LOVE panel

Another UFO done!  This was a panel I bought several years ago, along with the coordinating fabric, after seeing the sample in a store.  It ended up bigger than I thought it would, about 40" x 50".  I quilted it with just a general meandering pattern, and did the binding tonight.  Overall I'm happy with how it came out, save the binding finishing.  I'm still trying to work on my machine binding as it is SO much faster than doing it by hand, but I have yet to get really spectacular results by machine.  It's frustrating, and my standards are high because I can get it to look really nice when I do it by hand.



Here's the current 12 in 2012 UFO list and progress.  Red is what I did tonight.
London Blue afghan (not a quilt but a UFO)
Black & white b-day blocks quilt (finish piecing, quilt, make binding, bind)
2008 signature swap blocks quilt (finish piecing, quilt, make binding, bind)
Christmas stars quilt (quilt, make binding, bind)
Jungle quilt (quilt, make binding, bind)
Red, white, and blue batik quilt (add border?, quilt, make binding, bind)
Valentine charm pack quilt (add border, quilt, bind)
Valentine panel quilt (add borders, quilt, make binding, bind)
Yellow Brick Road quilt (finish binding)
First Hawaiian applique (finish quilting, make into pillow cover or mini quilt - if so, add make binding + bind)
Finish our Christmas stockings (!!) (not quilting, but still a UFO)
Make a pillow with the embroidered butterfly

Another UFO complete.

It looks a little wonky, but that's because the pillow form is a wonky $3 IKEA pillow.  I might add some batting or something to plump it out a bit.  I'm pleased with how the zipper came out.  I've had the butterfly done for over a year - it's a random Google images design I found and thought would look nice embroidered.  The thread is a variegated Presencia perle cotton, and the fabric is a Moda Marble.  

Anyone have a link to a good tutorial (with pictures!) that shows how to avoid the "dog ears" when making a pillow?

Edited to add:

I found this tutorial.  I tweaked my pillowcase by cutting it down another 1 1/2" on each side and using the method.  It helped quite a bit for the fullness and a little on the dog ears, but I still stand by the pillowform is wonky statement.  The corners have very little filling, despite my best efforts.  Thoughts?

Updated pillow:

I've been working on getting my UFOs turned into FOs.  I agreed to a challenge called 12 in 2012 - get 12 UFOs done (ideally, one a month) in the year 2012.  I have had to modify my list, due to some odd circumstances.  My list is below.  I'm behind thanks to moving and hand surgery, but I'm quickly catching up.   I just got two of these quilted Friday, as well as the pillow finished and some binding made.

London Blue afghan (not a quilt but a UFO)
Black & white b-day blocks quilt (finish piecing, quilt, make binding, bind)
2008 signature swap blocks quilt (finish piecing, quilt, make binding, bind)
Christmas stars quilt (quilt, make binding, bind)
Jungle quilt (quilt, make binding, bind)
Red, white, and blue batik quilt (quilt, make binding, bind)
Valentine charm pack quilt (add border, quilt, bind)
Valentine panel quilt (add borders, quilt, make binding, bind)
Yellow Brick Road quilt (finish binding)
First Hawaiian applique (finish quilting, make into pillow cover)
Finish our Christmas stockings (!!) (not quilting, but still a UFO)
Make a pillow with the embroidered butterfly

Pictures to come soon, I promise!  

Love Charms quilt

Another UFO bites the dust! I pieced this little quilt top at LEAST three years ago. I opted to keep it small just to get it done, especially since I'm not particularly attached to it and didn't want to spend a ton of time on it. I also have the panel from the same Moda line, which has been pieced but not yet quilted.

It's been awhile...but I got my groove back!

I finally broke out of my crafting funk!  Anyone still here to read about it?

I decided to make Kiarda her first big quilt (I made her a small floor quilt before she was born for tummy time and the like).  The focus fabric is the paisley that I used to make her room decor stuff.  I've had this pattern and fabrics hanging around since before she was born, and I figured now was a good time to make it for her.  It took about 20 hours total.  I'm particularly pleased with how my binding came out (save the one off miter on the back by the label, the only one that got photographed, go figure!).  I used Sharon Schamber's gluing method, and MAN, that binding is damn near perfect.  I'll be using it every time - it's so worth the results!

Kiarda loves her new quilt!  She got all excited this morning when I gave it to her.  She proceeded to dance on it, roll all over it, pretend to go to sleep on it, and just be silly on it.  While she likes to get tucked in on the couch, she still doesn't want blankets in her crib, so she's not currently using the quilt for covers at sleep times.  Ah well...in due time.

Here are a few pictures of the silliness:

She's got a pretty good downward dog, dontcha think?

The label. I decided at the last minute to use some of the leftover binding around the label, and I like how it turned out!  "Futterflies" is how Kiarda says "butterflies" right now, and it seemed appropriate given the backing fabric.

I also found a mini quilt - likely a round robin quilt in progress, from the looks of the piecing - in my UFO pile tonight.  I think I inherited this from somehwere, because I can't for the life of me place where it came from.  It did have the coordinating fabrics with it to continue adding onto the center.  I opted to just square it up as is, quilt it, and bind it.  I'm pleased with my binding, but I'm still figuring out what the "magic" strip length is so that I can machine stitch down the back of it and not have too much extra overhang.  I went with 2.25" on this one, and I think 2 1/8" woudl be perfect.  Ah well.

Again, I didn't piece it.  It did lay flat, though, so that's good.  It came out ok overall though!

Christmas stockings in progress

I have been wanting to make Christmas stockings for my husband and myself since we got married. I decided to wait until after we had children to do it, though, so we could have a family set. I did not get to make them in time for Kiarda's first Christmas, given that at that time I was averaging about three hours of sleep a night spread across the entire night.

Anyways, I finally made a decision about how best to create the images in my head about how I wanted them to look: wool felt! I'm about halfway done with them so far, so here's a picture.


Each will have a white cuff with the person's name on it. There will be a few embroidered details, as well as a few snowflake sequins added to the background of each one. I think I will opt for a "less is more" with these - I want them to be whimsical and too much detail can detract from that. The stockings will be lined. I may use fun prints for the insides...will have to dig through my stash and see what I can find!

Pillow for Kiarda

I finished my embroidered pillow case for Kiarda! The zipper is a bit wonky, but it was truly an afterthought so whatever. (She won't notice, I think!) I'm pleased overall with how the embroidery came out. I have never done "fill" embroidery, and I clearly got better as I went along. I only have one picture right now, and it was taken with my phone's camera as I lent my regular camera to a friend for the weekend. I'll post close-ups when I get it back. The letters came out much better than the lady bugs, but I did the bugs first and well, there was a learning curve. You get the idea, though!