Holiday Sewing

Still no quilting going on here--it's been about 2 months now. Definitely a dry period. I was hoping to finish up two small quilts to donate, but I'm realizing now that I'll enjoy the quilting more if I wait until the new year. The quilting "studio" has been used from time to time this fall as a guest room, and now I don't want to mess it up only to have to clean up again in a few days. We've also been out of town a few times this month for family-related needs and gatherings. I wasn't going to do a blog post, but hey, I have done a little sewing, and even though it's not quilting, there were layers of fabric involved, so I can share them. They are surprises, but for little folk, so if their mothers happen to glance at this, I'm sure they will keep the secrets safe.

First up, a few weeks ago I suddenly realized that our littlest grandson needs a Christmas stocking. So I scrambled through the fabric bins to find fabric that coordinated with the stockings I've made over the years for his cousins and brother. These projects are always made on the spur of the moment with less than stellar sewing techniques--super homemade-y, but fun. I managed to find some bits of the dark green I used for his brother's stocking (I had to piece three scraps to get the size I needed) and found most of the fabrics (or close enough) I had used in the other stockings for the light bulbs. I only had to buy a little twill tape for the "string." Here it is waiting to be filled. I've rubbed out most of his name for privacy.

I also made a little soft book for A. It's from a panel by Shelly Comiskey for Henry Glass. 

This page cracks me up. Unicorns are real, people!

Each year, I make ornaments for each of my grandkiddies based on their Halloween costumes. I don't know why I started doing that, but by now it's a tradition. Sometimes I quilt them, but I also like to make them from felt. This year, L was the Princess in Black, based on a book about a princess (dressed in frothy pink) who turns into a super hero (dressed in black) to thwart monsters who are going after the country's goats. (Really.) The princess's logo is a magnolia blossom, so L is getting her own magnolia ornament this year. Through the magic of technology, I can show you the front and back at the same time.

C was Thomas the Tank Engine for the second year. Since I gave him a Thomas ornament last year, I had to come up with something else this year: the windmill from the Island of Sodor (where Thomas lives). I used a brad to fasten the windmill blades so he can turn them.

Little A didn't really wear a costume, but he did wear his little bear fleece, complete with ears, to make the rounds for Trick-or-Treating. So, of course, he needed a little bear. I found  this one as a coloring page online. Now I can't find it, argh! But there are lots of similar ones.

I was stumped when it came time to make E's ornament. He had chosen the Bumblebee transformer costume this year (never mind that he had no idea who Bumblebee was). I had no idea how to make the character in felt. Finally, I found this pixel coloring page math worksheet, and made it in counted cross stitch. What fun. I hadn't done cross stitch in quite a long time. In this version, Bumblebee transforms into a Camero, I think. In the new movie, I think it's a VW. Kind of abstract, but it does relate to the costume of choice this year. I used 18-thread cross stitch fabric and made the X's over three threads, except the date, which is over one thread. 

I thought that might be the extent of my sewing this season, but the other day, my daughter-in-law asked if I could do a tiny project. E had been asking for a super hero cape. She sent me the links to these two tutorials: Pennies into Pearls and The Bears Four. I mashed the two patterns using the neckline from the first and the width and logo of the second to make a cape worthy of a super hero. And, why make one cape when you can make four? Here's E's cape (modeled by Mr. Bear):

And here they are all together:

 Little A's is really a bib, but definitely not a drool-catchy one. I figure he can wear it as a cape during tummy time. It will give him super power to endure it. I made these all out of two layers of satin, with the shiny side out on the top layer and the matte side facing out on the lining. I'm hoping that will make them a little less slippery against clothing. It also made it a snap to sew without slippage. (I can't guarantee there won't be static, though!) I don't have a zig-zag sewing machine, so the shields and letters were a little fiddly. I used freezer paper for patterns for the shields and some stabilizer behind the letters, which I turned under and appliqued with a straight stitch. Except A's. His letter was so small that I did raw edge applique with the stabilizer (yes, I know fusible web would have worked, but I had the stabilizer on-hand) and put some fray inhibiter on the edges. The logos are cotton fabric instead of the recommended felt because I wanted the capes to be machine washable. (That also reduced my fabric scraps somewhat.) Well, that was a fun project. Not as tiny a project as my DIL envisioned, but now we can have a whole houseful of superheros. As opposed to squirrels, as these capes certainly were for me.

