Enchanted Evergreens Quilt

I'm excited to introduce you to Enchanted Evergreens, a quilt I designed for the Christmas issue of Fat Quarterly.

I was inspired by the Christmas movies of the 60's with the random Christmas trees randomly placed around the set to create a Christmas forest.

I had some major help making this quilt. Karen, my aunt, lovingly pieced the top for me while I finished up a few other projects at the same time.

The blocks go together pretty easily, making this quilt the perfect project for the beginner/intermediate quilter to throw together before Christmas. All you need is a ruler with a 60* line, or a 60* ruler such as the Hex N More ruler to make those triangles.

I quilted this quilt on my longarm in rows of random loops, which look like Christmas ornaments to me.

If you're interested, head on over to Fat Quarterly and get yourself the latest issue. Having personally looked through the issue, I can say that there are a number of other great patterns.

Enchanted Evergreens
75.5" x 91"
Fabric: Aspen Frost by BasicGrey
Thread: So Fine #50! Barely Mint
Batting: Quilters Dream Cotton

Christmas Jackpot!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas this year.  I certainly did.  On Black Friday, my sister was over and did some shopping online.  After seeing a ton of sales online for various quilt shops, I suggested several ideas for myself for Christmas at various stores.  My "list" this year in terms of quilting stuff involved filling a bunch of baskets at various online stores, handing the computer to my sister, who was in cahoots with my mom, and her completing a bunch of Christmas shopping for me that day.

Solids were the first theme of Christmas.  I got a Moda Bella Solids color card, a Michael Miller jewel toned fat quarter bundle and another fat quarter bundle of the new Kona solids.

Speaking of fat quarter bundles, I got a subscription to the Fat Quarter Shop's Blogger's Choice fat quarter club from my parents.

I got some great notions as well.  This travel pincushion on the left has a cover, which will come in handy when traveling.  I'm excited to get more of the Clover binder clips.  I had a 10 pack, but will definitely put this larger case to good use.

And I got a fat quarter bundle and coordinating Aurifil thread of Simply Color, one of my favorite fabric lines right now.

I also got some great Tula Pink - Birds and the Bees (14 one yard cuts!) from KK and Tula Pink's book from another aunt.

I'd say it was a pretty good Christmas!  Now to find the time to begin digging into all of these goodies! 

Christmas BOM Finally Finished

Yup, it's official.  I'm finally finished the FQS Designer Mystery BOM from 2010.  I finished it at retreat last weekend. This made my third finished quilt top for retreat.  Granted I just needed to finish the border, which took a LOT longer than anticipated.

I struggled with the border for a while.  I have no idea why, but I had issues aligning the stars so that they lined  up.  I cut fabric the wrong length.  I had a hole burned in my fabric, so I had to piece on part of the border that didn't need to be pieced originally.  Needless to say, I loathed this quilt come the end. Especially when I laid it down and realized it didn't lay flat in one area (see that pucker in the border on the right). Seriously?  I haven't had this many issues with a quilt in probably 5-7 years, when I was still just a novice quilter.

Needless to say, I'm thrilled that this top is done, but I think I'll be putting it away for a while until I grow to love it again and want to quilt the top.

I do want to note that the issues I had were not with the pattern itself.  The FQS did a good job with the pattern, I just had so many issues with the border.

Christmas Quilt - After Christmas

Now that I have the Storm at Sea quilt finished I can begin working on other projects again.  Yay!

First up on my to-do list is to work on the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery BOM.  I had all 12 blocks made for a few months now, I just haven't gotten around to finishing the sashing and border. Well, this week I managed to finish the sashing, a step in the right direction.

Now to make 10 10.5" square blocks for the border...

Christmas Goodies

As usual we had an awesome Christmas and I managed to get a few quilting goodies.

My biggest gift this year was a new sewing table - a new Horn cabinet!

The insert to fit my machine is on order and should arrive in the next 4-6 weeks.  For now I'm just using the extension that came with my machine.

Here's a different view with Misy cozying up on my other extension table.  The best part is the back part lifts up giving me more room when I machine quilt a quilt.

I received a box of mini bolts to help organize my ever growing stash.  I had been just cutting up random boxes to wrap fabric around, but this is so much better.

So my husband teases me all the time about my fabric stash and the fact that I'd never need to by fabric for the rest of my life.  He gave me this sign that he had made on Etsy.

I also got this clock so that I can finally tell what time it is when I'm sewing. 

KK got me this great light box since 2011 was the year of learning applique for me.  I've already put this to good use. 

In addition, I got a bunch of paint sticks, which I've never played with but been curious about.  I got two really nice seam rippers. 

Overall, we had a really nice Christmas, spent some great time with family, and ate lots of food.  Now to put everything to good use!

Christmas Goodies

I'm catching up on my holiday posting and I thought I'd share the great quilting related goodies that I got for Christmas.

