Sewing Room Tour

A couple weeks ago I spent a delightful Saturday touring about twelve homes all decked out for Christmas. It's organized as a fund raiser for a local service group and has been going on over 30 years from what I understand. A couple of the houses were duds, most were wonderful, but there was one in particular that captured my interest because the homeowner was a quilter - yay! I wish she had been home that day so I could have met her, but sadly she was no where to be found. Her taste and mine are identical and I could just move right into her house without changing a thing. One of my favorite places was her sewing room, so I'm sharing some photos of it here.

                                                                 Her cutting table.

                                           Cute pincushion display in the window sill.

                                                  A shelf full of fun knick knacks.

Her fabric stash was stored in these neatly labeled boxes.

And she had various quilts scattered around the entire house to make it warm and welcoming. My favorite kind of home.

                                         This little needle felted Nativity was so adorable.

Her name was printed on my ticket, so I tried to find her on Facebook with no luck. Guess I would turn into a scary stalker lady if I tried tracking her down any further, so I guess we'll never get to meet each other - sigh...... Hope you enjoyed seeing her sewing space!

Yardsticks & Rice Bags

I have had a 'thing' for collecting old yardsticks for years and years. Whenever I find one for a dollar or two at a thrift store or yard sale, it comes home with me. I store them in a barrel up in my studio and enjoy seeing them there tucked behind a table.

I recently cut up a few of them to make a couple fun projects. One was a tray that I can place on my lap when I'm doing hand sewing in the evenings while watching TV.

I has sides, so none of my supplies can roll off the edges - very handy!

I also made some small square boxes - about 3" x 3". They are far from perfect, but I thought they turned out kind of fun. I pieced small quilt blocks and made them into pincushions that fit snuggly inside the boxes.

I kept one of these for myself, and gifted the others to some quilting friends.

Just a few days after I finished making these, Janet posted about a couple ruler boxes she had purchased at a LQS that are just adorable. (See hers HERE)

And Julie started selling her version of the same type of items - with the name of her business printed on the yardsticks. I especially like the one with the little clothespin on the lid. (See hers HERE)

I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to pictures of wonderful items made (or embellished) with yardsticks that you might enjoy looking at. You can access my board on this LINK.

Earlier this week I stitched up a Christmas gift for my DIL. I made two rice bags that can be warmed in the microwave and used as a heating pad for cold feet, an aching back, or cramps. It can also be placed in the freezer and used as an ice pack.

Because of the separate compartments, the rice filling stays evenly distributed and easily conforms to body cuves.

There are dozens of online tutorials for making these in all shapes and sizes. I have some ribbon that is printed with my 'name' on it that I used for a label - I thought that added a nice touch! I hope she enjoys it!

Mug Rugs & Other Delightful Things!

About six months ago, one of my rug hooking groups decided that we would each hook 6" rugs that coordinate with coffee mugs and exchange them at our December meeting. Tuesday was the big day for the exchange and we were not disappointed. Just look at how fun these all turned out!

 I hooked this geometric with stripes.

Kim hooked a snowman mat with a pom pom on his hat & cute scarf tied around his neck.

Marliss hooked a fun flower.

Tonia's flower was so colorful!

Coralee hooked a similar flower in darker colors.

And how fun that there were two owl themed projects in bright colors. Sandy did this one...

And Jeanette did the other.

This project exceeded our expectations and we might just do it again next year! FUN! None of us actually drink coffee, but the mugs will hold hot chocolate or herbal tea just as well! (smile) And they could also be used to hold pencils, or rug hooks - anything goes.....

There was some good show & tell that day also. Sharon was adding a lining to the back of this mat that will probably live on a table top. I love the movement in her background.

Kim put the final few stitches on this cross stitch - I can't believe how small her stitches were! I sure don't have the eyes to do this kind of work anymore.

Angela has been teaching a group of women at church this sampler quilt over the last year - they made two blocks each month. It's finally complete and she just needs to add a border and get it quilted.

Sandy is making five of these cute sheep rugs for her sisters - they will all be the same and her siblings will be SO happy when they open them! Nice sister, huh? We all want to be adopted!

Jeanette used a pattern by Rebecca Erb and made this little cat pillow as a Christmas gift for a granddaughter.

Tonia was working on a floral with a great border.

I don't have a current project to take to meetings, so I am binding several small rugs that have been lingering in my studio for months - it'll be good to get them finished!

The next day I met with the Salt Lake rug group and this is the project that Yvonne was working on.

Nancy is turning a small round chair paid into a larger rug by centering it and adding a border.

Kathryn stopped by for a minute and showed us the ornaments she's making for a group of friends.

I made a few of these little pincushions for gifts. They can also be nestled in the tree branches for a Christmas ornament, or used as little bowl fillers. Fun to do.

Last Saturday I went on a Christmas Home Tour that was a lot of fun. I snapped a picture of this home that was NOT on the tour - but I sure do wish it had been - lovely, huh? Maybe next year!

I have some other fun things to share, but I'll save them for another post in a few days.

Christmas Stockings

My son & his wife are still newlyweds - they'll celebrate their 2nd anniversary in just a few days. A week ago they put up their Christmas tree, but were bemoaning the fact that they didn't have stockings to hang from their fireplace mantle. As soon as I heard about their lack, I offered to fix the problem, and - surprise - a new sewing project! I asked them to look around online and find some that they liked so I would know what their tastes were. She chose verious patchwork designs and the color scheme, and after a trip to the fabric store I was off and running. Took me exactly one week to get them all made.

I pieced fabric for each stocking individually, using the same fabrics to tie them all together. There are a gazillion free stocking patterns online if you just look around - I printed off the shape and taped the pieces together for the one that was chosen.

They were quilted with monofilament thread in an all over meandering pattern.

While there are only four people in their family right now, I thought it would be wise to plan for any future additions, so made two extras for that purpose. There are no names on the cuffs, but I figure that they'll be able to remember who's is whose because each is a bit different - or I'm sure we can embroider names on them in the future if they decide they'd like to add that detail.

Since I had my 60 degree ruler out to cut some of those triangles, I decided to play around with it and start a new small project, which is well on it's way to completion. I have SO many specialty rulers, but rarely use them, so it has been fun to sew with these.

And finally, I got around to quilting and binding my Country Roads table topper I made following Lori's QAL. I still need to get it in the washer & dryer so it'll be all crinkly the way I like quilts to be. Feels good to have it totally finished!

Not a lot going on for me this week, but NEXT week I'll meet with both of my rug hooking groups and my small quilt group - should be fun - and hopefully I'll have lots of show & tell to share with you after the fact.