Frogs and ducks and little boys

Well, I'm still sewing...

My eldest daughter wanted me to make the boys aprons of their own. I chose some fabrics and photographed them and this one is the one that Luc chose.

This frog fabric has been on my shelves since my children were little. Laila chose this for Patric.

Ducks and frogs. I hope they fit.

I'm almost finished the front of Patric's sweater. Looks like it'll be done for the second Christmas when the little boys will be here.

There's still more sewing on my list but this is the end for 2014.

I hope you all enjoy good health and happiness in 2015.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Just a little sewing

I had some Thomas the Tank Engine fabric and since little Luc enjoys watching Thomas, I thought I would make him something. He has quite a few little train cars and loads of track. The fabric didn't lend itself to any sort of garment sewing so I figured I would make pillow cases. 

We will be having a second Christmas celebration in January when Luc, his brother Patric, his mother and Auntie Ayla will be here. It appears as if Santa isn't finished yet.

I'm linking up to the last Needle and Thread Network of the year.

Decorating and collections

Lots of red and white.

 Ziggy Santa and a Garfield angel.

Coca Cola drinking polar bear.

Three Santas all together.

Snowmen, a penguin and a couple of trees.

Santa with his list, my birdie Santa and a trio of polar bears.

The Christmas Star is up in the hallway. I wonder how many people will notice?

I'll just show you a few ornaments. This one was made by my eldest daughter Laila.

I wish she would make more but she's busy with two little boys who take up a lot of her time.

 Many, many years ago, a member of our guild taught us how to make these folded ribbon Christmas pine cones.

I don't remember how to make them anymore (I'm sure there are you tube videos out there) but I do remember that they take a lot of little sequin pins.

Before grandchildren came along, I would get my children and their significant others an ornament each year.

Both of these obviously belong to Eric. One day he can take them and put them on his own tree.

I have several cross stitch ornaments I should be making. 

Maybe I'll start making one for each of the grandchildren...

I leave you with this collection. I honestly didn't know I had this many stuffies that could hang (I know that the first one isn't but the rest are non-breakable.) I thought that the little ones would get a kick out of these. If they get pulled off, that's fine.

Cookies are made. They were so easy and if I run out, I can always make another batch.

Today is cleaning day.

Off the frame

Well, I knuckled down and quilted. Each square is 10 inches so the finished size is a lap quilt - 50 inches square.

As you can see, it is off the frame. I am not going to trim it or bind it until sometime in the new year.

Now, I have to go and bake some cookies, bring some books-on-tape back to the library, sew a few things, clean up a couple of bedrooms, decorate the tree, etc. I have a winter wall hanging kit cut out and the pieces are going to be fused so hopefully, it will be done quickly. I'll show it off once it's done.

Have a great week and don't stress about the holidays. You can only do what you can do.

Good news

A week ago we skyped with Ayla, who lives in Ireland at the moment, and lo and behold we got the news that she became engaged.

No date has been set yet but the whole family is excited and happy for the young couple.

A little progress

Only two more rows of blocks left to quilt.

All the pieces and rows have been sewn together and it is now a quilt top. I suppose I could put a border or two on it and it could be used for a singe bed but I have not yet decided if that's what I want to do. It's hanging on a hanger in a closet at the moment, waiting to be quilted. I'm glad I decided to make it. The fabrics are totally from my stash using scraps and some fat quarters.

Just quilting

I need to move on this since it's in the dining room and that's where the tree is supposed to go.

There have been a few turns of the quilt taken.

For some reason, I decided to quilt in brown thread. Probably because I have two spools of brown quilting thread and when else would I use it? The black squares are quilted in black.

I'm linking up with Kathy's slow Sunday stitching...

Slow progress

There's been a couple of turns taken from both ends of the frame. I'm just randomly quilting straight lines across the quilt and there are a few lines perpendicular. If I keep up with a bit of quilting here and there, it will be finished before I know it.

I also managed to finish the sleeves of Patric's sweater. All that's left is the front and then the dreaded sewing of all the pieces together.

I've got to make a few stockings for some little people and I have a wall hanging that I want to get done too. It's been hanging around long enough. I'll show it to you once I get it all together.

I'm linking up with Esther's blog and also with The Needle and Thread Network. Check out the links for some wonderful inspiration.

Just a little Champagne update

It's on the frame and a couple of turns have been taken from both sides now. We didn't do anything fancy in the borders. Just stitched in the ditch on either side of the green strip. We decided to quilt the log cabin blocks as squares. It's easy if you start with the centre square. Ann kept getting mixed up and would quilt through some of the lines. Marg and I marked the squares with pins and she still didn't get it. So now they have a system whereby Marg would show Ann which lines to quilt and after Ann finished them, Marg would show her the next lines. It's slow going but we are in no hurry.

Quilting again

I have several quilts that need to be quilted and this one was just small enough that I figured I could quilt it and get it off the frame before Christmas.

First of all, I had to get a backing for it. This piece of fabric just about fit exactly. I'm not concerned as to whether or not the backing and the front match or are in some way co-ordinated. This is the reverse of the fabric.

I had to do a bit of fudging because there were two circular parts taken off this side so I had to cut and piece a strip. 

