December UFO Finishes!

Wow!  I can't believe we are this close to the end of December!  It's been a hectic, yet wonderful month with the holidays to celebrate, family all around, and our DDs college graduation.  Even so, I did squeeze in a bit of time to finish up my December UFOs (and I already admitted that I was going a bit easy on myself this time around)!

This is "Leap of Faith."  The top was completely constructed when I began this month and it's a pretty small wall hanging, so all that was required were small pieces of batting, backing and sleeve made from the cut off fabric from "Next Door Neighbor."  Once quilted (with a small meander), I trimmed the corners and made this bias binding to attach.  The label was already made, with a cute little star stitch on muslin, and attached with the sleeve and binding.

"Next Door Neighbor" has been on my bucket list for a while now, and I'm glad it's finally finished!  What's not to like about a pink/brown color combo, tiny piecing of flying geese, and an adorable flying geese pieced border???  LOVE!  I also began this month with a completed top, binding and label (muslin with a leaf deco stitch border), so really all I had left to do was quilt (a feather panto) and add the sleeve, label and binding!  Can you tell I'm crazy for these toile-like prints lately???

Check out this blog post if you would like to read more about the goals I set for this month in regards to this project.  Otherwise, today, I'm linking up with both A Lovely Year of Finishes, & 52 Quilts!

December UFO Goals

As usual, at the beginning of each month, it's time to post my UFO goals.  Since it's December, and the holidays are upon us, and I haven't cleaned the house enough to get out the decorations, and I haven't begun to decorate, and my oldest daughter is graduating from university, and we have family coming into town, and the new quiltville mystery is in full swing, and it's just a busy month for EVERYONE in the world anyway...

I've decided that my goal will be to just finish up a couple of quilts I have hanging on my rack waiting to be quilted.  By the way, isn't this the cutest rack?  DH and I salvaged this panel from the front of an old piano that got tossed.  We then added 4 vintage cabinet door knobs with painted flowers and now I can hang my quilts there (it hangs on the wall right behind my longarm) that need to be quilted!  Now all I need are a set of vintagey looking hangers to complete the look!

Quilts waiting to be quilted

Both of these quilts are from our Prairie Women's Sewing Circle group and are designed by Pam Buda.  The pink and brown one is called "Next Door Neighbor" and is one of my favorites!  I made a bit of a mistake when I pieced the blocks (the directions call for alternating the centers in pinks and browns, but I made them all the same)...oops, but no one will ever know unless I tell them (or Pam Buda, herself, sees it, lol)!

Next Door Neighbor

The other quilt is called Leap of Faith.  It's a tiny little thing that gets a bit more complicated once it's quilted because it will get rounded corners that will require me to make a bias binding.  No big deal, she says, even though most of my previous continuous bias binding attempts have only been so-so.  Anyway...I think that this is the first time I've used a toile on the front of one of my quilts.  Have I ever told you how much I love a toile print?  I do, I love them and have backed several quilts with them!  As a matter of fact, both of these quilts are getting backed with the same toile print as is on the front of this one!

Leap of Faith

So, for December, I'm going easy on myself...just get these two quilts finished!  I must admit, I've got a great head start...both tops are finished, the backing and binding are ready for Next Door Neighbor, and the tags for both are also done!

Linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes!

Design Wall - Grand Illusion & Women of the Bible

Here's what my design wall looks like after this weekend...

Women Of The Bible:  Blocks 1-16

Hoppin' Bobbin's block of the week is still going strong.  There are something like 40 weeks (1 block/week that will make up into a king size quilt) and we're just starting on block #17 this week.

Block #16 - Deborah

This cute log cabin variation (courthouse steps) was last week's block to represent Deborah.  I am really loving how quick and easy all of the blocks of this series are and I'm also really enjoying working with the color palette I've chosen.  I sure hope it goes together well in the end!

And...have you been working on Bonnie Hunter's new mystery, Grand Illusion?  If not, you can get there by clicking on the link in the righthand sidebar for more info!

Grand Illusion - Color Palette

I always love the color palette that Bonnie chooses, so I decided to stick close to it again for this year's mystery.  These are the small pieces (1/2 yard or smaller) that I gathered for the project and I have a few baggies full of scraps in the same colors to pick from as well...I've used a good majority of the scraps already in the HSTs in clue #1!

Grand Illusion - Clue #1

I'm now all finished with clue #1...I always love seeing everyone's EARLY guesses!  Here are a couple of layouts with just the broken dishes blocks, but haha, it's only clue #1!!!

Grand Illusion - Broken Dishes block layout guesses

Linking up to BOMs Away, Quiltville, Design Wall Monday, & Scraptastic Tuesday!