Placemats for Grandma

My Grandma has these really old worn out placemats that she uses all the time, so my sister and I decided that it was time for some new ones.  We tried to get them finished for Christmas but that just didn't happen since I was trying to get the quilt for my Mother-in-law finished.

I got one done for Christmas to give to Grandma, and the others have sat in my sewing room waiting to get basted, quilted and bound.  So when I saw Amy's One Week, One Thing Challenge I knew this was the project that needed to get completed.  But my days didn't exactly go as planned, so they didn't quite get all the way finished.  I decided that I would stay up as long as it took tonight to finish them just to have them done.  I wasn't going to make the deadline but at least it was enough motivation to get the Christmas gift done.  Then to go with the rest of my week I ran out of thread when I was finishing the binding on the 4th out of the six placemats.  So here are the finished 3 with the other 3 almost done.

Here's a close up of one.  My hubby thinks that it looks like a bunch of bamboo shots because of the color and the quilting.

Now somehow when I was peicing these I ended up sewing two of them backwards so they don't all match but it adds a little bit of character to them.

The Finished Product

 I forgot to take pictures on Christmas of the quilt for my mother-in-law, so last weekend when we went for a visit I was sure to snap a few photos.  You can kind of see the little notes on there from everyone in the family.  They were all so sweet.  Mom cried as she read each one, and said it was the sweetest gift she has ever received. That made all the work well worth it.

Sorry I can't get the picture to turn the right way, but here is a shot with the flags from the back.

Progress

The quilt top for my mother-in-law has been finished for about a week.  It has been in the hands of my sister-in-law to have everyone write a little note on it to mom about how she has taught us to love our country and why we appreciate her.  Now I just need to get the borders finished and get to the quilting.

For the borders I decided that the corners needed to be mitered. This was a new adventure for me, but I think the first one turned out well.

Currently on my cut table

I spent Saturday cutting 10" squares for a quilt for my mother-in-law for Christmas.  I'm following a tutorial from Karrie Lyne for Moday Bake shop.  My husband was diligent enough to look through pages and pages of quilts finding one that he thought would be great for his mom, and this is the one he picked out.  I think he make a great choice.  His mother is one of the most patriotic people that I know, so when we found this fabric from Connecting Threads we knew it was a perfect fit.  The blue and red fireworks are my favorite.  I'm hoping that this all comes together fairly quickly and without too many glitches.

Amy's One Week One Thing Challange

Two weeks ago I got a new to me sewing machine.  Into my craft room it went, in the middle to be precise, where it then waited to get put away somewhere.  I was not getting around to it, so decided that I better make that my challenge this week.  Here is what my room looked like before.

My cutting table and scrapbook stuff.

And wah lah (is that how you spell that?) My room now after moving 3 tables and my sewing cabinet around the room until I found a configuration that worked.  I probably could have saved myself some time by simply measuring the tables and the walls, but that would have involved finding a tape measure and who knows where that would be.

My sewing cabinet and cut table.  I tried to avoid putting them next to the cold windows but it was not to be.

I am uber (my hubby would definitely make fun of my for using that word) excited to have everything all set up and ready to go now.  Christmas gifts waiting to be made, watch out here I come.

Baby ?'s Blanket

Ok, this has got to be my most favorite quilt I have made yet.  I say this about every single one, but seriously it just turned out so cute.  I will admit I was afraid, very afraid that it was going to be a complete disaster when I started piecing the blocks together.  But the further I got the more I was liking it, thank goodness or I'm sure I would have shed some tears.
So here is how this quilt came to be.  My aunt Julie is having her fifth little boy in January so I figured that after 4 boys everything is probably all but worn out.  And every baby needs a quilt of their own any way.  A few weeks after I found out she was going to have a boy I saw this tutorial on Moda Bake Shop and knew I had to make a blanket just like it (well not just like it, she is having a boy after all).  I couldn't find a layer cake that I really liked so I figured out  how to cut everything out of 1/6 yd cuts.  Now I never ever would have guessed that it would be difficult to find 15 matching boy fabrics, but it took me hours.  After about an hour I called my sister to come and help me, a long time later we finally had a stack that we were happy with.  Like I said once everything was cut into the little squares and I got the blocks pieced I thought I had a disaster on my hands.  Now that it is finished I completely love it and I can't wait to give it to my Aunt.  I'm sure she'll love it too, and her little one whatever his name will be.

Hello Blogland

Well, here goes nothing.  I have been quilting for about the past 8 or 9 months.  Care at Obsessively Stitching got me started with her 1st quilt ever series, and I have been addicted ever since.  For the past few months I have wanted to join in on the blogging fun in the quilting world and just haven't done it.  But this week I got my own sewing machine, before now I have been doing all my sewing at my mom's house, and figured it was time to get going.
So I will be sharing with you my study and practice of producing and distributing quilts. I hope that you will enjoy this as much as I do.

Cheers,
Amanda