January Goals.

 Enough of this only-sewing-to-repair-cloth-diapers from December. Enough. I'm going to sew for enjoyment, and that is that. (Well, as long as Dan can take some time away from bookwork and farm work and dismantling a rundown house and watch Baby E for me!) But truly, I plan on sewing this month!

My official goal is to piece, baste, and quilt two table runners. 

You can see in the picture that I already started the piecing, so I should be able to achieve my goal. And if things get real productive around here, I might even get the binding attached! But... don't hold your breath... Evelyn rules the roost, and she's not too keen on letting Momma have a lot of free time. It's a good thing she's cute ;)

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And just for fun... a little sneak peak... 

I've got big plans for this garage sale find from several years ago! It involves hammering and stamping and bending. Can't wait to have some crafty fun!

November Goal... Squeaking By!

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! 

...but now, it's on to the next Holiday...

Merry Early Christmas 

(Advent starts tomorrow!)

 My November goal was to get this pieced - it's the beginnings of a Christmas tree skirt for a wedding gift. The wedding is July 5th!

 I keep experimenting with the old-faithful pattern that my mom has used for tree skirts since the 80s. This time I went down from a 7" block to a 6.5" and added a few 4-patches to spice it up. I also went with a planned-scrappy layout, instead of diagonal lines. I've had the Believe fabric for years, waiting for this friend to get married. The others are all leftovers from past tree skirts, both ones that I made and ones that Mom made.

 I brought it up to my parents' house on Thanksgiving, so Mom can bring it to the lady who always does Mom's long-arm machine quilting. This will also be a new change. In the past, this project would have been tied with yarn. Then we upgraded to embroidery floss. The last skirt I finished, I quilted it along the seams with my home machine. Now, it's time to have someone else do some FMQ on it! (Mom, thanks for having the nativity set up already to help set the mood for these pictures, ha!).

 I also need this tree skirt quilted. I've had this top done for over a year, just waiting for the right wedding announcement. I have another friend's wedding on May 31st! (Evelyn thought she needed to be a part of the photo shoot!)

 You can see the old-way layout of diagonal lines. Four of these fabrics were from Connecting Threads while two are from JoAnns.

While we're on the topic of Christmas projects. Mom's making one of these for all her girls (my two sister-in-laws and me). I found her the pattern in a thrift store - it matched a wreath wall-hanging also made out of log cabin blocks that she made years ago.

Church Quilting on a Saturday

One of the churches that my in-laws attend had a quilting day one Saturday. They only have these maybe twice a year, but it was a fun time. There were even a few first-timers there! We did a disappearing 9-patch pattern, and one of the ladies will quilt it on her long-arm machine. (I can't remember where the quilt will be donated, sorry!). 

 One of the sewing tables...

Isn't she a beauty?

Cutting, cutting, cutting!

 Where'd the 9-patch go? :)

 I was mainly sewing strips together. You can see Evelyn's play area near my chair.

Although, as usual, she didn't last long playing by herself. Here's Grandma showing her multitasking skills!

Well, the quilt might not have turned out exactly how the organizers had planned, but you can't expect perfection when you have ladies ironing, cutting and sewing who might not have a lot of experience (or any experience!). I think the main problem was that we weren't squaring up the blocks, which caused a lot of grief when we were sewing the blocks into rows and then the rows into the top. But it was certainly a fun morning of fellowship! And the quilt will be loved regardless of its imperfections :)

November Goal

My November goal is to get a Christmas tree skirt pieced for a friend's wedding this summer. I'll baste, quilt and bind it another month (there's a good chance that we will be switching houses sometime this month, so my goal is to simply piece!)

I decided to switch up my normal Christmas tree skirt pattern by going with scrappy 6.5" blocks instead of a diagonal pattern with 7" blocks of only 5-7 fabrics. I also made 10-ish 4-patch blocks to add to the scrappiness. This friend has always loved the word "Believe," so I have been saving this fabric for this exact purpose :)

A Lovely Year of Finishes

October Goal. Done

I posted my October goal here... this is a part of Melissa and Shanna's A Lovely Year of Finishes.

 I wanted to create something to highlight a piece of Hardanger embroidery that Dan's grandma made... and a pillow is what I decided on! The finished product will probably end up in Evelyn's future bedroom :)

 I used some fat-eighths that I found at a rummage sale back in Montana to create a log cabin block with the embroidery in the middle. I pieced the block onto a piece of scrap fleece, so it was quilted as I added each 2-1/2" strip. The back is just a simple envelope closure, and the binding was attached to the front and hand-stitched to the back.

It's beautiful embroidery, but I knew that I would never take the time to learn such intricate handwork in order to finish this piece. It was best to put it to good use as it is, so it can still be loved while on display. There is a sad kind of beauty in unfinished work, and now it is brightened up with some pinks and blues.

Now I need to decide on a November goal!

Linking up to my favorite parties... the buttons are on the side bar - go check a few out!

September Goal. Finished.

It's hard to grasp how much has happened this month! Just the fact that I posted about my September goal back there on "Grizz 'n' Dove" (goal post here) and now I get to post about reaching my goal here, "On the Banks of Frog Creek." Such excitement. 

My goal for September was to piece this Christmas Tree skirt (pattern found here at A Bright Corner) that will eventually be a wedding gift for a really good friend. I hope to quilt and bind it soon, although I have a lot on my to-do-list first (like getting my sewing machine from my parents' place this weekend...). 

I did go one more step past my goal and prepared the binding. One less thing to do later, and one thing that was easy to do during the time in Monana when most of our stuff had already been moved. 

 Some close-ups of the fabric. I did use one directional print, but I used it on the edge - so it's going the right direction on the outside, and there's just a little part by the hole where it's upside down. Mom won't approve, but my friend probably won't even notice. She'll be too thrilled with the cute bears, deer and moose that was the "must-have" fabric for this friend. She loves cute animals!


 Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes, WIP Wednesday and Fabric Tuesday. Links are on the sidebar!