December Quilts are here!

Need to get these posted so I can start making room for all of the wonderful January quilts!!  I've been a busy gal already working on all of those great quilts that patiently waited while working on these wonderful quilts in December!

First quilt comes from Elizabeth here in NH, I believe this was a gift for her in-laws, a quick and easy one!  We used a darker thread to showoff the flowers in the quilting that matched the fabrics she used.

Next, Jane from NH, made this super cool braid quilt for her grandson.  Love the black, white and the way the red just pops right off of the quilt!  I'm sure it's going to be a well loved quilt for many years to come!

Jeannie, again from NH made this great quilt for her son and new daughter in law.  The quilting design is call Vine from Anne Bright, and is a great mix of lighter quilting and elegance.  

This is one of my quilts, yep, I finished another one!!  UfO from 2009 or 2010, I think, pretty bad when you can't remember, ugh!  This was #5 finish for me this year from the guild challenge!!   So, so glad it's done!

Here's a striking quilt from Judi in FL!  Love the bright colors on this one.  If I recall correctly this is a top that Judi was working on at the retreat.  See?  We do actually get some sewing done!

WOW!!  Absolutely love the way Kate arranged the colors on this brightly pieced strip quilt!  Kate requested a water themed quilting design, using the design Calm Waters from designer Anne Bright, I think it turned out perfectly!

Here's just one of the two fun little quilts Laura pulled together.  LOVE the blues and the Beaded quilting design keeps the quilts on the modern side.  Perfect match for the quilt and the quilting, good job Laura!

Nancy, Nancy, Nancy.  She sure does keep both me and her sewing machine busy!  Here's three of her latest projects.  Love them all, but again the bright one with the machine applique leaves....stunning!  I think it's all about the color for me this month...

Peggy in NC did a great job on finishing these great projects.   The first is a completely flannel one that will be a comfort for it's owner!  It was super soft and we kept the quilting on the light/medium light side not to add stiffness.  Peggy's third quilt from what I understand is a re-work/UFO/help me finish this kinda project for a daughters friend.  The top was made by a grandmother (I believe) but not finished.  Peggy stepped up, added a border got it quilted and now the young lady has a completed quilt!  Way to go, Peggy!

Wonderful quilter Rebecca in NC sent these two great quilts my way.  I love seeing boxes from Rebecca, she does such great work!  Her first quilt was a work of love.  Again, a quilter stepped up to finishing a project started by someone else.  This quilt is for her granddaughter, and was started by her granddaughter's "other" grandmother.  Rebecca did a wonderful job of finishing it up!  Another great treasure...

Wanted to pop in here and comment on Rebecca's other quilt.  This was a block exchange from her quilting bee.  OMG!!  I want to belong to this bee, the colors and the fabrics the ladies used was nothing short of perfection!  Take a moment to click and view all of the wonderful fabrics and color combinations.

Sandra got this wall hanging to me and we just barely got it finished so she could hang it this year!  It will see the entire Christmas season next year!!  Don't you just LOVE the ribbon border?

Perfect for a man in her life, Sharon in VT pieced this great quilt for her son.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the colors!  Great design too!  We went with a curvy slightly leafy design to balance/offset the straight lines on this quilt.  I'm sure Christmas morning was wonderful for both Mom and Son!

How stinking cute is this quilt?  Tabitha used batiks to make this adorable owl quilt for one of her daughters!  She selected a bright thread and a super flowery design to blend in most of the blocks, but become an accent in the solid ones.  It is just way too cute!!

Last quilt of the month is from Kitty in NJ.  An amazingly soft, snugly I Spy quilt for her grandson made it home and under the tree for Christmas morning!! (Binding may not have been done, but hey, we've all done it!)

Kitty used a ton of different fabrics and bordered the quilt with a fun polka dot fabric that works just perfectly!

And then it was time to finally decorate the tree!  Our Christmas tree was almost 16' tall!!  How do you decorate a tree that tall?  When you live with an engineer, you build a ladder.  My job however, was strictly holding the bottom of it!  

NO WAY!

The hubbie loved it, good thing.....

That was it for the month of December, not too many quilts but I did stay pretty busy.  Running the machines like crazy trying to catch up.  I'll be back soon with the January quilts!  See you then, and as always.....

thanks for checking on me,

hugs,

joanne

love to hear what you've got to say...................

The Secret to finishing UFO's!! November quilts too!

November was a crazy busy month for me.  I finished up a year long UFO program with the local guild and it consumed way, way, way more time than I had planned.  But it was fun and I managed to finish 5 of my 6 registered UFO's and my 6th UFO is out of it's hiding place and I hope to finish it soon! 

