What a year so far...

This year has been a roller coaster of things which means very little sewing has actually been completed.   One of the major events being my father's woodworking shop catching fire.

This fire left our focus on cleaning up afterwards.  A solid month of working as much as we all could each day.  And there went March-April. 

Then the end of the school year, which is always chaotic as a private music teacher (so many concerts and recitals to do).  Adding in the early arrival of this little cutie to my brother and his wife (born almost 3 months before she was due) and again my focus was on family.  

With June the focus turned to my grandfather and preparing for an auction as he was moved into assisted living.  And then came the arrival of severe weather, and several close towns were badly damaged by tornados over the course of a single week.  Then adding to that the fact that I purchased my first home gave me many other things to work on in addition to normal life, I think I spent the month of July painting, packing, cleaning and unpacking.

August meant the start of the school year and back to the busy schedule of music lessons, September brought sadness with the passing of Grandpa and a hospital visit of my own.  Praying for life to calm down and be back to normal routine soon.

Since the fabric was the first to get packed and moved I haven't touched any of my projects since June.   It is also the last to be unpacked as I am just getting started on that room and trying to set up my sewing corner which I hope to have useable by the end of the month.  I have so many projects that I need to get done this year.  I am very lucky that my mom offered to help out with making the 3 baby quilts that need to be done before Christmas.  Looking forward to starting those this next week and getting back on track.

A recent positive has been getting back some of my projects from the quilter though.  Definitely a motivation to get back on track with creating in the spare time that I am starting to have again.

My flannel lap quilt with minky backing has been wonderful as the temperatures begin to drop.  Made from a kit I got for Christmas using the Yellow Brick Road Pattern by Atkinson Designs.  I would love to make a full size quilt for my bed for the winter time.  

And the Halloween runner gets to be on the new piano in the studio this year.  (Sorry for the dim picture).

Can't wait to put this one out for Christmas.  I used Moda's Jovial fabric by basicgrey and drew up a basic plan to make it look like wrapped presents.  

And this will be a lovely bright addition to the piano this spring.  Using another layer cake that I can't remember the fabric name since I bought it so long ago.  If I come across it I will be sure to post.

And I still have five more runners that I am working on getting the binding done on.  So more pictures to be shared soon.

January so far

I feel as though I am going to meet my goals this month.  Although the purse may be replaced by a lap quilt.  So far I have finished 2 runners, the Satsuki quilt and have 2 lap quilts cut and a runner cut out.  So should be able to do the sewing on the runner and lap quilt this next week and be on track for goals for this year.
I made a list of all the projects I have the things to do, plus some other projects I would like to do for gifts this year.  I was surprised by all that I have set aside and hidden away over the years.  There are at least 2 quilt tops, 5 purses, 2 lap quilts and probably at least 10 runners.  So each month I will work on a group of projects and hopefully not purchase too many more this year.

Here are the pictures so far this month:

Satsuki fabric by Kaufman using the adapted Borders pattern
 to make it a queen sized instead of lap size.

The other runner for my sister using the Waffletime pattern and
some fabrics from a kit I bought with the Quilts from 100 Quiltmaker
Blocks last Spring.  I think it will work great in her kitchen :)

I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!! So happy that I waited to find the
right fabrics for the center reindeer fabric.  I can't
even remember how long I have had it.
Going to be great to finally see it in the studio
next winter.

Here is the runner all together.  Excited to see it when it comes
back from the quilters.

And another winter runner featuring the Winter
Penguins fabrics from Bentarex.  Glad I found this fabric line - it
will go great with my winter
studio decorations :)

Looking forward to seeing what this next week and month bring.

An extra day off due to the Arctic Vortex means...

My Christmas break was a little extended thanks to the Arctic Vortex today.  And what should one do when it is negative 30 outside but spend the day sewing a new quilt top to be enjoyed when the weather turns cold again.  Sadly I didn't get it completely finished, but I should be able to finish it on Thursday and move on to another project for this month.  I have set very specific goals for January as I did over break so I hope it continues to be enough motivation for me.  This month my crafting goal is to finish 3 runners, 1 quilt top and 1 bag.  So far it is looking good on meeting that goal.

Here is the project of the day:

 I adapted the pattern Bevels from Mountainpeek Creations to make a queen size quilt and chose the Suzuki fabric by Kaufman as the center panel.  Can't wait to be able to finish it. Loving how the colors are coming together.  Will be a colorful quilt to snuggle under and imagine warmer days.

And as promised: pictures of the other finished projects back from the quilter.

Love how she quilted the Halloween runner.  

Close up of the quilting for the Basic Grey PB&J fabric runner.

Simple and sweet quilting that outlines the blocks and rows of the center panel.

And another runner done.  This one uses the Merry Medley fabrics from MODA and a 9 batch square and focus square.  Off to the quilter already next week :)

I do have another runner started (ran out of fabric for the border though) and one that is cut just waiting to sew.  Be interesting to see if I can meet my goal and beyond, or if life just goes a little crazy.

