Friday finish ~ In From The Cold

Finished my In From the Cold quilt top!  Which I'm really happy about in the midst of all these tree skirts.  I love this pattern!  :)  I'm sure it won't be totally finished and quilted until I learn to FMQ (free-motion quilt) ~ probably after Christmas.  

Linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.  :)

WIP Wednesday ~ Quilty Progress

I'm happy to say that Christmas tree skirt #3 is coming along nicely!  I finished the quilting on it yesterday, the binding is ready and I'm planning on working on the that tomorrow while my hubby is lost in a day of football and the Godfather marathon.  :)  BTW ~ I'm using this pattern which I found on the Moda website.  (I'm only showing a few peeks until I send it out.)

Moving on with my In From the Cold quilt ~ I finished all the sashing and cut the borders  ~ getting there!

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Monday already?!

Where do the days go?  I guess I've just been busy enough not to notice.  :)

Saturday was our last In From The Cold class, so we got some help with sashing and chain-stitch embroidery.  And by Sunday afternoon I had all of the blocks and most of the sashing done ~ next up: side sashing & borders.

Today was all about Christmas tree skirt #3 ~ binding cut and pressed ~ backing pieced together ~ basting done.  And I finally decided what kind of straight-line quilting to do (my new year's resolution? learn free-motion quilting!).   I even managed to get 1/4 of the tree skirt quilted ~ so I feel really good about today!

Almost forgot to say that I tried out a new tool today!  It's the Creative Grids Non-Slip Bias Binding Simplified Ruler  ~ so making the binding was quick and easy!  The ruler itself has the directions printed right on it for cutting 2-1/2" and 2-1/4" binding, as well as how many inches of binding you get out of 1/2, 3/4 and 1 yard of fabric.  It's nice not having to stop and look up that kind of information online.  I'd highly recommend it!  (Click on the pic for a video.)

Have a good week!

WIP Wednesday and a missing camel

Guess what day it is?  Has anyone seen that camel lately?  Here's a little "behind the scenes" video in case you miss him as much as I do!

This week I'm working on finishing up my mug blocks for the In From the Cold quilt for our last class on Saturday.  As of this morning, I had 6 mugs done (although one still needs its steam).  So today I worked on the most difficult one ~ the dreaded pinwheel mug!  I started with 36 1-1/2" half-square triangles:

pieced them together to make nine 2-1/2" pinwheels:

sewed those together:

and ended up with this mug

The pinwheel points aren't perfect, but they're good enough for me!  And here's my progress so far (still need two more blocks and some steam).  Can't wait to see it finished ~ I want to cuddle up with it this Christmas Eve.  :)

We're halfway through the Hop Skip & Jump Block of the Month over at Sew Lux Fabric.  These are my 6 blocks so far.  Lovin' the Happy Go Lucky fabric!

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

Tuesday progress and lots of trimmings!

I'm working on my "In From the Cold" Christmas mug quilt today ~ trying to get all my mugs finished before the last class on Saturday.  At the moment, I'm working on 9 little pinwheels made up of 1-1/2" half-square triangles ~ that's where most of the trimmings came from!  

  

I love the way the blocks are turning out ~ I have six (mostly) done ~ one still needs its steam, but that I can embroider in my comfy chair while watching some TV.  :)

Linking up with Show and Tell Tuesday.

Finish Friday

Finis!  Tree skirt #1, that is.  I spent all day catching up on episodes of Sleepy Hollow and The Blacklist while I hand-stitched the binding and added a label.  Can't post a full photo of it, but here's a peek.

Only two more tree skirts to go!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

WIP Wednesday

Just two things to show today ~

First up ~ making good progress on finishing Christmas tree skirt #1!  I finished sewing the binding onto the front and I'm in the process of hand-stitching it to the back.  After that ~ all I need to do is put the label on and it should will be done by Friday!

Next ~ two more mugs for the In From The Cold quilt class that I'm taking.  One is finished ~ the other one is waiting for me to actually embroider the steam before I can declare that one finished.  :)  I think I'm gonna love this quilt!

My City Sampler blocks are behind again by about a week and a half, so nothing to show there.  Gotta catch up!

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Tuesday progress

Just had to take a quick break to say "Hallelujah!"  Finally finished quilting Christmas tree skirt #1 and I'm working on the binding ~ feels good!!  I'm bound and determined to finish it this week.

Happy Tuesday!

Friday Finish and a great sale on Quilter's Candy Basics

I've decided that when I'm working on 7 projects at once finishes don't usually happen too often.  I did manage to finish piecing the top of Tree Skirt #3 ~ which I can't really show here until it's gifted.  But here are a couple of sneak peaks.  To tell you the truth, I had trouble with the points in this hourglass design, but I'm hoping that it won't be too noticeable once it's finished.  :(  Besides, it's my first quilting Christmas, so they'll probably cut me some slack.

I did manage to finish six City Sampler blocks, but I still need to put together this week's three blocks.

 OK - this has nothing to do with any kind of finish, but I had to take of picture of this dotty goodness that I got in the mail today!

Connecting Threads is having a sale on a lot of its Quilter's Candy Basics and I picked out 14 different shades (1/2 yard each) of the Classic Dots (on sale for $3.56 yd).  I wanted them ALL, but I have this thing called a budget that I need to stick to.  :)  The sale is on until 11/28/2013 (while supplies last), so there's hope!
  

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Saturday happenings

Class today!  I'm so excited to start this class (1st session of 3) ~ the minute I saw this quilt I knew I wanted it for myself.  :)  Can't wait to see how it turns out!

I've made some progress on Christmas tree skirt #3.  Got all the hourglass blocks done and finally decided on a layout I can live with and I have all my rows ready to sew!

I signed up as a vendor for one of my favorite pet adoption events on November 10th sponsored by the Pit Bull Crew ~ a local group that helps find forever homes for pit bulls at the shelter. 

I've started working on doggy-themed wallets and pouches and I'm sharing a table with a good friend of mine who does some really fun pottery.  She's making dog bone wind chimes (so cute!).  Hoping to raise some money for this great cause!

Have a good weekend ~ gotta get to class!

Update:  Finished the first mug block for my In From The Cold quilt!  Lots of fabric to cut before next class in two weeks ~ looking forward to seeing this come together.  :)