I forgot to tell you about the Tula Pink Quilt I completed on New Years Eve. I bought a jelly roll of Tula Pink's fabric line called Moon Shine last spring. I really loved the  colors and the designs were quite cute. When I received the jelly roll I drew a blank..I didn't know what to do with it, so it sat in my studio for about 6 months. I looked at the patterns and kept thinking what could I make that would look amazing. I finally stopped looking and jumped in. I cut all the strips into 4" squares and started to sew them together into 9 patches. I thought I would add a binding around the blocks but once I had the blocks completed I was inspired by all the color. I decided to sew all the blocks together kind of like a postage stamp quilt with larger squares. I can not imagine making a large quilt with 2" squares, maybe one day I will make one. Anyway, I completed the tip but hit a road block when I could not decide what to do with the backing. I didn't want to go buy any more fabric (I have a lot already) so I dug through my stash to see what would match. I found some bright turquoise fabric that I felt matched nicely, and since I had some 4" squares left over I made a line across the back with a 9 patch as an accent lower on the back of the quilt. I then left the quilt unsure what to do with the binding. I found some bright pink fabric at my favorite craft store Scrap. I have talked about Scrap in the past, they have fabric for about $2 a yard. If you are looking for some inspiration it's a great place to visit. I bought about 10 yards of a bright pink cotton that I used to make my Western Christmas shirt this year. I thought the pink was a nice accent to the quilt and used it as the binding. I quilted it with simple straight lines following the squares. I used a walking foot on my home machine finally finished this lovely gem of a quilt. My husband says it reminds him of sunshine. It's bright and I use on my lap while we watch movies during these cold winter months. I'm getting better at quilting on my home machine as long as the quilt is not too large. I still have a king size quilt that I have to complete for my sister, but that will have to be done on the long arm machine up at Modern Domestic or I will have to pay someone to complete it for me. It's next up on my to do list as it's been sitting in my studio ready for over 6 months. 

Some leggings, a shirt and a quilt back

I love my light up Santa, if I could I would leave him out all year long I would, he always makes me smile. I completed several projects last week. My new goal is to do one thing every day. One day last week I spent on the internet choosing health care...that was a drag. So I had to get into the studio and make something. So I made a couple pairs of leggings for my husband, he likes to wear long johns under this jeans during the winter months. I bought him some silk long johns a few years ago, but he can only wear those so many times a week. These leggings are a little thicker and may be just a little warmer...at least he thinks they are. As you can see I did a zigzag stitch in the waist band. It took me about an hour to make both pairs of leggings. I'm going to Joanne fabric this week to look for some grey or red material to make a couple more pairs for myself. I love these leggings and as I said they are soooo quick and easy to make. I then finished the backing for the my Tula Pink Moon Shine quilt. I used the left over squares with some nice turquoise material that I found in my cupboard of fabric, I think the turquoise goes nicely with the bright Tula Pink fabric. This week I hope to put the entire quilt together and quilt it on my machine at home. I pulled out my Christmas Fabric in preparation of making a couple matching western shirts for my husband and myself. I was thinking of the grey or red for the base of the shirt with the Michael Miller Holiday Break fabric as the decorative yoke. I love this fabric it's very cure. 
I also finally tried to make a fabric basket. I have seen these on so many blogs. Ladies make the baskets to put in sewing rooms and fill them up with small scraps of fabric or thread destine for the trash. I have never made one before and found a nice tutorial on SewMamaSew during the handmade holidays posts the last few weeks. I like it but I do not think I will be making any more for my studio but I think I will make a couple to hold cookies as gifts this holiday season. During the winter months I like to wear long sleeve t-shirts under large sweaters. I tried the Alabama Chanin long sleeve shirt from her last book "Alabama Studio Sewing + Design". I used some cotton jersey that was not very stretchy thus the shirt is a little tight. I want to make it again because I like the flare in the sleeves. I think I have to do some adjustment to the bust, as that area was a little tight too. The fabric I used to make this shirt was some scrap that I bought at a thrift store so I have no idea of the actual content of the material. It was a white piece of material but I dyed it blue with a batch of fabric I dyed last summer on vacation. I really liked the color and was hoping that the shirt would work on the first try....it did not. I may just back to the Jalie 2805 pattern as I have made several of these t-shirts and they all fit really well.  

Skirt and another Quilt Top

 
I finally completed the Facet Skirt from Alabama Chanin. This design took me about 3 months, I kept putting it down because the pattern was so detailed. Cutting out all the small designs took me forever. I do like the beaded detail. I used size 8 clear glass beads to accent the design. the breading was the easy part. I want to bead all my clothes now. If you look close at the first photo you can see two of my cats watching me with interest as I took photos in our backyard...it was very cold!

I finally cut into my Tula Pink jelly roll pack that I bought several months ago. The collection is called Moon Shine. It's described as a "fantasy camping trip full of mystery and wonder". I bought a roll of 4" strips, there were 27 different strips. I did not know what I wanted to make but I loved the fabric so I bought it. I thought some triangles would be nice but then sewing all those small parts was not how I wanted to spend my day. So I decided to cut everything into 4"squares. I sewed all the squares into 9 patch then sewed everything together. My husband  looked at it and said it looks like sunshine...it's so bright and colorful. It's 50" by 60", i'm  not sure if I will quilt this one on my home machine or make this a tied quilt. I have some lovely turquoise fabric for the backing.