Stashbusting the year away

Yesterday was the last day of the quilter's stashbusting contest that I've been participating in during 2008. The object was simple... use as much fabric from my "stash" as I can while avoiding purchase of new fabric. I earned points for completing quilt tops and for finishing quilts. I lost points for buying fabric. Seven of us participated and I managed to stay in the top half most of the year. Going into December, it's been a close contest between me and two others so I tried to make the most of my vacation quilt wise. I made placemats to give as gifts for Christmas, I finished my Sunburst quilt, and yesterday, I completed the top to a baby quilt for a friend of Mike's. I'm hoping this will put me in the lead but I'm still waiting to get points from others.

I was very excited about my placemats. I made two sets - one for my grandmother (who has EVERYTHING so going homemade seemed appropriate) and one for my mom (who would appreciate the placemats more than anyone else.)

I started by making the top of the placemat. My grandmother lives at Lake George in northeast Indiana. I grew up going to the Lake and have fond memories of spending every weekend of my childhood in the summer there with my family. So I chose a deep blue to represent the color of the Lake with golden yellow accents to signify the sun.

After making the top, I layered the placemat and quilted a contemporary design with yellow thread.

I finished with sparkly yellow binding. I love how they turned out.

For my mom's set, I used the same design but choose yellow and orange colors.

Another project I finished was the binding for snowman wallhanging that I made in 2007. (Since I only had the binding to finish, I didn't count this project in my stashbusting.) I didn't want anything too Christmasy. It's a pretty big wallhanging!

And finally, my baby quilt top. I used the bulls-eye pattern.

I hope to get it quilted soon as we're expecting the baby's arrival any day now!

I'll sign off with this picture of Seeger taken at 12:51 am. We went to a kid friendly New Year's Eve party last night. There were more kids (17) than adults (12) so it was a bit crazy but lots of fun. We stayed to watch the ball drop. We were very proud of Seeger for staying up so late and not getting grumpy. He was proud of his tiara. He wore it all night and has been wearing it all day (including during our shopping trip to purchase a new dishwasher!)