Christmas and the New Year

I haven't been stitching the past several weeks, since I've had family in town.  Yesterday, I finally got into my sewing room, but, I only had time to organize things.  I'd moved half the closet stuff, and the dresser drawer items into my sewing closet, while family used the guest bedroom for over 2 weeks.  More went in, while my oldest son gave up his room to his little brother and new sister-in-law for a week. 

While my sewing room was being organized, I took the time to clean, and also to finally put the cover on my new ironing board hubby cut for me.  The top is 18"x60", held onto a new ironing board with screws.  A friend had me add foil to the board before I stapled the new ironing cover on (she says it will reflect the heat back to my project better).  I haven't had a chance to iron yet, so, I'll see soon if it works.

new ironing board and cover

The old ironing board is a vintage wooden ironing board, and, since is is so short, I had to set it on bed risers, to get it to the height I wanted. 

I wanted to show you some of the great presents I got for Christmas.  First, I love Harry Potter, and have all the books and audio books.  I saw the new illustrated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on Sarah's blog, back in October.  Of course I showed it to hubby, and, guess what was under the tree.

illustrated edition

 I also got a few sewing related items for Christmas.

fabric bowl and double ended seam ripper, that my stepfather made me

bobbin buddies

1930's scissors my stepfather gave me

A few days before Christmas, a blogging friend, from my hometown, contacted me.  Was I interested in buying her purple Featherweight?  I printed out pictures, from this blog post, and showed them to hubby.  After he sang the praises of a Featherweight to his parents (who'd arrived that morning) he told me that the Featherweight would make a great Christmas present for me.  Woohoo!  Guess what will be headed my way in the next week or two!?!?!?

pictured from Sue's blog (I'm mentioned in this post)

I made hubby a mini quilt for Christmas.  He saw the pattern, way back, when I won it, on my blog, so, I couldn't show the quilt until after he received it (no secrets here, since hubby reads my blog).  I changed the dog from tan and white, to grey, to make it look like hubby's Alaskan Malamute, Ratchet.

Ratchet (where he lays when I'm in my sewing room)

hubby's hiking mini quilt

On Tuesday, I drove my son and daughter-in-law to the airport.  I stopped by the Quilts of Valor sew-in on the way home.  We are meeting in a new place now, since the quilt store where we started, is closing by the end of January :(    Prairie Shop Quilts was one of the best quilt stores in the Chicago area, with the friendliest staff around.  Bonita ran the store for almost a decade, and decided to leave to spend more time with her family.  Well, after I visited the Quilts of Valor sew-in, I headed to the quilt store, to see if I needed anything that was left (like I really need any more fabric).  Of course I found several different sewing theme fabrics that I had to bring home.  While there, Bonita gave me the last vintage sewing machine in the store.  Several years ago, I cleaned and serviced all the vintage machines she had at the time.  Those machines sold in the first few days of her going out of business sale.  This machine, that was left, was dirty, and needed new wiring and TLC.  No one had looked at it, after seeing the shiny machines. 

Singer 99 (knee controller) in Bentwood case

scary wiring!

I'll get this machine cleaned up and converted to a hand crank in the next few weeks. 
Hubby thinks it's cute (he likes 3/4 size machines). 

I have to get moving in my sewing room.  A friend and I are hosting the Holiday party for our larger guild (held in January instead of December) and I have projects to complete for the party.  I'll try to remember to take pictures of all the decorated tables that other ladies are hosting (we are also hosting a table, along with the whole party). 

Hope you are having a Great 2016!