Some small plans for the new year

Quilting, ah yes, that thing I stopped doing for a while there. I bet you thought I lost my rocker! Well, I was a bit burnt out, but I'm starting to get back on the wagon slowly. We did have a few other things that required my attention, but those are mostly finished now.  

I am participating in 2 quilt alongs. The first one started in November, the mystery quilt by Bonnie and Quiltville called Frolic. I've never done one before, but I saw some one's fabric pull and it inspired me to pull these out of my stash. I really love this color pallet.

Here are some of the millions of tiny pieces we have been sewing each week. No, not really! I have never made a quilt with so many pieces before. Good thing it's only about 150 to 200 pieces a week. But I am still loving the colors. Can't wait to get into the green.

The second quilt along is a scrappy trip by Alli at Woodberry Way.  I was planning on starting one with this pile of fabric and saw the quilt a long on instagram. So why not join in? I will be alternating my prints with white to soften the brightness a bit. 

I am also very slowly working on my 4th jean quilt of 8. (One for each of my kids.) My son, whom this one is for, helped me pick out the jeans he wanted to use and cut them up. I'm all ready to start sewing on this one. I use this stained glass pattern by Lucy. I add an extra row to make it bigger. I love this pattern because the sashing is ironed in on itself making the back of the quilt perfectly flat.

And finally, I reorganized my sewing room.  After finishing with a ladies craft group that I hosted this fall it was time for a change. I share my room with the homeschooling and the office. I get two corners for sewing. I lost the table I usually have behind me when I sew, but since I haven't been kicking out quilts at the speed of light it's been working out okay.

One of our cats sneaked in the house and seemed to have run straight upstairs and tried to climb the design wall making a huge rip in the batting. New batting it is! It really did need to be recovered anyway. Still looking pretty clean. Maybe I need to get something up on that wall. The fabric is all put away. No, I haven't quite got to my goal of it being 100% contained under the longarm. But I am working on it.

I just can't bring myself to count my quilts for this year and do an end of year post. I think it would just make me feel bad as I was not my usual productive self in the last half of the year.  But I am looking towards next year with new a new pattern hopefully coming soon. Speaking of patterns, I have reformatted 10 of my 14 patterns. The covers have all been updated. They look so much nicer now and many have fewer pages. You could say I have now learned publisher!

That's about it for me and what I've been up to. Enjoy the new year!!!

Checking In

Just a quick check in this morning to show you what I'm working on. I have this jean quilt top finished. I'm making one for each of my children. Two have been finished for a year or two, but I really didn't enjoy the process back when I made them so I put off making any more. But, I decided to tackle it again recently and I don't know why I thought it was so bad. I rather enjoyed making this one! I think the back should be aqua minky, if I can find a color that goes with the jeans.

We'be been very busy emptying a large trailer of things left over from our old store and selling them locally one thing at a time. So much work. It had to be done as the land it is on got sold and we have to be off by the end of the year. So other than a bit of journal making, I haven't had too much time to sew.  It was really nice to be able to sew this jean quilt one row at a time like a giant log cabin block. At least I felt like I was getting something done! And today starts the preparation for Thursday. My daughter sold a bunch of pies. And of course we have to make some for ourselves. Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble. Hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving!

Preppy

50" x 60"

This cute little quilt is made with 5 fat quarters and a little yardage. It is a free pattern called Preppy from A Bright Corner. I actually made mine from all yardage and it was just as easy.

I had a backing piece with some beautiful flowers that I have been wanting to use so I pulled some matching prints from my stash and some brown yardage to make this quilt.

Now that I have all my quilting caught up, I am cutting and sorting all the scraps that have accumulated over the course of this year. Yep, I did get a little behind on this! But I do keep my sewing room pretty clean so it's not such a big deal. Then I plan on cleaning out the closet, because that is one spot I don't keep up with!

Twin Rainbow Chain

74 x 98

I got to dig into my scraps again this month to make a twin sized rainbow quilt. If I was still a child, I think this is the quilt I would pick for my bed! Rainbows were a favorite of my childhood. I had a rainbow comforter on my bed, but nothing like this.

Just for fun and to take a picture, I put it on my oldest son's bed. Don't tell him though. I'm pretty sure he isn't a rainbow fan.

I'll be cleaning up the sewing room and cutting some scraps I found in the closet. Then maybe I can pick another project to start. There is only one quilt waiting for quilting on the hallway rail. One should always have more than one project going so I think I'm a bit behind. 

We're still waiting for fall here in Oklahoma. It's too hot to get out the fall quilts. Maybe next week!

Eyeshadow - a New Pattern

60" x 72"

This is my new pattern called Eyeshadow. I love the how the the diamonds are subtle and have a shadow effect to them. I made this quilt with a fat quarter bundle called Nest. The pattern is available in my etsy shop. It comes in 5 sizes from baby to king and can be made with fat quarters or 10 inch squares. 

Being as my favorite color is blue, I did a mock up in a blue monochromatic color scheme.

I love it in these grays too which would be perfect for those who love a more modern look. Gray seems to be very popular these days in home decor.

If you like to get the PDF version of Eyeshadow you can find it right here.