Little Christmas projects

 I have been working on Christmas presents and get side tracked by little projects.  Here are three of them.  This is an elf I made for my daughter.  I got the pattern from Sewing in No Man's Land.  I was going to make more than one, but honestly it was more time consuming than I anticipated and turning those skinny little arms and legs right side out, then stuffing them, was no fun!





















I also made these adorable bags.  I followed the tutorial for the Gathered Clutches at Noodle-Head.  I have made these before and even taught my little quilt club how to make them.  They are fun to make and really cute when finished.  These will be gifts for my grandkids' preschool teachers.

And there is one more project to show you.  I had a request for Christmas ties for one grandson, so I made them all some.  I made 6 ties from a tutorial that is great.  I used this same tutorial to make an Easter tie earlier this year.  They were easy and fun to make.  The grands all loved them from the 2 year old to the 9 year old.  The tutorial is from Very Homemade.  I am hoping all the boys wear their ties for a Christmas photo at my house. I only took a picture of the last two I made-a matching set for brothers.  They all have the velcro closure around the neck.  The pattern was only for little ones, so I did have to enlarge it for the older grandson.

Scarecrows, pirates and such

 Here is a Disappearing 9-patch Halloween quilt.  I used Riley Blake's Halloween fabric and some other prints that I had.  I quilted it in spiderwebs with glow-in-the-dark thread.  Only thing with the thread is you have to have a black light for it to glow.  I will probably buy one just to see how it looks in the dark.

 Here are a few of my favorite people.  Batman:

 The scarecrow and the pirate:  ( I made this costume-turned out so cute.  We had trouble keeping the tulle from crinkling.)

 Shy Thomas the Train:

 And the vampire:

Roll Roll Cotton Boll and other Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts

I realized that I had pictures on the blog about gathering the fabric and working on this quilt, but I never posted the finished quilt.  Now that a new Bonnie Hunter mystery will soon be starting, I thought I would post the mystery quilts of hers I have done so far.  This one is Roll, Roll Cotton Boll.  My grandkids love this quilt.  There are pieces of Cars in this, as well as owls, santas, and just about anything else that was made into fabric.  They like hunting for their favorites.

This is Carolina Christmas that was together, then I took it apart, and now have to put it back together.  It still needs to have borders made for it too.

This one is Christmas Lights.  This was a mini mystery from her column in the quilting magazine.

And this is Double Delight.  I copied another quilter's border for this that I fell in love with.  I am sorry, but I don't remember who that was.  I had it posted with my picture that was on the Yahoo's site, but it is no longer there.  

The new mystery is starting in November.  I have so many projects that I really need to get finished and then clean up my work space so I am ready to go.  I have not been disappointed with any of Bonnie's mysteries.

Triple delight

My quilt club decided to make three charity quilts in one shot.  One for my charity-a local group that sends care packages to our troops overseas, one for another quilter's charity-to support a young man with lymphoma, and one for a charity we have been supporting for a few years now-a local Special Olympics chapter.  We made three patriotic quilts.  We used Dorothy Young's Tamara's Choice for our pattern.  They are all scrappy, with the borders a little different.  I quilted mine with stars and banners, sort of.  The back of my quilt is a patriotic fabric that fit my theme very well.  I was going to try to describe it, but a picture is much better.  Here the back is.

And so long as I am adding pictures, here are the stars.

I hope these worthwhile groups are all able to make some money for each of their causes with our quilts.

Warm/cool baby quilt

 Here is the warm/cool quilt that I made for my grandnephew.  He will be born soon and I finished it just in time.  I am pleased with how it turned out.  I used a lot of juvenile novelty prints-trains, cars, frogs, mice, alphabets, etc.  It should provide a lot of visual interest for the little guy.

Here is a better picture of the Prince Charming quilt that was going to be the grandnephews.  This is a beautiful line of fabric.  The large panel at the top is a tortoise and a girl on a swing hung from a tree branch.  The middle panel are the paisley frogs.  The bottom is the raindrops.

