last finishes of 2011

I'm planning to post my progress from last year and my new goals for this year soon, but first I have to sneak in these Christmas finishes.

I made this very large quilt for my mom for Christmas. It measures 102" x 104". LARGE. Note that one side is missing the border. That was on purpose. You may have also noted that it is not bound. I left that to my mom. But I did get it quilted for her (by my favorite quilter Emily - of Emerson quilting.) I am SO thankful I didn't have to quilt it myself!

Here is a close up of the quilting. I love the loops.

This is the backing - my mom had this sheet and thought it would work well for the backing.

And here is the quilt I made my sister. (It was inspired by this quilt by Jess of Urban Patchwork.) It was actually supposed to be her wedding quilt - she got married in July. But she didn't really need it until winter and I wasn't going to see her until Christmas. So of course I was scrambling around trying to finish it up at the last minute.

It measures 91 x 91" and I quilted it myself. I didn't get it finished in time to send to Emily for quilting. So I did the biggest stipple I could manage on my home machine and it turned out okay. I DO NOT like quilting large quilts at home. But my sis and her hubs liked it and that's all that matters :)

they asked for a green and blue quilt so I started with the Denyse Schmidt picnic/fairgrounds dots, picked a  few solids to match, and pulled a few other blues from my stash to mix in. I LOVE the colors.

spring and summer quilt for my bed

This quilt was intimidating. That's why it took me so long. I started it in March 2009, so it took me just under 2 years to complete. Anyway - I am VERY happy with the results.

I got this idea from Denyse Schmidt's quilt drunk love in a log cabin. I also wanted a springy quilt for the warmer months (my other quilt is dark and perfect for winter).

I debated for a while how to quilt this quilt. Fork out a bunch of money and have someone else quilt it? Hand quilt it? Machine quilt it myself? I finally stopped being afraid of it and just did it myself. I wasn't too happy with the quilting and took out all the stitching on the outer border. I knew if I didn't like something about it, I wouldn't use it. Once it was all washed, all the other problems seemed to go away.

heather ross dog quilt finished!

I've had the top done for this quilt for over a month now. Maybe a few months. But I've been stalling because 1. I don't like moving everything out of my living room to baste quilts, and 2. I'm always nervous that the quilting is going to turn out terribly and so I put it off as long as possible.
Last Saturday I met with my Modern Quilt Guild for a sewing saturday. It was a lot of fun AND it turns out that the church gym floor is the perfect place to baste a quilt! I think I will be basting all of mine there in the future.

And since I've been mostly laying around for the past 2 months (since I found out I was pregnant) I figured I'd better get something done this week!

And so - I quilted and bound the dog quilt. I love how it turned out. I did a loopy quilting pattern and I'm not so good at keeping everything even, but there are NO tucks! Amazing. Enough writing, here are the photos.

(Inspiration for this quilt from this quilt and this quilt)

amy butler quilt 2

I hate it when I finish a big project (spending lots of time and money on it) and I don't love it. That's how I feel about this quilt. I don't love the quilting (which I paid someone else to do), I don't love how all the prints together seem pretty crazy. I do love the back, the binding, and several of the fabrics on their own. Oh well. That's how it goes, right? Maybe I'll put it up for sale in my shop. What do you think? Honestly.

backing (above)