CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS

I spent a couple days this past week working on making a couple of Christmas Stockings for my granddaughter and her boyfriend.  I ran across a free pattern provided by Bernina's We All Sew.  It actually gives patterns for three different stockings designs.  

The first one had you do a strip set of 7" by 16".  Then cut out these various shapes.

The first decoration was easily made.  The directions are so easy.  

Before I knew it I had them all put together and the stocking front was done.  

And in no time at all, just an afternoon for a couple hours a fully lined, quilted stocking was completed for my granddaughter.  

I decided to try the second stocking in a different pattern with some more manly fabric ideas.  The strip set was 17" by 20" and I had fun putting in some strips with some wording on them.  

The backing like the first one I made is just a cut from a single fabric.  However, I found this backing fabric that I used as one of the strips on the front worked really well.  It is just plain cute.  

I did discover that using invisible tape to hold the pattern on the fabric works so well.  No pinning to ruin the pattern and the tape comes right off the fabric with not problem.  On top of that the tape stays on the paper pattern and provides a nice strength for the pattern edges for future use.  

Both stockings were quilted with a diagonal straight stitch.  I used a Frixon pen to draw lines one inch apart, then the markings iron right off.  The lining is completely separate, so you quilt right on the fabric and batting.  I use thin cotton batting, and there didn't seem to be any problem with the feed dogs on the machine handling the batting against them.  

And stocking number two is done.  Actually the second one went faster than the first as I did not have to do the ornaments.  I think they are both so cute.  They have become somewhat addictive.  Wish I could find someone to make another for.  

For those chicken fans.  Here is Orbey.  The contractors came a couple weeks ago to construct a new chicken yard for him and his family of 26.  It seems he felt it necessary to supervise the construction site.  

My daughter's peacock Fred could care less, he was just too busy showing off.  

 Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

  

GIFTS

I'm not sure why I wait until the last month before Christmas to begin working on some gifts.  Earlier in the year I did complete two, but here I am this past week deciding I need two more.  

My guild has a Christmas dinner the second Tuesday in December. The exchange gift is a $10 item.  Well a gift certificate for JoAnn's seems rather plain and boring, so I made this little Christmas card holder to put it in.  all the fabric was in my stash, so there was no extra cost there.  I got the pattern on the internet for free.  It is so cute I should make one for myself.

The second gift I decided I wanted to work with some of my newer fall fabric stash.  I found a pattern that originally was done in Oriental fabric, but though this might work as well.

I still have the circles to appliqué and the other three sides to add their pieced borders than quilt it with some sort of leaf design and bind.  I like it and think it will finish up nicely.

My daughter's Africian tortious believes her chickens are getting much too much attention on my blog lately.  Her name is Morty, a rather masculine name for a lady.  No one knew she was a girl until my daughter took her to the vet for a check up.  However, the name stuck.  She weighs about 70 or 80 pounds now, and is an excellent lawn mower.  However, she has gotten into the vegetable garden now and again and cucumbers and squashes were on her menu. 

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

DANDELION WISHES

I have been on a bit of a mission to finish up some of my really old UFO's.  This particular quilt is a product of April 2008.   However, there is an interesting story of what has become such a long involved quilt finish.  
The piecing on this quilt was accomplished very quickly.  It was quilted and bound and should have been done.  But the pattern has appliqués on it which I had left off until the entire quilt was done.  My idea was to not have it quilted over the appliqués, so I choose to do them last and by hand.  

Here is one of the hand appliquéd flowers on it.  There are a total of 8 of them.  I quickly got the appliqué pieces ready to go back in 2008, but that is when things began to slow down a lot.
I have off and on picked this quilt up and worked on a flower here and there and it wasn't until this year I decided it was time to finish it up.  After all 11 years is really silly.  

This is flower number 9.  Just two more to go.

And this is the leaves and stem for number 10.  Just about ready to add the flower petals and then the center.  

That means there is only one more to go.  Yes, it will definitely be done this year.  

And for my blog followers that are fans of my daughter's chickens, here is Orbie and his ladies soaking up some of the winter sun.  My daughter purchased this patio set to sit out in the sunny morning and have her coffee.  Orbie and his crew seem to think that it was purchased for them.  

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Wednesday's Quilting and Learning Combo

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

CHILD'S QUILT, COLOR BLOCKS, AND THANKSGIVING

Busy this past week working on a new quilt for a little boy.  It is always fun to find fabric in my stash to quickly make a quilt.

So I cut the panel prints apart and started putting them back together with some borders.

And in no time at all it is ready to quilt and add the red binding.

Do you remember these color blocks.  Well I made 9 different color ways with 9 blocks each in them and finished the quilt top off this week.  

And the top is finished at 60 by 60 inches.  It will go to the charity division of my quilt guild in December with its prepped binding.