It was a fun program, the final month I provided everyone with the key to getting those UFO's completed!  Would you like to see?  Okay, here you go....

Yep, I carried those little containers for three months shaking them at every meeting.  I also had the ladies shaking them various times during the meeting and then they all got to open them at the same time! 

In the beginning of the challenge I had taken photo's of everyone with their UFO  and then another photo at the end of the challenge with the finished quilt. When you registered your UFO in the beginning I charged you $2 and a fatquarter, I felt everyone needed to feel vested to have incentive to finish their projects. For the program I put both photos along with an "explanation" (excuse) they gave me for the UFO not being completed, this was done on the computer using Power Point.  We had monthly prizes for those who brought their completed UFO's to the meetings and then more prizes along with the super stash of fatquarters at the end.  It was a fun night, but tons of work for me!  Here's what's on the inside and the secret to completing those UFO's.

That's it.

Following these three little words you can finish up all of those UFO's haunting you and hiding in your secret hiding places.

  Until I run out, I will be including these little gems with the quilts as I return them to their owners.  Limit one per person.  I had tons of fun with these and thought I'd drag it out a bit on the blog. 

You throw in my quilting retreat, Thanksgiving, a commission quilt and it didn't leave much time for quilting.  NEXT year I'm planning this month just a little bit better...whew!!

Here's the November quilts..... 

Alison's quilt.  Alison is not a quilter so I took the amazing fabric squares that she collected from her family members and together we made this outstanding memory quilt for her parent's 50th wedding anniversary.  Some of the blocks were so creative and very artistic!  Here's the quilt....

What a very, very cool quilt this loving family did for Margaret & Mike.  I did light custom work on Alison's quilt, again, I don't think I'm cut out for the custom or semi-custom work.  whew...

Carol made this adorable baby quilt for her new granddaughter!  The fabrics are beautiful and I know the quilt is going to be a treasure for years to come.  We had to go with a modern heart design, and it finished up beautifully!

(lighting issues on this one, it's much prettier than it appears in the photo, sorry!!)

Cathy brought me this cute little log cabin quilt. Log cabin blocks can be so versatile in their designs. She decided to go with a quilting design that would add just a touch of texture.  Good job!!

Deb's quilt is a memory quilt constructed from men's shirts.  I love the way she used the lighter fabric for the design element.  I believe this was a Christmas gift for a special friend.  It is (or was) going to be extra special gift!

Stars seemed to be the theme of Donna's quilt.  With the stars in the sashing and the stars in the border fabrics the quilt just called for a star quilting design.  LOVE the way this one quilted!!  And yep, another Christmas quilt.

Dorothy in WA is burning through her scraps!! She is on a mission and doing a fabulous job!  Love seeing what she can work into a quilt, here's her latest.

OH MY GOODNESS!!

I could hardly wait to work with this fabulous quilt!!  Everything about this one is perfect!  Being a Nancy Drew fan of many, many, many years this quilt just has to be one of my favorites.  Gabriel made this quilt for her daughter.  Take a moment to see the photo's up close, the fabric is amazing!!  AND!!!  SweetDreams had the most perfect quilting design, check it out see of you can find the Nancy Drew silhouette, book, looking glass and the question mark in the machine stitching!

Laura whipped up this quick quilt as a gift for a special friend.  I'm always partial to blue quilts, but thought the grays and creamy colors did a great job of balancing out the color palette. 

Leslie made this cool quilt, was so surprised when I took the photo.  The colors blended wonderfully but you really don't see the design of this quilt until you take a step back.  Leslie decided to keep the quilting fun and went with a paw print quilting design.

Linda made these two little quilts for a friend,  I believe she was going to be a new grandma.  Can't go wrong using the soft pastels, fun fabrics and cute design.  This always equates to wonderful little quilts.  Good job, Linda!!

Pat had me quilt up this pretty little table runner.  We used a simple circle flower design and scaled back the size of the quilting.  Finished up pretty nicely if I don't say so.  Another project out of Pat's UFO pile!!

A few more table runners came my way via Rita.  Planning for Christmas gifts we got these quilted up and ready for the bindings.  Each one was for a special friend.  I tried to keep the quilting as individual as the runner. Interesting how the same table runner pattern looks so differently by using different fabrics.

That's it for November!  Just about finished with the December photographs, so check back soon!!

As always more photo's of these great quilts can be seen at my other blog...

SplittingStitches Longarm Quilting 

Have a wonderful day,

thanks for checking on me,

hugs,

joanne

love to hear what you've got to say...