This quilt is a long time coming - and my last finish of 2015 (a year of not-so-many quilty finishes).

I started it when my little Audrey was just born - so almost 4 years ago. I had a jelly roll of Coquette from Moda, and was itching to use it.

What better way than for my little girl? Such a feminine print, very provincial.

This is an original design; I decided to improvise my strip-pieced triangles into a more modern, zig-zaggy design.

The quilt comes in at about 55" x 70" or so, and is bound with left over strips from the jelly roll.

I backed the quilt with minky dimple dot in a soft pinky-peach color.

The amazing quilting was done by the super awesome Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting!


Little Audrey is receiving this quilt this morning as her 'big' Christmas present - she is going to be so excited!

Linking up to TGIFF, being hosted by Knit-Spin-Quilt today!

Well, the Christmas rush is on.

I've been madly trying to finish a ton of stuff for the kids - most of it has been in some stage just shy of completion for months now. Feels good to finally finish a bunch of stuff!

Two of my most recent quilty finishes are kind of - well - cheater finishes - heheh.

I used two quilt panels to create minky-backed throws for the kid's cuddle time on the couch.

For my 2 year old son, who is absolutely nutters for *anything* comics -

The quilt finishes in at about 32" x 44". I used a 100% cotton batting, and bound it with a royal blue Kona I had left over from his baby quilt.

I backed it with a butter yellow minky -



Along the top of the quilt I free motion quilted the words "SUPER HERO EWAN":

For the girl, of course it had to be princesses -


I backed this one with a lavender minky, and bound it in a coordinating Kona-

...and, across the top I quilted "PRINCESS AUDREY".

I think they are going to be a huge hit this Christmas! Super excited to give them to them!

I'm linking up my finishes to TGIFF - Iris at Crazy Dutch Bird Quilts is hosting today!

So I'd include a screenshot of the winner if I could figure out how to do that with Windows 10 -

...but it was comment #25, Bluefigquilts!

I'll be emailing you shortly - congratulations!

Black Friday in our house wasn't overly exciting this year.

I usually stalk my favorite online haunts in my pjs, enjoying my coffee, while the kids play with Daddy.

This year was a bit different; I managed to save enough money from my little Etsy shop business and from my online survey shenanigans to buy a new laptop - which is huge for me - my old one is, well, old, and quite literally falling apart. There is actual duct tape on it.

So once I had dropped that kind of coin, I was

A) pretty much out of money, and
B) pretty flipping stoked about the computer and had very little attention span with regards to any other shopping tee hee

Did I mention - the computer is PINK? Because I was overly enthusiastic about said purchase, I dedicated a post to it, (here).


I *did* however pick up two other quilty things -

A new large cutting mat, 23x35, double sided - $27!

and a few Chicago Modern Quilt Guild friends and I went in on an awesome sale at Craftsy and managed to pick up Aurifil at $6.50/spool:

All in all, a great shopping excursion after a long drought. Not bad, right?

What did YOU pick up on Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Cyber Monday?

Linking up to Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash Share!


*affiliate link to Craftsy

This week I finished up another commission project for a friend.

I have decided that 2016 (and 2017, for that matter) will be the year of saving. Saving for a longarm/midarm. I'm a woman on a mission.

So - I've been working hard at making money (I wrote up my 'techniques' on how I do that as a stay at home mom in this previous post) - offering my services to friends and relatives, plugging away at my Etsy shop, and squirreling away gift cards from doing online surveys (don't laugh - I make good coin at it...).

One of the projects I've been really lucky, and honored, to create was a commissioned set of pieced and quilted tie pillows for one of my friends from her dad's old ties. A way she and her siblings could remember him by.

It was fun to work with a different textile; and even more fun when she told me not to wash out the coffee stains and food remnants - all the more to remember her dad by.

Very cool.

Also very unnerving cutting into someone's memories. Oy.

But they turned out well; this set are 10x10; earlier in the summer I made another 4, almost double the size, and they turned out well too.

They are backed with a silk, chosen by the customer.

The recipient wanted me to cut the ties open, remove the interfacing, and cut the ties into smaller strips - unlike other tie pillow tutorials out there.

I used a QAYG (quilt as you go) method to assemble the fronts, stitching the cut tie strips onto a batting and Osnaburg foundation.




