Thursday, December 18, 2014

Bits and Pieces



 I decided to participate in a Christmas Postcard Swap hosted by   Sheila at http://sheilasquiltworld.blogspot.com/    My partner was  Linda at  http://bumbleknit.blogspot.ca/      She sent me this wonderful Santa. The quilting detail is wonderful and gives the card so much dimension



In turn I sent Polka Dot Christmas trees.  I actually made 2 of them.  My sister "needed" one too.


I work with  JC who collects post cards of all kinds.  I saw this card on   Sheila's blog  post and she gave me information on where she got the idea. I thought it would be a great card for JC.


This is the top I made for my friend at work who happens to be my boss.  Since I will be retiring in late January this will be our last gift exchange and I thought this would be wonderful.  She is the person who got me into knitting and this pattern is called Fair Isle.  It's by Lee at http://www.freshlypieced.com/2014/10/fair-isle-sew-along   Perfect.  Probably just a little more than I should have bitten off before  reading the instructions.  


The deer is a 13 inch block and the deer is made up of 1 inch finished squares.  The picture below shows my first attempt.  Poor deer had a broken neck.


As you can see she's all better now.  I gave the top to PC earlier this week, she loved it. We cried.  It will go to the long arm quilter right after Christmas. I invested way to much time and energy in it to try and quilt it myself.  It measures in at 72 x 75.


The towels were a last minute gift addition to go with gift cards.  I made 2 sets.


And last but nowhere near least are these Hash Tag blocks. Made for the Heros  from Sydney Australia.   This link takes you to a full explanation 
of where they are going and the how you too can participate.

http://www.mollisparkles.com/2014/12/help-for-sydney-heroes.html

Just in case I don't make it back here in the next week, I am sending out my best wishes to you one and all for a very Merry Christmas.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

A very productive vacation

Got back late last night from a wonderful 10 day vacation to Florida.  We arrived on Thanksgiving  and joined our friends at their neighbors for a wonderful Turkey dinner. 


The hosts are people I had only met once in passing.  They heard we would be in town and included us in their festivities.  We arrived as the Turkey was being placed on the table. We had a terrific holiday with lovely people.


Since I knew in advance that we would be joining them I whipped up a set of bowl buddies with matching towels and gift card.  I then made a tote to use as a gift bag. I couldn't very well drag dessert on the plane. tee hee


Since Christmas is fast approaching and time is running short I mailed the central portion of this quilt top along with the border and backing fabric, binding and batting down ahead of time.


This was from Terry at Terry's Treasures where we are doing Charming Star Blocks at no rate at all just a suggested maybe 4 per month.  No pressure unless it was self inflicted


Got it totally finished and have mailed it back to NJ.  It should be here tomorrow

I love the backing fabric, the print is made up of Christmas ornaments


I had sent more than enough fabric to complete the quilt so I made one of those 10 Minute (read as a bit over an hour) Table Runners.


Here it is on my table.  I gave it to our friends. Sorry I didn't take a picture of it on their table.  The colors worked so well in their dinning room.


I also managed to knit 2 Chemo Caps, one on the flight down and one on the flight back.


They are done with size 13 needles and bulky yarn.   They really look great on.

Back to work tomorrow ( maybe to rest up).

Have a great week.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Twas the Night



Since the day I was added to the Twas The Night group of presenters I have been compiling a list of the oh so many gifts one can make in an evening or less.   I then chose several of the items that I will give as gifts this year. I've added links whenever possible, mostly to tutorials.

 I decided to stick with a theme for this posting.  What ties it together is that  everything I made specifically for this hop is being made with 2  coordinating holiday fabrics with a little white thrown in where needed.  I live near a Crate and Barrel outlet.  They sell their fabric from past seasons at a really terrific rate of $5.97 per yard at about 54 inch wof.  I picked up 2 yards of each fabric and got stitching.



But first I need to say thank you to both Madame Samm @ Sew We Quilt and  Marlene @ Stitchin by the Lake  for motivating us along this extra special hop.  The big twist for this hop is that we made a gift to pass along to the person who followed us on the Hop.  That means I got these wonderful gifts from Bea.   She is another versatile quilter, stitcher and she gifted many of her quickie accomplishments to me. 



One of the shots was taken outside in the very bright sun and the other inside.  Sorry but they don't do the goodies justice


The sweet owl is actually an eye glass holder.next to a great little Christmas zip pouch and a pattern.  Below is a hexie purse a mug rug(the other side is in the first picture)  and a wonderful rag basket. Bottom row is a beautiful pin cushion and tiny paper piecing pattern with the tiny cardboard pieces to sew around, way cool, and that Hawaiian shirt with paw prints is actually a tissue holder.  Thank you so much Bea. 

On to my contributions for this hop.

First on my list was this oven mitt and potholder set. They took me just under 2 hours to put together.  The trim on the mitt is done by machine while the binding on the potholder is finished by hand because I have yet to master finishing by machine. No pattern used.



Then on to  Bowl Buddies.   This set is reversible.  It took me about 1 ½ hours to make the bowls and it takes about ½ hour to do the matching Trivet I made the set with Trivet as my  gift for Barbara in seasonal fabric so she could get a little more use out it.  Another 2 hour project.



I was asked again this year to make some gift bags for wine bottles.  My nephew thinks I’m wonderful at this particular project.  He likes to have holiday bags and theme neutral bags on hand, cause you never know. I made all  4 bags in under a half hour and all are made with French seams.







