2014 ALYofF: Twelve Finishes!

A big thanks to Shanna and Melissa for the quilty motivation this year!!

 As we all find ourselves wrapping up 2014, it's rewarding to see all that  has been accomplished. I myself met each of my monthly ALYofF goals this year and it was pretty fun to see them all together in a collage:

Looking back, I'm also grateful for everyone's support and encouragement throughout the year. You wouldn't think a sinple comment would make such a difference, but they really do! If ya by chance missed one of my monthly quilts here's the link to all my ALYofF's for a quick peek at each one. I haven't given much thought to 2015, but am sure as the new year arrives, I'll find my motivation. Until then I'm linking up with everyone else at The ALYofF Finale Party and wish each of you a great start to the new year!

 With smiles,

Val:)

ALYofF Dec. Layer Cake Finish

Woot Woo! With the continued help of my buddy Jackson, I get to share one more finish for 2014. This time I think the cold really had him wound up, as he kept running all over my quilt as I tried to take pictures! I finally picked him up and said: "stay". 

(I think you can tell by the look in his eyes he got in trouble! LOL! ) 

During our Tuesday Archives Layer Cake Linky, there where a lot of layer cake patterns to choose from as I set out to create a quilt from an Aneela Hoey Cherry Christmas layer cake for my December ALYofF goal. I chose to use this Spinning Pinwheels pattern from Shannon at Modern Tradition Quilts.

 I did modify the sashing, but I just love the BIG  pinwheels in this pattern:

And though I didn't get a good picture of the quilting, as my fingers were getting very cold and I couldn't even think of turning the quilt over as Jackson continued to crazy run and jump around me, I do want to make a personal note that I used a pantograph called: Christmas Cookies. It's very whimsical with trees, snowmen, candy canes, gingerbread men, snowflakes, and hearts dancing across the quilt.

  And here it awaits. I love it's cute little red backing and candy caned stripped binding all pressed, clipped and ready to be stitiched. I'm over the moon happy, as I have family gathering from afar at our house for the week as we come together to celebrate Christmas/New Years. I can't wait to sit next to the fireplace stitiching and visiting with my mom as she knits, the kids as they chill and the grandson as he gets into everything and his mom gets to chase him not me! LOL!

I hope the holiday season finds you surrounded by the love & comfort of friends and family. We've been blessed with a white Christmas and safe family travels. Tomorrow's Tuesday Archives theme is Log Cabins. I hope you'll stop by! Until then, I'm linking up my final finish with everyone else at ALYofF and a few other parties listed on my linky page.

With Smiles,

Val:)

ALYofF Dec.Goal/Layer Cake Quilt

Wahooo!!! For all us ALYofF participants....it's almost time to celebrate! We have made it to month number twelve!!! Admittably, I bought this Aneela Hoey Cherry Christmas layer cake, the backing and border material two years ago!! (Hey...it was on clearance and how could a fabric loving girl like myself resist??) So with that said, I want to finally get this all made into a cozy winter quilt. I'm still checking out all the links at this week's Tuesday Archives Layer Cake's posts. But I'm close to picking my pattern and plan to cut into this yummy layer cake this weekend!

Nothing better than sewing while it's cold outside! But I do wonder, if  you're able to fit in any sewing during this busy time of year?? If so, when?
My big sew day is Sunday...as my husband works and I don't.
 I then then busy myself during the week with hand stitching in the evenings after work.

Off to link up with everyone else at:

Thanks for stopping by!

With smiles!

Val:)

ALYofF Nov. Wonky Scrappy Stars Finish-UPDATED!

Admittably, THIS has been my BIGGEST ALYofF goal this year. More times than not, I asked myself why I chose THIS as my goal right now!!!It's been awhile since I've tackled a queen size quilt. There were numerous moments I did not think I'd make my goal this month as it got a little overwhelming. But thankfully, I got an extra snow day from school, my walks were lessoned due to the weather and my husband worked some 8 to 8 shifts. So I perservered...knowing I couldn't give up, this close to the end. I sewed rows together and added two borders. I made a back with a scrappy row down the middle to give me that extra foot of width I needed:

Rows sewn together and borders added.

