January Goals Completed and More

It's official, I got the zoo completed.  I call it animals in the City, with a yellow border of city buildings and boxy quilting, I'm proud of how it turned out.

The lion was the hardest (as stated in the instructions), but it does look so good!!

See the quilting?  Wandering in the blue and squares to match the buildings (they're very faint) in the yellow. This block was my favorite.  Which one is your's?

My second goal was my Quilt Doodle "These are a Few of my Favorite Things". Will write more on it later showing the complete progress but here is a picture to show it's completeness.  There is embroidery, beads, applique, everything...  It's quite large - 104 inches by 80 (I added another border to the edging to make it bigger).  But it's great for an overlap for the pillow, and hanging down around a twin bed.

December's block was anything we wanted.  I wanted to add a  quote of some sort.  One quote that always stuck in my head is "It's not the years in your life, it's the life in your years." and with a quilt of favorite things, it's  great words to live by.  I embroidered it on the quilt.  You can see apart of it above.   Cindy at Quilt Doodle did such a great job again!!!  And she's starting another one already!  Check the top left hand corner for the newest or click HERE. 

But that's not all that was done this month, there was December's Aurifill mini quilt by Celine Perkins.  I do so love doing the minis but now Pat Sloan and Aurifil are back to doing blocks to make a completed quilt.  The next one is by Heather Valentine and it's quite modern.

Also in my frenzie to quilt I finished another row from the Row by Row experience this summer.....

The theme was water.  And now this makes 9 so far.  And next year a new one is coming - Home Sweet Home.  So I have to complete all my rows before I can start again....  My rule, not my husbands..  But with 52 rows to complete, come on, I have to get real!!

I started the new Quilt Doodle BOM - 6 reindeers.  The quilt will be a Christmas one, and you can never have too many of those...  :)

It's Called "Tis the Season", and it finishes as a 63" x 73".  The finish item is the picture on the side of my blog, so I know what it will look like, and I'm quite excited about it.

An entry to the Block Lottery which also has a mystery quilt on it for all the blocks you make.... Birds for this month...  I entered these 5 blocks in a lottery hoping to win blocks from others to make a complete quilt.

And I completed the forth block for my girlfriend's Christmas quilt (yes I know I'm late).  Sorry, no photo right now.

How did everyone else do this month?

Linking up to OMG for the Goal contest.  So pleased with myself!!!  Made the two goals!

One goal done....

Well the animals are completed last week, and I'm calling it "Animals in the city" because the yellow has skyscrapers on it.  The paper piecing pattern is by QuietPlay, a terrific site for a number of great patterns.  This pattern was a block of the month, one animal a month.  But there are many different types of animal patterns on the site.  Check them out.  This is the quilt hanging on my wall.  All the animals were made out of leftover scraps.  The yellow material is called "City Skyscrapers".

Here are the animals I made:

This animal was the hardest:

I also didn't like the monkey block  because there is no mouth.  I'm thinking of stitching one on.

But I do like my quilting stitch.   The next one was my favourite...

Finally, I did do one more smaller quilt this weekend...  From Aurifill and Pat Sloan's interview last month.  The last of her miniquilts for the 2015 season.  Now she's doing blocks from celebrity quilters.

It fits perfectly on my table.  I can't tell you the material on this one because it's made from scraps.  The size is 24 x 24".  Go ahead, make your own with Celine Perkins of Perkins Dry Goods.  Celine’s quilts have to be exact, such small pieces.   Celine is a master piecer and it shows in this quilt.  I quilted it using my walking foot, with a simple square stitch.  Her quilts are old fashion, and the material I picked out was perfect for this.  I love this one.

Change of plans...

I'm still so sad about "A Lovely Year of Finishes" being over.  Shanna and Melissa did a great job and I had so much fun.  That's why I'll miss it.  But now, much to my happiness someone else has taken over, and I now can join Hiedi at Red Letter Quilts for the "One Monthly Goal".  She's going to keep it up, so the rest of you, come join the fun!!

I'm looking this month to finish a couple of quilts.  I know it's a big goal but I made a list of all the quilts that I have a pattern and material for, and I just have too much!!!  I even made a New Years Resolution to not buy any more material until I finish two quilts (and I'm in withdrawal right now).  So that's my goal.  The two quilts are the following:

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1. To finish my paper piecing project of  "Quiet Time at the Zoo", I have two more blocks to complete, then put it together, and quilt it.
2. My second goal is my Quilt Doodle Quilt.  I'm about to start the new one (come play!!!).  It's another Christmas quilt and you can't have enough of those to snuggle under in the winter.  It's so cute and the first one is a raindeer.  But enough of that, I need to finish this last one, and it's adorable....  I have the borders to complete this month, applique to add in the blank sections, then put it together and quilt it myself.  

Here's a sample of each so far....

One of the blocks from the Zoo

Part of the border done.  Border needed for 14 blocks.

So there's my goal Hiedi.  Lets have fun together....

