Ready to Quilt

My week of sewing has continued. I did stop and bake for Thanksgiving--two pumpkin pies and my first cheesecake--a chocolate chip decadent one to be exact! Plus, I took care of some Christmas shopping both in store and on-line. I finished piecing my border for my Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Quilt last night and just snapped a quick picture before I get it ready for quilting. This will be a sample for the BOM I am teaching next year of Lori Holt's Quilty Fun book.

This little snowman is going to be the label. He needs some embroidered arms and buttons.

I went to Joann's this morning to take advantage of their 50% off coupons and 60% off of the designer quilting fabric. This pink is so soft and I decided would be an excellent backing for the Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas quilt. I think I will just cross hatch quilt it on my Pfaff and then add on all the embellishments.

This gorgeous quilt arrived yesterday from Deborah in California for my mom's charity quilt drive. My picture does not do the colors justice--they are gorgeous. She also sent lovely fabric for the backing. My mom has 96 quilts completed enough to be donated to all the residents at two nursing homes in our town. She is also gathering more lap quilts for another nursing home for Christmas 2016!

It has gotten chilly in our neck of the woods, but we have had very little snow in our immediate area. Our surrounding mountains are covered and everyone is excited for ski season. It is cuddling weather for our dogs. Fergie, the puppy, loves to be between Lola and Bella with all three squeezed on one bed. I had to snap this picture through the window to actually catch her and Bella sleeping.

I will be keeping warm with some binding and hand quilting for Slow Sunday Stitching

http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

Thanksgiving Temptation

 Since I have the whole week off of work and I am not cooking Thanksgiving dinner or hosting it, I am quilting my days away. I made two of these reindeer door banners that can be made from Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts' reindeer blocks featured in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks  magazine available now.

 I whipped up some zippered pouches for Christmas presents for some of my coworkers. There are lots of bag and pouch gift ideas with tutorials over at Elm Street Quilts and their Bag It! features. Find them here http://www.elmstreetquilts.com

 I really wanted to start working on something new, but I have so many big quilts in the UFO pile awaiting quilting. I decided to make the Snapshots Sail Away block as a mini quilt. It took only an hour even with the quilting. I am saving the binding for movie night tonight.

 My sister has recently discovered Lori Holt and her amazing quilts. She messaged me last night asking if I had the patterns for the Have Yourself a Quilty Little Christmas Instagram Sew Along from last year. I did not have the patterns and I am not on Instagram since I do not have a smart phone, but I want to make the quilt after seeing everyone else's. My techie teen helped me find the patterns on Instagram with my regular computer. Needless to say, I gave in and started this Thanksgiving Temptation. I made a bunch of the blocks today. Here is my gingerbread house,

 my cup of cocoa mug,

 and my Christmas tree.

 I made cupcake mittens

 and the sweet little gingerbread man. I had to buy the baby rick rack, but I think I will be able to make this quilt entirely from my stash. It is also fairly small, so I will be able to machine quilt it on my Pfaff without too much effort.

 The Christmas lights show my overall color scheme.

 My Christmas candle,

my Twinkly Winter Star, 

 and my Ornament went together so quickly.

I just finished my Sewing Basket block. Another reason I gave into the temptation of starting this Christmas quilt is because it is based on Lori Holt's Quilty Fun and I am teaching the row along project featured in the book next year as a BOM at my local fabric store. I think showing other quilts made from the blocks in the book will be good for my students. Here is a link for info http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2014/11/have-yourself-quilty-little-christmas.html

I hope my Have Yourself a Quilty Little Christmas Quilt will be finished up this week!

A Stitching Sunday

 When Lorna featured this door banner the other day on her blog http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/2015/11/santas-reindeer-blocks-for-100-blocks.html

I had to make it! I picked up the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine yesterday and immediately started cutting. I actually made two--it is just as easy to cut for two at the same time. They are both ready for me to bind tonight while watching the Sunday night football game for Slow Sunday Stitching http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

I decided to try quilting them with Lorna's suggestion of organic wavy lines and it was very easy and quick.

 The backing is an oldie from stash that has all kinds of animals. The candy cane stripe is from Joann's and is not the best quality, but I decided to use it anyway.

 This morning I hand sewed the binding down on my niece's birthday banner.

 It is already to be mailed.

 Last year, I cross stitched this quilt block sampler that was featured on Little Miss Shabby's blog. Donna found the link for me http://corianderquilts.com/quilty-stitches/I plan on framing this for my sewing room, but I have been itching to start another cross stitching project.

I have prepped everything for this sheep. It is a companion pattern to a cow and pig I think I made back when I was a newlywed. I figured I would get this done before any other cross stitch project. I am off to make dinner and stitch the night away!

November FNSI

Last night was Friday Night Sew In and I started off my Thanksgiving vacation with the evening in my sewing room. My daughter kept me company. We put on my little pot belly stove heater, drank some hot cocoa, and watched Say Yes to the Dress. I quilted up my niece and nephew's birthday banners. See what everyone else worked on here

http://sugarlane-designs.com/2015/11/november-friday-night-sew-sign-ups.html

I just love to do a simple one inch cross hatch with my walking foot. I need to run by my fabric store this morning and pick up some more of the turquoise fabric to use as binding for this one.

