Finally!

I finally got my Harry Potter tree skirt made.   I must say, those pompoms were a pain.  This HP fabric was some of the very  last I bought from Joann.  I sure miss that store.

I stitched the pompoms to the top and then did the layering and turning.  

This fabric is from Lib Elliot's Phantasm line.  My DH loves the purple and jokes he's going to turn it upside down while I'm at work.  I even used a matching purple for the kam snap on the back so it would match better.

The close up below shows the HP fabric.  It's based off the Mary Dupre illustrations.
 

Matching stripes

After seeing how easy it was on DH's anniversary socks, I decided to see if I could match stripes on mine.  So very close!

Socks #6

Socks #6 for the year.  I bought this yarn because I wanted some Christmas socks to wear in December!

Sewing littles

 

Red asked for a book sleeve to keep paperbacks safe in his backpack.  The fabric was a fat quarter from Walmart. It was 99 cents but it washed up nicely. 

 

I also made three cases for my readers.  I keep a pair with each stitching project and I wanted something better than the little ziploc bag they came in. I used off cuts of soft and stable for padding.

Snowman

I decided to make some snowman mug rugs for my aunt.  And then I though, ya know, it would be easy to make a little runner to go with them.  So here I am trying to decide how wide to make the borders.  the sashing between the blocks finishes at 3/4 inch.  I had borders that were 1.5 inches.  But it was too much white.  So I auditioned various widths and decided to cut the borders down to 3/4 inch too. The pattern is at Not So Plain Jane. I was planning to do self binding with the backing fabric but I don't think I will have enough fabric to do the runner and the mug rugs.  Guess I'll find out tonight.

Santa!

 I always like to decorate the china hutch I inherited from Grandmama. Usually I use the Christmas tree stoneware and bits of china and a few bits and bobs.  But this year I was inspired by Tea With Friends to display all of my Santa face mugs.

I added a few St. Lucia dolls and my Berggren God Jul sugar bowl and creamer.  And as many bottle brush trees that I could round up! This was really fun to play with and I may do it again next year.  

Can't believe I forgot to post these!

I can't believe I forgot to upload these quilts last December! I decided to knock out some kits that I have had for a LONG time.  The first one is Isn't Christmas Jolly? I also used my Accuquilt cutter as much as I could on these quilts.  

 

Next was Sheri Berry Holiday.  This picture doesn't show how beautiful and soft the colors are.  I bought a ton of this fabric because I loved it so much.

Finally this is Critter Christmas.  It's a bit longer than the pattern but I wanted to use more of the border fabric.  

Rex is being helpful and modelling for me!

 

a little mischief

 I was having a bummer day last week about treated myself to a pattern I had long pinned.  This is Christmas Mischief and the pattern is available on etsy.

I just love this: Oh Dear there's a mistake:

And then you see the little elf who caused the mischief!  The elf in red is full size-12 inches square.  The pink elf is half sized and will go to my friend Susie along with a six-inch quilt stand.  She likes pink better than red so I'm hoping she really likes this. I'm still stitching down the elves-need appropriate pink and green for the little one.  I'm really loving them.

Finished Baubles

 I'm not sure if I like the borders or not but I'm really happy to have made this!

Coastal Christmas

I absolutely fell in love with this heron.  I have a particular affection for these long-legged birds and when I saw this fabric line I knew I had to get it.  I did have some difficulty with the mitered corners and tried various youtube videos to get it right!  I found  one video that showed a slightly different technique that finally worked for me.  I made the second panel slightly differently (gosh, those miters require so much extra fabric!).  And the small table topper is from the leftovers.  I actually have enough fabric cut to make another table topper!

 I emailed Karen the Quilter to see if she had time to quilt for me and she responded immediately.  I went straight home and fixed up the backing and batting-and mailed it off the next morning!

Big star

This is a project I started in November (I think).  I made a Sparkle Plenty quilt several years ago to hang on the wall behind my Christmas tree (the empty wall looked too desolate!).  Well, last year I washed that quilt with a yard of PFD fabric. Guess what happened?  All of the green fabric bled and permanently stained the muslin.  I tried for weeks to get it out but the quilt was ruined.

So this year I decided to make a new quilt.  I had seen a glimpse of a red, green and gold quilt that looked Christmas-y but not overtly so.  I think I saw it in an add for a Kim Diehl book.  It's all made of HSTs so I figured I could easily make one-plus I could mostly use fabric I already had.  So here you can see my HSTs laid out on my bed.  Last night I sewed the middle of the quilt together.  Looks good!

Last and first

  
 

Last project of 2015: I needed a runner to go on the china hutch-and I was never going to finish those tedious snowball blocks for a quilt-so I started sewing them together.  I stopped after sewing the first two columns together-and I'm glad I did as four blocks would have made this too deep for the hutch!  I needed to make two more tedious blocks and then I just knocked this out!  Very minimal quilting but I'm happy with the result-and extremely happy to be done with those snowball blocks!

This is my first project of 2016. I've wanted to make something with this fabric for years-I think I started collecting it in 2011.  I was making the aforementioned tedious blocks but I realized that I would never ever ever finish that-even to a lap quilt size.  So I was looking around on my pinterest Christmas board and saw a pillow on the Polka Dot Chair using some of these same fabrics.  I loved the star so I pulled out all of this fabric.  The pillow uses 4 1/2 inch squares but I had a ton of 5 inch squares already cut out so  I simply upscaled the size of the blocks.  I've finished these two blocks and have two others ready to sew.  I need to cut out more Kona White 5 inch squares to finish.  I also have a Kona White jelly roll-I may use that for sashing.    I expect I will have a lot of 5 inch squares left over so I will probably make a disappearing nine patch with them. I do think I will buy a Kona White charm pack so I don't have to cut any more!

