Medallion - quilted and bound

I finally quilted the Medallion quilt that I made at Gwen's retreat in September.The center section was quilted before Christmas. I started in the center and outlined the applique, then I stitched in the ditch around the saw teeth and stars. Then, I was paralized with indecision for quite a while on how to quilt the corners. I knew I wanted something curvy in there. I tried drawing branching feathers, I searched the web for ideas, I spent a lot of time agonizing over it.Finally, this week I decided to go ahead and quilt some largish feathers to fill the corner. I think they turned out OK. I'm not sure sure that the large scale feather goes with the smaller scale of the rest of the quilt. Maybe I should have done a branching feather with smaller lobes. Hmmm.I'm happy to have it finished and move on to the next thing. Do you do that? Do you go ahead with something knowing that it may not be the best choice for the quilt just to keep things going. I don't like to be stuck. This quilt really had me in a pickle. I didn't want to move on to another project and have this quilt sitting around unfinished for who knows how long. Yep. I'm glad to have it off my mind. I think this design, although not perfect for the quilt, is good enough.I still may add a little more quilting around the applique, but then again, maybe not.The finished quilt measures 40 by 40 inches.I have another quilt basted and waiting. I only know how I want to quilt parts of it...so I may be back in the same boat pretty soon. I hope not. I hope I can get inspired and finish it quickly because it's a quilt that I'm really eager to share with you!

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Crafting in 2012

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It's fun and always makes me feel more productive to look back and see what I made during the year.  Do you do that?I've been feeling very unproductive the last week or so. I've enjoyed having lots of family time but I haven't spent any time at all at my sewing machine. I pulled out a couple of long lost knitting projects to work on in the evenings because I can be a bit more social while still "making". Mostly I've not been crafting. I'm really feeling the itch.This is MOST of what I did this year.1. ladybug mittens, 2. Crazy Love quilt, 3. estonian-socks-colorwork, 4. Abbey-Road-outside, 5. Pinwheels-and-Strings-close, 6. Lynn's hexagon quilt, 7. baby quilt whole, 8. happy drawing pattern, 9. Nancy, 10. bluebirds of happiness, 11. Paris on a Shoe String, 12. pixie hat side, 13. pixie hat girl, 14. hexagon flowers, 15. rug, 16. slip n slide 1, 17. Bento bag, 18. frame purses first, 19. frame purse monkey, 20. Flower Power close, 21. new dress action, 22. Washi front, 23. birds and the bees washi, 24. Anna Maria Horner Washi, 25. frippery washi, 26. ruby finished, 27. pink pixie, 28. Point Me big, 29. skinny tee P, 30. Cloud 9 frame purses, 31. Little Stitches embroidered, 32. Happy Land close, 33. Swiss Chard close, 34. chick on mushroom, 35. medallion top, 36. sneak peek

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Winter Wonderland

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To celebrate the start of winter today we went out to enjoy our freshly fallen snow.We live on a glacial moraine that is filled with interesting geological features. Today we walked up a kame in the state recreation area. You can see the cone shaped hill there in the right side of the photo below.Michigan is really a pretty interesting place to live. You may remember when I wrote about the kettle hole in our yard."The hill in front of you, known as a kame, was formed thousands of years ago when water from melting glacial ice flowed through a large crack in the ice. Glacial melt water carried sand, gravel, and rocks, depositing them at the base of the crack to form the kame.  To help picture this, imagine how sand flows through and hourglass and creates a rounded pile of sand in the bottom of the hourglass."I'm thrilled to have everyone home for a few days. Let the festivities begin!Happy Solstice. 

Holiday Sewing

I've been busy with some holiday sewing. I made another Flashback Skinny Tee for miss P and then added a bit of embroidery from Aneela Hoey's Little Stitches. The shirt is made from a thrift store woman's top and I was able to save the neckline and sleeve hems. Yay for quick sewing projects.The design was one that P had marked in the book so I'm pretty sure she'll like it. Since this is a knit fabric, I left the interior of the bird free of stitching. I didn't want the fabric to become stiff from the extra stitching.Miss P has been doing a little holiday sewing of her own.Now, I must get back to Santa's workshop...Are you working on any special holiday projects? I'd love to hear about them.