But I wasn't done yet. I decided that A needed some fresh bibs for his stocking, so I kept sewing. The bigger bib is based on one similar to this one (I don't know where I got the original), but I modified the shape to fasten it on the side. The other style is this bandana bib. These are so much fun to make--kinda like eating potato chips. You can't stop at one. Just keep going until you run out of fabric.

They're reversible.

I had to put that baseball print on in honor of my husband's and son's favorite baseball player of all time getting voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last week. Go Harold Baines!

So there they are, not quilts, but layered sewing projects. I guess I did more sewing than I thought during the last few weeks (mostly the last couple of days). 

I may try to do a planning post (yes, me, planning--or maybe I should say "planning") as well as a year end wrap-up if I can in the next few days. We don't start hardcore celebrating until after Christmas, so there may be time. 

Meanwhile, here's my view from my chair: our Charlie Brown tree. Since we were out of town, we waited to get our tree until the 17th. There were only 5 left of the kind we like at the tree lot we go to. This was the best. And hey, when you get a tree that late, it's 50% off. (Not going to be a tradition, though.) Actually, the tree is okay. Lots of stiff branches and spaces for hanging ornaments. I just really get a kick out of those random poky branches sticking every which way. It looks a little bare under there. I'd better get wrapping.

Oh, and how about some comfort food? My daughter shared this Skinny Crockpot Loaded  Potato Soup link with me from The Chunky Chef. We added the optional carrots and celery as well as some leftover chicken. YUM YUM! (And good eats for a sewing day).

I'm linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, with Wendy at Wendy's Quilts and More for Peacock Party, and if there is a DrEAMi party at Sandra's mmm! quilts at the end of the month (I'm not sure of the holiday schedule), I'll link up there, too, because there were definitely some squirrels this month.

I hope you are enjoying your holiday season this year. I'm going to try to be back in a more regular way next year. I have lots of pent-up quilting energy, so there may be more quilts to share. 

Together, let's enjoy the new year the way quilters always do, changing the world for the better, one quilt at a time.

Tree Quilt

Sandra over at mmm!quilts told me this was a squirrel. I didn't think of it while I was making it, but she's right!

It all started with this doodle I made while watching TV (yes a "bad" Christmas movie) a few evenings ago.

The next morning, I grabbed some newsprint and drew a rectangle on it using an old cutting mat as a template. Eyeballing proportions, I drew some wonky-ish horizontal lines and then diagonals, pretty much like my doodle. I had decided to paper foundation piece (or I guess you could say string piece) the quilt, not for precision, but to keep the size contained so that the quilt would fit on my front door. I taped the drawing to my patio door window and traced it in reverse onto another piece of newsprint. That way I could save the pattern in case I ever want to make another similar quilt. Here's my "lightbox" window. A bit dark here. I think it was raining--or even snowing a bit outside. There are lots of scribbles, as I kept changing my mind about the order of piecing while I made notations. Yup, a squirrel. No time for neatness.

I cut my pattern into five horizontal rows. Then I dug into my drawerful of greens, thinking I'd use up some of my ancient stash. (Yeah, right. I barely made a dent.) For each section of the quilt I quickly laid out some fabrics. The only thing I really paid attention to was making sure there was a sprinkling of white in each section--sort of like snow on the branches.

I chose three blues in graduated tints (or is it values) for the sky. That was easy because I have my fabric colors arranged by value. I just grabbed three that were next to each other--and luckily there was enough of each for three rows. And for the white fabric, I chose Kona Snow. Of course!

Sorry, bad lighting and focus here. 

I stitched my five strips, roughly following the lines I had drawn.

Then joined them--and that was that! 

I found a piece of blue print for the back--it's the leftover of a quilt I made many years ago and has some mystery stains, so it works well to cut up for small quilt backs. I quilted abstract bough shapes in each green strip of the tree, wavy "drifts" in the snow and tiny circular loops in the sky to mimic blowing snowflakes. Then I dug into my drawer once more for some red for the binding. I was tempted to add a star or some button ornaments, but in the end I decided to leave it simple so that I can display it throughout the winter.

Here it is on the door again.

And the back, that no one will see. Except here.

