometimes scary project.  I’m beyond thrilled with the results.  While this quilt won’t change a little child, the whole kids building and the people who work there will.  There are so many people there that will love on those little kids.  They’ll be Jesus with skin on.

And that’s why I made a ginormous quilt.

 

Now This Is Fun!!!

First of all, if you’re looking for the giveaway of the Angles With Ease quilt book and ruler, check out this post.  Hurry!  The contest ends at midnight!!!

I’ve spent the last couple of days working on the ginormous Kids World quilt.  (If you would like to read the back story on this quilt, here are the details.)  When I last blogged about the quilt, I had added the tree to the quilt.  I took a break and did some knitting, traveling, and sewing room cleaning.  And then I procrastinated because I was worried about decorating this quilt. So the other day I took the plunge and started making stuff.  Here are the first two pieces I did!

I’m going whimsical with this quilt, because I can’t draw to save my life!!!  But I will have to say these guys turned out great.  I also made a home for one of them.

I also made a birdhouse and some flowers.  I’m not going to attach anything until I have more stuff made because once its ironed down, it’s not moving!

And now for todays finale’, my favorite thing so far…..a hedgehog!

My sewing room was clean on Monday and it’s now trashed.  I’m going to clean it up and make some more stuff.  This is fun!

I do have to take a little break tonight.  We have 20 high school freshmen coming over, and the weather isn’t looking too good.  Yippie!?!?!?!?  I can survive four hours, right?