 

Note to self: be sure to label kona white and kona snow when you buy it!

 

Look what my sister made me!

Isn't this precious?  My sister made it-she even posted a photo online but I didn't know it was for me!  She also found me a tea cup from Canada (we're half-Canadian).

all that's left

All that's left is to get this quilted by Christmas afternoon!  I really hope I have enough fabric left for the backing.

So close!

I cannot believe how close Christmas is.  I'm working all this week and Christmas is a week from today!  How did that happen?  Last night I realized I absolutely had to get my packages in the mail so I knocked out this apron for my sister:

Ignore the little foot there!

My inlaws really liked the quilt I gave them.  My MIL even said that she knew I put a lot of time into it-she's not crafty but her mom was so she does have some idea of  how long something can take.  My FIL was pleased as well.

So, I've got to make a pair of pjs for my nephew, finish some stitching on the gingerbread aprons (I'd really like to make something for my baby niece out of this gingerbread pattern, maybe a  pinny)  and, most importantly, finish my mom's quilt! I am really behind on it.  I've sewn the blocks together and now need to get the rows sewn.  I'm hoping I can do that tonight.  Actually, if I sew the rows tonight, do the borders tomorrow, then I could possibly layer and start quilting Friday when the boyos are off camping.

ran out of fabric!

I was working on the seashell quilt for my mom and ran out of fabric.  So I picked up my pilgrims-would like to finish that this year.  And I ran out of fabric.  So I made this primitive Santa instead.  It's a Jan Patek pattern that I have been wanting to do for years.  It needs a bit more quilting and then binding.  I think I'm going to wash this one and get it all crinkly and vintage looking.

Early Christmas present

Isn't it lovely?  I am so excited!

After Christmas

I've been sick since the week before Christmas so I haven't finished any of the projects I planned to do.  I took a week vacation so I could finish some quilts and so far-nothing!  Ah well, the boyos had a great Christmas.  Santa brought plenty of Legos!  I'm still not feeling great but I am much better than I was last week.  So, for the rest of my vacation, I'm hoping to get the binding and hanging sleeve on Sparkle Plenty.  Surely I will be able to do that!  I tried to get Aunt Cindy to come down from north Texas to do it for me LOL.

Pinwheels

I saw a red gingham pinwheel quilt in a magazine around Christmas time.  I started this on Christmas break, I think, and put it away.  Boy did it go together fast on my new Horizon!  Which, by the way, the boyos have decided I should call Mr. Jeremy Fisher!










Here is a full pic-I'm still wondering if I should add a white border.  The pinwheel fabric is from Sew Cherry.  It is great red!

More Advent-y Adventures

My wonderful DH put up Christmas lights this year! I've been dying to have some of the multicolored icicle-style lights for years. DH was unmoved. But I mentioned that Red had been asking about our house having lights and that got'er done. DH bought the LED style lights. They look different than the incandesent lights because they are more "white" so the red and yellow/orange aren't as red and yellow/orangey. Truthfully, I would have preferred the old style lights but I am thrilled in any case that we now have the lights! DH also wrapped the post on our front porch with red and white stranded lights for a candy cane effect. Plus he finally put out the little lighted train yard decoration that I got on clearance years ago. The boyos are so excited!

This weekend we were really busy. Aside from the excitment of the lights we:

• had photos of the four Littles in the family. Three were very cute and cooperative. One was not (Tig!).
• Had coffee with Jampa and a quick run to Michaels for an angel stamp.
• Picked Magpie up at rehearsal and took her along to a work Christmas party.
• went to JoAnn's with Magpie to buy fabric for superhero capes for the boyos but forgot to get grommets from the planned jack bags.
• put up the Christmas tree and yard decorations at MaaMaa and Jampa's.
• made two trips to the local mega-mart.
• watched the evening Christmas parade.
• went to Red's Christmas pageant at church (complete madhouse!)
• put up our Christmas tree and decorations (I had completely underestimated the THRILL of putting up a tree when you are 3 and 5 years old.)
• lit the second candle on our Advent wreath!
• dressed the boys in their jammy's after dinner last night and went driving around to look at Christmas lights.
• had a visit from St. Nicholas and Black Peter this morning. Red and Tig discovered little Christmas bags with a robot ornament and a chocolate Santa in their shoes this morning.

I felt a little frenetic Saturday due to all the errands/driving around (and around and around) and then yesterday the excitement level was super high beginning at 6:30 am when Tig woke me. I took both excited boyos to Mass and Tig was awful! We had to move out of the church proper before the Eucharist even started and Tig continued to misbehave. I finally gave up and we left to go home for a quick lunch and nap. Tig obviously needed a nap as he did not demure at all and climbed into bed and laid himself down without any discussion. Maybe he was too tired/wound up to behave at Mass? Red did well at the Christmas pageant and my kinders jingled their jingle bells with gusto! I must admit, I was on my last nerve by the time we got home. *I* was overloaded by that point and I still had all the laundry to finish!

Still, I am so happy that we've kept up with our Advent celebrations. The boyos are having a good time and DH and I are still speaking to each other!