Animal print quilt

This was a gift for my mother for Christmas. I finished it before then, of course, but I didn't want to post it and ruin her surprise. I didn't get to see her face, because she's in a different state, but I think she liked it. I seem to recall her liking animal prints. Anyway, it wasn't a very difficult or involved quilt since it's just squares. (I think they were 8" finished.) What's remarkable about this quilt is simply that I finished it and finished it on time. And it's kind of big -- queen-sized.

Of course, I started it for Christmas two years ago, but at least it's finished now. I'm really working on it. You see my "Current Projects" list? It has 16 quilts on it. They are all in some form laying all over my sewing room. Three of them are finished quilt tops and just waiting to be quilted. Two of them just need borders, and then they'll be ready to be pinned. Three are partially quilted (one hand quilted, two machine). One I have all the blocks in rows, and I just need to sew the rows together. The other half of them (7) are partially cut out, partially sewn, whatever. That doesn't include the other 60 quilt tops waiting to be quilted or the other 20 or 30 partial projects I have in bins in my garage (and partially laying around my room too). I'm not exaggerating. When I say I'm not a finisher, I am not kidding. Part of the problem has been that I could get them to quilt top stage, but I didn't have a machine that could quilt, so they were all in line for hand quilting -- and we know how long that takes!

A couple of years ago I got a walking foot for my machine, so that has helped a little, but the backlog is so big, that I'm still quite a bit behind. Here is a close-up of the quilting on this quilt. I just did mostly vertical lines -- they are slightly diagonal, but they go from the top of the quilt to the bottom -- nothing left to right.

I had to piece the back, because I didn't quite have enough of the backing, and of course, I'm still on a fabric dearth -- well, there's no dearth around here, because there's a lot of it lying around, but let's say I'm on a fabric-buying moratorium still. I also did a scrappy binding for the above-mentioned reason. Somehow, I still have some animal prints left, so I can do something else with them in the future. I'll give it a rest for now and try to tackle my list on the side there. Maybe I will do pictures of everything on the list, so you can see where I'm at (and maybe I'll be motivated to finish)!

Okay. So I'm going to go finish some stuff -- although I have a bunch of baby quilts to make and some baby shower invitations. I know we haven't seen any cards for a while. I'll show you the invitations when they're done. Since I have to make something like 40 of them, I have a sneaking suspicion they're going to be relatively simple. Have a great day and do something fun (aka crafty)!

Bumblebee quilt -- Finished!

So I actually finished this a couple of days after I had it pinned, but instead of blogging, I have been making things, having Christmas, having the kids home from school, being sick, feasting, et cetera. My blogs have been severely neglected of late to be sure.

This was for my husband's sister and her husband, whose name we had for Christmas this year. I have loved this quilt top for a long time (even though, as I say repeatedly, I do not like yellow), and I just decided this year to finish it. It's twin size -- I didn't get the exact measurements before I sent it. I'm just glad I remembered to take pictures!

The back looks like a multi-colored polka dot, but it's really just white dots on a field of black. I took several pictures, and they all turned out the same. They look right in the full-size version. What're ya gonna do?

A close-up of the quilting detail on the back. I just quilted diagonally across the squares. I do that a lot with the quilts that are just squares. I like it better than stitching in the ditch.

That yellow floral is one that Jill sent me with that first batch of fabric. She sent me a second batch, but I don't think I even took pictures of that, and now it's all put away. Don't you worry, though. She sent me some great stuff, and you'll be seeing it in various projects here and there. I've started a BUNCH of new quilts -- which usually isn't good, because I'm not great at finishing. I'm going to work on that, though. I was talking to my husband about finishing things and I said, "What if I could not start anything new for a whole year and just finish all the projects I have now?" He said, "No." He knows me so well. It's not that he didn't think it was a good idea. (Finish things? He would be overjoyed if I finished even half of what's lying around here!) He just knows that ideas bombard me, and I just have to start them. Therein lies the problem with finishing. Well, I'm a work-in-progress as well. That, I guess, is one of my New Year's Resolutions -- to become a finisher -- in all areas, not just quilting. Hopefully it will go well, and you will see my progress here. I have some other things to show you that I've been working on, but that will be another day.

Bumblebee quilt

It's kind of a stupid name, I realize. It's just what I've always called it. I made this quilt top years ago -- like 5 or 6 years ago. You know how you get sick of things and just stick them in a bin for a while? Well, I recently unearthed this, and here it is, all pinned and ready to be quilted. This (of course!) was all just scraps. The backing is from my stash too. It wasn't quite enough (as always), so I had to add a couple of strips to the sides. I'll show more pics of the completed project. You can see the back then.

Some cards

The Christmas cards were for card swap in November. I always do two different sets. I made the cards, but I don't know if any of them will actually get sent out! I am so behind on that, and I'm never very good at sending cards, so I suppose no one will be surprised if they don't get a card from me this year. It's par for the course, and I can always use them next year -- try again.

I didn't really have good enough ink on this gingerbread card. Well, it was good ink, but it was dye ink, and I needed some chalk ink or something for this acrylic stamp. Anyway, the gingerbread men look cookie-ish with their sporadic inking. Whatever. They look better IRL than they do in this picture. It's from a Martha Stewart stamp set -- some Christmas one I got at Wal-Mart. I used iridescent white puff paint and red stickles on the gingerbread men.

These are just some cards that I thought would good for weddings. The butterfly stamp is from Papertrey Ink. I stamped it in some Martha Stewart blue ink. It's upstairs, and I'm too lazy to go up and check the exact name. I just used Frosted Lace stickles on the outside of the butterflies. The glittery paper is from My Mind's Eye. I think. The "Celebrate" sentiment if from Papertrey's Little Lady stamp set. I stamped the butterflies, cut them out, and adhered them with a glue dot. I bent them in the middle a little bit just so they wouldn't be completely flat.

I have a quilt ready to show you. Maybe I'll get it posted today as well. Maybe not. I know I've been so unreliable about posting. In the meantime, it has been a while since I posted any cards, but it's not because I haven't been making them. So here they are. I hope you're having a good Christmas/Holiday season. Are you ready?

Updates

Yeah, I know they look very similar. The hourglass one is made from Moda's Seaside Rose, an oldie but goodie. Don't know why it's so dark. I had all the lights on.

The Sawtooth Stars with fancy centers (don't ask me to name them all, please) Quilt is made from Moda's Simplicity.

I'll take more close-ups if I ever actually get them quilted. I have the backs all ready to go, but again, they're not going in the lineup for before Christmas, so maybe in January you'll see something more than quilt tops. Here's hoping!

Blue and Yellow Ragged Squares

Here's a little update on the ragged squares quilt. The top is put together. The back isn't. I don't have quite enough of the blue I wanted to use, so I'll have to add some strips to the sides. I won't have time to quilt it before Christmas I don't think, because there are at least two quilts ahead of it. I'm just not that fast.

There's a reason why I don't try to pin quilts together unless everyone is napping. What a great assistant, though!

Tie-Dyed Onesies

So I made some of these for my sister's baby a few months back, but of course, I didn't take any pictures because I wasn't blogging then. I recently did some blue ones. I plan to sew some cute fabric up the middle of the burpees (maybe not on the tie-dyed ones). I'll post those after I do them. I'm just trying to get a jump on some baby gifts -- all these people giving birth. What is up with that?

I got the idea from Abby's website. She has a great explanation of how to do this, so I'll just send you there. I'm too lazy to do my own tutorial. Hey, why reinvent the wheel? Ya know? Enjoy!