Finish It Up Friday, something for Me!

I love to read.  And I love to sew!  I also love to make gifts for others. Most of my sewing, quilting, crocheting, etc has gone to people I love and care for. 

I made this bag and gave it to our local library for their annual fund raiser. I haven't received official notice, but I think it brought a nice bid.  When I cut it out, I cut two of everything, with the intention of making myself a bag. 

This week I finished up the embroidered titles on the book spines. There are two blank, the fabric was too busy to embroider. I have a plan to applique two book titles from 2018 that I read and love. This one stays with me. 

The cutting table in my sewing room has become a gift wrapping table. I am nearly finished, just a small addition to 2 gifts for my Grandson-in-law and my other granddaughter's  boyfriend. I sent gift cards to my 3rd granddaughter and her family in Phoenix. I made felt containers. I just realized I did not take a picture. I was pretty focused in getting them done and in the mail. Here is a link to a  site I found 

on Pinterest.  I made 2 snowmen and 2 Elves. Thanks Jessica at Cutesy Crafts.  https://cutesycrafts.com/2015/12/felt-christmas-gift-card-holders.html


I am working on a Tumbler leaders and enders project. I need to cut more variety. I thought I was very careful, but when I put the rows together, some like fabric was near the same fabric.  More scraps are being cut! 

See the black with white dots fabric?  I guess in looking at it far away, it isn't very noticeable.  I am noticing some intersections don't match! "sigh"....it is what it is. Will probably be a quilt for in the car or maybe a picnic quilt. 


So, a finish to show, a finish to read about (giggle) and a continuing project. I am linking up to Finish It Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.


Stay Busy and Stay Happy 

A Finish and a Family Additon

         I have been thinking about making a baby quilt since I found out my nephew and his wife were pregnant. It was such good news for this young couple. Earlier in the year, my nephew's wife lost her mother to pancreatic cancer. 

I waited until the parents-to-be found out the sex of their new little addition. As soon as they announced it was a boy, my brain thought " bluish" quilt. Then, when I checked with the new mom-to-be regarding nursery colors, I was smitten. She said blue, gray and mustard. She sent me this picture.

The new dad-to-be is a research biologist at a major university. So when I found the pattern Arithmetic by Jeni Baker, I knew I had a winner.  I first showed it on this post!

I cut the squares in preparation to take to retreat. I was able to lay out part of the plus signs on a small design wall at that retreat. 

It looks kind of rough here, but I got it all webbed and ready to finish. 

I looked for a different backing than I had purchased. A minky or a flannel or something cuddly. However, we live in a small town with limited choices. I decided ,after all, to stay with this fabric. It's the Savannah collection from Moda. It says Zest for Your Nest..which fits for a baby quilt. I think it looks like algebraic x's. Good for the back of an Arithmetic quilt, I think. 

And then my local long arm quilter and friend had back surgery. I wasn't worried, baby was expected January 4th. Next year.  Mid November,  I gave her the quilt top and the backing. We decided on a quilting design. I cut , pieced and pressed the binding. No hurry, we've got until the first of the year. Lynn and her husband traveled to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving with their daughter and family. I still said, " Don't worry, we've got time!"

She returned it to me on December 7th. I had just had word from my brother that baby was born on the 5th, 4 weeks early. Mom and baby doing well, but still a preemie.  My brother and his wife were there, house sitting for a cousin, so they could be close for Christmas, the new dad's birthday on the 29th and the babies arrival in January. Well, surprise! Surprise!!               

So I got busy. 

 Stitched the binding down while watching the last 2 episodes of Longmire. 

 Took a few pictures!

Here is up close of the quilting. I do not know the name of this pattern. I will have to check with my friend. I washed  and dried it too. It is all crinkly and cuddly now. 

And sent it off to the family on Monday. They should have received it by Thursday the USPS said. 

I will not share pictures of the little guy, that is up to his parents and grandparents. But he is tiny,  5 lbs 15 oz. He is home now and doing well. Finally out from under the bilirubin light and being able to be cuddled more. We are blessed to have this new addition to our family. 

So that is my finish for this week. I am linking up with 

Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday and 

Busy Hands Quilts, Finished or Not Friday. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Parties and a Merry and Bright PIllow

I've had a party kind of week since last Friday. One quilting group I belong to had their Christmas party and gift exchange on Sunday. Because we have a large group, a meeting place is a problem. So we make our regular sewing place work, even for a party. We meet in the assembly room of a local retirement center. It is big enough for most of us to bring machines and there are always residents popping in to "see what you're doing". 

