More Joy Coming Right Up

Today has been incredibly productive. I made a pledge to myself last night that I would get up, get dressed and get busy by 9:00 a.m. this morning. I almost made it...it's just that I discovered the Fall-Inspired Mini Quilt Swap Flickr group at 11:30 p.m. and stayed up until 1:30 a.m. perusing quilts and blogs and websites. This happens to me a lot. Easily distracted by colourful images.

So, I only missed my self-imposed deadline by half an hour. Not bad for the holidays. My Fall Mini Quilt needs to be in the mail by January 18th. Not a major panic, but it is the second UFO on my list for Jacquie's Joy in the New Year challenge and that deadline is January 1st (hours away!).

Remember, it started with this:

There have been several design ideas floating around up there. I like to keep my options open. It's my first swap, so I want to do a good job. I did some spying on my partner. Seems like she is a fairly traditional quilter and she kept the options open too, by not specifying any likes or dislikes in her swap profile. Fall for me here in Canada obviously involves maple leaves. That goes without saying, really. So that was one design element decided.

At first, I imagined pieced maple leaves, but when I started cutting and piecing the batiks, this happened instead:

1" strips pieced to make 25 patches. Sweet. As in 'sweet hook-up', not cute (watch Napoleon Dynamite for superb contextual example). I digress....that lead to this:

Which immediately lead me to this book, my bible of all things quilty, for setting triangle and corner triangle calculations for a 5" finished block. Once I had those all pieced in, I got to thinking that a skinny little tuck border might frame everything nicely and *GASP* I happened to have a perfect piece of Thimbleberries fabric in my stash. Shhh, don't tell anyone. Don't ask me how it got on my shelf. Even though I'm technically allergic to it, I managed to sew it into my quilt before any hives could break out.

Not bad! Finally, as you can see, the maple leaves. I downloaded a free template, traced it onto some Lite-Steam-a-Seam II and cut out wool leaf outlines to fuse onto the 25 patches. I'm very happy with the results of my day, considering I didn't have a plan when I started.

Tomorrow, the 'quilt as desired' part happens. Then, I will have 2, count 'em, TWO finishes!! Mwah ha ha.
What I haven't yet told you is this: Robert Downey Jr. kicks some serious butt (and leaves me somewhat weak in the knees) in Sherlock Holmes. I saw it with my QFF Andrea and T last night. Guy Ritchie has a winner with this one. The sets, costumes, acting, dialogue, lighting, score...all brilliant. Go see it!

Hallelujah

A finish. Yes, that's right, a completed quilt! I realize that it's been a long time since I finished a quilt of appreciable size (read: larger than a wallhanging). This quilt top was complete back in May but I was stalling on the quilting. An all-over swirly or floral just didn't seem right for the modern feel of the pattern and fabrics; straight lines would have been too rigid. I felt it did need some softening, so went for organic wavy vertical lines that sometimes intersect.

After washing (that white fabric wasn't looking so white after all of the piecing and travel to a retreat, and being dragged across my sewing table about a hundred times during quilting!) it wrinkled up nicely and was very soft.

Many of the fabrics were purchased online from Sew Mama Sew in 1/4 yard chunks and the background is Kona Snow. For the first time, I used a white cotton batting so that the white would remain bright on it: Arctic Cotton White.

The quilt is called "Homecoming" and for me, the green and white represent faith and hope. It is a gift for a friend and her daughters who are living in difficult circumstances while awaiting the return of her husband and their father. You can read their story here...it is a cautionary tale for anyone wanting to live in, or visit Mexico. There is a community of support around this family, however every day brings disappointment and frustration to their situation that are difficult to overcome. Sometimes we make quilts because it feels like it's all we can do to help. We sew with love and gift our work in the hope that it's soft warmth will provide comfort to someone in need. This is such a quilt. I wish I could do more to bring him home.

"Homecoming" is the first of my two UFO's for Jacquie's Joy in the New Year Challenge. I'm starting to feel the joy....

On Christmas day SewCalGal had a random drawing for prizes in her virtual Christmas Quilt Show. In a lovely karmic twist, I happened to win a prize donated by Mrs.Moen (a couple of posts ago I put a shout out for her giveaway) who featured this quilt in the virtual show. I thought it was fabulous, so voted for it as my viewer's choice. I will receive her Mix n' Match for Christmas pattern, which I'm so excited about because it is definitely something I will make. Thanks for the prize Mrs. Moen! Thanks for the show Darlene!

Every Christmas Eve I take a picture of the kids in front of the tree before they head up to bed.

The timing of this photo shoot is getting later and later every year, making it tough for Santa to get all her work done at a reasonable hour! Luckily everything else was wrapped and ready to go, so the stockings were filled and we all had sugarplums dancing in our heads by midnight. We were not expecting D to tiptoe in at 4:30 a.m. whispering that she 'just couldn't fall asleep'. Even more unexpected was the gentle knock at the front door at 7:30 a.m. from grown-up sister in law who apparently couldn't wait any longer, either! Ahhh, Christmas.

Hope you had a wonderful day, too.

Eenie, Meenie, Mienie, Moe

Proper spelling of mienie notwithstanding, I'm having trouble choosing today. Retreat is only 2 sleeps away and I should be gathering projects and supplies to FINISH projects, but I cannot seem to avoid pulling fabric from my stash that I could use to START projects. A couple of days ago, I signed up for Jacquie's Joy in the New Year UFO challenge (see button on my sidebar), pledging to complete 2 of my unquilted tops. I even donated a thread catcher to the prize pool hoping it will help keep me accountable. Does anyone else seem to stall at the quilting phase? I have so many unquilted tops!

One project I will need to start soon is my Fall Quilt Swap. So, with something leafy in mind, I pulled these:

This will be my first online swap, so I want to do a good job! I've been spying on my partner and it's hard to get a read on her quilting tastes...I do have a plan for a little surprise based on her blog and heritage, though. Supplies for that are en route from far away. For now, I've got these to ponder, and possibly cut into, over the weekend.

Don't forget to leave a comment here by Sunday night if you'd like a chance to win my Thread Management give away!