2013 Finishes Round-Up

Seeing as I was a bad monkey and didn't get any updates posted at the end of 2013 I figured I should take a moment to share some of the projects I managed to finish up in time for Christmas. The biggest (and longest) project was the Christmas quilt for my Mum that I had been working on for a while. Over the course of a couple of long days I was able to finish it up, and I have to say that I'm super thrilled with how it turned out.

Silas as always had to give his approval

The wonderful ladies at my LQS helped me pick out some adorable snowman fabric that made the perfect border and solved my no-Snowman problem.

I just *love* those snowmen!

I backed it with a beautiful snow white scroll-patterned minky that made it super cuddly and warm, not to mention, very heavy! My Mum is a wee little thing and is always cold so hopefully this will help to keep her cozy.

I was also able to finish up the table runner for Kevin's Dad and his wife. It came out quite cute, though perhaps a little simpler than I would have liked, but I think it's pretty cute and they liked it, which really is all that matters. 

All tied up and ready to be delivered :o)

I used a panel of Moonlight Serenade fabric I had in my stash that I think I inherited from my Mum for the top and pieced three fat quarters for the backing, and then trimmed it all with some red/burgundy binding. I used the gorgeous blue variegated Auriful thread for the quilting and did some simple straight line stitching around the graphic blocks. I was able to find some more of the fabric on Ebay as well as a ton of yardage of a coordinating fabric that is the same pattern as the little star blocks around the deer. My plan is to make matching pillow covers for them for Christmas this year, and maybe even some potholders or something if I have enough fabric. 

Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the Blue Boy Blocks quilt I'm making for Kevin, which I kinda had a feeling was going to happen. So while I wasn't able to give him a quilt for Christmas he still got plenty of goodies from me and a bottle of his favorite whiskey from Santa :o) Again, the ladies at my LQS were very helpful and helped me pick out a couple of fabrics for borders on the BBB quilt. I've got one of them mostly sewn on and the other one cut and ready to sew. Hopefully once I have all the quilts done for the January birthdays I'll be able to set some time aside to finish it up. 

In the meantime I've been writing a list of all of the quilty/sewing projects I'd like to accomplish this year and have decided that as is my nature I am probably being more than a little over-ambitious. I stopped counting when I hit 20 items on my list and still had a lot more to go. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how many I get done.

First Finish of 2014!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last update! Bad Amber, bad!

I hope everyone out there in blog land had a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year. We had a lovely holiday with a full two weeks off from work (yay!) and lots of time spent with our friends and family. It was a wonderful break and I was very sad to go back to work. Add to that the fact that I caught a cold over the weekend and its easy to see why I've been more than a little lazy lately.

I am happy to say though that I have my first official finish of 2014 under my belt and we're only a week into the new year. Not too shabby if I do say so myself :o) I've got a couple projects in the works as birthday gifts for my Mum and my nieces, both of which unfortunately are going to be late. Poop.

So instead of doing some work on the lap quilt I'm making for my Mum for her birthday (which was the 5th, d'oh!) I decided to whip up a sweet little padded iPad sleeve for her, so I could at least give her something for her birthday, and hopefully she'll be able to use it when she heads off to the UK later this week to celebrate my nieces first birthday with them.

I combined a couple of tutorials from One Shabby Chick and Freckled Whimsy as a guide for the sleeve. It came together very easily and only took a couple of hours. I'm sure that with practice they would go together even quicker. The fabric I used for the pieced top and lining is from the Glimma collection by Lotta Jansdotter for Windham Fabrics that I was able to get as a fat quarter bundle.

I love how it turned out and definitely want to make a matching one for myself, though seeing as I have an Asus tablet with a keyboard rather than an iPad I'll have to tweak the dimensions a little. I'm also thinking that I'd like to make a more masculine version of the iPad sleeve for my Dad using the darker fabrics in the bundle, and if I have enough fabric left, I'd like to make a coordinating version of this notebook cover for Kevin.

So, one week into 2014 and I already have one finished project and another two (or technically three) underway. Not a bad start to the year :o)

And here is a sneak peak of one of the projects currently in progress. Can you guess what it is?

Honeydew Jam In The Park

Last night I was able to finish up the quilt for Kevin's Grandma to take back to Iowa with us tomorrow. I'm calling it Honeydew Jam In The Park seeing as I used the Honeydew Jellie from Fabric Central for the top, yardage from the Bluebird Park collection for the backing and the Jelly Roll Ram pattern from Fat Quarter Shop, plus a couple of pink and white fat quarters from a Vintage Summer bundle I picked up on Craftsy.

While I liked the fabric selection when I originally bought it, I didn't fall in love with it until I put this quilt together. I think the colors and prints are just so darn cute together :o) Anyway, enough chatter from me. On to the pictures!

Full view of the top being displayed by my ever patient model, Kevin.

Close up of the top. I love these colors!

Bluebird Park has to be one of my absolute favorite fabric collections, and I thought this aqua flower print was just perfect for the backing.

The backing and top coordinate in such a pretty way.

I just *love* these cute little tags :oD

All folded and ready to go. Yay!

One Quilt Down...

... and a lot more to go!

I finally finished up the quilt for my Nan last night and I am so very pleased with the way it turned out.

The top hanging up on my design wall (aka the wall next to the front door) before sandwiching.

The one flub, what project by me would be complete without one? I was so sure that I had all of the blocks the right way up, but alas it looks like I ended up with some drunk geese and swans.

Showing off the awesome backing which was one big piece of the 12 Days of Christmas Picture Dots in Olive. I felt like it really pulled the whole quilt together.

Of course, one of my trusty assistants had to inspect my handiwork...

Before giving his seal of approval.

One more gratuitous kitty shot. Last one, I promise!

The finished product being modeled by my ever patient fiancé, Kevin.

All that is left now is to run it through the washer as soon as I can get some color catcher sheets, and then tie it up with some ribbon. I'm still debating on whether or not I should ship it over to my Nan, which will likely cost me close to $100 (ouch!) or wait until my Dad comes home from Amsterdam for Christmas and talk him into taking it back to London with him after the holidays.