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.