Progress, at last

I'm happy to report that I am finally making progress on Sylvie's Christmas stocking (albeit, a little late for Christmas... this year).  I ordered some more fabric, as the green fabric is still hiding from me somewhere in my house. The front is fully pieced and cut, I just need to pick a fabric to line it, and then I can actually put it together.

Almost a ready-to-sew stocking!

I also got the fat quarter bundle of "Mediterranean Dream" to make a quilt for my sister.

I'm going to do a simple patchwork quilt (just squares), so I cut the fabric to 7" squares. I cut the usable scraps to 4" squares to use when piecing the back. I think I'm going to do two rows of squares separated by 4" of backing about 1/3 of the way down the quilt. I like playing with the backing. Since I don't (yet) do anything fancy with the front, or the quilting, the back seems like the little touch that makes it feel more handmade and unique - you don't tend to get touches like that with store bought quilts.

I keep thinking I should play more with the quilt blocks on the front - try for an actual pattern, but I keep just wanting to do squares. I think it's because I keep picking fabric that I just want to show off. Plus I like the look of simple patchwork. I'm planning on making my mom a quilt next for her birthday, and she picked out a fat quarter bundle that is much more muted. So that may be the project to try something beyond squares. Since I don't want to ruin it or get in over my head, I'm thinking I might try something like this:

Possible pattern for my next quilt!

Time for new projects!

Now that the craziness of the holidays are over, I'm itching for a new project again. I've been using my "Oh Deer" quilt as a blanket for the baby to play on the floor on, so at some point I want to create another quilt for our living room (to actually stay warm under).  But, in the mean-time, I'm going to work on some present quilts. I ordered a fat quarter pack that I think fits the color scheme my sister likes:

I also kind of like that it's titled "Mediterranean Dream" since we're part Greek. I'm going to make an afghan-sized quilt for her living room. Hopefully, I will be able to finish this in time for her birthday in March (at least that's the plan).

I still haven't been able to find this plain green fabric that I bought to finish Sylvie's Christmas stocking. So, while I was ordering fabric, I also ordered some Christmas fabric to finish that project. The good news is the fabric I ordered is from the same collection that I used for her stocking and it was on sale.  I think it will actually look nicer than the plain green anyway!

Hopefully that project will be finished now before next Christmas.

More updates to come soon!

Christmas Stocking Debacle

The "kit" Christmas stocking I purchased wound up being a debacle and a half. I started working on it and within 3 hours I was maybe 5% done. Clearly, this was not the project for me, given my impatience with detail oriented work. It required sewing quite a few small pieces together and many many beads and sequence on the small pieces. I probably should have realized that simply from the picture of the stocking...

Seriously, who looks at this and thinks, "Oh, that's an easy project for an afternoon?"

So, I've given up on that project. I'm instead going to quilt her a stocking, which is something I actually can fit into an afternoon.  I bought a charm pack of Kate Spain's "Joy" and some green fabric for the lining. 

I have a rough quilt together for the front of the stocking (not cut into stocking shape yet), but I seem to have misplaced the plain green fabric I bought for the back and lining. I remember folding it up and putting it somewhere, like on a shelf or something, and thinking, "that's a good place, I won't lose it then."  Clearly that was a brilliant thought. It's been missing for three weeks. I will update again if I ever find this fabric to complete the stocking!  In the meantime, for Christmas, I stuffed the vintage stocking I made earlier in December for Sylvie (my baby girl).  She didn't have an opinion about the stocking, but thought the Fisher Price "Cell phone" that came out of it was really cool.

Way cooler than a quilted stocking.