New Christmas Stockings

New Christmas Stockings happened this year.  I made some Christmas Stockings for my Grandkitties, Loki and SweetMiss.

They match the stockings I made many years ago for my grandchildren.

HI!

 Hi!  I kind of fell off the blog wagon for a while.  I might do some catching up later, if I remember what I had planned to share.  For now, I will show you what I did for my quilty friends for Christmas.

There are a group of ladies that I sew with regularly and I made each of them a little present, a fabric book mark. 

  I used this blog post from "Between Here and Home" as a starting point and adjusted it as I wanted it to be.  My book mark is 6.5 inches long and 2.5 inches wide. (Perfect for using up leftover strips from a jelly roll.)  I cut just one piece of interfacing 6.25 long and 2.25 wide.  I save the ribbon that is wrapped around a fat quarter bundle and I decided to use those ribbons for my book marks.  The ribbon is 6.5 inches long.  You just fold it in half and place it in-between the layers at the top.  These went together to fast!

Lots Of Fun!

 I've been having lots of fun!  First off I went a Fall Bus trip with my friend Kate.  We went to eight different quilt shops.  First off was the Quilted Steeple Quilt Shop in Lone Rock, Iowa.

It was a fun shop!  They also have a Retreat Space for sewing in the basement of the Church.  Sleeping quarters are in the Parsonage.  Great shop with lots of fabrics and kits.

Next shop was Calico Hutch in Hayward, MN. 

This shop has four rooms of fabrics to get lost in.  Oh My!  A room for wools, regular fabrics on the bolt, panels and sewing machines and way in the last room,  kits and sale fabrics.  Also lots of batiks in the last room.  It was kind of hard not to go nuts!  

We spent the night in Albert Lea, MN and the next morning we were on our way to Buttermilk Basin in Spring Lake Park, MN.    I'll have more on my trip tomorrow!

I Am So Excited

 I'm so excited!  Texas Braid is a flimsy or quilt top!  It's so  nice to achieve my goal of getting it to this stage.

Lots of scrapes were used to make this top. But, believe it or not, I still have lots more scraps!  This braid pattern came from Bonnie Hunter's book " Adventures with Leaders & Enders".  You can find it here at Bonnie's shop. 

Now to get batting and backing to get it all the way to the finish line!

Plugging Away

I've been plugging away at putting together my version of Bonnie Hunter's Texas Braid.  You can find this pattern in her book "Adventures with Leaders & Enders".   I cut this all out in 2018 when I thought I was going to be making it at a Bonnie Hunter class.  Instead the class was on Texas Tumbleweeds.  

I have finally finished sewing all the braids together.  Now I am trimming them.  I have about half of them done.  Slow going but it's getting there!

So Many Exciting Things

 There are so many exciting things going on!  First off, I was following along with the Haunted Mystery quilt going on at the Fat Quarter Shop.  You can find the pattern for that here.    This is my finished top.  I really enjoy these mystery's!

Next up is Bonnie Hunter's Leader and Ender Challenge for 2023. 

Picture from Bonnie Hunter's blog.

I rediscovered all my Halloween fabrics when searching for fabric for Fat Quarter Shop mystery.  So I'm going to use my Halloween stash for that. The link for the pattern is above 

I also decided that 2024 is going to be the year of Halloween.  I have a few kits and lots of fabric to make my own kits, so that bin of fabric needs to be in the spotlight!  

How about you?  Any exciting projects that you can't wait to get started on? 

Catching Up

 I need to do a little catching up.  I had a couple more finishes that I haven't posted, so here they are!

Finish Number Eight, 

First up is a Redwork baby quilt.  It's a preprinted panel to embroider.  I decided to do it in red thread.  I finished the embroidery quickly and got it pinned and ready to quilt.  And there is where I got stuck.  What color of thread to quilt with?  I ended up going with a silver gray as there are clouds all around the sleeping baby.  I'm not happy with the way the back looks, but it is a finish!

Finish Number Nine is this quilt from "Diamond Chain Quilts".

This was a great challenge as it was one of the first times I had pieced diamonds.  I learned lots of tricks with this quilt, and it was worth it!

So I think this may have things caught up, but I may have some other project I forgot about.  

Experiment

I had an experiment with my bonus HSTs, I found a pattern I wanted to use, so I made a sample.

 I love the way it turned out except for the two star points that were in a low volume color.  I'm not going to rip it out, but I won't use any more of those HSTs in this block.  I really need the contrast to see the pattern.  I need to spend some time bagging up more HSTs for use as Leaders/Enders.  I found the quilt block in a book called "Scrappy Fat Quarter Quilts: Favorite Projects from Fons & Porter"  There are a number of quilts in that book I would love to make.  

Seventh Finish Of The Year

 My seventh finish of the year is this cute little quilt for a great nephew.  

