More crafting!!

I know, hard to believe after not many posts due to the holidays, but here I am again!  I found this great little tutorial on Nanacompany blog and just had to make one.  That is unusual for me, but what the hey!

 It's a needle book!  I made it in just a couple of hours following the easy tutorial and picking out my fabrics.  I am always searching for needles and heaven knows I have enough of them, just keep losing them!

 The back of the book is a small patchwork.  I used some fabrics from my charm swap I did this summer with Ellison Lane Quilts.  I put my GrammieQ label on one end just for fun.  I thought that was better than trying to put my name on it.

 She suggested embellishing the felt pages.  I also scalloped the edges with my scallop rotary cutting blade.

 I love the fancy little touches in here.  In fact, I have since put some of my tapestry needles through the holes in the eyelet lace.  They fit perfectly.

The little tape measure thing is a piece of twill I got at the Purl.  I am really loving this little book.  Go visit Nanacompany and make one of your own.  Also it would make a great gift!

Post Christmas...now I can show you!

I know I showed these before, but they were a big hit.  Both the boys tried them out and pronounced them as cool.  Both we also admonised not to throw the bean bags for any other reason.

 The gift that I am the most prod of is new pillow covers for my middle daughter.  I made her 3 pillows about 8 years ago.  They live on her couch.  She had mentioned to me that she would like new pillows or covers for these.  Aha!  What a great gift idea.

 This was the first one.  I had a panel of Fairy tip toes by Tina Givens.  I loved the panel, but never could figure out what to do with it.  So I began deconstructing it.  This is what happened.

 Then I wanted to do some circles.  So I used a roll of masking tape and drew around some of the elements of the design.  I quilted the circles in a spiral and then added vertical lines for contrast.

 All had an envelope closure.  This is the back of the circles, another print from the same line.

 This one is my favorite.  I think I was really getting into the swing of it by now and was daring to try lots of things.  After I figured out the placement of the strips I cut, I began to think of how to embellish the white spaces with quilting.

 I did stipples, pebbles, swirls and then hearts.  I LOVE how this one turned out.  My daughter was so happy with them too.

 Don't they look great on her couch?  Best moment ever.  I want to make so many more pillows!

This is the set up for a couple of notebook covers I made for my girls.  I unfortunately do not seem to have a picture of the completed project, but it was the December Label Crew project from Sweetwater.  They have it on their Etsy sight.  Very easy and of course, made with Sweetwater's Sunkissed line.  I also made an apron, which I forgot to photograph.  So all in all a successful Christmas.  Hope yours was too. 
Have a great week.

May your days be merry and bright

So close to Christmas there is nothing I can show you, but I have lots of pictures for after Christmas.  I hope your Holidays are everything you want them to be.  See you next week.

Linking up to Occupy My Sewing Room

I didn't really get as much time as I wanted, but I did get a lot done.

 This first quilt I made for my brother's new nephew.  I shipped it off on Monday.  Happy to have that one on its way,

 Then I finishe two pair of Christmas PJs for V and J.  Buttons, buttonholes elastic and all.  Yay!!

 This is one of two...pattern from Moda Bake Shop.  This for J whose fave color is orange.

And here is the back.  Still have to finish the bean bags.  Gotta buy beans.

 Here is the other one for V.  I hope he likes it.  Little Apples and Sherbet Pips fabric.

                                       And the back of that one...
So, what do you think?  Did I get a lot done?  I am pleased.  There are a couple of other items I can't share, even a peek.  So I will blog them after Christmas.  Happy Sewing everyone.

A musical interlude

It's very tough to do a post these days, what with all the gift sewing I have been doing.  I can't tell you what I am making, or for whom I am sewing.  I can't show you pictures.  it would spoil the surprise.  So instead, I am going to share something else with you.  I started this last year on a lark on my Facebook page.  Every morning, beginning with December 1, I posted as my status, a line from a Christmas song.  I wanted to see what reaction it received.  Some people wrote the next line, others tried to guess the song.  I tried to make some easy and some difficult, just for fun.  So if you are on Facebook with me, here is this month's selections.  If you don't want to spoil the daily read there, stop reading this now.
Ready?

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me...
We need a little music, need a little laughter, need a little singing, ringing in the rafters...
Let's take the road before us and sing a chorus or two...
Christmas day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp...
I can see me now on Christmas morning creeping down the stairs. Imagine my surprise when I open up my eyes...
See the blazing yule before us...
...in summer sun or winter snow...
Please bring us some figgy pudding...
Sing choirs of angels, sing in exaltation...
And all of heaven and earth will pray...
...son of God, love's pur light...
Come to Bethlehem and see...
...mistletoe hung where you can see...
...I have no gift to bring...
...where the treetops glisten...
Peace on earth and mercy mild...
...with God as our father, brothers all are we...
Peace on the earth, goodwill to men...
...a star, a star shining in the night...
I don't know if there'll be snow...
In Bethlehem in Judea, the blessed angel came...
If you want to be happy in a million ways...
...field and fountain, moor and mountain...
...in thy dark streets shineth...
The looked up and saw a star, shining in the east beyond them far...

