Farewell, 2009!

2009 was a pretty crafty year for me. A record thus far. I'm looking forward to many more quilts and crafty projects for 2010!

Happy New Year to you!

So Blue

Just in the nick of time, I finished up one last quilt for 2009.  This quilt is made from Amy Butler's Daisy Chain line.  I bought this fabric over a year ago.  I cut the fabric to make this quilt.  Unfortunately, once I had all of the fabric cut, I hated it.  I had the blue and the silver color ways mixed together and it just wasn't working.  I proceeded to stack the pieces and leave them on my bookshelf for several months.  I recently decided to revisit only the blue pieces, add a little white, and viola!  Here you have it. 

I'm really happy with how this has turned out.  I think the boxes and the little bit of white help bring some organization to the busy patterns.  I opted to go with the border to confine the business of the center.  I think it finishes it off nicely.  The finished size is 64"x54".

I was feeling a bit lazy, so the backing is Kona Cotton Ice Frappe.  The binding and inner border are both Kona Cotton Azure.  I'm a big fan of the azure.  It's such a pretty color.

Please excuse the lackluster photos.  Winter has decided to arrive here in Michigan and that means the sun is hiding. :(

Lesson Learned: Sexy Hexy Insanity

I was recently commissioned to make a quilt for my niece's bed.  I was given free reign in fabric and pattern with the only constraint that the colors were to be the colors of a peacock.  Purple, green, teals, etc.  I immediately thought Amy Buter's Love in the soul palate fit the bill. 

Well, here is my first and final hexagon.

It looks cute, but boy was it a pain to put together!  There's pattern pieces, lots of cutting, freezer paper, GLUE STICK, sewing a hexagon ring, and then finally psuedo-appliqueing the center hexagon on.  It ends up being quite a large hexagon- about 25" across (29" at the points).  If you really wanted to tough it out, at least you wouldn't have to make too many of them.  However, I think I will be abandoning this pattern.  This will probably end up as a pillow.  Back to the drawing board for the quilt pattern though!

On a positive note, I did get to learn how to use my edge stitching foot that came with my sewing machine.  It's pretty nice! 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Shawn and Nichole

Craft Exchange

A couple months ago a friend contacted me with a craft exchange proposal.  She would knit me a pair of socks in exchange for some quilted log cabin pillow covers.  How could I refuse?  Today we met up to exchange the goodies.

Here is the pillow cover.  So far I have made only one.  I wanted to make sure they fit her pillows before I made the second one.  :)

And my socks!

Quilter Bees: December

I finished up my December block for the Quilter Bees.  This month Heidi asked us each to make a block from Amanda Jean's star quilt-a-long from awhile back.  

I think this is a fun idea.  I received week 9.  I must say, if I had been working on this block for myself (and doing 11 more), I most certainly would not have put as much effort into trying to make the corners line up.  It's not perfect, but not too bad.  If I do say so myself. 


After working on this block, I'm thinking I should try to do some more patterned blocks.  It has been awhile since I did something like this (probably since I made the blocks for the quilt I just finished). 

Oldie, but a Goodie

A couple years ago I joined in on Amanda Jean's first quilt-a-long.  I have finally finished that quilt.  It took long enough!  I am happy with how it turned out.  So cheery! 

And the back.  I really love the simplicity of this back.  I think I'm probably going to use this again.

Taking advantage of the Christmas tree to show off the pieced binding.  I figured, why not make the binding a bunch of crazy bright colors too?

Beautiful!

I was just perusing through Flickr this morning and happened upon this quilt.

originally uploaded by flossyblossy

Isn't it gorgeous?!  I think I have been inspired!

The tree is up!

Catch Up

While you wouldn't know it from this blog, I really have been doing a lot of sewing. Here's a bit for catch up.

I made a doll quilt and pillow for a little girl as part of Operation Christmas Child.  It is really a shame I didn't have a chance to take more pictures.  It was quite cute.  So was the little pillow that I made to go with it.  I had so much fun making this little quilt!  I even roped a friend into doing it with me.  I hope to do this again next year!

  Please ignore the cheesy smile.  My husband made me. :)

I quilted and made a binding for an oldie but a goodie.  Doesn't that binding look so pretty rolled up?  I may have postponed sewing it onto the quilt just so I could take a picture of it!  

I have a nearly finished top of for a quilt using my Daisy Chain fabric.  I am currently indecisive on the border.  I'm so close though!

I have made some serious headway on the Christmas quilt!  Yay!  I'm LOVING it!  I'm hoping to make it about twin sized.  After having this quilt around, I have come to appreciate the bigger quilts.  Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to have this quilt done in time to use for Christmas.  I am about halfway there.  Only 200+ more flying geese to make! Only...

And besides that, I have hosted a few sewing nights at my home.  Those have been so much fun!  I have loved the opportunity to share the love of quilting with my friends.  I'm in the process of teaching one how to make her first quilt.  Exciting!  I'm hoping to have many more of those to come.

1000::

::4::
Today I am more thankful than ever for the man I married.


::5::
Ticket to Ride.  Best. Game. Ever.


::6::
Good food.  Lasagna.  Garlic bread. Enchiladas. Yum.

::7::
Two gorgeous sunrises in a row.

1000 Gifts::A Beginning

After several weeks of inspiration from a friend's blog, I decided to take part of Multitude Monday by starting my own list of 1000 blessings.


::1::
My husband.
He is truly an amazing man.  No other person can encourage me, challenge me, and make my laugh like he can.



::2::
My health.
I am able to run several miles and I am thankful for that ability.



::3::
The fall colors that are starting to come out around Ann Arbor.

Truly beautiful.

Quilt Festival

Amy at Park City Girl is hosting an Online Quilt Festival.  I had a hard time deciding which quilt to post about.  I decided on this one.

It was made using Plain Spoken pattern from Modern Quilt Workshop.  I made it for my friend, Sarah, for her first baby boy.  The colors correspond to how she decorated the nursery.  When I first started sewing, Sarah and I would talk about quilting and would occasionally sew together.  Once I learned that she was pregnant, it only seemed appropriate to make her a quilt.

I really enjoyed making this one.  It was one of the first quilts I finished-  the third if I remember correctly.  Looking back, it definitely had it's quirks.  The binding was a bit funky and it was my first attempt at free motion quilting.  But I still really liked it in the end.

Sarah's baby, Owen, was born 5 weeks early.  In fact, he was born the Wednesday BEFORE the baby shower.  I was actually running behind making the quilt and didn't think I'd have the binding on before the shower.  I had contemplated giving it to her unfinished and then finishing it before he was born.  Needless to say, THAT didn't happen.  I had to really rush finishing it up.  But in the end, it worked out perfectly because I was able to place a label with all of Owen's stats on it.

Sarah loved the quilt and she just celebrated the first birthday of her healthy little boy!  Perfect! :)

Slow to Post

I finished my 9-patch quilt a couple weeks ago.  I love it!  This is the largest quilt I have completed so far at about 65"x88".  It's going to be a great winter snuggling on the couch quilt.  :)

I originally planned to quilt this similarly to the inspiration quilt.  I started that way, but after a several lines, I unfortunately realized my seams didn't line up well enough.  It looked terrible!  So I ripped it all out and went for the all over stipple.  The new machine was great for this!  I loved the extra room and quilting table.  It made it so much easier to maneuver the quilt.  I can't imagine doing this on the old machine!

 

 

For the back I used a light green solid and for the binding I used Kona Cotton Cotton in Caribbean.  I really love the color of the binding. 

Oh, one more for good measure.  :)

 

Quilting Bee

Back in August I decided to join a quilting bee, the aptly named Quilter Bees. Yesterday I popped my September block for Meagan in the mail.

Megan sent everyone different solids and asked for a bunch of squares. I hope she likes it! :)

Sunset

Occasionally I will go out and try to find a good place around Ann Arbor to take a picture of the sunset.  Unfortunately, there aren't any truly great places.  The last couple times I ended up at the same location.  Right near the side of road where there is a gap in the trees overlooking a pond on a farm.  This past Friday when I was snapping photos, I noticed quite the change.

 

I know it's hard to tell from these photos, but the barn on the right fell down!  It was just laying there along the bank of the pond.  Presumably unchanged from the time it fell.  Craziness. 

Slacker.

Back at the beginning of August, on a whim, I joined the "Scrappy Christmas Block Swap". After I had already committed I had "buyer's remorse", perse, and lacked motivation to work on my blocks. But I have finished them! We'll try not to dwell on the fact that they're a week late. In my defense, these hedgerow blocks are way more labor intensive than I expected! Hopefully my swapmates (is that a word?) don't get too annoyed.

They'll be off to their new owner's on Tuesday. And I now know that "scrappy Christmas" is not for the girl who is inexplicably drawn to things that could be described as "matchy".

Birdie Sling

I finally got around to making myself a Birdie Sling using Amy Butler's pattern.


I like it! I used Art Gallery fabrics.


I knew the bag was though to be big, I must say I didn't realize it would be THIS big! I'm going to be able to fit a lot of stuff in this one!

Still Alive.

I go through these phases where blogging just doesn't sound appealing.  This is why it has been nearly a month since I have posted anything.  Whoops.  :)

This past weekend my husband and I met some of his family in Petoskey, MI.  We had a nice time spending time with family, seeing a documentary about the Polar Bears of World War I, and enjoying the city.  It's a pretty place.

The fam.

 

Morning sun.

  

Outside the coffee shop downtown.

 

I have been putting my new sewing machine to good use though. I finished stitching the binding onto the Arcadia quilt on the way to Petoskey.

 

A close up.

  

Oh, let's have one more for good measure.

 

 I'm a fan!

Lucky.

I received some exciting mail the other day- my winnings from Handmade by Alissa's 1 year anniversary giveaway!  :)  I am sure I be able to put this beautiful fabric to good use!

Amazed.

As I mentioned in my last post, I got a new lens for my camera.  The 50mm f/1.8 to be exact.  My parents were gracious enough to give it to me as a birthday present.  Thanks Mom and Dad! :) 

When I was at my cousin's son's birthday party last weekend, I was able to play with it and try it out.  It is pretty awesome.

The colors in these shots of the flowers is really rich.

Cute kids to photograph make it easy to look like a good photographer!

 

The birthday boy:

   

  

 

My second cousin's daughter: 

I'm pretty pleased!  The photos are better quality on flickr.  For some reason Blogger has been making my photos look a bit funky.