The Christmas rush is over

- it's now time to get back to some sewing!  I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas - ours was a pretty quiet one, which was nice!
I haven't been doing a lot of sewing - although I was working on this on Christmas Eve - always have to have one last minute rush project - right?

This fabulous stocking was designed by my friend from the VMQG, Berene, of Happy Sew Lucky fame.  Berene has all kinds of super cute patterns and designs that she does on Spoonflower - go take a peek!  

  I ordered it through Spoonflower in the periwinkle colour way.  It finally made its way to my house on December 23 - (I love my postal system, I love my postal system) - and then I had to paint it, quilt it and turn it into a stocking.  This was to be a stocking for my SIL, and it had to be in his team colours.  I loved the idea of the converse sneaker, and it just seemed to fit him perfectly.
It all worked out beautifully, and I got it made, stuffed with stocking goodies and delivered on Christmas Day.  Yay!


I did get back into my sewing room today - boy do I need to do a major cleanup in there!  I've finished off a virtual bee block, and have finished a top for a donation preemie quilt, and am 2/3rds of the way done a second one.  My goal for the coming year is to use my stash and to finish off a few of my WIPs.  Doesn't that sound like a familiar goal?  Hmmm - check out this post last December!  I had a really busy 2011, but I didn't make a dent in my WIP list!   That has got to change! I am really going to try and finish off a WIP between every couple of new starts.  Wish me luck! 
2011 was a good year - I'll put together a photo collage in a couple of days of what I did get done - I still have some time to finish off a few things, and I do have a drop in day coming up on Saturday!  Lets see if I can get A WIP or two off my list!


I just realized I haven't taken any pictures yet of my new and improved living room - its too dark right now, but I'll try and get some in the daylight tomorrow - if we have any - it has been so grey and dreary lately, really depressing.  Maybe I better go play with some bright fabrics...


Happy quilting!

Merry Christmas!

The very best of the holiday season to you and yours - may all your wishes come true!

Happy quilting!
Janet

Pretty exciting!

At least for me!  

The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild has just started doing a series on Member Spotlights, and I am the first to be spotlighted!  I was picked randomly, and was given a series of 10 questions, 6 of which I was to answer.  To find out how I answered, and in the process, learn a little more about me, head over here!  Can't wait to learn more about my fellow members at VMQG - we have some amazing talent in the guild!


 Happy quilting!

distractions and progress

I hope you all had the chance to go check out some of the beautiful Winter and Christmas quilts over at SewCalGal's 2011 Christmas quilt show!  There are some fabulous distractions over there!


Warning - here follows a long post - that's what happens when I don't post regularly, but then blast you with it all at once!


First up, I need to report on some finishes!  Way back in October I actually finished this one, but because we weren't revealing them until our November VMQG meeting, I only gave you a sneak peek at my Habitat challenge.  Here's the full picture.

Sorry, I need to take a better picture!

I kept the quilting really simple on this one - some SID and then some simple echo quilting.

And, I am very happy to say that my African Collage quilt is done - this must be a record for me - taking a workshop and within a month of finishing said workshop actually having finished the project!  I am thrilled with how it has turned out, especially since it was such a stretch for me.

Unfortunately, it was my only finish in the entire month of November - I can not believe how November has already flown past  Sheeesh!  I do think that December will be picking up the pace a little - I still have a ton of ideas of things I want to make as gifts. Ha!


Now for some of my in progress projects - we had our sew-in day at VMQG, and I wanted to work on something different - I mentioned it back here, but I never showed it to you.  Last year I finished up my "Figgy Duff" quilt made from a charm pack of Figgy Pudding, and I had a few of the brown and blue charms left.  I thought they would make a nice table runner - possibly as a Christmas present.  I decided to border and then place the squares on point, and started with this

Then it grew to this

and it will finish off like this!  Who would have thought that 9 - 5" charms would grow to a runner that is 84" long!  That's right, it will be 7' long!  Know anyone with a Harvest table than needs a long runner for it???

At work, I share an office with another lady, and I always have a quilt up between our desks.  It is time to put a Christmas quilt up, and I didn't want to put the same one up as last year, my Cranberry Salsa.  This summer, while on vacation we stopped into the Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  Fun fun fun!  I didn't have a lot of time as my DH was itching to hit the road again, but I did manage to pick up a bit of fabric and this book



What a fabulous book full of all kinds of wonderful projects - and did you know the authors of the book, Jeanne Large and Shelley Wicks are the owners of the Quilt Patch and are just the nicest folks, and they are fabric designers to boot?


I love the cover quilt on this book, but didn't have room for the full size version, so I scaled it down a bit and came up with this.

I am doing some really simple quilting on this one, and hope to be able to take it to work with me tomorrow and get it up on the wall.

But, what is keeping me from a lot of quilting this weekend is this:

We replaced our old fireplace - oh about a year ago, and I've decided that that wall has to be patched and all painted before Christmas this year. (see my WIP list is much bigger than just my quilting!)  We replaced some window trim as well, and in the spirit of keeping things fresh, I've also decided that I am changing the wall colour, so that means I have the living room, dining room and front entry to paint, oh my.  I may get a little sewing in while waiting for paint to dry?!  Wish me luck!


 Happy quilting!