Sew at Home Mummy Tip:

Ties are cut on the bias - therefore very stretchy, and wriggly!
When using the QAYG technique use plenty of pins or a quick spray of quilt basting spray to keep the pieces from shifting as you piece.



I placed YYK zippers in a side seam on each of the pillows.

Sew at Home Mummy Tip:

For puffier pillows, make smaller covers.

Make your cover 1/2" - 1" smaller square than your form/insert. 

These covers are 9" square for a 10" form.


Pillows are off to be with their new owner(s) now! Today I'm linking up with Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday!

This week TGIFF is being hosted by M-R of Quilt Matters - head on over there and visit her linky-party, and check out what she and others have been up to!


**And, as a side note - check out my post {HERE} for a GIVEAWAY! for Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!!**

I've been thinking a lot about the last year. Mostly how few quilts I managed to finish.

Granted, I did a whole heck of a lot of some other non-quilty related stuff (bought a house, had surgeries, nursed one kid and a husband through surgeries, fixed and repaired and bled money into our new house, hehehe) but I realized one thing:

I don't 'selfish quilt' enough.

I need to sit at my machine more. I need to hold myself accountable for NOT completing things for myself. 

I have a stack of UFOs for myself a foot high. I manage to finish things for everyone else but not me.

What better way to do that than a list of tasks to complete? Maybe, a better way to say that would be a list of goals. To hold myself accountable.

And who are we kidding? It's an excuse to use all of that beautiful fabric I've been hoarding but never finding the time or the right project to use it on.

so -

My Goals for 2016:

1) sew MYSELF a quilt. Oh ya baby. I don't know what the heck I'm gonna make, but it's going to be for MOI!! My fabrics, my colors, my pattern. Yippee!

2) finish something else from my ME UFO pile. Anything. (*must be quilty related and EXCLUDES 1) above. Don't cheat, Erin.)

3) earn at least $1,000 in online survey gift cards to PayPal. Don't laugh. I think I can do it. I need a longarm, baby. My goal is to buy one by the end of 2017. #longarmfund #possiblydelusional

4) enter at least one quilt in one quilt show in 2016. Get back to putting myself out there.


...I think this is a doable list, no?

What are YOUR goals for 2016??

**********Giveaway Closed**********

Welcome to Sew at Home Mummy on your next stop for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

WAHOO!!

If you've never been here, welcome! I'm a stay at home mom who loves to quilt, craft, and DIY. I'm just a maker!

I've had this blog for a few years now, and have had a few swaps, quilt-alongs, and written several tips and tricks posts on quilting, blogging, and my most recent one, on how I fund my #fabricaddiction and #aurifiladdiction (heheh) as a stay at home mom.

I love blogging, I love instagram, and I love love love quilting. And giveaways are AWESOME too (I'll be hopping around today as well, visiting everyone participating - because, you gotta be in it to win it)



So, 'nuff about me. On to the giveaways!

I'm having 2 giveaways today: one here, and one on Instagram.

The Instagram giveaway is over on Instagram {click here} and looks a little like this:

You can enter over there today as well!

The blog giveaway is for this bundle of goodies from my personal stash, including:

• Aurifil Thread Color Card
• 2 Spools of gorgeous Aurifil
• 1 5" Charm Pack
• 5 FQs of Cotton Lawn Quilting Fabric
• English Paper Piecing Hexies!

To enter:

1. Leave a comment for me answering this question: Does it snow where you live?

2.  If you follow Sew at Home Mummy on Bloglovin', Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media, you can leave comments below for additional entries. One entry per social media account! Make sure to include your username so I can follow you back. (Example: If you follow on Pinterest and Bloglovin', leave two comments, one saying "Pinterest! (and your username)" and one saying "Bloglovin'! (and your username/name)"

3. Don't follow me, but want to? Click the appropriate coffee cup below to be redirected to the corresponding social media account! Each follow earns you another entry :)

I was a lucky girl this week!

I won this lovely bundle from Stitch Stash Diva, a giveaway hosted by The Hive Handmade! Thank you so much, ladies!

I am so happy with this bundle, it's absolutely gorgeous. My mom is visiting and when she saw the bundle she decided I should make her a quilt from it, heheh.

Linking up today with Molli Sparkle's stash share!