Design Table Monday?

I finished the front  of the jumper for my niece last night. I got the back cast on and a few rows done before it was time to head for bed.

This is what my quilt table looked like this morning. 5 quilt tops, some batting and backings, loosely piled, waiting to be finished. I have since basted the laundry day quilt and the baskets quilt and even started quilting the laundry day quilt. I wonder what my table will look like by the end of the week.

My husband's out of town tonight , so I am having  a date night. With a chick flick and my knitting. Maybe some chocolate, too.

There's progress, and then there's PROGRESS!

I was going to do a post last night to show the progress I had made this week. I took pictures Friday morning planning to post in the evening when I had more uninterrupted time. Instead of posting on Friday evening, I did some more work. Now you can really see the Progress I made.

Here's what I was going to post yesterday. All the fabrics for my UFO challenge (basket quilt), all ironed and pieces cut. Now this is what I did last night...

I sewed the blocks together and then ended up piecing the whole top! Love it. The fabrics I had planned changed as I was cutting. I hadn't planned on using the brown squares but nothing else seemed to go. Now to decided on the quilting.

I love the baskets. I was forced on size by the center fabric. I only had a small piece of it and the biggest square I could cut from it was 7 inches, finished, so my baskets had to fit in a 7 inch square too. So, that is what I started with. I really like how the handle turned out. I think it looks a lot like the baskets my sister designed, which you can check out here (I swear I designed this before looking at hers). She gave me the center fabric, the background fabric for the baskets and the above brown basket fabric for my 30th birthday and I have been saving them for a special project.

The other basket. This basket fabric is from my stash. The brown polka dot fabric is of course from the remnant bin at JoAnn's (what would I do without the remnant bin?) The outer green border is some of my favourite fabric which I used  in the Twiggy quilt I made for our bed last fall, which you can see in this post here.

Wednesday, I made a quick trip to JoAnn's to pick up needles for my niece's present. I knew I wouldn't get the scarf done in time. Here's what I completed between Wednesday evening and Friday morning.

I was able to get a bit more done Friday during the day and during our family movie Friday evening.

So, with a trip to JoAnn's on Wednesday, was I able to resist and stay on my Fabric Diet this week? YES! I didn't go on the fabric side of the store, even though the remnant bin was calling my name. I resisted, bought the knitting needles and left.  Maybe it's because my husband was with me. Head over to Cut to Pieces to read how others did this week. Thanks Angela for this great challenge.

After I pieced the basket top Friday night, I kept going on my "Little stack of things I need to finish and get off my quilt table". First, was adding borders to this laundry day quilt. The borders have been cut and waiting for a couple months. Not sure why I kept moving this project around. Now I just need to quilt it. And iron it.

All this table runner needed was the binding. Done!

I know.  It's a Christmas table runner. It will be a present next Christmas or go in the etsy shop in October or maybe a Christmas in July. There will be more Christmas themed finishes over the next couple weeks as there are a couple things I didn't finish in December.

Here's to Progress!

Knitting into the New Year

Happy 2011!

I spent a lot of time this weekend knitting.

Made a lot of progress on the scarf. About halfway done. I need to finish it as I need the needles to knit a gift for my niece. Trying to decide if I should just go buy myself a second set of needles or just hurry up and finish the scarf. Right now, I'm trying to finish the scarf... but we'll see what I think at the end of the week. This was going to be for me but now I think it is going to be a gift. This year I am trying to make all the Christmas presents (starting early, really early, for a change).

Started another pair of socks for myself. Nice and colourful.

Yarn for my niece, waiting for the knitting needles.

I do still quilt. The tree quilt is still waiting for its buttons to be put on. My UFO challenge quilt is waiting to be ironed.

Some mug rugs waiting to be quilted and some other little projects that need to be finished, including a Christmas table runner. 

I guess I should stop reading blogs and get to all my waiting projects. 

Fabric Diet?

So, this seems like a good idea, right? 2 months without buying fabric? Think I can do that. I hope I can do that. There are prizes, of course. Fabric prizes. I guess I am going on a diet this year. Wish me luck.

It's #6 for January!

Judy's picked a number!

#6. Basket wallhanging. Can't wait to get started!

Happy 2011!

UFO Challenge 2011

I've decided to join Judy's UFO Challenge for 2011! I'm excited to work on these projects that keep being pushed aside. I don't plan on finishing them all, most of them, some of them I just hope to make significant progress on.

