The return of Birth Month

Anyone who has been following this blog for at least a year may recall that in our house, February is "Birth Month".  This year will be heavily LEGO - as we are planning not one, but two LEGO themed birthday parties for the Munchkin - one with family and one with friends.  Nothing as ambitious as last year - but I am sure I will have some crafty ideas to share later this month.

Today was Day 1 - and we started off our FIFTH year of "Birth Month" celebration with a gifty for the Munchkin... LEGO of course.  He's taking more and more of a role each year in planning what gifts to GIVE - so that's fun.

We even have the extra little pocket for the 29th - our little bonus day to celebrate.  Now I have 28 more days to figure out what to do for that day!

Happy "Birth Month" one and all -I hope you will check in on us during the month to party along - even if your birthday is not in February you are welcome to party with us.

My long neglected SIS

Don't need to say much more than this... three SISters, three ChristmaSIS quilts, lots of SISillyness.
It DID start with a triple-four patch so perhaps it is fitting that it ended in three quilts....

Unwrapping the UFO - Final Delivery

So the backstory on this quilt is pretty much the same as the first - except that after cutting out Jill's quilt I STILL had too much fabric, and then Moda Bake Shop published this pattern and I knew that a quilt for Lazy Sister Sue was in the works.

Again I started cutting (and AGAIN -my SIS swap quilt languished to the side).  This time I realized I was going to run out of scraps from THIS SIS swap, but I dipped into my stash and found some from previous swaps, the borders I used on the 2nd SIS quilt I did with Lazy Sister Sue (fabric she did not get as they were added after we swapped), and some other odds and ends.

This one was going to be BIG - but between her 2 kids 3 new grandbabies were due (twins in September and one in November), so I figured it would be great for a triple-first Christmas.

The flimsy was finished in August - right along side Jill's (and mine?? -still not done at this point).

Again, quilting waited  until the table was ready.  I did not do any free motion work on this one - just a lot of straight line outlining of the stars and the squares - and a lot of turning the quilt.

 

And if you are reading this post - it means that this one is now in Sue's hands and hopefully will be enjoyed by those three grandbabies for many Christmases to come!

(and mine?  it IS done - I just have not shared photos yet.  Maybe soon)

Unwrapping the UFO - AT LAST!!!

(Well - at last for 1... the other one is still in the hands of the United States Postal Service -hopefully to be delivered Saturday.)

So I have taunted and teased long enough - it's time to share one of the quilts, as well as a bit of the "backstory" on this project.

This project actually began in April, when Lazy Sister Sue, Jill and I got together to swap our fabrics for our SIS quilts (oh - and visit Jill and attend a big quilt show and some other fun stuff... but that's another story).  Later that month, as I am cutting the fabrics - I once again realize that I have more fabrics than needed for the pattern.  So even as I cut my top, my brain is plotting what to do with the scraps.

So my top is all cut - not assembled but cut - and it's now July and I come across this pattern on Moda Bake Shop.  Instantly the lights go on in my head, and I set myself to cutting squares for half square triangles, planning on making this for Jill - who has told me she does not put up a tree for her and the pups. 

The flimsy for Jill is finished in August (and mine is not):  (note the green trees and grass, and flowers in the garden)

The quilting got put on hold as I needed to get my table adapted to do better quilting - and then with Christmas and new windows and a new furnace and a new hot water heater and a full time job and Cub Scouts - it kind of got put even more on hold.  I opted not to rush through the quilting as I wanted to do some new things and did not want to be stressed about the calendar, too.

And then it FINALLY got finished.  I was a bit spooked by all that open white space that just begged for FMQ - I was straight line quilting within the tree itself and thought straight lines in the open area would cause the tree to get lost on the back.

 

So I quilted some snowflakes.  This was an experiment -and I had printed them out and quilted over the printouts - causing a bit of paper and toner to get trapped under the thread (oops - not good on WOW) but they look really great despite that!!!

 

 Then on the borders, which were rippling slightly - I wanted really heavy quilting, so I did what I think of as "radiators" -kind of a loopy zig zag one way, then the other way, in squarish quadrants all around the border.  This picture shows it on the red stars (red thread) and on the back (an offwhite pinstripe shirting fabric).

 

 

It was a tough secret to keep - only a few people saw the flimsy photo ahead of time.  My son loves this quilt and wanted me to "decorate" the tree with ornaments, but I love the crispness and simplicity of it.  It was fun to see the swap fabrics in a different light as they made up my "branches".

It is finally in Jill's hands -with some shortbread to sweeten the gift.

Un-unwrapping the UFO

"Un-unwrapping" - double negative - which means WRAPPING!
Actually, they are both done, washed, labeled, photographed, wrapped, and packaged -and as soon as I click "publish post" I am headed to the post office to send these out!!!
(only a month after Christmas - not too bad?!?!?)

Pictures to follow after they have been received and opened by both.

The Tangled Web

If I was playing by my normal rules - the Christmas UFO quilts would be done.  I am normally a very conservative "quilter" (though my piecing can be crazy at times) - edge to edge with the walking foot is my norm...with all those pesky starting and stopping threads trimmed off when the binding goes on.  Neat, clean and done...

Not this time.  This time I decided to get "fancy schmancy" with lots of nested outline stitchery and lots of FMQ - with lots of starts and stops - and LOTS of tails of thread that need to be trimmed and buried.

So even though I have the quilts quilted and the bindings neatly attached both sides - I am not done...

This is going to take a while....

Unwrapping the UFO - Part 9

Update -

The two gifty quilts are basically "done" - I put the last of the FMQ stitches into the one this afternoon (and am now icing my shoulder!!!) - there is more thread in this quilt than in any quilt I have EVER made before!!!!! - and I really pushed my comfort zone wayyyy out there on the quilting on this one.  I went through more than 2 bobbins JUST on the border work!!!!!

I am almost done with the binding on the other -and still need to choose, make and attach binding on the FMQ quilt.  Then LOTS of threads to bury and clean-up work to do... maybe they will get them by January 25th???  Only a month late - that's not bad...

Right??????