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?

Books, Dragons and a Fantasy Land!

 I've stitched a few things since I last posted.  I made 2 fabric books for my grandkids.  I didn't want to use batting between the pages, so I used fusible interfacing instead.  One is a Christmas book.

The other book is a color book in both English and Spanish.

My Treadle On group started years ago with lots of fun and fantasy.  Captain Dick (who started the group and ran it until 2013) has quite the imagination, and invented a whole other world for sewing machines.  It was the Island of Olde Treadleonia.  For several years I've wanted to turn the map of Olde Treadleonia into an embroidery.  Well, I finally got started on it.  

map of Olde Treadleonia

First, I traced the map onto white paper.

my traced map

Then I took my traced map to Office Depot to get it enlarged 180%.  I had to settle for several different 'parts' of the map that I had to tape together.  Then I traced the enlarged map onto fabric.

map traced onto fabric

Well, the original map has colors, so I decided to color my map, too.  I've never colored an embroidery before.  A while back I bought some fabric pastel dye sticks at Goodwill (unopened).  After reading the directions, it seemed simple to do.

I think it turned out well.

colored map

I prepped it for embroidery.  I've done quite a bit now, but don't have a photo of what I've done.  

ready to stitch

We moved all the chatter about Olde Treadleonia to another group (also started by Captain Dick), called Quilt Along.  

Well, Olde Treadleonia has magical creatures, including Dragons!  The Quilt Along group decided to have a challenge: Dragons! Well, my Thunder of Dragons has grown!  The day I got the map enlarged, my son and I went to Blain's Farm & Fleet.  Guess what jumped into my cart?  Meet Fred the dragon.  

Fred wanted more dragons around, so I started stitching 2 dragons.  I had a pattern...

Remember, I've never stitched clothes or followed patterns other than quilt patterns (till Gwendolynn's dresses in the last blog post) and I've never made 'stuffies' before, either.  I decided to make my dragons in an unorthodox method, since I knew that stitching on Minky fleece and fake fur would be difficult.  I made copies of the pattern using my printer, and stitched thru the copied pattern pieces, like paper piecing.  

see all that black fake fur sticking out from the pattern? Messy!

body of dragon

Stitching thru the paper really helped, especially trying to match all the points on black fake fur (you can't see the dots or other bits on black fake fur).  

These dragons were very fiddly (and very messy, with black fake fur parts all over my sewing room).

Meet Scarlet.

Scarlet

It took 2 stores to find Scarlet's yellow fabric.  I'd found a gold fabric, but didn't like it with the red.  Since I liked the gold, I found the black fake fur and decided to make 2 dragons.  

Meet Bumble.

Bumble

Scarlet & Bumble

Bumble got his name from the gold fabric.  It has honeycombs and  bumblebee's on it.

Bumble's fabric bumblebee

Here is my Thunder of Dragons!

I mailed my grandson's quilt (and Gwendolynn's dresses) to Alaska. They arrived almost 2 weeks before expected (great job USPS).  When they opened the box, Gwendolynn decided she had to try on each dress (no photos, but I got to see them open the box on Skype).  Gwendolynn LOVED her new dresses!  Don't worry, I got Korin some new clothes, too.  Well, Declan was asleep when they opened the box, but my daughter in law sent photos of Declan with his new quilt (Fractured Diamonds).

all three grandkids on the quilt

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A diet update:

As of Sunday, I've lost 49 pounds.  That is almost 50 lbs in 6 months (6 months will be tomorrow).  It has slowed down, partly as expected, and also because I haven't had much time to exercise the past 5-6 weeks (traveling and crazy work schedule).  I'm not shooting for a weight, but for a size that I can maintain.  I still have a ways to go.  So far, I've been able to stick with the diet EVERYDAY for 6 months!  I've found ways to cut calories (reduced calorie breads, etc.) and still have dessert (low calorie ice cream).  My eating habits will have to change for life.  I will get to add some things back in (in moderation) when I reach my goal size.  Till then, I keep taking clothes to Goodwill.  

Some finishes and some Apps

Wow, I haven't posted in almost a month.  I have been busy these past few weeks. 

First, I gave up trying to finish the board game quilts for this year's Christmas presents.  There was too much hand work, and I never would have gotten them finished in time.  Too much stress.  I'll finish them in the next few months, and they will be ready for next year instead. 

I am still working on one last Christmas present, but it should be finished either today or Christmas eve.  I'll show it when it's done.

I did get 2 quilts finished!  Both of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings quilts are done. 

Smaller LOTR/The Hobbit quilt

I made labels for both quilts, telling what the blocks are.

label

The last block on the label is for the 13th block, which is on the back of each quilt.  Don't worry, 13 is a lucky number for our family.

13th block on the back of the quilt

This quilt is now in Alaska with my grandson (who it was made for).

I also finished the larger LOTR/The Hobbit quilt.  This quilt will stay with me for a while, so that I can put it in my quilt guild's quilt show in March 2020.

Larger (2nd) LOTR/The Hobbit quilt

I made some fabric books for my grandkids.  These were fun to make. 

I wanted to share a couple of phone apps with you.  The first one I found out about earlier this morning.  As you know, I collect vintage sewing machines.  I'm always finding machines in thrift stores, etc, but can't check any info on them until I get home, and check my serial number book.  Well, a gentleman made an app using the Singer serial numbers.  If you enter the serial number, his app will tell you what model the machine is, what year, and how many machines of that model were made in that serial number run.  It does NOT tell you where the machine was made, but I have that info in my book at home.  I know I'll use this app a lot.  This app can be found in your Google Play app store.

The second app is one that you may know about already.  The Robert Kaufman Quilting Calculator app.  I use this app all of the time.  It's a great way to figure out how much binding you need.  It also tells you how much fabric you need for a batting/backing. Pieces to yardage, border yardage, square in a square, set-in corner triangles, etc.  This app can be found in almost any of your phone's app stores.

Merry Christmas to Everyone!