Gma

This is the beginning of a table runner for my Gma. The pattern is available on the Moda Bake shop blog.

I found out last night that Gma was hospitalized for severe bronchitis. I'm worried that it will turn into pneumonia. She's 84 and is not in the best health.

Penguins, penguins

Finished quilt top for Red. I used the pattern (mostly) from Andover. However, it had some serious errors in it. I had extra fabric, thankfully, so I could re-cut the pieces that were wrong. I bought the backing Monday-more penguins-and I will piece that with some of the leftovers from the top. He says he likes it but I don't think he realizes it will be a snuggly quilt for him.

I have another pattern and fabric from the Duck, Duck, Goose line. When I start that one I will sample before I cut all of my fabric up-just in case.

Testing an idea

Recently I have been using my serger a great deal. My mom wanted me to roll hem some of her dresses (I lost count at 20!). Since I am rather new to serging I checked out several books from the library. One of them had a project that was a quilt made by SERGING. I was intrigued by it and then in this issue of Quilts and more there was a giant, wonky log cabin quilt. I wondered if I could do that on my serger. Well, here is my sample. It is not tidy-I didnt iron my fabric before cutting or between logs as Tig was up and v. clingy and I was afraid he'd get burned.

You can see the serging here. To get started you layer the first square (top fabric, batting, backing) and serge all four sides. Then you place the next log of fabric right sides together and the batting and backing against the back. Serge the seam. Then flip the pieces together, iron, trim if needed and move on to the next log.

Here's the back of my sample. I used some minkee scraps-which were hard to serge through because it ends up being six layers thick, some red flannel and some blue gingham flannel. I think I will make this into a little doll quilt for DNiece#3.

I'd like to do another of these but with time (and freedom) to iron and cut accurately.

Still here . . .

Well I *planned* to be better about updating my blog-especially over Christmas break-but I guess I've been too busy with the nee-nees.

Red grabbed a remnant at JoAnns one day and for some reason I kept obsessing over it. So when Spring Break arrived and I was cutting out for Red's penguin quilt I thought I would go ahead and cut it and some red and black out so I would have it ready whenever I got sewing time. Well, the quilt was very demanding and insisted on pushing to the head of the queue. In fact, it held me in a tight grip and pushed me until I made two quilts! Here are Thing One and Thing Two.

Thing One will be for my long suffering DH and Thing Two will be for my dear cousin and his bride. I know DH likes his and I really hope Cousin and CousinInLaw will like theirs. This quilt demanded to go to them-it was really quite insistent.

I finished!

Yesterday I finished my Christmas tree skirt! On
Saturday DH managed to get both boys to nap at the
same time. I grabbed the sewing machine and sewed on
the binding. I still had embroidery to do but I can,
sort of, do that when the boyos are awake. I will
probably re-sew the top part of the binding. I tried
to pin it and it isn't as smooth as the lower edge
binding that I just held in place. I finished the
small amount of embroidery Sunday morning while Tig
was sleeping and immediately started putting up the
Christmas tree.

It looks really nice even though we have the whole
tree behind a safety gate to keep the boyos from
pulling it over. This pattern was from Plum Creek
Collectibles-I love her patterns. In fact, I even
bought more last week!

Take the edge off

Yesterday my assistant made me go to a meeting with
her. It turned out to be a lunch/crafternoon meeting.
It was a lot more fun than the meetings I usually go
to. This is what we made:

Today I have a serious jones for some crafty activity.
I just need to do something to take the edge off. I
really need to finish translating the pattern for the
sweater I'm knitting Red. I had planned to knit one
for each boyo for Christmas -and our family picture-
but that is NOT going to happen.

Santa's workshop

DH and Tig gave me some sewing time yesterday. I played around with my new serger and used some misprinted Christmas fabric to make quick gift bags. I need to find a better instruction manual to make the darn thing really work!

I made two of these candy pillowcases for the boys. I used this tutorial http://maryquilts.com/pillowcase/ and it worked very nicely. I love Mary's blog. She's so prolific and generous.

I also worked on my tree skirt. This horrible picture shows the end is near!

I still have a few other sewing giftie ideas for the boys. I would like to make a bean bag game for them and maybe the elephant from Last Minute Patchwork for Tig.