December Quilting Accomplishments

December was a fairly productive month, even though I spent one week visiting at the hospital and the last week not doing much of anything. My goals for the month included:
Baby Bag - Bought instead of made, couldn't find fabric I liked.

BOM Setting Blocks - No progress, no motivation!

Quilt OBW - Done - including the binding. It's amazing how much hand stitched binding can be done in an ER room for 7+ hours!

Quilt Sewing Themed Quilt aka my hospital quilt - DONE! So excited to get to use it, but baby is just not ready to make her appearance yet.

In addition to my goals I also accomplished several other smaller projects:

Quilted Christmas throw for Karen's holiday party. Love how the metallic thread on it turned out.

Finished the quilting and binding on Aunt Vi's second Double Knit quilt. Hate quilting DK - it stretches all over the place!

Made a Christmas Margo out of Figgy Pudding. It really doesn't look all that Christmasy which I love about it.

Made 4 Java Cash and Carry wallets for my co-worker friends.

Made 10 coasters from the 2 charm packs Sew Cindy sent me for her giveaway. Gave them to my 10 co-workers in the registrar's office.

Finished sewing all the hexi's together into a Valentine's table runner while spending evenings at the hospital with mom. I am now in the process of appliquing it by hand to the background.

Finished an iron holder for a sample of travel totes for Groovy Girls.

Made the Large bag for a Groovy Girls sample.

On New Year's Eve we were snowed in with a blizzard, so I made the backing and loaded Aunt Vi's third and last quilt on the frame. I was able to get 3 rows done before calling it a night. It's a huge quilt! I did quilt a bit more on it last night, so hopefully if I do a little every night I'll have it done by this weekend.
All in all I had 80 hours for December. A lot of those hours were hand sewing! I have my next Hexi project cut out and ready to work on, since I forsee lots more waiting in Drs. offices this year.
I'm working on a re-cap of 2010, but there's a lot so it will have to wait for another time.
My January Goals include:
Finish Laminated Travel bag
Quilt Vi's last DK quilt
Snowflake Table Topper
Have Baby!

Christmas Purse - Figgy Pudding

Tonight I finished my Christmas purse. I'd wanted to make it last year, but only got the quilt made. I had the Figgy Pudding fabric saved to make it. When I went to make it. I realized only the stripe looked really Christmasy, so I used it for the lining. The brown was my favorite, so I used it for the outer part. The Margo is one of my favorite patterns and I added interfacing to the pocket and so far I really like that feature.


The lining and red pockets make it a Christmas purse, but I could use it longer than just the season. I'll have to get some accessories made to use with it now.

October Quilting Accomplishments

October was a very productive month for me! I got a lot accomplished and worked on several projects that weren't on my list, but that I wanted to get done. I've found that sometimes I'm just not in the mood to work on a project, but if I do something else, I can get more accomplished in the long run. Paul's been working out of town all month, so I get a lot done in the evenings, but not much on weekends.
My Goals for October included:
Quilting Aunt Vi's Quilt - I was able to get it completely quilted and the binding on. I'm not sure I like the stippling on it, so I'll do a different type of quilting on the next two.

Happy Holidays Tree-Skirt - It's done, but turned into a tabletopper instead. It fits perfectly on our kitchen table and we're hosting Christmas this year, so I decided no to make it into a tree skirt.

Essence tablerunner - This is the Baby Blocks tablerunner from the On the Run book by Heather Mulder Peterson. I've finished several tablerunners out of this one and still have some honeybun strips I could make a tablerunner out of.

The other Essence tablerunner is called Ripple Effect and turned out really neat. I love how easy it was to make everything match!

Other Accomplishments included:
I ended up making three bags for Paul to use as bathroom bags. He has this one at home.

The other two bags are from the green and he uses the bigger one for his stuff when he travels. The smaller one went to my dad to go with his new bag.

I bought enough to make 4 trick or treat bags, but ended up with enough to make 10! The first five turned out so cute.

I also made this minkee/flannel baby blanket for our little girl. It is so super soft and I can't wait to use it.

Jenn came out and spent an evening quilting with me. I worked on sewing the hexagons together for a new one block wonder quilt. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

My co-worker Jacey is having a baby about the same time I am and there was a baby shower for her last week. I quickly quilted up this panel and bound it. She loved it as she's doing a zoo themed baby room.

Since I made dad a bag for my parents anniversary, I told mom I would make her a purse. I finally got it done. It's Margo from Lazy Girl Designs.

I made her a wonder wallet and checkbook cover to match as well.

TSC is starting a new program called Groovy Girls and I'm working on samples for it, so I got the first months Cash and Carry Wallet done. It went together super quick and easy. These are going to be so much fun! Groovy Girls is November 5th at 6 at the Sewing Center, so bring a machine and work on this project or just see what fun projects everyone else is working on. This is a great club for beginning sewers/quilters.

