Duvet - finished!

The duvet cover is (finally) finished!  It even comes with pillowcases.

I'll admit, while this started out fun, I was really ready to be done with it.  One reason is that I didn't double check the dimensions and had to add some borders.  While I'm happier with a finished product that fits, it took extra time.  Also, the mint green in the duvet matches nothing in my house.  In fact, it clashes with most of the walls, so I thought the colors looked off most of the time.  I finally saw it with only a white background as it was drying and thought that it looked nice.

See the lovely double border?

I based the pattern on Lawn Chair from the Moda Bake Shop.  The duvet is for my parents, and I remember helping my dad redoing the stripping on our lawn chairs when I was younger.  After several years we finally had enough extra stripping so that I could have a chair were none of the strips were the same.  I know, it's the small things in life, right?

And who can forget about the back?  I ended up using pretty much all the brown that I had...at the very end I was putting small pieces together to get the last border.  My biggest pieces now are maybe 2.5"x5" if I'm lucky.   Anyway, I really like the back.

Linking up with Whoop-whoop Friday, LAFF, Finish it Up Friday, Quilt Story, and Freemotion by the River.

A pillowcase

I made a pillow case!  And it fits a pillow!

I've made pillow cases before, but this one seems the sturdiest.  The tutorial is from here.  It goes with the duvet, but I need to trim the front and back to size before putting them together and ... I just haven't done that.  For an unknown reason I want to do the trimming during my son's nap time and since it isn't his nap time at night I made the pillowcase instead.  Next...the companion pillowcase.

December (lack of) accomplishments, January goals

Oh, the goals for December didn't go so well.  (Ok, ok, I didn't manage to finish anything!)  Christmas time is busy!
1. Quilt a quilt for Christmas.  This didn't happen because I didn't get the back.  It'll probably be for a birthday now.

2. Make at least one heart block.  This also didn't happen.  I was thinking about at least cutting out some pieces, but didn't.
3. Make some potholders for Christmas.  This was code for finish the duvet cover (#4) and I was hoping to finish it for Christmas.  I got really close, but didn't finish.
And some other things that I hope to work on:

4.Work on duvet cover.  The main reason I didn't finish this is because I kept making mistakes while sewing the long rows together and had to unpick them.  It took a while.  I had really been hoping to finish it but didn't quite make it before Christmas time got busy. :(

This is what it looks like right now...the top is upside down and the bottom was gently tossed on top.  I'm not always very neat, but I figure when it is being used it'll be tossed around too.  Might as well start early.

5. make a pattern for the heart block.  I think I'm going to take this off the list.  I'm not sure that I have enough exposure to make selling patterns worth the time I put into them.  I'll still keep the templates around should I ever change my mind.

6. work on the I-spy quilt.  No progress 
7. make the wall hanging for office. No progress

8. pretend to work on scrap quilt. Pretending accomplished.
9. finish green coasters.  No progress 
10. Aunt's throw. No progress
11. Pillow for family room. No progress
12. Finish Adding Up Nicely baby quilt.  Progress!  The binding is about half way finished!

I got the clips for Christmas!

13. Quilt blog hop giveaway winner quilt.  Well, I emailed the second person asking that she finish it by the end of January.  I had intended for the quilting to happen rather soon after the giveaway (which is why I said that they would be finished by Dec 10) and feel like five months should be enough time.  I haven't heard back.  I'm going to take this one off too.  I can always put it back on.
14. Quilt map quilt.  Progress!  I'm actually pretty far along.  I worked on this one instead of the Christmas quilt.  But then I took it off the quilter.

There are swirls, back and forths, triangles, pebbles, and buildings.  It's been a lot of fun putting in different textures.

15. Another wall hanging for upstairs. No progress

16. Quilt Sarah's quilt. Started!  I'm excited to see this one come together.

There are pebbles in the quarter circles and wavy lines in the apple cores.

So for January I'm taking a few of the items off but I'm also adding a few designs that I want to make.  I've been excited about them for a while, so decided to put them on the list.  I ended up with 17 items.  That doesn't sound so bad.  (How many do you think I'll bring into 2014?)
The January top 3...
1. Finish duvet
2. Finish Adding Up Nicely
3. Quilt Sarah's quilt (I need to do about two blocks a day to finish on time.  So far that hasn't been a problem.)
 
