Happy New Year...Where did 2015 go?

I cannot believe that there are less than 5 hours left in 2015 here on the west coast of America!!  I feel like this year flew by in a blink!!!  I pray that the new year will bring you health, peace, prosperity and many quilting finishes!

Looking back on what I finished this year may help me to wrap my head around how fast 12 months can fly by.

In April, I finished Elephant Parade and the wall hanging that went with it, as well as making myself an under-machine organizer

At the end of April I had another finish - my Row Quilt that I gave to a dear friend.

In June I finished my daughter's autograph quilt from her wedding the prior August.  The better pictures are on this post because I lost them!

In September I finished my Garage Sale Irish Chain that I had taken completely apart and re-sewed.

In October I finished my Stairway to Heaven that I renamed Geese on the Stairway to Heaven.

In November I finished the Fairy Garden wall hanging for my granddaughter.

For December I completed 6 Christmas stockings for 2 granddaughters, 1 great-nephew, 1 grandson and his mom and dad.

I also finished all the pot holders I needed to for Christmas gifts this year.

Not as productive a year as I would have wished, so for next year my goal will be to finish completely at least 12 of the quilts/wall hanging I have sitting in my guest room patiently waiting to see the light of day!

I found a way to put all the pictures in a collage (thank you, Susan!)!!!

Accountability, ALYOF and FAL

I don’t know about you, but I have a really hard time finishing my quilting projects.  Back when this journey began (7 years ago), after I got my longarm, I would piece a quilt, make the backing, quilt the quilt, bind it and put a label on before moving on to the next project.  I didn’t understand how anyone could have a UFO or an unquilted top…just not the way I worked.  I know I was blessed to have been able to buy a longarm 9 months after piecing my first quilt and that quilting with it came very easily for me.

Then I got to spend 8 months in 2011 house/pet sitting for my daughter while she was deployed to Afghanistan.  It was a wonderful, selfish time for me of doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted – seriously, how much time could I devote to a cat and a Chihuahua.  The biggest plus for warm-loving me was that I spent March through October in Riverview, Florida!!!  Of course, living in Washington, I had to leave my longarm behind, but I loaded my truck with my sewing machine and about ¼ of my stash, drove across the country to happily begin cutting and stitching away.  I was accepted with open arms by a lovely bee group, SewWhat, in Brandon, Florida, and I met weekly with them to sew, shop hop, go to quilt shows and eat lovely food.  I bought more fabric, rulers, and patterns, which I promptly made into more quilt tops.

Then I got a wild hair and decided that the cat needed his own little quilt to lie on while on the couch, so I quilted that little quilt using my sewing machine.  I just did an all-over loopy pattern and it totally sucked.  Railroad tracks on the back (cuz I haven’t a clue how to adjust the tension on my machine, still) but it was just for a cat so I just left it.  However, that meant that there was no way I was going to even attempt to quilt anything else on my lovely Janome.  So I just kept making quilt tops…over 50 of them!!!  

Now, I know that I have quilted about 10 of those quilts, but I just can’t get seem to get the pile down at all!  So, for 2016, I am going to need some help to make goals and actually achieve them!  In 2015, ALYOF provided me a monthly goal to achieve, with accountability in the form of the month-end link-up.  Well, ALYOF will not be happening in 2016 so I had to find another carrot to keep my nose to the grindstone!!  I found Leanne who blogs at she can quilt.

In 2016 she will be teaming up with seven other bloggers to host FAL (Finish Along) with quarterly link-ups and they are going to be my "carrot".  If you need a "carrot", why not come play with us and finish those UFOs and quilt tops!!

Look What I Found for You!

Whilst trying to catch up on my emails and reading blogs, I found myself receiving this fabulous Christmas gift and I'm going to share the link with you!!!  I love using HSTs in my quilts, but they can definitely be time consuming to make correctly - especially if you are creating your own pattern, I find I waste a great deal of fabric trying to make sure they are big enough and then the tedious job of trimming all of them down to the proper size! 

Alyce, who blogs at Blossom Heart Quilts, created these wonderful printables and they are free - yes FREE - until the end of this year!!!  So scoot on over to Alyce's blog and download them for yourself!!  Oh, you can drop her a comment telling her that I sent you, too!!

Now go check it out!!!

A Lovely Year of Finishes - December

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, spent with those you love!  I'm getting to spend 2 weeks with my dad and my daughter who flew home from Hawaii.  She was not impressed with the 5" of snow we got yesterday, but I was thrilled with a white Christmas!!  The temps tonight are heading into single digits so she will really freeze!!!

I finished all my Christmas sewing last weekend - I had to, I drove down here on Monday (and for the first time I got stuck in a motel on Monday night because of the horizontal sleet and didn't make the drive in one day).  According to my husband, everyone was thrilled with their potholder!!

I love the flannel and the terry cloth (old towels)...add a layer of batting and fingers should be protected!!

I am linking up with Sew BitterSweet Designs for my final finish of 2015!  Definitely bittersweet as this is the final ALYOF...I will miss you!

*I entered 9 months of ALYOF and I met my goal every time!!!  Definitely need a carrot to get me moving!!!

Christmas Stockings Finished

I finished the 6 Christmas Stockings last night and took advantage of the snow we got during the night to take some pictures early this morning.  The paper pieced pattern for the Nutcracker was made by Aqua Paisley Studio.  Each one was a little different...I must have been tired when putting the last 3 together because I got it a bit turned around, but they still look great!

I put them together using the tutorial at Sew Like My Mom and they went together really easily.  Using Minky for the cuff and backing makes them so yummy that I just want to bury my face in them!!

These three are for my step-daughter, her husband and their son - his first Christmas and she gets the ballerina!

This is for my great nephew - pretty sure he already has a stocking since he's 3, but that's all good.

These are for my granddaughters, in their favorite colors, of course!  I was lucky to have purple and pink minky in my stash for the back of these!!

I only bought the gray and red minky for these, everything else was from my stash (not that the volume of that has gone down much!!!).

I'm linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict to celebrate this finish!!

A Lovely Year of Finishes - December Goal

I have to make a bunch of potholders, so that will be my goal for this month!  I have 2 finished, 3 in the process and 5 more pieced...but I need at least 15, maybe more!  I am linking up with Sew BitterSweet Designs for December.

My mother-in-law used to give every family a new potholder every Christmas - they were ones her mother had made - but that supply has gone dry, so I'm picking up the tradition in her place.  We love all the potholders we have from her and I hope the new ones give as much pleasure as hers have.  I am using flannel for the pieced part, a layer of batting and the backing is old towels.  Hers were cotton, batting and old towels!