Happy New Year!

Rather than creating resolutions (well what the heck I have some of those too) I've created a scavenger hunt for myself in 2009. I'll post it tomorrow. I was inspired by the Scavenger Hunt at Design for Mankind earlier this year- 'cept this one is a solo mission.

In the mean time- Happy New Year's!







How do they stretch like that? New (actually another UFO from a few months ago) quilt I am finishing up.

Keep Scrolling..

...because I have things to show you...



I finished my Green Wonder Quilt. It is really green, but they are cool-hued greens. Just the kind that makes me smile and think of spring. All from my stash. You'll see I've broken down recently and purchased Amy Butler and Heather Ross fabrics, but there are many vintage goodies in there.





And the binding is some yellow gingham I had in my stash.



I did very simple lines for quilting. Actually while I was quilting this quilt I was thinking- man I must have finally gotten better at this quilting thing- because it was going so smoothly. But alas, I started quilting two smaller quilts I have kicking around and I discovered I must have just had my lucky mojo socks on 'cuz I'm not any better at it. Now if I could only remember which socks I had on...

Hot Pink Start

Here are the hot pink squares I mentioned in the previous post. This quilt is inspired by Bling's Swiss Miss Pillow give-away. I had forgotten how great hot pink was until I saw her cross. Strangely- I had like 3 yards of this stuff in my stash. I had just recently used it for the back of a quilt. I think I originally bought it with plans for a tank top (but still three yards!?)



It was called crinkle cotton from Joanne's. It is a bit heavier than quilter's cotton and I love the toughness of it since it is pink afterall.

Quilt Bee

I finished these quilt bee blocks a while ago, but haven't had a chance to post them. The great thing about being involved with the quilt bees while I was so busy this semester was that I had a deadline that I was trying to reach. It actually got me to stitch a few times- so that was a great thing. Although I have two envelopes of fabric to stitch (horribly overdue in fact!)



This cross block has spurred my interest in cross quilts (I have a hot pink cross quilt cut and ready to go).



These blocks were really fun too because there were hardly any rules about size or type.

Sewing Chair

I made this bag last year out of Heather Ross fabrics. I used the Japanese book- Machine Made Patchworks for inspiration.



The camera is one of my film cameras. I love how film has made a *comeback*. I'm sure most of us grew up just using film. I used to use my dad's old Canon in high school and college. Sometime inbetween I scored this Pentax from a family I worked for. It cost $5.

Merry Merry

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I received this little handstitched felt gnome from me mom.



She received this vintage red and green Christmas quilt from me pops.



Some goodies decorating my place. These vintage candles.





And other small woodland creatures.

Back Up

I forgot to show off the back of this quilt:



Pieced from left over scraps and I am lovin it.



I've always had such a difficult time actually quilting my quilts, until this one. For some crazy reason (maybe because it was a small size- roughly 50x60) it got a whole lot easier with this one. I just went for straight line quilting which is also pretty easy too. Anyway, I quilted another quilt last night that I have been calling the Green Wonder quilt in the same way. Just straight lines. That one is full sized and it went really well! I'll show soon.

Stitching Away

I finally got the nerve up to cut into my Heather Ross stash. I received this little bundle from my mom last Christmas and have been savoring it too much to cut it up. It is going to be my lucky bike race quilt. It has all my favorite things on it- bicycles, gnomes, dalmatians.



Isn't this bike next to the quilt great too? I snagged it at a yard sale years ago and have been holding on to it while I fix it up. It is almost ready to go for a ride- perhaps this spring.



A few close-ups:

And the winners are...

Okay, remember that giveaway I was hosting like months ago? Yeah? Well, here are the winners sorry for the delay! Just send me your address when you get a chance to betty (underscore) whoosh (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Twinkle Star Art

Jodi

Lynn (of CraftStew, fellow Common Threadian, I know I have your address somewhere, but would you mind sending it along again? Thanks!)

And in case you forgot what you were winning....







And in case other folks want one...(my etsy)

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade lostinthewoods.etsy.com

Living

I am so glad to have some time to do normal people things again. Wandering through the woods, taking photos of things that catch my eye, whittling away at my quilting to-do-list. Back to real life again. (I've been going to school to be a Speech Language Pathologist at a very intense program.)