1. This is a BOM by the Garden State Quilters. They only have 5 of the 9 blocks online right now. 

Goal: Complete what blocks have been posted.

2. Dresden Plate Quilt from Material Obsession. I am only going for lap size (4 x4), and I am going to use yellow instead of white for the background. I have already started cutting out the pieces for the dresden plates. 

Goal:  Finish piecing the top. 

3. Glow Happy byhttp://thehappyzombie.com/blog/. I bought the fabric on a Cyber Monday deal. You can get the pattern, here.

Goal: Completely finish.

4. Lantern Bloom. This was in the Spring issue of Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts this year. So far I have only picked fabrics for it.

Goal: Have top pieced and ready for quilting.

5. Snowbound. This was the BOM by Bunny Hill Designs this year. I have 7 more blocks to applique and embroider. The chain blocks are complete.

Goal: Completely finish.

6. Use these fabrics to make a basket quilt for myself. I designed the wallhanging myself since I only have small amounts of some of the fabrics and had to design around them.

Goal: Completely finish.

7. Avalon. Another quilt from Material Obsession. These are fabrics I have selected so far. This quilt may end up being a gift.

Goal: Completely finish.

8. Patchwork Panache. This was a free BOM pattern at Block Central. This quilt is completed, just waiting to be quilted. 

Goal: Completely finish.

9. Rock Mosaic. Use some of my rock fabrics to make the quilt pictured in the center. I've been wanting to make this quilt for awhile and have kept pushing it aside. I can hardly wait to make it.

Goal: Completely finish.

10. Bow-tie Flower Garden. This is a quilt I designed myself. It needs stems and leaves appliqued on, and then quilted. I think it needs a good ironing too.

Goal: Completely finished.

11. Rainbow swap. These are the blocks that I received in the one and only swap I participated in. I have already picked some fabrics to go with them, just need to put them all together.

Goal: Completely finish.

12. String Quilt. I am half way done this quilt. I planned on making 6 more rows. I have all the foundation blocks cut and have most of the strings ready, just need to do it.

Goal: Completely finish.

Thanks for the challenge Judy! I can't wait to get started.

Final Finishes for 2010!

I've discovered that when you stay home for the holidays and you don't get any company, that you can get a LOT of quilting done.

I finished this quilt. The top was my one thing, one week challenge in October. It has been sitting around ever since. I got it finished this week. I'm glad I used winter fabrics and not Christmas fabrics so it can stay out and be used for a few more months.

Close - up of one of the corners. I liked that I fussy cut the snowmen.

The trees took the most time. I don't do many paper piecing projects so I have to relearn how to do it each time. I think they turned out pretty well.

I really like the flying geese blocks too. I also like that I had enough of the main fabric to use it for the border.

The back. I used 4 flannels that were in the remnant bin at JoAnn's.  The pattern for this quilt can be found in the December edition of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting.

I also finished my sweater. I have since washed it (and am actually wearing it right now), and a lot of the stiffness is gone. It's nice and warm. Yarn is on sale this week at JoAnn's so I picked up some yarn for the next project (or 3). The pattern is from a library book - sorry, can't remember which one.

Tree quilt. I was suppose to have this done for us to decorate this year, but I just finished it yesterday. I still need to add buttons that we will hang ornaments from, but I consider this finished. I will probably put the buttons on tonight or tomorrow... but all the quilting is done.

I have been saving the tree fabric at the bottom of the quilt for several years. I absolutely love it and didn't want to cut it up. Glad I will get to enjoy it for many years to come.

The back. You can see some of the quilting. The checkerboard quilting was done on the tree fabric at the bottom. The loopy quilting was done on all the snowflake fabric. I outlined the diamonds in the tree, but it will mainly be "quilted" with buttons. This is loosely based on Esther Aliu's Christmas quilt, which she had offered as a free mystery download for 6 weeks. You can now buy the pattern from her, here.

I also wiped up 2 bags last night too. Again the fabric is from the remnant bin a JoAnn's. This is a work bag to hold current knitting projects. You can see a sock pattern book sticking out the top.

This is a purse for me. I needed something a little bigger, that will be able to hold snacks and a water bottle.

The 2 bags together. the fabric is a light corduroy. I didn't do the embroidery - it came that way - and I couldn't resist it.

4 more sets of mug rugs. These have been done for a week or so, but I kept forgetting to take pictures.

Guess that is all my finishes for 2010. So, how many finishes did I have?  125! Wow, that's a pretty big number. Guess I did do something this year.