End of the year wrap up

I feel fairly happy with my sewing time this year.  Happy to have several runner projects out of the way, although I have fabrics for a lot more.  And as always picked up stash for too many projects throughout the year.  I may change my mind on what to do with some of them and try out wall hangings or runners for my dining room table so I don't end up with a piano runner for every week of the year.
First to share some of the wonderful quilting that was done on my runners this fall.  (I will share more as I finish getting the binding on them.)

 Quilting on the St. Patricks runner.  Can't wait for March!

So glad to have this one done.  

Will probably be featured a lot throughout the year!  And I did get all the blocks fixed so the pattern is perfect :)

 I also am beyond thrilled with this one.  It will probably be put on the piano earlier than this summer and fall which is when I planned on using it.

Merry Christmas to me!  My mom surprised me with this runner today.  It is from scraps of the Earth Rhythms quilt she made this summer for a friends wedding.  (All of us loved how it turned out and mentioned we would love one of our own - this was Mom's solution!)

 And here are some finished projects to add to the pile.

 This is a Pieced Tree Tini pattern named Rail Romp and the fabrics are from a kit sold in a Sioux Falls quilt shop.  It wasn't quite wide enough for my piano so I hunted for a fabric to make a border and super thrilled with the one I found.  This one will be headed off to the quilter the first of the year.

My snow runner using the wedge tool.  Took several stores to match fabrics and trials to create this one, but I am very happy with how it came out.  Can't wait to get it back from my quilter and put on the piano this January!  

Here is a close up of some of the fabrics since they faded in together on the other.

I am hoping to share more projects the first of the year since the next two weeks are full of breaks from my three jobs.  Goal is at least another 3 runners and perhaps a bag or two.  And of course, a day of shopping for a few more patterns to try out :)

I better get started on Christmas dinner though.  I hope everyone enjoys a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

Summer of ups and downs

The trend of projects wrapping up was forced to halt for a while after re-injuring my foot.  Really hard to sew when you are in a boot for 6 weeks.  So I started organizing all the patterns and ideas I have found over the last few years (excessive amount since I joined Pintrest) and planning out quilts with the fabrics I have set aside for this or that and checking that I had enough fabrics to do the new patterns.

Once the boot was off, I'm happy to say that I did continue to finish up projects.  Here are my most recent runners:

Back to school runner- it was worth the hassle of piecing the center fabric.  I really like how this one turned out.  

Another runner featuring the Basic Grey fabric line "PB &J" with a few other fabrics thrown in.  

New spring runner featuring the Moda line "Lovely" by Sandy Gervais.  I had picked up the layer cake probably over 3 years ago now, so I am very happy to be able to see it on the piano finally. 

And last, a Christmas present done!  Loving how this one laid out.  I almost scrapped the project twice because I wasn't happy with how it was looking.  Glad I decided to finish laying it out before doing that, because it looks great.

This fall has turned into fabric shopping trips, so lots of new fabrics and new projects.  Plus, I did a tool hop, so new toys to try out too :)  I have 2 queen size quilts planned, and I am going to try my hand at bags.  Perhaps it will be another homemade Christmas this year.  And of course there are more runners to be made yet too.

And the trend continues

A few more projects wrapped up since I last posted.  I'm happy to be working on my piano runners because they do go together quickly.  Now if only the planning and laying out went as quickly as the sewing does once my mind is made up. 
I have many other runners in mind (fabrics set aside for at least 10 I can think of), but figuring out the sizes for the piano has been challenging to say the least.  I have an idea book with at least 5 more ideas sketched in but I need to try out a sample block for each to make sure things will cut down and become the size I need.  The restriction of 10.5 in. wide and the extended length of at least 55 in. makes the blocks difficult when I decide not to do a border.  
I also have plans to try making a few bags and wallets- so maybe I will take a break from planning and focus on following a pattern for a bit.  Otherwise there is always the baby quilt, twin girl quilt, my new king quilt and a wall hanging to do.  

The bright colors will be perfect for summer.

I am happy with how this one turned out.  Sad that it took this picture to find the block that needs fixed before it gets quilted.

Over a year later...

So life went crazy and jobs became the focus this last year.  I'm hoping this summer slows down a bit and I can continue to work through projects that have been piling up.  
This Memorial weekend was very productive.  I have finished up several piano runners and figured out what fabric is needed to finish some of the projects.  Now I have a great reason to go fabric store hopping this summer :)

Some of the runners done over the last 3 days:

 New Christmas Runner

New Halloween runner           

Close ups of the runner. 

Loving how this one turned out.  It was worth all the fussy cutting :)

 Just in time for summer :)  I had the fabric that makes up the center block for almost 5 years before finding the colors I wanted to put with it.  I think it was worth the wait.

The runner I blogged about last year.  I only had 3 rows to finish on it.  Glad to finish it up.

I wanted another option for Valentine's Day that wasn't overwhelmingly pink.  I love this :)   

New fall runner.  This one is by far my favorite.  Love, love, love how this one turned out :D

I decided to send the runners off to a local person to do the machine quilting.  I can't wait to see how they come back.

I have a 4th of July runner ready to sew together and 2 more runners cut and waiting to lay out.  I hope to get them finished this weekend.  Then hopefully I can start cutting out a Christmas quilt as well as finalize the pattern and fabrics for a new quilt for my bed.  I am enjoying getting back into sewing and hope this summer is a crafty one.