Christmas Crafts

Way back in 1983 as I was preparing for my first Christmas as a newlywed,

making a Christmas tree skirt was at the top of the list!

It must have been a crazy list!!!

Using extra wide felt from "Sew-fisticate" (remember that shop?!)

and a Santa pattern (long since lost)

This beautiful trees skirt came to be,

features four large Santa's and

has been used under the family tree for the past 29 years!

When the kids were born  .... of course they each needed a

wonderful Christmas stocking.

Ya know ... something ...easy!

Found these patterns in a Cross Stitch magazine

way back in the late 80's and early 90's

Matthew's stocking is a combination of two patterns.

The original piece had a trunk in the lower

portion, changed it up a bit...

added the Santa and expanded the quilt over the chair.

Victoria's Christmas Stocking

was so much fun to do ... and so girly...

and so not a stocking for a "tom-boy"!

But she loves it anyway!

Never made a stocking for myself ,

 found a pattern of a sewing room ...

but sadly can no longer find it.

Hubby's stocking is half done, it's a Santa's workshop

and still under construction!

(it's been that way for  ... a very long time!!!)

Happy Christmas Crafting!!!

Over The Moon Workshop

 Last month I was able to take a class by Linda Warren

for this quilt

"Over The Moon".

Cutting fabric with Linda's specially designed

Learning Curve ruler

  

then sewing the blocks together creates a nifty 9 patch

playing with my blocks on the classroom design wall

and here is Linda holding one of her very awesome quilts

made with her Learning Curve ruler

made with black and one Ombre fabric!

It was a great class, my blocks are on the top of my UFO

bucket ... planning on finishing piecing the top in January!

Now the quilting ... that might take a bit longer!

Baby Quilt is Quilted!

The baby quilt for my nephew's little girl ...Emmelou

(love the name!)

is all done and ready for delivery!

It started out as a panel, which was promptly cut up into 5 inch squares,

and put back together with sashing and cornerstones.

The flowered boarder  fabric was hiding in my stash!

The quilting motif is a combination of two designs.

The large flower is a Sashiko design and the vine

is my new favorite from the book

Machine Freehand Patterns by Nan Moore.

the stripped binding is actually the backing fabric!

And of course I just had make a SPECIAL handmade label!

This pattern was sent to my by Monica

from Diary of a Quilt Maven

Just love how it came out!

Drawing on the boarder

working on a baby quilt and now it's decision time ...

boarder quilting design

think I'll go with this big flower and funky vine design,

had the vine design all drawn out from another quilt

so it was easy enough just to free hand draw it right onto the quilt!

not sure how to quilt the center...

since it's a baby quilt and will get lots of use

think I'll just do a meander stitch 

Just finished reading my copy sent from the publishers to read and review

(How exciting is That!!)...

Jennifer Chiaverini delivers another fabulous novel in the Elm Creek Quilt Series!

Without giving away too much....

Jennifer brings the Elm Creek Quilters and a few new characters

 together for a special "Quiltsgiving" quilt camp to make quilts for Project Linus,

as usual the Jennifer draws you into the book and make you part of the story.

Can't you just her Sylvia's voice!

Each camper at "Quiltsgiving" quilt camp is asked by Sylvia...

"Why do you give?"

With that one question the story unfolds 

and we learn about each camper and

what brought them to quilt camp.

We read how they form friendships and work towards a common

goal ~ to create their Giving Quilts for Project Linus

This has become my favorite Elm Creek novel...

but I say that after I finish each one of Jennifer's books!

If you are a reader, a quilter or just a gal who loves getting together

with other gal pals for a good cause (Project Linus)

You will LOVE this novel.

So grab a cup of tea, comfy chair and a quilt

and start reading "The Giving Quilt"!

Enjoy!

Hand Quilting during Storm Sandy

 As Hurricane Sandy approaches my hand quilting projects are ready

Just incase power is lost!

In the process of making a Hawaiian Bread fruit design pillow for a future class

All my tools fit neatly into this little blue contact case!!!

The essentials:

Quilting hoop - love the lap hoop 

Clover Gold Eye Quilting Needles Between (No.12)

Needle threader and cutter combo tool

Thread Heaven

Thimble of choice

Thread on bobbins (beat lugging the big spools)

 a little rubber needle pull thingy!

Minin battery operated OttLite (with spare batteries!)

OH ... Glasses 2.75 magnification! for those over 50 eyes!!

That's is I'm ready for any power outage! 

I can hand quilt for days!!

New Project!

Dare I say it .... I'm starting a new project!

After spending the past 3 months working only on UFOs this is a  ...

breath of fresh creative air!

I have a love for the simplicity of Hawaiian Quilts.

Two (sometimes three) colors, the repetitive echo quilting

I just LOVE it!

