December Client Quilts

I didn't have much time for client quilts this month. With all the projects I had to make for my clients from scratch, I did very little quilting for others. Here's the one quilt I did longarm:

That's it for 2020. I had a very productive and successful year with crafting and quilting. I feel very lucky. Happy new year!

A Christmas Wrap-Up

You would think that since I am retired from the workforce (well kind of, I do have a part-time job at a quilt shop now) that the holidays would be less stressful. Well, they are not. Maybe it is because I pile on more things to do than I did before or maybe it is because I am getting older and I can't get things done as quickly and easily as I did when I was younger. It is most likely a little of both. 

I started decorating my house sooner than in years' past and I loved the ease of getting it done. The outside of my house looks pretty good and we didn't break our necks to get the lights on. 

We spent an evening decorating cookies with our daughter and granddaughters. Chloe is not pictured since she didn't last long with the decorating - she hates getting her hands dirty. Avery chose to color the frosting in deep, dark colors. 

We also spent an evening walking through Oak Creek's city square. It was beautifully decorated. Since we had just finished Christmas shopping with our granddaughters with a stop for a scoop of custard, the girls had lots of energy to run around the square.

One morning, Jeff saw a story on the local news where Wisconsin State Fair was selling their famous state fair cream puffs in a chocolate whipped cream version. So we ordered some online and he drove down to pick them up. They were a fantastic Christmas season treat.

We dabbled with making old fashioneds. They seem to be most famous at bars and supper clubs here in Wisconsin so we thought we would try to make them ourselves. Since the pandemic, we've regularly tried our hand at mixing our own cocktails. Some turn out better than others. I think we will have to try again with this one, I'm not so sure I did it right.

One of the last-minute gifts I made was this bag with fabric from the television show The Office. My sister commented that her son's girlfriend would LOVE a bag from the fabric and I really didn't plan on taking the "hint" but I caved the night before Christmas Eve. I used the bag to put my nephew's Christmas gift inside. My sister was quite surprised when she saw the bag.

And today, I mailed out my last Christmas package to my son. The Oak Creek post office was so far backlogged that my postman suggested I wait until after Christmas to send the package. The package was going to my son in Colorado and I already sent him the most important gift which should have gotten to him on December 19th but arrived on his doorstep on Christmas Eve. So I had him and his fiancé covered for the holiday for the most part. 

It felt so good mailing that package this morning, like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. 

Yesterday we picked up my leftover crafts from the pop-up shop at Hillside Coffee House, it was nice to discover that some things sold there. I also finished another holiday table topper yesterday. I still have a few more works-in-progress that will have to wait until next year. But this one is done and it will get packed away for the next year's craft fairs. 

I sorted, folded, stacked all my Christmas fabrics and unfinished holiday projects and put them back on the shelf for next year.  If it weren't for my new embroidery machine, my sewing room would look pretty uncluttered and clean right now. Oh well. It feels good to wrap things up and I am ready to celebrate the new year.

Jelly Bean Handwarmers

I made a few jelly bean handwarmers using the instructions from the sew4home website. They are so cute. The pattern comes in three sizes and I chose to make the medium size. I only made three of these so far and I took them to my craft fair back in November and sold one of them. I still have the other two and I keep them on my sewing table as a reminder to make some more. 

I have a giant ziploc bag filled with rice that has essential oils sprinkled over them. Once in a while I will shake the bag up to make sure the scent get over all the rice. That's what I use to stuff inside the handwarmers. It works great and smells great.

The instructions to make these can be found here. I think this will be a good way to use up some scraps.

Unicorn Pillow Cover

I embroidered a few samples just to try out my new machine. So now that I have these pieces, it seemed silly to waste them by letting them sit. I found some coordinating fabrics and the samples are now in the center of a pillow cover. I made the cover with a zipper closure so it can be removed and washed. Not that it's done, I wish I would have added a ruffle. I think that would have made it prettier. I think I will give it to Avery next time I see her. 

Charity Pet Beds

Every year my church has a Christmas tree dedicated to pets. It's a thing that started many years ago when the pastor's beloved dog, Harley passed away. The tree was named after Harley and parishioners and visitors alike are encouraged to donate new pet items and make monetary contributions that will go to a local no-kill pet shelter. 

Each year I make homemade pet beds. I save fabric chunks and batting scraps all year in order to make them. I sew the scraps together to make the top then add old blue jeans that get cut into large pieces to make the back. The jeans add a nice sturdy base to them and the fabrics for the top are usually fleece or flannel for softness. 

Once the top is sewn to the back, I then take all my batting scraps and cut them up into small pieces. I also stuff the leftover fabric scraps inside as well. Nothing is wasted. What a great feeling. I love recycling and repurposing old things. 

This year I set one of the beds where my cat lays. I thought it would be a good test to see if a pet actually likes them. At naptime, he laid on it and stayed there most of the afternoon. Since I wasn't sure whether he laid on it because it was his space or whether it was the comfort of the cat bed, I moved the bed to a different location. He chose to seek out the bed and again napped on it. 

Now I'm in trouble. How can I take it away and send it to church when he likes it so much?

A Quilt Shop Surprise

Since I've started working at the local quilt shop I have made quite a few amazing new friends. Besides my co-workers, there are regular customers that I've come to know. One of the customers, Linda, I met during my first week; she was wearing a Tomahawk Fall Ride t-shirt and I just had to ask her about it. The TFR is a Harley-Davidson sponsored event and every fall there's a motorcycle rally in Tomahawk, Wisconsin where there are social events, bands, scenic motorcycle rides all weekend long. It happens the third weekend of September every year. It's an event my husband an I have participated in for many years and when I asked Linda about her shirt she said she loves the event and we discussed our past years attending it in great detail. 

After that first encounter, Linda would look for me whenever she was in the shop. She is an expert embroiderer and I mentioned I'd like to get an embroidery machine some day. She suggested a specific model to me and that's the one I purchased earlier this month. 

So today Linda comes into the shop to see me. She brought me a Christmas gift! What a nice thing to do. The gift was a Sulky Mystery box that she had ordered. She actually ordered herself one and an extra for me. I am so touched by her generosity. I was going to try to save it to open on Christmas but I just couldn't stand it. I had to open it today...

I am truly lucky.

Embroidery Machine Progress

I had a little time to play with my new machine today. I downloaded a coffee file to embroider. But even before I could actually do the embroidering, I had to get some embroidery thread. So the last time I worked at the shop, I bought 35 spools of thread. It felt like a good start. 

I also picked up some stabilizer and ironed it to the back of some scrap fabric. Here's the result of my first try:

I can't wait to see what this machine can do but I'm pretty sure I need some lessons first. I'm following the instructions in the manual but I'm still worried I'm not doing something right. 

The Pop Up Shop

My friend Rose owns a coffee shop called Hillside Coffee House. She decided to add a pop up shop to her shop. She invited a few artists and crafters to bring in some goods in to sell. Here's a few of my quilts:

If I find some free time, I just might finish up some holiday table toppers and bring them over there to sell.