snowflake pillow

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I made this single snowflake block about 2 years ago. It was inspired by the Health Partners logo that I saw at the top of one of their office buildings. Inspiration really does come from all places! :) Those white strips are 1/2'' finished....which I love!!!

Yesterday, I added some wide, simple borders to the block....

...and I quilted it quite heavily in dark thread, which ends up being very forgiving. I love that. And I LOVE the texture!

Then I turned it into a throw pillow, of course! It's still January, so we still have plenty of winter to "enjoy"....like it or not. Ha!

I finished it off using my envelope backing tutorial and this fun aqua fabric. Isn't it a nice compliment to the front? The pillow cover finishes at about 18" square. I'm so glad to have a finished object rather than having the block floating around my sewing room! Finishing feels GREAT!

 

Two other BIG finishes for the week....my business taxes are done for another year, which is always a huge relief. And....I shipped off my quilts for the new book this week. (Hurray!!!) It's amazing I'm still upright after all of that! I'm hopeful that things will get back to normal around here soon!

 

To celebrate those BIG finishes, I'll be picking 4 winners (two from the links and two from the comments) to win their choice of any 5 of my PDF patterns from my pattern shop!

 

Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thanks for joining me for finish it up Friday!

honey cowl

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I'm very excited that I finished knitting a honey cowl this week! (There is a free pattern here if you care to make one of your own.) I used 2 skeins of luscious Madelinetosh yarn that I bought at Home Ec Workshop last summer when we were passing through Iowa City. I usually knit socks on size 2 needles, so knitting a project on size 8 needles was a delight! This is the kind of project I would usually finish in July rather than January. So, hurray for a warm, toasty neck and a timely finish! :)

I'd highly recommend the pattern! I've already cast on another one in a yummy aqua color.

Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you for joining me for finish it up Friday!

mini nines

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

This, my friends, is a stack of 340 mini nine patch blocks. That means that I finally have enough blocks for a decent lap size quilt! Oh, happy day! If I could do cartwheels, I would at least 100! :)

I started making these blocks back in July of 2013. Each 9 patch finishes at 1 1/2'', which means those little squares within the 9 patch are 1/2" finished....give or take. (So tiny! So crazy!) Precision piecing is not my thing, so these blocks nearly drove me to the brink of insanity--a few times!

I've learned a lot about myself through the process. One of those things is that I have more stubbornness than good sense. (hahaha!) I also know that these blocks are going to make one fabulous quilt top! So, here's to a little (or a lot) of perseverance!!!

If you care to leave a comment today, I would LOVE to hear about a crazy project that you have taken on....how you are faring with it, or how long it took you to finish. :)

And just to show you that I'm not the only crazy one...a friend of mine told me about a quilt pattern called are you kidding me? Don't you just love the name? It looks like a LONG term project as well. (Yikes!)

Now it's your turn to share your finishes for the week! Thanks for joining me for finish it up Friday!

hourglass pillow

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

It has been awhile since I made a pillow cover...it was high time to remedy that! I actually had a bare pillow that needed covering. (Can you believe it???) So, I can check that off my list. Yippee!

For this pillow cover, I started with several charm squares of Jennifer Sampou's new stash studio yarn dyes and stash studio prints. (Fabric is scheduled to be released this month.) I added in a few solids and textural prints (4 total) from my stash to make the pillow top square. I figured it would be easier to finish it that way. Ha!

It usually takes me 2 years (no joke!) to decide what to make from new fabric, but for some reason the idea of hourglass blocks popped into my head right away. I ran with it, and I'm so glad that I did. I love, love, love the results! I feel like this is an unexpected color combination, but I couldn't love it any more. I think it's fabulous!

I cut the charm squares down to 4.75", which resulted in 3.5" finished blocks. (You can refer to this hourglass block tutorial, if you care to make some of your own.) I finished the pillow cover with an envelope back using this wonderful Echino polka dot fabric that I found at my last trip to SR Harris.

The pillow cover is about 21'' square....and shockingly, it is NOT scrap project. Although it would be a good way to use scraps! You know, if you had any of those laying around....(hahaha!)

I'm so thankful for the fresh coat of pretty snow this morning! I had fun taking photos! :)

Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you so much for joining me for finish it up Friday!

winners

I haven't forgotten! The winners of the 3 PDF patterns from last week are: Jen from Stitchified and Granny Maud's Girl. Thanks to everyone who played along!

happy new year!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great (and safe) time celebrating last night!

2015 was definitely a scrappy year for me! This mosaic features the top nine most popular pictures from my Instagram feed. What can I say? Scraps make me pretty happy. :)

 

Last year was a super busy year for me. Good grief! My family and I went on a "real' vacation to Florida in February, I prepped for and taped my Craftsy class: Colorful Scrap Quilting, I taught several days at the Minnesota Quilt Show, I turned 40 (!!!), my good neighbors fabric line was released, and I started writing another book! I also released several new patterns and made a bunch of quilts. No wonder I'm tired! I'm happy to say, I accomplished ALL of my goals that I posted last year. I guess public accountability really does help!

 

Looking ahead....it's time to catch my breath and regroup!!! My one crafty goal this year is to knit a sweater for myself. That's it! Also, I think that this is the year that I finally decorate my house. It's time to make it look like someone around here actually cares about that type of thing. Hahaha! I'm looking forward to a slower pace this coming year. But, I bet I will still find time to sew up plenty of scraps!

 

Thank you all so much for reading and for all your encouragement this past year. It means so much! xoxoxo

 

Here's to a new year, new finishes and a fresh start!

 

(I plan to resume Finish it up Friday next week.)