It is a time consuming labor of love...

but all good things are worth it ...Yes?

the bread fruit motifs are cut out and the basting has begun!

bread fruit half way basted onto background

(Gotta love this blue and white!)

here we are all needle turn appliqued down

next will be more basting

and then the fun part...

hand quilting.

but that's for another post!

Done quilting Birdies Stitches ....

Finally finished machine quilting

my Birdie Stitches Quilt.

Now onto the next step...

Blocking!

I gave it a bath in cold water to get rid of

all of the quilt markings

and starting measuring and pinning

to square it up.

so here it is

pinned to my bedroom floor!

Yup - the bedroom floor!

It's the largest spot to block my quilts ~

Poor hubby has to watch where he walks

so he doesn't step on any pins!

It will stay there for a few days with the ceiling fan running,

and once dried it will be beautifully squared.

Just wondering how everyone else squares up their quilts?



An Evening with Kaffe ...

I've Loved Kaffe fabrics .... well forever!

When I started working part time at my favorite local quilt shop

the obsession  collection began!

It's not a huge collection ...

really trying to restrain myself!

Made up this quilt a few years ago to

feature the pink crackle pottery fabric

Just loved the stripes so it makes up the entire backing.

This quilt is so soft and cuddly everyone fights over

it on the chilly winter evenings in New England!

So this brings me to last night....

when myself and three of my Quilty Gal Pals

had the pleasure of attending a lecture / slide show

by Kaffe Fassett!

He was extremely Inspirational, Creative and Funny!

Telling stories about his beginnings in Carmel California,

attending Mass Art in Boston and onto England

where he lives and creates.

I'm not one for autobiographies, but I found him just so

interesting I had to pick up the last copy!

Don't you just love the Cover of his book!

I started flipping through it this morning and was so

drawn in I just couldn't put it down!

The housework can wait!!

Here he is signing my book!!

 Love the shirt - he designed the fabric and

notice the ribbon going down the front!

Will have to pick up some of that!

This is one of my UFO's

mixing my two favorites....

 Batiks and Kaffe fabrics! 

Can't wait to dive into his new fabric line....

will have to add it to my collection!

Block #9 of my Winter Taupe Quilt done

Another block completed!

Only 5 more to go!!

Still Quilting my Birdie Stitches

SO this is taking longer than I expected!

But I'm liking how it's coming out so far.

I'm using the Sharon Schamber's quilting halo and really liking

the control I have with moving the quilt around,

much better than the quilting gloves I was using!

Finally photos of my VERY productive summer!

Remember this pile of UFO'S?

I stacked them all into a bucket and put them by my

sewing machine with the vow to finish the UFO's before \starting anything new!

Well here they are now....

I FINISHED 10 ....

Yup ... TEN UFO's this summer!!

Here is a little show and tell 

Lobster on the Rocks Table Runner
with  Alfred my horseshoe crab from
Chatham Pottery

Baby Quilt for Maggie

The FRONT of Victoria's T-shirt Quilt

The BACK of Victoria's T-shirt Quilt



Fabric Box with slip pockets inside and zippered pockets outside



LIME
don't know why but I fell for the color Lime this year

Rodeo Donation Quilt for SCQG

Christmas Quilt

Silver City Quilt Guild Mystery Quilt

Navy and Lime

Mini Landscape
from a Jo Diggs workshop

So there you have it ... how I spent my summer!!

Still working on my Birdie Stitches Quilt

This is definitely a work in progress!

I finally selected sashing and boarder designs

 Love this book - so inspirational

Used Golden threads to draw my boarder print

 then used the light box to draw the design onto the quilt

 No worries I remembered to use the

Fine Point Mark-B-Gone by Dritz.

For the sashing I selected a rope pattern

and started quilting away...

here is the back ...

But as I'm quilting away I realize somethings wrong...

It's just not coming together very well

Hmmm...

OH MY...

I selected the WRONG batting (wool)!

What was I thinking ...

it was just too puffy and shifting everywhere

So ... I Frog-Stitched it ALL out!!

Yup I had to take it all apart and start over!

The one good thing ....

I decided I didn't like the rope design in the sashing

so it changed to a sashiko flower design!

Now I'm ready to start re-quilting !!

Winter Taupe Block #8 completed

Today was a beautiful day at the Canal,

the sun was out, the boats were going back and forth,

I worked on block #8,

the only thing missing were the fish!

My poor hubby - no fish for him today!

Yippee ... finished block #8

(bad picture ~ sorry)

I know I said I wouldn't start anything new until

 all of the UFO's in my bucket were finished.....

Well since block #8 was done and we were

still fishing (not me just hubby!)

I had to do something!!

Technically this is a UFO since I traced out the

sampler pattern onto the fabric over a year ago!

Once done it will be a small table runner.

 Love Sashiko.

I find the stitching very relaxing...

now if only the wind would cooperate!