A Project Five Years in the Making!! It's DONE

Well it has been 5+ years in the making but I finished my Calendar Project yesterday! I remember when I made the first one- June- I thought, "Oh I will make one of these each month and then in a year I will have a nice calendar to hang in my office." Well, life happened like it always does and the project got set aside- but that doesn't matter now because it is finished!!
I laid them all out at work today and I realized I really like them all- I think January and October are my favorites though. These patterns were all freebies from Erica Michael's, she also has some other sets that are free too. You can find the patterns here. And helping me finish this project was....

My New Sewing Machine!!! Around October last year my old machine bit the dust, I was sewing on a baby quilt and it just quit working. When we took it into the shop we found out it was going to cost a lot more than what the machine was worth to fix it. So last week I went and got an Elna 6200- I love it! It stitches very smoothly and quietly. After reading reviews online I found that it was a good quality machine- hopefully it gets me through many happy years of stitching!

New Year Resolution- Craft More, Blog More!!

Well, I guess so far my new year resolution has not been met in the blogging aspect, but it has been going ok for the crafting- I have finished a small cross stitch so far- December calendar hanging from Rainbow Gallery- now just January left and I will have the whole year. I haven't finished it off due to my sewing machine being out of commission, but will do that once I get the January one stitched. I think it is pretty and I like the snow!

Now I am just going to catch up with some projects that I finished at the end of last year- first I had made some scarves for Christmas for the dogs. I put their initials on them and below is a picture of Scout and Penny in their scarves. My sister made some for her dogs too and the dogs all looked so cute on Christmas morning!

For Christmas I made my in-laws a K-State quilt. I pieced the middle pieces together and then did applique in the shape of a power cat- Kansas State's mascot. I was pretty proud of how it turned out because it was my first attempt at applique. I just took it to get quilted a couple weeks ago (decided not to hand quilt this one!) and I can't wait to see the finished project.

My last (and favorite!) Christmas present I made was for my niece Marley. I made her two Binky Baby Bunny from a pattern from mmmcrafts.I really love her patterns- they are so cute and easy to make. I made a little boy bunny and a little girl bunny. I made little "binkies" for them out of coordinated fabric. Marley loves them and has been playing with them a lot.

Well, this year should be a great one for crafting- I have some goals-
1. Finish a quilt out of some squares that my Grandmother had cut out.
2. Finish my Under The Friendship Tree cross stitch
3. Multiple more that I cannot think of now :)

Night at the lake and a weekend of finishing off projects!

This weekend was a productive one. We didn't have too much to do so I was able to finish some projects that I had already stitched. I framed my 2006 Cherub. I have multiple matching 4X6 frames like this one so I may need to do a set of Christmas stitches to go with this Cherub.

On Saturday Bret and I got together with one of my sister's family and my Dad (the rest of the fam was out of town) to celebrate father's day. We made shish kabobs which were delicious! It was a good time and was nice for a relaxing evening.

Sunday I got a lot done around the house and was able to finish off the July ornament (below). Now I am exactly 1/2 way finished with the year!

On Sunday we also got Scout a new pillow. We went for a bike ride and she ran along and was completely pooped afterward. Here she is relaxing on her pillow.

This weekend I also made good progress on Under the Friendship Tree. I am close to my goal for this stitching round and then will move on to another project. I didn't get to work on it tonight, we went and had a picnic at the lake. One of my good friends from school and her fiance moved back to town and we went out to the lake. We had a good picnic and got to swim. Scout had an awesome time splashing in the waves.
Happy Stitching!

Finished with the start of the perpetual calendar

I finished my perpetual calendar today. I glued the numbers onto wooden blocks using craft glue. I finished off March and April with ribbons and hangers on them. I am not great at finishing into pillows, but I feel like they turned out ok and the more I do it, the better I will get. The wooden part I painted it brown and then "antiqued" it with white paint. I think it turned out well evening though my husband doesn't like it.

I sewed the June and February, but I have not stuffed them yet. I am really happy with how this turned out and am excited to take them to work on Monday! It is super snowy today so I am happy I got some time to work on my crafts!
Once I finish stuffing the two I have sewn I will move onto another project for awhile, I am not sure what yet, but I am excited!