A Look Back at 2013
Here’s a collage of the quilts, pillows, bags, foxes and giraffes that I completed in 2013…well…three of the quilts I just finished the tops…hopefully I’ll quilt and bind them in 2014!
I want to take a minute as well to wish you all a Happy New Year! Be safe tonight and have some fun!
A Lovely Year of Finishes–January Goal

I have a big post scheduled for tomorrow (first 52 Block Pattern) so I’m going to post one of my goals today. This is the goal I’m making for the 2014 A Lovely Year of Finishes January party. I have a bunch of other projects planned as well (Project QUILTING starts) but this is something ‘extra’ that I really want to get checked off my ‘to-do’ list.
In January I would like to finish the 8 remaining blocks of Bungalow Quilting and Yarn’s 2013 Paper Piecing Fairy Tale Block of the Month Quilt Along. Wish me luck!!! I can’t wait to see what everyone else is working on in January!
A Lovely Year of Finishes–December Completions

We’re almost to the end of the month so it’s time for me to post my finishes for the month. I had just one goal this month– make a gift for Capri.
DONE!
I decided to make a sock monkey advent calendar for her.
I sewed on 25 little pockets, appliqued on a sock monkey santa and his reindeer and made a stuffed little santa to move around each day. ‘Merry Christmas’ was Free Motion Quilted onto the top.
I finished and she loved it!

Other exciting news – A Lovely Year of Finishes is going to happen again in 2014!!! Woot! I love this! It really keeps me on task and keeps me sewing! One thing I have to change is I can only put up one goal each month..I usually have 5 to 10. Oops! It’s still going to be TONS of fun and I can’t wait to see what everyone is working on and completes in 2014!
Even though I had made just one goal for finishes I did manage to finish a few other things…
AND I finished piecing the top of my ‘Tula Pink City Sampler’ Quilt! I created my own layout and had a great time working on these 100 blocks!
Now…I have to figure out what my goals are for January…
December Family Highlights
The month started out with a sick Cedi. So sick we had to postpone her birthday party. She recovered pretty quickly leaving a sick Capri in her wake. Capri not only had the stomach flu but she ended up getting strep throat on top of that.

The next big event on our list was…dinner with Santa at the Rio fire station.

Cedi waited an extra 6 days for her first ever birthday party…but I’m pretty sure it was worth the wait.








And after all those fun events we started the ‘Week of Christmas'ish. We had a bunch of different Christmas celebrations and get-together’s to go to. We managed to fit them all in just six days. I know it sounds a bit nuts but I’m a huge fan of tradition and if I can make it work – I’m going to!






Handmade Holiday–The Puzzle
Last but not least…Papa had picked Pip. I think of everyone Papa could pick Pip was the hardest to come up with an idea for. Papa is very good at building things but Pip’s not quite at the age of using things that Papa builds. He even surprised me with what he came up with for her.
This year Pip really got into the ‘opening presents’ thing. It was so fun to watch her and she opened her gifts!
A puzzle!!! What a perfect idea! It’s a smiley face too if you look close. Papa made her a very special puzzle…I did hear the big girls helped a little with the painting of the puzzle.
Handmade Holidays–Sock Monkey Advent Calendar
- Pip picked Mercedi -
- Mercedi picked Mom –
- Mom picked Capri.
- Capri picked Papa –
- Papa picked Pip.
Now it’s time to share with you what I made for Capri. At first, I thought Capri would be easy – she loves making things! But just because she loves to make things doesn’t mean she’s easy. It made it a little bit tougher because I had to make something that she wouldn’t make herself or want to have made for herself.
I found this great Sock Monkey Advent Calendar Panel in my stash and knew I found the perfect thing. She would be able to use it year after year and would have lots of fun moving the monkey from day to day counting down to Christmas.
On the top I free motion quilted ‘Merry Christmas’.
It’s not very obvious but I used a green and blue Christmas bird fabric to patchwork each of the squares that the sock monkey numbers would go on. I think the subtlety of this is just fine since there’s already a lot going on with the sock monkey’s. By patchworking the base it also helped me more evenly space each pocket without spending too much time doing so. There was no 25 so I made my own pocket for that. In the picture above you can also see the little stuffed Sock Monkey Santa that gets moved each day.
It was a hit! Capri is still sleeping with it and can’t wait to start the countdown from the beginning next December!
52 Blocks Quilt Along–Fabrics
I hope you're as excited about these fun weekly block tutorials – tradition with a twist – as I am!
You’re probably wondering what fabrics you should be pulling from your stash to complete these blocks. Well…since some of these blocks may be made into pillows…some may be grouped together to make a smaller medallion quilt … use a few for a table runner or two…OR you could even put them all together into one use sampler – your fabric choices are pretty much endless.

I know…not much help. Since these blocks are going to be tradition blocks that you ‘see’ something in…be it a house, a tree, a cat, a mouse or even a whale…I feel that more ‘solid reading’ fabrics would work well. Now, they don’t all have to be solid but I do think that will help other’s ‘see’ the special twist we’re trying to highlight.

Here are the fabrics I pulled initially for my blocks. I’m sure I’ll add to this throughout the year and I’m also sure I won’t use everything I pulled. But it a great place to start.

