Goodbye 2012 and all my UFOs

I have to say I'm not really sad 2012 will soon be behind me. If you've followed me, you will know that the end of 2011 and 2012 have been by far the most difficult year of my entire life with the loss of both of my parents, particularly the loss of my Mom which was very tragic and devastating. The fall out after her loss with the parties involved have challenged me both personally and professionally. However, I feel I am making headway with the latter and so my new life has begun. I look forward to new beginnings on so many levels and I crave some "down" time. Things like sewing for fun again, knitting again, making things for my family....travelling in the new year, family time, fun stuff:) What I like about blogging is that sometimes it helps me to keep accountable. I don't even want to confess how many UFO's I have or how big my stash continues to grow. So, I need to stop buying, finish my UFOs and just keep a list of favourite things to make "someday." I don't know about you but I get overwhelmed with all of the things I'd like to do and then don't get around to finish things I've started! Bad! Bad! Bad:) So, I'm confessing to you now....here's a list of things that I need to finish in the New Year! Scrappy Circles Quilt (need a pieced back for it):

Jelly Roll Quilt(again need another back):

Beach Quilt:

DS Spools Quilt:

Waverunner Quilt (for my husband) which was part of the Unscripted Bee I belonged to:

Drunk Love Quilt I started way too long ago and still have more to complete:( I do absolutely love it though:) And who can forget this quilt top I made several years ago....now I'm getting embarrassed! My string quilt: My orange and aqua quilt: Not to mention my knitting UFOs....aghhhh In the interest of "coming clean," this poncho was originally a 6-12 month size that I finished last year but then it was a little too short on my daughter so I needed to redo the bottom by lengthening it.....and now Miss P is two!!! I still have a cowl for me that has been on the needles since our trip to Florida last February, etc. etc. Pheww....now I feel better...the cat is out of the bag!! Now, that I've told you I'll have to think about getting these UFOs finished right?! Did I mention that I went to my local yarn shop today and bought some new alpaca wool to make some fingerless mittens for my stepson's girlfriend and that my four year is still waiting for me to finish her little knitted hippo that I started in August of this year?! So, like I said, 2013 is a New Year full of promise:) Thanks for stopping by and I hope your New Year brings you lots of finished UFOs, good health, peace and happiness! Okay, here's a list of some things I did complete....and feel good about:) (don't know why the Mosaic isn't showing but oh well the links are there if you're interested) 1. "Scrappy Shoo Fly"-PTS9, 2. Simple Modern Baby Quilt, 3. Pumpkin Hat-Age 4, 4. Urban Baby Cable Beanie, 5. Pouches, pouches & more pouches, 6. Other side of pouch, 7. Urban Baby Chinstrap Beanie; Newborn Photo Prop, 8. Urban Baby Pixie Hat-Newborn Photo prop-Newborn-3 Months, 9. Urban Baby Flower Beanie-Newborn Size-Detachable Fabric flower, 10. Quilt Con Block Challenge, 11. Baby in the Hood Jacket, 12. My First Pillowcase!, 13. Hello Kitty Dress- OwlyBaby Pattern (4 yrs)-"Betsy Pillowcase Dress", 14. Urban Baby Pixie hat, 15. Urban Baby Earflap hat, 16. Urban Baby Earflap Hat with Detachable Flower, 17. Ikea Lined Drawstring Bag, 18. Bliss Quilt Top-Scrappy Circles, 19. Sherbet Pips Jelly Roll "Race" Quilt, 20. Unscripted Bee Block; (Tara) And to my beautiful Mom....I miss you more than words can say xoxo

Merry Boxing Day:)

Hopefully you've had a wonderful holiday with your families! As a last minute finish for a preschool teacher, I whipped this up the other night. You'll have to excuse me for the bad picture but it was late at night so lighting wasn't great! I used this tutorial again as I made three more in September. Remember these?

I used linen for the bottom and some Anna Maria Horner for the main body of the pouch. What's on your to do list before the end of the year? I still have two more of these pouches and I want to make a fabric box for my daughter's room to keep the diaper supplies organized. I'm going to work on some knitting tonight....first time in a long long time!

Finally emerging....and a little Pre-Boxing Day Sale

Wow, what a year this has been.....I can't tell you how much I never want to look back at this year because there was a lot of loss and pain. However, the good news is that a lot of stressors are slowly being lifted off of me so I look forward to beginning anew in 2013! I'm blessed with my two little girls, my husband and two stepsons. I need to focus on this now more than ever:) Connecticut is just another painful reminder that what matters in this life are our relationships....and that life is so precious and fleeting! I believe that God has his plan but sometimes it's just so hard to not know what it is and to find meaning in such pain. On a happier note, I look forward to returning to quilting and knitting in my spare moments. These quiet activities give me such peace - I'm sure you can relate:) So I thought I'd celebrate this by offering all of my hats in my humble little Etsy store for $26.00 - for a pre-Boxing Day Sale! Kind of fun! Oh, and did I mention that to give myself a little present, I'm going to QuiltCon in February....need to book and all that fun stuff but just thinking about it brings a smile to my face! Happy Holidays!!!

Baby Present-Modern Blocks

Hi Everyone! Just a quick post today and need your input! I've made up this quick little modern quilt for my friend who just had a baby a few weeks ago.