Backing was made.

  

I ironed six yards of fabric as even though I was lucky enough to find my backing for 35% OFF... it unfortunately had those deep crinkled wrinkles in it...like it was sitting in a sale bin too long...LOL!

Six yards of backing got ironed.

It took me the rest of a Sunday morning to get it all loaded on the long-arm, and then a couple of days after school/work to quilt it.  I love this Fancy Star pantograph and thought it complimented the quilt well. 

Fancy Star Pantograph in a black
solid thread adds to this quilt's Primitive style.

And here it is FINISHED on our guest room bed:

Jackson couldn't resist getting in on the "photo shoot" and wanted me to make sure I showed you the black 3inch black border along with the 6inch scrappy border:

And if you were our guest and woke up under this cozy quilt, here's that view:

I can't tell you how very HAPPY I am to have this WIP done!!
It's such a collection of Buggy Barn learning projects/classes that have been sitting around for years.  I also feel pretty thrifty having them all put together into a primitive sytle quilt and even better there is practically NO fabric left over!! LOVE THAT don't you!?
WHEW!!! I'm done!

THANK YOU for the motivation:

Shanna of Fiber of All Sorts and Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs. Click  and stop by and check out everyone's November finishes and  Hey! Thanks a bunch for stopping by to see mine.

With Smiles,

Val:)

ALYofF Nov. Goal/Wonky Scrappy Stars

Okay, I've been working on this one waayyyy too long. So it's time to get 'er done.

I don't even know why...as I love it and it's for our geust room upstairs.

Yet, it goes from design wall back into piles, continuously.

So for my Novemeber ALYofF goal, I plan to get her sewed together, quilted, binding done and ready for it's finale at the end of the month as a quilt on a bed!

With Smiles,

Val:)

ALYofF Oct. Sock Monkey Finish

Our Grandson turned one earlier this month. 

 I think I scored a touchdown with his birthday quilt: 

As I stated here, my goal was to create a birthday quilt for our grandson. His parents are BIG Seattle SeaHawks Fans so my son-in-law was especially awed that I found his team's fabric. LOL!! (I actually found a background fabric called artificial turf grass!)

 He noticed that too! I even signed the front like a "sports star" would sign a football!

 I had so much fun creating this Sock Monkey Football Quilt for him!! 

A few shortcuts used:  First, I used premade binding for the white field stripes and machine sewed them on. I used iron-onVarsity Numbers. Applique: I drew the sock monkey and enlarged it by about 150%  at the local print shop. I found the football pattern in one of my old teacher bulletin board books and used 3" lettering templates leftover from my scrapbooking days to create the TOUCHDOWN letters. I then hand appliqued them all onto the quilt top. 

     It measures a cuddly 38"x 50". It's soft, lime-green, polka-dot, flannel backing, will hopefully make this his favorite "go-to" comfort quilt. Andddd...though I was a little apprehensive about using a pantograph on an appliqued quilt, I couldn't resist quilting it with my Sock Monkey Pantograph and it sewed over the applique with no problem. 

Jackson also wanted me  to show  how I included our 

grandson's age and the year on the back: 

Well, there ya have it, my pride and joy for the month!
I'm linking up with everyone else at:

(Can't believe I've made my monthly goal every month so far!! Anyone else feeling like that??) A big thanks to Shanna and Melissa for the motivation!!
Also check out my linky page for more fun places to link up and share.
With smiles,
Val:)

ALYofF Oct.Goal/Sock Monkey Quilt

Our grandson is turning one next week and I'm creating him a crib size quilt to celebrate!

I have my fabric collected, the quilt sketch is made and our monkey is enlarged.

I'm linking up with everyone at ALYofF and looking forward to getting started on this.
Our weather is beautiful and I plan to work on the applique outside on the patio today.
How about you? What are you up to this weekend??

Happy Saturday!
V:)

ALYofF Sept. Baby Quilt Finish

I love meeting my ALYofF goals especially today as I celebrate my 30's retro, charm pack slice-n-dice baby quilt finish. It ended up being 38"x 38" square. Perfect size to cuddle baby in or lay down for nap time don't ya think.