Warm and cool plus giveaway news

I am working on a baby quilt for my grandnephew due this month.  I am running way behind schedule.  I was going to give him the Prince Charming quilt but that didn't work out.  I am going to give him a warm/cool quilt.  I started out with purple in it, but didn't get the definition I would have liked to between the colors.  Here the partial layouts are , first with the purples and then with out.

Black Creek Primitives is having a nice giveaway.  Check them out.

Prince Charming and other things

I made this Prince Charming quilt using Fairy Face Designs tutorial for the Picture Box Quilt.   It was going to be a baby quilt, but didn't look very babyish.  It is kind of big for a baby, but a great size for a toddler.  That's ok because my husband, daughter and I all love and want this quilt!  The pictures don't do this lovely fabric justice.  I really need to get a good camera.  I quilted it with the panto Drip.  That was perfect for this.









Here is my pink sewing machine.  I thought it was a White but it is a Morse.  I don't know a lot about Morse's but it seems like a really nice machine.  I have too many vintage machines, and this one might go up on the auction block after it is cleaned up and tested.





And finally here is my grandson Elijah.  At Bible Camp the theme was Western, and they had a couple of Hobby Horses.  Elijah loved playing with them, so his mom found a tutorial on how to make them and asked if I would make one for Elijah.  The horse turned out pretty cute.  I would make it differently if I were to make more.  His little sister would like one and his cousins may too when they see this horse, so that is probably in my future.  Elijah named his horse Elijah the horse.

More flowers and totes

The lilies are prettier this year than they have ever been.  I just love them.  It is too difficult to choose a favorite flower as they are all so beautiful.  

This is the first year the lace cap hydrangeas put on a show for me.  I have three of these and the other two get too much sun.  They protest by not flowering.

This is the latest bow tie tote.  They looks cuter in person.  This one is for my wonderful daughter who appreciates everything I make for her.  I wanted to trade my older one for this one, just for a change, but that didn't happen!

Breast Cancer Quilt

I made this breast cancer quilt for my grandkids other grandmother.  She is going through her second round of chemo after being diagnosed seven years ago.  She has such a positive attitude-hoping for another seven years of remission.  I am praying that this round is the cure for her.  Like most mothers, she has devoted her life to her kids.   I wanted to give her something to help make her feel loved and appreciated.  If you feel so inclined, please say a prayer for her.







The flowers are still pretty in the yard despite the lack of regular rain.  Daisies, hydrangeas, phlox, cone-flowers and daylillies to name a few.  I forget to take pictures of the flowers and need to take some.  I have some pretty lace cap hydrangeas and pink daylillies that were at their peak a few days ago.  Now where did I put that camera?

Summer bag

I participated in the Friday Night Sew-In hosted by Crafty Vegas Mom.  Here is what I made tonight.


I like the bowtie totes.  I made a couple for my daughter and me in dark colors, and a bright one for my mother. The dark ones are too dreary for summer so I made a bright one for myself.  It is very cheerful!  I like using the magnetic fasteners but didn't have any on hand.  I can always add that later.

Camera bag

This is the camera bag I made from Kay Whitt's Media Frenzy Book.  It was a little bit tricky to make.  I was making two at a time, so when I cut fabric wrong for one of them, it was wrong for both.  After I found out that I had to make the lid larger than the pattern called for, I decided to finish just one at a time.  I added notes as I went along, so if I make it again, hopefully that will help me.

 The interior is a little bit confusing.  I am not sure where the camera goes and the compartment for the lenses doesn't seem large enough.

This bag is a gift for my daughter's friend.  Since I don't have a good camera and she does, maybe she can shed some light on this.
My sewingmachine does not have a free arm (Janome 6600.)  That is really necessary to make this bag.  I have an older machine that I switched over to when I needed a free arm.  I am so grateful I didn't get rid of that.
I am not real motivated to finish the other camera bag now (which is why I was doing them two at a time.)  I have quite a few other projects I want to get into more, so I am going to have to finish this before I get back into working on the others.