Now, the quilt's all stretched out and pinned in place ready to be quilted. I am thinking of putting an X through all the black squares. Hopefully, I can devote time to getting this done. I have several books on tape to keep me company. Stay tuned...

Linking up to The Needle and Thread Network and to Esther's W.I.P.

Just continuing on...

I'm still trying to get one quilt put together.

 It's slow going but I don't want to have to rip out any seams.

I have also been knitting. I decided I would knit the sleeves to Patric's sweater at one time. The back is done so once these are complete, I only have to knit the front. Hopefully, it won't take me too long. I chose this yarn because it has 25% wool and is machine washable. There were several nice variegated yarns but this is the one I thought would look like nice for a little boy.

My babies...

thirty years ago.

Happy Birthday Maili.

Finishing bit by bit

I have quite a few projects in plastic boxes and I really want to start new things. Since I am a hand quilter, it takes time but then so does sewing blocks together. I figure if I can just work on things a bit at a time, something will get finished eventually.

I'm going to try to get this quilt put together. Right now it's just in pieces and it's been in pieces for a while. If I get the top all done, at least it can be put in the waiting line of things to be hand quilted.

This was a freebie pattern from the Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan quilt store 'The Quilt Patch" called Auntie Alice. It's not big - about a lap quilt size. The pattern called for red but since I am not a red person, I dove into my navy blue scraps. The pattern also didn't dictate that I put darker squares into the 16-patch to make it directional. I just liked that idea. It's nice to be able to take a pattern and make it your own.

 I managed to sew up another block on Quilt Doodle Doodle's BOM. I think I have two more rows to complete and then the whole top will be done. I fell behind because I went to BC for a while and I am thinking of revising one of the rows.

Swaps

I don't usually go in for swaps but I have taken part in the last two mug rug swaps that were offered by the Quilting Gallery. They have a new one beginning soon and sign-ups are now until the 26th of November. Go here to sign up if you are so inclined. It's called Happy New Year Mug Rug Swap. The one that just ended was called Neighbours and Friends Mug Rug Swap.

We were to make two mug rugs each. 

The patterns were given to us (it came with the sign-up fee.) We could do what we wanted with regards to fabrics and I decided that they just needed more embroidery.

These two went to my swap partner Janelle, in Australia.

And just this week I received my mug rugs from Janelle.

There was a pattern for a butterfly but neither Janelle nor I used it. She embroidered hers and I appliqued mine - one I cut out of fabric.

Aren't they adorable together? Hand quilted too.

Janelle also sent this Christmas ornament. It has a couple of extra charms on it and will be going on my twig Christmas tree that I put up in my kitchen every year.

Enjoy - Part 2

Sorry I didn't get a chance to upload these yesterday. Here's the rest of the quilts. Sit back, grab a tea or a coffee and ENJOY!!

I love nine-patch quilts. They are so versatile and yet so very simple.

Batiks in blue.

Judy and I studied this quilt. She was the one who noticed that it was done a block at a time. It used to be called apartment style quilting because you sew up the square, layer it, quilt it and once all the squares were done, you put it together with sashing strips. Now it's called 'quilt as you go.' It's a lot of work and my friend Marg made one like it years ago and said she would never do another one like it. Years ago (25+ years) some people used wide sashing with batting in it and where four of the blocks came together, there was a poof. The poof should have been quilted down but wasn't and maybe on a bed it looked good but hanging the quilt made the construction stand out and looked a bit faulty.

I went back to take a better shot of this. Using thin sashing strips helped to make this quilt look seamless.

I loved the pattern. It looked like a variation on Jacob's ladder.

Oh look. It's Patric's Teddies. I borrowed the quilt back from Patric in September when I was in BC. I still love this quilt and it was a lot of fun to make.

 I'm sorry I didn't manage to photograph the cards on these. As you can see from the heads, it was a busy section.

 Sorry, I didn't get a photo of the blurb for this one either.

Although you can't really tell, these flowers are 3D.

Since my battery kept dying, I thought I would show part of two blocks so you could see the 3D construction.

There are some quilts we would never do and this one is one that Judy said she would never make. Me? I would never make an English paper-pieced hexagon quilt.

This is a stunning quilt.

A bit of the detail that's in this quilt.

Made by a man and it was machine appliqued - using the hem stitch. It was hard to find those stitches.

Yes, it was for sale.

I love Hawaiian quilts and I love batiks and solids.

I liked this one up close more than in this overall shot. Maybe it was all the fabrics that I liked.

It's nice to find a pattern specifically for some fabrics in one's stash.

I do like the 3D effect that one can get with just fabrics.

Wow, quilted in the ditch. That's a lot of quilting.

Oh look, another one of my quilts.

Simple but effective. Just two blocks repeated.

It's always nice to see hand quilted quilts.

I really like this pattern and it's a great one to use up all those random squares one collected years ago from swaps and from visiting quilt shows (some quilt shows used to give attendees a 'quilter's candy'.)

Judy was impressed that these were made of wool.

Too bad the quilt was so high up. It would have been nice to see the details.

A two-colour quilt.

 Looks like she persevered and it paid off. Hand quilted too.

A very modern feel to this. A great way to show off those fabrics you are finding hard to cut into.

Well, that's it for now.

I hope you liked the show.