This super simple pattern is from Material Girl Quilts and here's the link.  The pattern is called "Square Dance" and uses a pack of 10 inch squares.  The fabric line is "On The Farm" by Terry Runyan for Benartex.  And of course I ended up messing up one set of fabrics and had to throw in one from my stash.  That's the nice thing about having a stash, I didn't have to run out and buy more fabric.  I'm not even sure I would have been able to find this same fabric as it's been out for over a year.

The backing is John Deer tractor fabric that I had in my stash.  It's flannel, so it makes a nice and cozy quilt. Hope it keeps him warm!

Sort Of A Mini Retreat

I had a sort of a Mini Retreat last week.  I was cat sitting for my son and set up the card table so I could sew. 

 I did sew on the machine a couple of days.  I also had some hand quilting I had been doing and I finished that project also.  I'll have more on that one later as I have the binding cut and pressed.  I just need to trim the quilt and sew it on!

Sixth Finish Of The Year

 My sixth finish of the year is "Simply Posies".  It is a sampler quilt that Jean Kritenbrink designed.  She has designed other quilts and table toppers.  You can check it out at the link I shared.  I don't think this pattern is on the page, but you can message her to see if she can send it to you.

I took this class in 2015 and stalled out at putting the last border on.  I don't know why those long borders do that to me.  I have a couple of more quilts at that point that I would love to complete this year.  And this is the year it's going to happen!

Fifth Finish Of The Year

 Fifth finish of the year is this Homespun quilt.

This quilt was also on the Project 52 list.  I started work on it April 18, 2022.  It was number 28 in the line up of Project 52 .

I used a fleece blanket I had purchased at Target and it is a cuddly quilt for sure!

Before it was trimmed and bound.

A Winner

 I was a winner in the 2023 Villa Rosa Blog Hop and I won these five patterns:

Only Hillside Charm was a duplicate!  I'm so excited to figure out fabric for the other four.  (I know, just what I need, more projects!)

I recently changed how I stored my cards thanks to my sister's idea.  I have a really nice Longaberger Baskets recipe card holder.  

So I ordered some alphabet index tabs and sorted all the cards into the holder.  Previously I had the cards in 4X6 photo albums, but I had FIVE albums and had to hunt for the card I wanted.  

Now it's easy peasy to find the one I want.

  

On another note, I do have the Villa Rosa app for tracking my cards.  I now have that up to date with all my cards.  So if I'm out and about, I have what I need at my finger tips. 

Update

 This is an update to the Valentine's Day gifts.  Look at the cute little tags that were attached to the fruit.

Third And Fourth FInish

I have a third and fourth finish for 2023.  

These are Valentine Gifts for my friends Chris and Mary. They both love camping, so these bags use the National Parks fabric from Anderson Design Group.  I love the way they look.

And these are the fun gifts I received from them:

A wonderful fruit bowl.

A decorated box that opens up.

And look at all the candy once it's open.

We've been going out the eat with these friends for Valentines Day for years.  It's such a fun tradition.

Second Finish For 2023

 My second finish for 2023 is a little kitty quilt.  I bought this kit years ago at Prairie Star Quilts and they closed in 2012 so it has aged well in the stash.

Super simple and very fast to make.  Plus it's super cute!

First Finish For 2023

My first finish for 2023 is this Charm Tablemat from Country Threads.  You can find it here. 

I got this already to quilt back in July of 2022 and never got it quilted.  So this past weekend I decided it was time.  It didn't take any time at all to get it done.  Now why did I put it off for so long?  I'm thinking it may be my squirrel syndrome. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Ha!

What am I going to do now?

 What am I going to do now?  A good question.  I've been working on Chilhowie Mystery Quilt.  I have a bunch of the hourglass squares done for Clue 3.  

I have also cut almost all of Clue 4 and bagged the pieces.  So they are ready for me to sit down and sew.  Slow and steady wins the race.  

Just a reminder, the links I have provided to Bonnie's blog will go away soon as she will be taking down those pages and adding the quilt pattern to her shop.  So if you want to get a free copy of the quilt pattern, you had better do it soon!

A New Year

 A New Year has started along with all of my ideas, dreams and inspirations.  How about you?  Do you have lots of quilting plans?  I keep saying I'm not going to start a new project, but it's so hard.  I finished the 2022 BOM at "A Quilting Life".   Looking through my photos, I don't have a picture of it.  So put that on my list of "Things To Do".

I also have the center completed of Jen Daly's "Glad Tidings".  It uses only one charm pack and I love how it is coming along.   

The fabric line is "Swell Christmas" by Urban Chiks.  I just love the old fashion look of these fabrics.  I hope to get the border added this weekend.

Since the beginning of the year I have been doing 'Three Goals A Day".  All very small, simple things like cut scrap for five minutes, clean cutting table for five minutes.  I am kind of surprised by the things I have found and organized.  It's a nice feeling.