completed: first real queen quilt

crazy cats and polka-dot binding

see adam?

all laid out

The 12+2 quilt is done done done! I am so excited!

This is my first real queen-sized quilt - I have made one queen quilt before (long ago, in the dark days we don't like to think about), but I didn't quilt it very much and I had a lot of help making the whole thing. So this is my first real queen quilt.

This quilt finished at 85 x 85 square, which makes it legitimately a queen. It features a bunch of fun prints, with an orange-on-orange polka dot binding. I free-motion quilted it with large stippling (which I think is actually meandering) in a green variegated thread. Very fun. The backing is also green, and the green stitching looks awesome on the back. I used low-loft 100% polyester batting for this quilt - never again. It was not fun to work with and shed all over my poor Enterprise. It's strictly 80/20 cotton/poly blends for me from now on.

The 12+2=Q quilt pattern that I used can be found at Oh Fransson! and was very easy to follow. The quilt top came together very quickly, and using a sheet for the backing meant I didn't have to piece a bunch of pieces of fabric together, which was nice.

This particular quilt will be given to someone special come Christmas! That's one thing off my Christmas to-do list! Huzzah!

rescuing trash

pretty

Yesterday, I rescued a wine bottle and two Classico pasta sauce jars from the trash, and turned them into spray-painted and glittery vases. I also glittered a vase from the dollar store.

Glittering things is really easy - you just swirl Pledge floor polish around the inside of the container, pour the excess out and quickly pour glitter in and swirl it around until all the sides are coated. If the container has a lid, you can do all these steps with the lid on, which is much easier. The vase was a bit tricky, but I made it work.

I plan to spray-paint the pasta sauce jar lids silver as well, just in case I ever want the lids. In the meantime, I will probably make more white paper flowers to put in my new pretty vases!

loving the colors

completed: colorful paper flowers

bouquet

Here is a second bouquet, very similar to the one I made this morning, only much more colorful! I used a stack of multi-colored tissue paper from the dollar store, and brightly colored chenille stems (also known as pipe cleaners) from the same esteemed store. This pretty bunch cost me only pennies, and look how cheerful it all looks!

closeup