Mom and I also got together and finished two more tops for Aunt Vi. This one is a 9 patch queen and the other is a 4-patch/12" square throw. I'll be working on getting them quilted in Nov.

I finished up the last 5 trick or treat bags and gave them to co-workers and friends for Halloween on Friday. They turned out so cute!

The UFO Sew Down 2010 is in full force. I haven't received any updates from others, but I'm not doing so well on the UFO part. I've done about 3 UFO's and 19 new projects! At least I'm sewing and that's all that I'm really concerned about. I have started on a few UFO's, including the Sewing quilt and the OBW, so I'm working on the, just not finishing.


My November Goals will be lofty, but I am having a sewing retreat weekend with friends, so hopefully I'll be able to get a lot done.
Deer Wall Hanging for Paul's Boss
Quilt 2 DK quilts for Vi
2 Pink Ribbon Bags
4 sewing totes for retreat girls
2 samples for Groovy Girls

I'm sure I'll get a lot of tops done at retreat, but I know I won't get them all quilted. I'm taking these quilt tops to retreat to work on:
Sewing Themed Quilt
Essence Tumbler Quilt
Mocha Merigue Wonder Blocks
Sign Language Baby Quilt 2
Snowball Quilt Along
Cowgirls OBW
Frolic Baby Quilt

Mom's New Purse

This year I decided to make my parents bags for their anniversary. My dad got the pheasant bag and a ladies bathroom bag. My mom wanted a purse with a zipper. I've had the fabric for a while, but just hadn't gotten around to making it. I cut it out and started Sat. night, but was too busy texting and talking on the phone to get much done. Sunday, when I finally got to my studio, I was able to get it made. I think it turned out really cute and will make a nice fall purse.
This is the front with pockets.

I decided not to put pockets on the back like mine has, because it becomes easy to loose stuff in the pockets.

I also had enough to cut out the checkbook cover which I got made Sun. too. I have enough fabric to make a wonder wallet, but I ran out of steam Sun. night. Last night I had my graduate class and after it was over I couldn't move. I was exhausted! I decided to try hand sewing, which I only got about half of one side done on a baby quilt, before calling it a night. Hopefully tonight will be a bit more productive!

July Quilting Accomplishments

July was a productive month for me! Maybe not in the quilting department, but definately in the bag making area. I was able to accomplish all the goals I set and still had time to make more bags!
My goals for July included:
Bind 2 Wanna Be a Cowboy quilts - DONE!


Finish Lego Wedding Quilt - DONE!

Make Margo Bag - I finished 3! I also made a wonder wallet to match.


In addition to my goals I made lots of BAGS!
I also finished a pink/brown Runaround Bag for Macie.

I made a Runaround Bag for the Wedding and a wonder wallet.

I made a purple/green Margo, checkbook cover, and wonder wallet to match.

I finished checkbook covers for the teal/brown Margo and wedding Runaround.

I made a schlep bag out of Adoring fabric.

I made myself a Margo bag out of Wanna Be A Cowboy fabric, with a wonder wallet and checkbook cover to match.

I made a Summer Tote for Hannah out of Pink/Brown John Deere fabric.

I made a Lots of Dots Schlep Bag and taught the class.

We attended the Lego/Grieme Wedding in MN!

My goals for August??? Let's see, I don't have anything too pressing, but I should set some kind of goals.
Make Fabric Book
Quilt Baby Quilt
Tablerunners for Pfeifer and Kuhn weddings
Throw quilt for Aunt Lil
Work on 1 UFO

My Margo!

Last month when I first picked up the Margo bag pattern, I couldn't wait to make one for me. I'd been waiting for it to come out and I knew it was perfect for my new purse. I had plenty of the Wanna Be a Cowboy line left, so I cut out a Margo. Life got in the way and I needed to finish the wedding quilt and get samples done for my July/August classes, so it sat on the back burner.
I made 2 Margo's for samples and while I loved both of them, I learned what I liked and disliked, so I made a few changes to the pink/brown one for me. I added pockets to the back which the pattern didn't have. I also did not follow the yardage requirements, so it is farm for scrappy than it was intended to be.
Saturday night I set to work to make my own Margo, just for me. I was able to get the purse done in just under 3 hours, which didn't include the cutting. I did have 2 done already, so I didn't have to read the pattern. I find this to be one of the easiest patterns I've ever had for installing a zipper. I couldn't think of a simpler way if I came up with it myself.

This is the back of the purse. I'm totally in love with how it turned out. I'm also really happy with the brown handles, so they won't show the dirt so much.
Yesterday I quickly whipped up the wonder wallet and checkbook cover. I'm so happy with how they turned out. I changed the size of the WW and added more pockets and I'm really impressed with the "new" version of it. I love how the fronts of both match. It happened by accident, but I still love them.

I'm loving my new Margo and accessories and can't wait to find another project to use up the scraps. I probably have enough to do something scrappy with in small pieces. I'm just waiting for the inspiration to hit. I know I can get at least one more project out of this fabric line before it is gone!