Some Last-Minute Finishes

I squeaked a few last-minute finishes into 2012 but never photographed them before that big ball dropped Monday night.

But I wanted to make sure to share them so here goes:

First off, Heather has decided to take on the world of cross-stitch and her first attempt really struck me!  Instagram's been lit up with people stitching up their Winter Wonderland samplers and I started missing cross stitching.  Way before I blogged, really even before I had kids, I used to cross-stitch all of the time.  It was one of the first crafts I learned as a kid and I made a bunch of samplers and projects for friends in college and as a newlywed.  But it was hard to find modern designs I liked and as a Mom of two young kids I put my aida cloth and threads up.  Then I really found quilting and hadn't cross-stitched in probably 4 years.  But Heather let me test out her new pattern and I gladly accepted.  In fact, she's offering it free on her blog now.

This Holly Deer is pretty cool, no?

Now I just gotta get him framed up before next Christmas...

Second, I finished up my d.Gs blocks for December.  Heather (a completely different Heather from above) asked for Boy's Nonsense Blocks based on this tutorial.  This block is super easy to whip out, so I made 4 since they're smaller than our usual 12" finished block.

And it's not a technical finish, but I did complete the tops for my sister's quilt from last Christmas. See, I ran out of the fabric needed to finish up the back on this quilt but I could never find it again at JoAnn, so after putting this baby on hold while waiting to find the fabric a whole year slipped away.  So...Chris said "Why don't you just make it into 2 quilts and use a different backing altogether?"  That's why I keep him around, the man is brilliant!  So, that's what I did.  I bought a king-sized sheet at Walmart and her quilt is becoming quilts.  These will be basted and ready to quilt as soon as I can get to JoAnn to buy more batting.  Only a year late, but since she's getting 2 quilts instead of 1, I'm hoping it will be okay...

This is the original top based on a quilt out of Cozy Modern Quilts (I'll give all the details when finished)

And here's what was designed to be the back, but I ran out of purple to make it a little bigger, so now it's going to be a  complementary quilt...

And those are my final finishes in 2012.  Now I'm ready to finish up my to-do list and get cracking on some new fun projects I have in mind!!!