Who's the UFO Queen of 2013?

I did a count and discovered that I have 17 UFO's. Know what's funny about that? Before this year, I averaged one UFO for every year that I have been quilting. This year, I DOUBLED that, mostly because I quit my job and have more time to sew. And don't get me wrong, I have actually finished a lot of stuff this year! But I started a lot of stuff too, which all needs to be finished. And I know that I'm not the only one that has a ton of unfinished projects in my stash. So....

I started a facebook group to help people get in the spirit of digging them out, documenting them, and FINISHING some of them. And there's a little friendly competition too. No prizes, just bragging rights if you're the UFO Queen of 2013!

If you have any UFO's (doesn't matter if it's 2, or 17, or 106!) feel free to come join the group. You can find it here:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/UFOQueen2013

But, be prepared to unearth all those UFO's and write them all down! We are an embarrassment, guilt, and judgement free zone, all there for the same reason. And just think, once you've got all those projects done, how many goodies you'll have to give as gifts during the next holiday season!

Final photos of the Quillow!

It feels like it took FOREVER, but it's finally finished! I finished stitching the binding down at about 1pm on Christmas Eve, while my hubby was hiding in the basement putting a game table together for our boys. I still even had time to make some cookies and do some last minute shopping and wrapping, and make pizza for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. I'm so glad it didn't take me even longer to finish it!

Anyway, here's a couple pictures of the finished quilt. You can see them on Facebook also, if you follow me on my page Quilting for Sanity.

This is the quillow, all folded up into a pillow that's a little bigger than a standard bed pillow. I appliqued this green Beetle on here, it's meant to look like the first Beetle he ever owned. I also added a green stripe all the way around the edge of the pillow pocket, you can kind of see it there at the bottom.

 

 

And here it is, all unfolded. It's 29 strips, with black and different shades of blue and teal. The back is a dark blue microfiber topsheet that we never used. I also sacrificed a matching pillowcase to back the pocket with so it would match up when it's unfolded like this.

 



I'm quite happy with the finished quilt, and so is my hubby! We have 2 quillows already, but he's been asking me to make one that folded into a bed sized pillow for years. I did the math on it a couple years ago, but just recently finally got around to putting one together for him. I thought it would be an appreciated Christmas gift!

I hope to have a tutorial posted soon to my Craftsy page (though hubby doesn't want me to include the Beetle block since that makes his "special"!)

Time to make a pocket!

Today I started the pocket part of the quillow I'm making my husband for christmas. He's a VW enthusiast, so I thought I'd do something with that. I have had an applique pattern I drew of a Beetle sitting in limbo on my hard drive for over a year, so I dug that out, blew it up to a bigger block, and today I got it cut and partially stitched down. Here's a photo I took earlier today. Some pieces were sewn together, but nothing was sewn down to the block yet, so it's a little wonky looking. But you get the idea!

It's coming out really well, so I hope that this one will go up on my Craftsy store at the same time the quillow pattern and the stained glass pattern do.


Don't forget the Craftsy Christmas sale! Classes are up to 75% off thru midnight Christmas Eve! Craftsy has been totally amazing. I've been able to design and immediately release new patterns to a HUGE audience via their indie shop. I hope they're around for a long time!

New projects

I've been working really hard the last couple weeks on two projects. One, I've worked on while my husband is at work, and the other, while he's home. I'm still not done with either of them, but I'm done enough to share!

Project #1: Hubby's christmas quillow

 

I just finished the quilt part of it last night. You can see Marvin in the corner there, he gives his approval! I still have to trim the raw edges, make the pocket, sew it on, and bind the whole thing, but the hardest part is done. It's a quilt-as-you-go strip quilt, and I did it all on my standard machine. I'm hoping I'll be able to finish most of what's left before he gets home from work today, but I don't even have binding yet! I think I'll be staying up late at least one night between now and Tuesday to finish it.

Project #2: Stained glass quilt pattern

This is a simple fat quarter/fat 16th/scrap quilt pattern I've been working on. My sample piece will be a twin size, and requires 80 blocks. I have 50 done so far, and everything ready to do the rest. As soon as it's done, I'll write up the pattern and add it to my Craftsy store!

So that's what I'm working on. Not to mention that I've had a dress pattern printed and waiting to be laid out and cut for weeks now. Hopefully after Christmas I can get back to my Craftsy classes so I can learn how to properly alter a pattern so it actually fits me.

Speaking of Craftsy...Don't forget the Craftsy Christmas sale is going on till midnight Christmas Eve! All online classes are up to 75% off. And if you can't decide, you can get yourself a gift certificate while the price is low, and decide later (that's what I did!)

Who DOESN'T want to win free fabric for life?

 

Enter the Free Fabric for Life sweepstakes, sponsored by the Quilters Club of America! The grand prize is 52 yards of fabric a year for 20 years...that's 1040 yards of fabric total! I know that would probably last me the rest of my life, and I'm not even 35 yet. They say you can enter once per day.

CLICK HERE to enter!

Quick goodie bag project

My youngest is in preschool, and Monday I was reminded that Wednesday (that's today!) is his class holiday party, and each kid will have a goodie bag that we're all supposed to drop a stocking stuffer into. Being that it's Christmastime and I'm trying not to spend money I don't have to (since my checking account is just about empty right now!) I decided to try to make something for the kids.

So I raided my stash and found some green Christmas fabric with french horns on it, and an ivory fabric with snowflakes on it. I cut 4x3 inch rectangles out of each. Then I took a cereal box out of my recycle bin and cut a little christmas tree out of it, with a trunk wide enough to allow for stuffing. I traced the tree onto the back of the ivory fabric with a water soluble marker, and then sewed those to the green blocks (right sides together), leaving the bottom of the trunk open. When I got to the point of the tree, I tucked a loop of thin ribbon into it before sewing it down.

Then I trimmed the seams and turned them right side out. My preschooler helped me stuff them (with a bag of stuffing I got from a friend, since it's something I never buy), and then I tucked the edges in and sewed them shut. So here's a pile of 28 christmas tree ornaments I made in about 4 hours Monday afternoon!

The goodie bags had a lot of little candies and dollar store toys and pencils and erasers...almost everything was consumable in some way, or will surely break within a few weeks. But they'll each have this nifty little ornament to keep. :)

It's funny, I didn't even think to put potpourri in them, but I noticed a few parents that pulled them out of the goodie bags to smell them lol! Good thing there's no smokers here! Anyway, if I do this again, maybe I'll think ahead and get something pretty smelling to tuck in there. But I did get lots of compliments, and people saying I'm so talented and things like that. If they only knew how easy this was...The secret's out now!

Let it SNOW!

Well, it's ready for download! Come get your Let it Snow! Winter Mug Rug pattern here:

http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/let-it-snow-winter-mug-rug/38934

My new mug rug pattern will be available soon!

Last week I finished the top to my new mug rug pattern. I just need to get it quilted and bound and get some photos, and then I can get the pattern written up. What do you think?