Christmas Cookies and Quilts for Vets

I'm very happy to be hosting Christmas Eve dinner this year yet I'm amazed that I'm not stressing at all over it. 

Today my granddaughters and their friend frosted sugar cookies for the holiday season. It's so fun to let them do their thing. It's also a tradition that Jeff gets in there too to help. It's his favorite Christmas cookie so he's always ready to sample a few - haha!

I bought the girls goody bags for St. Nick's day and there were suckers with handles shaped like lips. They just had to try them out. 

I grabbed some quilts from my Sweet Sundays quilt group for my husband to take to Zablocki VA Hospital for veterans. His Legion Riders group goes to visit at Christmastime and he likes to take quilts along to give away. This year my group had 18 quilts for him to take.

I didn't realize until I took the photo that the quilts are sitting on my new Ikea furniture purchases. I think I will take that as a hint that I better get going on putting it together. I love assembling Ikea stuff.

Sweet Sundays Quilters

My church quilt group met this week for our annual Christmas luncheon. We celebrated this year's work and enjoyed a nice lunch together. Our leader, Judy gave us each a gift bag with a homemade ornament and a few other little goodies. It was so very kind of her. I always find it amazing that we always make more than 100 quilts for our charities. This year was no different. 

Before I headed to lunch I stopped at church to drop off some pet beds I made. Each December I take my leftover batting scraps, cut them into small pieces and stuff them into beds I make with denim on one side and flannel on the other. 

At church we have a Christmas dedicated to the pastor's first dog, Harley. Since the dog passed away there's been a tree put up in memory of him. All the gifts and monies collected around the tree go to a local animal shelter in Harley's name. It's a wonderful thing. 

Bunny Bag & Other Little Things

A while back I made a cute little bunny bag for Easter. It required a hand embroidered nose, mouth and eyes. I did not want to do that. I don't what it is about hand embroidery but it's just not my thing. So I searched the internet for a .jef (machine embroidery) file of a nose, mouth and eyes. Lo and behold, I found the perfect fit. The pattern for the bag was a free pattern that can be found here. I really like how it turned out and I had planned on making more of them but life just got in the way.

This year I've been trying really hard to say no. But on occasion I will say yes. I quilted this charity quilt for my Sweet Sundays sewing group. It's a pretty big quilt but I got it done in one day. 

I also sewed some patches on my neighbor's kids' taekwondo uniforms. I don't think the word 'uniform' is correct for whatever these outfits are called. I just don't know. Haha!

 

September Client Quilts

I quilted this baby quilt for the shop. It has really cute minky on the back that has little ballerinas on it. Sue from the shop made the top and she plans on keeping it when it comes down. 

I also quilted another string quilt for my church group. Every month when we meet I take home another quilt to longarm for the group. The group leader gets to put the binding on them and I am so happy that she is willing to do that. 

Quick Weekend Projects

This weekend I downloaded an apron pattern off the internet. The pattern had 17 pages and it went together a little like a jigsaw puzzle. It was quite fun to do. Last month I had embroidered a kitchen design and I really wanted to make an apron so I can sew the embroidered piece on as a pocket. 

I cut the pattern out as well as the fabric and in less than 2 hours, I had finished it. I used some really nice linen fabric and I washed it before using it. The pattern was as simple as sewing a few seams, turning and pressing, then hemming and topstitching. Here is the finished apron:

Since I finished the apron so quickly I put a charity quilt on the longarmer. The quilt top was made by some of the ladies from my Sweet Sundays sewing group. I decided to free motion quilt it so since I wasn't following a pantograph I quilted the whole thing in 45 minutes. Another fast finish. Yay!

Animal Print Quilt

I had a bunch of animal prints in my donated fabric bin. I decided to get rid of it all by incorporating it into one quilt. There was one large piece of fabric and quite a few smaller ones.

