Friday, December 31, 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

It's Been A Year!

I'm celebrating! No it's not the new year, although I'm celebrating that too.
A year ago today I wrote my first blog post. I remember being very nervous. Writing has never been my thing. I don't know what made me want to even try this thing called blogging, but I'm glad I did. I've met so many great people through this blog. I'm so glad you stop by and leave comments and view my handmade things.

I want to thank everyone one of you for visiting and hope that you will continue to visit in the coming year.

I will have a giveaway to celebrate my one year anniversary.

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Handemade Gifts

I made this mug rug  to match the mug my wonderful husband found for my SIL.
I used a solid dark brown for the binding and I was really pleased with the outcome.
I know you can't tell by the picture, but this is a wonky table runner. I used a few Batiks and I liked it so much, I think I'll need to make one for myself. This one was a gift for my sister's DIL.
I did a meander stitch on both of these gifts because my time was getting short. I chose a solid thread for the mug rug and a variegated thread for the table runner. I also did a machine stitched binding which I don't usually do. It's probably a good choice as these items will get lots of washing.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas Gifts II

More Christmas goodies!
These fabrics are my gift from my sister.
 The black and white prints came from Connecting Threads! You know how I love black and white fabric.
This piece is more than 4 yards. Can you say backing?
 Here's the new iron from my wonderful husband.
               Books from my niece. I can't wait to sit down with these and a cup of Jasmine tea.


Christmas Gifts

I thought you might like to see some of my Christmas gifts.
If you've been following for a while, you know my brother was working in London for a while.
 
Look what he brought me back! Here's the package! 
      I love his choices! I told him the wilder the better.




I don't have a clue what I'll make yet. Stay tuned!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas scenes II

More Christmas scenery. View from the Foyer. This was the first year I used real pine roping. I have had enough of the faux stuff. It's not so easy to work with, but I love the look. 

Mini tree in Foyer.

Kitty Cat tree in the living room. This tree has all Cat ornaments except one. That one is a mouse!
 
I made these Truffles for Christmas eve dinner, and they were a big hit!  Yum!



Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas scenes

Rag Garland over fire place.
 One of my favorite ornaments, made by my daughter in 2001. He has lost his eyes, but I still love him.
 Small Nutcracker
The best ever Flying Pigs!


Saturday, December 25, 2010

It's Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Paint Job

 Family room all decked out! New paint job and decorated tree! Yippee!!!!!!



Rescued!

 We had to do it! By now you know that I have a Nutcracker collection. Yesterday my wonderful husband and I went out to one of my favorite shops ever, Ten Thousand Villages. There's are thrift shop in the same center that we visit sometimes so we decided to check it out also.  
Look what we found! This poor little follow has certainly had a hard life. He has no hair, it's all completely gone. It looks like he's had some injury also, as evidenced by the nail in his back.

He was on sale for $.50. So we had to bring him home. We'll clean him up, fix his injury and even give him hair plugs!

And he'll have 30 or more new friends to play with!

Friday, December 17, 2010

T.G.I.F. !

This really is a T.G.I.F.! We're finished painting and I got some decorating done!
But today's post is about finishes in the sewing room. This is a little wrap I made for crochet hooks. I'd made one for myself a few years back and my sister requested one for her best friend. I'm sorry there are no pictures of the inside because I was having trouble with the red fabric and the flash.







This is a hat I crocheted for one of my sister's grands. I altered the pattern a little. The original was a color block thing I didn't really like.


 Here is best use of scraps ever! Even the tiniest of scraps. This is my rag garland! It's almost finished, only a few more feet to go.
It is so much fun to make my daughter even joined in on the fun.







Excuse the furry feet in this picture I guess Dusti wanted to join in on the fun also!I will post pictures of the paint job and the Christmas decorations soon.

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Nothing Finished!

 I am so behind! This time last year I had cookies baked by now!
I have a large family, two brothers, two sisters and lots of nieces and nephews and greats.
My sisters and brothers and I take turns having Christmas eve dinner. We go in age order, so as I'm the oldest last year was my turn again. I cleaned decorated and baked and cooked for weeks.
My brother-in-law took this picture because he was so impressed with the cookies.( he likes sweets, so that's not hard)
This year with the painting disrupting everything, I hope to make my first batch of  cookies today! Maybe?
On top of everything, I took before pictures of the rooms before we stated painting and I can't find them.
This is a picture of last years Christmas tree. I haven't decided on the color scheme for this year. Stay tuned. I hope to have pictures by next week. Unless  something else needs to be painted!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Last of the Painting!

Christmas Bazaar is this weekend! I'm adding these books to the ones I made before.  
I've made a few more potholders. There are two of these made from Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas. The mug rug above also includes 12 Days of Christmas.
This set has a dishcloth to match. I couldn't get it to photograph any better. 
Ok, back to painting!,

Monday, December 6, 2010

Happy Monday

Not much sewing going on around here this weekend! My wonderful husband and I painted the kitchen and family rooms. We started Saturday morning and as of 9:30 pm Sunday night still have one wall to go. The fun part hasn't even started yet. I still have to put stuff back. Like the collection of junk stuff that lives on top of my kitchen cabinets. ( you know plants, chickens, baskets oh my!) 
On Saturday I received my box from Connecting Threads filled with thread and all kinds of fabric. I hit the Cyber Monday sale. CT had 50% off all pre-cuts. Boy did I have fun. I got the 2 charm packs above called Sweet Remembrance. 
I got this Christmas fabric called Wrap It Up. This was  my original reason to buy fabric. I needed Christmas fabric. Lol
I got these beautiful solids! 24 fat quarters. 
And I got this dots and stripes 32 piece fat quarter pack. I can't wait to find a few minutes to play with my new fabrics.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Swap Blocks

Although they haven't quite made it into a quilt yet, I thought you might like to see the blocks I received last year. The East Coast group on Quilt With Us had a wonky star and house swap. The only restrictions were a cream or white back round.
The first two pictures are some of the blocks I sent out. 
The next three are the blocks I received.