Dear Santa...

Dear Santa... please define good.

Just love my new little wall hanging (roughly 22 by 14 inches).  I used Reindeer Games charm pack for the border and one of the prints from that line for the binding and backing.


Nice sunny weekend made for a perfect photo shoot.

even my little Charlie Brown tree got in the photo!

I found this pattern at Sew Happy Me - look in the side bar for free tutorials. 


Happy Stitching!

Jingle Bells

Jingle Bells is my entry in Sew Cal Girl's 2011 Holiday Quilt show.

Inspiration for the quilt was found in the book titled The Quiltmakers and a design by Joanna Figueroa called Twinkling Stars.  I changed the border a bit - my inner border is pieced with red, white and green 2 inch squares and the outer border is the same as the background fabric.

I used much of a layer cake of Sweetwater's Countdown to Christmas line   

The back will be of this reindeer print - the binding the green with red, white and black dots.  The quilt will take a trip to the LAQ next weekend.  Can't wait to get it back and curl up under my new quilt with glass of wine and a good book!

Make sure you take time to visit all the other wonderful entries!

Happy Stitching!

A pile of mini quilts ready to bind

I skipped the mall today and instead had fun with my sewing machine and with the family.


In the morning, I FMQ two smaller Christmas quilts I had pieced last year but never finished.  I added them to a two other small quilts I had pieced and FMQ last year but never applied the binding.  I'll add some binding later this weekend to all 4 and start planning where I will hang these beauties!  (smile)  Each of these is roughly 40 by 40 inches.

The weather was warm and sunny here in NC so we took a hike in the afternoon.  Beautiful day and lots of family fun.  (My DD took this photo - isn't it a beauty?)

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We had far too many deserts!  I wanted to share a fun and easy one.  Melt chocolate squares (used baker's chocolate semi-sweet) and then coat a marshmellow.  Dip in crushed candy canes and set aside to allow the chocolate to harden.  These are fabulous!  (We also did some with mini chocolate chips but the candy cane ones were the best.)  For those who celebrated, I hope your Thanksgiving was a wonderful one.

Happy Stitching!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you a wonderful day with family and friends and hopefully time for some quilting!

Happy Stitching!

12 Days of Christmas BOM is done!

Once I finished piecing the ten wonky stars for the border, this quilt finished up quite quickly.  Need to press and then it is ready to go to the LAQ.

Before I assembled, I did notice how nice all these stars looked together.  I've plenty of scrap so believe I will make a small quilt just of stars.

Have a great week.


Happy Stitching!

Dear Santa (FNSI results)

I spent a wonderful two hours quilting away last night and finished my wall hanging for Santa.  (I need to get the binding on this week.)   I found this pattern at Sew Happy Me - look in the side bar for free tutorials. 

 I started the stitching quilt along on her blog and found how much I like doing this - now I am on the lookout for small quilt projects where I can incorporate stitching.  This wall hanging is roughly 13 by 22.

I also made great progress on the first of 5 stockings I want to make.  This one is for my husband.  (Still needs to be assembled and then lined.)

About this point in the night, the real 'fun' stuff was done but I was determined to keep going.  I've got stars to make for one of my larger holiday quilts.  I made some progress but then.... couldn't find some fabric I was certain I had.  After about 15 mins of looking, I called it a night.   Hope you enjoyed your evening!

I entered my Gobble, Gobble mini quilt in Quilting Gallery's weekly contest.  Please go take a peek and vote for 2 of your favorites.  My turkey would appreciate your vote. (There are a couple of amazing ones there so I am running for runner up!)


Happy Stitching!

FNSI - Deck the Halls

Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) - come join us - link up here!


I've decided to make a new Christmas stocking for each of us - five in total.

This book Santa's Coming has really cute Santa and reindeer patterns for applique.    I am going to put a reindeer on each stocking and then add details that map to each of us.  For example, my husband loves orange and runs marathons - so I will use orange for the scarf (not pictured) and incorporate a 26.2 somewhere.


I am also assembling this sweet wall hanging ready for some FNSI FMQ.

Happy Stitching!

Another Turkey

Had so much fun making my Dresden block turkey that I made another.  This one with a piece border.

Took him outside for a photo shoot.

Happy Stitching!

Getting ready for Christmas

I've an appointment with my long arm quilter in early December and I'm making good progress to having both of my holiday quilts ready to go.  This is what I worked on this weekend.

This quilt was a Fat Quarter Shop block of the month.  I squared off the blocks and was amazed that they all squared off at 12 1/2 inches.  Assembling together as a result went really well.  (To be fair, I opted for plain blue corner-stones instead of blue with white corners.  I just didn't feel like dealing with 80 little white squares)


Why am I surprised?


So many blocks that I made in the beginning of my quilting journey were very unpredictable how they would finish.  Usually smaller than required, but some were bigger.  Clearly, my cutting accuracy and piecing those 1/4 inch seams has greatly improved!


To finish, there will be a blue outer border that has a total of 12 pieced stars.  I'm working my way through the flying geese for the stars.


Happy Stitching!

Gobble, Gobble (Timestamp for this post is 11/11/11 at 11:11 :-)

A charm pack of Harvest Home makes a cute dresen block in support of my turkey.

This was so much fun to assemble.  I assembled the small quilt (about 20 inches square) this past weekend and managed to find some time mid-week to do the FMQ.  

This was the first time I put words on a quilt and it was So Much Fun! 


(PS I was having such a stressful day at work and found a little bit of FMQ Wednesday evening very much relaxed me.  I've got to build more time for quilting into my day.)


Happy Stitching!

Borders

Had some time this weekend to make little progress on my Countdown quilt.

I added a 2" strip of white and am thinking of a 2 inch strip of the green followed by a wide (5 inch) border of the white.  (Green is showing at more than 2 inches in photo.)

I also purchased my fabric backing on sale.  This is one of my favorite prints from Sweetwater's Countdown to Christmas line - just love the reindeer!

Happy Stitching!

Jacobs Ladder Quilt a long

I decided to turn my Jacobs Ladder quilt into a "leader and ender" and make progress while I am working on things I need for the holidays. (See my sidebar for the quilt a long information.)


I did complete one block because I couldn't resist seeing what it would look like.

I think I am going to like this two color quilt!


Happy Stitching!

Countdown assembled

I've assembled the quilt top for my Countdown to Christmas quilt - still need to name this quilt.

Next step is a good pressing and then cut down the sides to give them a straight edge.


Then, I've got a decision to make.


The pattern calls for a 2in inner border of a color from the quilt and then a 5 1/2 in outer border of another quilt color. I am thinking of actually doing that outer border in the white and then perhaps a pieced inner border.


What do you think?


Happy Stitching!

Announcing Sew Cal Girl's 2011 Christmas Quilt Show

 Make plans to enter your quilt into Sew Cal Girl's 2011 Quilt Show!!  There are sponsors and prizes!  See Darlene's post here at her blog Insights from SewCalGirl for some more information. 
I've got an entry planned - a small quilt that I will be FMQ myself this weekend.
Last year, I entered my Believe quilt make with fabric from Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas fabric.  Being in the show sent lots of traffic to my then month old blog.  I even got a comment from Kate herself on my entry!

For more photos of Believe, here is the link to my original post. 

Happy Stitching!

Making my list

I got my final block done in my BOM.  (Blogger rotated this for unknown reasons.)

Time to start on the border and squaring off the blocks.


Now that we are in November, I need to get serious in making a list of the holiday gifts I want to make.  There are my sisters, teachers and a few neighbors.   Sew Mama Sew is having a month long series of tutorials so I am hoping to get some holiday gift ideas from there!

Happy Stitching!