You've seen snippets of this quilt here and there before on my blog.  

I believe I started it back in 2010 (eek!)  But now she is finally finished.  And the quilting on it is aMAZing.  I just had to share.

This block of the month quilt was machine quilted by the amazing Kaylene Parry of Lehi, Utah.  She has done many quilts for me before and always does a fantastic job.  I think she probably feels like I'm always pulling back the reigns on her though so I was happy to let her "do her thing" on this one.  (Thanks for putting up with me, Kaylene!  I hope you had fun with it!)

 

The basket blocks (above) and the stocking blocks (below) are two of my favorite parts on the quilt.  I love the designs Kaylene chose.  There are four stockings - one for each member of my family.  More or less can be added depending on the number you want to have.

 

Do you see my sweet little binding?  It makes me smile when I see it :)  I originally thought I would probably go with a darker binding - like the red/coral color or the dark brown - but for some reason the mustard stripe (already on the bias!) just spoke to me.  It's from Stitch Studios and I had been eying it for a while so I was happy to be able to snatch some up and use it!

This house is so cute too.  If you look close you can see the quilted scallops on the roof, flowers in the windows and a heart and doorknob on the door - so sweet!

 As a filler block, I decided to hand-embroider a label and stitch it right on to the front of the quilt!  Kaylene quilted a beautiful design around it.

And the pumpkins!?!  Oh the pumpkins.  I just love the little ocean wave pattern that she quilted...

It looks especially cool on the back side! 

Speaking of back sides, I ended up using up some light colored pieces from my stash to make a pieced back.

That always feels good, ya know?  It's a big quilt - twin size.  I don't have any twin size beds in my house and I don't know where it's final resting place will be :) but I will forever treasure this quilt.  My mom and I each made one together.  I'll never forget the good times we had while stitching our little hearts out.  Kaylene is working on quilting hers right now too.  I know my moms will be just as beautiful!

The pattern for this BOM is a free pattern, designed by Jina Barney of Riley Blake Designs.  She goes to the little quilt guild I am a member of (lucky me :).  The pattern can be found HERE.

P.S.  Most of these fabrics we used are from several collections by Fig Tree Quilts.  We are BIG fans.

Finishing

First, thank you for all of your sweet comments on the giveaway.  You guys are awesome!!  If you still haven't entered, click HERE to win some fabulous holiday goodies.  The giveaway is open until Saturday the 17th at midnight.

Second, after starting a few new projects recently (like THIS and THIS), I realized that I really need to check off a few older ones from my list.  Maybe you can relate to this, but I have about 5 or 6 quilt tops that are just about finished.  This one has been almost done for a while, but I decided it needed one more row.  The fabric had been cut for 6 more blocks and two had been sewn together.  After working on it for about an hour this weekend, I have just one more block to go.  It seems that if I can just pull it out of the closet, then I will actually make some progress on it. 

I also finished this quilt top.  The middle has been done for a few weeks so this weekend I put the borders on.  Now I just need to pick up some minky for the back and she'll be ready to send to the quilter.

Fabric: Sherbet Pips plus a lot of scraps from my stash.

Pattern: Snickerdoodle (small version) by Cotton Way.

And last but not least, I finished the last piece of THIS puzzle.  There was a little bit of space I needed to fill in on my Block of the Month quilt, so I decided to fill it in with a label.  After working on the embroidery (a little here and a little there) I finally finished!  I can finally sew the last row together.  This is about a year after the fact, folks.

For me, it's all about baby steps.  I have quilters ADD (as you might have guessed if you've been following this blog for any period of time).  I work on multiple things at a time.  But I do make progress just by doing a little here and a little there.  Slowly but surely, folks.  Slowly but surely.

So today, I encourage you to pull out an old work in progress (you know you have them :)  Make a block or maybe two!  Sew the borders on or make a label.  Or, just look at it.  Feel the fabric.  Just make a plan.  Just take one step in finishing it up.  It will feel so good...and start the ball rolling.

Happy Quilting.
Amber

Socks

Hey ya'll.  We just got back a few days ago from a little family vacation to D.C. and New York.  It was great, but I'm glad to be home :)  Apparently I'm getting old because I think I need to see a chiropractor after all that walking.  I think my hip is out of joint!  So today I'm just taking it easy, doing some laundry and hoping to get in some quilting time.

I'll post about our trip later, but while I'm gathering pictures off of the three cameras and 1 phone that we used while we were there, I thought I'd share my status on an old WIP that I got to working on last night. 

It's a BOM project that my LQG did last year (yeah, I'm just a year behind).  I only have Decembers blocks left to do though and I was just tickled at how cute they are.  They're "stockings"!

I got them all prepped and ready to hand applique last night.

Aren't they fun?  There will be four on my quilt - one for each member of our family.

So.  I had a vision.  Wouldn't it be fun to make a whole quilt of just socks?!?  It could be a great stash buster and think of how scrappy it could be!  It would be so cute!  I'm thinking I would like to make one in lots of creamy neutrals as the backgrounds with some muted greys and blues and reds for the socks (hmmm...that might be the perfect project for Sweetwater's Hometown line.  Love that line!)   It could even go in a laundry room!  OR, it would even be cute to make 25 socks/stockings in Christmas colors for a Christmas quilt! 

It just never ends does it?  My list could go on and on.

So what do ya think? 

Would you care to join me on a mismatched sock quilt along? 

~ Amber

Work in Progress

I'm basically caught up on this Block of the Month project. 

While the hubby was away at Scout Camp a couple of weeks ago, I was busy needle turning all 3 layers of the 8 flowers on this quilt for the May blocks. 

It was my first go at needle turn applique, but I just didn't have the time to prepare all of the pieces with freezer paper (like I normally do) so I decided to just dive right in.  It was fun!

        

Then I also had to catch up on June's blocks:

The pattern can be found HERE if you want to join in on the fun.