I chose a pattern that would suit the large piece of fabric but I was sure I would have to do some creative piecing to incorporate the rest of the fabrics. I used solids to border the prints and all the leftover fabrics from the borders were used up on the back. This is definitely a no waste project.

It turned out better than I had expected even though I do think the whole thing is a bit much. I guess that's why I don't work with animal prints - haha!

This quilt will go to church to be given away at their discretion.

Large Print Fabrics - One Pattern, 4 Quilts

My church group received a very large fabric donation this past summer. Us ladies spent some time going through all the beautiful fabrics. I prefer to be the last one to dig in since I have plenty of donated fabrics from other sources that I haven't worked my way through. What was left for me were large print fabrics in 3 yard cuts. I held onto them wondering if I would ever think up a good way to use them. Then I found a pattern called Sidelights by Mountainpeek Creations.

I knew this would work on the large prints. It didn't matter that I wasn't using a panel like on the pattern cover, with a 3-yard piece of fabric I could cut a chunk the same size as a fabric panel and have some fun making the blocks for around the side and bottom.

For the first one I fussy cut the flowers that went in the side and bottom blocks. I also used a large piece of green fabric that was donated to the senior center to make the background.

I fussy cut trees and snowmen and placed them alternately in the side and bottom blocks. What fun!

I fussy cut different parts of the scenery in this safari print. I like this one the best.

After I finished with the church group's fabric I remembered that I had this collection of batman fabrics in my Quilts for Kids fabric bin. I immediately dug out the fabrics hoping I could use this pattern once again. By now, I didn't need to read the instructions. I know the measurements by heart. Ha! I used the biggest print for the panel piece and the coordinating fabrics for the side and bottom blocks. There was enough to make the nice border  and with all of these quilts, the leftovers are on the backs. I love when I use up the stuff that was donated. 

Happy Trails Quilt

I'm on a mission to get rid of all my donated fabrics as well as my old stash. I took out some pretty browns from the donation bin and decided to pair it with some old beiges from my stash. There were enough of these fabrics to make a Happy Trails quilt.  It's a Missouri Star Quilt Company pattern that seems like a quick and easy project.  I couldn't believe it when I looked at the selvages of the background fabrics I pulled. The years were 1992 and 1997.  I sure was right about needing to use up my old stash - ha!

Within the last few weeks I made the quilt top, backing and quilted the quilt. I also stitched 2 large leftover pieces of batting together. It feels good not to let 100% cotton batting go to waste. I think it turned out rather nice. I'm happy that I could sew the binding on using the donated fabrics too.

This will make a nice donation to our church group for a shut-in or someone else in need.

From a Fabric Donation

In a box of fabrics that was donated to my church quilt group, I found some blue and gold print fabric neatly cut into 5" squares. There weren't many of them but enough to put together a quick lap quilt.

Among the donation I also found some blue yardage that compliments the squares and cut more 5" squares. I made a patchwork quilt top that needed a little pizzazz. So at the fabric store I picked up a 1/4 yard cut of some shiny gold fabric. It made a nice inner border. The rest of the blue fabric was used to make a larger outer border.

We get so much donated fabric that it's always nice to be able to complete a project using up as much of it as possible. And maybe if I dug deep enough I could have found something suitable to make the inner border but sometimes I just want a special touch.

I quilted it using a pantograph called Drift and I used high-loft batting that made the quilt really pop. It added a nice tough to the simple patchwork pattern. This quilt will go back to church to be donated to whoever needs it.

Getting Caught Up

I am so happy to have my Amara back. As soon as my dealer set the machine up, I went right to work. I had a half-completed quilt on the machine when it broke down, so I immediately finished it. That was my way of testing the machine to make sure it truly was working correctly.

Today I quilted a charity quilt that was due this past Thursday. I planned on turning it in to the church group at our meeting, but that was impossible since I hadn't had the machine for a few weeks. Luckily, the leader of our group will sew on the binding so all I had to do was quilt it. Now I will have to drop it off at her house. Here it is completed. I used a pantograph called Trumpet Vine. I like how the quilting shows up in the middle of the star blocks.

