Happy 2013!

The end of 2012 is kind of a blur!  I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, but I did a few extra things that made it okay to not finished what I had planned.  Namely, making these pillow cases to send to students of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

I found out about this on Flickr, but a quilt shop in Connecticut started this pillow case drive, and I jumped on board!  The Flickr group that I originally heard about this from is responsible for probably...well, I don't know how many.  But the quilt shop received pillow cases from all over the world!  They had to get the word out for people to stop sending them!  Over 6,000 altogether - that's pretty amazing!  I hope Newtown and the school realizes how much the world is behind them...is thinking about them, praying for them, and loving them.

As far as Christmas gifts go, I made a couple for my niece and nephew.  First up, I made a pillow cover for my nephew's travel pillow.  They take lots of road trips, so he actually uses his pillow a lot.  He's way into Lego Star Wars, so I found some flannel Lego Star Wars fabric for the cover.  I quilted it, and put in some piping and a zipper to make it a little fancier.  I have to tell myself that 10 year old boys, don't really care about fancy kind of things, so I tried to keep it simple, but wanted to add a few extras to it.  So here he is with his pillow.

My niece is really into dolls these days.  For my birthday last year, my husband got me the Wee Wonderfuls book full of beautiful dolls to make.  I chose to make her "Patchwork Penny" (but didn't have time to make the patchwork quilt to go with her...I'll have to do that later).  I tried to make her resemble my niece as much as possible, so I gave her blonde hair and brown eyes.  I also added in some freckles, because my niece has the most adorable freckles on her cheeks.  The freckles turned out a little wonky, but I guess that's okay.  And I gave her a green dress, because Jessica's favorite color is green.

Unfortunately, Jessica picked up a stomach bug on their Christmas vacation.  Here she is sleeping with her new doll, while recovering.  While I'm not glad my sweet little niece was sick, I am glad Penny gave her some comfort!

I also made some mug rugs for my oldest daughter's teachers.  I used this wonderful Paper Pieced Apple pattern by Charise Creates, along with some polka dots, Dick and Jane, and Punctuation fabric.

I realized after we gave them to the teachers, that I didn't take proper pictures of them - just these I put on Instagram.  Oops!

That was it for Christmas sewing!  I was supposed to make two more dolls from the book for my girls, but it just didn't happen.  As I realized my time was running out, I decided that they would be getting plenty of gifts anyway, so I can save the dolls for later.  My new deadline for them is Valentine's Day.

The New Year came, and I got swept up in the Scrappy Trip Along Mania that took over Instagram!  I just couldn't resist the idea of making something all for myself!  And the blocks were super fun to make!  I started out making 4 blocks every day.  Then one day, I made 9.  And the last two days I made 5 each day. I have a total of 30 blocks, and I am so in love with this quilt!

I started the quilting on it, but had to stop due to some tension issues with my machine.  Before I even started the quilting on it, I thought how much fun it would be to use a long arm on it (I got spoiled after making the quilt for John and Sarah).  I had to just step away from the quilt, but I took it with me to the ECMQG meeting this past Saturday, and our new president, Marcy, offered to let me use her long arm.  I'll definitely be taking her up on that offer in the very near future!

I also worked on a QuiltCon Charity Quilt for our guild.  We attempted to do it travelling quilt style, but it didn't go quite as I expected.  Instead of the quilt top growing as it went from person to person, we ended up with a lot of blocks.  By the time it got to me (I was last on the list), I was given two big pieces that were already sewn together, and about 5 other blocks.  As I was laying them out, trying to figure out how to put it altogether, I realized that I could just make one long strip, and then add fabric to the sides.  So regardless of the traveling quilt confusion, though, I am really, really happy with the quilt top, which I finished at our Sew Day on Saturday.  Our members added quite a few blocks that I'm totally in love with!

Marcy will be quilting this on her long arm, just like she did for our other Charity Quilt, and Kathleen will be binding it - again, just like she did for the other one.  I'm excited to see this completed!

I hope your New Year is off to a good start!  My sewing resolution for 2013 is to take it easier.  Make things because I want to make them - not because I feel like I have to.  What about you?