decorating for Halloween....

It's never too early, right?



Remember the Curves Class I signed up for?  One of the first week's projects was this scallop bunting.  I chose this project mainly because it was the quickest & required the least amount of shopping for extra supplies {time and money were both in short order about the time class started}

But honestly, bunting really doesn't do much for me.  I had a hard time deciding on fabrics, thinking that I wasn't going to want to hang this up when it was done, and I didn't know anyone I could gift it to.  It crossed my mind to make a Christmas version, but I didn't have enough Christmas fabrics left.  And besides, I really need a break from Christmas  ;)



I thought about a baby girl version, with a specific new little one in mind, but I wasn't sure if the parents would want to hang it up in their nursery.

{ideally, I would have vacuumed before taking pictures.  but if I waited for the ideal situation, I'd never get anything done.  so please pardon my dirty carpet}  :)

Anyway, I went stash shopping, and somewhere in between fabric flying out of drawers/cubbies/bags etc I found my little bundle of Halloween fabric. Perfect!

These were set aside for a quilt, but I don't think using these little bits will mess up those plans much  {we won't mention how long these fabrics have been waiting to be turned into a quilt.  Or that I ended up prewashing 9 yards of fabric for a project that needed 2 FQs}



my 7 year old helped sew the final stitches on the double fold bias binding, and our first Halloween decoration is currently hanging in the living room!  :)

I love when a project turns out so much better than I anticipated!

I'm linking up to some fabulous parties:
Crazy Mom Quilts; Richard & Tanya Quilts; TGIFF @ Made in Home; Whoop Whoop Fridays; Pieceful Life's show off Friday; A Stitch in Time; Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday & Sew Cute Tuesday

X, X, and more Xes {quilt blocks, that is}

18 out of 41 X blocks are done, most of the others are near complete.  This quilt is taking many more hours to sew than I thought.  I've estimated that I have sixty more hours of sewing time to finish this quilt - yikes! 

Lesson learned here, don't try to estimate how long it will take to finish a quilt.  It is daunting to say the least, and if anything has slowed down my progress.

Do you see the red & white cherry print in the center of this block?  I love that print :)  It has been in my stash a long time, it makes me so happy to be using it!  The fabric below it is garlic bulbs, and is a scrap from a long-standing WIP.  Why garlic bulbs on fabric makes me smile, I don't know, but it does!  :)

This block alone has scraps from a quilt I made for myself {the garlic}, a quilt made for my oldest son, one for a SIL, and a quilt made for my best friend's baby, as well as a couple reds that were stashed for just the right use.  I love a good scrap quilt! :)

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced and WOW at Ester's Blog

PS - my email isn't working.  I can recieve and read your mail & comments but I can't reply :(   I'm trying to fix this, but in the meantime I appreciate your comments even if I can't answer them.

Finishalong

 

I decided to join in the Finish-A-Long :)  I have three quilts that are priorities for this quarter:

 

 

My Madrona Road quilt.  I'm making this queen sized.





The penguin quilt for my son.  Thankfully, he wants it about 60" square {it was going to be bigger.  but before that it was going to be a lot smaller.  it's a long story.}



and the Single Irish Chain / Postage Stamp quilt for my Dad.  I'm working on the 41 red X blocks I need, then I'll start on the 40 plain blocks I need.  And by plain, I mean no red X but still made of 25 2.5" squares.  This will be 90" square.

I've also joined Curves Class and I want to join the Tripple-Zip-Along. 

This is an ambitious list for me,  but I'm going to give it my best shot :)

Deck the Halls Giveaway Winner

I must beg your forgiveness for being so late, but I did draw a winner for the giveaway

{drum roll}

Susie, of Susie's Sunroom!  As soon as I hear back from Susie, the charm packs of Alpine Wonderland will be whisked away through the mail, and the sooner the better, because parting with them won't be easy :)  those prints are even sweeter in person {i'm trying hard to justify buying some for myself, but it just isn't working with my new fabric purchasing strategy.  but thats for another post...}

Thank you to everyone who linked up & grabbed buttons!  You really made Deck the Halls a fun little party :) 

{if you are wondering, I did use the random number generator to pick the winner [number 14], I just haven't got the picture to prove it.  Each link up & comment from a button grabber got an entry, including A Girl in Paradise & The Way I Sew It for writting posts about my giveaway - thanks so much ladies!}

I didn't do as much crafting with my boys as I wanted, but I know we probably wouldn't have done any if I hadn't made the decision to be so intentional this year so I refuse to feel bad about what we didn't do. 

I learned alot through this experience, like how to make a blog button!  And there are a lot of awesome bloggers out there who have been very generous to share their knowledge with the rest of us {you probably already knew that}  I also learned craft kits marked 'easy' usually aren't, and kids don't always cooperate with Mom's plan, or schedule.  We had a couple flops, which I'll spare you all pictures of {I don't want to offend anyone with pictures of bearded Virgin Marys or monobrowed baby Jesuses}  but over all we had a lot of fun Christmas crafting, and I've enjoyed seeing all your festive makes, too :)  thank you to everyone who participated!

Goodbye, 2012 & Hello 2013

After seeing mosaics and year in review posts all over blogland, I decided to look over my 2012 finishes, too.  I'm glad I did because it didn't feel like I accomplished much, and taking a few minutes to look back through old posts reminded me of several finishes I'd almost forgotten.  You can see all my 2012 finish posts by clicking here. 

Some of my favorite makes are



this patchwork quilt from scraps {donated to the church youth group}



and this quilt for Hands2Help



These pillowcases were a big hit with my parents :)   I think I need to make myself some pillow cases in 2013.  The DP quilt in the background of this photo was one of my favorite finishes of 2012!



I cut into some of my precious Meadowsweet, too :) I have plans to cut the rest of it in 2013

Since the New Year is usually a time for resolutions, I decided on a quilting resolution.

I hearby resolve NOT to finish my WIPs! hahaha!  :)

Happy January!
PS I'll post a Deck the Halls wrap up post tomorrow.  thanks to everyone who linked up & posted buttons on their blog to spread the word :)