New Year Word.....Fabric......

What did you do New Years Eve?....What did I do???.....boy, this will blow your socks off....we stayed home, I cleaned and organized my sewing room and my husband watched a movie with the dogs....we are such exciting people...but I have to admit...I had a great time, and it needed the attention in the worse kind of way. Pretty uneventful for the last day of 2009...BUT, earlier in the day was exciting and great fun....I decided to go to the quilt shop to pay them a visit and use the gift certificate I got as a gift for Christmas....the darn thing was burning a hole in my purse...I swear!

Not only that, but I know the quilt shops move more bolts of fabrics to the clearance bin so they can clear some fabric out at the end of the year for inventory in January.....I had a ball.....seriously.....and well, since I am putting myself on a strict budget for 2010.....this was my last day for....well...spending...sorta like my last chunk of change to throw down on the counter....and well, I took full advantage of the day!

Just look at the yummy stack of fat quarters....I was lucky, there were so many "like 100's" of fat quarters on the shelves....it was hard to just pick a "few" and the best part of it was....40% off. I really have something in mind to use these for....I saw a quilt on line and it just spoke to me...lots of pretty colors....lots of scraps, I figure with my scrap pile (which is overflowing) and this stack...I see lots of scrappy quilts in my future for 2010.

This fabric was 50% off because I purchased all that was on the bolt....backs for future quilts. One in particular, inspired by my friend, Lane....a quilt made from men's thrifted long sleeve shirts. I purchased shirts with blues and oranges from garage sales, and thrift stores....the fabrics are great and recycling them into a quilt ....even better, and am certain I am going to use the orange for the backing for that quilt....masculine front with the men's shirt blocks, and well....a pretty girly print for the back of the quilt...What do you think????

Now unless you are a fabric nut...you may want to skip the next few pictures and scroll down to the bottom....you may not care to look at all of this fabric....

BUT, I want you to see one of my SIX quilts I gave as gifts this Christmas....and I made two wall hangings in my spare time.....more on this will follow in future post...now that all have opened their quilts and gifts, I want to show you the pictures....but first....here is what I purchased today....

Here is a group of the blues shades in some of the fat quarters......

How about these yummy purples.......LOVE......

These yellows should brighten up any gloomy day......

What fantastic reds.....oh how I love these reds......

and some really nice pinks......so pretty.

Well....I got a bit carried away.....these are just sorta random in color scheme...but I have some stash fabrics that will work with these...trust me!

My daughter graduated from College this December, most of you know that...I made her a t-shirt quilt for one of her gifts......I thought I did not have time to do this, and looked for someone to make it for me.....the going price was between $525.00 - $650.00 for this size....ummmm......thanks, but I will do it myself....and I did.....I was rather proud of myself if I do say so myself...This was the second quilt I finished after the first one I did this summer.

I chose a color fabric that was not the school colors, just because it looked like something my daughter would like, and it worked out well....she loved it.

I did bind the quilt in Green to tie into the rest of the colors of the shirts in the quilt......

This was such a fun project, I thought it was going to be really difficult, but it was not, really easy once the main blocks were made, and I really enjoyed making the blocks and cutting up the shirts to fit into the size square I needed.

Here is the back of the quilt.........

And here is the label. I found a picture of my daughter that was taken her very first week of college, in front of the fountain at her School...so I used that picture......

I feel like I accomplished my goal for 2009 in learning to quilt...I have a long way to go, but I did achieve what I started out to learn, and to tell you the truth...that is a good feeling. What is next for the new year?? I have learning to knit right on top of my list. Of course, as you can already see....quilting will still be a strong contender for my time....my goal in quilting is to improve on my blocks, so things line up the way they should......looks like it is going to be a busy year......

If you have not set a goal for this new year....do so.....pick one thing.... anything....and accomplish that.....it is a very good feeling to be able to say "I did it" Now if I can stick to my plan and cut my spending down this next year.....things will be good....Oh, and did I mention that sometimes goals you set for yourself are not easy to achieve?? Don't worry...stick around...we can do it together.....encourage one another!