A Year of Lovely Finishes January Goal Met!

Tonight as I rush to meet the deadline for A Year of Lovely Finishes January Goal I am thrilled with my accomplishments for January. My goals weren't real lofty, but I completely blew them out of the water! I wrote my goals at the beginning of the month and linked up my desire to get Swoon to a quilt top. They are however too numerous to mention for this late night post. I'm at my dad's preparing to leave at 4AM in the morning to head to Mitchell/Mt. Vernon for my great aunt's funeral. It's going to be a long day, but I want to be with my family. We'll head back asap so I can meet up with my friends for a sewing sleepover.
I went to a quilt retreat with my aunt and friends Nicole and Joyce and one of my finishes was the sashing and borders of Swoon, so my AYLF Goal was met for the month of January!


Crown Royal top was another major goal. This quilt has been hanging out since 2010 and I FINALLY got it into a quilt top. If you're interested in the story of the CR quilt and the other SOYO projects click the finally link to see all I was able to accomplish.



Another major finish for me happened tonight. I moved my quilt frame to the King size at my dad and Ann's new home. They live about 45 min. from us, so I will be able to come out and quilt and the kids can spend time with Grandpa and Grandma. I put it together on MLK day and then finished it up tonight. I ordered new carriage and track rails and they work amazing. After 226 quilts, they were worn out!



Friendship Quilt 2013 was a quick quilt to finish quilting tonight. It is 36" square and I quilted it with white and white. So excited to show it to my friends at the sleepover tomorrow night.



Let It Snow Batik table runner was the first "test" project tonight to show Ann how the frame/machine work, but also to make sure everything was working perfect. I am so pleased with how it turned out. I can't wait to see all the "big" quilts I can now finish.


So tonight was extremely productive and I am so happy to have the quilt frame set up. I met every single goal I set for January and I'll have to do a longer post later, but I am so pleased with my Swoon top being done that I wanted to make sure to link up. Here's to a very productive February!

Mystahhhhry Parts 1 & 2

This week I started the Hillbilly Quilt Shop Mystahhhhry. I really struggled with my colors (because I don't like to follow the example). I wanted to change it up, so I picked a print for my main large triangles. I got those cut out and basted last night.

I also glued down all the diamonds last night and cut them out. I'm finishing up the basting today and will be ready for the next step, set to release next week.

I'm linking up for Needle and Thread Thursday.

Getting Closer to a few Finishes

This week I made great strides in getting closer to a few finishes. I took Jennifer's advise and cleaned up my sewing area. I cleaned off the cutting mat/table and ironing board so I can use them. It feels good when I can just sit down and sew. The fabric laying in the middle is already sewn up. I was reading a blog about the small cedar chest boxes or hope chests that many people have. I was given one, so I cleaned it out and started using it for my scissors, so little hands would be less likely to touch them.


This week I met one of my January goals, to put the borders on my Amish Rubic Star. It is now spray basted and ready for my attempt at hand quilting. I'm too scared to start, but at least it is ready.

I also finished the hand work on this EPP table topper. I quilted it last night and put the binding on, so it is almost finished.

Saturday afternoon Mikaela helped me sew and we made this baby quilt. It's from a Wishes charm pack and is called Hide and Seek. It's a sample for the shop.

Saturday night I put together this throw called Honey Bouquet. It is also a sample for the shop.

Last night I sewed this little table topper together, quilted it and put the binding on, so it is ready for some hand stitching.

This is the table topper I finished quilting and put binding on last night. I got it about half sewn down today.


Friday night was Pink at the Rink and also NAU night, so we went to the game as a family. It was a lot of fun and Mikaela loved it, although I think she liked the popcorn more than anything.


Mathew was even sporting pink. I found the pink SDSU shirt Nichole gave Mikaela and it was an 18 month size so he wore it.

Mikaela pulled out her sewing machine and sewed with me on Saturday while everyone else took naps. It is pretty loud, but she had a good time.

So Little Sewing

This week has been pretty rough in the sewing studio. Just not a whole lot accomplished, but I did manage to get to Club Sew on Friday night and we celebrated Gaila's birthday. Jenn brought an ice cream sandwich cake which was to die for! Even I had to break my healthy eating to have a piece.

I whipped up this diaper clutch for a neighbor of my dad and Ann that just had a baby boy. Ann wanted a western themed one. This was totally from scraps of my moms.

Monday I attended my first meeting of the BH Quilters Guild. It was interesting and I know I won't always be able to attend, but I'm considering it. After I picked up the kids from daycare Monday we went out to my dad and Ann's house and set up the quilt frame. I have the base put together and still need to put the rail pieces on, but those are simple. It won't take me long at all and I'll be quilting away. I even ordered new tracks for both the rails and the carriage. After 226 quilts it was time!