And some other things that I hope to work on:

4. Interlocking hearts quilt (finish by end of April)
5. work on the I-spy quilt  (finish by mid April)
6. make the wall hanging for office
7. pretend to work on scrap quilt
8. finish green coasters
9. Aunt's throw
10. Pillow for family room
11. Quilt map quilt.
12. Another wall hanging for upstairs.
13. Quilt red quilt for mother-in-law (finish by end of October)
14. Random triangles (finish by end of April)
15. Fractured quilt
16. Jeweled floors
17. Picture quilt (finish by Christmas)
Linking up with Fresh Sewing Day and Just three

Design floor take 2

Thanks to everyone that commented on the last post!  I was actually rather surprised, but there was 100% agreement to use the top layout.  I would have chosen the bottom layout, but people mentioned that they didn't like the two white stripes next to each other.  Ah...that makes sense.  The white is a little brighter than I realized.

So I laid out another layout and I think I'm going to go with this one.  I took out one of the white strips and separated the remaining two.   So I'll either need to make another strip or add some plain green to make the size correct.  I thought I'd put it together and then measure. :)  I figured it all out on paper, but sometimes things seem to come together a little differently that I expect.

But first I need to finish the Christmas potholders.  Christmas things first.

Joining up with Plum and June.

Design floor

I thought I'd lay out the duvet tonight and see how it looked.  It's been one of those projects where the individual strips don't look great by themselves, so I needed some reassurance.

It does look a lot better all laid out.  I was also able to find my missing brown piece...at least I didn't do the math incorrectly.

I wonder if it would look better in a different layout.  The strips are currently in a repeating pattern from the left.  I can't change the up and down stripes anymore, but the vertical stripes might look better if they radiate from the center.

Hmm, I 'm not sure.  The left and right sides don't match each other, but I figure they'll be hanging off the side of the bed anyway.  It's hand to keep that in mind when analyzing the pictures.  I guess I'll send off the pictures to the intended recipient and see what they like the best.

WIP Wednesday

I took Grandma's quilt off the frame and started to bind it.  This was the first time I've tried a pantograph.  It was a little rough around the edges of the quilt, but the middle went super fast!  I was hoping to not wash it since it's going to be a wall hanging, but I don't think that my piecing allowed for smooth enough quilting.  So it'll be getting washed.  I'm putting the binding on now.

I figured out how many more pieces the duvet needs and am working on those strips.

And I finally started a little wall hanging for myself after talking about it since May.  I didn't get very far, but I can at least say that I got started.

Joining up with WIP Wednesday.

Happenings

I worked on many things this past week...

1) Quilting design for a spiderweb quilt.  This is for one of the people that won the back to school giveaway that I had.  I'm excited about how it turned out...now just to put it on the quilt!

2) Grandma's Quilt.  I wasn't going to start this quite yet, but she recently fell and is now in a rehab facility for about two months.  I'm hoping to finish before she leaves so that it can beautify her room.  This is what my normal "about to begin" sketches look like.

3) Duvet.  I have pieces in all sorts of stages, from only two pieces sewn together to blocks cut.

4) Baby quilt.  Piecing is finished and it's waiting to be quilted.  I'm going to try backing it with minky...I really like piecing backs, but I wanted to try something soft for once.  (And yes, I know that it is inside out for the picture.  Backs can be interesting too, right?)

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

WIP Wednesday: starts

I love the end of the month.  I've usually finished my top three goals for the month and can work on whatever I want...and I seem to flit from thing to thing.  (I like the beginning of the month too as I'm fired up to work on my new goals.)  This past week I've managed to start several projects.

1) A duvet cover for my parents.

2) A baby blanket/pattern review.  I was going to mainly work on this until I ran out of one color of fabric.  I got more of it, but now it needs to be washed.

3) Sewing the I-spy quilt.  (The one bee piece doesn't get sewn to any other novelty fabrics yet, so I thought I'd include it in the picture so it didn't feel left out.)

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and From Blank Pages.