WIPS: Rest in Peace Zombies

The joyful hubbub of the holiday season has definitely lessened.  Now My Guy and I are enjoying our end of the year vacation days.  We spent yesterday morning tackling our over stuffed walk in closet.  It's amazing what stuff accumulates on the shelves in there and what's hidden in those piles.  We'd been looking everywhere for my keys to My Guy's vehicle for the last few months. I was convinced they had fallen out of my purse.  But we found them in the purse I was carrying last Christmas!  We're about a quarter done with the whole closet.  So far we've taken a box worth of luggage/duffel bags/purses to Good Will and have filled up one trash bag.  We'll be back at it later this morning.  No telling what else we'll find.  

That was my morning, but the afternoons this week are reserved for more fun stuff.  My Guy went for a bike ride, while my plan was to sew for a while.  It was a nice sunny day, so I took the opportunity to get photos of my last finish, Zombies in Paris.  It's been finished since the end of November, so was definitely time to get those photos.  

I couldn't resist doing some staging for the final photo shot, for once I actually had the time.

Zombies in Paris by Kate
Finished November 30, 2016

The colors photographed much truer outside.  It's a fun quilt.  The zombie fabric is a perfect fit for it's intended owner. 

Trudy did a wonderful job with the quilting, the double hearts echo the quilt blocks. 

The backing used the fabrics of Paris landmarks that didn't make the cut for the front of the quilt.  

The lighter purple was used for the binding. 

Drama Teen helped with the label, we kept the message simple. 

DT asked for the quilts for her best buds so they would have something to take to college that they could cuddle with when things got stressful and to remind them of their friendship.  

So one down, three more to go.  

Linking up with:
Let's Bee Social
Needle and Thread Thursday
Finish it Up Friday

Best of Life in Pieces for 2016

Hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone already.  The New Year is just around the corner.  It's a good time to reflect on this year, decide what worked and what didn't before nailing down next year's directions for the sewing room.  Cheryl over at Meadow Mist Designs is again hosting the "Best of" linky party, except it's the 2016 version.

Cheryl leaves it up to the blogger to decide what constitutes the "best of" for the linky party.  I considered her suggestions of most views and most comments, but those tended to be posts over pretty much the same two projects.  So following the form of last year's post, my "best of 2016" posts are the projects that I got the most joy out of over the last 12 months.

Number 5: Zombies in Paris
This quilt is one of 4 graduation quilts that needs to be finished before May of 2017.  This project started out one way and ended another.  

Number 4:  Midnight Mystery Quilt
Mystery quilt alongs are one of my most favorite things in blog land.  The 2015 Midnight Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs certainly didn't disappoint. 

Number 3.  Blooms and Butterflies (Back Porch Blooms Sew Along)
When I saw the Back Porch Bloom blocks on Podunk Pretties, I was pretty much in lust, but I was able to resist until Lea Anne started adding in butterfly blocks to the mix and challenged her readers to come up with their own design using these blocks.  Once the design was in EQ, I just had to make it.  

Number 2:  Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt Allietare
My second Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt.  It's fun and educational to stitch along with Bonnie.  And I loved the final quilt.  

Number 1:  Vintage Dresses
The Rainbow Scrap Challenge has been one of my favorite stitch alongs in blog land.  It's amazing what you'll try when you only have to make a few blocks a month.  I'd tried some very simple paper piecing before this pattern, but I didn't realize what I was in for, good thing the plan was to make only two blocks a month. 

Those are my "best" posts for 2016.  You can see more of the best over at Meadow Mist Designs.  

December One Monthly Goal - Calculations In Progress

Hope everyone had a very happy holiday.  We spent the holiday hanging out with my family.  We had lots of fun, my family really gets into the gag gifts and we had a couple of spectacular ones this year.  So it was a memorable evening.  

There's not been a lot of sewing this week with all the holiday prep and other activities going on.  But there's been a conscious effort to make some progress on December's One Monthly Goal.  

This month's goal was to get started on Geometry, the third graduation quilt that needs to be finished before May 2017.  This quilt is for one of Drama Teen's friends who is a math whiz and thinks she wants to teach math.  I found the perfect fabric for this project earlier this year.  

Then came up with a Drama Teen approved pattern.  

That's where I was at the beginning of December.  The goal for this month was to pick out the rainbow of brights and then get started on making the quilt.  Drama Teen made the final fabric selections during her finals week, it was a nice break from studying physics she said. 

Last week squares from both the math fabric and the bright orange tone on tone were cut. I count a quilt started when the fabric is cut. So that means my December One Monthly Goal of getting Geometry started was met. But I did manage one step more and finished the first few HSTs.  

There was one unexpected wrinkle in the quilt kick off process.  That math fabric is directional.  How I missed that I don't know, but thankfully it became apparent before I started cutting the blocks.  I'm going to be able to keep the fabric facing the right direction in all the blocks, but I'm going to have to be very conscious of how the blocks are sewn together and the orientation when placed in the quilt.  I fully expect there to be some unsewing on this project at some point.  

Thank you to both Red Letter Quilts and Elm Street Quilts for hosting the One Monthly Goal this year.  It's been a great way to lower the activation energy on stalled projects.  I met 11 of my 12 monthly goals this year, so it really was a great motivator.  You can check out how December went for everyone else over at Elm Street Quilts.  

Also linking up with:
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Monday Design Wall

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

Weekend Stitching: Santa Gifts and Clue 4

Time seemed to fly this weekend, it was over before I got started.  Saturday was spent getting Drama Teen ready for the dance that turned into board game night here at the house.  So my evening of solitude and sewing didn't quite work out as planned.  I'm not entirely sure what happened to Sunday, it was far too cold to go any place.  Staying warm and toasty under a quilt was preferable to dealing with a chilly sewing room, so I didn't spend much time stitching on Sunday either.  I did make a start on clue 4 for En Provence. 

Yes only 2 triangle in a square blocks got finished.  What looks like black is really a very dark blue.  I have to work today, but I'm off starting tomorrow till the end of the year.  I should have some time the next couple of days to make a few more of these blocks before Clue 5 is posted on Friday.  

While sorting through some unopened packages from My Guy's on line Christmas shopping expedition the week before, I found one addressed to me that wasn't from one of our normal on-line vendors.

Di who blogs at Quilting is Blissful must be one of Santa's helpers this year,  the enclosed candle mat and stuffed animal she sent are beautiful. The enclosed cards are so cute too.  Drama Teen took quite a liking to the deer and made sure it found it's way to a prime spot on the Christmas Tree. I haven't found a spot for the very pretty wool candle mat, but I will.   Thank you Di.  

Now it's time to head to get ready for my last work day of 2016.  Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season.  

Linking up with:
Mystery Monday
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday