The Winner Is...

Melissa S.! B helped me draw the name out of a hat for this one. Thank you so much to those of you who entered and thank you especially for your kind comments and well-wishes. I appreciated them so much!

A YEAR in the Making

Seriously, yes, this quilt took me a YEAR to finish. I was debating for the longest time about whether or not I was going to divulge that little tidbit. It is pretty darn embarrassing. This was my first "real size" quilt and really not a difficult one. I seem to remember piecing the top in a weekend last winter and started on the quilting right away but for some odd reason or another just stalled. I'm really not sure what it was that forced this project to languish for so long. Every now and then I would feel guilty, pull it out and quilt a few lines. Then it would go back in the corner and be forgotten about for another few months. With a resolution of finishing everything I start this year this project was at the top of my list. And once picked up, it only took a few days to finish. The quilting was almost done and the binding was the biggest hurdle to completion. I think that's probably part of my inability to finish this darned thing... I was TERRIFIED of the binding. While it was the most difficult part of the whole thing for me, it really wasn't that bad. Yes, it was time consuming and tedious but a few movies later and it was done. And I'm so glad it's done. I absolutely love it, in all it's wonky, crooked, wrinkledness. It's so, so far from perfect but that's what I love about it. And to make it even better, the very moment I put the last stitch in the binding it was snatched away by a very happy 4 year old and put to immediate use. Seriously, the new "blankie" didn't leave her side all night. It was used as a play mat, a booster seat, a pillow and a cape. It really doesn't get any better than that and what excellent motivation for finishing the rest of those projects gathering dust. Okay, enough babbling, here's the details:

Stacked Coins Quilt from Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts (supposedly a 8-12 hour project, FUNNY)

Size: Approx. 52in x 65in (Perfect for a little person)

I used an old sheet with a really cool circle pattern on it for the background (you can see the pattern the best in the second photo), and used a mix of new and vintage fabrics for the coins. The back is a super soft, fleecy fabric that was a little tricky to quilt and even trickier to bind because of it's thickness. I hand-quilted this beast and made my own binding from leftover fabric from the coins.

Now for the next quilt... The same year I started this quilt I received the kit for making the Color-Wheel Quilt from the same book. Maybe I'll wait a little while to tackle that one!

Thank you so much for all of the incredibly kind comments and well-wishes on the Giveaway post. You are all just awesome and each and every comment means so much to me! If you haven't already entered the giveaway you have until Thursday 6PM Central. I'll announce the winner this coming weekend.

Valentines!

Starting to feel like myself again definitely has it's perks. I've spent the last week or so working on some new designs for the Apples in June shop. The shop as been updated with some cute new Valentine's and a bit of a new look for the spring that I hope is around the corner. Check 'em out!








In addition I'm offering this hearts template for free! Just shoot me an email at junecraft@gmail.com and I'll reply back with your free pdf.

Giveaway!

My sincerest, heartfelt apologies for my neglecting of this poor blog for so long. I can finally announce that we're expecting our 2nd child in August and thus the reason for my absence. The nausea and sheer exhaustion were enough to put me in serious hibernation for such a long time. It's slowly, slowly getting better and I'm starting to feel a bit like myself again.

I've been promising this giveaway for such a long time and I'm finally getting around to posting about it. I've had a very limited edition series of prints and original drawings available here at the Shiny Squirrel since December. To celebrate (a bit late) I'll be giving away a set of the "girls" shown above. To enter just leave a comment and I'll pick someone at random to receive the prints. (Worth $60!) Deadline is next Thurs. the 5th of February. (OMG, I can't believe next week is February already, somebody slow this ride down!)

A Day in History

The benefits of working at home today included being able to stream the historic events right to my desktop. Not much work was done this morning (hopefully the boss isn't reading) as I watched with pride history being made. The past eight years almost seem like a dream and today the awakening. There's not much to say that hasn't already been said by thousands of others so I'll leave it by saying today was a good day and hopefully a new beginning for America.

Hibernating

It's been far too long since I've written a proper post so I thought it was about darn time. I'm honestly doing a bit of hibernating these days. I feel a bit like a bear who's retreated to his warm cave for the duration of winter. Curled up in bed with a book and some knitting is about the extent of my activities these days. An occasional trip to the kitchen to forage breaks up the monotony but that's about it. I'm in a bit of a post-holiday slump I think. I feel like everything is stuck in the snow, from the cars to my motivation. And there's so. much. snow. The tires are spinning but they just can't get any traction. Maybe that's okay, maybe this is exactly what I need right now. A nice long break to clear my head, refocus and start afresh is the ticket I think. Taking a cue from mother nature to slow down and just be still for awhile. So the shops will remain closed for a time, not sure how long but at least for the foreseeable future.

But, in an effort to not disappear completely I'm going to (try) to post a couple of times a week. I'll most definitely be back later in the week with a giveaway that I promised such a long time ago.

Announcing...

I am so happy to announce the opening of my new Etsy shop, Apples in June. This shop has been in the works for the last six months and I'm so excited it's finally up and running and I can share it with you. I've always loved designing invitations, stationary and other paper goods but felt that the process can get really expensive for folks like me on a budget. So, I've designed a bunch of templates that I can customize with your information. I then email the templates to you to print at home. They're easy to print and assemble and I hope are an ecconomical, eco friendly and fun way to get custom paper goods. I'll be adding new templates often and hope to have everything from wedding invitations to birth announcements to custom stationary. The possibilities with these are pretty endless, just changing the type of paper they're printed on would make them totally different. Here's a sneak peak at a few things that are in the shop now. I really hope you have as much fun browsing the shop as I did putting it together!