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.