And on the driveway in the sun to show the quilting texture. (I love doing dense quilting on tiny projects!)

I tried to get a picture of the front of the house with the quilt on the door, but the time of day wasn't right. I'll try to get one later after I decorate outside.

This was such a fun little project. And I am thrilled that no shopping trip was involved in the making. I was going to treat it with anti-UV spray to resist fading but decided not to. Some of the fabrics are very old (like from the '80s!) and brittle, with very unstable dye. I didn't want to risk bleeding from the greens and red into the light fabrics. So I'll just cross my fingers and hope that I'll get a couple of seasons out of it before it fades too much. I can do that with a no-cost project, I think. And then I can make another. 

Here are some quick stats:
Pattern: My own doodle
Size: 18 1/2 by 24 1/2 inches. I started with an 18 by 24 cutting mat for the pattern, but left extra fabric when sewing so I could add binding width to the size. 
Fabrics: All scraps
Batting: Hobbs Premium 80/20 scrap.
Thread: Superior Masterpiece in Granite for piecing; Aurifil 40 wt. in Pewter (2630) for quilting in tree (seems finer than what I usually use for quilting, but it's what I had available for quilting dark fabrics.); Superior King Tut in White Linen for quilting snow and sky. 
Quilting: Treadle Free-motion
Binding: Cut 2 1/2 inches for about a 3/8 inch width.
Machines: Singer Featherweight for piecing; Singer 115 treadle for quilting and binding. 

Okay, one more photo--close up on the driveway:

Forgot to quilt my initials and date, so I embroidered them after it was done.

I'm linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social, Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Up Friday, Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing for Free Motion Mavericks, Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh, Scrap and with mmm!quilts for DrEAMi because this is definitely a Drop Everything And Make it quilt. Yup, a squirrel. I'll link up with the parties as they go live. You might have noticed that I have removed the linky buttons from the sidebar on the right. I discovered that a certain photo storage company has defaced my blog with ugly icons covering up some of the link buttons. So I've decided to just remove them all. I'll still be sure to provide links in my posts. That's probably easier for people who link up from apps anyway, but it was fun to promote my favorite linky parties with those buttons. Sigh. Such is digital life.

Have a good week, everybody, and if you live in the US, Happy Thanksgiving! (This quilt won't go up on my door until the day after!)

Happy New Year!

Hey, I'm back from my blogcation. I had a good time doing mini posts on Instagram this past month. I usually forget to keep up with that part of social media, but now that I'm a bit more in the habit, maybe it will stick. Anyway, it was fun to get some snaps of my holiday prep and activities. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, but what fun! And now I can share some fabric-related activities that I couldn't share before because my little projects are all in the hands of their new owners. 

For the past five Christmases, I've been in the habit of making my granddaughter a felt applique Christmas ornament that represents her Halloween costume. This year, I decided to do the same for my grandsons. It was a challenge because the Grands had fairly complex costumes, but by tracing my patterns with freezer paper and ironing the paper to the felt, I was able to cut out precise pieces with my embroidery scissors. I was thrilled with how they turned out and with the reactions I got from my Grands when they found them in their stockings.

For Halloween, my granddaughter was Owlette from PJ Masks (a children's cartoon about kids who turn into superheros and do good deeds at night when they are in their pajamas). My older grandson was a golfer. He's not quite two years old, but he loves to hit golf balls and has perfect form. And my younger grandson was a monkey with a stuffed banana sewn to his costume. For the ornaments, I found clip art online to help me with the basic designs, and I chose felt colors and embroidery thread to match the kids' costumes. 

Here they are:

I stuffed each one with a bit of leftover batting (always looking for ways to use up those odd pieces). 

I also give ornaments to my kids every year. And this year I made a couple of extra ones for my physical therapist and my hair stylist since I had appointments just before Christmas. I can do handwork pretty well now, but using a sewing machine has been more challenging lately--partly because of aches and pains from rehab activities, but also because I've needed to keep the mess to a minimum while getting ready for guests. But I still wanted to use fabric, so I decided to make no-sew ornaments.