This year the committee had a great party planned. The tables were set when we got there. We "carry-in",  so the food was great and in abundance. 

Each place setting had 2 coordinating plates and napkins. The plasticware holders were "in the hoop" embroidered snowmen. Complete with scarf and black sparkly top hat. A Snowman Hot Chocolate kit was at each place too Also a calendar for the year and a Hallmark Date Book, donated by our local Hallmark store.  We have an on-going challenge to spend " at least 10 minutes" per day in our sewing room. Those of us who are retired have no problem with that, but many of our members are still 'working girls'. 

The tree was decorated by the facility and we placed all our exchange gifts around it. As you can see the food tables were heavy laden and "yummy" by the way. 

There was tons of visiting before the festivities began. 

Wednesday, another group I sew with had there regular sew-along and we shared food galore again, at this same facility. Primrose Retirement Community is really good to us quilters. I didn't get pictures of that celebration, but a few members were generous with gifts for each of us. 

This cute little square of folded scrapbook paper was made by my friend Diana. 

The folded square opens up to become the star seen above. There were also a set of holiday coasters with a handmade balsa wood feather and a bag of holiday chocolates!


In between all the partying, I managed to start and finish this cute little cushion cover. The pattern was offered on Amy Sinibaldi's blog - nanaCompany.  It's called the Merry and Bright Cushion cover and the downloadable pattern is free on her site. Just scroll way down on the left to find her tutorials. Or click the link above. 

Amy did hers in softer colors with a crocheted trimming. I used what I had in my stash and added red rick rack. I love it. The back is an envelope closure with light gold fabric with Christmas phrases on it. One of my favorite pieces in my stash. 

Can you read them?    Better Not Cry,   For Goodness Sake,  Santa's Coming and some others. 

So that is my finish for this week. The decorating of our house is as good as it gets. No real tree, but lots of quilts, wall hangings, table toppers and such. 

I'm linking up with Finish It Up Friday and Finished Or Not Friday. 

Hope everyone is having a great week and getting in the Christmas spirit!

And for friends in other countries or of other faiths, Happy Holidays to you. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Starting to think about Christmas

It's been busy this week. Company coming, dinner(s) planned, appointments met.

Both of our adult kids are here for the holiday. SPECIAL!  Indeed.  We have a daughter and a son. Both are single this year, but finally happy. So they came to spend the Thanksgiving holiday.  They will be going home today. Daughter back to Denver, son with her and then to catch a flight to Phoenix on Monday.  Our youngest granddaughter and her special guy drove up from Fort Collins on Wednesday night. They will be here until Sunday. We had 11 at dinner including our two great grandchildren and daughter ex husband ( our granddaughters' dad) for dinner. It went really well and we are still "FULL"

I have been working on some Christmas themed items.  UFO's included. Some to gift and some to keep.

This one was finished and has now been gifted to our youngest granddaughter. She is 24 and has her own place. She decorates with purple and green and pink. She loved it.

This is the super big Mondo bag and has been gifted to DD. She is an entrepreneur in healing touch therapy. She carries lot of "stuff".

I put this teal snowman pillow in the bag for her. Her apartment is teal and coral and ivory. This will put a Christmas/winter feel in her living area. 

And for myself this week, I finished up the stitching together of these 4 felt angels. They have been languishing in my UFO tote forever. It was a kit from Creative Circle, the instruction sheet is dated 1988!  All the parts were still there, the only thing I added was a new packet of glue. The original had dried up ( go figure!)

There had to be a slight adjustment to the hair of the angel with the heart garland. I misread the instructions and used a single strand of rust colored yarn instead of the 3 strands. A friend suggested making the "skimpy" strands curly. So I brushed them with diluted school glue and wound them around a coffee stirrer cut into 2 inch pieces. It worked!!! 

On to the next project and good byes to family. I am linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Stay busy and stay happy

A Little Friday Finish

It's been awhile since I have written a post. I have been "lurking" at all your blogs, but nothing has been finished!

I joined the UFO Challenge at APQ last January and was doing pretty well in getting each month's project complete. Then I hit a wall. October's challenge was to finally do something with a jelly roll quilt that I had done at a retreat several years back, 2012 to be exact.  I did not like it when the top was complete, so I put it away until I decided what to do!

I still don't know what to do with it and so October's challenge did not get done.  In this photo, I don't hate it, but in person....I do!

November's challenge was to finish another retreat project. This one was a "teaching project". The facility that our group uses has a stipulation that there must be a teaching element in our agenda. Three of our members planned this project. 

