A tardy, yet timely finish

Yesterday afternoon the final strip of fabric was stitched onto my late (that's 1 year, 6 days late) birthday present to myself. 

 A week before my birthday last year, I decided to make a quilt log cabin quilt with 41 "logs", one for each year of my life.  This was the perfect number for a giant courthouse steps block- 10 logs on each side with a large rectangle in the middle (which I counted as one of the logs).

Going by quilter's conventional wisdom, I gave myself a year after the intended birthday to gift it to myself.  I finally started the thing a couple of weeks ago.  And so now the quilt top is double belated- six days later than the original one year grace period.  Sad face.  

The quilt top is, however, an early finish for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  Happy face!  Behold my March entry for ALYOF:

At 62" x 76", this is the largest quilt I've made so far.  What to use for the back is a huge question mark.  Should I be a Paganelli purist and only use Sis Boom fabric?  Should I use something I absolutely love, Sis Boom or not?  Decisions, decisions.

Since there's still quilting and binding to be done, I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, as well as to A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts.  Check out both of these linky parties for some lovely quilty inspiration!

Something for me

Sadly, Martina's Poetica quilt is still a WIP.  I had hoped to have it finished by February's end -in fact, it was my ALYOF project for last month.  But I became a little overwhelmed during the block setting process.  The top looked crazy busy, and my little lady does not want sashing, which I was thinking would tame things a bit.  Having to make up a few more blocks further dampened my enthusiasm.

So I'm taking (another) break from that project and will start one for myself.  The goal is to have the quilt top pieced by my birthday mid-month.  I'm calling it "41" for several reasons: the design, it's the name of one of my very favorite songs, and one other reason that shall not be shared (though anyone could probably make a fair guess).

Here are the gorgeous Sis Boom fabrics earmarked for "41", which is my March entry for A Lovely Year of Finishes:

Many of these have been stashed away for a while.  It's time to make them into something pretty.

Squeaky Wheel

The next couple of projects are all about Martina.  After Antonio's quilt was finished, of course she asked about her quilt, and rightly so.  The first quilt, blogged here, just needs the binding stitched down.  She's going to use it until her Poetica quilt is completed, at which time Old Girl will become a family quilt.

My February entry for ALYOF is said Poetica quilt.  I've either got a few more blocks to make, or I've got too many.  I put them up slapdash on my makeshift design wall (which has since fallen into a sad heap on the floor, blocks and all) and think it may look a little too busy.  I think it needs sashing to calm down the crazy, in which case there will be extra blocks.  Martina may get a pillow as well!

Before I start piecing the Poetica quilt, however, we have a little bit of an emergency project .  Martina's school is hosting a Father/Daughter dance Friday evening, and Martina informed me she has nothing to wear.  She's gone through a growth spurt the past couple of months, and her dresses are too short or snug.  I spent the morning searching for a dress pattern and purchased the Marissa Dress at Jennifer Paganelli's Sis Boom shop.  I'm considering these fabric combinations:

Of course, it's all subject to the little lady's approval.  She may go rogue and choose neither of them.  We shall see what she decides when she gets home from school today.

Linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts and WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Finally!

I can now count exactly one finished quilt that belongs to us.  Well, to my son, anyway.  It was actually finished on January 7th, but I let Antonio enjoy it for a bit before I posted about it.  Also, I was tad bit lazy.

So after a year-and-a-half in the making, this quilt (my January project for A Lovely Year of Finishes) is complete.  The pattern is Urban Chic, made with various prints of aqua, yellow and grey.  The binding print is from one of Denyse Schmidt's collections found at Joann's.

Just as Martina and I picked all the prints together for 'Old Girl', Antonio and I selected all of the fabric for this quilt together.  Antonio had the grace to say he was kinda glad I waited so long to finish it, or we wouldn't have found that particular print for the binding.  Thanks, kid!