Battlefield Quilt WIP

I've been collecting teal, salmon and gray fabrics for quite a while. I love the color combination; it is soft and pretty and soothing. Last fall I pulled them all out wishing I knew what I wanted to do with them. Without finding much quilt pattern inspiration, I just let the fabrics sit on the bottom shelf on my sewing table.

Then during the Christmas holiday I was paging through one of my pattern books - a Civil War Reproduction pattern book when it hit me. My teal-salmon-gray stack would make a great modern version of one of the patterns in the book! The book is called The Blue and the Gray by Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene. I have all of their books. They have always been my favorite quilt makers and I have used quite a few of their patterns in the past.
I started to sort and stack the fabrics based on the requirements in the book and I had more than enough to make the entire quilt. I was so energized, it took me very little time to cut out all the pieces. In less than two days, I am ready to lay out the pieces. There is only one little hiccup - my husband had right rotator cuff surgery and his care will come first. I am sure I will get some sewing done while he naps!

The Christmas Season

The Christmas season is so full of wonderful events. There was Breakfast with Santa at the Legion post, my granddaughter's Christmas program at school, and of course, Christmas. I thought I would post a few photos of the events that took place throughout the month.

Breakfast with Santa

Chloe's Christmas Program

Everybody gets a Kindle Fire from my mom!

Christmas!

Craft Fair Items

I am certain that my sewing days are finished until after Christmas. So I thought I would post some photos of items I had for sale at the craft fair.

Charity Quilts Delivered!

Now that the craft fair is over I can concentrate on the holidays. The first thing on the agenda is taking the quilts that my church group made over to the local VA hospital. I packed them up and got them ready for delivery. As usual during the Christmas holidays, my Legion group's holiday party fell on the same date as the quilt delivery. Many times there are choices to be made, which is a nice problem to have, so my husband went to the VA with the American Legion Riders group and I went over to the Legion post for the party.

My husband returned with a few photos of his visit. The ALRA always visits the long-term ward at the hospital and he was happy to report that much of the ward was empty. So that gave him the opportunity to spend some quality time with the families that were there. I was so glad that he could hand all of them out.

 

Zipper Pouch Stockings

I used Jennifer Jangles' free zipper pouch stocking pattern to make these little cuties. They were fun to make although I did realize the need for more little embellishments. Sometimes I do think I spend way too much time digging through ribbons and trims to figure out what to use in some of my crafts.
I've been trying to be more organized and keep track of where I keep things so that has helped to keep me from wasting too much time looking for things. However I do realize that I have a way to go to total organization.

Toddler Scarves

My granddaughter's school is holding a craft fair next Saturday and I agreed to rent a booth. I really didn't plan on doing any craft fairs this winter but I think the decision is keeping me on a creative high. Although when I'm only a month into using my new machine, I'm not so sure about the timing. I guess it's trial by fire, as the saying goes.
I attempted to make some toddler scarves using some novelty fabrics I've had in my stash. I lined them with some flannel to make them soft against a little one's skin. The first two I gave to my granddaughters to test them out. So far, they seem to be just about right. So I made a few more. I hope they are a good seller.

I cut the fabrics 8" by 42" and added some rick-rack for embellishment. It was quick and easy sewing.

What's on the design board?

As December starts rolling in, all I can think about is the upcoming craft fair I committed to do. I am just realizing that it might have been a bad decision. Even though I want to help my granddaughter's school raise money, December is not the time to have to concentrate on anything but the holidays at the end of the month. Unfortunately for me, I am not all that good at multitasking so I doubt I will get much Christmassy stuff done until after December 12th. But who knows...my mood could change tomorrow and I will feel more motivation. Let's hope!

With that said, my design board contains some fabrics I cut out to make toddler scarves. They will be cutesy on one side and solid flannel on the other. I also have some leftover Minion fabric and I thought I would try something patchwork-like - although I'm not sure if it will be a baby quilt or maybe even another toddler scarf!

I also signed up for a paper-piecing class and I decided to do one block in advance of the class. That does seem a little silly, however, I really wanted to make sure I selected the right fabrics for the project. Not to mention, I hate feeling totally inept when taking a class. So I figured a little practice would not be a bad thing.

Just Four Fun Quilt - Completed

I used Amanda Jean Nyberg's Just Four Fun pattern found on Craftsy for this quilt. The fabrics are from Sweetwater's Holly's Tree Farm collection and they make a nice holiday quilt for this season. I thought I would experiment with using linen for the sashing, borders and backing. I feared that the quilt might be heavy from the weight of the linen but it was not heavy at all.

The linen was quite a find. A friend from church mentioned that she was cleaning out her aunt's house to hold an estate sale and there is a room just filled with fabric. She invited our church quilt group to come to the sale a day ahead of time to purchase the fabric for a dollar a yard. I was definitely interested so I went to the sale. I found tons and tons of nice cottons but unfortunately most were not my style so I passed on them. Then I noticed a table just filled with linen fabrics. The entire table was heaping and most of the fabrics were in 7 - 8 yard cuts. I was in heaven. I piled all the neutral cuts of fabric up to purchase. The pile was so heavy I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to lift it! When I went to pay for my selections, I told my friend that I was certain I had at least 45 yards of fabric, she looked at the stack and said, "How's five dollars?" OMG! I offered her more but she refused so I got a wonderful stack of linens for close to nothing. I promised her they would not go to waste.

So this was my first opportunity to use some of the linen and even though it shredded a bit during the piecing process, it turned out beautifully and was not difficult to work with. Tomorrow this quilt will be in the Elna show at my local quilt shop. This is the first quilt I made with my new Elna machine.