I found a folded star ornament that is EVERYWHERE on the internet. It seems that most people attribute the directions for the ornament to Sophie Legarth in this tutorial. Because the tutorial is not in English, I looked at a lot of other sites, too. I probably used this one by Betz White the most. But no matter what tutorial I looked at, I had a lot of trouble with the last step. There's nothing wrong with the tutorial. I just have a really hard time following pictures. I need lots of words to go with them to describe the process. I finally figured out my own way to stuff the ends of the fabric into the star, and I can't even tell you how I did it. All I know is that for each ornament, I had to figure it out all over again when I got to the last step. So these little projects took way longer than they needed to, and I pretty much had to limit myself to making one a day to keep frustration to a minimum. Really, they were fun, though. And my ornaments are quite puffy and tight, so they should stay together pretty well. 

The ornament on the upper right is the one I made for myself for practice. The two red, white and blue ones went to my son-in-law/daughter and to my physical therapist to celebrate the Cubs' win of the World Series (They are fans. Well, my daughter is a White Sox fan, but she was happy for my son-in-law.) The other two went to my son/daughter-in-law and to my hair stylist with no particular reason for the colors except that I liked how they looked together. 

These ornaments were not messy to make. Except for the mess of choosing the fabrics. You should have seen the bed in my quilting room. A fabric explosion! I had a really easy time picking out three fabrics that I liked together, but the fourth was always a challenge. By the time I was done choosing dithering, there was a HUGE pile of scraps on the bed. Because I needed to get it all cleaned up for company, I may have indiscriminately stuffed the mess into my scrap drawers. Oops! No, not the drawers in my closet. Those are still nice and neat ever since I did the major closet reno. These drawers are in a dresser. If I were the kind of person to make New Year's resolutions, one would definitely need to be to get all those drawers back in order again. We'll see. I kept my hand sewing area by my chair neat by using my "garbage vase." 

Yes, I know some of those scraps look salvageable. Maybe I'll go through them before I dump it out. It was so cheery looking, I left it out over the holidays.

Oh, one more thing--someone mentioned that it might be fun to have the recipe of some cookies I posted on Instagram. I usually make my go-to cookies over the holidays: Heath Bar cookies and cream cheese cut-out cookies. This year I also made some simple butter cookies with vegan "butter" for one of my grandsons, who can't have dairy right now. The Heath Bar recipe is my favorite. It was my mother's, and I don't know where she got it, but the cookies always disappear quickly. Yup, they're that good! Delicate and crispy.

I used to make them with a margarine brand that's famous for baking in my area, but the formula seems to have changed, and the cookies don't turn out as well with it anymore. So I went with real butter and upped the flour a bit from the original recipe.

Here's the revised recipe for anyone who'd like to try it:

Heath Bar Cookies  
Cream 2 sticks (1/2 pound) salted butter with 3/4 cup white sugar. Add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and beat. Mix in 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Add 1 3/4 cups flour, somewhat packed. Chop 3 Heath Bars really fine (or use half a bag of milk chocolate Heath bar toffee bits, crushed a bit smaller) and mix in well with the above dough. Cool in the refrigerator for about 1 hour. With floured hands, roll dough into small balls (about the size of large marbles). Flatten out each ball very thin on a cookie sheet with a floured fork in a criss-cross pattern. Bake at 300 degree oven for 20 minutes or until light brown. This recipe makes about 60 cookies (if you don't eat the raw cookie dough while you're working). 

So, now, a new year. I fervently hope it will be a good one for our whole fragile world. If you live in my country (or even if you don't) I think you know what I mean. I'll keep doing my best to make it a better place through quilting. I'm not one to make resolutions (although I do enjoy reading everyone else's). I probably should clean up those messy drawers, though. And I do know that I have the same goal I've had for the last 4 (yes, 4!) months. To regain the full use of my left arm so I can sew and quilt as much as I want to again. I think that's enough. (And I will try to get in the habit of regular posts again.) As always, I'll continue to enjoy everyone's wonderful blogs, photos and quilts. 

Looking back over this post, maybe I should have called it Hodge Podge. Oh well. That's just how things are right now.I have three projects in process. Two are fall quilts and one is a summer quilt, so I think for the new year, I'll start something new to boost my enthusiasm and mix in something less seasonal. Stay tuned, and check out my Instagram feed (button is on the right sidebar) for a peek at the fabric. 

I hope the new year is a wonderful one for you, quilt-wise and every other way. 

I'm linking up this week with Freemotion by the River, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.  

