Chloe's Ornament

My granddaughter made this ornament in art class and she gave it to me for Christmas. She was very excited to explain the technique she used to get the paint to adhere this way. Her excitement for her art is incredible. It's her favorite thing.

I was admiring the ornaments on the tree today partly because I know it won't be long before the tree comes down. The last day of the year always brings about some melancholy for me and this year is no different.

As I take stock in all of 2018, I am reminded how lucky I am. I went on 5 trips/vacations this year. I bought a longarmer this year. My husband stayed healthy this year. There were many years he wasn't. Two years ago he was discharged from an inpatient stay at 4 pm on new year's eve. This year had its terrible moments as well. My granddaughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and my daughter lost her job. Nothing ever comes easy for her. We try to help as much as possible and I am grateful that they live at the end of my block.

Usually I take some time to make some quilting goals for the new year but I haven't given it any thought. Maybe I will work on that next week...or next year - haha!

Panel Quilt Kits

Last month I took a bunch of kits at our Quilts for Kids meeting. The kits are designed to be a nice jump-start into making a quilt top. They are handed out to new QfK members to help them get started with our group. We've had a few new members over the last year but not enough to ever use up all the kits that are available. There are many of them! 

These quilt kits were cut and assembled a few years ago. Most contain a panel or some border print that coordinates with the rest of the fabrics in the kit. I decided to start taking a few each time I attend just to get them completed. There are so many cute fabrics in them that it's sad to see them just sit there.

In the last week I put together 4 quilt tops from the kits and I quilted and bound 2 of the 4 so far. It felt good to get them totally completed. Both the finished ones have a winter theme so I'll get them turned in next weekend while they are still in "season".

I still have 2 quilt tops to quilt and 2 more kits to put together. It seems like a great winter project.

Bullseye Quilt Along

I've decided to join the 2019 Country Threads bullseye quilt along. It requires 48 9-inch, 8-inch, 6-inch and 4-inch squares to be cut before January 1st. All the pieces should be from a medium to dark fabrics except for the 9-inch squares. Those should all be lights.

I cut all the pieces except for the light fabrics. The instructions state to use all different fabrics and I struggle to find 48 different lights big enough to get a 9-inch square of each. So I will do the best I can once I get into the quilt along. Maybe it will be OK to repeat some fabrics for more than one block. I really won't know until I see the first instruction.

The first blog post for the quilt along can be found here. 

Merry Christmas

We are totally ready for Christmas and are looking forward to all the excitement the holiday brings.

Everybody is happy, it is a joyful time.

Floral Quilt WIP

I purchased a bag of remnants from a local quilt shop about a year and a half ago. When I opened the bag full of scraps there were cut squares of a variety of fabrics that went together well. I don't know if the shop owner made a sample and these were leftovers but that's sure what it seems like. I liked the pretty colors and I knew that the quilt shop had more of the fabrics in their clearance section so I bought some yardage to go along with the scraps.

I finally decided to see if I could put something simple together with the remnants. So I stitched the blocks together to make a patchwork center and added some borders to the top, bottom and sides. I was amazed that I had just enough fabrics to make a simple top, the backing and the binding.

I decided to use high-loft batting on the quilt and I quilted it using a nice swirl-pattern that was pretty simple. It's a nice change working in these colors with all the Christmas prints I've been using lately. So far I like how the quilting pops with the nice thick batting.

Christmas Cookies

This year I cut back on the cookie baking. It seems that every year after the holiday, my husband ends up eating all the leftover cookies and frankly, he doesn't need them. I do like to try to make one new cookie each year and this year I made a turtle cookie. I won't know until I deliver the cookies if they are a hit or not so it's wait and see right now.

The sugar cookies are my family's very favorite. I make them in advance then the girls come over to frost them. This year neither of my granddaughters were interested in frosting them at all. I wanted to take a photo of us while decorating the cookies and both Avery and Chloe frosted one and declared that they were done. So I never got a chance to take any photos of them. My cat was more interested than the two little girls, ha!


My daughter Bailee loves frosting the cookies so that's a good thing. At least I can count on that tradition continuing for a while. Once all the baking and decorating was done, I packed up the cookies in tins for delivery. I've really been enjoying this holiday season. Things are getting done without much stress so far. I sure hope it lasts.

Flannel Pet Beds

I've been saving up my batting scraps to the point where I had two plastic bags overstuffed with the scraps. If I put any more in the bags would burst. I guess that means it's time to do something with them.

I want to make pet beds. So I took the batting scraps and cut them into small squares. Lots and lots of small squares.

My daughter had some scrap flannel left over from pajama pants she made so I took her scraps and cut them into 22" x 26" pieces. If the scraps weren't big enough, I stitched pieces together to make the right sized pieces.

I sewed the pieces right sides together and left an opening big enough to get my hand through. I flipped the pieces right side out and ironed it flat.

I sewed another row of stitching about an inch away from the edge to make a finished edge making sure I did not stitch the opening shut.

The batting scraps were stuffed into the flannel pillow until the entire thing was full but not so full that they were stiff. The opening was machine stitched shut then edge was finished off.

Once I finished one, I wanted to make more. I ended up with enough flannel to make a total of four. I got them all done and I still had one half of a bag of batting scraps left.

Yesterday I took the pet beds to church and put them under the pets' tree. Everything under the tree will be taken to the local animal shelter closer to Christmas. They look cute under the tree with all the other donated pet foods and toys.

I wish I would have taken a photo of the tree while I was there.

Quilts for Veterans

My church group, Sweet Sundays Quilters made these quilts. This year our group made 101 quilts. Of those quilts these 23 are headed to the VA hospital in Milwaukee.

My husband's Legion Rider motorcycle group are taking them there this evening to celebrate Christmas with some of the veterans. I am so glad to be able to give something back to the service members that end up there.