Thursday, December 15, 2022

Christmas Presents, etc.

I finished all of my sewing for Christmas, yipee!  First, I finished 10 placemats, using Pioneer Woman fabrics for my daughter-in-law.  I curved the corners and made bias binding for the first time.

front of placemats

back of placemats

I had 2 different patterns for fabric chalkboards.  I didn't really like either pattern, so I took the parts I liked and made some jumbo fabric chalkboards.  I made 5 chalkboards, but 3 of these are for my grandkids.  

fabric chalkboard with pockets for chalk and eraser

back of chalkboards, with one rolled up and tied

Since I got these things finished early, it gave me time to make some fabric books for my grandkids.  I don't use batting for these, instead I use fusible interfacing.  

4 fabric books

We've been watching Christmas movies several evenings.  I've been working on the Angels Among Us block.  I finished the July block and have started on the August block.

July block

Are you finished with your Christmas stitching?

Friday, December 9, 2022

Catching Up

I haven't been blogging, but I've been busy.  

I finished Autumn Chains, my king size quilt from the class I took in October.  The quilter has done her part, and it's waiting for me to trim it and sew the binding on.  That will be after Christmas.  This quilt is for me.  I will put it in my large quilt guild's quilt show in March.

photo of the top, before it was quilted

quilting pattern from the quilter

I've made more Women of the Bible blocks.

Sarah

Hagar

Rebekah

Rahab

I now have 5 of the 40+ blocks for this quilt made.

I finished the June block for Angels Among Us.  I went back and added all the buttons, etc. to all the previous blocks, since I decided that I will hand quilt this, not have it quilted.  Sorry the colors don't show properly.  This is a calendar quilt.

January

February

March

April

May

June

I also finished a baby quilt for Ryan that I started back in October.  I added fabric down the middle and also borders to make it larger.  I have gray minkee on the back.  This is quilted, bound and washed.

finished baby quilt

up close of the mastodon and dinosaur

up close of the saber tooth tiger and more dinosaurs

I've had some gift exchanges and also some lovely gifts arrived in the mail.

This is from the ornament exchange at church.  My Bible study teacher made this herself.

cross stitch Nativity scene

My little quilt guild had our holiday party Monday night.  The fabric that everything is on was the wrapping paper for my gift (notions exchange).  The bookmark was from another member of the guild.  I have the ruler to make the bookmarks, but I haven't tried to use it yet (I really need to).  The Janome foot was on the freebie table.



Stash-n-store and marking pen, plus beading foot and bookmark

A nice lady helped me with my Willcox & Gibbs treadle (moving it from California to Arizona).  I also helped her with a sewing machine cabinet (moving it from Chicago to Oklahoma).  She sent me a lovely package as thanks.
great bag

bag, zipper bag and pin cushion

I'd love to know how to make that bag (blue one).  I'm guessing that it's a giant square that is folded to get it to look like that, but I can't figure out how it is folded & stitched.  Such a cute bag.  The zipper bag has Coats & Clark thread material.

I've been working on several other things, too (no photos yet, Christmas presents).  I've also been working on Omigosh! 9 patch blocks (leaders & enders) and I've cut out and stitched ric rac to over 100 I Spy blocks.  I still have to stitch the I Spy blocks to the background fabrics.  I'm looking for a few more fabrics (I don't have a boat, Moose, or elephant).  

I'll be in a blog hop in January (more info coming).  I finally got the patterns, and chose one to make.  I won't start stitching on this one until after Christmas (too much to do before Christmas).