SUGAR AND SPICE AND . . .

Well the quilts for my husband's new great niece and nephew aren't quite "sugar and spice" and "snakes and snails". 

Instead this is Chocolate Lollipop from one of daughter Anna Maria's early fabric collections

And instead of snakes and snails, the other is  bugs, frogs and fish that I found a couple years ago at one of my favorite quilt shops.

So those gifts are all packed and ready to head with us to Greece tomorrow.

And I just finished  couple new pillow cases that I made to go with a quilt that I have there.  The quilt is not quite big enough for the queen size bed, but I think with the addition of the pillows at the head of the bed, it will be just about right and the quilt's  sashing has a flying geese pattern some of the pillowcase fabric--a pattern from Anna Maria's Bohemian, her first fabric line.)

So now I guess it's time to clean up the sewing room, get the rest of the Christmas decorations put away, finish packing, and make final arrangements with the house sitter.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all.  Hope it's a year filled with lots of stitchin' and knittin'. Oh, yes, I will have my needles and some yarn in the suit case too!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

WISHING  YOU  AND  YOURS  

A VERY . . .

After my Dad retired, he took up latch hooking.  He made this for me and one for my sister.

May your Christmas memories be as wonderful as mine!

A COUPLE CHRISTMAS GOODIES . . .

Well, my time at the sewing machine has not included very much quilting lately.  I have finished the grandchildren's PJs for Christmas.  My husband keeps joking with me, asking if I'm still going to be making them pajamas when they are 40!  I have actually cut back a bit:  at my daughter's suggestion a couple years ago, I just make the pants and add coordinating t-shirts for the tops.  That seems to be what they like to wear anyway.  I do still make a nightgown for the "girly-girly" 9 year old!  I also decided this year that it's kind of silly for this mediocre skilled seamstress to be sewing something for a fashion design major, so the oldest will get something different.  (In case you are reading this, Juliana, I'm not saying what!)  

I have used my sewing machine to get back to some embroidery though.  It's always fun and rewarding; I really should do it more often.  These are all boxed up and ready to go to my sister.  I'm sure you realize that the towel on the right is NOT embroidery.  It's a fun border print fabric.

Still doing some knitting with leftover yarn.  This will be a gift for my goddaughter's step daughter.

I've made a few more hats for our church groups collection for area refugees, but forgot to take photos before I donated them.  Two are like this one, but without top fun yarn--one with the red shag yarn and another with white.  They were LOTS of fun to do.

I've also finished a hat for my husband and am working on one for my son.  More on that next time.

STASH BUSTING KNITTING

I've done lots of fabric stash busting to make charity quilts. Now, in the past few weeks I've taken that to a bit of a different level and made hats scarves and mittens for our church's ladies charity group who are collecting warm clothing for a local refugee services organization.

It was lots of fun.  To make it go a bit faster, I used double strand yarn so I could use bigger needles.  In fact, I also did a "triple strand" scarf that I guess I forgot to take a photo of.  It was 2 strands of the baby pink with one strand of the hot pink (the remaining yarn from the hat and scarf in the photo below).

Hope you are all staying nice and cozy as winter approaches.

A BABY SHOWER and PROJECT LINUS

Well, I've finally finished the quilts that I started a couple months ago.  I had pieced them in September, "sandwiched" them at my quilting retreat in October and finally finished the quilting this week so I could drop them off at my local yarn shop that is the drop off place for Project Linus.  These four are sized for babies.

These three are for larger children; these top two are machine quilted.  

 But I did decide to "tie" this one since the sashing and backing are chenille.

And this last one is for a baby shower gift.  The background fabrics (as well as the backing) are a light weight flannel -- stripe and plaid that I though would be just right for the expected baby boy.

It was lots of fun.  Now it's time go get back to working on the Christmas pajamas for the grandchildren!

I'M HERE; I'M HERE . . .

Yep, I'm here.  I promise I didn't get lost!  It's just been a busy couple weeks.  After we returned from visiting our son and family in NY, I had a couple days at home before I went to Nashville to babysit for my daughter Anna Maria while she was in Houston at quilt market.


While at her home I was able to play in her studio and use her new Janome Horizon 7700.  Wow what a difference a sewing machine with a larger throat makes.  I was able to machine quilt my friend's 63" x 63" inch quilt.  (And I can show it to you since I gave it to her yesterday.

I did very little knitting while I was in Nashville.  By the time the children (5) were in bed, I was ready for bed myself!
However I was able to finish my sweater after I got home and I actually wore it yesterday.

Now I'm getting ready to work on a baby shower quilt and some hats for a charity project that our church women's group is participating in.  That will be a wonderful way to use up some leftover stash yarn.

This is the plan for my quilt.  There will be 9 of these 9 patches to make a 36" quilt.

So the quilting and knitting continues.

A BUSY WEEK

 It has been a busy week.  I spent the first 4 days of last week with my on-line quilting friends at a lovely retreat center in North Carolina.  This is a view from outside my cabin.  Isn't it lovely?
And in reality the colors were even more vibrant than this.  (The photo was taken on a cloudy morning.)

There were 25 of us this year.  We have grown a bit each year, with only 7 ladies the first year 4 years ago.

These are a few of the "show and tell" quilts that the ladies brought with them to show their handiwork.
This was started by our dear friend Jan Mynatt who passed away in June.  Her work is impeccable!

 These are a few of the other quilts that my friends have made over the past months.  There were many others, but unfortunately I was so busy trying to get my quilt pieced that I didn't take too many photos.

 Their quilts made this one of mine look quite simple by comparison.

I returned home on Thursday afternoon, just in time to unpack and repack for a trip to New York to visit our son and his family.  It was a great time to visit.  His church was putting on a performance of "Annie" which was wonderful.  All the child actors were members of the youth choir and their voices were quite good.  (Even my husband who expected to be totally bored REALLY enjoyed it!

This is our family portion of the cast:  daughter in law and their three oldest children.  A Nani has to brag a bit, right?

So that's what I've been up to.  I also did get a bit of knitting done while I was gone and this morning I started the blocking process for my sweater.  Gotta get that quilt sandwiched and quilted pretty quickly too.