As soon as I completed the overdue charity quilt I loaded this one on my machine.

I used high-loft batting and I just love how the quilting pops. The pantograph is called Drift. I plan on stitching on the binding and turning it in when I drop off the other quilt. It's so nice to start getting caught up.

On a sad note, this is probably the last batch of tomatoes that I will blanch from my garden for this season. The weather has been cold at night even though the days are pleasant. It's just not warm enough for tomatoes to thrive any more. I'll be able to can a batch of stewed tomatoes and that's about it for this year. It's hard work but I enjoy the end result so it's worth it.

Postage Stamp Quilt Block Class

I am teaching a class on the postage stamp quilt block this Thursday. I thought this would be a good class for beginners who like to keep their scraps. Since I am teaching this to the church quilt group, I know we get a lot of donated scraps and this might interest someone who wishes to use them.

I started by making samples of each step. The first step is cutting the pieces so we could practice our accuracy with a ruler and rotary cutter. The second step is sewing 4 strips together.  After that we press the seams all to one side - another great lesson. Then we will turn the strip set sideways and cut into strips again. This will teach the class how to line up a sewn block for cutting. Then we will learn to nest seams as we sew the strips together to make the blocks.

I also made a sample with 3 blocks sewn together in order to promote the importance of pressing to one side.

I think this will also be a lesson in color arrangement. I want to stress that sometimes the print doesn't matter as much as the color. I hope the class gets some enjoyment in making these for themselves. I made sure they will have written instructions with photos as well. That's how I was instructed and it worked for me. Here's to hoping the class enjoys this!

Presents from Mom by Creek Side Stitches

This quilt is made from donated fabrics. The fabric came from someone who goes to my church. It was her mother's. I tried to use it up in a meaningful way. There's so much of it so there will be many more of these quilts before I use it all up.

The pattern is called Presents from Mom and it's found in a booklet called Slice of Home by Creek Side Stitches. I picked out many greens and blues from the donated fabrics no matter what the print was. I cut 42 10-inch squares from the fabrics in order to make this. The instructions stated that a mix of darks and lights were important so no matter the print, that's what I concentrated on. For an experiment in color, it didn't turn out too bad - haha!

I quilted it on my longarmer using the Daisy Doodle pantograph.  I really like the quilting.

This will be given back to the church to use for whatever they want. It was a fun experiment in color.

Art Fair Quilts

I whipped up two quilts for the Art Fair that will be held at church tomorrow. I used some of the plaids I had found stashed away. They are old vintage fabrics from the 80's and after making these two quilts including the backing, there's still plenty more to use up!

I quilted them both using a pantograph called Arboretum making the quilting part quicker since I didn't have to change out the design between quilts. I think it complements the fabrics pretty well. I was really hoping that I could squeeze out enough of the white-tailed deer fabric to make a piece large enough for the back but no matter what technique I used, there just wasn't enough to get a complete piece. Thus, the little green corner on the back. I hope they are good enough to actually sell and if they do I hope they get a good home.

While working on these quilts my nephew Edward needed a little sewing project completed. He had custom made patches done and he even created the design on his own. I sewed them on the left arm of the shirts that were ordered. They are for his group of co-workers who are all lifeguards at Bradford Beach near downtown Milwaukee. It's the toughest gig to get as a lifeguard in the Milwaukee County area so he must be really good at his job. I was happy I could help.

It's been in the 90's here and way too hot to go outside. So it's been a good week to get indoor things done like quilting and house cleaning. After last weekend's family reunion and a house full of guests there were many bath towels, bed sheets to wash as well as floors to be scrubbed and outdoor tables and canopies to be put away. We did the outdoor stuff at 7 in the morning before it got too hot. One benefit of the heat is that tomatoes in my garden are starting to turn red. I can't wait to take that first bite.