Time to pull out my Thanksgiving wall hanging.  This one is my favorite wall hanging for this time of year.  I made it several years ago and we enjoy it so much during the fall holiday.  

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers
Wednesday Quilting and Learning Combo
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

FINISH AND STARTS

I actually finished a piece and in relatively very quick time.  Considering some takes years this was an accomplishment.  

This was my first attempt at a completely done hand appliqué project.  My husband had knee joint placement and I knew I would be spending a good part of a couple days at the hospital so I decided to prepare this project to do while idling away hours and hours at the hospital.  

I also finished 36 of these 10.5 inch blocks to put together in a quilt for my guild's Warm Wrappings charity division.  I have had the Alison Glass fabric for a couple years now and have just not ever been crazy about them.  They are similar to Batiks.  I still had tons left over after I finished these blocks and have tucked them into a bag to give to my friend Michelle.  Now it is her turn to do something with them.  She makes quilts for Hospice so they will also go to a good cause.   

After starting my Flower Pot wall hanging and finding not only did I purchase a great deal of Kaffe Fassett fabrics I discovered I actually have some pretty wild fabrics in my stash as well.  So I got busy starting a new project with them.

This was just an experiment with these wild colored fabrics so I tried a couple blocks that end up 6.5 by 9.5 and I think they will be fun to fool around with.  

Oh, these are fun.  So I should have a good time mixing and matching these over the next few months and see how that goes.  

For my chicken fans out there when talking about wild colors here my daughter's chicken Patrick.

My daughter rescued him off the highway on the way home one day.  He wasn't very old and sense he was so pretty she named him Patricia thinking he was a hen.  Well Patricia turned out to be Patrick.  Here he is with some of his hens that he has adopted from the FFA project chicks that were part of my oldest grandson school project.  There are actually 9 hens for him to keep herd on.  That keeps him pretty busy.  

 Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Quilting and Learning Combo

FlOWER POT AND LITTLE MISS SAWTOOTH FINISH

I have been busy this past week.  I purchased this pattern last week and have started working on it with my Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  

I gathered up all my fabric.  I discovered I actually had a good deal of fabrics in my stash as well to work with what I had purchased at PIQF.  

I organized them by color and pulled out the pattern and started the process.  

Ready to start.  This panel is 18 by 42.  I am starting with just this as a wall handing for my entry.  I may later make the full quilt, but not right now.  

So far here is where I am.  I am using a fusible method.  So these blooms and leaves are ready to go once I get them all finished and I already have some 1/4 inch bias vines ready to go.  Just need to select a background once the rest of the blooms and leaves are done.

I did manage to complete my Little Miss Sawtooth quilt top.  It will go to my guild's charity division.  

My daughter lives out in the country, with very few neighbors and most far apart.  However, she did get one Trick or Treater at her door on Halloween.  His name is Fred, and he got his treat too.  One slice of bread.

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

QUILTING BIRDS OF A FEATHER

I finished the quilt top of my Birds of a Feather a few weeks ago.  I talked with several friends in my small group and all agreed I would have to quilt it myself.  Let's face it to take this to a quilter would drive them insane along with me and cost me a fortune as well.  If and when I quilt something myself I usually spray baste.  However, in this case I decided to take it to my quilter and have her baste it on her long arm six inches apart in a grid side to side and top to bottom.   

I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out what thread to use.  My original idea was 28wt Aurifil.  Well, not all their colors come in the small spools and there will be tons of thread color changes.  So I decided on using Mettler cotton 50wt and ran into the same problem.  At last I just decided to go with the Mettler that I had in my thread stash and use Coats and Clark poly along with it, as they have such a wide range of color choices.  

So the quilting begins.  I am finding since the appliqués fill  their backgrounds so heavily that in many of the blocks I will only have to quilt the leaves and other appliqués and not have to do much outside quilting on the background.  

I am using some pretty heavy stitching in the leaves.  I thought I liked this stitch as it stands out well and has little nubs of texture.  
However, I ran into a bit of a problem with it and ended up picking them out.  I found the stitch on the brown leaf actually showed up better and was easier to control the stitch starts and stops.

This is going to take a while.  I am quilting one block at a time.  I am pretty sure with all the appliqués if I don't I will miss something. 

For those of you that are fans of my daughters chickens.  Here are two of the last ten hatched by mother hen.  Look at that fancy hairdo on the black one.  They are standing in a new coop that my 13 years old grandson made for them.  

Since the population explosion of just 4 chickens to 27 there now is a new chicken yard.  Here are some of the new chicks enjoying a larger yard.  My daughter's husband loves her very much, he hired their contractor to build the new yard.  There was a deal struck though, they no longer free roam. He said 4 chickens pooping on the patio was one thing, but 27 was a way too much.   

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict