I took Heidi out for a ride today

Heidi is my new Bernina Swiss Ediyion 530.

Made some table runners for the guest room.  First time doing quilt as you go and I liked it!

After Christmas Sew Along 2014

I am participating in SewMuch2Luv's After Christmas Sew Along again this year.

Here is what I've finished so far this week!

Red Santa cross stitch by Birds of Feather...I've already stitched the Black Santa and will move onto the next one soon.
 

 
I love this set of Santa's and can't wait to finish them all.

I also, have another project I'll take a picture of tonight!

You can see all the participants posts on the Flickr group here.

My FNSI was all about why I love Christmas!

I love the hustle, the bustle, the cooking, the decorating, the presents and the reason for the season!  I love that all the preparation is to celebrate something so wonderful.  I don't go around and declare my faith to everyone, I've always been pretty private about it.  I do love what Christmas is all about and why we have that holiday.  To me it is the most special holiday because it represents so much - salvation, love, and sacrifice, and pure joy.

So I get a lot of flack for doing my countdown to Christmas posts on Facebook, but I really am excited for it get here every year.

With the Friday Night Sew In, I started on some more Christmas gifts.  My friend Karen had showed me a pattern for a wine tote on ebay a while back (secretly, I think she wanted it and I snagged it out from under her - I'm a bad friend) that I ended up purchasing.



So I dug through my stash to find some Christmas fabrics, to see how I could make these cute totes up. In the essence of time, I decided against doing the patwork and the stitching.  I'm sure Karen is slapping her forehead.  I also had to consult my friend Regena about the size of the quilted body, so I could bypass the piecing - I'm still learning!



But one day I'll make the full blown tote - but I may want to keep that one for myself.  Then I found that last year, I had ordered some extra Sweetwater labels that would go great for where the stitching is on the flap.


I plan to do some embellishing to the flaps too to juice up the labels some.



Last night, I did all the cutting out and applied the labels and quilted the bodies of 3 totes for the Friday Night Sew In.


I got through 2 of the tote body quilting steps and 8/9ths of the 3rd before the dreaded bobbin emptied on me.



Last year I did a post about "Listen to the Bobbin".  Where I outlined how it never fails, you're up late sewing, you're tired, but you don't want to stop so you re-load the bobbin and next thing you know you have the seam ripper in your hand because you've screwed something up because you're too tired to still be up sewing at 2 am.  When the bobbin emptied on me last night, I closed up shop and crawled my tired butt into bed.

Friday Night Sew In

Heidi from Handmade by Heidi is having another FNSI.  I've signed up this week and love the whole idea of this.  It's a great way to unwind from a hectic week and spend some time being creative.

Since the count down to Christmas is getting close, I will work on some items for gifts.

Stay tuned to see what I work on and join in over at Heidi's blog.

Shaking and a Grovin'

Over the weekend, the hubs and I attend the Grand Cru event.  It's a local charity event put on by Legal Aide.  There were over 1,000 wines tasted and some wonderful food from local restaurants and market.  We had a really nice evening at the downtown park, sipping some amazing wines.



Then early the next morning we headed over to the antique flea market, where I added not one, but two new pottery pitchers to my collection. The hubs was not thrilled.  However, this was the most fun thing I saw all day. It's a spider man pogo stick..hahahaha




I took a day off from work this week and this is pretty much what I did all day.


I'm playing swappy goodness with the girls again, this time it's Dresdens (YEAH) made out of this.




Someday when I have loads of spare time, I plan on sewing something with this stack of fat quarters.  Oh and the hubs has grounded me. So I should be home a lot more so maybe I can get caught up on my sewing.

I love finishing a project

The great nephew's quilt is finished.  The binding was a challenge, which is interesting, because usually it is the easiest part for me...Go Figure!

I do love this quilt and the hubs says it's the nicest one I've ever made.  I hope lil' Gaige likes it.


I know I was only able to finish it because I went to Karen's (from Sew Much 2 Luv) Sewing Day at her church on Saturday!  What a fun time with all the great ladies there - *wave* to Marcia!

Karen was retrofitting a bunch of dinosaurs while I was there.  Aren't they amazing?

A few weeks back, I went to Chicago and was able to visit this great beach.


Don't you just want to be there right now?

Long Time, No Peeky

Sorry for the long posting pause folks.  I've been one uber busy peep.  Since my father's funeral, I've been to Ft Worth for ODI, Ohio for Work, San Jose for work and tomorrow a little down time in Palm Springs. 

However, I somehow found time to squeeze in these two little projects.

My hubs had a friend,at work, that recently had a baby girl and he asked me to make them a baby blanket.  So here it is.  I used organic cotton fleece for one side and Riley Blake's Cathedral Window fabric for the other.  Of course I had to add some pink ric rac and a Sweetwater Label.





Then on President's Day, I found 5 pounds of organic carrots for $3.99 at Whole Foods and decided I'd make some spicy pickled carrots. They did turn out pretty yummy too.  The hubs wanted some super spicy, so his have a whole habanaro in them, whereas the others just have a half of jalapeno.

Fun Quilty Day

Today I went to Road 2 California with my friend Karen and we had some fun.  Not only where there some beautiful quilts on display, but all the fun booths to shop in too.

Here are some of the quilts on display:









Here are some of the treasures that found their way home with me.