Getting Festive

We put up and decorated our tree two weeks ago but didn't find the icicles with the other tree decorations. P and I went through all the other boxes (there are many boxes) of decorations today and chose some things to put out other places around the house. We STILL have not found the icicles for the tree. I miss the way they twinkle with the air movement in the room.I wonder where we put that bag last winter when we packed all of the decorations away. It will probably turn up six months from now -  like that Easter egg we found a few weeks ago....

Swiss Chard - Rossie Made Me Do It

This week I finished the Rossie Made Me Do It quilt. You may remember that I chose this group of fabrics as a blogger bundle for Pink Castle fabrics. The pattern is from Elizabeth Hartman's Modern Patchwork: 12 Quilts to Take You Beyond the Basics

I tried my hand at quilting pebbles. I had attempted this before but wasn't happy with the results. On this quilt I quilted the pebbles in the white background fabric. I was having fun with it and not rushing and I think the pebbles turned out pretty good. I have to keep reminding myself not to hurry with the quilting. I'm always happier with the end product when I take my time.
I really liked the way the colored hexagons seemed to float above the background pebbles or bubbles sort of like lily pads on a pond. In an effort to keep that look I just stitched in the ditch around each triangle piece.
The binding was a little fussy but also worth the effort. I used straight cut binding strips like always but did inside and outside miters. The inside miters required a little bit of origami-like folding before stitching them down but I love the look.
Here's the whole thing.
And another look at some of those miters.

Decisions, Decisions

I have a couple of quilts pin basted and ready for quilting but I've been struggling with just HOW I want to quilt them. I don't want to do an all over design on them, I want to do something that really complements the piecing.In my lack of decision and procrastination on the quilting I got into a cleaning frenzy in the sewing room and found a pile of old Christmas fabrics. Do you see that selvedge? 1993!

A few hours later and I have a stack of gift bags. I made them in all different sizes depending on how big the fabric pieces were. I went through the suitcase of trims and found bits of ribbon that I used for ties. I just folded a bit of trim and stitched it into the side seam. Then you can just tie it around the top of the bag to close it.
I still haven't decided how to quilt those quilts but at least I have a stack of gift bags to show for my time. And, the sewing room is a wee bit tidier.
What have YOU been working on?

Happy Land to the Post Office

I'm so happy about my trip to the post office today. I have most of my Christmas packages ready to send and also a few commission works to mail away. I finished this Happy Land quilt yesterday while the pumpkin pie was in the oven.This was made with Thomas Knauer's 70's vibe quilt pattern. I quilted it with groups of wavy lines.The fabrics are all from the Happy Land line by Sis Boom.I hope you have a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends and happy Thursday for the international folks!After putting our turkey in the oven, we walked the fields and scouted out a tree for Christmas. Mr. B won't let us put up a tree until December first but at least we know which one it will be.This one wasn't quite big enough.This one was too tall but the top section will work great.I have a week to tidy and get ready for the tree and all the holiday decorations.I am thankful to have my family together for the holiday and that we can walk out the door to our field to choose our Christmas tree.

Instagram Photos

Narrow hand appliquéd bias strips. 1/16” quilting lines not going over the appliqué. I’m about a month in on the quilting and ALMOST finished. Whoop! Quilted with Invisalign on top and Decobob in the bobbin. Threads by @wo
This summer we watched my two oldest grand kids one day a week. Towards the end of the summer they started making projects on their own in the sewing room. They made lots of little projects from my scrap basket including pillow cases and tiny quilts
Here’s the layout with all but one block done. I’ll finish that last block when I get more of the baby poop green/mustard fabric. I put out the call and the internet provided! This top will be finished soon! This is a remake of an 1870s
I’m finally getting around to putting these stars together. I made the stars a few years ago and have been on the hunt for the perfect setting fabrics. These @carolynfriedlander prints are the perfect match for the 1800s reproduction prints in