Pincushion Swap, W of B, and Recent Projects

My Pincushion Arrived Today!

The mailcarrier came to the door this morning and I was so excited! My daughter got a book that she ordered which would not fit in the mailbox. But, on the top of the stack of mail was a small package with a foreign stamps and a declaration sticker! It came from Norway!

     

It was my pincushion from my swap partner, Turid. And how cute it is--in my favorite colors!

I had fun making the two pincushions for my swap partners. I blogged about the pincushion I made for the December swap partner HERE. I won't post photos of my January pincushion until it arrives at its destination. You can be sure that I am going to make some more pincushions--it is so fun! Bea organized this swap and you can see the variety of pincushions that have been exchanged through her two swaps HERE.

Women of the Bible Block of the Week

I joined the on-line Women of the Bible BOW study. I had seen a few blogs where quilters had mentioned this study and posted their block photos. I worked through the first week's lesson on Eve. Here is the block I made for Eve. I am very happy with the results. I am trying to use the many scraps I have, so my quilt will be scrappy. 

Recent Projects

One project that I did not blog about yet was the pillows I made for my nieces and nephews for Christmas. My parents (who are no longer with us) had a bedspread or bedcover made with knotted designs. It was not in the best shape, but I cut 18" squares from it and made pillows. I put zippers on them for easy washing and a nice pillow form I bought from JoAnn Fabrics which had a zipper on the cover. I do not have pictures of the 8 pillows I made, but they all were similar to this one. These 20-something relatives were thrilled to have these and I was very happy to pass on something to them that belonged to their grandparents. 

The organizing of my sewing area and storage room is progressing--but slower than I expected. However, I discovered some items I had put away after my dad passed away 5 years ago. In a box were my dad's ties and his Auto Workers Union jacket with its patches and some other patches he had. My goal is to make a pillow for each of my sisters with his ties and a lap quilt for my brother with his Union patches.

Have you ever put something away, only to discover it some years later? Did you complete your project?

Organizing

Snow over the weekend and extremely cold temperatures have kept us in the house for the past few days. It was a good time to begin organizing. Today my husband and I drove to "the big city" for a number of errands---one was to find some type of storage that would be economical as well as practical for my workroom. We looked at many stores but made the final choice at a big home improvement store with these heavy duty plastic shelves. I got 2 and they interlock. 

Our daughter and son-in-law (who happen to be living with us for a short time since they returned from living abroad) have helped in organizing my sewing areas (yes, areas). For a number of years I have had this as one of my resolutions. My daughter told me I am good with the fine details but not so much with the overall process. Well, she was right. I would have organized in a different way, which would have taken much longer. I was nervous having other people help and worried things would get misplaced. I had projects in the works and panicked when I did not see them. They got placed in plastic boxes and I will find them once I sit down and examine each box. 

I will take a few "after" photos. I am very happy I did not take any "before" photos. 

I look forward to getting back to sewing projects once this organization project is done. More project photos SOON!

Sew in the New Year!

Happy New Year!

I look forward to a new year that is more organized and thus, filled with more sewing time. 

I have not made my list of new year resolutions, but I know organizing my sewing area will be at the top. 

Today I am working on the Merry Mayhem Mystery. I have not had time to get the preliminary sewing done, so I am already behind. But I have all day. I will save the directions given each hour and work as I can. I will be posting my progress every so often during the day. Let me know what you are working on, or doing today.

Update on my Mystery Quilt Progress: (3:18 PM EST)

I found the scrap fabrics that fit the dimesions. Pressed. Cut the larger pieces, then the smaller pieces. Knew these were to be sewn into half square triangles. Didn't know how the 2-1/2" squares were to be used until the clues were posted. Glad I waited since my interpretation of the initial instructions would have been a disaster (or a great deal of seam ripping). It was my interpretation. I am a very visual person -- I need directions with illustrations of the steps. But I think now that I have the entire set of steps, this will be a nice quilt. So I will post a photo of what I have done so far: 

The first 2 blocks are sewn. And they are the correct size! I am using an older sewing machine (my mother-in-law's Singer) and the markings are not correct, so I am pleased. 

Stopped to help fix dinner and eat. Decided it was time to stop when this mistake happened:

Fixed it and have 12 blocks done.  

So until tomorrow, the sewing machine will be off and I will do some twilling on the mug rug I am making. Look for photos and progress tomorrow. Thank you for visiting. 

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.