Christmas Cards

This is one of my favorite handmade decorations.  I made it year ago and lost the pattern!  These are just the sweetest Santas ever.  We put our Christmas cards in the three pockets.  It's hung in a place everyone can see as you walk down the hall or walk in the front door.  Guess I need to get busy sending out our Christmas cards!  I just love receiving Christmas cards in the mail.

Christmas is Still Coming!

It seems that Christmas is coming sooner than I thought.  We have been getting into the spirit around here.  Our tree is up as well as our decorations.  My husband is outside right now fooling around with the lights.   He just had to run to buy a few more strands.  What happens to those lights packed up in the garage all year?  It seems they migrate somehow to places unknown.  Presents are wrapped and ready to go under the tree.  And Christmas music is playing on the radio, in the car and on Pandora any chance we get.  Last night we went to see the play, "The Christmas Carol". 

I have a very dear friend that also loves to sew, quilt and stitch.  We've been friends for almost 30 years now!  She sent this to me for Christmas one year and it's hanging on our back door.

It brings all joy to see it as we spend time together in the kitchen and family room.  I can also see we need to touch up the paint a little on that back door! 

I hope to post again tomorrow.  I've been busy finishing up gifts and thought some of you might want to see some of my homemade Christmas items.

Christmas is Coming!

We've given thanks and feasted on turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and all the other fixings.  Now we look ahead to Christmas and all of its wonder.  I just finished another UFO in time for someone special to use as their tree skirt.  I used a couple of charm packs for this, it's a charm pack friendly pattern.  A dear friend gave me the pattern a year or two ago.  I tried my hand at free motion quilting to finish it myself.  I struggled a lot with my machine and will find time this coming week to trouble shoot it thoroughly.

I put a sweet label on the back of the tree skirt.  And I added a really sweet tag that says "P.S. I love you".  I tried to take several pictures of it but my little digital camera was having trouble with such a close shot.

You can kind of see it between the two ties.

I'll tell you later who the tree skirt recipient was.  They'll get it sometime this upcoming week  and they may be reading this blog!  So my lips are sealed a few more days.

Thanksgiving

I'm sure you're all busy preparing for the big feast on Thanksgiving Day.  We're going to my sister's (across the street) and are in charge of pies and stuffing.  Then my husband has us make a turkey on Sunday so we have our own leftovers.

This is a wall hanging I made many years ago -- in fact my youngest daughter was in kindergarten (she's now a junior in college).  I made one for my mom too.

Isn't this sweet?  It was done using Wonder Under.  I quilted around the pictures.  I love the border fabric.

And aren't the pilgrims and turkey cute?

As you all gather around the Thanksgving table, remember to give thanks.

Lake Tahoe Sew Days

It seems I've neglected my new blog the past couple of weeks.  I spent a fabulous 5 days sewing in Lake Tahoe -- just time with friends, sewing, eating, walking and did I say sewing?  I sewed so much my 1934 Featherweight was smoking.  Of course, this is not a good thing and I'll get it to a repair shop this week.  I NEED that machine!  It's so perfect for taking to sew days and classes.

We all made a scrap quilt as a group project.  We brought scrap strips, put them in the middle of the table and sewed!  This is a picture of us with our finished (and partially finished) projects.  Two of us, myself included, didn't have our border fabrics yet.

This pattern was in a magazine from McCalls Quilting, Spring 2009, America Loves Scrap Quilts.  It's Sonja's Windows, designed by Candace Hassen.  There's a really cool technique used to make the blocks.  I will definitely make another one of these quilts!   I plan to quilt it myself using the water quilting design.

I also almost finished (didn't have enough border fabric) a scrap project using leftovers from this year's club project.  We used Kaye England's Back Home Again fabrics for the quilt.  I just ordered backing and border fabric to finish it.

This pattern is Olde Hickory by Pam Puyleart.  The website is http://www.cottagecreekquilts.com/.  I highly recommend this pattern too!

First Quilt Class and Sampler

This is another first step on my journey as a quilter.  I took a beginning quilting class about 15 years ago at a local quilt shop.  And I made my sister (who did not own a sewing machine at the time) take the class with me.  A very gifted quilter taught us to hand piece this sampler.

There was lots of paper involved in this wall hanging.  We traced patterns, made templates and took copious notes.  This teacher taught us to be perfectionists -- which didn't last long with me!  Of course, it was hand quilted after all that hand piecing.  And there was no rotary cutting with this piece!  It was a wonderful introduction to the world of quilting.  It obviously got me hooked, I figure I've made a couple hundred quilts since then.  It was a modest beginning but it opened the world of quilting to me.

Wizard of Oz Stitchin'

This post combines two things I love -- embroidery and The Wizard of Oz.  One of my favorite movies has always been the Wizard of Oz.  I have a modest collection of Oz items.  This is one of my completed projects.

This was made using the pattern, Things, by Lasting Treasures.  The pattern is for a pillow but I decided to make it a picture.  I found a frame at the Dollar store, painted it red, then covered the paint with a layer of red glitter -- of course!  Lasting Treasures (www.lastingtreasure.com) has several other Oz patterns.  They include Ruby Red Slippers, Scarecrow and Toto Too!  I have Toto too all prepped, just need to get the stitching done.  This one will be framed too.  Maybe the Ruby Red Slippers is next.