Merry Christmas!  On Christmas Day my family always awakes to Handel's Messiah and eats breakfast while listening to gorgeous music celebrating the birth of Christ.  Then, we get to the presents.

Here's hoping your day is more than you expected.  Maybe you'll even be as surprised and grateful as this kid.

Another Finish!

I finished the Go Navy! quilt today.  I hand-finished the entire binding today while watching endless episodes of Super Nanny.  Thank God for television marathons!


The Go Navy! quilt spans my entire mattress, which is queen sized, with no drop.  It's the perfect size for two people to cuddle up or for one to take a cozy nap.  






This quilt is made up of t-shirts that belong to my sister, Gretchen. For those readers who don't know, Gretchen graduated from the United States Naval Academy in May. She took her oath of office and accepted her commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. While at the USNA, she participated on the women's crew team, rowing on the varsity eight scull (that's an eight seat boat, each woman with one oar, for you crew newbies).

Participating in this varsity sport allowed her to compete in many huge regattas against various teams, including Australia's Olympic team! The top of the quilt incorporates some USNA shirts as well as many shirts of teams she competed against at Eastern Sprints-- tradition dictates that you trade your team shirt with those of competing teams, including the Army team (ew!). See my favorite block?






The front is cool and all, but I think the back is my favorite part. I included uniform t-shirts from plebe summer, which is like basic training for midshipmen in their first year at the USNA. This is an extra special quilt that includes memories from four years of hard work, lessons learned, leadership, and accomplishments. I'm so proud of my sister and I hope she loves this quilt!








***


Here's a picture of the finished Ugly Eye Spy quilt with Kelsey, the momma to be! She loved it.

Updated List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• make binding
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

Updated List

Sorry,  no pictures.  I already wrapped up the French Braid (forgot to snap a photo) for gift-giving and I gave away Ugly Eye Spy yesterday.  I'm sure there will be some photos from the recipients-- I'll see if I can post those.

Updated List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• make binding
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

Progress Pics

I haven't quite mastered the hidden art of photographing whole quilts. Here's the French Braid quilt artfully displayed on my bright red couch. It's all quilted and trimmed-- see the quilting?-- and I've just spent what felt like forever ironing about 500 inches of quilt binding. Now, I must attach it. Ugh! But I do love hand finishing the quilts, so at least there's something enjoyable in my future.


Sadly, I cut up about a half yard of one of my Amy Butler Daisy Chain prints into 2.5" strips. It was the wrong fabric-- not the one I had purchased for the binding. I figured I'd go ahead and use it, but I didn't even have enough! Oh well, I'll just save those strips for future binding or some other strip-necessary project.


Also, I picked up the Go Navy! quilt from the quilter on Friday. Rebekah Richardson, of Kept in Stitches Quilting, did a gorgeous job on this thing. Here's a sneak peek.










Most of what's gotten done are things I can't cross off my list. I have cut the binding strips for the Go Navy! quilt and the Ugly Eye Spy quilt. I'm going to sew those together after I attach binding to the French Braid.

Updated List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• make binding
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

Getting There!

Today was a productive day in my workshop, which is actually the dining-room-slash-kitchen.


I quilted the Ugly Eye Spy quilt in less than one episode of Law and Order. Daniel V, the new sewing machine, is wonderful! I tried free motion quilting on the Alexander Henry Cars quilt and did a not-so-bad job. Today, I continued with free-motion and did a pretty good job! Far fewer tension problems on the back, wonderful looking loops, and I only quilted myself into a corner twice! Having the extension table makes a huge difference, even though I'm quilting on a table the size of a postage stamp. I definitely need to get some of those grippy quilter's gloves!


Additionally, I made made the backing for the French Braid quilt and also made a pieced backing for the Black Eyed Susans quilt. Those items are hanging up in the closet waiting to get basted and quilted-- just gotta buy some batting for both. I also cut the strips for the binding on the Go Navy! quilt.

Getting somewhere!

Updated List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• make binding
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

Joy in the New Year

I never posted on Jacquie's Joy in the New Year challenge post, but I have been keeping a mental list of the items I would like to have finished before the start of 2010.

Original List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

As you can see, there's a lot of quilting and binding that needs to be done.  I can finish tops with no problem, but I usually get paralyzed at the quilting stage.  I get nervous about wrecking my work in the quilting stage, and so the tops languish in their unfinished states.

I feel a renewed dedication to finishing these projects and have worked on things, finished things, and also taken things from storage so I can stare at them and feel guilty about not finishing them.  Feast your eyes on the updated list!

Updated List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• make binding
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

Go ahead.  Congratulate me on some progress.

PS-- I went to the Handmade Holiday craft show, saw Krystal, bought some cute junk, and had a lot of fun.  I will definitely go again next year.  I love craft shows!

Crystal!

Crystal of Quilting Adventures is one of the indie crafters taking part in the Richmond Handmade Holiday.

While I was surfing the event website, I found a crafter spotlight post about Crystal! This means she is officially famous.

Yay!

I'm going to the Handmade Holiday with Katie tomorrow. I will report back about how awesome it is.

Tree Skirt

Tree Skirt
Originally uploaded by mamacjt

Absolutely wonderful. I would love to put this round my Christmas tree. I wonder if there's any chance of a pattern or tutorial...