Handmade Holiday–A Christmas Tree and Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pip picked Mercedi - Kindle Case
- Mercedi picked Mom.
- Mom picked Capri.
- Capri picked Papa.
- Papa picked Pip.
Growing up my mom collected Santa’s. She has shelves full of them that she puts out every Christmas and it’s become a tradition to see them all in their glory standing together. I’ve known other people to collect snowmen. Well, I decided to collect Christmas trees. I have a pretty decent collection started but each year I tend to get one or two to add to my collection.
Cedi was at her Grandma Lapacek’s for a long weekend and she made my gift there.
Using a foam tree base, Grandma let Cedi at her beads and buttons and hot glue and this is what she came up with! I love all the color and the thought that Cedi put into it and it’s going to be a priceless addition to my Christmas tree collection!
Capri had picked her Papa’s name to make a gift for. She knew right away what she was going to do and it was going to require Grandma Lapacek’s help as well.
She got off the bus at Grandma’s house one night after school just before Christmas time and came home with his gift. She decided it would be best to give it to him early so they would be ‘fresh’.
That’s right – she made Pap his favorite…a big batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies!
Handmade Holiday–Kindle Case
- Pip picked Mercedi.
- Mercedi picked Mom.
- Mom picked Capri.
- Capri picked Papa.
- Papa picked Pip.
Everyone was really happy with who they got and who had them…we didn’t keep it a secret since we had to know who Pip had anyway (she’s 2). Cedi was really excited until you could see her smile waiver just a little as she realized that all Pip could pretty much do was color in a picture…sort of. She held that smile regardless and insisted she was excited.
I couldn’t just let Pip color a picture for Cedi so instead we did a little bit of ‘15 minutes of play’ together. I let her at one of my scrap bins and she picked the fabrics she wanted me to sew together. Before we knew it – we had the outside portion of a kindle case put together for Cedi! She then picked out the two fabrics for the insides of the bag and hung out patiently while I did the manual labor.
Voila! We had a fun new case/bag for Cedi’s kindle! Just full of Pip’s love! AND it was really fun for me to sew and create with Pip at my side! To top it off – Cedi loved it!!!
Project QUILTING Prize Summary for Season 5
As more prizes are donated I’ll be updating this list so be sure to check back often!
Week 1.

The Fat Quarter Shop will donate a book or magazine to one lucky winner!


For Quilts Sake will be giving away one of these fabulous stash bags to a lucky winner!

Sew BitterSweet Designs is giving a set of her 4 pack of original patterns!

Waggons West is donating a custom quilt label!

$30 gift certificate redeemable towards quilting by Marcia of Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting! A BONUS prize for week one’s challenge is a ‘Easy to Sew Quilt Pattern‘!

Wooldand Ridge Retreat will be giving away a $50 gift certificate towards a retreat stay.

Studio Cherie will be giving a free pattern!

Amy’s Creative Side is giving a copy of her book Modern Neutrals
Week 2

Fabrics N Quilts will be donating a $20 gift certificate!

Studio Cherie will be giving a free pattern!

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$30 gift certificate redeemable towards quilting by Marcia of Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting!

Wooldand Ridge Retreat will be giving away a $50 gift certificate towards a retreat stay.


For Quilts Sake will be giving away one of these fabulous stash bags to a lucky winner!

Waggons West is donating a custom quilt label!
Week 3.


For Quilts Sake will be giving away one of these fabulous stash bags to a lucky winner!

$30 gift certificate redeemable towards quilting by Marcia of Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting!

The Fat Quarter Shop will donate a book or magazine to one lucky winner!

Studio Cherie will be giving a free pattern!

Wooldand Ridge Retreat will be giving away a $50 gift certificate towards a retreat stay.


Waggons West is donating a custom quilt label!
Week 4.

$30 gift certificate redeemable towards quilting by Marcia of Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting!

Fabrics N Quilts will be donating a $20 gift certificate!

Studio Cherie will be giving a free pattern!


For Quilts Sake will be giving away one of these fabulous stash bags to a lucky winner!

Wooldand Ridge Retreat will be giving away a $50 gift certificate towards a retreat stay.

Waggons West is donating a custom quilt label!
Week 5.

$30 gift certificate redeemable towards quilting by Marcia of Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting!

Wooldand Ridge Retreat will be giving away a $50 gift certificate towards a retreat stay.

The Fat Quarter Shop will donate a book or magazine to one lucky winner!


For Quilts Sake will be giving away one of these fabulous stash bags to a lucky winner!

Studio Cherie will be giving a free pattern!


Waggons West is donating a custom quilt label!
Week 6.

$30 gift certificate redeemable towards quilting by Marcia of Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting!

Wooldand Ridge Retreat will be giving away a $50 gift certificate towards a retreat stay.


For Quilts Sake will be giving away one of these fabulous stash bags to a lucky winner!

Studio Cherie will be giving a free pattern!

Fabrics N Quilts will be donating a $20 gift certificate!

Sew BitterSweet Designs is giving a set of her 4 pack of original patterns!

Waggons West is donating a custom quilt label!
Randomly Drawn Grand Prize.
Every time you complete a Project QUILTING Challenge per the guidelines you’re name will be added to the drawing for the Grand Prize. If you complete every challenge (all 6) you will get a bonus entry (maximum number of times your name will be in the drawing…7).

$50 gift certificate redeemable towards quilting by Marcia of Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting!

Bungalow Quilting and Yarn will be giving away a book with templates! Picture coming soon!

Waggons West is donating THREE custom quilt labels!
Diana of SeldomSeenQuilting is giving away her service of digitizing a photograph for embroidery!

Pat Sloan will be giving away a fabulous box of her Aurifil Thread, ‘The Perfect Box of Neutrals’ as part of this season’s grand prize!
A bundle of fabric from my (Persimon Dreams) very own stash! Picture coming soon…but it’s going to be good!