Mikaela celebrated her 3rd birthday on Sunday and I got her a sewing machine. She wanted so bad to use it, so Tuesday night I sat and sewed with her. She was so excited. It doesn't do much and won't really hold together, but she had a great time. She sat and pushed the foot control on the table. I know it won't be long and she'll be using my machine. Mathew wasn't so sure what we were doing, but he wanted to be right there.



Linking up for Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish it Up Friday

Finish It Up Friday

This week I wasn't successful at doing anything other than cleaning up from quilt retreat and re-packing to go to Club Sew tonight. Last weekend at retreat I had two major finishes: Swoon and Crown Royal are both tops now!
I started Swoon in March of 2012 and finally have it sashed and the borders on, so it is ready to be quilted.

Crown Royal almost didn't get this far because I was 2 bags short, but my aunt Jane came through for me and brought out 2 more bags to the retreat on Saturday so I could finish it up. I am very pleased with how it turned out and can't wait to get my  frame set up so I can quilt it.


I have lots of other projects in the works and a ton of other finished tops from the SOYO weekend, but these are my favorite two. If you're interested in seeing the 9 tops I finished, check out my SOYO post.
I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

SOYO 2014

Each year in January the Black Hills Quilters Guild puts on a SOYO - Sew On Your Own. Basically it's a chance to get away and sew without taking classes or working on set projects. Each person brings their own projects to work on. This year was the first year it was held at Terra Sancta, a Catholic retreat center less than 5 miles from my house. It was super cheap and close to home, so I just drove home and slept at home both Friday and Saturday nights. I went with my aunt Jane, her friend Joyce, and my friend Nicole H.
My goals for the weekend were put the sashing on Ed's Crown Royal quilt and put the sashing on Swoon. So I knew I had to start with those or I would put them off and not do them. Since there was plenty of room to lay out quilts it was a great time to do it. I spent most of Saturday afternoon putting together CR. I had it this far by supper time and was missing 2 CR bags!!! Grrrrrrr! I tried to convince my hubby to pick up a couple bottles at Sam's but no such luck. So I put it away for the night. Jane had a couple at home and brought them Sat. morning so I could finish it.

So since I couldn't finish, I worked on a UFO of my mom's from the first SOYO we went to together in 2009. This is the top.

I needed a quick project, so I put together this hexie table topper. It was a partial sample from my class in Dec.

Then I worked on Swoon. I initially planned to do a wider sashing, then I read the directions and realized that would be huge, so I did what it called for, without corner stones.

I decided it needed something else, so I put on a border of the main fabric which brought it all together. Love it! Now I can't decide if this is "the one" to have professionally quilted or do it myself.

I had forgotten the borders for this hexie table topper, so I picked them up at home and finished it first thing Sat. morning.

Then another quick finish with borders of the backing for mom's Loralie quilt.

Then it was on to the CR quilt top. I am so glad to have it finished! Now I need to get my quilt frame bigger so I can finish it.

I had thrown these friendship blocks in, not knowing what I was going to do with them. I finally ended up sewing them together in a small wall hanging and there will be one for a table topper since I had 10 blocks.

Saturday afternoon I worked on making the blocks for the Giant Star Burst QAL. I was a little too cocky and didn't lay it out before I started sewing and ended up with this. So Joyce and I started tearing and ripping out the thread. I spent the entire show and tell ripping.

By the time it was over it was ready to put back together. As Mikaela would say So much better, So much better mommy!

Since we were still sewing the night away, about 10PM I started this table topper and got it finished. It matches several other quilt items I have with this fabric. I've had it a couple years, so I am glad to finally have the top done.

I had planned to make this one, but forgot the pattern, so I didn't get it done. Monday night I whipped it together. It's a 2nd sample for my Day Break class coming up next week. I left it separate, so I could show how they are joined.

We all got a good laugh out of having the football game on, without volume during the playoffs. The TV was huge - at least 60" so it felt like we were right there.


Everyone else I was sewing with worked on small projects. Jane quilted this table topper.


Then she made this one. We ended up going shopping for backing for it on Saturday.

Joyce made this table topper.

Nicole made this table topper from my class start to finish.


It was such a fun weekend of sewing with my aunt and our friends. We all left Saturday and didn't return Sunday due to commitments, but we all felt like we got a lot accomplished. I know I was so excited to complete my two goals for the weekend, so everything else was just icing on the cake. I sewed for a total of 25 hours over the two days, which was so wonderful. I'm looking forward to a mini retreat with friends in a couple weeks. I left my projects packed for that, so I'll be ready to go.
I'm linking up with Kelly for Needle and Thread Thursday.