Countdown to Christmas QAL--My advent calendar

 

Here it is!  My advent calendar I made with the Countdown to Christmas QAL.  I think it turned out so cute.  It helps when you really like the fabrics you used.  'In from the cold' charm pack plus a fabric sample of another cute fabric line--I can't remember what it was called, but it had the Santa, little cardinals, and the words all in it. 

 

 

I added another pocket for Christmas day.  It made sense to me, but apparently it's against the norm when it comes to Advent calendars.  That's just how I roll.  I guess!  That pocket is a special shimmery gold fabric. 

 

I did pebble quilting, but added a feathered cross.  For us, that is the reason for the season!  As for the pockets, I am copying several of Janice's activity-based ideas, along with a few little books and prizes I found at the Target dollar bin.  And there will be chocolate in there too!  My kiddo is not quite 2, so I want to keep it fun for the whole family, but not too candy-focused.  The kid is still demanding he have his Halloween candy- which is pretty much gone except for the things that are too hard for him to eat.  We kept it "hidden" on top of the fridge, but he knows it's there and points to it and whines "tanny!!"  I hope the calendar doesn't encourage the same behavior.  We'll see!

 

For the numbers, I used the font Plantagenet Cherokee in size 225 and bold. I just printed out 0-9 and cut them out and traced them (backwards) onto the backside my felt which I had ironed on my fusible webbing. Then, I just cut them out-very carefully- and ironed them on. I considered stitching around them, but decided I could get by without the extra effort. I can always hand stitch around them later if I really wanted to. Or glue them down if they come off. I figured it's only getting 'used' for 25 days out of the year, it won't get worn out too quickly...

 

I found this striped binding at my LQS.  I had to do a Google search to figure out how to cut it on the bias.  It was pretty simple to do.  Thanks to Janice and Melissa for organizing this QAL.  I'm so glad I participated.  One item on my holiday bucket list is forever crossed off!

 

And here are my November blocks for my do. Good Stitches group.  This block is called Arkansas Traveler. 

Star Value--Do. Good Stitches Haven Group Quilt

It's finished!  This is the September quilt for my Do. Good Stitches Haven group.  I had each member make a block from Melissa's Star Value tutorial.  Yep, it's all made from one block!  

First of all- I'm so jealous of everyone else's fabrics!  There are lots of neat and vibrant colors and prints in here.  You could sit under it for hours looking at each one.  

And I must say that everyone did such a great job piecing.  I only had maybe a couple spots where I had trouble matching corners.  That's pretty good for having 10 different people working on a project!

As you can see- I had fun custom quilting it too!  In each star is a geometric design.  Each gray diamond is zig-zag meandered around and inside is a loop design.  Then in the light area I kept it simple with a meander and a flower here and there in the larger areas.  

The label.  We have fancy custom printed labels to put on our quilts.  The binding fabric I bought on a whim on a "end of the bolt" sale.  I knew it would make great binding fabric and looked the best with this quilt out of all the other fabrics I auditioned.  

I'm going to hate to see this quilt go.  I really love it.  And some friends who saw me working on it loved it too and wanted the link to the pattern.  

The back is a vintage sheet I had picked up at a yard sale this summer.  It was a bit of a buggar to hand bind through this thing.  I had to come up with a make-shift leather thimble--a piece from an old purse I had laying around.  (See that's why you keep junk like that around!)  That helped out a lot, but it still took longer than usual to get it bound.  

Ooh. 

Pretty!

I want to give a special Big Thanks to Jessica who helped me finish this quilt.  This quilt is going to a Women's Shelter in Rochester New York.  I hope whoever is the recipient loves this quilt as much as I do!

Linking up to Finish it Friday.  

A Quilt For Teresa

 

This quilt has a bit of a story behind it.  It was made by my Mom, sister and me for our friend Teresa.  You see, she willingly hosts all of us for sewing weekends and feeds us too.  She has a great home with plenty of bedrooms and a large sewing space where we can spread out and take over the place.  And since my family is spread across the state, her house is a great central location for all of us to meet at.  She also likes giving away her scraps from her overflowing bin.  We thought it would be funny to make a quilt out of all the scraps she has given us.  So we did! 

 

It's actually not 100% all her fabric, we had to make several additions from our own stashes.  It might actually be more like 50%...  The pattern is from a magazine.  Maybe Fons and Porter, I can't remember.  We used a packet of Thangles to make the HST, which worked out pretty slick! 

 

And I did another all-over spineless funky feather on it! 

 

A quilt back in the sun.  I'm pretty sure Teresa loves it!  Thanks for being such an excellent hostess!  Now, when are you going to have us over again?!

NCAA Women's Final 4 T-shirt quilt

 

This is the first in a 3 part T-shirt quilt series from Gloria.  Every year for the past several years her and her daughters make a voyage to the Women's College Basketball Final Four tournament.  The past few years they made a point to each get a shirt for each team in order to eventually make quilts out of them.  Gloria has finally acquired enough shirts, so they will each get a quilt this year for Christmas.  How neat!  She even made one block with pictures of them all on it.  (top left corner)

 

 

 

We decided to go with an all-over design and go around each shirt design customary.

 

 

Since this print was more of a funky vibe, I did swirls and triangles with a star here and there.

 

I have already completed the other two quilts she made, but since my camera died, I didn't get any pictures of them. :(  Oh well.  Some of the shirts were the same, but she used different fabrics for the borders and sashings.  Thanks for having me quilt your special gifts Gloria!

Katie's Kaffe lattice

 

My sister made this one from one of Kaffe Fasset's books.  And she used mostly Kaffe prints, but several are not.  Isn't it neat?

 

 

I quilted free-form spineless funky feathers all over it.  In a sage green thread.  They are pretty fun to do.  Great for the times when you don't know what to do, or can't make up your mind.  Just do a feather with a little bit of everything!

 

 

You can see the completely finished quilt on her flickr page. 

 

 

Ta Da!

 

She used a buttery yellow flat sheet for the back.  Sheets make such a nice, soft backing.  Plus, the quilting really shows up nice on a light solid back too. 

Blue and Yellow Twister

 

 

Norene made this Twister quilt.  She has become quite addicted to the twister pattern.  She has a few more in the works.  Can you blame her?  This one is very striking!

 

 

In the center I did a swirl with leaves? blades? fire? pointy feathers? echoed around them. 

 

 

And see how in corporated those swirl and feather design elements into my borders.  Yep, I really did learn a thing or two in my quilting classes.  ;)

 

I always appreciate a photo of how quilt designs round the corners.  So here's a corner shot.  Even though it's a little blurry.