NewFO Projects for January

Oh No!!! 2/28/13: I just posted my link for February to Barbara's 2013 NewFO Linky Party, but mistakenly put the link to last month's new starts (this page by mistake)! Go HERE to find my NewFOs for February. Sorry... 

Now back to last month's post... Oops! Liz

What a busy month it's been! I've got several NewFOs to share and am so excited to join in the fun! I'll be posting this on Cat Patches' January NewFO Linky Party where others will also be sharing NewFOs.

NewFO #1 -- Grocery Cart Cosy for my grandson Jacob

This project is one my daughter and I have been talking about, but I'd never gotten around to it. Well, the little stinker is over 20 pounds and nearing the end of his time in the baby carseat. As he advances to the big-boy seat, he won't go into the grocery store in his seat anymore. So, it was time for Mormor to get busy and make the cosy. I found this delightful monkey fabric on clearance at Charlotte's Sew Natural in Newton, KS. I love it and bought what was left of the bolt! It was just the perfect amount to make the cosy, along with the leaves on black fabric for the lining. Hopefully it will resist showing too much dirt! Ha! There were a few bloopers in assembly (I didn't read the directions fully and put the elastic in before finishing key elements that would have worked better with the whole thing flat), so I dug through my stash and found a couple of yards of Toy Story fabric and used the same lining to make a second one. Ali has the Toy Story cosy (it's much better made!) and I have the monkey one for my shopping trips with Jacob.

I'm afraid neither has been used quite yet. It's been so cold (we're expecting a whopping 5 degrees for tonight's low) that Ali has done her shopping before she picks Jacob up so he doesn't have to be out in the cold too much. It'll be balmy in the 50s by this weekend, so I'm sure it will get it's first trip to the store soon. I can't wait to see pictures of him sitting in them!

NewFO #2--Jacob's Baprons

Since I have Jacob full time during the week, he gets several meals with me. I found that the little teething bibs Ali had sent over were just not sufficient anymore as he was getting more into his food. So, I'd found a cute pattern for a bapron and was determined to try it out. I had enough gold fish fabric from that same clearance table at Charlotte's to make two, so he has one at home and one at Mormor's house. It turned out so cute!

And it does the job just perfectly, except for the moments when he decides to share his food with me and blows a mouthful of greenbeans at Mormor. Guess I need to make one for me to shield myself from those "Yuck! What are you feeding me!" moments. LOL!

NewFO #3--Buffalo Baby Quilt

This one is my favorite so far and an actual quilt project! My friend Lizzie is having her first baby, due the end of February. She's having a boy and wants everything camo. Well, I'm not into hunting and fishing and camo-wear, but compromised and am making a nature quilt for her. After a few stops and starts in design and assembly, it's finally come together.

It's all assembled and ready to be sandwiched and quilted. I have until Feb 23 to complete it as that's when I'm heading to Springfield, MO, to Lizzie's for her baby shower. I'm also taking along our family cradle that my father made for my first child (Jeni is now 35!) and has been shared with many friends and family, as well as all of my children and grandchildren. I look forward to getting pix of her little guy sleeping in the cradle like Jacob did just a few months ago.

NewFO #4--Cookie Bowl Advent Calendar

This project is made from a pre-printed panel kit that I purchased in California on a shop hop several years ago. I've made quilted Advent calendars for my daughters and for my niece and nephews for their children to enjoy each year, but I hadn't made one for myself! So, I found this one and fell in love with it. This month I got it done completely! It was fun to quilt around the cookies and down the strips, as well as along the squiggly lines of frosting printed between the number pockets. It's simple, but very cute and will be fun to have Jacob help me move the cookies from the bowl to the pockets (or pockets to bowl?) when December rolls around again.

NewFO#5--Embrace Your Love FMQ Challenge 2013

The most exciting NewFO for me this month is the Embrace Your Love FMQ Challenge that Leah Day is guiding us through. I have started and am enjoying the challenge.

Currently I'm stalled because I have an idea to applique green and blue silk onto the world, but can't find my silk buried in my stash. Maybe this weekend I'll find it and get busy again on the next part. It's a year-long project, so I don't expect to finish it anytime soon, but hope to maybe finish one version in time to enter it in either the county fair in June or the state fair in September. Time will tell...

It's been a very productive month! I had no idea I'd get this many projects started and am delighted that several are also finished! Looking forward to some fresh NewFO's for February. This weekend I'm heading out with Sharon to a big Super Bowl sale at a quilt shop in Alden, KS. Then, on Sunday, I'll be camped out in front of my TV for the Super Bowl, cheering on my San Francisco 49ers!!!!!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

Spring-like day and a completed NewFO!

Oh the wonders of living in the midwest. Monday we had temps in the 70s and breezy that made for a great day for Jacob's first trip to the park! Today I woke up to lightening flashes and thunder, with morning rain and a cloudy, dreary day with dropping temps in the 30s. I guess Winter is back and our spring-preview is over for now.

