Hotpads for bowls

This cute item was a gift from my cousin Julie for Christmas. It might be one of the most clever things I've seen in a while . . . a microwave hotpad for bowls.

You set the bowl into the bowl-shaped hotpad (this one is upside down to show off the pretty fabric), and then set the whole thing into the microwave. It makes it really easy to remove from the microwave when it's hot.  How clever is that! 

Thanks Julie. It has already been used and it worked perfectly! Love it!

Strippee Owls

This whole quilt top took about 2.5 hours to make, including the time used to cut the strips. It is the cutest owl fabric. Cindy at The Pin Cushion helped me pick out the other fabrics for the focus stripe and the narrow stripe. She has a great sense of color and I love being able to get advice from her.

This quilt will be headed to Australia this spring for a new baby coming into our extended family.

Press n Seal update

I finally got a chance to work on my "Press n Seal" project again. My friend Moneik guessed right away that I was going to use it to trace my quilting design and sew over it. I got 1 section done this morning and it worked very well. Much better than trying to free motion quilt - which I have not talent for whatsoever.

Another scrap project

Potholders - another solution for the larger scraps in my bin. I had 2 "chunks" of these coffee themed fabrics left over from a couple of tablerunners. And I have leftover pieces of batting. So, a double layer of batting sandwiched between the 2 fabrics and I had quick potholders. And I actually needed these in my kitchen.

A rag quilt

Since our family celebrated our Christmas on Sunday, it left me with a couple of quiet days at home. I've taken advantage of that quiet to sew. One project was to start a rag quilt using my flannel scraps and denim leftovers. I have a good start with lots of squares and rectangles stitched together.

Pillowcases for a cause

Yesterday I mailed these 3 pillowcases to Connecticut for a project that is collecting 600 pillowcases to give to the children of Newtown, CT.

I initially read about this project on Canton Village Quilt Works blog and knew that I could contribute something. I had these pillowcases already made so they went right into the mail.  It is such a small thing, but I hope that the bright colors bring a smile to some faces following such a horrific event in their community.

If you want to send pillowcases too, follow my link for the mailing address.  The goal is December 27th, so time is short with the holiday in there. 

A new quilting tool

This is a new quilting tool that I am trying out this week. Can you guess what I'm going to do with it?

Come back for more information . . .

Geraniums in winter

Another Saturday Sampler block is complete. This one is a flower pot of Bloomin' Geraniums. 

The only change I made with this one was the fabric for the flower pot. We received a pretty warm brown, but I thought it looked too dark against my black background. So I dug into my batik stash and found this one to substitute.  I think this contrast is much better.

Rubber duckies

I made another self-binding baby blanket today. This one has a yellow and light blue rubber ducky flannel. So cute and quick and easy.

Playing with bigger Hexies

The previous hexie projects I've worked on used 3/4" finished hexies. But I just bought a Moda Candy mini charm pack (2.5" pre-cuts) in Marmalade . . . and immediately decided they would be perfect as hexies.

So I printed off paper foundations for some larger hexies. These finish about 2" and I'm stitching them together to use for a spring project I have in mind. 

And I've decided that the smaller ones are actually easier to handle. But then again maybe it is my arthritic hands!

A small UFO

I have a small child-sized quilt that finally got its binding!  This is my L'il Darlings quilt that was a Wash Tub Club project made with 1930's reproduction fabrics and a panel that I cut apart. 

This little pink and white and blue quilt has vertical rows of blocks separated by vertical sashing. And all of the centers of the blocks are fussy cut from the panel and set in square-in-a-squares. The pictures are all children that look like they came directly out of a 1930's elementary school reader.

Carly quilted it for me with a large open floral design and the binding matches the sashing.  Now it just needs a label and I'll be able to remove it from my UFO list.

Christmas stocking circa 2004

I'm retiring this appliqued Christmas stocking this year.  I made it several years ago to replace my oldest daughter's stocking the year she "took" hers to hang in her own home.  This one is a little small, so I'm replacing her stocking again this year with something slightly larger. 

When she was a baby I made her a cute counted cross stitch stocking with her name on it. Of course that stocking was hung every year at our house, even after she moved away to college and had her own apartment.  But once she bought a house of her very own she decided she needed to have her own stocking.  So - I made this stocking to replace that one at our house.  And now it is going to find a new home somewhere else.

November block for Saturday Sampler

This was an interesting block to make because the flowers appear to float on the background.  But it does echo the layout for one of the earlier blocks - which I've pictured below. 

The 4 little flowers are all done with a square-in-a-square technique.  So there is the inner dark blue square with 4 light blue triangles added to the sides. Then 4 larger black triangels were added to make the final square.

Very quick to make but mine turned out just a little too small, so I've had to adjust my seam allowance slightly to make the whole block come out correctly.

These will be set on point in the finished quilt.  I want to do something with the sashing to pick up on the batik colors but have not decided yet what I will do.  Any ideas out there?

Gifts from friends

A big thank you to my friend Mary who gave me this magazine on Saturday.  It is a French quilting magazine that someone brought her from a trip to France. 

Once she was done enjoying this magazine she decided to pass it along to me.  I'm a lucky "femme" - because there are some really neat projects in here.  And it will be a great opportunity to refresh my French language skills.

I really think I need to play with the paper pieced blocks in the cover photo. Aren't they spectacular?

60 degree TREES #2

I have finished the second of two 60 degree table runners that used this same red and green Christmas tree fabric.  It is always interesting how different they look just by cutting the fabric in a different spot. 

This one has a row of "Ho-Ho-Ho" showing up around the center. The other one has a row of ornaments toward the outside area.  I put a striped candy cane binding on both.  I'm keeping this one, but giving the other one away as a gift.

Finally - the label is done

I finally remembered to take a picture of this label. This is on the back of the Christmas Friendship Block Exchange quilt that I just put the binding on.  I should have called it the Procrastination Quilt - because we made and exchanged the blocks back in 2009.  And here it is 3 years later that it is finally completely done.

As a matter of fact it is covering up my sick husband on the couch as I write this. He has a nasty cold, and needed a morning nap under a quilt.