Happy New Year!

To all friends near and far... Happy New Year!

In the nick of time!

I have a big finish for 2013.  Only 2 years in the making.  Maybe I should have held off and blogged about it on the 2nd anniversary of the first block.  I made the first block early January 2012 and here it is... December 30, 2013 and I can say it is finished and ready to be quilted... when I get backing for it.

SWOON!  FINISHED!!!  WOOOHOOOOOO!

Happy to have this one finally finished.  Sad that it took me so long since all I had left to do was to sash the 3rd row and sew the three rows together.  I made some little pinwheels for cornerstones in the sashing for fun.  I used a lot of red in this quilt.  I should have taken a better look at the blocks as I was making them. Another gray one would have been nice.  Eh.  It's done.  I'm happy.  Moving on.

I made a travel pillowcase for one of my BFF's daughters.  She lost her pillow and case that I made her a couple of years ago.  Requested another pillowcase for the replacement travel pillow.

Last for right now, some looming fun.  A warm scarf and a little hat for my God-son.  This loom knitting is super fun and addicting!  Christmas night, I was home alone.  Husband working and Punk went to my Mom's for a few days.  I sat in the recliner for 5 hours, just looming away.  I had to force myself to turn the TV off at 11pm and go to bed.  I kept telling myself "just one more row".  This scarf only took me a couple of hours over a 2 day period.  What I was working on Christmas night is just a fun project.  Using up some yarn.

The little hat is more of an aqua and celery color combo.  I couldn't get them to come through correctly in any picture I took.

 OH!  The memory quilt for my Grandmother.  I gave it to her last week on Sunday.  Unfinished but that's okay.  I will grab it from her in the next couple of weeks to put the binding on.  She cried after REALLY seeing it and figured out what it was.  She thought it was just a quilt.  The pictures in the blocks kind of got by her at first.  Once she really looked at it and saw pictures of my Grandfather, her children, her grand-children and great grand-children... waterworks.  It was a big, big hit.  Even my Dad shed a tear.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

I KNIT a hat!

I sure did!  I knit an honest to goodness HAT!  In less than 24 hours to boot.  Oh I am so tickled with my results.

I have been wanting to learn how to knit for years.  I tried about 13 years ago.  I had a co-worker who knit and she was willing to give me a starter lesson.  I started a scarf and never finished it.  I just can't get my left hand to do what I need with the needles so I walked away from it all.

Last week, inspiration hit me and I did some reading and digging online and found a solution for myself. LOOM KNITTING!  I can handle this!

I bought myself a round loom and some bulky yarn.  Armed with a youtube video, I went to town.

A hat!  A hat with a fancy brim!  No fancy stitches but I just love it.

This one was intended for my husband but it's a tad too short for his ears so I need to make him another.  He also requested that I make 2 more for his parents.  Amelia wants a red one.  I'll be hitting Michaels this Saturday to stock up on some more yarn and maybe a few more looms.

Next on my list is learning some different stitches.  My SIL would like a pair of knit boot toppers.  I found a great tutorial for them but they start off with a chain stitch and I don't know how to do that at this moment.  I can see a plethora of knitted items for Christmas next year.  Hats, scarfs... you name it, I'm going to give it a try.

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Keeping Busy

I resolve in 2014 to be a better blogger.  Summer hit and my blogging took a hit and I've been struggling to keep up with it since.

I have been busy in the sewing room though.  Working as quick as I can to get Christmas gifts done and I can proudly say, I finished last weekend.  Phew!  However, my grandmother's quilt... it is quilted and looks awesome but I will be gifting it minus the binding.  I haven't had time to sit down and get the binding sewn on and then do the hand-work. I feel like a dope giving an incomplete gift but what can I say?  Work full time, daughter busy in school stuff and just life happens.  I'm okay with my decision.  I know she will love it regardless.  I'll let you know how she reacts to receiving the gift.

Okay.  What I've been working on:

Teacher gifts.  I made them both a pillow that I spotted in the Winter edition of Quilts and More magazine.

Cute?  I think so.  Need to make one for myself.  Well, I DID make one for myself and I used all the Christmas scraps I have.  Looks like a hot mess.  LOL.  So I'm not finishing it.  I will make one for myself out of Aspen Frost as I did for the teachers.

I made some soft and cuddly infinity scarfs and lip balm holders for my cousins, SIL and a friend of mine. All ideas found on Pinterest, of course.

My model:

I think they will enjoy their gifts this year.

The holidays aren't complete without some sewing for myself.  I started this tote back in November and finished it so that I show it off use it over Christmas.

The Twister Tote.  It's a nice size tote and would work well as a beach bag this coming Summer.

