Finished Quilts and Knits!

I have been finishing like crazy lately. It's so much fun to have things DONE! It's unusual for me to be motivated in the finishing department. My favorite is the creating and designing... after that it goes downhill. So when inspiration calls, I must take heed!

It started with the orange quilt that I posted on Thursday. Then I finished all these items:


This is one of my favorite scrap quilts. I love how it turned out. I plan to donate this to one of the H2H challenges -- probably Quilts Beyond Borders (see my sidebar for H2H information).


Not my favorite, it's not very kid-friendly. I added the ice cream cone fabric in an attempt to make it seem more kid appropriate. I hope some kid likes it. I bought the blocks on e-bay and then wondered why I had done that. Live and learn. This one goes to Wrap Them in Love.


I went to an excellent meeting on Saturday where I finished knitting this dish cloth while listening.


This hat and scarf will go to Craft Hope for the Roma project (see my sidebar).

I would have finished more quilts, but I ran out of batting. The closest batting store is putting it on sale starting this Wednesday, so I'll be able to get a big chunk at a good price and do MORE finishing! I hope my inspiration for finishing lasts that long.

Click HERE to see other H2H quilts in progress.

My February Goal

The Lovely Year of Finishes is asking me to name my February goal. What I hope to accomplish this month is to create four more verb blocks.

I am making these gradually, plus have collected some from friends, to make a quilt commemorating my 60th birthday which was last fall. I am hoping the 60th birthday quilt will be done by my 61st birthday, but that is waaayyyy down the line (7 months from now.. I know the time will fly). For now I am hoping to create four more verb blocks for this to-be-done-later quilt.

Here's an example of one sent to me by Brenda S.:

Click here to see other quilters' February goals.

My January Finish

Yay, I did it! Here's my finish: my goal was to get this quilted and bound in January, and I managed to get 'er done!

I love the look of stripes for bindings.


This is 50" x 70" which is a little big for me to comfortably do on my domestic machine. I managed, but it's not my favorite thing to do. I admire people who can do beautiful free motion quilting on little domestic machines! I may never get that mastered, but at least this quilt is done. Hooray!

I'm linking up to the Year of Finishes.

I Joined a Second Group

I now have two new projects in 2013. These will keep me out of trouble and off the streets. This is a good thing! The first is the Doll Quilt monthly swap (see button in my sidebar) which I already mentioned a post or two ago. We have a theme every month, we are assigned a partner every month, and the two partners swap doll quilts. Cool! I already have my January top made for my partner. The theme is Snow -- something my partner and I both understand. She lives in Alaska, I live in Minnesota. All I have to do is quilt and bind my top and get it mailed to her by the end of the month. She is doing the same for me. This is a fun, new thing for me to be doing. I haven't done a swap in a long time, and I don't think I have ever done a year-long swap. I hope I like a whole year of it.

The second group is 2013 Lovely Year of Finishes (see button in my sidebar). Each month we set a specific goal of something we want to finish that month. This is what I want to finish this January:

It is a quilt top made of blue scraps (also mentioned a post or two ago); I used the "dump and sew" method. I didn't really "dump," though. I just pulled out my blue scrap bin and started sewing. I like this method. It grows and morphs into its own thing, usually not at all what I envisioned for it. The picture shows the top, sitting on my table waiting for some attention. I plan to get this quilted and bound this month. It'll be a challenge, because I rarely quilt something this large on my own little machine. Wish me luck!

At the end of the year, I will have 12 projects done for the Lovely Year of Finishes! Not to mention the 12 doll quilts for the monthly swap... I can envision needing to overlap these projects, but hope not to do that very often. That will depend on how crazy 2013 becomes. I am hoping for a year lacking in craziness.