I also hope to find some candy cane stripe for binding for this door banner that Lorna featured on her blog the other day here 

http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/2015/11/santas-reindeer-blocks-for-100-blocks.html

I am going to whip up one for me and maybe a couple others for gifts. I also have some zip pouches all cut and ready to sew now that my zippers have arrived. I started a new handwork project, but will share it tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching Sunday. I am going to sew, read, and relax since I have the whole week off this year!

Done vs. Perfect

 I seem to get stuck in quagmire sometimes with my quilting because I want things to be perfect instead of done. This quilt is an example. I sewed all the chicks and the top together back in June. Then, I did not quilt it because I wanted to quilt it so it looked like chicken wire as was shown in the Farm Girl Vintage book. I spent some time shopping for a chicken wire template on-line and I did find one, but the shipping was more expensive than the template. Dilemma! Should I even bother? In the end, I decided I just wanted to finish it and not spend any money on an expensive template or bother with hand quilting it.

 I started today off with hand binding it for Slow Sunday Stitching. Check out other handwork projects here http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

 The quilting does not even show up that much because of the busy fabrics, so I am pleased with my choice to have a finish instead of perfection.

 A trick I have bee doing lately is to make an extra block for each quilt and turn it into the quilt's label.  I machine appliqued the block onto the backing and quilted right on through it too.

My niece and nephew have birthdays coming next month. They have reached the age where it is difficult to shop for them, so I decided to make birthday cake banners and buy gift cards for them. My sister recommended purple, green, and blue for my niece. Using the free pattern from Lori Holt found here http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/2014/10/who-wants-to-make-cake-for-quilty-funs.html 

and Cynthia's tutorial found here

 http://dreamquiltcreate.blogspot.com/2015/10/quilty-fun-birthday-cake-banner-tutorial.html

I whipped up this banner this afternoon and plan on working on my nephew's this evening. They are so much fun to personalize and easy to make, I think everyone in the family needs one for their birthday in 2016.

I also placed an order this week for some zippers, so I can make some monogrammed pouches for colleagues as Christmas presents. Stay tuned for progress on them soon!

Vote for My Dogs

Lorna hosted her Dog Gone Cute Quilt Along at Sew Fresh Quilts and I participated as part of her blog hop. Now, she is having a contest where you can vote for your favorites here http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/2015/11/dog-gone-cute-linky-party-voting.html

My quilt is Number 8 and features the dogs I have owned throughout my life. If you have a chance, please consider voting for me. Thanks!

 I finished appliquéing my Cottage Garden wool felt quilt. I love how it turned out!

 The scrappy fabrics and wools go together perfectly. This is a Timeless Traditions design that came out this year at the start of the summer. I treated myself to a kit for my birthday.

I picked up this fabric for the backing and will quilt it on the diagonals by hand with perle cotton.

We do not have today off for Veteran's Day, but I had to take it off to take my daughter to an appointment out of town. We are going to get started on our Christmas shopping after her appointment and enjoy lunch out. Have a great day!

Cottage Garden Blocks

 I did not manage to get into my sewing room at all this week. I caught a cold and was busy with evening obligations, but I did manage to get eight Cottage Garden Blocks done and read a great book.

 I think wool felt appliqué is so easy and fun.

 This design is mostly wool felt appliqué with a couple of pieces of cotton thrown in like this black with white polka dots.

 These blocks are small and finish only 5 inches. I love the primitive look and country colors.

 I have sixteen blocks completed and two more to go.

 I plan on finishing up the last two blocks and getting it ready to hand quilt with perle cotton in the pieced blocks and border.

 This block reminds me of the giant sunflowers my hubby grew this summer.

Check out what everyone else is working on for Slow Sunday Stitching here http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

I hope to get back in my sewing room this week!

Plugging Away

 These are Pie Cherry Blocks from Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage book that I cut out all the way back in June for our quilting retreat in July and they were not touched.

 There are 25 of them and I want to set them with some aquas, but I need more aquas first.

 They were made entirely from my stash. I plan on setting these aside while I look for more aquas.

 I am all ready to sew my Farm Girl Vintage blocks into my sampler quilt and will be working on that this week. My blocks are the 6 inch version, but it will still be a large quilt with 48 of them and sashing.

 Last Sunday, I finished three blocks on my Cottage Garden project.

 These three blocks bring my total completed to 9 out of 18, so half way done with the appliqué.

 This is a small quilt with the blocks being 5 inches finished. Once the appliqued blocks are done, I do plan on hand quilting it. I will plug away with this today for Slow Sunday Stitching, see what everyone else is up to here http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

It has been awhile since I posted a Fergie picture. Here she is with Lola. She is 3 months old and in total puppy mode, but getting bigger. Our friend brought over an elk leg that we cut into 3 pieces and Fergie hoards then all on her bed, but they are sharing them and getting along perfectly. 

We only had 5 kids come by trick or treating last night. We do live in a subdivision, but there are not many kids who live in it and everyone has a lot between 1.5 and 3 acres which means the houses are spread out. Not worth the effort I guess! I plan on making use of the extra hour today with lots of sewing and football. Have a great week!