 

Here's almost everything that I got...

A bunch of Aurful thread

Some more paper piecing paper, some scissors, and a ruler

Some 1/2 yard pieces of fabric

A couple of charm packs that I would have bought if I didn't receive them.  I was super happy that I got these.

A Central Park fat quarter bundle from my wonderful DH!!!!!!! I was super happy about this one.

Some books and patterns (the kitten was interested in what she saw, hence the paw on the bottom right corner of the picture).

 A new chair for my quilting room.

Not pictured is a new rolling sewing machine case for my wonderful "Bernie."

All in all, I'd say it was a wonderful Christmas.  I hope you had a great one as well.

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing everyone and their family a Merry Christmas!

NEMQG - Holiday Mini Quilt Challenge

Last weekend the NEMQG held a holiday mini quilt challenge with our pincushion swap.  I decided to make a small quilt using needle turn applique that we learned in our last meeting.  I knew that I was going to be busy traveling for work, so I saw that as the perfect time to work on a needle turn applique quilt. 

I designed the quilt myself after sketching up a few different designs and settled on a gingerbread house and a Christmas tree. 

I made it using the scraps that I had from the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery BOM except for the brown house.

Here are a few close-ups.

I added some crystals to the Christmas tree to look like ornaments.

Here's the house.  The windows and door knob are made of buttons. 

Here's the back of the quilt where you can see some of the quilting that I did. 

I was running short on time for the binding, so I ended up machine stitching it down using some metalic thread. 

Now for the competition.  There ended up being four quilts total entered into the challenge.

After seeing all of the quilts up there, I knew I had no shot of winning.  I mean, come on, look at some of those.  They're fantastic.  Everyone at the meeting was given a piece of paper to vote on their favorite quilt.  After the tally, quilts 3 and 4 (from left to right) were tied for third place and quilts 1 and 2 were tied for first.  I have to admit, I was a bit shocked when I learned I was tied for first.

Because there was only one winning prize, we had to have another vote off between quilts 1 and 2.

After the second tally, again quilts 1 and 2 were tied.  (I was shocked that I was still in it, much less tied for that awesome quilt on the left.)  Then, we realized that we were missing one vote, the deciding vote.  After all of the votes were recounted and the tally was final, MY quilt was dubbed the winner!!! Holy cow!!!  I seriously never expected to be the winner after seeing all of the cool quilts. 

So now this cute quilt is hanging in the hallway off our kitchen to our master bedroom. 

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Six

Last weekend I finished block six of the FQS Designer Mystery BOM.  I love this block.  It's one of my favorites.

Here are the first six blocks.  I can't believe we're half way through already.

This is going to be such a great quilt.  I love it more and more as each block is made and added.  I can't wait for the next one (as always).

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Five

After a slight mishap with the mail I finally received the fifth block in the mail and was able to make it last weekend.

While I like this block, I think it doesn't quite fit in with the others.  I forgot to take a picture of all of them but will next time.  At this point, I think it's my least favorite.  I'm trying to think of a way to spice it up.  Hmm...

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Four

So a month after receiving the fourth block in the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery BOM, I finished it. Yet another block that I love.

And here are all four so far.

Hopefully I'll receive my fifth block any day now so that I can work on it next weekend.

Bee Block Fabric Sent

Today I swung by the post office during lunch to drop off 8 packages.  One contained 12 Christmas blocks for a Christmas Block Swap. I made them out of a Fruitcake layer cake.

  I forgot to take pictures if the blocks before I sent them, but the blocks use the Moda Bake Shop pattern, Christmas Packages by Antler Quilt Design. 

I also sent off my packages of fabric for the NEMQG bee that I'm participating in.  October is my month and I sent along a bunch of jewel toned fabrics with a basic grey grunge white for the backing.  I am asking everyone to make me a star block and a signature block for the back of the quilt.  I'm a bad blogger and forgot to take a picture of those as well.  At least I'll be able to share the blocks as they come back.  I look forward to seeing what everyone makes. 

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Three

I finished the third block in the Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery BOM.  This one was the easiest to piece together out of the three so far.

And here are the first three blocks all together.

I'm loving this quilt more and more.  Every block is just so cute.  I can't wait to see what comes next.

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Two

Well, I'm enjoying the last day of my vacation right now after a week off of work.  My in-laws came up from Georgia to stay with us for a week, so there hasn't been much sewing going on lately.  I did, however, manage to make the second block from the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery BOM today after they left to stay with more family this afternoon.

Isn't this santa hat cute?  I think it's adorable.  I'm really loving these blocks.  I can't wait for the next one.    This is going to be such a great quilt.

I've got a busy week ahead of me with work, but hopefully I'll be able to get some more sewing in soon.  I'd like to begin working on machine quilting one of my many unfinished tops soon.