I had to add a band of the black daisies to the lining.  I was short about an inch.  I was so mad and was ready to scrap it all until that idea popped into my head.  Why I was short, I have no idea as you can see, the lining is very 'blousy'.  I'm not sure what happened there but I'm not going to stress over it.  It's just a tote for my use. It's all good in my book.  The interfacing of the bag is that Soft and Stable foam.  Oh it is awesome.  Expensive but awesome.  If the wallet let's me, I will be using it more in other totes in the future.

That's it from my house.  Hope everyone is ready for the Jolly Man.  5 more days, you know!!

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Forgot I made this

Trolling the web one day in early November, I found this tutorial for a table runner using a charm pack - zig zag charm pack.  Looked interesting and something quick to make up.  I've had this one winter/Christmas charm pack with some yardage forever.  Like 5+ years.  I still have a jelly roll to use.  I may make a jelly roll race quilt with it.

Anyway, I've had this charm pack and thought it was about time I put it to good use.

ignore the wrinkles.  I had it rolled up and stashed in my sewing room.  

Cute, huh?  I liked that I had to cut nothing.  Just lay out the charms as stated in the tutorial and sew rows.  It's even a layer and turn inside out kind of runner.  The tutorial says to top-stitch and then do a little quilting.  I've done the top-stitching.  Haven't gotten to the quilting yet.  I probably won't until after the holidays.  I do plan on making another one.  I have several charm packs that I really don't have any use for but a zig zag runner?  I can dig it.

Here's a couple more shots

My Longaberger snowman looks at home on it.  

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

The Innocence of a Child

The holidays are upon us.  Just in case you didn't know that.  First, Happy belated Thanksgiving to all in the US.  Hope you all had a wonderful holiday dinner and ate lots and lots of turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy.  Did anyone brave the crowds for Black Friday shopping?  Not me.  I went out over the weekend but stayed away from the stores on Friday.  There was nothing I really needed to shop for to bother getting up super early for.

I wanted to show you this.  Amelia finally finalized her letter to Santa and gave it to our Elf "Sneaky" to personally deliver to Santa.

She was excited to see her letter to Santa was gone the next morning and she said to me "Mama.  Sneaky must like you too because he saved you a trip to the post office!".  I love that she still believes.  I know it's coming to an end soon.  I will keep the magic going for as long as I can.

I have been doing some easy sewing but my mojo is disappearing and it really can't.  I have several more gifts to make.  I just haven't had the time.  My long Thanksgiving weekend was spent away from my house.  We had something to do or some place to be all weekend.  It was a bummer because I need to get myself in gear!  I'm just going to have to take time out at night and get it done.  My husband will have to hold down the fort in the evenings.

Here's what I've finished so far.  One was a birthday gift for my Godson for his 1st birthday - on Black Friday.  We partied it up.

I made him a warm and cozy fleece blanket.  I owe him a coordinating pillowcase but I haven't made it to the fabric store to see what I have find for brown doggie fabric.  I HOPE to get there before Christmas so that I can get that off my list.

Here's one with my helper

For my God-daughter for Christmas, I made her another fleece blanket and pillowcase.  Last year at the last minute her mother (my cousin) shared her Christmas wish list with me.  At the very top of the list at #1 was "a blanket from Jen".  I made her and her siblings each a blanket about 4 years ago and she wanted another one.  If I had known about a week sooner I would have made her one last year.

I made sure to make her one this year.  Now, she'll be 9 in January but isn't a girly-girl.  Doesn't like a lot of attention.  She loves to create and craft stores.  Office supplies is another big one with her.  Finding fleece that isn't all bright and "Look at me!" is difficult.  Until I found this...

Cute but not too girly-girly Zombie fleece.  I think I nailed it.  I backed it in a dark gray.  The next challenge was finding fabric for a pillowcase.  I was going to go with a black/white/gray theme but took a shot on Etsy.  And I found this:

Zombie Apocalypse by Riley Blake.  It's not as "cute" as the fleece but really?  Totally meant to be.  The cuff of the pillowcase is zombie eyeballs.  Awesome.

I think I will have a happy God-daughter at Christmas.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Who? Who?

A few weeks ago, my cousin contacted me about making her granddaughter a quilt for Christmas.  We chatted some and I thought it would be a simple task. The more we chatted, the more the project evolved and I felt I wouldn't have enough time to complete it for Christmas.

My cousin's daughter likes owls and she wanted me to make an owl quilt for her granddaughter.  I've had a pattern pinned to one of my Pinterest boards for a while but never had a reason to order and make it - now I do.  I sent her the link to the pattern and she loved it.  I made one owl and turned it into a throw pillow.  The quilt will come early next year when I have more time.  