Happy Holidays!

It seems that I have been taking an unintentional blogcation this month. I did take a blogcation at this time last year but wasn't planning to this year; however, life has changed my plans. The good news is that my shoulder is healed enough that I have been cleared for strength training. But along with that comes a set of more exercises in addition to the ones I'm doing to get my range-of-motion back. Who knew that I'd get more quilting done when my arm was still in a sling than now that I'm less confined? I sure didn't. But these exercises are the key to getting back (eventually) to all the things I love to do most. 

While I'm spending most of my discretionary time becoming a full-time fitness enthusiast (not!) instead of quilting, I have been doing some other things this month. I've decided to share them on Instagram with the theme of "Why I'm Not Quilting This Month." That will keep me in the habit of posting at least a little bit and will remind me that even though I'm not quilting, I'm becoming more active again. And that is definitely something to celebrate. You can see what I've been up to by clicking on the Instagram link on the right sidebar.

I do have one thing to share right now. 

I've been wanting a little Fisher Price sewing machine set ever since I saw one on Val's Quilting Studio blog. I've always kept my eye out for one when antiquing (although those adorable toys are pretty hard to find in antique stores), and from time to time I look online. I mentioned to my daughter awhile back that I was looking for one. It turns out she had already found one. She was going to give it to me at Christmas, but she gave it to me early this month instead--for HER birthday. Isn't that sweet?! It now has an honored place on my shelf with my other sewing trinkets. 

I'll leave you with some shots of a few of the ornaments I've made over the years. The wonky butterfly is a special memory. I made it 36 years ago the day I was in labor with my daughter. (No crazy clean-the-house nesting for me. It was all about getting the Christmas decorating done and feeding my creative soul.) I'm making some other ornaments right now, but I can't share them until after Christmas. 

So, here's wishing you Happy Holidays! I'll be back next year with (hopefully) more regular posts. In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying yourself whether sewing or prepping for holiday fun--or both.

I'm linking up this week with Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday. 

How I Spent My Blogcation

Whew. I just finished putting the last of the Christmas decorations away (except for a couple of things I'll keep out through January). And my blogcation is over. 

So now it's time for my essay--you know kind of like the one kids have to write in school at the end of their summer break. How did I spend my blogcation? Let's see. (If you want to, grab a cuppa something. This is long!)

We waited a long time for our family Christmas celebration this year. My dad's birthday is on December 31, and when we found that we could get 19 out of 21 members of his family together (including all 6 of his great grandkiddies) at my brother's home to celebrate his 92 years, we decided to delay our Christmas celebration so that our kids could participate without having to travel twice. All of this meant that we were alone on Christmas. And the weather was unseasonably warm--in the low to mid 40s F. And sunny. With no wind. So we did something we've never done before on Christmas. Bike ride! Our favorite trail was blocked by some flooding so we took to the country roads. I just have to show a few pictures because who knows if this will ever happen again. What a beautiful day! (By comparison, today is in the 20s with snow on the ground.)

Christmas tree farm--all was calm

Wheat in winter

We had a great time with extended family at Dad's birthday party--and then with our own family (9 people and a granddoggy) back at home for our Christmas on New Year's Eve. Our kids had to share bedrooms with their littlest ones (sorry, kids), but it was fun having a full house. And our granddaughter had to wait hours to open presents because first C needed to be changed and then E needed to be fed and then E needed to be changed and then C needed to be fed and then C needed to be changed...well, you get the picture. But L was very patient, and I think it was worth the wait. 

So how else did I spend my blogcation? In addition to the holidays, we had four birthdays to get ready for (My daughter, granddaughter, a brother-in-law, and my dad)--actually, six if you count that I always get a present for my dad in memory of my mother's December birthday and that we have one more birthday to get ready for this week (C is turning 1 year old! I know. I can't believe that's happening already.) So there was a lot of shopping for presents. Some travel for birthday parties. Some cookie baking. Some cake making. (I can't take credit for that--that's my husband's talent.) Decorating (of course). Some mending of two princess dresses at the request of my granddaughter. (She was very specific about what needed to be done--I felt like the royal seamstress!) 

And just a little secret sewing. 