The fat quarter bundle;


and one last tiny pattern for a mini quilt

After Christmas Sew Along

Over at Karen's blog Sew Much 2 Love, she's been hosting this after Christmas Sew Along.  It time for those of us who sew for others at Christmas to do a little sewing for ourselves.  I believe this is the last week and here is my last entry.

I made a microwavable rice heating pad - I did the neck size - so my jaw can get some nice soothing relief.  I used this pattern from Sew 4 Home.

I love the colors if I do say so myself.

The FNSI

Yes, I signed up for this.  Yes, I actually did some stitching.  I just didn't feel like I stitched enough.  My hairdresser asked if I could come in after work Friday instead of Saturday afternoon so I didn't get home until 8ish.  I took a bit of time to setting down and finally sat down to "sew" on the dresden quilt.  It's been my TV watching stitching lately.  I am 90% done with the hand quilting - I only have like 3 more panels to go and I can bind it.  But I was so pooped from the week I was only able to quilt one stinking panel for the Friday Night Sew In.  So I didn't blog it yesterday because Heidi gives away such great prizes, I would have felt too guilty if I had been fortunate to win something from her giveaway.  But next month, lookout! I'll be all over the FNSI.

Friday Night Sew In



Last night I played around with something I've had awhile.  Miss Nadine over Apron Valley Road sent it to me in the Aunt Pitty Pat Sewing Accessories Swap.  It's called the Lil' Twister.  I participated in another Swap, The Charming Christmas Fabric Swap and received all these wonder charms (5x5) Christmas fabrics.  Angela over at Summerfiled Quilts put on a great swap!.  So I went to work putting the pieces together last night and taking the Lil' Twister to them.  They are gonna be so dang adorable if I do say so myself.  Just two more panels to go and I'll have 3 very fun little table mats.

From mistakes come challenges

When making the dresden plate quilt, I decided I needed to add additional plates. So I ordered more charm packs, and went to work. However, I couldn't find the paper template I'd used before on the previous dresdens. I ended up buying the plastic template. Measured it as best my pea brain could again the already made plates and went to work sewing them up. Well, we all know this doesn't end well. They were not the same angle/radius so they did not match the older ones. Here I was left with 2 odd ball dresden plates. What to do what to do. So I wiped up these little candlemat/mug rugs - depending on the application you see - multi-taskers. Then this week's surprise in the mail was this awesome mug rug from Regena over at The Distracted Domestic Diva! Thank you - you are such a wonderful lady and I'm so glad you're my close friend. One evening I tried my hand at these microwave homemade caramels. super easy - took longer to wrap them all than to make them. I sea salted some and pecanned the others. (is pecan-ned a word?) Recipe here Here's a sneak peak at something for an upcoming swap...I'd say which one, but that might give it away to my partner. Just a little over a week - are you ready for Christmas?

Arrrrggghhhh!

Hello everyone! sorry for my bloggy absence. I've opened up blogger many times to post and just got busy. I must make a not to myself that next year during this time to prepare several timed posts to happen so I don't loose everyone. Here are some of the things I've been working on. I'm hand quilting the dresden quilt. Some table runners... Some aprons for a friend of mine... Pinwheels from the Charming Christmas Swap to be made into some mug rugs at some point... a stitched reindeer to be made into something... Not sure you remember Rudy the reindeer - but I unpacked him when I was decorating for Christmas and put in by the fireplace...then this is what I found...two very guilty dachshunds...

My modified Stack Coins Quilt

Just needs one small bit of work and it is DONE. This thing has taken me months and months and quite frankly I'm a bit of sick of looking at it. I may need to pack it away for a while before i put it out. So a refresh of what it is - I used 2 boxes of Moda Dark Candy Bars, two brown sashing fabrics, a green polka dot backing and redish brown/green fabric for the binding. I hand quilted with Perl Cotton no 8 in a variety of colors. I don't know how the Amish and the hand quilters do it. Looking at the same quilt for so long but it's no wonder their quilts cost what they do - I now think they undercharge. Now I feel like I can move onto the Old Truck Quilt and a few other projects without the Lil Rascals and Stacked Coins wearing on my UFO stack.

Friday Night Sew In

Yeah! see the link there on the left side bar? click and join! I plan on doing the quilt bindings featured in the post below! See you then!

On going projects

Being home this weekend was nice. I was able to work on some UFO's. I finished the hand quilting on the modified stacked coin quilt and got it all prepped and ready to bind. Here is a picture of it with the backing and the fabric I found for the binding. Then I worked on the Lil' Rascals Quilt I'm making as a Christmas gift. It was my first quilt to back with minky fabric and boy was it easy! Now I need to bind it and pack it away for wrapping. I also finished up my two swaps - Aunt Pitty Pat's Halloween Tote & Mug Rug swap and the Charming Christmas Swap. These are mailed and on their way to their recipients. Happy sewing everyone!

Halloween Tote & Mug Rug Swap

I signed up for Aunt Pitty Pat's Halloween tote & mug rug swap this year. I sure had fun making up the tote and mug rug for my partner. I even made up some additional goodies too. Plus all the necessary swap tuck in's and fun stuff. I'll mail it either tomorrow or Monday depending on if I can find a box around here or have to wait until I see what I have at the office. I did receive mine today from my partner! It is just adorable She really did all kinds of extra goodness in there. Here's a picture minus the candy (the hubs snagged it quick). Thank you Jackie it's really great!