Merry Christmas

 

Ahhhh, time to relax. ;o)

I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. 

My whole family celebrated last night. My mom and brother came over today for dinner. Everyone has left and I've poured myself a glass of wine. It's been a busy month and it's not over yet.

So, what did I make? Three sets of placemats. The first set is Chips and Dips by Canuck Quilter Designs.

Love the pattern, hated the binding fabric, it is too busy and too dark. Unfortunately, I didn't decide this until all six were machine sewn front and back. I'll remove the binding and find something else, but it will probably be a while. It took about 1.5 hours to remove the binding on one placemat.

My niece picked the fabrics for all three sets without know what the pattern would be. I was surprised when she selected this pastel rose group of fabrics.

Very girly girl fabric. I made three with the green gingham on the outside and three with pink gingham on the outside. The pattern is called Table Graces by Jean Dunn Designs.

Love this next set.

The pattern is Flipped, also by Canuck Quilter Designs. Very easy to make. I made two of each color.

A few months ago I showed a couple of tote bags that Donna made and gifted to me. You can see them here. I though my mom was going to steal one. Hmmm, what should I get her for Christmas. ;o) I've never made a tote bag with zippers and I really liked the foam Donna used in the bags she made me so when my local quilt shop offered a class for Quilts Illustrated's Boxy Tote I quickly signed up. I thought the class would get me started. It was an intense two day class and everyone finished their totes by the end of the second day.

Mom picked the fabric, but she didn't know what I was going to make with it.

She loved it (whew!).  My niece has submitted her request for one.

It wasn't overly difficult to make but I'm really glad I took the class versus trying to make it on my own...especially since I broke five needles making it! If I was at home, I would have probably quit when the third needle broke. I think the Juki is owed a spa treatment soon.

 

Pathetic Post

I've been doing a ton of sewing but I'm digging for something I can post...hmmm...

Changed my mind on the fabrics I'm going to use for the Grid Girl mystery. I like these much better.

I bought myself an Xmas gift.

Do you buy yourself a present?

Helped my mom put up her Christmas tree.

Yikes! Christmas is one week from today! I still have lots of sewing to finish up. We're celebrating Christmas Eve so I'd better get moving.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

More I Can't Show

Part of me wants to title this post "Ditto".

Not much new that I can show. I did finish what I had loaded on the longarm and added the binding. Hmmm, I don't like it. Mostly I don't like the binding, but it is machine sewn front and back. I decided it would be easier to remake it than fix it. I know! Pretty sad. I have the new project cut out I just need to find the motivation to start sewing.

I did get the next gift loaded on the longarm.

It's about half quilted. You can kinda see the back again. I've been marathon shopping for Xmas gifts the past few days with no time (or energy) to sew/quilt. Hopefully this will be finished tomorrow.

This guy visited again.

Not the best picture but you can see how dark his coat has gotten. I hope it's not a sign of how cold this winter is going to be.

I haven't shown a picture of Bella in a while.

I wish I was as photogenic as she is.

Have you heard of the Facebook group "Grid Girls"? It is hosted by Deb Heatherly and features mystery quilts using Creative Grids rulers.

A new mystery is starting January 9. I'm thinking of joining in and using the fabric group shown above. Fabric requirements call for 2 darks and 2 lights all with good contrast with each other. I have a lot of fabric but not a lot of fabric with yardage greater that one yard. And believe it or not I don't want to go shopping. ;o)

Lots of Can't Show You Quilting Going On

 

This is about as good as it gets...

You can see the backing fabric. I've also made progress on my other two Xmas projects. I'm expecting some new pantographs on Thursday, as soon as they get here, I'll load the second project. Can't wait to show you everything, so far I'm really liking how everything is turning out.

I can show you the wool wall hanging I quilted.

I couldn't quilt it the way I'd planned because the sandwich was quite thick. I had to use my glide foot as my ruler foot wouldn't move across the wool. There may be a way of raising the shaft the foot is attached to but I'm not sure that's possible on my basic little Moxie and I didn't feel like thinking that hard. Whatever, it turned out great other quilting black thread on black wool is a booger. 

I decide it was time to clear out the dust bunnies and hair rats from the sewing room. 

Why is it when you clean one room the nearby rooms become disaster areas? 

See that evil black and white thing in the bottom corner? She has gotten really good at not clawing the furniture (at my house), however she has started clawing the carpet in the sewing room and living room, even though there are lovely large new scratching posts. So the carpet gets covered in throw rugs, towels and small quilts to protect it. I also keep a squirt bottle close by. None of it helps much as she will find two inches of exposed carpet and start digging. Waaaaaa.

Still Stuffed

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did. We had dinner at my niece's house. She had about 20 people there and enough food for 50. ;o)  Seriously! Turkey, ham, mac & cheese, three sheet pans of roasted Brussel sprouts, two HUGE pots of mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry Jello salad, stuffing, at least 5 pies, cookies, two types of baked cheese, sliced cheese, crackers, a big bowl of jalapeno corn dip, and FIVE dozen hard boiled eggs that I made into deviled eggs. If anyone was hungry it was their own fault.

