Cheers to the New Year

With everyone doing dry January I figured this was the perfect time to focus on my Drinks quilt.  

I joined the Drink Quilt Along hosted by Seamlessly Stephanie back in August but the QAL sort of fizzled out along with my enthusiasm.  If you know me IRL you know I have a "special cup" for each of my different drink choices and I rarely go anywhere with out drink in my hand so this was a fun way to commemorate all my favorites.  I'd also dipped in to my "precious" stash for some of the early blocks so I was highly motivated to not let this one totally fall by the wayside.  It was so much fun digging thru my beloved Lilly Pulitzer fabrics and other faves to find something perfect for each block.  

At this point I've got 24 blocks which seems like a good number for a quilt.  Some of these whipped up really quickly, other's not so much.  It was definitely a challenge since there's no set pattern so I was using blocks from multiple designers.  Clicking the image will take you to the pattern for each block.  For some of them I adapted the design to get the effect I wanted and I did some scaling to get the sizes to work.  It was a lot of fun but reminded my why I rarely do paper piecing.  

We'll see how long it takes me to pick out my cornerstones and get this top together.  Until then, cheers to making it thru January!

2021 Year in Review

2021 by the numbers...

1 quilt, 1 pillow, and 1 table runner.

 175 hours on Duolingo.

108 books read.  Best of the bunch: The Secret Life of Addie Larue, Too Good to Be True, and For Your Own Good.

Like almost everyone, my year can best be described as languishing.  I didn't accomplish much in any area of my life but there's always hope for the new year.  May you be safe and live happily.

Super Star

It took me all year but I finally have a finished quilt.  This is my oldest UFO, a BOM I started back in the late 90s. I finished all the blocks more or less on time but they had been sitting in a box ever since waiting for me to put it all together.  This summer I finally pulled out the blocks and stitched them together and encouraged by Feel Good Fibers Declutter to Destash challenge I added this to the stack to drop off to be quilted.

The real star of this show is my amazing friend RebeccaLorenQuilts, her quilting took this one into the stratosphere!  

She turned this around in less than a week and I was able to slap the binding on (thank you to past me for being considerate enough to make a binding so I was ready to go:-)  Even better I had enough room in my suitcase to bring this one with me on vacation.

We had a Christmas movie marathon and I was able to tack the binding down and finally call this one done.

But seriously, that quilting!!!

It's interesting to finish a 20 year old quilt.  My sewing skills have definitely improved over the last two decades.  This is something I'd never make today but I'm thrilled with it now that it's done and happily it's going to a good home where it will be appreciated.  What's the oldest UFO you've ever finished?

Quilt Stats:

Finished quilt is 70" x 70"
Pattern:  Galaxy of Stars BOM by Jinny Beyer
Fabrics: Jinny Beyer Collection 
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient

Quilted by: the utterly amazing Rebecca Loren

Bringing the Holiday Cheer

One of my favorite things to make and gift are cocktail napkins.  Who isn't thrilled by a cute set of napkins and a bottle of booze?  

For my first set I went with my tried and true self binding napkin tutorial with this adorable pineapple fabric I had in my stash.

I've used a ton of different techniques for making napkins but this time I wanted to experiment with decorative edges.  I started with using ric-rac with this Cotton + Steel cocktail fabric.  

I found it worked best to baste my ric-rac in place before making the fabric sandwich and stitching around the 4 sides leaving a hole for turning.  Once I flipped them right sides out I just top stitched around the edge.

With that success I used the same technique with this pom-pom trim.  I made these specifically to gift but now I want to keep them for myself! 

The best part is crafting all the cocktail themed photo shoots to get the perfect shot;-)  Cheers to a festive holiday season!

Cozied Up

 

I love a good cozy so when a good friend of me asked if I would make her some bowl cozies as a holiday gift of course I said yes.  

I used this microwaveable bowl cozy tutorial from American Patchwork & Quilting and in no time I had my first set.  

I liked them so much I decided another friend, who hadn't actually asked for any, needed some too.  Obviously I really like her because I dipped into my stash of precious Amy Butler for these ones.

These are a great way to bust stash and also a fabulous way to use up all those leftover batting ends so I kept going and made another set for myself.

And then Audrey saw them and decided she needed to get in on the game for her new apartment.  One of her favorite things to make is molten chocolate lava cakes so I decided to try making a smaller ramekin sized version.  I fiddled with the sizing and finally had a successful prototype.

So Audrey ended up with a double stack for her and her roomies.  22 cozies later I think I'm done...  at least for now.  We'll see who else gets handmade gifts this year.  How are your holiday makes going?

Thankful for a Finish

I'm all about taking a small win any way I can get one these days!  While I had no real need to finish this pillow, I put it high on my WIP list from the Declutter to Destash challenge because I knew it was something I could easily knock out in a few hours.

I made this as a test block before cutting in to my carefully horded bundle of Malibu.  I've learned many times over that this step is crucial to my future happiness and sanity.  In this case I also used it to take a test drive of my new toy, a ViviLux laser guide.  I'd read several review of quilters who love this for making HSTs since it eliminates the need for marking your squares.  Sadly, I'm just not a fan.  Perhaps the issue was that I didn't want to apply the hook and loop tape to my machine to hold it in place and just used masking tape.  I found the flexible cord a bit too flexible and susceptible to getting knocked out of alignment as a result of my clumsiness or just the machine's vibration.  I also originally planned to use it with 10" layer cake squares but the line isn't long enough to reach both corners of the square.  Ultimately, I flexed my declutter muscles and donated this.  

I was so excited I finished this block I didn't even notice that I'd rotated the corner HST until after I'd shared it.  I could have kept it and called it a humility block but that's not how I roll so I grabbed the seam ripper and fixed it.

With holiday stress mounting (my refrigerator died exactly 1 week before Thanksgiving) I decided to spend a few hours in my studio for some easy stress relief sewing.  I went with a lazy meander which was done in no time.

I even won this round of thread chicken:-)

It should have been so easy to use my favorite s.o.t.a.k handmade zipper tutorial and finish the pillow cover.  Apparently I'm really out of practice and forgot to open the zipper before sewing around the 4 sides and further compounded the problem by trimming the ends of the zipper including the pull.  

I took a (cocktail) break and with a bit of googling was able to find this awesome fork hack for fixing a zipper.  In no time I was able to pop the seam and guide the zipper pull back on to the zipper.  I lost a bit of my point on that side but I had a functional pillow cover and I love how fabulous it looks with the rest of my Sunny Isle collection.

We're having a low-key Thanksgiving with friends this year so I'm hoping I'll have time to start on my holiday makes.  My heartfelt thanks to everyone who's still reading along.  I wish you a healthy and happy holiday!!!

Quilt Stats:
Finished pillow is 18"x18"
Pattern: Joyful by Tasha Noel
Fabrics: Sunny Isle bundle by Jennifer Paganelli for Free Spirit, Bella Solids in Ash.  Michael Miller Cotton Couture: Flower.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: 50wt Aurifil in  Arctic Sky (2612).