December Accomplishments

Here is my list of December Accomplishments:

Quilty Things Accomplished:

1. Finished my 9 patch blocks for my star and nine patch quilt class
2. Practiced FMQ more on my scrap quilt and quilted a Kid Komfort quilt for our Guild
3. Finished the Monkey fabric book for Ethan
4. FMQ a Halloween table runner
5. Finished coasters and rice heat bags for Christmas presents for co-workers
6. Completed the first Santa Rag quilt for my Granma's birthday
7. Bought Fabric for another Santa rag quilt
8. FMQ the I SPY - this was the biggest thing this month, I think. I also got it bound with the help of Granma.
9. Finished 1 cat placemat
10. Started working on 2 Very Badley purses before I realized I had messed them up and quit sewing on Christmas presents for a week!
11. Began the process of cleaning out the spare bedroom where my fabric stash is kept. This i quilt related because I needed to have a place to put my stash as I bought fabric and I was running out of floor space in the spare bedroom. Now, there is lots of space and lots of containers in which to store projects!
12. I also started preparing Maddy's 50's Retro Take 5 quilt to sandwich and quilt. I'd like to get that done before Valentine's Day. (no use trying to add it to my January list of must do's!)

Non Quilty Things Accomplished:

1. Found out that my Grinch Name is Woefulgrump Sourbottom. Everyone should know what their Grinch name is, but the link is disabled! :(
2. Changed my blog template
3. Finished Lake in the Clouds by Sara Donati

I think that there might be other things that I have done, but I am drawing a blank right now.

The only other thing that I can think of is that while growing my tiny stash, I won the $100 gift card at my lqs!

Now, I need to make my list of things that I have to do for Jen's January's Finish It Up challenge!

Pictures from Christmas

Spencer got a clip-on tie for Christmas. He wore it for a while on Christmas morning.

And here is Spencer and me in chairs that the kids got. He did his goofy smile!

Here is Spencer showing off the tag in his pants. They said Made with Love by MIMI. I think that the kids thought that was neat.

Here is Claire with her pants and pillowcases.

Here is my tote that I got from my parents. They ordered it and had it shipped to Nikki's so that I would have it to open on Christmas.

And here are the pictures of the I Spy quilt being opened.

Here is Ethan looking at the quilt. He wasn't feeling well and we had to work hard to get him to open anything.

And here is the finished I Spy quilt. It's much easier to get a picture of a large quilt when you have someone to hold it up! And you don't have to fight to keep the dogs off of the fabric while it's on the floor!

The I Spy is QUILTED!

This should be my last post for a while. I think that this will cover all of the pictures that I have taken, but hadn't had a chance to post in the last few days.

Yesterday, I ran around and did some last minute shopping. I had stopped in Petsmart to see about getting the dogs some new toys and they had a buy one, get one free promotion on some toys. I got the dogs 6 new toys and they still haven't destroyed one yet. Here is Max with their 2 favorites. And yes, it is Max with Maisy's favorite. She didn't want her picture taken apparently.


Max's favorite is a little brown bear looking thing. He took it and ran to his chair and sat for about half an hour with it and then carried it around all night last night.


Maisy liked this toy - it is an imitation blow pop and the stick part is a different texture. She loves chewing on the fabric that is sticking out like the wrapper would!



And now! The I Spy quilted! I did a different quilting in the picture parts than the green parts. The inside green part looks a little messier than the outside green part, but that could also be me just over analyzing the job that I did.











I just used a natural or ecru (whichever was darker) Coats & Clark thread for the picture parts and a green variegated for the green parts. I think that it makes the green look pretty cool. I used the darker thread in the picture part so that the quilting wouldn't be as noticeable - this was Jen's idea. I also quilted names in the outer most picture part - Claire, Ethan, Spencer, Mom, Dad and Mimi. And I quilted their last name in the middle picture part.


OK, I am off to work on the binding, laundry, blocks, cleaning, and purses. And I am in the process of watching Live Free or Die Hard. I think that I have only made it through 20 or 30 minutes of the movie, but it is just as good as the other ones. I think that I need to own this!

My shopping trip

Here are the pictures from the shopping trip on Thursday night. I wanted to buy all the flannel that I would need to make another Santa Rag Quilt. I think that I was successful. Now, I need to wash it so that I can start cutting it and make another one!

Once I had all of the flannels, I started looking around at other things. Since I had a couple of people mention wanting I Spy quilts, I thought that I should pick up a few more masculine fabrics because I currently have a fair amount of feminine fabrics for Claire.

And the last time that we went to the shop, I was eyeing a batik that I think is just so pretty. When the lady was cutting it, she said that her and then other co-workers had dubbed it the Buff Fabric for butt ugly fabric. I still bought a good amount to use at a later date.

Something is finished...

Surprisingly enough, in spite of the problem with Bubba, I was able to finish the I Spy top. I do not think that the person/family receiving this gift checks the blog, so I think that I am safe with posting pictures. Of course, this is just the top finished.

Results from my mini-retreat

After my last post, I ended up running up to Joann's to get some items from the big Veteran's day sale. I got some fabric to make pants for Claire and some of the thread that was on sale. I went to the close Joann's, but they didn't have anything that I wanted so I had to go to the larger one about 20 minutes away, but I was able to find everything that I needed. Here is the fabric that I bought to make pants and matching pillowcases for Claire.





I was able to get all of Claire's new fabric washed and now I just need to iron them and then cut out the pants and pillowcases.


I had gotten 3 different fabrics for Spencer to make pants and pillowcases, too. I was able to get all of them cut out. Here are his fabrics.





I was also able to finish ironing all of the Project Linus fabric that I had bought a while ago. I still need to take the fabric and cut them into 1.5-2 yard pieces for the blankets and then make the quilt sandwiches so that my chapter can start tying them together. And Maisy had to get into this picture.





When I had gotten back from Joann's, I put Knocked Up into the DVD player to watch while I worked. Unfortunately, I got too involved in it and couldn't work on anything while it was on. Luckily, I didn't feel the need to nap afterwards so I was able to keep working once the movie was over.


I finished my first block for the Best Friends's 2 Buck a Block Block Of the Month that started in October. I really like the colors - I could've picked either this color combination or navy blue and white. The other accents for the cream and burgundy is chocolate so I will really like that! The other thing about this BOM is that when I go back in to the store to get the November block, if I take the October block, I can get a discount on a cut of fabric. Very much worth the cost to get the blocks!





I also worked on a Easy Striped Table Runner using a pattern by Karen Montgomery. It's a free pattern off of the web and the table runner is very easy to make and uses border fabric. The hardest part is cutting the lengths of fabric to be identical. If you go to the link, you can download the pattern and make one of your own! Maryanne, one of the ladies that we quilted with in Cleveland, did a lesson to show us how to make our own. I mentioned the runner at my small group Guild meeting and they all wanted to learn how to make their own. Since I was going to show the small group on Monday, I needed to have one made so that I could show the ladies what to do.





Once I got done with the table runner, I still had time to watch some TV and keep sewing, but I couldn't really figure out what I wanted to work on. I decided to keep working on the kid's quilt that I am making for Christmas. It's an I Spy quilt and I had spent time in Myrtle Beach fussy cutting all of the pieces. I started piecing the center when I was in Cleveland and I had gotten all of the center and one of the borders totally pieced and got the outermost border laid out. Sunday night, I sewed the outermost border pieces together. Now, I just have to iron the outermost border and make sure that all of the squares are even and then cut the solid border strips and start putting all of the borders together on the center. I am very surprised at how easy this quilt is going together - the hardest part was the fussy cutting.