My Valentine's Gift

For my sister's 30th bithday, I made her a bright floral lap quilt. I had some leftover floral fabric strips, so I put them together into a quilt for myself. That was circa August 2007. Fast forward eighteen months... and I've finished my own quilt!




This was my own Valentine's Day treat to myself! I finished the front borders and backing the week before V-day. During the work week leading up to V-day, I did some quilting and binding. Valentine's Day was spent finishing my binding and quilting! I got to pop it in the washer and dryer on the 15th... and snuggle up with the wonderful, cozy, crinkly-ness that night, while watching my favorite Sunday night show.




I've learned so much while making this quilt! I'm no longer afraid to machine quilt. I don't think I'll go back to the days of yarn-tying large quilts. I haven't mastered free motion quilting, but I can do wavy lines! And that's good enough for me.

Row Round Robin Swap

Any quilters out there interested in a Row Round Robin Swap? Enjoying Life's Journey is hosting and there is still another week left to sign up!

I was the first to sign up. I can't wait! Now I just have to decide on the general idea of what I want it to look like. I love Diane's bright row quilt, each with different block types. Of course, I could always do a theme. Christmas or Cowboys?

Doll Quilt - Parts 1 & 2

Did you see the Doll Quilt Sew Along at Sew Mama Sew? SMS's Doll Quilt looked sew cute... that I decided to sew along!

Here are my squares....



Part 2 was about embellishments. I don't know anything about embroidery... and I don't think my quilt needs any extra embellishments. Those skulls do enough! I've basted the quilt and sewn it together. Update next week when I quilt and bind!

Wedding Album

For my cousin's 2006 wedding, my gift was a wedding scrapbook.




2 years and 4 months later... I FINALLY finished! I loved being able to give them this book. They got their wedding album as a Christmas gift this past year.









It turned out great, but I am never going to do that for a friend or family member again! It was so much work and so stressful. How would I know if they liked what I was doing? Getting all the digital photos from their family and friends turned our to be more difficult than I had originally imagined. Not to mention printing the images and organizing the photos. I think I would have felt more confident in my work if we lived closer to one another and the bride could see the work as it was being done. But she lives 1100 miles away and we only got to talk about design on the phone.

Anyway, they loved it! I'm so happy to have gotten it finished. :)

200 Meters

Last night I finished putting together the quilt... front & back!



This morning I began machine quilting it. I bought two spools of extra strong thread in gray, to match the front and back fabrics. Extra strong thread only came in 100 meter spools, so I bought two. That should've been enough -- or so I thought!



I'm out of thread. Conflicting thoughts. Do I run back to Joann's for more thread or let it be? Decisions, decisions. I'm so anxious to get started on the binding!

Disappearing Saturday

Today I'm working on a few disappearing nine patch squares for the back of a quilt.

Prepping for the game

Lemon Bars are in the oven. Caramel Popcorn is cooling on the stove.

Looking forward to the big game tonight! Go Cards! Go Steelers! I don't care who wins... I'm just looking forward to delicious eats and good company.