They supplied the 12 solid scraps, each of us brought background and batting. It is paper pieced and the teaching was a different technique using freezer paper. I'm sure most of you know this method. It is easy and the 12x12 project was done pretty quickly. It went home with me and there it sat.  Well , I dug it out of the bin where it had been living and set about to finish it. Wall hanging? Pillow? or something else?  

I settled on small wall hanging. Here is the finished little hanging. 

The multi-colored dotted fabric was just some scraps from my stash. I finished it using a technique I learned doing some small stitchery wall hangings from Sweet Stitches a few years ago. The colored strips that look like binding are just added like 1" borders. Then the batting is cut a little less than the new dimensions. The backing is added in two pieces so that there is a seam in the center. Leave an opening of about 3 inches in the middle of the seam for turning. It is then sewed together using the birthing method. Turn through the opening, poke our the corners, press well. Hand sew the opening closed. Quilt as desired. I have this hanger, the dowel need Mr. Busy's attention, it's a bit long! If I wasn't afraid of his scroll saw, I'd fix it myself!

So this is my little finish. Hopefully there will be more in the future.  I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Busy Hands Quilts. 

Finish It Up Friday October

Three days of retreat projects, good food, friends and fall in the air was a wonderful respite.  Thirteen friends gathered at a small center ( The Ranch at Ucross) in NE Wyoming, where we sewed and talked, shared and giggled. I found this pattern online on  Craftsy from City House Studio  I love to read and so this tote appealed to me. I also found the Literary fabric at a regional quilt store. And heaven knows I have tons of scraps for the letters and the book spines.  I decided to make two. One of me and one to donate to our library for their annual silent auction. They offer homemade items for auction every November, and use the proceeds to purchase more books of quilting, knitting, crochet and needlework. It's great fun to participate. 

 Read side - The fabric looks like library cards. Do you remember those.

2nd side.

 Inside with pocket divided into 3 sections for library cards or keys. The fabric looks like old fashioned library stamps/

 Literary by Heather Givans

This is the base of the tote. I couldn't find a "wood look" fabric like the pattern showed, but I liked the Hashtag fabric in blue. 

I'll link this to Elm Street Quilts Bag It 2017

I also finished assembling 5 more Scrappy Susannah blocks to donate to Kat and Cat Quilt's Covered in Love project.  I am so excited about using my extra fabric for such a cause. If you are interested in participating, check out this site. 

And I webbed the squares for a special baby quilt for an expected great nephew due in January. It's the Arithmetic pattern by Jeni Baker.  I purchased the pattern from Connecting Threads. The colors were picked by the parents. It's way outside of my comfort zone, using solids only.

I have a fabric picked for the backing, but I may switch to minkee or cuddle. I'm unsure. 

It was a fun time and I hope to be able  to share some of the project of the other participants soon. 
Oh, and sometimes, cute little presents show up at your sewing station. This year was awesome. Pincushions, towels, stylus pen, peanuts, first aid kit, a small Best Press, a tiny scissors, and a cute candle in an old fashioned spool. If you are curious, we call ourselves "Loose Threads" 

I am linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.   

Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

A Quilt Show Win and getting ready to retreat!

Two weekends ago, the first weekend of October,  was our local NE Wyoming Quilt Show. I have served on the committee in the past, but not the last several years. The show has grown under the tutelage of  a committee made up of some newer quilters and some younger quilters.  This year there were 352 quilts on display. This show is not juried.  There are ballots available for everyone who attends and ribbons are awarded for People's Choices in several categories. There are lots of pictures on the Show's Facebook page: Northeast Wyoming Quilt Show

One of the way the committee raises funds to put this show on, is to make and raffle off a quilt.  This year they had 2 quilts, a table topper and  4 place mats and a single table topper. Here is a picture of the large quilt. A double nine patch, they said.

Look at all that scrappy goodness!  

I bought 12 raffle tickets the last day of the show. And surprisingly I won the above quilt!  I was so excited.  I'll share a picture of it on our bed as soon as I  get one taken. 

I have plans to attend a quilt retreat  on the 24th through the 26th.. I am cutting fabric for a baby quilt, for an expected great nephew due in January.  I am paper piecing letters for a library tote X2, one for me and one to donate to the silent auction at the CC Library. There are some squares cut for 4 more donation blocks to be sent to Covered in Love. 

Hopefully I will have some finishes for next Friday!

Until then, 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

 Judy

I am linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt  

ps: I am publishing this post, will link up as soon as Finish It Up Friday is posted.