Spelling Bee Sew Along December Update & DREAMi

Are you participating in the Spelling Bee Sew Along? I have been, but got a little behind because of my Xmas sewing. I got all caught up again with these precious picture blocks--the cake and the camera. I plan on making the quilt pictured on Spelling Bee by Lori Holt. The blocks are all in the six inch range. More information is located on my right hand side bar.

Aside from purchasing more of the background fabric (I already had a yard), I think I will be able to make this quilt from my stash. 

We have been sewing two blocks a week.

I found some perfect little bits of pink in my pink scrap drawer to make the letter I blocks.

This morning, the last Spelling Bee Blocks of December were posted---the letters J and the Mason jar. They went together very quickly!

I have the J theme going this week with the piecing of the backing for my Denver Broncos Quilt--I tweaked the jersey design in the book to make an Elway and a Manning jersey. Between them, I embroidered my label.

I got my Denver Broncos Quilt pinned and quilted! I got about a third of the binding done too--I will spend the last regular season Sunday getting the binding done and squeezing in one last finish of 2017.

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/12/slow-sunday-stitching-new-years-eve.html

 Since I had this last week off, I wanted to make a little treat for myself. I made a 24 inch Swoon block for a spot in my sewing room. You can see my go to cross hatch quilting in this picture and I bound it last night.

It goes perfectly above my new glass door cabinet in my sewing room. It is nice to end 2017 with a little goodie for me. This was a Drop Everything And Make It for sure. Check out other DREAMi projects here:

http://www.mmmquilts.com/2017/12/dreami-linky-11.html

I know most of the country is experiencing frigid temperatures, but it is lovely here. I just walked out in my pajamas to take a picture of my Swoon Quilt and it is lovely in the sunshine. Stay warm and cozy wherever you are and have a safe New Year!

Xmas Patchwork Swoon

Merry Xmas everyone! I hope you have had a lovely time with your families. My daughter arrived home from college on Thursday and it was my last day of work. Of course, it was the only day we have had snow--an adventure with school children and traveling.

Unfortunately, I have not done much quilting the last couple of weeks. I did manage to get the binding done on my Xmas Patchwork Swoon Quilt. I got it back from the machine quilter on Monday and spent all the evenings this week stitching it down.

I had the quilter use a snowflake motif. Even though the fabric is Xmas themed, it is not overwhelmingly Xmas and I think the snowflake quilting makes it more winter themed which means it will be used in my house all winter--plus the milky backing makes it heavy and soft.

I got a couple of quilty gifts for Xmas including these dachshund pillow shams. My sister @mommytoirishtwins made them for me. They remind me of my dachshund, Beau, and with the amazing Bonnie & Camille sweaters they are precious.

I made these Pocket Pillows for most of my family, but of course I forgot to take pictures of all of them. This one was for my niece, Bailey, in aqua and red to match her bedroom.

I think the backs of these are as cute as the pocket front. These with a gift card were perfect for everyone. I made one that was Star Wars theme, another one was Game of Thrones, and a couple with wine bottles, corks, and wineglasses. The pattern is a free tutorial, you can find here:

https://www.polkadotchair.com/2015/05/pocket-pillow-sewing-pattern.html/#_a5y_p=3808734

Now that Xmas is over and my sewing room is no longer the wrapping room, I hope to get in there and make a few goodies for myself!

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Supernova Finish

This is my version of Supernova! It was a baby gift for one of the secretaries at one of my schools. She does not know the baby's gender, but she is decorating the nursery in gray and mint. She loved it so much she cried! Unfortunately, my finished picture is darker than it really was. I quilted it with straight lines radiating out from the dark star shape.

Here is a better picture for light. This is a free pattern you can find here:

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2017/02/stunning-stars-4-supernova.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+ConfessionsOfAFabricAddict+(Confessions+of+a+Fabric+Addict)

I made mine slightly smaller with the half square triangle blocks finishing four inches.

I have finished my football quilt top, so now I am working on the backing. I really wanted to put minky for the backing, but my hubby wanted Broncos fabric. I decided to make a Manning jersey

and an Elway jersey for the backing label. I sewed the two jerseys together and I am stitching the label information between them. This is my Slow Sunday Stitching today. https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/12/slow-sunday-stitching_10.html

I will use orange Bronco fabric above the jerseys and blue Bronco fabric below.

I sent my daughter a finals care package this week. Care packages are a great way to spoil your kids when they are away from home. I like to pick a theme and decorate the inside of the box with five pieces of scrapbooking paper. You have to trim them down slightly to fit into the large Priority Mail Box. Since the theme of this one was studying and taking finals, I put in some studying goodies like: highlighters, mechanical pencils, Post-It tabs, cozy socks with wise owls, nuts, Nutella snacks, Poppa's Corn (a local gourmet caramel corn), homemade blondies, Skittles, K-cups, Starbucks Espresso shots, relax and calm face masks, dried fruit, an instant noodle bowl, etc. It is fun for me to locate goodies and put it together. I already have my theme selected for the next one and have already started gathering goodies. I usually send a package every other month.

I bought myself an early Christmas present. This glass door cabinet for quilt storage. It is from Target and I had been pining for it for awhile and when all Target's furniture was 30% off a couple of weeks ago--I had to order it! Between the sale and my Target card it was $125 delivered to my door. My handy hubby put it together. I am quite pleased with the cabinet and it comes in a bunch of colors. You can check it out here:

https://www.target.com/p/windham-library-cabinet-threshold-153/-/A-50860906#lnk=sametab&preselect=16507998

But wait to buy it on sale!

I want to make a small quilt to hang above it with some of my Bonnie and Camille fabric. Hopefully, I will tackle that over winter vacation...

I have been keeping up with the Spelling Bee Sew Along and I am making some letters for a little holiday decorating, but I will save those for another post.

Have a great week!