2014...year in review

Here were my goals for 2014:

1. Finish at least 14 quilts in 2014
2. Make quilt for M and B (who got married 12/26/13!)
3. Use my stash!  Maybe it's time I started logging on the weekly stash reports that are out there.  
4. Continue to work on FMQ...don't just stipple everything...not that there is anything wrong with stippling, but it's time to branch out a bit more!
5. Make a bag for A (who hinted pretty heavily at wanting one)

and here is what I ended up sewing:

• 8 quilts (xplus, 2 baby quilts, movement in pink, ruby, blueberry cake, surprise, lucky jam)
• 1 table runner 
• 12 Christmas Stockings
• 1 cargo duffle bag 
• 2 Supertotes 
• 4 zip pouches 
• and started a bunch of other projects that are no where near finished!

all in all, pretty happy with how it  turned out!  As to using my stash, well blueberry cake was from my stash (minus the backing).  Movement in pink and xplus were also from my stash.  I've been doing a better job of sewing with what I have, not going out and buying something so that I can sew.  Some of the new quilts I've been working on are also from my stash.  So, pretty happy there.  The bag for A...well didn't happen, but that's because A did not give me any additional info (colors, size, etc).  And the quilt for M&B...that was blueberry cake.  Delivered just before their anniversary.  I did a bit of FMQing...but I also started hand quilting, and that may be my new thing.

2014 was a pretty good stitching year!

something new

I did end up starting something new, just because the urge was too strong, even though I have tons of other stuff to work on/finish.  I snagged the Jellybean pattern by Camille Roskelley, grabbed a jelly roll from my stash, and got to work:

and so far so good

we'll see how far this gets in the next few days.

Lucky Jam

is finished!  I absolutely ADORE this quilt!  I learned so much as I made this quilt, specifically about hand quilting.  This is the first quilt I've ever hand quilted, it's far from perfect, and that's why I love it even more!

Front:

and some of the quilting after it was washed:

Details:
Fabric - Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie&Camille
Pattern - Clovers and Jam by Fig Tree
Batting - soft n crafty
Thread - Piecing: mettler, aurifil; Quilting: Aurifil (machine), DMC Cotton Perle size 5 (hand quilting)

slow days

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!  We crashed pretty hard the day after Christmas, and are moving nice and slow right now.  It's raining outside, and I think I'm going to spend the next few days just sewing.  Starting with Lucky Jam

It's time to get the binding prepped and finally finish this one!  This quilt took a bit of a back seat when I started working on my Christmas gifts, so it's waited patiently for the finishing touches for about a month now.

after that...well, I've got at least one more (actually more than one) quilt top ready to be basted, one quilt (again, more than one) that I'm almost done with the blocks on, so it can be made into a quilt.  And then I just purchased a few more patterns and have the urge to start something from scratch...again!

Christmas surprise

I can finally reveal my secret sewing!  I made this one for my beautiful daughter who happens to be a pretty intense Dr. Who fan.

I've been steadily stitching on it since the beginning of the month.  It got a bit tougher when I decided to make Blueberry Cake , so much sewing, so little time.  I put the final stitches in the binding Christmas morning before everyone was awake.

I think my biggest gift this year was the smile on my baby girls face when she opened it up!

Details:
Pattern - Relatively Dimensional by Hunters Design Studio (on a side note, a fantastic pattern, easy to follow, very clear instructions and the fabric guide is fantastic!)
Fabric - kona solids: Nightfall, ocean, Fog, Silver, Citrus; backing was a random piece large enough in my stash; Police Box and Posting were printed on Kona cotton from Spoonflower
Batting - soft n' crafty
Thread - Mettler (piecing and quilting)

Blueberry Cake

So excited to share the final finish of this one!  I finished it Tuesday night, just in time to deliver yesterday!  I'm incredibly proud of the fact that all of the fabric (with the exception of the backing) was from my stash.  The batting was even a package I had won at the 2013 Sew South!  The pattern was great and the rows went together pretty quickly.  It's a queen sized quilt, so it took time to get everything all together, and was a pain to quilt.  I only did some straight line quilting, and it's far from perfect.  But I really like it and I hope the recipients do too!

