Snowflakes on Christmas

For an entire year, there has been a finished quilt top sitting right next to my sewing machine and for an entire year I have worked around it.  In fact some of you may remember photos of the top I shared in June of 2013!  All it needed was to have the final papers pulled out, the sides trimmed and the edges stay-stitched.  But because it was a Christmas quilt, I felt I could always put it off for another day.  Exactly why I missed finishing it for last Christmas!

Well, a few days before this Christmas I finally got around to doing this 30 minute job and immediately got to quilting it up!.

Christmas Eve was spent cuddled under the quilt finishing up the last of the hand stitching on the binding.  (For the binding I simply used the excess backing - which is a great frosty feeling turquoise snowflake print.)

The quilt was all ready to relax with on Christmas day!

 Thankfully few of the fabrics in the quilt are Christmas themed so I can enjoy this quilt for the rest of the winter.  The colors will certainly brighten the gray rainy days we get here in Oregon.

 This quilt was english paper pieced using 2" hexagons so the top was all hand pieced.  I really enjoyed making all the separate snowflakes. Fitting them together to make the quilt top was like a big puzzle!

This quilt was the only item on my Q4 Finish Along list that I even spent any time on.  One of these years I am going to be on the ball and plan to finish my holiday projects earlier in the year.  In fact, maybe I should consider getting a few items on my Q1 list for the new year!


(A huge thanks to Katy at The Littlest Thistle for keeping me focused on finishing so many projects in 2014!)

 I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday filled with quilts and hugs to keep you warm!




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Finish A-Long goals for 4th Quarter

Last quarter was my first time joining in on the fun at the 2013 Finish A-Long hosted by Leanne at she can quilt.  I had listed 5 projects that I had hoped to finish and I am happy to say I completed 4 of them!  I didn't expect to finish that many and am feeling pretty happy about it.  So I am following that success with even loftier goals this quarter!  Here's the list...

The English Paper Pieced snowflake quilt needs to get quilted!  As I was hoping to use this on my sofa this holiday, I just can't let this one slip.  The top has been finished for months yet I seem to have waited until the last moment. 

 (sigh)

Of course the "scrappy goose" is going on the list.  I have a plan now so I just need to not only get the blocks pieced into a quilt top, but it will need to be worked into the quilting queue.  

That is always the hardest for me.

 This project was the hold out from last quarter.  This quilt top has been done for about 4 years and just never seems to make it to the top of the pile.  

Maybe this quarter....

Here's another quilt top that just needs quilting.  This was made with leftover "chunks" of fabrics that were hanging around my sewing room.  I had a pile of those turquoise strips that were the by-product from an older project and I just couldn't toss them.  So of course I had to design a whole quilt around them!

 (This quilt top did clean out a bunch of scraps from the sewing room so its a "win" already!)

 And finally, I purchased these fabrics with the intent on making a bunch of fabric buckets for my studio and sewing room almost a year ago.  They have been sitting on my sewing table since.  I say these need to get done by the end of the year also.

Well, there you have it.  Five more items I would love to get off my project list.  Don't worry, there will still be those new projects I want to start or the impulse "great" idea I get late at night for a new scrap design.  You can bet there will be lots of those and I will be sharing everything with you.

Wish me luck!! I am going to need it!

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, Thursday Threads at 627handworks and Really Random Thursday at Live a Colorful Life.