Christmas update

I didn't follow through with my plan to get busy on my post-Christmas post right away. Part of the problem was that I didn't have pictures of one of the projects and had to wait until after the package was opened. I know, lame excuse, but it is what it is!


When the box that went to my sister's house was opened this little quilt was near the top...

I made a block like the inner block for one of the Quilt Block Exchanges and thought about how cool a Blue Willow quilt could be. Since my sister collects things that are blue and white I thought it would be a perfect Christmas gift. Not sure exactly how she is going to hang it but that isn't my problem! :-)

Further down in the box were these 4 quilts. 

You have seen them all as flimsies but not the finished quilts. These are my sister's 4 kids who received the finished products. I used hi-loft batting and did minimal machine quilting and tying to hold them together but keep them fluffy. 


My niece, Brita (third from left), did some pressing on her quilt while I was working on it at the quilt retreat and her sister, Katie (next to her), has helped me put together many quilts from this pattern. She got the one that was put together, shall we say, unconventionally, as that tends to happen at least once in every quilt we put together!


The little minis that I showed in the last post all went to good homes. I am sure I will make more of those!

We had a quiet Christmas at home with our son and his little maltese, Mandu. Here she is on my lap at the sewing machine. It seemed that whenever she found me sewing she had to come on my lap. I was working on those little minis so I didn't sit for long at a time!

Mandu is a little over a year old and a bundle of energy! Mostly Lucy just ignored her unless she accidently bounced on her or something!

On the morning of the 26th we all headed across the state to our oldest daughter's house. Enjoyed opening presents with the grandkids and then I drove about an hour and picked up my second daughter's husband from the trucking terminal so he could spend the night with us. We arrived home in time for dinner with my sister, brother-in-law, and two of their kids included. Daughter #2 arrived a while after dinner. Let's just say that house was very full with 11 adults, 2 excited children, 1 large dog, two small dogs and a cat!

We spent the next few days playing with the grandkids, painting the downstairs bathroom (it has been in the remodel process for quite some time), eating and visiting. Thursday we did some shopping and ended up at daughter #2's home for the night. Yesterday morning, after breakfast at a truck stop with our daughter (she had just dropped her hubby off at his truck for a run to Chicago), we headed back home. 

We got the car unloaded and bags unpacked and that is about it for last night! Today is the day for laundry and getting the house a little more organized again!

I hope everyone has enjoyed the holiday season and I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I think the 5 weeks or so that it has been since my last post is the longest I have gone without posting. Life has been crazy with only a little sewing and most of it not 'post-worthy'.


The church is all put back together after the water damage in September and the rental is ready for new tenants so those jobs are off my plate.


All Christmas sewing is finished and will be revealed after Christmas. Christmas shopping is done and everything is wrapped. I haven't done much baking/cooking for the holiday. Mainly because of food allergies/sensitivities. Hard to make most holiday treats without cane sugar or dairy! I will make a couple things today though - peanut butter fudge and creamsicle fudge. Yesterday was lefse day - we got around the dairy thing by using soy milk and vegan 'butter' for some of them.


I have been working on owl hats recently but didn't get pictures taken. These are some I had on hand.

I got several requests for hats in the last month or so. If anyone is interested in one or more, let me know. I am charging $10 and all of the money goes to the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

These little cuties have been a last minute project. 

I saw the paper pieced patterns on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog on Monday and decided to make some for my crafty friends at Tuesday Night Craft Night so on Tuesday I got 4 ornaments made (finished the last one minutes before I headed over). They turned out so nicely I made these yesterday after the lefse cooking party. They are 4" paper pieced blocks that I backed with a piece of flannel and bound, adding the ribbon while sewing the binding on. I am thinking it would be fun to make a bunch of these using  green for the background and then put them together for a Christmas Tree quilt. Maybe next year - yeah, right!

I finally got all the frogs made for the baby quilts so I have 5 quilts waiting for borders and four need quilting. That will be right after Christmas and then on to the girl baby quilt. All 5 of the babies I am making quilts for have been born and there are 4 boys and 1 girl. I have had the honor of holding two of them so far. Hope I get a chance someday to hold the other three!

