Owl Mini and Monthly Challenge

              Happy New Year Everyone!!! I hope you all had a safe and Happy New Year's Eve and Day! I had a pretty good one myself.  I have been so ready for 2016 to be over! I've had a really good start to 2017 and hope it'll continue that way.
          I'm not big on the whole "New Years Resolutions" thing because it just never works out for me. So this year I thought I would do something different, I'm sure that this is not a new by any means but it's something I thought might work for me. And I'm telling you all so you can help hold me accountable. I am going to do monthly goals, each month a new goal based on the previous one. Kind of looking at it as challenging myself to do the things I already want to do or should be doing.
        So my goal/challenge for January is to SEW EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!! Whether it be just 5 minutes or hours, I want to be at my machine EVERY DAY! And I will document my sewing through pictures here on my blog and also on my Instagram and probably on my Facebook, so make sure you are following me on IG and "like" my Facebook page!!!! I would really appreciate it! I'm going to start a hashtag incase any of you would like to challenge yourselves as well or would just like to follow my progress. Since this is an effort to get my "sew-jo" back, I'm going to use the hashtag "#mysewjoback"

    And I've sewn the past few days and actually have my first FINISH of the New Year!!! I'm so happy with the way it turned out too! I decided since Elizabeth Hartman is one of my quilting Idols, I would make something from her Fancy Forest pattern. I chose to make the owl!!!!


Here is a progress picture of me quilting it. I chose to do an allover random square design. I really love the way it turned out!

   I'll show you a close up of the quilting from the front and back too.

The quilting lines are not straight by any means but I'm super happy with the result. I am tired of just stippling all of my projects just because it's easy which is why I chose to do this design.

Here is the finished owl, of course this picture was taken at night in the sewing room so the lighting isn't great. But don't worry, I have daylight pictures too!!!

My daughter helped me with holding it up. The fabrics I used are from Leah Duncan's Arizona line for Art Gallery fabrics. I LOOOOVE this line! And I just had to use Essex Linen in black for the background. It's one of my favorites! I love the texture!

I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. But to be honest, I like the back just as much as I do the front.

This is right before I finished sewing the binding on. Again, at night in the sewing room.

Here is the back with better light. I used the same fabric line for the back and for the borders/background I wanted to use something different than the front so I chose Essex Linen in Ivory.

Here it is a little closer. Don't you love it?!?!?

And I had to get an up close of the quilting and of my little tag too!!! You can really see the details of the quilting in this picture.

  Again, I am really happy with the way this owl turned out. Not sure what my next project will be....I think maybe use some more of this fabric and make a cute drawstring bag tonight...hmmmm....make sure u follow me on Instagram to find out!!!!

And I would love for you guys to sew along with me....challenge yourself as well, sew EVERY SINGLE DAY, even if its just for 5 minutes. Let's see what we can make!!! If you do remember to use to hashtag #mysewjoback

Linking up for Finish It Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts
I will talk to y'all soon!