My 'mandatory' quilt project of the year was this trio of matching quilts ~ one for our little guy, one for my nephew, and one for my niece. I still am so in love with the All Star line ~ it just screams BOY to me.
Then there were some quilts that were made just because I had the time and wanted to play with the fabric :) But after finishing them, I really didn't have a home for them, so they went in a little Etsy shop that I started up this past Fall.
And I made a few more things for the Etsy shop with all my leftover scraps from projects, like soother straps, bibs, aprons . . .
and doll quilts! I LOVE these little things! I'm hoping to keep adding some of these excess projects to the shop this next year, in the hopes of paying for some more fabric to play with. But, I must confess that I often get side-tracked to sew for my kids and their friends when a birthday invite comes home. So I'm not being as aggressive with filling up the shop as I could be, but I want to keep sewing fun too. 
Oh, and some of my favorite projects this year are dresses for my girls. I LOVE dressing my girls up for church and they LOVE picking out fabric almost as much as I do. And the gracious Samantha at the Handmade Dress lets me review the most adorable and simple patterns and then rewards me with free copies when they're printed :) And I have an order of some beautiful new Riley Blake prints on their way to me so I can make a bunch of Spring dresses for the girls and some nieces soon!
And another favorite from this year that I get to see every day . . . is the curtains and rug for my daughter's room ~ and it was a great way to use up a tonne of pretty scraps. Oh, and some of my favorite projects this year are dresses for my girls. I LOVE dressing my girls up for church and they LOVE picking out fabric almost as much as I do. And the gracious Samantha at the Handmade Dress lets me review the most adorable and simple patterns and then rewards me with free copies when they're printed :) And I have an order of some beautiful new Riley Blake prints on their way to me so I can make a bunch of Spring dresses for the girls and some nieces soon!
And there was also some swapping this year, a set of 3 little dresses and purses in exchange for fabric! And I'm open to this kind of offer again . . . 
And a baby quilt for another little niece rounded out my crafting for the year . . .
One more thing I haven't mentioned is that a couple quilts ago, my sewing machine broke down *again* and since it's just a basic machine that I've had since I was 18, I decided an upgrade was in order. And I was planning to go by myself that day to buy one, but somehow my hubby came with me and well, if you know my hubby, he's kinda easy to talk into bigger and better or did he talk me into it? . . . and somehow I ended up getting my dream machine. It's a longarm, it's digital, it has an automatic thread cutter, it winds my bobbin for me, and it even threads my needle. It has so many stitches that I don't even think I've tried out half of them yet, and I'm trying! Yes, I'm in love with my new machine, and I'm planning to spend lots of time with her in the new year . . . and this is also a sneak peak of my latest quilt ~ it's for my talented sister the photographer to thank her for our family pictures we had done this past Fall.
My husband comes from a family of 4 boys and 1 girl. So when we were married, I gained a new sister-in-law, Sue. And since I've been with my hubby for 14 years now (married for 10), Sue and I have had a lot of time to get to know each other over the years. And when she was married last year, we flew with the whole family to the other end of the country to take part in her special day. And when their daughter was born this past Fall, we were SO excited for her and couldn't wait to meet our new little niece. So then when they made plans to fly out for Christmas holidays, we made plans to travel 12 hours to meet them at my in-laws. And then we finally got to meet sweet little Lily and more importantly, see Sue as a Mom for the first time (and she makes a great one!).
I made a similar one with a flannel backing that's listed in 
These were just so simple, I'm not sure that they even need an explanation. I found a cute teacher quote, picked out a label at vistaprint, pulled off the old labels, and trimmed and stuck on the new ones. Cute and easy, just the way I like it :)
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I was asked to make a crib bedding set, and although I've made lots of quilts, it was my first time making a crib skirt or bumper pads. I used a box pleat style pattern for the skirt, and made the bumper pads in four separate pieces. The fabrics are from Wee Woodland by Moda ~ the quilt used flannels and the other pieces used cottons ~ I LOVE that more designers are releasing their prints in flannels and cottons! And some words of advice: use the advanced google search to find a current discount code before ordering your fabric! I got an extra 20% off at the Fat Quarter Shop just by doing that. The back of the quilt is a beautiful chocolate minky I found half price at my local fabric store ~ I couldn't stop petting it, it's so soft! Well I hope that she enjoys this set, it was a little hard to part with ~ but now I have leftover scraps and a little extra that I ordered to play with :)
