Forest Friends - Complete

Finally complete!  2013 is going to be the year of me finishing up UFOs. See, I'm keeping my promise.

This was kind of languishing in my UFO bin. I had all the blocks pinned into the rows that I sewed together, then sandwiched it and quilted it in a green thread.  Sulky looks awesome when it's all quilted up.

Forest Friends was my very first swap quilt. I asked for wonky or improv (a la Gwen Marsden) blocks. Got back all but one, so I made a spinner block. Adds interest I think.

The binding is a grey blue which pulls out the blue in some of the tree fabric.

The year of the UFO...

No, not that kind of UFO silly.  Un Finished Object.  You know, quilty things. :) Ones that I make and then lose interest in because it's taken so long to get to the quilting or binding or .. oh shiny!!  My attention span gave out.

This is the year of the UFO. I'm getting them completed.

What?

Stop laughing.

I'm serious!!

See - it's January 3, 2013 and I have my first UFO done. :)  It's an old one, and it's finally done. From this post - Week 1, 2012!! But still, it's quilted and bound. Feels good to get it off my UFO list.

 

Till next time - Happy Quilting and HAPPY NEW YEAR

Blueberries and Chocolate

I made this for my mom for Christmas. Shhh, don't tell her, it's a surprise.

I call it Blueberries and Chocolate - moms favorite colors are blues, tans and browns. Hope this one fits the bill!

Shades of Green

This is the only good photo I have of my Grandmothers gift.  Green is her favorite color and I wanted to do something to surprise her.

This one is only 3 fabrics and 3 different shades of green. I wanted to call it the Kermit quilt but my husband wouldn't let me.

Nana likes it and that's all that matters.

Frugal Christmas Ideas

Yep, can you believe it? We're at the halfway point in 2012! I can't believe it, and I've been crafting and quilting all year long for the family. It's almost that time of year again! Only 6 more months to go. Lets get creative! :)

I wanted to share some of my ideas with you all. Maybe you can save some money too.

Packages, Boxes, Mailing:
I mail to my family all over the world, and I mail early. I hate standing in line at the post office (a necessary evil, but still).

By nature, I love to recycle and re-purpose. By reusing I'm giving Mother Earth a Christmas gift too. I reuse mailing containers and supplies. I cover up labels with construction paper and a typed address packing taped onto the construction paper. Use kids scissors or scrapbooking scissors to cut the construction paper into zig-zags, waves or other designs. type out all your addresses on the computer, print them off and center them on the construction paper. Then just use clear packing tape to tape your label to the box (over the old label is fine!)

I've been known to wrap gifts in cereal boxes. If you've got something small or flexible, it can most likely fit into a cereal box. Why go out and buy boxes when you've probably got tons in your house already?

If you're looking for a creative way to wrap a gift, try unusual containers. A few years ago I made a quilt for one of my friends, invited her over for pizza and a movie, and had the quilt in a (never used) pizza box from our local pizzeria. I purchased the box from the pizzeria for $1 and it fit a twin size quilt.

I just wanted to share some of my ideas with you - hope they can help! :)

Progress on Mom's Christmas Gift

Making some progress on my mom's Christmas gift.  I figured that if I started it early enough it might actually be done by Christmas.

So, while Netflix was on and I had Magnum PI on, I pressed all the seams open on the back of these blocks.

Moms favorite colors are blues and browns.  Found the pattern in one of the "Easy Quilt" magazines - will look for the specific edition later.

A Donating I Will Go

Made these gorgeous quilts for a raffle. All proceeds go to a scholarship for needy students.Hope they get well received.
 
It's about 50"x50".  I had such fun quilting it and making it.

 

And a close up of the quilting.  In the center points there's a ships wheel, and the stars each have an anchor. I quilted a couple other motifs in the cream squares.

 

This other quilt was so quick and easy to make. Plus, I think it shows off the fabrics pretty well.  I didn't do any fancy stitching in it, just some stippling.

**Edited - one of my students won this one!! :) ** She loves it!

A huge thank you to Mary Quilts for the free pattern for the strippie quilt. Very fun, very easy.