Finish-Along Quarter 1 Goals

It's time to set some long term goals for the Finish Along. 
I've only got a few WIPs at the moment, but lots of plans for the year, so lets get started. 
In between Etsy orders, here are my sewing goals:

1.  Do.Good Stitches Flying Geese Quilt
This quilt is made up of blocks sent to me back in October/November.  It's basted and half quilted now.  I just need to finish it.

2.  Do.Good Stitches Star Cluster/Nine Patch Quilt
I've only received a few blocks for this quilt so far, but by the end of the quarter it should be finished.  I'm asking for these two blocks done up in girly colors.  :)

3.  Giggles Puff quilt
This one just needs borders, backing, and binding.  Then I'm going to list it in the shop and see if anyone wants it!

4.  One more puff quilt.
I want to make more puff quilts for my shop this year, because they are so fun!  I think I'll make the next one from the Mixed Bag layer cake I've got stowed away.

5.  New Rummy Mats
I plan to make at least one new Rummy mat for my shop so that I can get it professionally photographed and update my listing.  Plus, it will be nice to have one or two on hand to sell after the baby comes.

6-10.  New Quiet Books
Ditto here.  I need some samples to use for updating my listings.  Plus I have two new books planned that haven't even been made yet!  The plan is to make these new books:  Colors, Shapes, Numbers, Letters, and one customizable book with random pages.

11.  King Diamond Ripple quilt
We bought a new King sized bed last spring and none of our quilts are quite big enough for it.  The hubby requested something with lots of blue and green and a more traditional/not so block based pattern.  I'm planning on making a HST quilt using repeats of THIS block.

This is a really old photo.  The stack has at least doubled, if not tripled by now.  It's definitely time to cut these babies up!

12.  Blocks from the Past Quilt-Along
This quilt-along won't be over until the second or third quarter of the finish along, but I still plan to work on it during the first quarter, so I'm adding it to the list so that it doesn't get lost.  :)  Even though it will need to be rolled over for a quarter or two. 

13.  Car Seat cover for new baby.
Hubby says we don't need a new car seat cover, but I say we do.  It probably won't be finished this quarter (baby will be here in April/May), but it's in the plan so it's going on the list.  I'll probably make it using part of my Mixed Bag layer cake.


That should be enough to keep me going for awhile!
Linking up:

Announcing the Blocks From the Past Quilt-Along!

This year I will be participating in a fun new quilt-along being hosted by Marion over at My Quilt Diet and Natalie at Natalie Ever After.  I'm super excited and have even been asked to guest post a few times.  :)

You can read all about the quilt along in Marion's introduction post HERE.  Basically, we are using an old book (get yours on Amazon.  Mine was about $5) to make a modern sampler quilt.

Most of us will be putting some sort of spin on our quilts to make the blocks a little more updated.  :)  In fact, when it's my turn to post, I will be showing you TWO versions for each block.  One made using the directions from the book, and one pieced using an alternate method.  It's going to be awesome.

Not your style?  No worries!  Follow along to see fresh, fun versions of these blocks.

For my quilt, I plan to use a layer cake of On Our Way fabric by Riley Blake Designs that I picked up for FREE (well, I paid shipping) when the Fat Quarter Shop was having a super awesome sale on layer cakes.  At the time I didn't have a plan, but I knew I was having another boy so I picked up something boyish.

The fun part about this fabric is that my husband is a transportation engineer so it's right up our alley.  :) I think I'm going to try something new (and modern, I might add), and use a bright green solid for all of my background and sashing.

I'm going to make as many blocks as my layer cake will allow (which might be QUITE a few, since the blocks are only 6 inches square) and then put together a baby quilt (or two).

Come join us!

