I Finished My March UFO for A Year of Lovely Finishes

I did manage to finish my March UFO. 

 It is a quilt that will be gifted so I can't show the whole quilt. 

 My goal was to get this quilt quilted. 

 I not only got it quilted but I also got it bound! 

 Now I am just waiting for the baby to arrive so I can put a label on it!  

Here is the quilting as seen from the  back. 

 Please disregard the fuzzies all over the back.

 As I was quilting it the batting left a lot of fuzzies on the navy backing!

I am very happy with how the quilting came out.

  The front is a gold color. 

 I had a dilema about how to bind it. 

 I wanted navy on the front but not the back. 

 I wanted gold on the back but not the front. 

 Our friend, Connie, had shown us how to make a two sided binding.
My friend Pauline has a tutorial on her blog that you can find it here.
I will probably be writing one too so I can have it here on my blog as well.

I thought it was cool, but never thought I would ever do it. 

 Until this quilt came along! 

 I made a two sided binding and I LOVE how it worked on this quilt.

You can see the navy on the front and the gold on the back. 

 Perfect!  

Anyone else want to know how to do this? 

 I will share a tutorial on how to do this soon!

I am linking up to A Year of Lovely Finishes 2014 since I met my goal!!

What are you working on??

~XOP~

True Confessions?

Sad but true, I have not been doing much sewing lately.  

I am almost finished with a top that I am considering submitting to a magazine.  

So that means no photos yet. 

 I did finish a baby quilt but have not had time to get photos taken of that either!  

It's actually bound and everything!

What I have been doing is spending time with my dad and my family more.  

I see him almost every day.  

I feel like I am in a funk right now too. 

 We just lost a really great guy that has been a friend of our family's since I can remember.  

He was slightly older than me and my dad just adored him.  

Our dad's were good friends and so that's how I knew him.  

My dad used to go to all of his sporting events while he was in high school then followed him while he played at Grand Valley State. 

 His twin boys also played football at GVSU and my dad never missed a game. 

 He is going to be devistated when I tell him the news 

that he passed away from kidney cancer yesterday.  

It is just so sad.  

My dad's best friend has a son that is also dying of cancer of the throat and 

my dad is really sad about that too.  

I can't even Skype or Facetime with him as he can no longer speak. 

 I'm not sure my dad can make the 5 hour round trip to go to the funeral so I am not sure what to do about either of these things.

I am hoping that life cheers up a little bit soon.  

Sorry to be so melancholy but sometimes that's the way life goes right?  

I am hoping to get some photos of that baby quilt soon, it's adorable. 

 The second one is at the quilter's but I have decided to try something different on it.  

It has the words sunshine all over it so I am thinking of putting an off center sun something like this one

 Then having my long armer baste it and making rays go out from the spikes across the rest of the quilt.

What do you think of that idea?

This block pattern gave me the idea.

I guess there is a little creativity going on over here, it's just low key at the moment!

For my lovely finish for the month of March I would like to get this second baby quilt quilted.  I will link up and hope for the best!

~XOP~

A Year Of Lovely Finishes

I think I am going to try to participate in A Year Of Lovely Finishes this year.

  If you want to participate also, you can go here and join the linky party!

  You need to choose one project each month, define what "finish" means to you and 

then work toward your goal.  

I, like many of you have loads of unfinished projects.  

I am making a quilt right now that needs to be done ASAP.

I have all the main blocks made 

It's a quilt that I designed.

I need to lay it out before I can progress on it. 

We are in the middle of a snow storm right now so not sure if Wed night quilting will be open for me to do it.

The sashing is a little intricate, but it should be really cool once I get it figured out.

Hi Autumn!

So, since I have no control over my LAQ's schedule, I will say the finish for me is to get the entire top finished, the back made and the binding made and ready to bind.

IF I get it back from the LAQ so much the better!

So there you have it.

My finish for January is that.

Do you have a goal for January?

Consider joining the Year of Lovely Finishes.

Deadline to link up is Tuesday (I think)

Stay warm and safe in this Snowmageddon!!!

~XOP~