Holiday Greetings and Sewing Project

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We had a heavy, but lovely snow last night. I have yet to go out and take photos. The snow simply adds such a brightness to the somewhat drab winter color, so this was welcome since the sun is shining and the day appears so very promising. 

I wanted to post some photo and the one I chose is a small candle mat I made from a pattern I found on the internet about 4 years ago.

I have yet to locate the tutorial I used, but I did find Dina's blog, Little by Little by Bossymomma, where she made a tree using the same technique. She has a nice tutorial. I want to try this tree for next Christmas. 

A .pdf version of this tutorial is available. If you would like a copy,
please email Dina at dfne@peterjh.wanadoo.co.uk

On New Year's Day, I am going to participate in the 

Merry Mayhem's Wonderful One-Day Mystery!

Check out the link if you are interested in a sewing project on January 1. I did one mystery two years ago and had a very enjoyable time sewing a quilt top that day. 

And again, 

Merry Christmas to all 

and happy quilting in the New Year!

Cozies, Mice, Furoshiki, Zentangles and MORE!

Wow, have I been very busy with a number of projects since my last blog! 

BOWL COZIES
The booth I had the church craft bazaar yielded me a very tiny profit. But, I did get an order for some microwave bowl cozies in a blue and white theme. 

I thought I would try a round cozy. It was a bit more difficult to make and does not work as well as the square cozies. I may go back to the drawing board with this design. 

FUROSHIKI

I hemmed some 40" x 40" fabric pieces to create Japanese-style Furoshuki wrappings to sell at the kitchen store where I work a few days a week. These can be used for a table covering after the gift is opened. I actually wrapped some bottles from wine with the clothes. 

There are YouTube videos showing how to wrap almost anything with the cloth. One I liked is HERE. I liked the book carrier method.

   Here are 3 wrapping methods.

PINCUSHIONS
I joined a pincushion swap that Bea, from Beaquilter.com, organized. I made a few of these mouse pincushions to see how they made up. 

I found the pattern for the mouse pincushion at All About You. I wasn't really sure how large I was suppose to print the pattern. My mouse is setting on 4" square tiles on my countertop. So not too big. The pink one was my 3rd try and I definitely got better as I made each one.

I sent the pink one off to my December partner on Monday and she got it today. I have another one to make which will be sent to a different person in January. I will try a different pattern. 

MUG RUG
I had a new Mug Rug demo on the 1st Saturday in December. I made a wreath with bias tape strips and buttons (to cover the joint from the ends). Seven ladies were there, which was a very good turnout. 

ZENTANGLE and LUMIERE QUILT TECHNIQUE

I took a two-week class at The Arts Place. Sandy Dekker taught the class and it was wonderful. Here is what I got done:

This is the entire piece (18" x 18").

Below are some close-ups of a few areas.

In the first class we did free-motion quilting with a Zentangle look. In the second class we played with Lumiere paints. I will be using this technique again for some type of project!

BARN ADVENT CALENDAR

I came across this wonderful advent calendar craft posted as a link on Persimon Dreams Facebook page. Lynne of Lily's Quilts is putting one barn quilt printable template on her blog each day in December. I have a bit of work cut out for NEXT year's calendar!

EASILY make WEBPAGE a PDF 

I found a link to a very helpful tool today. I visited a website with a tutorial. There was a reference to a site that can turn a webpage into a PDF or print in a nice layout. I had such an easy time using it--much quicker than highlighting my selection and telling the printer what to do. Here is the link: http://www.printfriendly.com/ 

I wish all a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year.

And fun quilting as often as you can.