First of all, I needed to make some more Christmas stockings. L was born 4 years ago on Dec 2. I stayed with her family to help out for about 2 weeks and then went home to get ready for Christmas. So her stocking that year was hurriedly made with scraps I had on hand. I was going to do something different for E's stocking this year (he was born at the end of October), and then I suddenly remembered that C needed a stocking, too, because he was born in early January. I rummaged in the scrap bins and realized that I had most of what I needed to make two more stockings like L's. I bought one little piece of fabric for the cuffs, and a strip of twill tape for the cords to hang the light "bulbs." I couldn't get the ecru color I wanted for the twill, so I bought white and tea dyed it with a leftover tea bag. 

Here they all are. I like that I used the same hurried style--hardly any measuring, bits and pieces of leftover fabrics, scrap batting, an old cut-up sheet for the back--and that they all go together. They hold a lot, too. (The names are hand embroidered--covered up with a bit of batting for this picture.)

Every year I make ornaments to put in the kids' stockings. Now that they are both married I give one ornament to each couple (and make one for our tree) and then one for each grandkiddie. For some reason, when L was a year old, I started making her ornament to reference whatever costume I had made for her for Halloween (So far she has a penguin, an owl, and Dash from the Incredibles). This year, she wanted to be Skye from the cartoon Paw Patrol for Halloween. It was a pretty complicated outfit, and because we were waiting for E's birth at the time, it seemed like too much work. Also, the outfit was available for much less money in the stores. So her costume was purchased. But I was able to make an ornament that looks like Skye's badge. I built up the design using felt applique. A fun project for evenings watching bad Christmas movies on TV. In the cartoon, Skye flies an airplane to make her rescues, so her badge has propellers on it. I based the design on various pictures of her badge that I found online.

For the boys' first Christmas ornaments, I decided to make presents since they were our presents this year. I did improv piecing--no pattern, although I started with a drawing on graph paper so that I'd know where I was going with the design. It probably would have been easier in some ways to do a paper pieced design, but I just started sewing bits of cloth together to make a bow until it looked right to me, and then I used a ruler minimally as I added the pieces for the gift boxes and ribbons. It took FOR. EV. ER. I spent a couple of days on each ornament, but it was worth it and so much fun to see the design emerge. They turned out exactly as I pictured they would. I added a little frame for a faux binding and then sandwiched the tops with batting and backing and did a bit of quilting around the presents. I used a permanent marker for the boys' names (blurred out in the pictures) and the date. They are about 4 inches square (and really are square, even though C's looks wonky in the picture).

  

For the adults' ornaments this year, I made stars based on this Pentagon Folded Star pattern from Love Quilting. I made my pattern about 3/4 inch smaller on each side, and I stuffed a small piece of batting inside to puff it out a bit before quilting. 

Here's the finished version of our ornament:

I followed all of the steps from the pattern, but here's the little extra step I took to stuff the batting in. After I folded each point of the pentagon in and pressed it, I unfolded one point and cut a little slit on the fold line in the yellow fabric. I cut a little piece of batting the size of the folded pentagon.

I took the clips off the folds, unfolded the star, and placed straight pins along the fold lines. Then I used a knitting needle to push the batting though the slit and smooth it down inside up against the pins. It worked best to roll up the batting and then fold it over the end of the knitting needle.

I took the straight pins out and then refolded the star and quilted it with my walking foot.

Here are the ones I made for the kids. The star quilting ended up a little wonky by the time I got to the center, but I like it that way. 

Instead of using a ribbon, I just sewed some embroidery thread through a point for a hanger. 

Now, I know this post is getting really long--but I have a couple more things to share before I go. (When you haven't blogged for awhile, you have lots of things to share!) First, right after I went on Blogcation, I found out that I had won a package of goodies from Soma at Whims and Fancies. Remember her Trunk Full of Quilts online show? Yup, a prize from the giveway on that one. It included thread, a voucher for an online class, patterns from several people, fabric and a gift certificate. (Thanks, Soma, and everyone else who contributed!) What a bundle of quilting joy! I will share some of the prizes as I use them, but here's one: 

Yes, you're seeing that right. I used a gift certificate from Fat Quarter Shop to buy (drum roll, please) a big piece of Moda Bella Solids white fabric!!! Wow! Isn't that exciting?? Who uses a certificate to buy plain white fabric?! I'll be cutting up most of it to make a quilt top with some rainbow colors to make this pattern from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs (another goodie in the prize package--thanks Cheryl!) You will see this project in action very soon.

