Then there was February...

I made a lot of sewing progress in January...was thrilled with what I got accomplished...and then February came along and I did pretty much no sewing.  So bad, that I even forgot to post some stuff I worked on in January.  So here I am to catch up a bit.  

I finally decided what fabric I want to use for my Fancy Forest quilt .  It took a lot of effort.  I decided on using my big bundle of Cotton + Steel basics I picked up in November, and Bella Solid in Smoke:

and then got everything cut out:

After all of that, I've managed to get this done:

16 fabulous foxes!  Love!

Anyways...last weekend I started on a memory quilt for a co-worker.  No pictures to share of that.  Hope to finish it up over the next weekend or two.  I also would love to get my scrap vortex quilt done.  It hasn't changed from this picture:

and my hubby would really rather it was not still on the guest room floor.  I also have this on the hallway banister:

and should really get at least one of them finished!  

Stitching with scraps

I've really been wanting to put my scraps to good use for awhile now.  So after frequent views of the Scrap Vortex quilt by Amanda of Crazy Mom Quilts, I just had to pull out my scraps and get started.  It went pretty quickly

and before I knew it I had quite a few large blocks put together

and then as soon as I blinked I had a lot of large blocks

enough to get to this

and now i just need to work on some filler pieces and I'll have a quilt top.  Sadly this hasn't hardly put a dent in my scraps.  Might have to work on another one...or more blocks to make this one larger...we'll see.

That was quick...

It honestly took me more time to cut the fabric for this quilt than it did to piece it together.  I spent a good chunk of my day in the sewing room today, after spending some time each of the past two days cutting out fabric (a lot of time spent sifting through scraps), and I ended up with this:

and then a short while later, this:

I'm sure if I wasn't using scraps, and just cutting from FQs or yardage, the cutting would take very little time.  I will definitely be using this pattern again.  For now, it goes on the "to be finished" pile.

New Year...new quilt

Yesterday afternoon I started cutting out fabric for a new quilt.

I am using the Swiss pattern by Camille Roskelley.  I fell in love with the pattern as soon as she posted it on Instagram, thinking it would be great for scraps.  I started with orange, as it's pretty much my favorite color.  Unfortunately I didn't have near the number of orange scraps as I do other colors, so I had to pull from my stash (which was also limited in orange) to cut some of the larger pieces.  I still have quite a bit of cutting to do, but hope to be moving towards the assembly stage later today.  My daughter has also started pulling from the blue scraps to make a blue Swiss quilt.  I'm thinking there could be a rainbow of Swiss quilts in my future.

I hope your New Year has started off the best it can be.  I've made no resolutions, set no particular sewing goals and have selected no special word for 2016.  I really just want to relax and enjoy the process...so maybe that is a goal/resolution.

Red Letter Day...in shades of Tula

I started my Red Letter Day quilt blocks way back in August of last year.  I finished all 9 of the blocks 3 months ago (according to instagram at least) and blogged them briefly here.  Yesterday I finally turned them into a quilt top:

I've got backing fabric for this quilt already, and I plan to get this one basted and ready for quilting in the next day or so.  But then I plan on doing some hand quilting with these:

so who knows when it will actually be finished.  (I will do some machine quilting to anchor the quilt and make it more sturdy and long lasting).  Looking forward to having a slow stitching project...of course it would be better if the weather cooperated with being covered up with a quilt...but supposedly some chilly weather is on the way.  I'll believe it when I see it.

Double Slice Times Two

I finished up the last two Christmas gifts over the past two days.  I used this tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company to make a pink and a blue version of the Double Slice quilt.  Here's the pink:

and here's the blue:

These quilts are headed to two sisters, my lovely youngest nieces.  I hope they enjoy them.

I love this quilt pattern and plan on using it again!  That will pretty much wrap up my finishes for this year.  I have at least one other quilt top I want to get finished before the ball drops tomorrow night, but I plan on doing some hand quilting on it, so it won't be a final finish for a long while.

Details:
Fabric: Top - Kona Cotton 10 inch squares in Fragrant Fuchsia (pink) and Sky Gazer, backing is a print purchased from Hancock in both blue and pink
Batting: Pellon
Thread: piecing - Aurifil, quilting - Pink: superior threads; blue: Aurifil

3 years running...and Merry Christmas

For 3 years in a row I have managed to make a quilt to gift to my baby girl for Christmas.  (first year, second year).  I have been able to do last year's and this year's in secret.  It makes my day to see the smile on her face when she opens up that particular present.  This year's quilt is:

I was able to get the blocks pieced over a period of a few weeks, and then with hubby's help (getting her out of the house on Monday) I was able to get the top assembled, and then on Tuesday got it basted.  I used my last remnant of Britten Nummer as the backing (it was exactly the perfect size!) And then quilted as much as possible as she slept the past few days.  (I wake up very early, even on "vacation").

Details :
Pattern - Allie Owl by Elizabeth Hartman
Fabric - Top: Kona cotton and Essex Linen; Backing - Britten Nummer
Batting - Soft n'Crafty
Thread - piecing and quilting: Aurifil

I was also able to surprise the hubby this year:

with the Fancy Fox quilt I've been working on.

Details:
Pattern - Fancy Fox II by Elizabeth Hartman
Fabric - Top: Kona cotton, and scraps of Lucky Penny, Hometown, some Robert Kaufman tiles and a bit of Juliana Horner print (and I'm sure I forgot something).  Backing: madras cotton from hancock
Batting - Soft n'Crafty (the last bit off a roll I bought over a year ago)
Thread - piecing: Aurifil, Quilting: Metrosene

I hope you are all having a very Merry Christmas!