At Last...Christmas Crafting Reveal

I can finally show you all the Christmas crafting and sewing I did.  This will be a picture heavy post and long I'm afraid.  Hang in there.

Remember these little wooden houses?  I made them from scrap wood we had in a crate in our shed from many projects.  I loved painting them and I have them in my kitchen.  I decided I wanted more.

 But I was out of scraps of wood.  So I had my hubby buy me a 2 x 4 and I cut it into the pieces I needed.  Like this:

 And I glued the triangles on the top with wood glue and let it dry overnight.

 Then I painted them to look Christmas-y and put them under my tree.  I gave some to my daughter to paint for her house.

I love these little houses.  If you want to make your own, you need to prime them and let that dry for 24 hours.  Then, it's like a blank canvas.  Most of these are 6-8 inches tall.

Now, for the sewing...

 I know I showed some of these things before, but a brief recap here if I may.  These are the TV cushions I made for the two older grandsons.

                                  I found enough castle peeps in my stash to do this.

                       The quilt I made for my son-in-law for the back of his office door.

                         The quilt for V...Still needs quilting, but soon it will be done.

 My Cherry Christmas quilt.  I used a charm pack of Cherry Christmas to make this.  It's small, but I will quilt it up and use it for decoration next year.

 These were the biggest job for me.  I cut them all out and sewed them when I had time.  It only takes me 90 minutes or so to make one now, not including the cutting and fusing.  They are phone wristlets from a pattern by Trillium designs.

 I made 6 of these babies and now, with the ones I made last summer, I have made nine!!

                                                All different, and all done!!

 I love this fabric and so I made a pillow for my sister out of it.  She loves it, as I knew she would.

                          Another print in the collection makes a fine back to the pillow.

 Here is another small quilt made from charm packs.  This one is Countdown to Christmas.  I had two of these from last year that I never used and some yardage of the green and cream stripe for the sashing.  This will also be quilted and used for next year's decor.

 Lastly, this is the quilt top for J.  I just finished it today.  Sorry for the trees shadows.  It was getting late when I took these.  After the sailing quilt and map for V, I wanted something similar, yet different for J.  Airplanes!  I found this awesome bundle of fat quarters at Fabricworm I think.  I'm sorry I don't know that was where I got them.

 And they had planes and another cool map that fit so well.  I fussed around to figure out how to best use each fabric and I even bought another half yard of the airplanes to feature it better.

I will take better pictures once it's quilted, I promise.  This is one awesome quilt, even if I didn't get it done in time for Christmas.  Thanks for sticking with me to the end.
See you soon.

2012 Year in Review

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I would be able to get so many different projects finished, I don't think I would have believed you.  I work 40 hours a week, plus, during the school year, I pick up and take care of my grandson after school.  It doesn't seem like there is much time for sewing.

So here is my sewing year in review.  I started with a list and crossed off as I went.
Daughter's quilt
Sister's quilt
Swoon quilt top
Birdie Stitches quilt
Quilt 36 patch quilt, Lover's knot mini, Rainbow squares and Hometown quilt
Two very necessary quilts for friends in crisis
Lots of pillows for my couch...the list goes on and on.

 I found 2 1/2 pages of items listed...things I wanted to try, patterns I bought or found for free...

 I finished a lot of the things on my list.  The first page has 19 items on it and all are crossed off.  And monthly blocks for two bees...

 I made 6 baby quilts and countless pairs of these little pants this year...not all of them are on the list, but I sewed them all the same.

 I still have to quilt my Swoon and that is at the top of the list of 2013.  Can't wait to see that baby finished.  I have 2 more quilts in progress for the grandsons.  I hope to have them done by the end of January.  My Sunday Morning Quilts Bee starts again in January and that should make for a fun year of blocks.

 I found time to enter a couple of contests and blog hops this year.  A deadline seems to help keep me moving.  I even found time to crochet some this year.

 I hope you were able to sew as much as you wanted to this past year.  I always feel like I want more time to sew and quilt, but in looking back at this past year, I realize that I sew plenty.

 And I love sewing for other people as much as for myself.  I have a very appreciative audience.

 I am going to look and see what is still on my list that I still am interested in doing, and I am going to start my 2013 list this weekend.  I am excited to see what the new year brings.

I wish you joy, peace and lots of sewing in the new year.  I will be back soon with a post about all the Christmas sewing I did, including pictures, now that the gifts have been delivered.

Cookies and the Traveling Stash

Sunday was our day to bake cookies here for Christmas.  I didn't take too many pictures, I was busy mixing and baking, but we had lots of fun.  All three grandsons were here and even though baby B is too young to participate, he had fun being passed around.

 There were gingerbread boys in sweaters, and pretty leaves...

 Assorted stars....

 What was supposed to be a tree made of stars that wasn't made tall enough.

 Other assorted gingerbread that was iced....

 Rugelach made from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook...very yummy.