  
Same basic idea is a gift bag.  Just a little bigger.  This is the gift bag I used to wrap the gift I sent to Barbara. 

I also made a card to match ( I would be so lost without my printer/copier). To make the card I photocopied the fabric and reduced the size.  Another under a half hour project including the trimming and folding of the card stock for a set of 10.

How about the 10 Minute Table Runner.  It took me an hour.  Simple but festive.




Several of these goodies could fill a good size fabric gift basket.  Ok, I really  wasn't planning on making this big a basket.  It is about twice the size I had going on in my head.  The problem was that at the same time I was doing the math  I was binge watching  Doctor Who.   I really can’t sew things that need concentration when watching that show.   But it turned out to be a great size gift basket.





Next up are the hand towels that I had to make to fill in some of the space in the big basket.  Picked the towels up at BBB with a coupon then trimmed and quilted  them.  They would do well, matched up with the set of pot holders. I didn't time these but I'm thinking about an hour.



 And last but not least, have you seen this idea floating around blogland.  It is my Christmas fabric backed with terry cloth for a beautiful yet functional, handy dandy drain for the counter.  I've seen them around made from old blocks and scraps.  I actually own a store purchased one with terry cloth on both sides.






This one was supposed to have matching pot holders but when i went to turn them rightside out I found that I had put the extra batting in the wrong order when making the stack.  The terry cloth makes such a mess that i just threw them in the trash,  just couldn't bring myself to ripping and ruining the fun I's been having. This was also about an hour in the making. 


Now what can I do with all of the scraps……….cards, tags, ornaments, pin cushions, rice bags, coasters, dog toys ....... 

Please stop by and see what other quick gift ideas are awaiting you by visiting this weeks contributors to the Twas the Night Blog Hop.

NoMonday, Nov. 17


Tuesday, Nov. 18

Wednesday, Nov. 19

Thursday, Nov. 20

Friday, Nov. 21


Monday, November 10, 2014

Week Ending 11/9

In between working on my ideas for the Twas the Night Blog Hop that starts tomorrow I got caught up on my letters.






I also started a Chemo Cap using a new pattern which uses Bulky yarn and size 15 needles


You know when they say to check that you haven't twisted the row when joining when you work in the round.  I apparently missed this one. Will post the link with the finished hat in a week or two.


I also started a quilt for a great friend for her Christmas gift.  Its a quilt along at   


The above HST were for the first 2 rows of the QAL.  The pile of scraps are the left overs from the trimming of the HST.  I absolutely hate to trim blocks, hate, hate, hate.
I know, very mature. Duh.


Here are the rest of the pieces for the first 10 blocks.  I think each block has 50 plus pieces. The end result is a Fair Isle Pattern Quilt.  This is my friend who really pushed me into knitting while I was pushing her into quilting.

I'll be back next Monday with my contribution for the Twas the Night Hop,  See you then. In the mean time please stop by and visit the rest of the contributors.


.TWAS THE NIGHT
Tuesday, Nov. 11

Wednesday, Nov. 12 

Thursday, Nov. 13

Friday, Nov. 14

Monday, Nov. 17


Tuesday, Nov. 18

Wednesday, Nov. 19

Thursday, Nov. 20

Friday, Nov. 21







Saturday, November 1, 2014

This weeks stuff


I haven't done a lot this week but what I did do was primarily for the Twas the Night Hop for later this month.



The different part of this particular hop is that we get a gift from another member of the hop.


We won't post about what we send. The recipient will do that as part of the hop.


I'm done with my gift for Barbara. Here it is all wrapped and 


ready to go.  Oh, and my gift arrived today.


I was really excited to get it, can you tell?


Thanks Bea, my gift is wonderful.





Monday, October 27, 2014

Black Cat Crossing - My Turn

I had a heck of a time getting my act together for this hop.  I didn't know what I wanted to do so it made it very difficult to order the fabric. As the clock was running down I decided to order some yardage and the panel and hopped for inspiration. Then once I got the fabric I didn't want to cut into it. I could just look and feel this fabric for days, it is so cool.  OK I had to cut into it, after all  I was committed to the hop.  So what could I do and still leave the fabric in good size pieces.  Ta Da Stuff for our bed.


I started with a couple of  pillow cases. Large uncut use of the fabric. The spider webs are perfect for creepy dreams


Ok a tad boring for decorating a King Size bed.


How about a piece of the panel with some black trim thrown in for good measure


Not quite the look I was going for. A King bed is really wide.


Maybe another will make it work


Lets make it 2 more


I think I'm Happy Now,

Yes, Very Happy




This is just an added extra not really part of the hop. Saturday I went to a birthday party for 2 of my nieces, one of whom loves Halloween.


 I had some scraps left over from the pillows so she lucked out and got a Black Cat Crossing purse for her birthday check holder. She was very happy.


I now want to thank Madame Samm and Wendy at Why Knot Kwilt for doing what it is that they do  so well, inspire and cheer us on. 

I also want to thank Maywood Studios for this wonderful fabric line that has inspired so many of us .

Please stop and visit the other wickedly talented ladies who are participating today in this hop. You can find them listed for your convenience right here.


Tuesday, October 28

Selina Quilts  ( you are here)
Thanks for stopping in to visit, wishing you and yours a 
Spooktacular Halloween