Life is good!

  I call this one Fall Lines.  It's a very quick and simple pattern, obviously.  But I love the colors of the batiks used here.  (The cat, Juliet, apparently loves them, too.  I couldn't get her off the quilt while i was trying to take pictures.) The pattern is from Fat Quarters Anonymous.   I had intended to give this one to the church to auction off at the Fall Dinner, but I didn't get it finished in time.  I finally got the binding sewn on recently, and wasn't sure where it would go. I  decided to give it to my grandmother for Christmas.  She was delighted, so that makes me happy.  And in fact my grandfather (other side of the family) was there when she opened it, and made a request for a quilt, too.  That's now jumped to the top of my priority list.  Grandpa is 89, so I'd better get busy.   The picture does make me realize that one of my goals for this year is to get my borders to lie more smoot...

Is there anything better than kids cuddling?  I missed his adorable smile, but the kids were having a blast snuggling and tickling on the couch.  Even better, Gunner is clutching his baby quilt, made by me.  And Isadora has a baby quilt that was made for me, by my grandmother.  She passed away when I was ten, so it warms my heart to think of Grandma smiling down at my daughter wrapped up in something she made. 

I'm not a big one on New Year's Resolutions, but I am one for making goals.  (Is there actually a difference?) So I'm putting a good deal of thought into my goals for 2013.  Better health, always.  But for here, it's going to focus on my quilting/sewing goals. I want to finish Swoon, I think that is a given.  I also want to make a LOT more progress on my Farmer's Wife quilt.  I want to finish the BOM Vintage Modern Quilt. Since I have Summer Breeze in progress, finishing that is also on the list. I'd like to try a QAYG quilt.  Not sure on what, though!  I need to look through the other projects I have in my head, and get a good priority on them. I need (although I don't want!) to stop buying fabric!  Or at least limit it to fabric I need to finish a project, with an emphasis on using what I already have to start off with.  I want to make a duvet cover for my down comforter.  That might be a good one to use for the QAYG project... ...

I have a small ironing board I keep next to my machine, for those little jobs while I'm sewing.  (Too lazy to get up and walk to the full size board!)  I think this board dates back to the Clinton administration.  And it looks it. Burnt, multiple holes for the iron tip to get caught in, and doesn't really stay on.  The padding looked worse, if that's even possible.  So on my to do list for some time has been to fix it.  This week I finally got around to it! It wasn't terribly hard.  I used two fat quarters sewn together, and a layer of Insul-bright.  I used the old cover as a guide, making the cover slightly larger so I could sew a channel for elastic around it. And this is what it looks like now!  Much improved, I'd say.

This weekend was completely taken up by cookies!  Mom, Collette, Kelley, Barb and Grandma Susan all descended upon my kitchen, and we made hundreds of cookies.  The kids decorated sugar cookies and completely destroyed my basement. :)  Well worth, it though, it was a wonderful time!  All 10 grandkids were there, too (hence the mess in the basement!) and they completely wore each other out.  So fun for all of them, though.  We are really trying to create those memories for them, so they all have each other growing up and beyond. 

I finally finished the City Weekend quilt.  This one is entirely by me - I actually did all of the machine quilting!  It's all straight lines, as I'm not yet ready to tackle FMQ on anything larger than a potholder.  But I'm pleased with the way this one turned out.  It was also an effort to use up more of my own fabric, rather than buying more.  I had the charm packs for this, and they went well enough with the green that I gave it a shot.  I was quite nervous about it, but overall I'm pleased with how it turned out.  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with this one, yet.  My daughter seems to really like it, but she also has an entire stack of quilts and blankets in her room.  Project Linus, maybe?  We'll see where it ends up! Maybe this weekend, when I'm actually home while the sun is above the horizon, I can get outside to take a better picture, but for now, it's DONE! So where does that leave me?? Recent Finishes City...