 Tons and tons of peanut blossoms with chocolate kisses in the centers...a family favorite.  And now that your mouth is watering...on to the Traveling Stash.

This box was so full of stuff that one of the corners was split open.  Lots and lots of fabrics, patterns and notions and 4 books.  That was really making this box heavy!

 Here it is on my cutting table.  There is a small rotary cutter, a tape measure, lots of thread.

 These three lovely books went back into the box.  They were tempting, but ...

 These are the things I took out of the box...one book, a couple of zippers, some fabric, mostly blue fabric, some stamps of the alphabet and a set of bag handles.

This is what I added...two patterns, three spools of thread and a bunch of fabric that I love, but I must admit, I probably will never get around to using.  There are 2  1+ yards of some really cute Debbie Mumm fabric that I really wanted to use, but never did, and several novelty prints that I loved, used a bit of and never used the rest.  If you want this box to visit you, leave a comment on this post.  I will draw a winner Saturday, December 22 some time after 8 pm EST.  The rules to participate are below
Good luck!

Rules:
1. Be an active blogger. Post about receiving the box on your blog in a timely manner. Post the giveaway for the box soon after receiving it.
2. There's a note in the box that logs where the box has been. Please add your info and place the note back in the box.
3. There's a list of Rules and Guidelines in the box. Please read and follow these and return the list to the box.
4. You may take anything you like from the box. Just replace every item with comparable quilt shop quality items equal to the amount taken.
5. Ship the box to the next person in a reasonable amount of time.
6. Due to the amount of postage shipping is only within the USA.

Edited to add: Giveaway closed.  Random number generator picked number 2.  Josie, the box will be coming your way.  Send me your address via email.

Stopping By

It's been a rather busy week or so since I was last here.  Lots going on and each day I thought I would get here and didn't.  Still more secret sewing than not.  I am taking photos of things I can't show yet, so that after Christmas, I can show you.

Here is a picture of our tree, in front of our new french doors.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  See you soon.

Shhhhh...It's a secret

I finished a small quilt wall hanging for my son-in-law this week, and since I'm pretty positive he doesn't read my blog (may not even know there is a blog) I feel okay showing it off here.  I am pretty pleased with this.  It is meant to hang on the back of his office door, since all the walls are taken up with books. (He is a PhD candidate)

 It started a couple of years ago when my daughter saw a bookshelf quilt on someone's blog and said "This is so cool, you should make one for M" and I said "mmm hmm".  Then, about 6 months ago I saw this stitching pattern on Urban Stitches web site.  Don't remember how I got to that, but anyway I thought "that is so cool and the perfect thing for the Literature Dr. to be.

 In case you can't tell, it is lines from Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, in the shape of...yes, a raven.  So I spent months trying to get this thing stitched to be the top of the quilty book shelf.

 And then came the books.  Three shelves of them.  Made from a Basic Grey jelly roll which was perfect for books.

 A little Ruby Star typewriter on the bottom shelf...I think I outdid myself on that one.  Perfection!

 And the book titles?  All selvedges from my scraps.  I had such fun choosing the titles of the books.

 And now it is done so one more checked off the ol' Christmas to do list.  YeeHaw!!!!

 One more quick one...V's new quilt made from Out to Sea fabrics.  I love this line and knew it needed to be a boy quilt.

With the map as the focal point.  Now I just have to quilt it in time.  And I have to design J's quilt for the cool airplane fabrics I bought.  See a theme here?

Have a great rest of your week.

A Few More Finishes

I have a few more finished things to show to you today.  Still plugging away on the Christmas list and I can't show that stuff, but I have done some other sewing.

Another little cute pair of flannel pants for baby B.  I am now making the 9-12 month sizes for him.  He is so long at almost 6 months!  I love making these little pants.  And since I am on a flannel kick, I have lots of flannel scraps...

 So I made another scrappy flannel blanket.  The first one was awesome and it is used daily in the car seat.  This one is a bit bigger, per his mother's request.  I had lots of scraps and a few bigger pieces.

 This is the back of the blanket.  It is just 2 layers of flannel, no batting and sort of quilted to prevent shifting of the layers.

Love all these crazy flannel colors and patterns.  I know it will help keep him warm this winter.  The last thing I have almost finished is the other TV cushion for my other grandson, V.

 For V's cushion I used some Castle Peeps I had in my stash.  I had just enough of the castle fabric to do both of the flat sides.  The orange piping I made from a very small piece of Kona, less than a quarter yard.

 The handle is the brown Peeps, which was small to begin with, but in putting it together, I cut off their heads.  Oh well....you can see in the picture above, the pins where I still need to stitch it closed.

A side view of the castle towers.  This cushion I also used a lining of muslin to strengthen it as I did not have home dec weight fabric.  I think this will work just as well.  Again, the tutorial can be found on Sew Can She.  It's a pretty quick sew, even if you make your own piping.

Have a great rest of the week.