Here is a list of the schedule with all of the bloggers who will be participating:

Week 1 Jan 5 Intro to QAL and Schedule (Marion) myquiltdiet.blogspot.com

Week 2 Jan 12 Fabric requirements (Natalie) natalie-ever-after.blogspot.com

Week 3 January 19 p, 8,9,60 (Natalie) natalie-ever-after.blogspot.com

Week 4 January 26 p.10, 11, 61 (Konda) moosequilts.com/blog

Week 5 February 2 p. 13,14,62 (Marion) myquiltdiet.blogspot.com

Week 6 Feb 9 p. 15,16,63 (Machelle) cherrytreecottagequilts.blogspot.com

Week 7 February 16 p. 17,18,65 (April) april-makingendsmeet.blogspot.com

Week 8 February 23 p. 19,20,66 (Terry) natalie-ever-after.blogspot.com

Week 9 March 2 p. 21,22,67 (Ginny) myquiltdiet.blogspot.com

Week 10 March 9 p. 23,24,68 (Maggie) shortcookie.blogspot.com

Week 11 March 16 p. 25,26,69 (Emily) Simplegirlsimplelife.com

Week 12 March 23 p. 27,28,70 (Barbie) thequiltingmill.blogspot.com

Week 13 March 30 p. 29,30,72 (ME!!!) Sewinsomethin.blogspot.com

Week 14 April 6 p. 33,34,74 (Maggie) shortcookie.blogspot.com

Week 15 April 13 p. 35,36,75 (Natalie) natalie-ever-after.blogspot.com

Week 16 April 20 p. 37,39,76 (Katie) ocouss.blogspot.com

Week 17 April 27 p. 40,41,77 (Marion) myquiltdiet.blogspot.com

Week 18 May 4 p. 42,43,78 (Barbie) thequiltingmill.blogspot.com

Week 19 May 11 p. 44,45,79 (Konda) moosequilts.com/blog

Week 20 May 18 p. 46,47,80 (Machelle)  cherrytreecottagequilts.blogspot.com

Week 21 May 25 p. 48,49,81 (Stacy) Sewnicetocreate.blogspot.com

Week 22 June 1 p. 50,51,82 (Barbie) thequiltingmill.blogspot.com

Week 23 June 8 p. 53, 83, 91(Natalie) natalie-ever-after.blogspot.com

Week 24 June 15 p. 55,84,92  (ME!!!) Sewinsomethin.blogspot.com

Week 25 June 22 p. 56, 86, 93 (Marion) myquiltdiet.blogspot.com

Week 26 June 29 p. 87,88,94 (Katie) ocouss.blogspot.com

Week 27 July 6 Sashing and setting (Natalie) natalie-ever-after.blogspot.com

Week 28 July 13  Wrap up (Marion) myquiltdiet.blogspot.com

2014 in Review

Well, 2014 turned out to be pretty busy!  I spent lots of time working on Mom's After the Storm quilt, and lots of time working on Etsy stuff (especially towards the end of the year).  I didn't get quite as much "me" sewing time as I might have liked, but I was able to beef up my fabric stash a little bit, thanks to my shop.  ;)  2015 is going to be awesome.

Here are some of my finishes for 2014.

First up, I finished 7 quilts:

After the Storm
Building Fun
Deck the Halls
Broken Herringbone
Jaxson's Broken Herringbone (blog post coming soon)
Bronx's Jungle Path (blog post coming soon)
Avonlea's Puff Quilt (blog post coming soon)

 A few smaller items given away as gifts:

Mom's Cathedral Windows Pillow
Braden's Stocking
MIL's Tablecloth
Nancy's Retirement Towels
Amberli's Hot Pads
Braden's Growth Chart
Renee's Hot Pads
Quilty Stitches Cross-stitch Sampler (still going...)

A couple new quiet books:

ABC/Name books
Colors Books
Henrik's Book

And a whole bunch of stuff for my shop (here are just a few):

And just for fun (and mostly for my own sake), here are a few stats from my Etsy shop for 2014:
Total number of orders: 49
After the Storm Patterns sold: 15
Rummy mats sold: 6 (with 4 more outstanding orders at the moment - made after Christmas)
Quiet books sold: 6 (plus a whole bunch of new ones for my boys)
Other baby items made:  14
All in all, the shop went through a lot of changes!  At the beginning of the year, I was making lots of smaller baby items (bibs, burp cloths, etc).  Around the middle of the year I was focused on new quiet books and my first quilt pattern (this was a really slow time for me, but I sold a fair amount of patterns, which was nice).  By the end of the year, my Rummy mats were the most popular.
My biggest goal for 2015 is to remake all of my quiet books and rummy mats so that I can have them all professionally photographed and available as samples.

