Welcome to the world 2012.

We are alive!  I promise.  But life is so big, it's hard to be contained at times.  Christmas came and went in a month long blur. I kept my sewing to a minimum this Christmas because I had two very special things I really wanted to make, and feared they would be time consuming.  And they were.  Besides the two big projects, I allowed a few little projects to slip in here and there.  I'll try to show-and-tell a few throughout the next week.  

I have yet to find my way to the sewing machine in 2012.

I think I'm still recovering just a bit from 2011.  

Without further ado, a quilt.

The Front:

The Back:

Some close-ups:

The binding!:

My original quilt inspiration came from Allison over at Cluck Cluck Sew.  She made one a while back and called it "The January Quilt".  I've had my heart set on making one ever since I saw hers!  It only took me two years :)  

I titled mine:

The Happy-Birthday, Merry-Christmas, Happy-Birthday quilt.  That's how many presents it's supposed to count for.  

It was for my sister.  I love her a lot.  She's super talented and crafty.  She's made me some of my most favorite Christmas things. I really wanted to make her something equally special in return.  Hopefully it's something she'll have out and be reminded of her sister a million miles away who loves her.  Can a quilt say all of that?  I think it can.  

I was scared about the binding.  In fact, I second guessed myself so much about that.  Funny how when I look at the pictures now, it's almost my favorite part. 

While making it over the course of a month, I was listening to "The Persian Pickle Club" from audible.com.  It's a story revolving around a quilt bee during the Great Depression.  It was sweet to be listening to that book while working on this quilt.  They went together well.  If you like to quilt, you should think about reading it. If you like to listen to books while quilting, then we should consider becoming good friends. 

Welcome to the world 2012.  

I think you could be 

great.