The other really fun thing that happened was this adorable gift that came in the mail from Bernie at Needle and Foot--a little zippered pouch and two tubes of rich, heavenly smelling hand cream. 

If you follow Bernie's blog, you will know that she's a prolific quilter and tells fantastic stories about her quilting journey. She also made a ton of these pouches, and each one is amazing. I'm really tickled that mine is an orphan block. Her work is superb. If you haven't read her blog before, drop everything and go read. You'll be glad you did. 

So that's it for catching up. I think. If I think of anything later I'll let you know. I did work on some treadle and hand quilting over the holidays here and there, but mostly I just enjoyed the season and looking at what other bloggers were working on. What I found, though, was that a vacation from blogging also meant a vacation from commenting. Just know I was looking, and I enjoyed everything I saw. And thanks to you if you commented on my blog. I appreciate it. I didn't keep up with responses as well as I'd like, but I just really needed to be away from the computer for awhile. Now I'm ready to jump back in. 

I'm linking this post with Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social and with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday (because, hey, there are actually some finishes here). The buttons are on the right side of the page. And watch this space Thursday for some Throwback fun.  

Happy New Year, everyone! 

Late Finish--or Early?

So I'm still in a holiday mode here. (Oh wait, I said that on Wednesday). But really, I had so much fun starting the FMQ on the quilt that I spent ALL DAY working on it on Wednesday, and hand stitched the binding to the back yesterday. So much for thinking that maybe slowing down to learn FMQ this year would be a good thing. And really, what else can you do but quilt when the weather outside is frightful? 

This is either a late holiday finish or an early one for next fall.

First, I finished the red and green bracts on the poinsettias. Then I did the flower pot and background. The background was the only part I did with cotton quilting thread. The rest was plain old polyester sewing thread. For the border, I decided to follow the outlines of the poinsettias. I was planning to do it carefully, but by that time I was in a finish-it-up frenzy, so I scribble quilted them (sort of following the lines but not really). Is that a quilting term or did I just make that up? I like that. Scribble quilting. Kind of like doodling. I'm a major doodler when I'm on the phone. No piece of paper nearby is safe from my pencil. I wish I could say that my doodles are Zentangle-ish, but they're not. They are fun, though, so maybe that's why I had so much fun doing this border. I just scribbled away. 

 

The back's a little wonky looking. You can see where I started and stopped some of the lines of stitching. I was inconsistent in how I quilted the bracts. And there's a little thread nest that I discovered when I was done with the border. But I'm fine with it. I'm happy with how the front turned out, and that's all anyone's going to see. (Well, except you, in this picture.)

So what did I learn with this one?
1. Yup, I still like paper piecing.
2. Once I get going on FMQ, it's hard to take my time. I just want to keep going and going. I probably sacrifice some accuracy, but, oh well.
3. Scribble quilting is FUN.
4. Even though I like the look of heavier quilting thread, I don't mind using thinner thread--and even regular sewing thread works on my machine.
5. I like using a chalkoner for marking lines if I need to--at least it worked well with the fabrics in this quilt, and rubbed off easily.
6. I like black fabric, but even the little bit of black in this quilt was a challenge to work with with my middle+ age eyes. From now on, I don't think l'll use a lot of black in a quilt.
7. I used Clover Wonderclips for the first time ever to hold the binding down. They are Won.Der.Ful. Why didn't I ever use them before?
9. In the winter, I can get halfway decent pictures indoors in front of my storm door--some slight shadows, but the light is good to show quilting on little quilts.
8. It's okay to work on a holiday quilt after the holidays are over, and it's okay to put it up for display then, too. It will brighten a wall until, oh, maybe Valentine's Day. 

This quilt was pieced on my Singer Featherweight and quilted on my Singer 115 treadle. The pattern is from 1994 by Eileen Bahring Sullivan. You might be able to still find it online. After squaring and binding it, the quilt measured 26 inches by just under 23. I don't plan to wash it. 

I'm linking up today with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday, with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get A Whoop Whoop, and with Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing for Free Motion Mavericks. 

Now I'm going to put my feet up and catch up on everyone else's blogs that I wasn't reading because I was in the FMQ zone.