Of course, we can't forget my bee blocks!  I had a great time participating in the Humility Circle of Do.Good stitches.  I look forward to new block assignments every month.




Now, I have a few goals for 2015.  Here are my plans for the next 12 months or so:
1.  Have a baby and adjust to being a mom of 3.
2.  Make a quilt for our bed.  Fabric is all ready and pattern is chosen.  This one is not super important, so I plan to work on it a little here and a little there.  It will be nice to have a quilt big enough to fit our bed someday.
3.  3 Bee quilts.  I am in charge of blocks for January, May, and November this year, so I'll be making and donating three quilts this year.
4.  Participate in the Blocks from the Past QAL.  More details about this one coming VERY SOON!
5.  Update all of my quiet books and add two more to the shop.  This will mean making a sample of each one and having it professionally photographed so that I can update my listings.  I plan to do this will my Rummy mats and maybe a few more of my items as well.
6.  Make more puff quilts for the shop.  Maybe even offer custom made puff quilts.
7.  Be an active member of my local quilt guild.
8.  Practice curved piecing.
9.  If I'm lucky, I might get to make a wedding quilt this year, but we'll just have to wait and see on that one.  ;)

Here we go!

ALYOF: January

Well, it's time for another year and and fresh start.  I've decided to join in with the fun over at A Lovely Year of Finishes again.  :) 

Last year I did great for the first six months, then things got a little less focused and I fell off the wagon for the last six months.  But I DID finish six things, which qualifies me for the final link-up!   Wahoo!
Here are my six ALOYF finishes from 2014:

From top left to bottom right:
July:  ABC Book
June: Building Fun Quilt
May: Towels for a Retiring Teacher
April: After the Storm Quilt
February:  After the Storm Diamonds
January:  After the Storm Snail Trail Blocks

I'm linking up these finishes HERE:

And for my January 2015 goal, I plan to finish this quilt:

This is my Do.Good Stitches quilt top for October.  I asked the members of Humility circle to send me any blocks they liked in any size as long as they included flying geese.  I got some pretty awesome blocks!  It took awhile for all of them to arrive (we've got a few Canadian members), and December was SO BUSY, so I didn't get a chance to put them together until a few days ago.  I put them together sort of improv style and I love how it turned out!  Just need to quilt and bind it!

Linking my goal up HERE:

The Year of the Stockings and the Rummy Mats

So I've already dumped a bunch of new finishes on you (see my last post), but I decided to save these for a post of their own, since so much of my December was devoted to them.  :)

Like I mentioned, my Etsy shop exploded with big, time consuming orders around mid-November this year.  Most of these orders were for Rummy mats and stockings, which is awesome.  The hubby is proud because these are the things he convinced me to list because they are so unique. 

So, here are some more of the things I finished in December 2014:

First up, Rummy mats.  I actually made two of these (not counting the three I made before December - I can't believe people like these as much as I do!), plus sold one that was already made.  This one was ordered by a little family in Australia, which is cool.  They were nice enough to send me a photo of the mat being used on Christmas morning, along with a super nice thank you email.  SO AWESOME. 

And then there were the stockings. 

We got a new nephew in November and since their family already has tons and tons of quilts, Braden's mom requested that I make a stocking to match the rest of the family's.
So I started with a simple cross stitched cuff in the same font, with a border to match Daddy's stocking (since Connor's cuff matches Mama's).  

Then I attached it to a stocking made from flannel houndstooth, to match brother's stocking.  

Here are the two brothers together.  :)

Next, I had a lady order four stockings from me (only three are pictured) with plain cuffs because she wanted to cross stitch them herself.  It was a little tricky, but I figured it out!  The cuffs in the front are not backed completely (just along the edges), so that she would be able to reach her hand back there and work her stitches into the already finished cuff.

 She requested snowman fabrics and I added some fun custom quilting (sorry it is so hard to see).  Snowflakes for the black one,

Bubbles for the blue one,

And cross-hatching for the green one.

This next set of stockings were fun to do.  The Mom sent me a picture of her childhood stocking and asked if I could make two more to match it.  So I altered the cuffs a little and tried to copy the font on the original stocking as best I could.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

Whew!  Is it too early to start thinking about a stocking for the little one due in May?