As soon as those baby quilts are done I will get started on the drawing quilt for Relay for Life. The theme is "The Magic of Relay" so I am thinking a Harry Potter themed quilt. There are some great paper-piecing patterns out there.

I am going to get started on my post about the Christmas projects right away so I can post it as soon as the gifts are opened. 

Hope everyone has an Amazing Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever holiday you celebrate! 

It's a Shower Curtain!

Yesterday morning I put the grommets in the shower curtain, hung it on the wall for a quick picture,

 and then hung it in the bathroom in its rightful place.

Unfortunately, the bathroom isn't big enough to get a very good picture but I think it is great!


Today I am doing painting at the church's rental and if I have energy left this afternoon I will work on some frogs!

"Mahusive Giveaway"

Just a quick post to let you all know about a giveaway over at Lily's Quilts. If you like Kona solids this giveaway is for you! She is also posting gift ideas for quilters so you can send the link to your friends and family and they know what you might be looking for under the tree or in your stocking.


I am heading in to put the grommets on the shower curtain and then I can post pictures!

Sixteen Dancing Bullfrogs

Here is the first quilt top before borders. I managed to get the last four frogs done this morning and got the blocks all together.

I was in a hurry to get to an appointment once it was done though so I only managed this shot of it hanging on the ironing board. 


After taking care of all those things that keep me from my sewing room I got the borders sewn on the shower curtain and got the sheet I am using for the back prepared to lay it out tomorrow when I am fresh. I would love to have that project off my list tomorrow!


This evening I will do some work on the bindings on two quilts of my niece's that she quilted this weekend on my machine. She quilted a total of 6 and I think she has a couple of others at home that need the bindings hand-stitched also so I figured I would help her out with these two.

Frog-stitch

Almost a whole week since my last post! So much has been happening but not much to show. 

In the bathroom we now have the toilet paper holder and towel ring installed. I also picked up a toothbrush holder, soap dispenser and shower curtain hooks. The new shower caddy got installed today so we can start using that shower again. I did find a border fabric for the shower curtain and grommets but I haven't gotten it finished. That is on the list for this week, for sure! Hubby got the main body of the new medicine cabinet made and at least one coat of finish on it over the weekend. Maybe I will have some pictures for my next post.

On Friday I decided I was going to roast and shell all of the chestnuts I picked up in the yard. My soup recipe calls for 1# and I had 10#! It took me 9 hours to get them all done and my thumbs were so sore! But the soup was delicious and I have soup and more chestnuts in the freezer because of all my work!

I have done a lot of fabric shopping this week. Besides the shower curtain border fabric I was hunting for background fabrics for the baby quilts I need to get made. Do you know how hard it is to find two blue fabrics - a light and a medium - that go together? And you don't want to buy one at one shop and hope you find the second at another shop so you drive all over!!!!! I did finally get suitable fabrics and also got all the frogs cut out. I am using a pattern called Bullfrog Boogie from Time To Quilt. Today I cut out backgrounds for the first quilt and started sewing the frogs. I had finished my 3rd set of 4 frogs when I discovered I hadn't put the last 4 together right so I had to do some 'frog-stitching' (you know, rip-it, rip-it) and put them back together the right way. Luckily, it was only 4 seams per block. What do you think of the first 12 blocks?

The eyes will be appliqued later using some method. Not sure if it will be yo-yos or just circles appliqued. I plan to get this tip finished tomorrow morning and then I will probably finish up the shower curtain and then get busy with the next 4 frog quilts. I need to make quilts for 5 babies - 4 boys and one unknown. I will make 5 frog quilts and one butterfly quilt and I should have it covered.

Pleased

It has been a good day. I accomplished what I hoped for and managed to get a few other things done too!

First and foremost I got the main body of the shower curtain put together. What do you think? It still needs a dark blue border but I don't have that fabric yet. 

Here it is pinned to the shower liner. (It is so hard to get a good angle in this bathroom!)

My husband isn't too sure about it because 'nothing stands out' which is great because that was the plan!


In addition, I managed to get two loads of laundry washed, dried and folded! This evening we got the new door inserted into its pocket, the trim on that little section between the tub and the cupboard and I sorted through the junk that was in the old vanity and loaded into the new one.