Last week NH got hit with a huge ice storm that knocked out power to most of the state. We were extremelly lucky to get it back within a few days but many of my friends are still without. To top it off, we just got hit with 8 inches of snow Friday and are expecting another 12-14 (yikes!) today. So places like the grocery store and the gas station are super busy and have very bare shelves.

Anyway- also on my to-do list is to organize my flickr account (I have like 10 different sets for my quilts- why aren't they all in one set?! arg) and figure out twitter (just signed up for an account).

You Guys

You guys rock by the way. Thanks for checking in on me everyone. I need the little- "where have you been" emails? They remind me of the fun creative things I used to do before I decided to go back to grad school... So where have I been?



I've stolen tiny moments to quilt. Came up with this little Christmas present for mom from my stash. Still whittling away at the stash and feelin really good about that.





So I'll be back. I have about a week left of finals and then I have about a month off! I am so lucky to just use that time to decompress. I plan to stitch a lot, go for long walks in the woods, and get to the gym. Maybe I'll even post everyday! That would be fun.

P.S. I swear, the giveaway will be announced just as soon as I am done with finals.

Summer Quilt

So, ya know how I have been faithfully using up my stash in my quilts? Well that has been going fabulously. I have a few more quilts planned out and then I have almost completely used all the fabric I have. Believe it or not, I'd rather not have a stash of fabric kicking around making me feel guilty. But......when Heather Ross's new line of fabric came out over the summer I splurged. I splurged and bought a quarter yard- a quarter yard of everything!



But I love it so much! I made this quilt roughly using Denyse Schmidt's What a Bunch of Squares Quilt for inspiration. It reminds me a lot of this quilt that I did last year.







More shots of this quilt and Little Red in my flickr.

Little Red

Gosh- sorry I haven't posted the winners yet for the give away! Hopefully this weekend. I worked on this little red number for the past several weeks and wanted to share my progress. It is all strip piecing.

Big Time

Big time thank goodness! I am so relieved to have made it to Friday . I had two huge midterms and started clinical work this week. So things were super high stress for me. Not everything worked out perfectly this week, but you know what? Everyone is still alive.

I have some things to show you! You may have already seen them if you have been to my flickr stream lately. This blue one was a lot of fun for me and it was super easy. I had stacked my fabrics by color and realized that I loved the way the real blues were looking together.





Most, maybe all, of these fabrics were yard sale finds or fabric that was gifted to me in one way or another. As you other quilters now, nothing makes a quilter more happy than being frugal.

The back is a contrasty yellow.



Almost all my quilts are inspired by Denyse Schmidt's work.



I also started blocks for a folksy red version of this quilt. I am in love with fabric from the 60's and 70's right now. If it is remotely usable at yard sales- I scoop it up. This quilt uses mainly yard sale fabric and also fabric from my stash. Once again, I didn't need to buy anything new for this quilt. It is actually pretty scary when you think how many quilts I have made lately without buying anything new.



I have 25 blocks so far and I need to make 64 for my full sized bed. These blocks have been very soothing to make. I recently discovered how easy and fun chain piecing is and I just feed these strips through. I'll have to post some photos of more blocks soon. I was thinking that I should add more aqua to it because I want this quilt to have some depth to it. I will have to show more soon.

Thanks for sticking with me ladies! I will post the two winners of the etsy contest this weekend.

The Giveaway

I posted about this on Sunday, but I have finally opened a little photography etsy shop! It's called Lost in the Woods and all my photos are through the viewfinder. You'll probably recognize a lot of the photos from here as I've sort of shown you all my pics over the months. In the next two weeks there will be a special release of The Fairy Houses in the shop too, so stay tuned.



And the giveaway....I will be giving away two- three photo sets of the 5x5 following photos. So there will two giveaways and each person that wins gets three photos.

The good news is you can be entered to win five more times if you post about me on your blog! Just include a link to your blog in the comments. Thanks everyone!







So please drop by my shop when you have a chance- Lost in the Woods on etsy.