While it was nice, Jacob and I walked over to the park and he got to swing for the first time. After some initial "What's this!?!", he relaxed and enjoyed it. With the breeze in his face he was smiling, but kept his eyes closed much of the time. When other kids came running by he would laugh. Success! And the much needed nap finally came about half a block from the house. Ahhh... 

 

Throughout Monday I stayed at my Sunday UFO--my cookie bowl advent calendar. I finished the FMQ, trimmed it and attached the binding, and by evening had completed hand slip-stitching the binding to the back. I've done many quilt bindings now, but I think this one has the best miters that I've done so far! I guess practice does make perfect, or at least vast improvement!

After making the extra bowl pocket yesterday, I changed my mind and ended up trimming it down to just the bowl and attaching it to the back with a close zig-zag satin stitch. I like it much better with just the bowl appliqued on instead of the whole pocket that included some of the background stripes. Perseverance paid off because before I shut down the sewing room Monday night at 8pm (just in time for the Kansas Jayhawk basketball game) it was complete! This finished pic shows it with several of the cookies in the bowl and the rest in the numbered pockets. Now it's off to the closet to wait for December 1 when it will be hung with my Christmas decorations.

The rest of today has been spent with Jacob. The first tooth we thought was coming for Christmas still hasn't appeared. So, we think it's close again--he's much more irritable, not sleeping well, and he's dripping drool like never before! The only way to get him to nap this morning was with me in the rocker. I'm not complaining! Nothing better than a nap together in Mormor's glider. Hopefully he's going down for his regular nap this afternoon, but from the noises coming from the other room, I doubt it.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

UFO Sunday

It's a jammies-and-slippers kind of day at my house. My sewing buddy left this morning early and instead of going back to bed (my first choice), I decided to just go into the sewing room and spend some quality time working on projects. With the iTunes cranked up on my Eric Clapton playlist and the window open, I was ready to go to work. It's not really raining here in Emporia, but it's damp and breezy, so a good day to stay in.

After reading Leah Day's UFO Sunday post about finishing a sweater for her son, I looked at the piles of projects in the corner and decided to pull out the baggy with the Advent Calendar panel I had purchased at least three years ago. A month or so ago I used Heat-n-Bond to fuse the cookies to the stiff craft felt I had purchased with the kit and got them cut out. There are 24 cookies that tuck into a bowl and each day you move one a numbered pocket until all are gone, and then, like magic, it's Christmas! I just love the variety of cookie shapes and all decorated with frosting designs.

When I looked at the main panel, it was totally skewed from being folded up for so long. It took a lot of steam, spray sizing, and pins on the ironing board to get it squared up. Finally, I think it's ready to put together!

 

The bottom was the most stretched section, so I worked on it first. Each row had to be folded up to a fold line marked in the margin so that the frosting squiggles match up between each numbered block. I got them all folded, pinned and steamed, and then basted the pocket rows closed with a long stitch that I can easily remove later. This way they will stay in the right shape until I get it assembled and quilted, making the individual pockets permanent.

There is another bowl that gets turned into the pocket and appliqued onto the bowl on the top of the printed panel. I went ahead and backed it with muslin and a piece of batting to give it body, and sewed it together, turned it, and hand stitched it closed. Then I decided I wanted to free-motion quilt the ribs on the bowl to give it more definition. It's now ready to applique on after I get the main body backed and quilted.

And it's ready to quilt. It's small enough to fit on my sewing table, so I taped the backing down, layered it with the batting and top, and it's all pinned and ready to go. I'm not sure I'll get much farther with it today, but at least it's ready to go.

It's going to look so cute next December hanging in my home! And by then Jacob will be 1-1/2, so he'll be big enough to help me move the cookies and count the days to Christmas.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

I'm taking on the NewFO Challenge 2013

As I'm nosing around and reading more quilt blogs, I'm getting more and more inspired! So, I signed on to take part in the NewFO Challenge 2013 posted on CatPatches Blog. Looks like lots of fun to have "permission" to start something new each month whether it ever gets done or not. There's lots of ideas floating around my sewing room, so here's my in-the-moment ideas to start my list of 2013 NewFOs!

January: A Valentines throw like the one my friend Terry made. Why not plan ahead and if it gets done I can enjoy it in February!

February: A St. Patrick's Day table runner--design yet to be decided.
March: Start on the Vintage Rouge BOM that I purchased in 2012 but left sitting in bags waiting for me. I get to learn several new techniques with this one including English paper piecing and needle-turn applique. Yikes!

April: Start early on Christmas and make my own Advent Calendar out of the kit I bought two years ago on a shop hop. My little grandson will be excited to have cookies to put in the bowl next Christmas!

May through December, I'm sure I'll come up with plenty more from my stash, unopened kits, gifts needing to be made, etc. etc. At least one QOV to be made before November; a Halloween BOM to be done; prairie point pot holders to make for gifts; and even a set or two of tea towels to embroider before next Christmas.

Looking forward to starting lots of NewFOs in 2013 and maybe even completing some of them!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz