Um... has it really been that long???

The last post was in September???

I have been working on quilts, but some unexpected issues did slow my progress and kept me from getting on this blog. (Obviously!)

Here are some of the things I've worked on since the last time I posted:
In 2009, we were waiting to bring our sweet baby girl home from her birth country. We received a call in October to let us know that because of emigration issues in her homeland, she would not be coming home until after the new year. We had already waited longer than we expected, but now we would be waiting at least 3 more months. A friend took me to a local quilt shop to cheer me up, and when I saw this fabric, I had to get it. It was the first thing to really make me smile after learning that our girl wouldn't be home for a while. I used a Turning Twenty pattern to piece the top, which I did finish before I left to go bring our daughter home. With two young children (plus some older ones, too), I didn't get it all the way finished until the autumn of 2010! I call it my Comfort Quilt, because working on it helped me get through the months of waiting for our little one to come home. (I also sometimes refer to it as "My PMS Quilt" for obvious reasons. ;)

What I learned from this quilt: Using black binding and black backing make it really hard to stitch the binding down in back. It's hard to see what you're doing!

Okay, I'm not real proud of this next quilt.

First of all, I didn't even "plan" to make this quilt. I went to a local quilt shop with a friend, and saw the cute "road" fabric, decided my little guy would love that for his Hotwheels cars (he was getting a bunch of them for this birthday), and made an impulsive purchase.

Second, I made the mistake of throwing it in the wash with no "color catcher" sheet. The black from the roads bled in several areas.

Third, cutting a panel like this evenly is hard.

Fourth, when I went to put the backing on, I was short on fabric. I had to piece it in, and because it wasn't cut straight (see "Third"), the pieced part wasn't really straight. All of this ended up making the edges a tiny bit ripple-ish.

Because I was already so tired of this quilt by the time it was done, I decided to make the label by using a Micron permanent pen instead of embroidery. I've washed the quilt several times, and...

Fifth: The ink on the label does seem to smear and fade. I decided to label this quilt with the words, "a learning quilt".
Yeah, because I learned a lot:

Don't make impulsive purchases.
Don't make panel type designs unless I figure out how to cut them evenly.
Don't use permanent marker for the label.
ALWAYS use a "color catcher" sheet when I wash quilt fabric or a quilt.

***My little guy still likes to run his cars along the roads... and we use it for a snuggle quilt, too... so it still serves it's purpose!***

I will probably re-do the label at some point... embroidery this time!

Both quilts were machine quilted by Stacey G.

I also have three quilts I made for my three youngest children for Christmas. Because of the unexpected events that occurred last year, I was only able to get them done to the "binding is sewn on but not stitched down" stage before Christmas. I wrapped them as such, hoping to finish them up in January. More unexpected events made that not happen... but I'm now about done with one of them, and should have the next two done in the next couple of weeks. I'll post pictures of each as I finish them up!