It is adorable, if I do say so myself.   :)

She didn't want super bright so I went with a gray slate colored solid; the pillow is backed in the same.  Other than purchasing the solid and the pillow form, everything is out of my stash.  I machine appliqued the whole thing, backed the block with some batting and backing so that the threads were covered.  I did a quilted outline around the owl with dark gray thread.  Could have done a bit better job with that idea but with the dark thread and dark background, you can't really see it.  

Once I send it off to Florida, I will make sure this is what she wants for a quilt and get started.  If not, there is super, super cute owl fabric at my LQS that I can get and make a simple quilt with that.  I'm sure she will love the owl though so I should probably start digging in my stash for some color combinations. 

I've been working on another pillow too.  Almost done with it.  It's my "test" pillow.  I plan on making a few for gifts so I wanted to see how it would work out for time and such.  I'll show you soon!

Enjoy your day!

Jen  :)

Quilted Finishes

I received some happy mail in the last week or so.

Snow Sparkle.  I've never showed you this quilt before.  2 years ago, I took a class to make this quilt with a friend of mine.  The quilt shop kitted up the fabric for the class and I went with it.  I don't like batiks at all.  They don't float my boat.  I made the center of the quilt and held off putting the borders on because again, the quilt just didn't do it for me.

When I brought my finish home, both my mother in law and father in law raved about it.  They both loved it.  For my FIL to praise it, he must have really liked it.  I packed it away and forgot about it.  It's been in the back of my mind to get it finished and gift it to them for Christmas.  So I did just that.  I put on the final borders and sent it off to be quilted.

Now I want to keep it for myself!  Jill quilted it in the Glace panto with snowflakes and it is gorgeous!  I'm not going to keep it.  I am going to gift it this Christmas.  Eventually, someday, it will come home to me.

I'm working on hand sewing the binding on but it's slow going.  Being on the computer all day and then trying to work a needle and thread, my hands hurt.  I made pretty good progress with it though.  It will be done for Christmas.

Full House is next.  Mary announced a quilting special on her blog a few weeks ago and I think it was a big hit.  I sent off my Reunion "Full House" Schnibbles and Mary's turn around was super quick!

Here it is hanging in its future home in my dining room when I get the binding on.  This one I'm going to try to machine on 100%.  Just to give my hands a break.  This weekend hopefully.  Mary quilted sweet daisies on it.  I love it.

Thank you ladies!  You did a wonderful job!  More quilting coming your way after the holidays.  I need to build up my quilting fund again.  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Labor of Love and Memories

It's done!  It's done!  It is packed up and waiting to go to the post office.

It's big.  Way big.  I went a little crazy with the pictures.  72 blocks.  3 months to complete.  I am thrilled it is finished on time and it's off my project list.

I had fun picking pictures.  Especially those with my Grandfather.  He passed away 35 years ago.  I remember him a little.  Wish my memories of him were stronger.  I can't wait to get it back all quilted and give it to my Grandmother for Christmas.  I showed it off over the last week and everybody who saw it just loved it.  Some people asked "You MADE that?!".  I was proud to say "Yes I did!".

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

The First Four Rows

Yesterday afternoon, Amelia helped me and we laid out the memory quilt blocks for my Grandmother and figured out where the holes were in the row patterns.  I was short a total of 5 blocks and had to unsew a few and re-configure them.  Glad I took the time to lay it all out instead of going with my system of keeping track.  I would have been way off.  I was keeping track of the 4 block styles along the way and it was working but when I got to 68 blocks, I figured it was a good time to pause and see what was going on in the quilt.

We fussed a little bit with moving blocks around but to be frank, I didn't really.  I knew I could drive myself batty moving the pictures around.  It is what it is.  I've been checking the rows before I've sewn them and did a little re-shuffle that way.  Good thing too.  I had a row that had one picture of my Grandmother and the rest were of my Dad.  LOL.

So far this weekend, I got 4 rows totally pieced together, rows 5 and 6 are pieced but are separate from the group and row 7 is waiting to be pieced into a row.  I just got tired and had to quit.  I will get the last 3 rows pieces the next 3 nights and by the weekend, fingers crossed!  My goal is to have this all pieced and to Jill for some quilting NO LATER than the first week of November.  I still have to get the binding on this thing once it gets back to me.  I am so slow with binding work.  

Here are the first four rows

Some close-ups in sections

Middle

Top

Bottom

I really love how this is coming out.  And if I didn't know I would get this quilt back eventually (hopefully years and years from now), I would want to keep it for myself!

My little helper

Next time I show you, this will be one massive quilt, ready for the quilter's.  This is my biggest one so far in my sewing career.  72 memory blocks.  I think I got a bit carried away with picking pictures, don't you think?  I don't care.  I couldn't decide and just kept going.  It is going to be awesome regardless!  I don't think I will take on another one of these quilts for a while though.  My bank account needs to recover.  That printable fabric paper is expensive!  Thank goodness for Joann coupons!

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)