 

Starting to Play again

With the start of school again it's been a while since I did some quilting.  With a new course, needing to repair a number of computers, and birthday celebrations, I have not been able to get some quiet time to doing some quilting.  But at least this weekend I've been able to do some quilting, and it sure does make a difference to my mood.

So I had today and yesterday to play.  What did I do?  Take a look:

For Thanksgiving in my classroom.  You
hand it on the door.  It's quilted.

From Quiet Play - At the Zoo.
All Paper piecing.

At the Zoo again.  A monkey.  August.
Just two behind this time.

A wool quilt I found from 2008 when I started.
But I couldn't find the pattern, so I went
my own way.  2 1/2 inch squares of flower material around it.

The wool quilt is all completed, quilted around every square of flower material.  It has different types of stitching on each square which is what I took the class for.  I don't remember the name of this quilt nor the teacher unfortunately.  That will teach us all to be organized  :)

A great two days of relaxation, and accomplishments.  Not exactly a lot, but I"m still happy.  See this link to see what I was starting out with at the start of September, some squares and that's it!!  So I'm very happy with how it is.  I'll take more pictures and put them up in another blog so you can take a closer look. 

For now, that's it, time to stop.

Been Busy...

I've been very busy this week trying to get a few things off my work desk (literally - all my projects are in containers on my work desk.  It's very crowded and messy, and truly, I can no longer work like this.  I'm too embarrassed to show a picture of it.  To top it all off, I've been collecting "Row by Rows" like everyone else I'm sure, and those have been taking space.  At present I have over 50 of them (yes I know that's crazy), half from Canada and the other half from the US.  What does that mean?  Another project to make two queen size quilts.  It's starting to get too much!!!

So what does this all mean?  This week I've been finishing off projects that I've "almost" completed, and promising myself again, that I will not buy any more fabric, but use what I have.  I've also said to myself that that's it, I'm catching up on the actual BOM's that I started this year.  But once again, what does that mean?  It means I got my but in gear these last 3 weeks and I've been catching up or finishing off projects.  Here's some examples:

Catching up on my paper piecing for Quiet Time at the Zoo.  Two more to go, the Monkey and the Parrot.  I really love this pattern, so simple to follow, and great work by Kristy.

Found a wool sampler that I started in 2008 (you can see the date on one of the blocks).  Completed the two from the pictures below.

This one is now completed.

Sorry about the quality of this picture.

But now I have to set all of these together, because there were more, but I've lost the pattern, so I need to make something up for myself.

The Daisies are completed in this picture.

This project was just sitting there.  Made a giant pillow cover, that is now quilted and all.  This pattern is from Pat Sloan's Aurifil mini patterns.  Love this one, and it's modern look from Kimberly Jolly.  See some of her other work here at the Jolly Jabber ......

And finally one of the quilts completed from the Quarter of completing projects.  But I'll have more to say about that in another entry for submission for the Finish-Along for 2015 at the Windy Side.

Here's a sneak look at something from Sew Fresh Quilts - I've finished my Elephant parade!!!

The completed quilt!

Zig zag quilting with hearts as well.

More on this for the next posting.

Busy Weekend.

I got a number of projects that have been sitting there completed.  Place mats for my sister.  She's been asking for this.  Used the Improv manner to make the circles.  Quilted with echo quilting.  They look beautiful.

Did a couple of BOM blocks for February.  Quilt doodle block which was really fun:

and then there was the Animal zoo that I've been working on.  Completed the penguin.  The body has silver in it.

Then, the great thing is that I finished two wall hangings.  These quilts were amazingly quilted with my new Janome sewing machine.  Check it out.  First one is "Whooooooooo's there?"

leaf motif

Feathering.

Leaves.  White on white.

And then this one which is "Scraps of Fall."  This one was in thread that changed from white, to light blue to dark blue.  Make it look like the wind going through the leaves.  Check it out.

The quilt - notice leaf blocks.

See the birdies?

Quilting went through tree
and some leaves.

Was really amazed at this one.  Very happy that it worked out.  The owl one is a house warming gift.  But the "Scraps of Fall" is here  ;)

Showing it to the Guild tomorrow.

Playing at the Zoo

Can't believe how little I've done this month but when you think about it, final month of the term, doing final projects, getting ready for the electronic exams, I've simply have had no time to do any sewing.  I've worked hard at getting one of my major quilts completed for the quilt show this June, so that would explain some of it.  but I've only completed the Aurifil block, the Quilt Doodle, and now one that was very surprising, and quite fun is the Quiet Play:  Zoo Animals blog.  It's a paper piecing BOM that starts simple, and becomes very challenging for the last block. 

The first block is a flamingo.  The directions are simple but clear, and the pieces fit perfectly together.  I can't say it enough, I had fun!!!  Normally I have trouble with completing paper piecing but not this time.  Made two mistakes and was able to fix them right away.  See for yourself.  Looks great.  Blue sky background.

Can't wait for the second one.  Wonder which one.