End of Year!

It's hard to believe the year is almost over, isn't it? It's been a busy month for me with LOTS of gift making and party/luncheon attending - but SO much fun!  One of the funnest things I made was this cute little Dresden Plate that measures only 2" across!

I call it a fashion accessory for a vintage sewing machine and I sent it to my mom to use on her old Singer 301. Blue is her favorite color. I forgot to put a note in the box explaining to her what it's for, so it'll be interesting to see if she can figure it out before I call her! LOL  I really, really want to make a little quilt with these blocks now, but I need to find a 30* ruler to make cutting the blades easier - anyone know who makes one? You can find the tutorial for making your own HERE and you can see more color combinations and step by step instructions.

I made a few other gifts for my rug groups - a set of quilted zipper bags - - - -

- - - - and some quilted key fobs. (tutorial HERE)

I made myself a different version by paper piecing a long string of flying geese.

One of my groups had a wooly ornament exchange and these were all the wonderful items that were made for that.

Janet's son works for a company that makes high end messenger bags and journals using very dense 1/4" felt that costs $144/yd. He saves all the tiny scraps for her and she made this four-sided ornament using some of them.

My local quilt store has been doing a weekly giveaway on their Facebook page and I was lucky enough to be one of their winners. I received a yard of this lovely Jo Morton fabric - they even mailed it right to my house!

Some of the rugs projects I've seen this month include a couple of finished rugs by Sandy and Coralee.

Sandy started a new Santa rug.

Myra is replicating a photograph to make this wonderful landscape rug as a gift for her aunt. The moose were added from her imagination!

Nancy finished up this cute pillow using mostly leftover worms from her stash.

And she has begun a new floral.

I do a lot of string piecing when I quilt, and I usually just use thread snips to cut apart the sections as they come out of the machine. But when I saw this new gizmo I could see how helpful it would be, so I ordered one for myself.

It works great!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! That's what I plan on doing!

I'll Start With The Thread...

Last month I stopped at the thrift store and found a large bag of thread cones for only $5 - so I snatched it up quick. Most were still in their wrappers. Only problem is - now I'm not sure what it's designed for. Machine quilting? Machine piecing?

There isn't a label telling me what the fiber content is and I'm not familiar with the logo. Does anyone know anything about it?

I even tried scanning the bar code with my smart phone but came up with 'no results found'.

I started a new rug hooking project last week and I'm loving the way it's turning out. I just figured out what kind of border I want to put on it and got that drawn on the linen today. I've been pacing myself so that I won't finish it before going to my next couple of rug group meetings. It's a quilt pattern from Kim Diehl that I found in one of my books - I love that quilting and rug hooking are so compatible and interchangeable!

My two sweet daughters were SO good to me at Christmas - and gave me gifts that I absolutely LOVE! I've been seeing lots of coloring books for grown ups at the craft stores and online, but have never found one that really appeals to me. DD#1 found this one and it is so perfect - full of wonderful primitive folk art designs. Only problem is, I'm not sure I can bring myself to actually color them since several of them are perfect for rug hooking and quilt applique. So fun!

DD#2 found this table lamp with a clear glass base. I filled it with vintage wooden thread spools from my collection and it looks great sitting on a table made from a treadle machine base in my living room. I added one of my toy sewing machines, a small quilt, and other goodies for a display. Cute, huh?

Remember last month I made Christmas stockings for my son & his family? Well, for one of them I used a specialty ruler for cutting equilateral triangles and I had a lot of fun with it. So I decided to make myself a small quilt  using the same ruler. It's been pieced for quite awhile now and I finally got it quilted and bound yesterday afternoon. Pulled it out of the dryer just a few minutes ago and it's ready to use in my decorating. It measures about 18" x 34".

I used a variegated thread and did allover meandering - the type of machine quilting that I'm most comfortable with. I really need to branch out a bit and try something different one of these days. (sigh)

I had so much fun with the mug rug swap that my rug group did for Christmas, (see photos a couple posts back) that I made another one to coordinate with a mug I found at the thrift store. I'd like to give it away to one of my wonderful readers & friends. It's got a Valentine Day heart theme going on so it's perfect for this time of year. The rug measures about 5-1/2" square and in addition to using strips of wool fabric, I also used some wool yarn because I happened to have the right color (pink). Hope you like it! I'll take comments until Saturday, January 9th, and then draw the winning name from all the entries and pop it in the mail. Good luck! And thanks for making blogging such a fun experience for me each time I publish a post! I love sharing with you!
                                                      (GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED)

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.