Since Braden's stocking was on my Quarter 4 Finish Along list (#3), I get to link up here:

Time to Slow Down!

So.  November and December were CRAZY busy for me!  I had this big old to-do list to begin with, and then my Etsy shop sort of exploded.  Things in the shop had been pretty quiet for awhile, but once Christmas shopping season started, I had all sorts of things lined up to make for others.  Mostly stockings and Rummy mats (that's another post, I think) and one huge quiet book.  I barely managed to finish it all and now that things have slowed down I'm going to do a big old photo dump right here on the blog over the next few posts.  ;)

Oh yeah.  One more thing.  We're having a baby!  Yay!  It's another boy and he'll be here in early May.  Does anyone have any good ideas for boy names?  We are stumped, since we already used our first two ideas...
Of course, we are super excited for baby #3, but I must admit that I didn't feel too great for most of September and October, so there was a bit of a decrease in production/blogging around here for awhile.  Let me just say that the 2nd trimester has been awesome.  I LOVE not being sick all the time.  :)

Alright.  Lets get to it.  Here are all of the things I have finished since my last post in October:

First of all, my Mom had a birthday back at the end of October.  She just had back surgery and I found out that she's been taking my sister's pillow with her to church every week to sit on and decided she definitely needed her own!  She really liked the cathedral windows block I made for my Something New Sampler quilt, so I that's what I went with.
Here is the finished Cathedral Windows block:   I loved going through my scraps to choose fun warm/cool prints.

And here are a couple of crappy phone pictures taken right before I delivered the pillow:

I even used some of my hoarded Simply Color Ogee print for the envelope back.  I don't have a lot of purples, but I love this one.

(This pillow was #9 on my Finish Along list)

Next up, baby Braden!  My Sister-in-Law had a baby in November and Braden's Grandma ordered a growth chart for him to match his older brother's.  They wanted to stick to the BYU theme.  These are kind of fun to make.  :)

(This was finish #2 on my Finish Along List)

We are lucky that our new baby will have a cousin his age on BOTH sides.  My sister is due with her first baby any day now, and requested a puff quilt for her baby shower.  She's going to name the little girl Avonlea, isn't that cute?  I actually made two puff quilts with the intention to list the other in the shop.  As soon as the second one is bound, I'll get some better pictures.  :)  This puff quilt was a big hit at the baby shower - it even inspired one of my aunts to make one of her own! 

(This is finish #4 on my Finish Along List)

Of course, I snuck in a few bee blocks during all this madness.  Vickey asked for Churn Dash blocks for November.  The first few I made turned out pretty washed out because of the one really busy print I used, so I made her a few extras to make up for it.  I love the pinwheel one.  :)

Amazingly, someone ordered one of my ABC quiet books, which was awesome.  All 28 pages.  The whole thing took me 22 hours to make!  I actually went and bumped up the price for this book after making the second one because WHEW!  That was a lot of work!  I also updated some of the pages with bigger and better images, which I was happy to have a chance to do.

I even got to make a couple customized name books.  These short names were a breeze to work with and I updated the cover to add a few extra details.

I made a new M page, since Emily's book already came with a mailbox for M.  Luckily, my boys were able to tell it was a monkey and not a bear...

And lastly, I whipped up this tablecloth in those final days before Christmas.  This was a gift to my mother-in-law from all the siblings.  Our family is getting bigger and we no longer fit around a normal table, so she usually sets us up at the ping pong table.  :)  Unfortunately, she can never find a tablecloth big enough to fit the ping pong table so she always has to layer two or three tablecloths on top of each other.  Now she has one that is custom made to fit (which is totally DOES - I am SO relieved)!  AND it's double sided.  The first side is for when her friends (who don't spill) come over and is made with regular quilting cotton.

And the second side is for when we (the spillers) come over and is made from vinyl. 

(This is #8 on my Finish Along List)

And I lets not forget the quilts I made for my twins' birthday at the beginning of December.  They are waiting for a proper photo shoot so they can have their own post.  But in the meantime, here is proof that I finished them!

(These are finishes #6 and #7 on my Finish Along List)

Most of these projects were part of my Quarter 4 Finish Along list (YAY!), so I will be linking up here: