12 in 2012 - March Finished

March - 3 x blocks for birthday_blocks

So, March was pretty easy. Especially since I had most of the birthday blocks done way in advance.

First done was Marissa's block. She asked for a nautical themed block in red, teal and white.



As soon as I saw this block, I knew it was the one. I enjoyed working it, despite the smaller piecing, although I think there's too much white in it. I hope it fits in with her other blocks.


Next up was Ralu's blue and white block. She didn't have a pattern specified, so I picked this one, called "Glory Boxes". Then I had to buy some blue and white fabric. I had some, but nothing that I wanted went together in the way I should.



So far, this is my favorite block. But it is only March, but I really like how well it came out. The toile was a new fabric, the rest actually came from stash.


Mary's block was next. She asked for a "Shooting Star" block in black and novelty prints. I thought of it as an "I Spy" block and really had fun picking out my fabrics that I wasn't going to use in anything else but really liked.



I really like the "I Spy" feel to it. Although it came out a little wonky in size. I am going to send it to her and do a second one this coming weekend since I'm really happy with my 12 in 2012 progress. :) (Plus I have more fun fabric I'd love to use!)

March bonus finishes - Fabric Postcards for LJ Postcard Swap

So, another one of the swaps I do is a fabric postcard swap. Last year I did a set of "rainbow" themed ones and had a blast. This time around the theme was "beginnings". And honestly, I sat on these a lot longer than I should because nothing really came to me. Other than sprouts and gardens, which I didn't want to do. All of a sudden while riding in the car all 5 of them came to me in brief images. I ripped a receipt out of my purse and scribbled them down.

The first one I worked on I called "Beginning of a Quilt". I grabbed my "random shapes" scrap bag and sorted by color. Seeing I had a lot of pinks and browns, I focused on those.



I imagined a crazy quilt being hand pieced for this one, and wanted to practice my surface stitching, so added a little blanket stitch. I'm happy how it came out.


The next one was easy for me, what do I start my day with? Tea! All year round. (Just becomes iced or bubble in the summer!).



Trying to find fabrics that complemented without clashing too bad was harder than it should have been for this one, especially since I still wanted to work from my stash. I love the tea bag. I almost wrote TEA on it, but decided against it.


My next idea was either sunrise or sunset and again I wanted to use up some stash. I had a pretty good vision and wanted to try attaching some vintage lace to it, like foam on waves.



Although it is nowhere as lovely as it was in my head, I'm happy with it. And the person who received it saw what I was trying with the lace right away, so I can't complain there. This is a theme I will come back to again, for sure.


Next up was the simplest. I thought about the stereotypical beginning of a story. "Once upon a time...". I had wanted to write more, but my embroidery wasn't turning out *that* good...



I'm really happy with this and would like to try a whole page with maybe a ribbon bookmark for next time.


This is my last one. I was reminded of an image I had already seen and wanted to play in homage in a way.



This was the card I was most nervous about because I wasn't sure how well it would be received. I almost didn't send it. Seriously. But, I was already late enough, so decided to send it to a new home. This is also a motif I will come back to, possibly as I work on my embroidery again, I can see an incarnation of this in a hoop in my craft room....


So, March was a productive month for me. I don't have much coming up in April and May, which is good because I start rehearsals for 'Doubt' late April. So, in the meantime, I'll be showing you some interesting WIP's. And getting ready for the 2012 CSA Season. I can't wait!

12 in 2012 - February Bonus

So, in addition to my February finishes, I finished a piece for a class I had been taking at my LNS. It is finally framed and I'll show it off here.



Although the metallics were difficult to work with, especially in the Dove's eyes, I do like the finished effect.

And because I'm really proud of the fabric I got to put behind it...



Now, onto March!

WIP Wednesday - Update - a Finish!

Since I don't have anything to show that I've progressed greatly on lately, and I'm waiting 'til the end of the month to show you my "bonus finishes" for February's 12 in 2012...I'll show you a WIP Wednesday featured here that I never showed you finished!

Back in July, I featured a piece that I was hand-quilting here.

Well, it is finished! Well, it has been finished since just before Thanksgiving, but I never came back to show you. So - here it is!



I'm really happy how this came out and really proud that I hand quilted it myself (pieced on machine). In case you were wondering, I *did* sign up for a hand-quilting class come this April. But, you can't really see the hand-quilting detail on the front, so....



Although you can't really tell, I hand-quilted around each of the front squares with coordinating thread, so the back is filled with these squares of different colors.

And the full back, so you get the idea of scale:



Although I can't claim it as a 2012 finish - it is the first quilt I finished completely for myself, so I wanted to show it off. Size-wise it is around a full, so it will make a great couch quilt and bedrunner size folded at the bottom of the guest bed, which will be its permanent home. If we ever get back to working on *that* room again!

12 in 2012 - February Finished

So, to keep on with my 12 in 2012 updates, I've finished February's projects.

February - Valentine's Wall Hanging + 1 birthday_blocks

I had already finished the one birthday_block that was due in February, it was Cari's black and red and white block request that I chose to do a Four Corners block for.





The other part of February was a Valentine's Wall Hanging for the house. This is based on a panel that I've had forever and just hadn't gotten around to. I've never really been a panel person, but I really liked this one, so bought it during an online shop hop. Around last August I had most of it hand quilted (I outlined the tree), but then it sat stagnant for a while.

One of the things I had inherited over time was a collection of antique buttons. Kept in Mason and Ball jars with bail type lids, I had spent a lot of last summer and early fall sorting them by color and cleaning them. So, maybe I had buttons on the mind, but I thought the wall-hanging was in need of something. So....buttons!





