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!