2011 was a good year

     

I’ve been admiring all the year end posts that summarize 2011’s work.  It’s just awesome what has been accomplished. 

Then I wondered what I had done and I have to tell you, when I checked it out, I was totally surprised.  What a fun year it’s been! 

And here’s hoping for another one just like it in 2012.

Happy New Year everyone…thanks for all your inspiration!

Ready to start building houses

I am so excited to be joining in on Jeaneke’s “Building Houses From Scraps” challenge.  The goal is 365 little 3” houses throughout the year… one for each day of 2012.  This will be a test of my “stick-to-it-ive-ness” abilities for sure.

So I sat down and prepared myself to succeed.  I rummaged through my tiniest scraps, cut them into appropriate sizes and sorted them into their own little quarters.  Now when I want to sew up a house, I just need to grab the pieces and go right to work at the sewing machine.

  

It seemed pretty simple so I gave the system a few test runs and so far it working pretty good for me.  Now I’m ready to start in January.

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BTW..I’m paper piecing my houses and adding scrappy black borders on the blocks instead of sashings and cornerstones.  And I’m trying to have something or someone peeking out of every window.

It’s going to be a fun 2012! 

I’m hoping it will be a great New Year for all of us.

Best Wishes to You

 

Three of my favorite little elves and I want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas.  We are having lots of fun with the holiday and are so excited for Santa’s visit… 

 

…really, we are ☺

ribbon tree tutorial

Wow, two posts in one day.  But I was asked how my ribbon trees were made.  So I thought I’d share how I figured it out…

I cut a piece of ribbon about 19”.  With a fine tip marker made a tiny dot 2” from one end to mark a starting point. 

From there I made dots along the ribbon spacing them apart at: 2 3/4”, 2 1/2”, 2 1/4”, 2”, 1 3/4”, 1 1/2”, 1 1/4” and 1”.  (The spaces between get smaller by a quarter of an inch). I also gathered some pearl beads and large seed beads.

I inserted my double threaded needle through the beginning dot, a pearl bead and a seed bead.  Then came back through the pearl bead and ribbon to secure the bottom of the tree.

I added another bead and went through the next dot again and again…

 

Until there were four loops on each side ending with a pearl on top.  I threaded through another seed bead and back through the pearl and ribbon to secure just like at the beginning.

Finally I went back up through both beads again and tied a knot at about an inch or so to make a hanging loop.

 

Clipped the ends of the ribbons to where I liked them and touched them up with Fray Check…

and Voila!…a ribbon tree!

It’s beginning to look a little like Christmas…

    I’m just being busy crafting and doodling around in my sewing room…and singing Christmas songs in my head while I work.

tis the season for keeping secrets

I’ve been very busy at my sewing machine…but it’s that time of year when you just can’t post about what you’re up to.

  Isn’t making surprises so much fun?

I love this time of year

 

It’s a beautiful Fall day here…

Though it is getting colder.  Soon it will be snuggle-under-a-quilt weather. 

 

Luckily the top is finished to my Jacob’s Ladder quilt and will be quilted in time for cold evenings. 

 

Oh, and I finished this little red and gray quilt too.  Perfect for my doll cradle. 

 

Now I’m heading back outside to enjoy some more of this gorgeous day.

Keeping children warm

The weather is getting colder here.  So I’ve been sewing fleece hats for children, along with a Humanitarian Group I belong to.  I needed a model but had a hard time getting this one to hold still for even a second…

 

Aha…  gotcha!

I’ve made 29 fleece caps so far… and there’s more on the way.  Sew fun!

Spice of Life

This is my design wall this weekend.  They say variety is the spice of life…well I have a lot of variety.  1. I’m always working on my Florabunda applique blocks…(and someday I will actually finish them.)  2. I started making my “Cold Wind Blows” baskets.  I decided to shrink the pattern by half and make a little quilt.  3. My bow tie leaders & enders blocks are multiplying quickly.  I finish a few with every one of my 4. Jacob’s Ladder quilt blocks. 

Speaking of which…

I only have 7 more blocks to go to finish my design.  Very scrappy isn’t it?  You should see my much lighter scrap bins.  I still have some rearranging to do on this quilt and then decide on a border. 

Besides a little sewing today, I also helped Mr. Sunshine install new outside light fixtures and made applesauce from our apple tree. 

Our house smelled so wonderful!

His first tux

Last night my daughter and I had some play time with this guy for a fitting.  I've been sewing a special outfit for his blessing.  Sewing such tiny little armholes is very tricky.  Just enough room for my presser foot...no fingers and barely pins.  I finally hand sewed the sleeves in and then machined them.  But the challenge was worth it for my newest grandchild.  I still have to add a soft satiny blue bow tie and buttons in the back and he'll be ready for his big day. 

BTW, the quilt he's laying on was his great grandfather's baby quilt. 

P.S....I just had to edit my post to add a photo of the final product...all finished and pressed....not as cute as the baby...but cute.

One very lucky girl…me!

This beautiful quilt is called, “The Quilting Gathering” and is part of the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle series.  I was amazingly fortunate to be the winner of this pattern and kit from Taryn’s generous giveaway.  I just couldn’t believe it!

When it arrived, I started to work just as quickly as I could push other projects to the side to make space. 

 

And now it looks right at home hanging with other quilts on my wall.  Thank you so much Taryn.  I love it and appreciate you!

Two for One

I’m still at work on my latest quilt and cleaning odd pieces out of the scrap bins.   16 blocks are done and lots of pieces are cut and ready.  Here and there throughout the day, I wander into my sewing room and sew up a block or two, or cut a square or two.  Very easy..very relaxing.  And satisfying to see all those little scraps being put to use.

 

Bonnie and Lori came up with the best idea!  And now I’ve joined in.  I keep these tiny squares next to my sewing machine and use them for leaders and enders while working on my quilt.

 

The results are another quilt in the making.  Which is so fun by itself that I have to restrain myself from sewing ahead on just bow ties.  They are 3 inches.  I don’t know if I’m going to stop at doll quilt size or keep going.  We’ll see.

Little Quilt for Autumn

My apple core doll quilt is finally finished.  It’s hand pieced and hand quilted, which is a first for me.  I don’t know if I could ever do that on a full sized quilt but I got a kick out of trying it on this little one. 

It measures 22” x 26” and there are 168 little apple cores… all different.

Life is good!

That’s all I could think of for the title of this post…because right now that’s just how I’m feeling…”Life is good.”

First of all, I’m happy to announce the winner of the 100 Blocks magazine and Schnibbles pattern, etc.…

Congratulations Angela!

I had Mr. Sunshine draw the name for me… he thought that was pretty fun.  Also, he is a lot more “user-friendly” than the Random Number Generator thing that I tried to figure out but couldn’t.

 

Now, meet my newest grandchild.  He’s the best reason for my happy mood!  What an adorable blessing he is.  We love him so much!

 

 

Big sister isn’t quite sure about it all. 

She doesn’t yet know about all the fun and mischief they’re going to have growing up together ☺