Did you do any Black Friday/Small Business/Cyber Monday shopping? I did a little bit on Friday, but nothing I can show. Mom and I did our first marathon round of Xmas shopping today. I'm so tired. The stores were busy! I thought everyone was supposed to be home doing cyber shopping!

I got a little bit of sewing done (nothing I can show) and a lot of picking up / organizing my sewing room. I put all of the projects I was working on back in their bins so I can focus on Xmas sewing. 

I did get my table runner finished.

Actually, it's more of a counter runner. I think it's 8.5 x 52 inches.

Here is a picture of the back. I like how the flowers that I showed last week turned out (changing the needle worked). But I have a difficult time with background fillers. It's okay but definitely not my best.

I have loaded my November UFO challenge quilt. I even know how I'm going to quilt everything. I'm going to be using two different thread colors - black and green (duh!), so it will probably take a few days to finish (remember - very short attention span) but should be done before the end of the month.

Nothing Very Exciting

 

I am still fighting this stupid cold although I felt a lot better today so cross your fingers it will go away soon.

I haven't had much energy (or I've just been really lazy, take your pick) so not much was done this past week.

I made a little progress on the UFO quilt.

All the half square triangle blocks are pieced. Now I need to frame the four patches.

These are the last of the Aunt Daisy units.

I started quilting the table runner, but the thread kept breaking. I need to do a needle change, hopefully that will solve the problem.

This guy and his girlfriend stopped by for lunch. 

And I decorated my sewing machines with stickers.

(please ignore the snot rag, didn't realize it was there until I checked the preview post)

This was kinda fun.

I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Don't feel like it for a different reason

 

I've had a booger of a cold (no pun intended) for the past four days. Today is the first day I've had any energy. 

I started the week with good intentions. I worked on my Xmas gifts, and I loaded my crumb table runner and got it all basted down.

Haven't touched it since then. I even know how I'm going to quilt it, just no energy and too foggy of a brain.

Then I spent two days cooking.

Split pea soup with ham then navy beans with ham hocks the next day. The split pea is really good...ya don't really need a recipe, but I did use this one. I also used a significantly modified version of this recipe for the beans. I haven't tried it yet, but my mom said it was good. The freezer is stocked.

Friday was spent sleeping all day hoping the cold would go away quickly. Nope. Saturday was a Nyquil induced coma. I did manage to stay awake long enough to make one Project Linus block.

The "big reveal" was Saturday. As I thought, it's a cute maze. If all the maze blocks weren't already done, I'd probably try to change it up, as it is I'll keep to the pattern. I still have four blocks to make so my reveal will be later (hopefully not next year).

My August/September/October UFO project got moved from a pile on the table to the folding design board. (the design bed is a mess, and the design table is covered with Project Linus pieces and parts).

To stay awake yesterday I worked on Aunt Daisy units. Currently at 139 out of 192 (poor unit 140 was murdered by the rotary cutter when I was trimming blocks - note to self: don't sneeze/cough when rotary cutting).

Don't Really Feel Like It

Blogging that is...

I've been sewing /quilting but there isn't much to show.

I finished two more Project Linus mystery blocks, both are maze blocks. No pictures...looks almost like last week's blocks.

Made 20 more Aunt Daisy triangle-in-a-square blocks. No picture - kinda boring. Currently at 110 out of 192. Woohoo, over half done.

Made some progress on the guild wool project. No picture, mostly backstitching, also kinda boring.

Cut out one of the Xmas gifts. No pictures until after Christmas.

Might change my mind on the November UFO challenge. The number was 4 which was using the wool blocks I made years ago. I had originally planned to make three wall hangings and set aside two different months to make them. Since I did get two done earlier this year, I think I'll try to get at least one of them quilted this month as my challenge project. I need to start thinking about next year's list. Unfortunately, I have more than 12 UFO's although not all of them are mine.

So what can I show you? I quilted the baby quilt Donna gave me.

It is much cuter in real life. I used a new pantograph that I really like. It is called Acacia Leaves but I thought it looked like butterflies...or bows. I have a very soft flannel on the back. I'll donate it at the next Quilts for Kids meeting.

Who's to Blame?

 I don't know if it is my laptop, Microsoft Edge or Blogger but lately I'm not seeing pictures in blog posts - other peoples and my own. Just a square outline with a little icon in the upper corner. Clicking on the icon opens a pop-up but no pictures. It's very frustrating. As I'm writing this post, my pictures are not displaying. It's very difficult for me to write something when I can't see what I'm writing about. 

I'm hoping everything is working okay for you as I actually have a few pictures to show today.

First up is my October UFO challenge project. Not a lot of progress, but some. I made most of the half square triangle units. 

They need to be squared up and sewn into blocks. Part of me is tempted to take apart the already made donated blocks and square them up. I'm going to continue working on this quilt. With the holiday's approaching I don't think I'm going to work on any other UFOs. I'll save them for next year.

