Frosty finish

Figured I might as well take a frosty pic of this black and white quilt..  It doesn't pop in the flat light.

This has been a UFO for ?????

It feels so good to have a finish.

Here is a close up of the quilting.  It seems I always fall back to leaves and this time I put in  loopy crazy daisies.  I was getting practice for a friends quilt that I am going to start quilting today.  I have been putting it off cause it is an old top and I sure would hate to have pick out all of my quilting.
Sounds like we will get snow this weekend so it is a great time to hibernate in my sewing room.

Have a fun weekend.

When is a ufo a ufo?

After a long fun summer I have moved back into my house and am thinking about sewing. Yay.  It has been a long time.  I was flipping thru some of my fav blogs today and found 'finish it up friday' over at crazy mom quilts.  I know I have lots of unfinished projects and think I am going to follow along with her.
Of course then I start to question what I really need to finish before I get to start something new.  Obviously if it is cut (or some of it is cut) it has become a ufo and needs to be finished.  But what if I have purchased the fabric and know the pattern but haven't cut anything, is it a ufo?  I'm thinking it is only if it hasn't been bumped lower on my priority list by something I really really want to start.

 The above picture is from a crazy long hike I took in Glacier Nat'l Park this summer with a 37 lb pack.  Crazy!

Okay these are the 6 ufos I am claiming

.  This one I had some problems with some cuts I made when I didn't like the finished top so I need to do some head scratching then JUST DO IT.

 

 This one I started two years ago. Man how time flies.


The zig zag I just made this spring and put the top away with one strip left to finish the top.

And Oh man, this one has been waiting several years to be quilted.  I love the quilting part but I really hate making the sandwich.  And I guess I will be doing that since I have not made any room for a longarm.  Really did think I would have one by now.

Isn't this cool.  It is an old top that a friend of mine was using as a table cloth.  Anyhow she gave it to me to quilt.   It is pinned and ready but I need to get some practice in before I start this one.

Hope you all have some finishes in your future.

Sounds like I make a lot of rules for myself and yup I do.  Sometimes I follow them sometimes I don't

a glimpse and a finish

Never thought I would like to quilt feathers but they are fun and good for me to practice on.  But, yikes, I combined them with some random squares, really not sure where I am  going with this.

I finished this a week or so ago and it felt so good.  I rented a long arm and had lots of fun with the quilting.  It is so much easier with a LA than with my domestic machine. 

It is starting to finally feel like summer and I sure would like to make a dent in the stack of tops before I hit the trails.

We still have high avalanche danger in the mountains here so I don't think we will be hiking for awhile.  My favorite chalet in Glacier Park was damaged by a big avalanche this winter, the pictures are amazing.

Enjoy the blue skies.

great find

I'm not much on garage sales but yesterday I stopped at an estate sale and found

this fun bunch of stuff for 5 bucks.  The rotary cutter is worth that, but I also got the large pinking shears (not that I will use it much) a ton of old wooden spools and lots of old bias tape.

  Fun fun fun.

The best is the measuring egg!  At first I thought it was Silly Putty but on closer inspection.... what could be better? And the little white and red contraption is a needle threader, and it works.  Yowza!

Okay now the fun is over and I have to get this top finished.

I do have a finish that I will post soon plus I have a top that I started quilting looked at it and thought 'what the hell was I thinking?'  Any way I will post that soon and see if you all have some ideas for me.

It's gotta be the rebel in me

Somewhere I saw a picture of a rainbow cake and had to make one.

To find the recipe I googled rainbow cake and could not believe all the comments about the food coloring, sugar and whatever else.  Come on!  Lighten up and enjoy.

I had a bit of extra batter so I made some cupcakes for the neighbor kids.  I like them and want them to live long happy lives but really? I don't think they will be eating this everyday (well at least until the cupcakes are gone) so I think a bit of color and fun is okay.  I think the unfrosted cake is more fun to look at.

Here is the finished  half eaten cake.  Kinda reminded me of a clowns wig.  Probably a once in a lifetime eat but I am glad I made it, gel colors and all.  Sure got a smile from the kids.

The other day I realized

I didn't have a finish yet for 2011.  I have lots of starts and finishes of flimsies but nothing layered and quilted and bound.

So I dropped everything

 and headed for the closet with the line of tops just waiting for a finish.

 I grabbed this 'colorbrick' quilt mainly cause it had a back and binding just waiting to be used.

I had followed Rachael's quilt-along directions for the top and decided to use her quilting instruction as well.  I don't use straight line quilting much, mainly cause fmq'ing is so much fun, but wanted to follow the whole shebang.  It was fun.  I think it would have turned out a bit better if I had paid attention to my fabric choices all being prewashed or not.  As it is some of the fabrics must have been prewashed cause there were some that did not shrink.  If I had done an all over fmq I don't think the shrinkage or lack of would be as noticeable.

All in all it is a really cuddly quilt that I love and so does my soon to be daughter in law (we will see who gets it).  And it is my first finish of the year.  Yay

It's play time.......finally!

 I am finally getting to put these on the design wall. When I pieced them together I  was really random, just barely pairing light and dark.

The one above is putting like colors together regardless of value. The layout would be way too time consuming and I am feeling with all the trimming I am over these squares.

 Right is squares of value regardless of color.  This is my second choice so far.

This one is lines of light and dark but with my whimsical piecing of color value it does not work (even if I could lay it out correctly)  But I like this idea and may do something like this in the future.

Somewhere recently, I saw a top pieced like this one in zigzags.  So far this one may be my favorite.

Any thoughts?