Mystery Solved

I have finished my Yankee Pride Fall 2009 Mystery quilt!  I feel like I have had a very productive President's Day around here.  I have put on the 3 borders and completed the backing.  I had to piece it because I wanted to use what I already had in my stash. 

The next mystery series starts in 2 weeks.  Whew, piecing done just in time.  Now, I have to focus on getting quilts done this year, not just piecing the top. 

Well, that is it for today.  I will be back soon.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day.  This is what I have made for my sweetheart(s).  The cookies that still need filling will get either raspberry filling or black cherry filling.  Both of these are favorites of my husand.  The others with the sprinkles are form my son.

The next thing I have to share is the Yankee Pride Fall 2009 Mystery quilt.  Next weekend is our reunion where we bring our completed tops and see how different they all look.  It is the big reveal.  That meant it was time for met to get cracking on this.  I haven't touched this since December.  Here is the top put together.  This quilt is for my husband.  I haven't made him a quilt in a very long time, he was due.

Here are the inner and outer border laid out.  I hope to get to that tomorrow since I am lucky enough to get President's Day as a holiday.  Wohoo!!!

Next up, my February assignment for the Star Crazy quilt that I am doing.  I love how this looks already.  The colors are a lot of fun.  The one inch squares were not even a pain to work with, I was worried about all of them when I was reading the directions.

And my final picture is of a new reading or TV watching area that we have created in the master bedroom.  Moving the furniture around turned into a painting project too.  The color is very similiar to what we had before, but a little darker shade.  I really love how this has turned out.  New paint, new book shelf (kind of hidden by the chair), and new chair.  Today we finally hung the pictures up.  Only took us five years of living in this house!  The only thing I still need to get is a floor lamp so I can see to read or stitch at night.

Well, that is all I have for now.  I will update with pictures of the borders on the mystery quilt when they are done.  Time to settle in and watch some Olympics. We were very excited to see a Vermonter win the first USA gold last night!  Go team!!

Woodchuck Day - In Vermont at least

Woodchuck Day for Vermonters, that is what the Governor said.  The press release from Gov. Jim Douglas today was "Vermont Governor vetoes Punxsutawney Phil's forecast - says VT woodchucks confirm 12 more weeks of winter."  Nothing like dashing a girls hopes.  Well, I guess that just means more time to sew without a worry of it getting to hot to even think if quilts.

On that nice wintery note, I was able to work on the quilt I have been making for a friend of mine.  Her husband has been deployed to Afghanistan.  I really wanted to do something for her and her girls.  I thought a comfy place to snuggle together might help this next year pass just a little more quickly.  

This was a pattern that I found at the Moda Bake Shop.  A FREE pattern to boot.  The directions were very easy to follow and I am very pleased with the outcome.  I was able to give it to my friend this morning. She was very surprised and I got a big hug, a very nice way to start the day.

The only other news around these parts is the twins that we have been awaiting at work arrived 1/25/2010.  A boy and a girl, everyone is healthy and happy.  Ah.....baby watch over, quilts DONE.  Wait just a minute....that was on Monday, on Wednesday we found out another woman in our group is going to have a baby in August!!  Yep, another baby quilt to get cracking on. 

Well, since it is Februray I need to get my thoughts together for the next installment of The Quilt Show BOM that I am working on.  Stay tuned for an update, hopefully next weekend with those blocks.

Star Crazy - Month 1 Done

Today I took advantage of the freezing cold tempatures outside, to stay inside and quilt!  I have gotten the first month of the Star Crazy blocks done.  This is the first of the 12 months for a block of the month from The Quilt Show that have decided to do.  Yea, like I really needed another project. 

I really love the bright colors so far.  The blocks this month were two 8" stars that will go in the center and six 6" stars for one of the boarders.

I have also started another quilt.  This one is for a friend at work.  Her husband has just deployed to Afghanastan today for a year.  She has two little girls and a more than full time job.  Her husand is also a co-worker of mine.  I have been trying to think of something that I can do for them to give them some support during this difficult time.  I thought a good start would be a quilt.  I hope that this can provide some comfort for them during the next year.  Maybe a place for them to snuggle at the end of a day. 

Kristin

How about a look at a few quilts I have been working on while absent from my blog? 

2009 seemed to be a baby boom at work.  Here are the last two baby quilts for the year.  A co-worker and good friend is having twins!  A boy and a girl, they should be making their arrival by the end of the month.  Knowing my friends tastes, I really didn't want to make the quilts using the typical baby fabrics.  Instead I decided to use bali fabrics in a traditional block.   I used the same pattern for both the boy and the girl quilts.  I really like how they turned out.  Hope the babies do too!

The other top that I have been able to get together was the Fall Mystery quilt from Yankee Pride, my local quilt store.  This is for my son and he picked out a lot of the fabric.  I have to say, by the time I was done with this I had seen enough orange to last me quite a while.  He loves it which is what is important.  Now I just need to get it quilted.

Well, that is all for tonight. 

Kristin

Happy New Year - 2010

Well, it is high time that my unplanned and extended absence from my blog end. What better time to get back in gear but a new year. I have been plugging away on projects even though I haven't updated the blog. I will get caught up on pictures over the next month.

So here is what I do have for recent updates. First, I have used the holiday break to clean and re-organized my stash. Here is my closet now. I didn't take a before picture, but this is much nicer...trust me.

Now that my stash is in order I can work on finishing projects that are in the works. I am also starting a new project. The Quilt Show offers a block of the month project to its members each year. This year there are two free BOM projects, one pieced and one applique. While I love both of them, I am going to make the pieced quilt called Star Crazy. I have seen this mentioned on some other blogs today too! Cactus Needle and Canton Village Quilt Works both have great posts about the BOM if you are curious to see more. I was able to get some time today to sew. Oh right, that is because we have gotten 30 inches of snow in the last 24 hours!!!

So what does our yard look like with the greatest single snow fall on record? That is saying something considering we live in Northern Vermont. This was first thing this morning.

And this was at about 4 pm. Yes, it is STILL snowing.

Quite a birthday present for me. Oh, really mother nature, you shouldn't have!

Well that is it for now. It is nice to be back.

Kristin

VQF

I can't believe that VQF has come and gone already. I really enjoyed it as I always do. I feel like I have really gotten a creative boost just viewing all of the beautiful quilts.

This was the Best of Show.....words can not even begin to describe the workmanship of this beauty. This was from a special exhibit, the thread work was AMAZING. There was also a VQF shop hop quilt from the vendors that were there. Although I had no intention of participating as of the first day, by the second day I was buying the blocks. Well, for a change I actually jumped right into this and as of about 30 minutes ago, all 12 blocks are put together! This is my favorite block. This was from Mary K. Ryan. The instructions were great and went together very nicely. Love this one! I was also lucky enough to take a class again this year. On tap this year was hand applique with Becky Goldsmith of Piece O'Cake fame. This was the best quilt related class I have ever taken. Here is the quilt the block we worked on is from. The individual squares are only 8 inches in total, so a lot of teeny tiny pieces. I managed getting a stem and a leaf done. Now I will have to stick to it and keep practicing.

Well that is it for today. Keep cool and enjoy the summer days.