I hope you have fun with this.  I am baking cookies too right now, so I am very busy, as we all are this time of year.  See you soon.  Have a great week.

Tic Tac Toe

 So the push to finish Christmas projects in a timely fashion is on.  I finally got the buttons and elastic for the boys pajamas.  Now to sew them on and make button holes.  My nemesis is button holes.

 I have started putting the bean bags together for the tic tac toe games, one for each boy.  That's 20 bean bags.  That's a lot of beans!  I started quilting the tic tac toe boards on Sunday.  I got one all done and now it just needs to have binding made and attached.

 I love the colors and the simple straight line stitch in the sashing.  I did a simple stitch almost in the ditch around the squares.  I am liking the look.

 The straight line were hubby's idea.  Good idea honey, it was exactly what was needed.

 The second one is pin basted and awaiting its turn at the machine.  I made them both very different and hopefully to the boy's liking.  J really love the color orange and V loves puppies.

 I used some Sherbet pips scarves for the back of one.  I can't wait to get these done and bound.  They are looking good!

Hope your Christmas projects are coming along as well.  It's harder to blog about some projects right now because so many of the family read my blog.  It would spoil the surprise.  So for now, this is it.
Have a great week and happy sewing.

A Finish!!

Finally I have another finish to show you.  I feel like I have been sewing and sewing but not any closer to getting anything finished.  Don't get me wrong, I do love the process, but when it comes to Christmas sewing, there is a sense of urgency.

 First, this is not Christmas related, but here is November's Birdie Stitches block.  I can't believe I have kept up for a whole year almost now!

 This is made from a charm pack of Countdown to Christmas.  I wanted something small to top this table in my living room.  It is not quilted so not bulky and since the charms are pinked around the edges, no hemming required.  Love it!  I might have to make some for other seasons.  Now the big finish...

 This quilt is for my brother's new niece.  She is just a few months old, but he wanted a quilt that she could grow into for years.  I love how it turned out.  There are lots of butterflies here.

 The fabric has butterflies and the quilting is, in part butterflies based on a quilt that Patricia of    Happy Days Quilting did for her daughter.

 Here is the back of the quilt, made from pieces of leftover fabric from the front.

 Down here at the bottom is my new label.  I will put a proper label with all the info on the quilt as well.

love the crinkly goodness

Essential dots for the binding, as well as the inner border

I'm sew happy with this!

 And one more almost finished...two pair of sleepover pajamas(Oliver + S) for Christmas for V and J.  All they need are buttons and elastic.  I am going to go shop for buttons soon.

Happy sewing and have a great week.

A Win!

 Look what came in the mail this week!  I won this great box from Moda Lisa.  The magazine has her lovely Log Cabin quilt in it.  When she posted on her blog about it , she offered her scraps to one lucky commenter.  I am so happy that I was that lucky person.  I expected some strips left from her project, along with a copy of the magazine, but I was overwhelmed with just how many "scraps" there were!

 In addition to the strips, of which there were more than a few, there were lots of chunks of the fabrics.

 So pretty and so many lovely colors too.  I just keep looking at them.  I can't believe they're mine.

I am going to use them to make a quilt for my middle daughter.  She has asked for a new quilt and it's been a while since I made her one.  I am going to do a "sort of" Log Cabin.  I can't wait to get it started.  I probably won't get to it until after the holidays.  But it wouldn't be possible without these great scraps.  Thanks so much to Moda Lissa!!

A quick project

You know how sometimes you just need to throw something together quickly to get that instant gratification of finishing something?  That was me, with very little sewing time this weekend.

a new table cloth

Hope Valley and Kona

I found this hunk of Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt on the internet a while back, can't remember where, but I loved it so much and thought it would make the perfect table cloth.  That way, I wouldn't have to cut it up.  I had the Kona in tomato and the green, not sure which one it is, but both were left over from other projects.  The whole thing took about 2 hours.  TADA!!

Have a great week.

Mini quilt sew and tell

Amylouwwho is having a party for mini quilts!  This is sew fun!  I haven't done but a couple of mini quilts in my 20 plus years as a quilter, but I am really wanting to do more.  I mean, have you seen all the beautiful minis that folks are making?  What a great way to try our new techniques!

 This is a mini I made quite a few years back. My skills were still quite rough and I found this pattern in a Georgia Bonesteel book.  Her books were the first ones I used for inspiration and help in teaching myself to quilt.  It wasn't too difficult to make the small squares and twist them.

 Here is a better view of the twisted squares and the little spiral I hand quilted in the green squares.

I didn't even correctly bind this thing.  I just folded the back over the front and hand stitched it.  This was made back when all I did was hand quilting.  I hadn't taken a machine quilting class yet, although I did later.  Now I only hand quilt for embellishment mostly.  Machine quilting is much more fun and quicker!
Stop over at Amylouwho to check out all the cool minis!