I absolutely love the work of Ann StewArt so if you're on Flickr definitely check out her work! When I saw hers I fell in love and knew I wanted to make one for my friend. I didn't have a lot of time so I thought it would also be made up fairly quickly:) Thoughts on binding? I'm thinking of finishing it with Kona coal, but I've also thought of a scrappy binding using solids and also one with a print binding (Denyse Schmidt of course) in a blue/green mix. Thanks for your help!

Pumpkins.....it's that time of year!

My 4 year old, who started JK recently, was in need of a pumpkin hat to match her little sister's......so, the last few nights I worked on this:

Yeh! Mail!

These little lovelies showed up today in the mail. I honestly couldn't help myself after I saw Ashley's Chicopee Quilt.

So vibrant and modern....simply beautiful! I was inspired to buy a fat quarter bundle (which I never do) from PinkCastleFabrics and it was on sale!! Yeh! It arrived in record time which is nice living in Canada:) I especially love these two prints:

Since I'm a knitter as well, I was always curious about the "Mystery Boxes" on Craftsy (you order them on the last day of the month). So, in August, I took a chance and ordered a $50 mystery box. This is what I received:

I definitely love the needles and the Bulky yarn but I'm not sure about the sock yarn as I've never knit socks before....but maybe I'll try? Not sure. I'm still glad I took a chance and purchased mine and heh.....worst case is I trade for something different on Ravelry! (This month I'm making a conscious effort at trying to be as positive as I can be:) This past week, my oldest daughter started JK - full time, every day! Big changes! She seems to like it but the drop off is difficult for her. I wish my Mom could have been there to see her on her first day of school, but I'm sure she was watching from above!

My youngest daughter turns 22 months at the end of this month (which is unbelievable) and she is talking up a storm....forming sentences for some time and saying the cutest little things! When her sister was having a melt down the other day she said "sister crying" "sister crabby" - it honestly made me laugh and kind of stopped her sister in her tracks! They're so sweet and I remind myself on a daily basis that I am blessed to have them in my life!

Miss G found this "little wormy" at the tree planting ceremony in memory of my father this past weekend. She made him a little "home" with a leaf before we left the conservation area. She is so attached to animals/insects and she sometimes talks about being an "animal doctor." Here is a pic of Miss P on the weekend looking mischievous!

Oh, and like I needed another WIP, here is the start of a DS Spools Quilt. Have you checked out Svetlana's version? GORGEOUS! So, I started off by doing a "sort of stack and slash/improv method" to avoid having to cut out all of DS' templates. This picture is of the same "block" just turned on its side. I will be making other types of blocks but I think I like what I've come up with so far.

I think my major problem is that I love to start up lots of WIPs and then I find I have no time to complete all of them!! Crazy!! How do you manage your WIPs without becoming distracted by other possible WIPs....I swear I have "Sewist ADD" .... haha. Any tips would be appreciated!!! Have a great Tuesday!

Preschool Teacher Gifts

My daughter's last day of preschool was on Friday. Unfortunately I didn't have it all together to give her teachers a gift but thought I could make up for it this coming Tuesday:) I wanted to make something handmade but debated on whether to make them some ruffled key fobs that I saw on EmptyBobbins blog post here So on Friday while the girls were in school I set out to make up a bunch. Shea used Alex's tutorial which by the way is really cool but I just couldn't get my ruffles to come out the way I'd like them to. I have a little bit of a perfectionist streak so if I give a handmade present I want it to look as professional as it can. I even tried to hand baste the ruffle piece but inevitably when I would go to sew it on the fob with my walking foot, the spacing of the ruffles just didn't look good. Oh well....back to the drawing board. So I thought....pouches! I had seen Noodlehead's tutorial for her open wide zippered pouches and thought these would be perfect. I whipped three up over the course of yesterday afternoon and evening and am really happy with the results.

So far I've learned I like the feel and body of using fusible fleece (I did that with this one):

Don't mind this picture as it looks like the top is not even....just the way I took the photo. Here are the other two:

The last pic is one I'm still adding the finishing touches to...it needs a zipper tab

. Happy Labour Day Weekend!!

Modern Scrappy Bits Swap

I joined the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap awhile ago. For this secret swap, we were asked to make one small handmade item (either pouch or pin cushion) and to send our swap partner a fat quarter's worth of scraps. Seemed pretty easy and something I've been wanting to do! My partner didn't state a preference so I decided to make her a boxy pouch because I love them myself! I hadn't made one before so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try something new. There are a lot of "boxy pouch" tutorials in blogland but not a lot of them are necessarily lined which I personally prefer for the finished look they have. Here's what I came up with for my partner. This is side one:

Quilt Con Block Challenge

My humble little Quilt Con Block will be featured tomorrow on the Modern Quilt Guild website. The winning blocks will be used to make a quilt which will be raffled off at the Quilt Con Conference in February. The other blocks which have been submitted will be used to make charity quilts for the Austin Children's Shelter. How's that for a "win win!"

I have to say I love the colours for the Quilt Con Logo...bright and modern!

What I've been up to...

I'm not going to lie to you....things have been really quiet on the blog front because since the death of my parents (one four months ago and one ten months ago) I just haven't felt up to it. I've been creative here and there behind the scenes so I thought these pictures tell the story. First up...the start of a future beach blanket -

A Hello Kitty Pillowcase Dress for Miss G -

My QuiltCon submission -

A few hats for my Etsy shop -

My first Pillowcase to go with a quilt I made Miss G a few years ago -

Some Unscripted Bee Blocks:

Thanks for stopping by!