Quilting in 2012

Looking forward to 2012.  Now that my sewing room is better organized and I know what I have in my stash, I look forward to continuing my monthly project outline:

1) Complete 1 UFO each month  - this can mean that I complete a block for one of the 3 or 4 BOM's I started and never finished, I complete a top, I get borders on an existing top, etc
2) Start a new quilt with the caviat that I must finish the new quilt  before starting another
3) Participate in on-line sew alongs and swaps
4) Complete monthly project for my quilt guilds.

At the moment, this list seems a bit daunting, but I am inspired by members of my guilds.  These are some extremely prolific and talented quilters/artist.  I found 2 on-line sew alongs that I will participate in.

The first is from the Craftsy Site - they have a BOM that looks interesting.  http://www.craftsy.com/class/The-Craftsy-Block-of-the-Month/50

 The 2nd is a sew along that has monthly projects that should help reduce my scrap stash.  I have added the button under the TMQG button.  Please feel free to browse.

Those who know me know how this will go.  I will start out full steam ahead and by the 3rd or 4th month, I will lose interest and move on.  So I am depending on my followers and fellow quilters to nudge me along to ensure I complete my goals.

To my fellow bloggers, can you recommend some swaps?  There are so many out there.

Happy New Year to all!!

Happy quilting, sewing, knitting, crafting to all.

Aftermath ...

Here it is Christmas night.  Most of the wrapping paper has been corralled in a trash bag.  Good thing trash pickup is tomorrow night.  The grand kids had a great Christmas.  Chase got a Beebe gun which led to his sister saying "You'll put your eye out".  I understand that he heard this several times during the day.  We had a small but traditional ham dinner between Church and their mom heading off to work.  Their Mom loved her Christmas present.  Me, Chase & Emma were very proud of how well it turned out but we'll let you be the judge.  Any issues you see are window reflections didn't realize it until I cropped just now.

We were very happy that our son was able to get home for 2 whole days.  He leaves out in the morning about the same time we head to Pennsylvania.

Got to get the house back in order and pack for the PA trip.  Next post will be after the New Year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

If you give a Papa a cookie....

Still entertaining the grandkids.  Today we made a present for their mom which did not involve sewing.  The present turned out great but we have to wait until after Christmas to post.  Once the present was out of the way, it was on to making cookies.  I confess ... I cheated and used a premade cookie mix.  We mixed it up, rolled it out, cut out cookies, baked, cooled and then decorated.  Notice the aprons.  They've taken every opportunity to wear them.

There were 2 broken cookies which of course we had to eat.  We had cans of icing with decorator tips, smaller gel writing tubes for outlining and even glitter gel tubes.

See the coffee cups everyone has?  Both kids were complaining with sore throats (and now mine is starting) so I fixed a tea remedy I discovered while in China. It eased the pain but Mom ended up taking them both to the doc when she got home.

And here are the cookies....

Not the prettiest cookies but we had fun doing it.  They don't measure up to Rainbow Robot's cookies but I don't know anyone's that do.  We needed to get rid of one cookie so that I could put the lid on the silver tray.  Each kid grabbed a dish and went straight to Papa insisting that he take a cookie.  You have to know my husband to understand how entertaining the next 20 minutes were.   Once he settled on a cookie (he unknowingly chose one that I had decorated), he declared that he needed a cup of tea.

Emma has been reading "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie...", which immediately led to .... If you give a Papa a cookie, he will ask for a cup of tea.  If you give him a cup of tea, he will ask for a spoon.  If you give him a spoon, he will check his reflection to make sure he has no crumbs on his face .... and on and on and on....

It was a fun day but Nana is exhausted and the kids are litterally --- sick & tired.

Next week we will be off to Pennsylvania.  Back to sewing in January.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all.

Entertaining Grandkids over Christmas Break

Only 4 more nights until the big guy arrives!

I have spent this week entertaining the Grand kids since they are out of school.  We have been gathering leaves, twigs, and anything that looks like it would create an interesting design.  The plan for Monday was to do fabric painting and imprints to create our own fabric.  Monday started cold, warmed up to about 52F by noon but the wind kicked up.  The rest of the week is suppose to be wet.  Not a good week for fabric painting since we need to be outside in the sunshine and stillness.  So we will put all those supplies aside until we get a good weather day coordinated with a day out of school.

At the TMQG dirty Santa Swap, Kim Johnson's homemade item was a ball made out of thumbtacks and Styrofoam.  I googled to get instructions.  Looks simple enough.  This became our Monday craft.  Got styrofoam balls & thumbtacks.  Dug out some Christmas ribbon from my stash and we sat down to make the balls.   The kids were excited - at first- and wanted to know how many balls each of us were going to make.

Chase just finished his first ball.  Can you see the excitement?

Emma is concentrating.  Halfway through the 1st ball, both kids were asking if we HAD to do more than 1 each.

The Internet directions say to take a small piece of ribbon and attach to ball using thumbtacks to make a hanger.  These balls get heavy.  A piece of ribbon attached at the top will not support the weight.  Clear packing tape to the rescue.  I covered each ball in clear packing tape.  You really can't tell up close that it is covered with tape.  Then I put saran wrap around to create an area that I could tie the ribbon to them.  I tried to make a bow out of several different Christmas ribbons then hung the balls at different levels.  I later remembered that I have netting but I'm not redoing it at this point.  The results are a perfect redneck Christmas decoration.

This took about 2 hours total.  So we pulled out the things I got to make a present for their mom, only to discover that the main item did not work.  So we went to town.  We will pick this up on Thursday.

Tuesday - Day 2 I let them watch Christmas movies while I made reversible aprons because you have to have an apron to make cookies on Thursday.  Both kids were very happy with the aprons and are ready to make cookies.

Wednesday - Papa is off today so he took the kids shopping with him and then out to lunch.  I'm sure that was an experience to remember for both kids.  It gave me time to upload photos and post to my blog.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we will make their mom's present and then spend the rest of the day making cookies. Will post pictures of their Mom's present.

Holiday Projects

Hard to believe Christmas is almost here!  Where did the year go?  Been busy the past 2 weeks with holiday things and sewing projects for the guilds I am in.

Here's the results so far....

Mug rugs for my girlfriends.  We've been having dinner once a month for almost 5 years now.  This ladies are amazing.

Next up ... The Triad Modern Quilt Guild always provides opportunities for homework between meetings.  For December, we could make a homemade ornament for a dirty Santa swap at the monthly meeting.

I used Laura Birch scraps from my Ornament quilt to create a background fabric.  Then I embroidered a redwork manger scene, and finished with stitch in the ditch using gold metallic thread.  I used a layer of temtex inside to provide stability and to hold shape.
Front
  

Back.....

And last but not least,  here's the patriotic block I came up with for the quilt of valor project.

Happy sewing, quilting, knitting and crafting to all!!

Merry Christmas.