Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'll be heading out to make the hour trip to my daughter's house shortly.  My contributions to dinner are ready to go - deviled eggs and BBQ smokies.  I'm thankful today that my son-in-law and daughter are cooking!   

Ten little ornaments are done, except 6 still need ribbon for hanging. But they are turning out so cute! I had most of yesterday off work and my husband spent the whole day sleeping off whatever "bug" he came home with.  So I had LOTS of quiet sewing time.  And he is staying home today so he doesn't share whatever he has with the rest of the family.  I promised to leave him some smokies as a treat.

I also kitted up ten more ornaments yesterday using scraps from my drawer of Christmas fabrics.  A couple more Santa faces will appear, plus stockings, and peppermint candies.  And last but not least I found the piece of fabric with the poinsettias and holly leaves.  

Usually my tree goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but it's so late this year that I've been wanting to get it set up NOW. However, this is all the further I got - 2 of the 10 branch sections up the stairs.  Everything else is still down in the basement.  The stairs are getting to be one of the biggest frustrations to navigate, so multiple trips carrying stuff just wasn't going to happen.  

Maybe tomorrow I'll get everything up here so I can set up the tree and get it decorated. I'm ready for some Christmas cheer in the house. 

Saturday Sampler block #5

The colors on these photos are pretty accurate to the batiks we used this month for our Saturday Sampler blocks. Block #5 was made entirely of half square triangles so it was super easy. The hardest part of getting the units in the correct locations and turned the correct direction to make the pinwheel effect in this block. 

Playing with scraps and fat quarters

I kitted up 4 more of the Christmas ornaments and pulled out a cute vintage reproduction fat quarter pack that I think will make some wonderful ornaments as well.  The kits are all from more scraps.  I don't mind cutting into the fat quarters for some ornaments because I think they will be VERY cute with the Santa faces fussy cut into the centers. That plaid will be a fun binding. 

Distracted by squirrels - again

I saw these little Christmas ornaments online and just HAD to make some.  So - now there are 4.5” star Christmas ornaments.  I still need to add ribbon hangers. And I might need to make a few more.

This is another great way to use of scraps. 

Check out some Design Wall Monday posts:  https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

5 pillowcases done

All 5 pillowcases for the grandkids are done and ready to put into their stockings.  That's my little tradition - a new pillowcase at Christmas every year.  And sometimes they get one on their birthdays too.  The 2 bigger boys get the golf themed cases, and the 4 year old gets Batman, which will go great with his Batman bedding.  And the 2 girls get the reindeer/polar bear/gnome pillowcases.

This fabric was so adorable that I couldn't resist buying it - back in the summer.  Don't ask me what fabric line it is however, because I trimmed those selvages when I kitted up these pillowcases.  And the selvage is buried in the bin with thousands of other pieces of selvage. 

I had the morning home alone to sew today, so besides the pillowcases I made 4 little ornaments (photos coming another day), and sewed some about a dozen of the pink Hunters Star blocks together.  My goal next week is to make my 2 Saturday Sampler blocks, so the pattern and fabric for them is laying on my cutting board.  Then I can finish up those pink blocks and trim them all up so I can figure out my layout. 

Happy weekend sewing!!

Lunch hour sewing

Today work has taken over my life - except for my lunch hour.  I'm working on final revisions to a set of plans and specifications to prep for a bid letting.  As soon as I finish writing this post it's back to work, and sending out the notifications to the contractor and supplier lists.  Once that happens my email will probably begin to "blow up" for a few days. Yikes!!

In his younger years, Sammy would have gleefully rearranged these blocks that I was laying out on the floor while my lunch was reheating. But he's a more dignified old gentleman these days and just comes to supervise.  My pink block halves for La Caribe (Hunter's Star) needed to be paired up so none of the blocks end up with any repeated fabrics.  Two blocks are already sewn, but the other 22 are now pinned into pairs and ready to sew when I get a chance. 

The other little task I finished was to stitch the cuffs and trim onto 3 pillowcases for the grandkids.  I use the sausage roll method so all of the seams are inside the cuff.  French seams will encase all of the bottom and side seams.  Voila!!!  No raw edges.  I'll get these finished up over the weekend, or maybe Friday afternoon if I can get away from my desk.  

Apple Basket finish

The most recent completed project is Apple Basket.  This mini quilt is a Kim Diehl design and finished at about 16" square.  It's one of my favorites from her patterns so far. 

I quilted it on my machine with a simple diagonal "echo" square, and used a medium tan thread on the beige, dark red, and black prints.  And as usual the colors look so different in the 2 photos.  This bottom photo is pretty close to the real colors.  I especially love the sweet black floral print used in the border.