I went through the buttons I had and grabbed the red and brown ones I thought would work and attached them. Now it looked complete. All it needed now was binding. Luckily I had some left over from my Modern Squares Quilt.





And it's finished. Although the brown polka dot binding doesn't match exactly, I think it looks pretty good!

12 in 2012 - January Finished

So, for my 12 in 2012 I only had one project on my list for January:

January - Wedding Wall Hanging Present

Now that it's been gifted, I can share my January finish. But, before I share, a little back story.

I have known Val for...11 years now. We met when she was 16 or so and still in High School and I was 21 and finished with my undergraduate degree and had moved back home. I started an informal group of writers that met a couple times a month locally to read their own and each others' poetry and such. I was instantly struck by this quiet, polite young woman who reminded me very much of myself at her age and felt very maternally towards her.

Part of me always will. After a while of writer's group meeting, Brian started to come around because he had met Val through another one of her passions, Ultimate Frisbee. Long story short, Brian and Val started dating and got married this past October.

When Val asked me to be a bridesmaid for her wedding I was instantly honored and very touched. I knew I wanted to make her something very special for her wedding. Which was totally beautiful and fall themed. From the "unity volcano" to the carved pumpkins and herb centerpieces, the wedding was completely reflective of Val and Brian and the crazy-beautiful love they share.

Fall and crazy-beautiful love led me to imagine two birch trees (one of their favorite trees) on a fall background of leaves, to look like two white trees in a fall forest.





Often when I start creating something from scratch (anything really, it doesn't matter the medium), finished size is not something that comes into my thought process early. Much like I think I remember Stephen King saying about writing books, it kind of has "a life of it's own and tells me what it's going to be like in the end.". So, I started with the trees and then pieced the entire background in my "faux-crazy-quilted" technique. It is kind of a combination between a whack-n-stack and a crazy quilt.

After I had the main part pieced it came to me how it wanted to be finished. It needed some cross-stitching to add their names, date and wouldn't a quote from the vows they wrote themselves be perfect. So, I harassed them while they were on their honeymoon in New Zealand and they got back to me with the line, "I am precisely where I ought to be". Which is perfect and sums them up so elegantly.





And here it is. All finished and gifted and hopefully I'll have a picture of it hanging in their apartment some day to share with you all. But they love it - and that's all that matters.

WIP Wednesday - Cross Stitch Edition

So, over on LJ in the cross_stitch community, the moderators have been cheering us on for WIP Wednesday since there hasn't been a stitching Olympics/World Cup in a while. Since I finished the Polar Bears, that meant that the Apache Wedding Blessing could move up in the rotation.

Here we are at last glance. Again, 4 years ago... (Hmm...I wonder if I work in 4 year crafting cycles.....)


Not too much there, two sides done and some words.

And here we are today, after some marathon stitching since the Polar Bears are done...



The center top medallion is about done. Forever ago I totally re-charted the top of the border so there wasn't a medallion thing where the top ribbon is, so when I get to the other side I'm going to have to do something similar. I also have the bottom border to work on, so I think after the center top medallion, I will move to the center bottom and then start working my way up the other side.

Although this isn't one of my 12 for 2012 projects, I'm really excited that I'm making progress on so many things! Look back this weekend to see 12 for 2012 progress and the latest Mystery Present!

12 in 2012 - First January Update

So, I'm not a resolution type person. But I am a list type person. And this year, instead of struggling to come up with something thoughtful and deep to strive for this year, I went simple: "In 2012, I will finish more projects than I start..."

So, once one of my LJ friends posted her list of 12 in 2012 I thought it was a pretty good idea. I've got a list of craft projects in a book of mine on my sewing table, organized by medium, but that's a little much, even for me.

12 things, I thought, I can do that...

So....My List

January - Wedding Wall Hanging Present
February - Valentine's Wall Hanging + 1 birthday_blocks
March - 3 x blocks for birthday_blocks
April - Finish 2011 BOM top
May - 2x blocks for birthday_blocks
June - finish blocks for SIL present
July - Assemble very late wedding quilt topper
August - 3x blocks for birthday_blocks
September - cut t-shirts for very late t-shirt quilt top
October - 2x blocks for birthday_blocks
November - Finish 2010 birthday_blocks quilt
December - finish t-shirt topper from September


I was really excited to cross things off this list lately, plus an added surprise finish! Since this seems like it may be a great motivator for me, I am going to post my finishes here, with some crafty diatribe...

January
Item: Wall-hanging Wedding Present
Status: This is halfway done.
But I can't post pictures here. Or I could and don't want to until it's been gifted. All I have left is to add a quote, make the sandwich and sew the hanger/binding on. The most time consuming parts are done.

Item: Surprise Finish
Okay, so it's not really a surprise, because I originally wanted this to be finished in September, but it's done now.



It's not the best picture quality, but I was so happy to get it done. I finished most of it over the last two nights during playoff football and watching RIN: Daughters of Mnemosyne, an Anime about an unusual detective agency staffed by two gorgeous immortals. There are many interesting back stories, but there's a wonderful review by Tom Tonthat here at The Escapist.

And, if you clicked on that, and need to get some innocence back, here's the mama polar bear...



I referenced this project here.


February:
Item: 1 birthday block
Status: Finished



carilea has the next birthday after mine, so I found this pattern, called "Four Corners" over at Quilter's Cache, and thought it would be perfect.


March:
Item: 3x birthday blocks
Status: 1 Finished - 2 left



This is mkissa's block. I really liked this pattern despite the small pieces and some of the piecing, but when it was completed, it looks like a lot of white. In retrospect, I probably should have picked two different shades of teal for the sky and sea.

So, I'm feeling pretty good and accomplished. Now, I'm off to finish the other January item. Crossing my fingers that I can get it done before 2/1/12!!