Ruby Sparkle Punch

So after over a year of thinking I was going to link up to Amanda Jean's Finish-it-Up Friday, here I finally am with a finish.  This is Elizabeth Hartman's Sparkle Punch Quilt made from Bonnie and Camille's Ruby fabric line.

It is one of my favorites in appearance.  Of course, as always, I think I should have made it just a bit bigger. I'm guessing I'm not as tiny as Elizabeth is.  The QAL instructions say that it is 60x72, but I'm not sure I feel like mine is that big.  Maybe it is . . . but maybe it shrunk.  I don't prewash my fabrics.

That aside, I absolutely love all of her designs.  She has fun patterns and precise instructions.  I love my Sparkle Punch quilt.  It makes me happy to look at it.  It has such great energy.

I don't know why I let it sit around quilted but unbound for so long.  Indecision?  Yeah, we'll go with indecision.  Anybody else ever have trouble choosing binding and/or backing?  I'm good with the top, but then I get blocked sometimes.  I'm glad I went with the gray.  All the other colors were either too much or too little.  Hope you finished something this week!  :)

Yes, I did.

Last year I ordered a FQ pack of Flea Market Fancy.  I had missed it the first time around, and I was determined not to do so again.  I had seen all kinds of people doing the Scrappy Trip Around the World.  (Tutorial here.)  I decided I did not need to make one more scrap quilt at this juncture, since I have so many in progress already.  But then my eye fell on the FMF, and I decided to jump in.  I cut up all those FQs for this quilt, dontcha know.  (Amanda Jean will probably shudder in horror that I did that.  Either that or she'll be proud.)  I'm liking the way it's turning out.  Here's hoping I can break character and finish it.  ;)  Are you tripping yet?  You know you want to.

New Pillows

I know it has been a while since I posted, and I can't promise that I will be a regular poster in the future.  I hope to be, but I know how things go around here.  I want this to be the year of the finish, but I believe I've said that every year (except last year).  I'll just take it as it comes and see where I land.  I have some plans, but sometimes when I spend more time blogging, I get more ideas.  Then I end up starting more projects instead of finishing them.  I already have two ideas that I want to start that I am having to resist.  ;)  Anyway, I haven't photographed anything I've been working on this year yet, but here's something I haven't shown you before. 

The pillows on our couch needed some updating, so last year I made some new covers for them.  I did a pebble stitch for the yellow.

I thought I would be tricky on the green and try to free-hand it.  Not such a good showing.  I should have marked my lines.  

So I unpicked it all and decided on just organic straight-ish lines.  This is the same green, but it looks so different here.

The finished product.  This was before we painted the walls from that hideous blue it was when we moved in.

I got a new machine finally.  The old ones were non-cooperative all last year.  They weren't that cooperative in 2011 either, but I borrowed a machine from my friend (for 8 months) before we moved to CT.  The move really took things out of me, but hopefully, I am back in business.