November UFO finish

My November UFO finish is sqeaking in under the wire.  With two trips this month my sewing time has been limited.  Yesterday was our group's sew day and we made this adorable (and very functional) Abbey Bag.

The bag was made from the scraps I used to make two tote bags during the past year.  This is meant to sit next to your sewing machine.  The flower is a pin cushion and then there's a bag to catch thread, scraps etc. with a sweet pocket tucked inside.

Above is the flower, below is the outside of the bag.

I'm very happy with this project.  Some of the directions were tricky but with a group effort we figured it all out.  My friends made their own coordinating covered buttons for theirs and it looked fabulous.  The pattern can be found at www.Abbeylanequilts.com.  It's #113.  I know it's been popular this year and many local quilt shops have taught this as a class.

Martha's Shimmering Stacked Tree

It's been a little longer between.  We traveled to Salt Lake City and Philadelphia during th epast couple of weeks. So no time for projects or posts.

A couple of weeks ago we made paper trees during our craft night.  I posted there were some modifications we needed to make to get them to work.  Well, my mom was never really happy with the end product.  So she did some searching and found Martha Stewart's Shimmering Stacked Tree directions. Then she sat down and cut out 540 stars for this tree and surprised me with it yesterday at Thanksgiving dinner.

It is absolutely exquisite!  She made one for my sister and I and is working on another one right now.  They put our other trees to shame.  Mine won't be displayed in the same room.

Book Club

Our November selection is Little Bee by Chris Cleave.    It was a #1 New York Times Bestseller.  I haven't started it yet, still have a week to read it.  The story is sad I've heard.  The book jacket doesn't give much away, just says it's about two women that have to make a terrible choice one day when their lives collide.  Then they meet again in two years and the story starts.  I'm looking forward to reading this, will tuck it in my carry on bag on my trip to Philadelphia.

November craft night

This craft night was a little trickier than the last couple.  There was lots of trial and error and we learned a lot about proceeding with making our "forest of trees".  Sometimes the pictures and directions don't tell the whole story.  Here's my "little forest".

We used skewers, wood blocks, circles cut from old music sheets and sewing books, green paint, walnut stain, glue, felt and glitter.  It was lots of fun and everyone who has seen these think they are as cute as ever.

Here is my smallest tree.  It has white glitter on it and doesn't seem to show well in this picture.

This one is my favorite.  It's made from the pages of a sewing book.  And I LOVE the silver glitter.  I plan to make more and hope we perfected the process.

Older Quilt #3

This is a really bright, whimsical quilt.  It was started in a class using a magazine article for the pattern.  It's designed by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins from Piece O Cake Designs.  I own several of their books and truly love their designs and style.  I call this "Just Dotty".

EVERYTHING about this quilt makes me happy.  It is paper pieced (which I love) and the fabrics are all polka dots (an all time favorite of mine) and stripes.

Two of my quilting friends made this with me.  We had great fun trading dots and stripes.  I love it when I have other quilters' fabrics in my quilts.  This makes them even better.  It's funny how after so many years (this was finished in 2004) I can still remember where most of the fabrics are from.  Here's the dotty backing.

I hope you've enjoyed some of my older creations.  They are so dear to me.

Great Book!

I just finished this book and it was great! 

When I was in Monterrey this summer, we kept teasing one our friends about this book.  She was reading it on her Kindle and we heard the clicking of her turning pages all the time.  So I decided to get it from the library, which took some time, since it is a very popular selection.  It's science fiction for sure.  But definitely with a big human element.  I don't read science fiction very often.  It's long but easy reading because you can't wait to turn that page.  My husband read the book jacket and thought the plot line would make a great movie.

Craft Night at my Sister's

My mom, sister and I started a monthly craft night in September.  It all started because I love to make cards -- I've shown many of them on this blog.  I bought Mother's Day cards this year and was shocked at the cost -- $4-5 for simple cards.  So I started telling them we needed to get together one night and make a card stash.  Well, you all know how easy it is to let life get in the way!  So then I started nagging them about scheduling a night.  We had so much fun in September, it's now on our calendar each month.  Last night it was at my sister's.  She came up with a fabulous project for us.  She found the inspiration in the April/May/June issue of Somerset Life magazine.  Here is my finished project.

She bought old pictures at Goodwill Thrift Store for the frames.  The flowers are made from muslin -- this was the most labor intensive of the evening.  Not difficult, just took some time.  She found the chicken wire in the garden section of Lowe's.  The red polka dot bird is from Michael's.  The tags, crystals, and tags are from her stash around the house.

Here's a closer look of one of the corners.

Here's another look at it.  I love it.  We made these in about four hours.  We are choosing projects we can finish in an evening.  This in going in my sewing room!  We have next month's project chosen -- it will beginning to look like Christmas!