To rip or not to rip

I have had my Carolina Christmas Mystery Quilt (top) finished for a long time, but I couldn't bring myself to quilt it because I just didn't love it.  I loved the blocks until I put them together.  I don't think there was enough contrast and the blocks just kind of blurred together.  I started taking it apart because I was thinking I should put sashing between the blocks.  Then I thought maybe I will take it all apart and not like the sashing!  A lot of sewing and ripping  if it wasn't going to make a difference.
I put the part of the quilt still pieced on my design wall and took a picture.  I put the blocks on my design wall with some sashing to get an idea of how it might look.  I think I am doing the right thing.  I think I like it with the sashing better.

What do you think?

Blogger's Dinner Party

Needles and Spatula is having a  Bloggers' Dinner Party.  It  will be a monthly link-up for you to show off handmade place mats, table runners, napkins, trivets and any other handcrafted item related to serving a delicious dinner!  She will randomly choose a winner for a fat quarter bundle.  

Here is the table topper I am going to submit.  My quilt club got together and made these as a group last fall.  I liked mine so much I made extras for gifts.  I don't have a lot of orange even though I really like it.  I am going to have to work on remedying that. 

Emilee's Star

Here is a quilt that I just finished for Emilee's family.  Emilee had Alexander's Disease.  This is a very rare disease of the white matter of the brain.  Her brother goes to school with my granddaughter.  Making this very sad situation very strange is that my grandson Oliver also has this disease.  He was diagnosed a few months before Emilee was.  They are both similar ages-two going on three.  They are both adorable children who don't deserve this terrible disease.  No one deserves it.  More information can be found at the United  Leukodystrophy Foundation  .  This quilt was made to raffle so funds can be raised to help with the huge cost of medical care for Emilee.  Here is Emilee's website-Prayers for Emilee.  Oliver does not have a web site, but he does have a group on Facebook also requesting prayers.

Sew Mama Sew prize

I won this adorable outfit from http://apocketfullofbuttons.blogspot.com/ .  This is my granddaughter Madison modeling it.  She loves clothes and couldn't wait to try it on.  I wasn't so lucky getting her to hold still for the picture!

Spring 2011

Here is Spring at my house.  I am really enjoying my flowers this year.  They have finally matured enough to put on a show.  I tried to get rid of some invasive flowers and will be moving things around .  

My first quilt

This is the very first quilt that I made.  I think it was made in 2000 or 2001. It has been well loved by my daughter.  My mentor began teasing me by bringing her beautiful quilts to work.  Then she further tempted me by bringing in quilting magazines.  When I decided to try this quilt, she shared some of her scraps with me.  This  is one of only a few that I quilted with my domestic sewing machine.  That is the only part of the quilting process I did not enjoy.  I apologize as I long ago lost the name of this pattern.  I made the label on my printer and it faded away.

The addiction began and I have been quilting ever since.  I print my labels by hand now with fabric pens so I have their names and dates they were made.  Looking back on this quilt, I see the pieced borders.  I am trying to go back to that as I  think it adds a lot to the quilts.  

I also bought a quilting system.  I wanted to be involved in the entire process and since I disliked quilting with my domestic machine I went to the next level.  Now I can say I love the whole process and hope to improve with each quilt I make.

I decided to post this quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

What I made

Here us the fabric that I won.  I decided to make my granddaughter Madison a dress from it.  Her mommy wanted to get her picture taken in the dress, and wanted something for brother Elijah to wear to match her.  He selected the cute bug fabric and I made him a tie.  (Sarah has the rights to the pictures-no copyright infringement.  I couldn't get my copies to turn out so used theirs.)

Spring 2011

I forgot to take pictures of my magnolia blooming and the lilacs are almost done blooming too.  Here are some small irises, a strange dogwood, and a broom almost ready to burst into bloom.  I just love this time of year.  The weather is beautiful today.  I took off work again to work in the yard next week.  I am hoping this weather is what I have to look forward to!