I quilted it using a Butterflies Loops & Swirls pantograph in cream thread.

I like the contrast of the green backing and green polka-dot binding.

And do ya like this little gal with her swishing ribbon tail??

She was as easy as 1,2,3 to make!

First, I just took a piece of the elephant fabric and blew it up on a copy machine. Then, I traced her onto the shiny side of  a piece of freezer paper and ironed her to the cream fabric. Finally, I then cut her out a 1/4" larger than the template and appliqued her onto the quilt. I embellished her with an orange running stitch using a perle cotton thread.

 This was so fun to make! It will be a baby gift to my teaching partner. They are expecting their baby girl in December! I hope they use it a ton. Thanks for stopping by! I'm linking up with everyone else at ALYofF to share our September finish & others on my linky page.

With smiles!
Val:)

ALYofF September Goal/Baby Quilt

Time to get back to sewing and for my September ALYofF goal I cut these five inch squares from an abundance of 30's repro prints I had and plan to make a baby quilt for my teaching partner. (His wife is due in December...baby shower next month)

 I look forward to relaxing as I chain piece these together,then use a slice-n-dice pattern to add a little spin to the finish. And notice those cute little elephants and bunnies in the prints...wouldn't it be cute to add a larger, applique version of one of those to the quilt? Atleast, that's what I'm thinking right now. I'm off to share and see what everyone else is up to this month at ALYofF and hopefully get in a little sewing myself today.

Happy Saturday everyone!

With Smiles,

Val:)

Mom's Chevron Quilt Finish

Well here it is, my last finish of the summer. I always love watching quilts evolve through

 fabric selection and design wall stages, to cuddling with them on your lap as you bind them to this final finish stage. It was also fun to read your previous comments left and to discover I'm in good company when it comes to enjoying hand binding. 

I used the Fabric line: Hot For Chocolate II by Betsy Chutchian with Blue Hill Fabrics to create this quilt and a dog pantograph upon my mom's request. (I think she wanted to match my dad's quilt.) I used a cream Kig Tut thread from Superior. (I almost went with a brown thread, but like how the cream showed the quilting a little bit more.)

This quilt measures a cozy 53" x 73".

My parents arrive this weekend for their final visit of the summer. I can't wait to gift it to her!

With Smiles,

Val:)

ALYofF August T-Shirt Quilt Finish

For my August ALYofF goal, I wanted to end my summer break turning these...

...into a School T-Shirt Quilt that will be used as a raffle fundraiser to raise money 

for additional playground equipment.

I was a little sad when I went to take pictures yesterday, and noticed half of the primary playground is gone. To think, this is all our 125 Kindergartners and First Graders will have to play on when they return to school in another week:

I hoping the quilt will appeal to a wide range of kids, especially since we are a K-6 Elementary.  I quilted it with a really fun soccer kids pantograph, 

knowing many of our students play soccer and...

 ...I picked out some glittery sunglasses for the backing and

 finished it off with some fun checkered binding:  

And before I wrap up and click that little "publish" button, here's an extra big shout-out of thanks to all of YOU!  Your  previous comments  on what to charge for quilt raffle tickets really helped me gather a variety of options to present to my fellow colleagues next week. Sooooo:

With Smiles,

Val:)
Linked up with ALYofF and many others listed on my linky page. 
Do stop by and check out the wonderful work of so many.

ALYofF August Goal/T-Shirt Quilt

This month I'm going to attempt my very first t-shirt quilt for my August ALYofF goal.

Before school was out for the summer, I did an "all call" for old school t-shirts and collected a nice array of colors. I plan to donate this finish to our school.  I'll use it to create a raffle fundraiser to help add to our school's "new playground fund" as ours is being removed due to the fact that it's so old that it has been deemed "unsafe". :(


What would you guys recommend for my raffle ticket  price? (I've never raffled a quilt before, so any advice is welcome.) Thanks ahead of time for your input.
Off to link up with everyone at:

With smiles!

Val:)