mystery quilt take 2 (and 3)

Here are a few more ideas for borders for my mystery quilt. What ever I do for my inner border i'll use for the binding I think. Do you like one of these better? or one of the ones I posted yesterday?

Mystery quilt

This is the mystery quilt I was working on yesterday after we opened gifts. Its a little brighter than I was expecting-garish is the word my mom used. Anyway I need some advice on borders. The easter eggs will be the outside border, do you like the blue(bottom)or the Purple(right side) or do you have another suggestion?

end of the year tally

I've started my counting for the end of the year, these are final numbers to the best of my knowledge. I have 23 baby or bigger tops that will carry over to 2009 as UFO's. I have 35(i think) runners or other small projects that will carry over as ufo's also. I have 18 other projects that are not to the top stage that also count. That makes my total ufo starting point for 2009 - 70 projects. If I can keep up my 60+ finishes a year it could be possible to finish them all, but i'm not counting on it.

Thats the bad news, now the good news for stashbusting: I used a net total of 394 yards of fabric this year! I finished 77 quilty projects and 150 other projects. Many of those other projects were multiples-like the 65 stockings I sent to Iraq, and the 21 pillowcases i made for Christmas gifts. But done is done!

I'll have pictures of the last 2 sets of stockings i finished this week as soon as I can get on the main computer. And I'll be asking a border question on the Mystery quilt I started today.

Merry Christmas!

Mystery quilts

I'm participating in 2 upcoming mystery quilt projects online. The first set of fabrics is for the New Year's Eve project. The second set is for a Christmas day project. I wont actually get to sew much on Christmas day, so that will most likely be a "boxing day" mystery. Any reccommendations on colors or do you like what i've got?

Happy Birthday Sami!

She's 10! How did that happen already? It can't possibly be 10 years ago already that she arrived in our lives, can it?

stocking swap

I got my stocking opened this morning. I recieved some wonderful goodies from Ele in Iowa. She made a beautiful little bear that i'm gonna have to fight dd over and I love the potted birdys. I also got a bell for the front door that's already hung up, 6 pieces of fabric(lights!), candles, quilting needles, and some m&m's.

Isn't this the neatest stocking? I love the bright colors and the lace on top is really intricate. Its made of flannels-i've rarely seen flannels that bright.

troop stockings

Since Randy is in the Air Force, I end up doing a lot of military related crafting. Our spouses group collected old desert uniforms and helped me cut them up to make stockings for the troops "downrange" (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc) All we used was the backs of the shirts for simplicity's sake. I was not about to take the time and effort to pull all those seams apart. We cut out about 110 stockings-there are 20 in each of those bags. That means i have 60 finished and ready to mail. The other 50 or so are sewn front to back but no cuffs or hanging loops yet. I don't know if I'm even going to try to finish them. We only have about 45 people downrange right now so I'm not worried about having enough to go around. They measure about 7 inches long when finished. I still have 3 more shirts i could cut up, but i think they are going to get put away for next year. I'm kind of burnt out on this project and i still have a bunch more sewing to do before Christmas.

Snow day tops

These tops were all started a couple weeks ago during the big storm. I was looking for a project that used up a collection that i bought while in Germany and now I'm down to just scraps and 2 big pieces for bindings. The cookie fabric is new-bought just for the table runner. I also made 3 aprons out of the same print. One for each kid and one for me. I have not gotten pics of us wearing them yet.

These almost turned out Haloweenish didn't they? Orange, Purple, Black and the lime green too-that just says Halloween even though the prints are not even close to Halloween!

Christmas Trees

While we were back at mom's for Thanksgiving we decided to go get thier Christmas tree. This tree farm has a deal with dad-they get to borrow his tractor for 4 weekends and he gets a free Christmas tree. When I was younger all of us 5 kids worked there for those 4 weekends, as did at least 4 or 5 of my cousins. My littlest brother and 2 cousins still work there. This is the farm's 20th year. It was a cold rainy/snowy day but the kids had lots of fun. Dad griped just like always, and mom was too late to help pick because she was at the hospital with Grandma. Pretty much how it works most every year. My kids wanted to help put the tree up but there was not enough time before we had to head back home.