Happy New Year!

This was the view out our living room windows on New Year's Day! Love seeing Mt Rainier anytime but greeting me on New Year's Day, that is amazing!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and that you have all recovered from said holidays! Today is our first day back in the usual routine and I really didn't want to hear that alarm!


I looked back at my projects for 2011 and discovered that I finished:

26 lap size or larger quilts

7 baby quilt or smaller quilts

10 blocks for the quilt block exchange

20+ stemware coasters

Many owl hats

Many mittens

1 liturgical stole

1 tote

1 shower curtain

10 Christmas minis

7 flimsies

I also quilted three quilts for other quilters.

Not a bad year though I think I should have done better. There were just too many other things going on!

I wanted to share my birthday present from my sister. Instead of sending it she gave it to me when we saw each other after Christmas. Not sure what you would call it, maybe a mini design wall? It is flannel on the inside so you can lay out the pieces for a block 

and then you can roll it up for later or to transfer it to your sewing machine. It is pretty cool!

 This is the big item we brought back from our daughter's house:

She found it at the surplus sale at the university for us (we paid, but we couldn't be there the day of the sale). It is an old card catalog cabinet. It is in pretty good shape considering its age and the amount of use it got over the years! I spent a good bit of time trying to get all the floor wax off the stand (most of it is gone) and polishing up the rest. My plan is to use it to store most of the stuff that has been piled in and on my roll-top desk which I never use as a desk (even if it is cleaned off). Once it is cleaned off and my niece has a place for the desk, we will give it to her. It is one of the first roll-top desks made by her father around 30 years ago.

The new year started out with a splash for me. In a weak moment, I said I would do the Polar Bear Jump with some folks from church. This involves jumping from a bridge into the chilly waters of Puget Sound. So when noon rolled around, I was standing with hundreds of others waiting my turn to jump! And jump I did! That cold water is quite a shock to the system - I was instantly exhausted and not sure about the short swim to shore. I made it and got my certificate to prove I made the plunge. The funny thing is I am actually thinking about doing it again next year!


Yesterday, I spent a little time in the sewing room. First I tidied up the sewing table putting all scraps away from the Christmas minis and then I got borders on two of the froggie quilts. I hope to get borders on at least two more today so I can get started on the quilting and binding. Then I will have all the yo-yo eyes to make and attach. Once those are finished I can get the baby girl quilt made and move on to my Relay for Life drawing quilt.

Better late than never?

Here is my tally for April. It is pretty bleak! I thought I did better but as I looked back through posts and pictures I realized I was a bit of a slacker. I did get my stash restocked so I can get lots of sewing done now and I got a new serger but this is all the creativity I managed:

APRIL TALLY

Quilt tops - 1 - the beach quilt
Finished quilts - 1 - the spider web
Blocks for exchanges - 15 (I think)
Mittens - 5 pairs
Hats - 2 Owl hats for 2 of my nieces

See! That is pretty bleak!

Catching up...

...but it isn't too hard! I have had a woefully scantily productive first quarter of 2011 both in blog posts and sewing/crafting!

It has been so busy around here...

Two weeks of the granddaughter visiting,

One week of watching both grandkids at their house,

One quilt show,

One quilt retreat,

One year of appliance repair business records that needed to go into the computer...

and that is just the big stuff!

I did get...

33 pairs of mittens crocheted,

2 owl hats made for the grandkids,

1 binding done on someone else's quilt,

Seasons of Hope Relay for Life quilt finished,

6 quilt kits made up for retreat (finished the tops from 5 of them at retreat),

2 wall quilts/table toppers finished,

2 baby quilts finished,

2 block exchange blocks made and mailed,

2 quilts quilted and bound for other quilters,

20+ stemware coasters made,

120 spiderweb blocks finished and trimmed,

6 tops quilted and bound

...so I guess it wasn't too bad.

I am hoping to do better for the rest of the year but I am sure it will never be as much as I am hoping to do!

2010 Wrap-Up

December Tally

Robot Quilt

'Guy' Quilt

Deer Quilt

Owl Quiltlet

Odyssea Triangle Maze Quilt

Ornament Quiltlet

Strawberry Quiltlet

16 Stemware Coasters

21 Novelty Pillowcases

Quilted 2 Customer Quilts

3 Pairs Mittens

2010 Totals

If I counted correctly (and I doubt I did) this year I accomplished the following:

9 Professional Totes

29 Quilts

2 Additional Top

53 Blocks for Exchanges/Round Robins

5 LWR Quilt Backs and 9 Tops

2 Cushions and 6 Pillows

1 Baby Quilt Repair

18 Doll/Wall Quilts

2 Quilted for Customer

3 Pairs of Mittens

Numbers Are Up

I was pretty busy in the sewing room in November and December should be pretty close if I can keep up the pace!

November Tally

Finishes
Leftover Triangle Quilt
3 Doll/Mini Quilts
Bento Box Quilt
Brown Leftover Triangle Quilt
Pink/Green Quilt

Good-bye Scrap Quilt

Tops Only
Strawberry Doll Quilt
Odyssea Triangle Maze Quilt

Other
4 QBE Blocks
2 QBRR 2010 Blocks
Diaper Bag

October Finishes

In spite of going to a quilt retreat in October I didn't get much finished during the month. Of course the big thing was finishing the hand quilting on the wedding quilt. So here is the meager list:

October 2010 Tally

Wedding Quilt

Sharelle's quilt top

120 strip pieced blocks (with my niece's help)

August/September Accomplishments

August/September Tally

Quilted: 3 doll quilts, 2 lap quilts

QBRR 2010: 4 blocks

Sure doesn't seem like much but during that time I did: have 3 batches of company including one week of grandkids, make one trip across the state, cut sod and spread 7 yards of bark with my niece and cut pieces for 2 quilts to sew at quilt retreat next weekend. I am thinking that in a month I should have a good bit more on my list!

Short List

It is time too look back at July and see what I accomplished. The list is a bit shorter that other recent months but I have been busy.

July Tally

WIMM QBRR 2010 - 5 blocks

Red/Black/White Baby Quilt - finished

Western Washington Shop Hop 2010 - 21 blocks

Wedding Quilt Top

I have also been working on a couple of other projects but they can't be discussed or pictured here for the time being.

I bought some fabric the other day to make a pair of wrap pants to see how I like them. My daughter let me try hers on and one of the bonuses of them is that as you lose weight they adjust to your size. This is handy for me as I am working on that right now!

Better late than never

June Tally

Doll/Wall Quilts - finished 1 from last month and made 7 more start to finish
Quilt Block Exchange Blocks - 4
LWR - 1 top
Baby quilts - finished one from last month and made 1 start to finish
Totes - 1
Pillows - 6
Quilts - 1 (Big Girl Quilt for my granddaughter)

Repairs - 1 baby quilt

I had a pretty good month considering everything else that was going on. This month is starting kind of slow because of yard work (please note the picture below of Princess Lucy sleeping on all the weeds I pulled the other day), but now it is pretty warm so I get to spend the day in the sewing room. I hope to have something to show for it tomorrow so stay tuned.

Buzy Month!

Here it is:

May Tally

LWR - 1 backs and 7 top
Doll/Wall Quilts - 1 top and back (chicken disappearing 9-patch)
Quilt Block Exchange Blocks - 4
Quilt Block Round Robin Blocks - 3
Tops - 3 (Triangles, Transportation and T-shirt)
Quilted - 7 (2 children's quilts, 1 denim, Disappearing 9-Patch, Crazy Quilt, 2 baby quilts)
Totes - 3

Another thing my niece and I did this weekend was start planning for this year's Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop. If you live in this area and you have never done the shop hop, you might want to try it at least on a small scale. This year we are planning on 34 shops in 2 days and we will be going from Lynden to Vancouver and all the way over to Ocean Shores. Should be fun!

April Projects Finished

Another month has passed so it is time to tally up my finished products. I did pretty well considering I was gone for about 2 weeks this month and had company for another!

April Finishes

Quilt Block Exchange Blocks - 6
Quilt Block Round Robin Blocks - 1
Tops - 2 (Double 9-patch, QBE blocks)
Quilts - 1 (Lady of the Lake)
Totes - 2 (sold both)

Yesterday afternoon, once the laundry from the trip was folded and ironed, I put together a back for this quilt and got it pin basted and ready to quilt. Then I wasn't really up to doing the quilting so I started on the back for this quilt which I will finish this morning before I do the quilting on the other.

March Tally

Here is the tally of everything I accomplished in March. This makes me feel so much better, seeing it all written down. Otherwise, I feel like I am getting nowhere!

March Finishes

Doll/Wall Quilts - 1 (Snowflake)
Quilt Block Exchange Blocks - 6
Quilt Block Round Robin Blocks - 5
Tops - 3 (2 Double 9-patch, Lady of the Lake)
Quilts - 1 (Ludvina's Legacy)
Totes - 1 (sold it)

Child's Smock and Tote from Panel

Window Seat Cushions - 2

Today I went to a local store and picked up some thread for quilting Lady of the Lake (I really need to come up with a better name for that one). I got the back put together and got it sandwiched and ready for quilting so I might get that done tomorrow.

Speaking of thread - I bought King Tut thread and I was wondering what you all use for your machine quilting.

Last night while we watched some tv I did some hand sewing on the "What's Grandma Growing" (WGG). There is lots more to do before it is ready for quilting.

February Tally

I have trouble keeping track of how many projects I get finished in a year so I am going to try to put up a tally at the end of each month to help me out.

February Finishes
Baby Quilts - 2 (Rubber Ducky and Dog House)
LWR - 4 backs and 1 top
Doll/Wall Quilts - 2 (Purple/Green and Christmas Pinwheels)
Quilt Block Exchange Blocks - 4
Quilt Block Round Robin Blocks - 4
Tops - 1 (Crazy Quilt)
Quilts - 1 (Lone Star Retirement Quilt)
Totes - 1

Not bad for one month since I really don't feel like I did that much.

Here is one of my first finishes for March.
I made this (minus the little triangles around the outside) for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap in February 2008 but I wasn't satisfied with it so it got put on the shelf and I made a different and better snowflake quilt for that swap. I had the squares cut to make the HST's for the border and never finished this. It took just a couple hours to get it put together and quilted - it would have been a few minutes less but I kept losing HSTs!

I also finished the two Double 4-Patch quilt tops yesterday but I don't have pictures yet so you will have to wait!

Today I got started on some blocks my daughter started a couple of years ago and I have decided to finish up with her plan and make it big enough for her daughter's big girl quilt for her 2nd birthday in July. I should have that top done within the week. Tomorrow I need to get started on those cushions for my friend's window seat!