A New Year With Lots To Do

It's a new year and already I've got a list a mile long of quilting projects I want to work on including trying out a new format for my blog. Change is good right?   :o)

I started this pillow top just before Christmas. I wanted something quick to work on while my Whacked Christmas Trees were at the quilter. I found the free pattern, Holiday Lane at Jill Finley's website, Jillily Studio.

 The piecing for the background was really easy and I had all the Christmas fabrics out so I decided to make four of them. The finished size on the pattern says 35" x 15" including the flange. Mine is about that size but I'm not going to have a flange. I bought a pillow form that is 28"x14" so I"ll make it to fit the form.


I used this fun fabric for the night sky. I found it at Joann's. It's the same print as the red I used on the back of the Christmas trees quilt.

I'm experimenting with the whites. I bought some creamy minky, some white wool felt, some white with glitter, and a white-on-white cotton that has some shiny bits in it as well. So far I've only made the one with the felted wool. It was fluffy when I started out but when I pressed the fusible on it kind of flattened out. I'll be checking with the Friday quilt group this month to see if they can tell me what's what with working on this stuff. It's kind of stiff so I'm not sure I'd use it again for anything. I'll let you know how the others turn out.

I'm finishing up the binding my Whacked Christmas Trees quilt and will post some pictures of the fun quilting that Lorri did for me as soon as I can figure out the picture problem UGH!

Planning what to do for quilts in 2013 was easy.  I've been mulling over some quilts for the family including Sally, Roddy, Sue, Dutchy, Georgie, and Basil. The biggest difference between these quilts and the ones for the Girls is I will be asking for a little input from the people getting the quilts.  The Girls didn't know what they were getting and that worked out just fine but sometimes caused me to delay while I fretted over color choices and patterns.  The six quilts for The Girls took me the better part of 2011 and 2012 so God only knows how long it will take for the Family Quilts but I'm excited to get started.

And the list of WIPs is pretty long too. 

These actually have been started: Steven's T-shirt quilt; my 1930's Bunny quilt; the Cone Flowers; Caroline's Mermaid quilt; campers; running shoes; and a snowball baby quilt.

These I have the fabrics for:  Rachel's Baskets; Birds;scrap quilt from The Girls scraps;  Fruit Bottom Ladies . . . . the list just goes on and on!

It will be interesting to see how far I get on any of these projects.  In order to inspire myself to finish some of them I'm seriously thinking of joining the "Finish Up Fridays" on Crazy Mom Quilts blog.  I'd love to be able to finish up a project and post it on her site.  She's one of my favorite quilt bloggers.

So hold on to you're hats 2013 is about to begin.  Happy New Year!