Got Some Sewing Done Today

Finally, today I got to get back to my sewing machine and do some sewing that wasn't rush, rush for some specific deadline. I didn't do anything fantastic, just a set of blocks for a block drive for Alycia Carmin's QOV project. Actually the deadline for getting blocks in was the end of November, while I was embroiled in Christmas sewing. It's OK, I know they can still use the blocks for making QOV quilts at her group's sew days.

The pattern is very simple...go the the link above for the full directions. These blocks are in patriotic colors, but it would make a great scrappy quilt. It really does need the side strip to be one color or color family for contrast.

Now I'm off to bed.

Happy New Year everyone.

Christmas---Lots Of Pictures

Count your blessings...these are only a few of what I took.  Click them to biggy-size.

Frank Sinatra hat--Daddy is a Frank fan.

Our cutest little Christmas elf!

The feast.

Let's get these presents opened.

On to the next ones!

Ooohhhh, we love these!

Her very own grocery cart.

Grandson's sports themed quilt with the Pittsburgh Steelers fabric on the back.

I think she likes it!

See what I got, Grandpa?

That thick, fleece lined stocking hat is coming in handy about now.

Daughter's throw-sized Jelly Roll Race quilt...in bright colors, as requested.

Always some silliness going on!

Cookie break! Ollie is hoping they drop some.

More silliness.

Pie break!

We had a great day. It was so much fun to watch the two little ones enjoy their first real Christmas. Last year they were present, but at three months old they weren't doing much.  Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas too.

Another One For The History Books

Another Christmas Day is about over. It goes all too fast. We spend hours upon hours shopping, creating, decorating, cleaning cooking....and in just a few hours it's over. It was fun though. Watching 15 month old twins tear into their presents and then play and play is great entertainment. It seemed everyone else liked their gifts too. I made quilts for Daughter and Oldest Grandson and now that they have them I can share pictures.

Daughter showed me a picture of a raggy type quilt that looked a lot like this, but was a lot more fussy work than I like to do, so a Jelly Roll Race quilt it was. She requested bright colors and this jelly roll was about the brightest I could find.

Oldest Grandson and I had talked about a quilt for his room at Easter. He wanted blue and a sports theme and this is the result. The back is a Pittsburgh Steelers fabric and exactly matches the wallpaper border in his room. He's a great Steelers fan!

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas and now we can look forward to the New Year....a new start.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

May the season bring you joy.

Playing Along

Bonnie Hunter announced today that she would be hosting a Christmas Eve Linky Party tomorrow where we can share pictures of our favorite quilty Christmas projects. The Linky will go live at 5am.....needless to say my link to this blog post will be posted later.  :)  I'm not a morning person and make no apologies for it.

Anyway, here are two of my favorite Christmasy projects:

Christmas table topper started at an Orchard Quilter's meeting probably 9 or 10 years ago. I've used it every year since.

Roll, Roll Cotton Boll made from a Bonnie Hunter mystery pattern. It's the closest I come to having a Christmas quilt.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Frosty Morning

Our frosty morning after the heavy fog we had yesterday and last night.

It would have been so much prettier with some sunshine.....which we haven't seen for well over a week now.

How Do They Know???

Today I'm just about finished quilting the last gift quilt for Christmas. It's not very big and the machine is stitching perfectly. Yesterday was a whole other story!

How do machines know when you want to get something finished and time is running short? I got the quilt loaded, the machine was oiled, the bobbins were wound, put in a new needle. The first row or two went pretty good but I noticed some little loopies on the back so tightened up the upper tension---a couple of times. That didn't do any good so I switched bobbins. Nope. Re-threaded the machine. Nope. Switched top thread from Perma-Core to Maxi-Lock. Better but now we have skipped stitches. Finally consulted the troubleshooting section of the manual and it suggested a larger size needle. Switched them out and.....wait for it.......SUCCESS!!!  The last two and a half rows of the quilt look really great. :)  Oh, well.....it's going to an 11-yr. old non-quilter so I doubt he'll ever notice that the back isn't quite perfect. No pictures yet, but I'll be sure to get some before the quilts get wrapped.

Are you ready for Christmas?? I'm resigned to the fact that not everything that I would like to get done will get done. But, there will be presents and food and what doesn't get done can wait until later. There's no sense half-killing myself over things nobody else will notice and there's no sense being too exhausted to enjoy the day with the family.

And, I forgot to mention.....today was a SNOW DAY!!! Nothing better than a snow day. It's kind of a bonus day and I look forward to them like a little kid. Rain, snow, wind, but I didn't have to go out in it...it's all good.

Now, back to that last quilt.