One huge sewing adventure...

Make that Two huge sewing adventures.  Are now complete.  I bought a quilt pattern on installments starting about 3 years ago.  It took 8 months to buy all the installments.  (there were 8 of them)  But after buying the pattern and buying some of the lighthouse fabric, they sat.  I wasn't brave enough to tackle such a project.  And the task seemed daunting.  I was finally tired of seeing it on my sewing table and decided to bite the bullet and tackle one square a week.  Once I got into it, I found it was fun to see the lighthouses and other blocks come to life.  I was also making two, since our daughter and son in law's quilt from years ago was shreds of it's former glory.  Their bedroom is also in a beach theme and our daughter said she didn't mind lighthouses on her quilt.  So, one for them in browns and blues and one for us in teals, greys, and reds.

Minus the borders, the quilts are done being pieced.  I went to the extra work of interfacing the blocks, sewing the seams with a small stitch, and applique with a blanket stitch.  I decided to quilt the middle portion since I was going to quilt them myself on the sewing machine and a full queen size quilt would not be manageable.  Once the middle was quilted, I added the borders and batting to both the front and back and quilted them as I attached them.

Our daughter and son in law's quilt.  Below is the backing with the borders.  I went a bit more high quality on the backing but I didn't interface it.  And it was 30% off so it wasn't too expensive.

Our quilt with the backing.  I actually found lighthouse backing fabric!  I quilted this a bit different.  I quilted the clouds in the blocks in a sort of free hand quilting instead of around the lighthouses or boats. 

I must say, I did not enjoy the finishing at all and it took several agonizing days to finish.  I would have had it quilted by someone if I had not wanted to enter it in the fair.  That is definitely what I will do from now on.

I have a baby shower this week and a niece requested more bibs.  So I churned out 11 bibs in an hour.  The "pattern" for these was born when I was feeding 3 at once and it was cumbersome to tie 3 or 4 bibs for every meal and the velcro didn't hold up.  Hand towels with neck holes cut and ribbing added.  My go to shower gift now.

After spending so much time in the sewing room of late, my grandson asked if he could sew.  I sucked in my bravery breath and said, "yes".  So each one of them got to try their hand at sewing.  They made headbands out of the leftover ribbing.  I survived, my machine survived, and they had a really fun time.  I wonder if one of them will take over my love of sewing when I can't or won't?

And I present a clean sewing room!  Last year was the year of the fabric stash.  Very little fabric is left to be sewn and the only projects are a quilt for a granddaughter and a shirt for a grandson.  The applique and piecing for the quilt are finished so it's just a matter of putting it all together.  Later. 
2013 is the year of the yarn stash.  I'm trying to knit a lot.  And from stash.  Fingers crossed and staying off the internet and out of the LYS!