one last finish from 2011

Presenting "It's the Hap-happiest Season of All" - designed and named by Thing 2, machine pieced by yours truly, and machine quilted by a wonderful lady named Carol Linder. Finished on December 30!

Thing 2 and I followed the pattern "Sweet Pea" by Heather Mulder Peterson; it was very simple to cut, piece, and also fat-quarter friendly! I think we used 15 fat quarters and 1.5 yards of dots on white from the 2010 Riley Blake Christmas collection (the name escapes me, but it was definitely 2010).

The pattern calls for appliques of large, daisy-like flowers, but obviously snowflakes are more appropriate here. We found some clip art of snowflakes online and enlarged two different ones for the appliques on this quilt.

I tried (again) to use Steam-a-Seam Lite for this project, but I just seem to have the worst luck with that stuff. It didn't adhere to the fabric very well, so when I tried to pull the final backing off, most of the adhesive on the snowflake edges came right off with it. Grrrrr. But I just edge-stitched all around each snowflake to secure them, so it's all good now :)

Another shot of the fun fabrics. Thing 2 fell really hard for these prints!

The red and white stripe was cut on the bias to make the binding, which was attached front and back by machine. So easy and quick! And check out that cozy flannel backing :)

Next time I make a bias binding I'm going to show you the wonderful ruler I use to cut it. Maybe you all already know about it, but I think it's the greatest little ruler ever. And while I'm at that, I'll also show you how I attach the binding by machine. It's nothing revolutionary, but I think it makes for a very nice finish when you don't want to take the time to hand-sew or you need more durability for machine washing.

Just a couple more shots of the amazing snowflake pantograph quilting.

I chose a light teal/turquoise thread, and I'm so happy with it. That little bit of color adds so much more depth than white thread.

This quilt finished off my sewing year. I went back through my goal list for 2011, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I accomplished quite a lot of my goals. Here's a list of finishes. Gosh that word "finish" sounds so good to me (extreme procrastinator and easily-distracted-by-new-projects-quilter that I am!)

7 Pillows
7 Wall or Lap Quilts
4 Baby quilts
4 placemats sets/table runners
2 Bags
1 Tuffet
1 Memo Board
1 Tree Skirt

27 finishes!! I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't made that goal list. Kinda puts the pressure on for this year though, huh?

I know it's quite belated, but Happy New Year 2012 to all of you friends out there!