Here it is:

Details:
Pattern - Fat Eighth Frenzy by Fat Quarter Shop
Fabric - Top: Blueberry Crumb Cake and Nature's Basket by Blackbird Designs; Northcote Range by Cabbages and Roses; some Prairie Paisley 2 by Minick and Simpson, and some pieces I just don't know.  Backing - ABS Paisley from Hancock Fabrics
Batting - Warm and White
Thread - Mettler

and it's done!

with enough time to run it through the washer and dryer!

update

and now we have a quilt top!!!

I finished the last two rows this morning, then got them all sewn together...now to figure out backing...and of course, get this puppy basted, quilted and bound by Wednesday morning!  Not to mention the other quilt I have to get finished by Thursday morning...and of course, cookies to bake, presents to wrap...back to work I go!

why do I wait?

Why do I wait until the last minute to push myself to sew Christmas gifts???  LOL!  I'm making progress on them, but I'm really starting to feel the crunch.

I've got Blueberry Cake up to 9 rows (only 8 pictured below):

only 2 more rows to go, then it's time to sew them together!  This one is to be gifted on Christmas Eve, so must be ready to go that morning.  Hope to have this one into a quilt top by the end of the weekend.

I've gotten my surprise present quilt top complete...now just trying to figure out when I'm going to get it finished (the recipient is now home from school for the holidays).

I want to make a couple of other gifts (a few bags, a table runner), but we'll see.  Also have some shopping still to do...so that's what Girl and I will be doing today...

So much to do, so little time!

Wellness Wednesday...Ep. 44-46

Happy Wednesday!  It's been a great week so far for me...I've only been working half days!  My last day of this year will be this Friday, and it will be pretty early in the day.  I'm so excited!

On to my workouts...well, I have been running.  It hasn't been pretty, but after a few weeks of doing nothing, what was I expecting?  I've got 8.9 miles so far for the month.  That's well short of where I would LIKE to be, but have to build back up.  Next race is March 1!

I've moved the majority of my running to the treadmill, now that I have one of my own!  As a family Christmas present, we went ahead and invested in a treadmill, so now I have no excuses (too dark, too cold) to not run.  My goal is not to train this entire cycle on the treadmill, so I will be running outdoors at least once a week.

So that's it for now.  Next WW post will be Christmas Eve...man how this year has flown!

WHAT!!!!!!!!!

there are less than 2 weeks to Christmas!!!!  Full on panic mode here...not really...but kind of...

I have had very minimal sewing time this week...so I'm a little behind on my Christmas sewing.

I did spend a bit of time working on Lucky Jam, trying to get the hand quilting done

I have 1 side of the border and about 1/4 of another side left and this one will be ready for binding!

And tonight I set about working on my Blueberry Cake quilt (see last post), but was about out of pins (I actually have more, just wasn't feeling like opening those up) due to all the HSTs waiting to be sewn (pattern makes use of the trimmings created from each row for another quilt), so I spent a bit of time sewing those

I have about half of those pressed, nothing trimmed yet...that's a project so far on the side, so I'm not concerned right now.

Good thing I'm only working half-days for the majority of next week before I'm off for the rest of the year!  So no need to panic...still have lots of hours available!

progress

5 rows done, 6 to go

I'm already worried about trying to quilt this one!  (It's queen sized, I have a queen sized quilt that has been waiting to be quilted for 2 years...and this one I need done by Christmas Eve!!).

Best get back to work!

sew happy!

Between my last post and today...I've been doing a pretty good job of getting some stitching done, and I'm thrilled!  It feels great to be feeding my creative side.

I finished up the final 6 stockings:

and then finished up a scrap table runner (scraps from this quilt I finished last year):

and managed to get the last block of my Lucky Jam quilt hand quilted (only the border left to finish!):

and here is the fabric pull on the quilt I'm starting to cut out tonight (hope to gift this on Christmas Eve!):

and I've done a bit of super secret Christmas sewing also...can't share any pics of that yet!  and now back to slicing and dicing!