Next up (I hope) is a finish. I didn't plan on finishing the Amazing quilt but after I started working on it it just zoomed by. 

I had a bit of fun quilting large pebbles in the black. Love the stripe binding.

I forgot to mention my wool class last week.  Mostly because no progress had been made.

The needle turn applique is done. None of the shapes match their original form, oh well. I've started some of the class two embroidery, although you can barely see it, there is backstitching around the bird and the flower center pod. The next class is in two weeks, so I need to get busy and finished the rest of my homework.

I finished clue four on the Project Linus mystery. Clue six was released Saturday. I need to get caught up. The "big reveal" is in three weeks. ;o)

I've decided to make a few Christmas gifts, so I may not be making much progress on any of these projects until the new year. And I won't be able to show what I'm working on as my mom reads my blog...she would peek.

Did you notice I haven't mentioned Aunt Daisy? We won't talk about the lack of progress there. (boo hoo)

How Much Sewing Have I Not Done This Week

 

Pretty slim pickings this past week. 

UFO Challenge quilt: The plan was to work on September's UFO in October because not much was done in September...so far nothing has been done in October. No pictures.

Project Linus mystery: New clue (#5) was released on Saturday. Applique and paper piecing. I've printed the patterns and pulled the fabric. No pictures.

Donation quilts: Picked up some fabrics at Quilts for Kids to coordinate with my a few of the panels I have accumulated. Most of the fabrics are going back. I went through all the panels and kinda sorta created kits for each. I have way too many panels. No pictures.

Aunt Daisy: The only sewing I did this past week was late last night. Made 20 triangle-in-a-square units. I'm now at 90 out of 192 made. No pictures.

Moxie: Loaded the Amazing quilt last Tuesday. Haven't touched it since.

Woo-hoo a picture!

Marathon Sewing

 Sometimes it looks like I've accomplished a lot when in truth it took very little time. This past week I don't feel like I got much done but I spent a LOT of time sewing.

First up, the guild community service quilt was quilted, bound, and turned in today.

I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the finished quilt! No big loss really as it was kinda ugly. ;o)

I finished the hand sewing of the binding on Brightly.

This picture doesn't do the quilt justice, it is so bright and cheerful. I love it - it's MINE. ;o)

I spent a lot of time stitching everything down on my wool class project.

Everything but the needle turn applique. I got a quick and dirty lesson at today's guild meeting. This is a Sue Spargo type project, we had our second class today and learned five stitches. There is a LOT of homework. Luckily, I have a month to do it all.

The fourth clue for Project Linus The A-Maze-ing Tyler was released last Saturday. I spent all day, and night, trying to catch up. 

I got the first three clues finished and made a good start on the fourth clue.

Aunt Daisy status: 70 out of 192 triangle-in-a-square units are finished. At this rate it's going to take me two years to finish this quilt instead of one. I really need to up my game on this one.

Two Weeks

 Okay, I've got two weeks to cover, and I don't want to write a book so here are the highlights.

Week One

I've already mention that I went to visit Donna in Idaho. While there, we were very busy (mostly talking as we haven't seen each other in almost two years). 

We went to the Boise Basin Quilt Guild's Ruby Jubilee quilt show. It was a large show with lots and lots of very impressive quilts! Here are a few of my favorites:

Most of the quilts I liked was because of the quilting.

Some I liked because they were just too cute.

Witches with Featherweights! 

This is a free Tilda quilt pattern.

The quilting made it sing.

LOVE feathers!

Each wedge had a different quilt motif.

But the corners were what caught my eye. Enlarge the picture and check out the "ruffles" bordering the flowers.

They also had lots of vendors. Here is my show haul.

Not the bowl of clips - those are Donna's.

We also went to a couple of thrift stores. I did pretty good there.

I think it's a hand towel rack but I saw mini quilt rack.

16 fat eights and scraps for $2...score!

Donna's is very generous. She cleaned out her sewing room while I was there. Here is a very small portion of what she gave me.

She made the bags, they are amazing! She also made the following quilts:

This quilt is huge! and the fabrics are fantastic.

Can you tell she likes Judy Niemeyer? 

And Buggy Barn.

These were in her to be quilted pile.

Week Two

I've sewn the binding on Brightly and have one side hand sewn down. I'll show a picture when it's finished.

I've been stitching down the wool pieces for my guild class. Not much to show yet. I have four pieces that need to have needle turn applique...YIKES! I don't know how to do that.

Aunt Daisy status: 60 out of 192 triangle in a square are finished. This is what a single block will look like:

I'll be making 16 of these blocks.

September UFO...not much progress was made. I did decide on a pattern and cut out the extra blocks I'll need to make it. I'm going to continue working on it in October as my October UFO is already made - Amazing. Hopefully it will be quilted this month.

I quilted Stephanie's table runner.

We decided to keep the quilting simple.

And I've already loaded my next quilt...this is a guild community service quilt.

Whew! I'm tired, the last two weeks have been busy.