Some quick zipper pouches

During the snow storm on Sunday, I whipped up a couple of zipper pouches. They were super simple. Next time I will probably take a few photos and put up a tutorial.

 These are specifically so that little hands that dig through my purse looking for Goldfish don't find my female products and make up! But you could easily re-size these for anything. They might be a little addicting to make.

On a personal note, we made settlement on our new house on Thursday. Now the big/long move starts! I think it's going to take us the whole month to get this one done.

Have a happy New Year's Eve everyone!

My 2011 goals and intentions

Since 2011 is almost here and I have a million crafty ideas swirling around in my brain, I thought I'd try to get a list together of my quilt goals for the coming year. I also compiled a list of all my finished projects for 2010. There is a link at the top of the page or you can go here to see it. Here is what I have in mind for the new year.

1. We are moving to a new house so curtains will be at the top of the list.

 (not sure what happened to the first picture, but I can't get it to show up!)

2. Step out of my comfort zone and do new things!  I have already set this one in motion by joining a couple of swaps: The Make Mine Modern swap and the Spicing up the Kitchen swap. Very excited about these!
And then I joined a short bee called the 3x6 Sampler Bee. You make only 6 blocks instead of 12. I figure this will be a good way to get a taste of online bees. I think sign ups are still open for all of these if you are interested in joining me.

3. Make stuff from the books I have. This may sound silly, but I have gotten quite a few books and somehow I keep getting so much inspiration from the internet and making those projects instead.

4. I love string block quilts and really want to tackle one this year. This may be a two-fer because there is a pattern for string block quilts in The Practical Guide to Patchwork.

5. I'd like to attempt a Cathedral Windows Pillow

6. A King size quilt for our new bed
7. A twin/full quilt for my daughters new big girl bed.
8. I'd like to continue to try and come up with my own patterns more.

I think that's a pretty ambitious list for now. And I'm sure it will grow as the year goes on. What do you have planned for the new year?

Sophisticated Baby

I finished off my Sophisticated Baby quilt. Okay, I seriously need to cut my threads better before I take photos. I ran out to photograph this as the snow was starting to fall. I wanted to get pictures before we get the foot of snow or so that they are calling for.

The main fabrics used were McKenzie by Dena Designs. Then I added some additional fabric lines to mix it up. I'm really happy with how elegant the quilt came out. I have a pregnant mamma in mind for this one. I just hope she's having a girl. She doesn't do the cutesy baby stuff and I think she would love this.

I tried my hand at some free-motion quilting within the squares and did little hearts. (ugh - again with the threads!!)

I backed it with some Innocent Crush to break up the girly pink.  You can really see the hearts on the back.
Some basic stats:

Quilt name: Sophisticated Baby

Pattern: Park Lane by Bunny Hill Designs

Some of the fabrics: McKenzie, Innocent Crush, Snow Crystal, Robert Kaufman Basics, Le Jardin de Papillion

Measurements: 52"x52"

Started: 12/13/10

Finished: 12/23/10

I won a giveaway!

 A bit thank you to Tammy for having her Sew Mama Sew Giveaway. I actually won and I just received all this great stuff from her right before Christmas. 

There was also a Michael Miller charm pack and she allowed me to pick a yard of fabric or a charm pack from her shop. I got the Opal Owl Charm pack. I'm still totally into owls and the colors in this one are so fun! Check her out, she's got some great stuff!

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Have a wonderful Christmas weekend!

card by tinyprints.com

WIP Wednesday and another question

The machine is going in to be looked at this morning. I'm hoping they don't have to keep it. But I guess if they do it won't be so bad. I can pack up my house instead. After all, we are moving in a week or 2. whoops.

Quilting has begun on this baby quilt. I'm loving how sophisticated it is! Though at 52x52 I think this is the largest baby quilt I've ever done.

I'm collecting fabrics for my daughter's first big girl bed. The Vive La France line from Monaluna has definitely been my inspiration fabric. I have 2 pieces of furniture in her room with french poodles and the Eiffel Tour so these were a no brainer! And my argyle pillow was done to coordinate with these.

I'm going to have to name these posts Just Wondering Wednesday since I always seem to have a question. How do you buy your batting? 

Because that baby quilt is so large, I pieced together some batting to fit it. You can see in the above picture where it's pieced.  Do you do this with your smaller pieces? I tend to buy my batting when it's on sale and I guess I picked up a couple that were supposed to be for "baby quilts". At 35x45, they aren't very big. I don't have room really to buy a big bolt of batting. What do you do? Buy as you need? Stockpile large sizes?

Argh! My machine

Okay I need to vent to people who understand!! My sewing machine is giving me problems again. I just had it in for service over Thanksgiving. It's now running very loud and my top thread keeps breaking. Aurefil again.

I've got to take it back in for service again. This machine is only a year old. What gives? Am I using it too much?! It's a Bernina 230. What kind of machine do you have? Do you like it, have you had problems? I can't get another machine already. Please tell me this is a blip and my machine will be fine. I'm already having withdrawal and I just put it away 15 minutes ago.