Part Two of Four ~ Finished Quilts

The next one I completed was a Christmas Sampler. 

The blocks were made for by the lovely ladies in the Christmas in July Mini Bee.

This one was a gift.

For my Mom (and Dad)

Quilted with the wavy lines again.

She loves it.

even told me she's gonna keep it out all year.

She'll just flip it over to the backing.

The cornerstones are signature squares I sent out with my fabric for the month.

Scrappy binding.

I think it turned out better than I had hoped.

Part One of Four ~ Finished Quilts ~

4 Quilts in two weeks. 

First I completed the this one, for Miss Mae.

Not a gift, just WAY overdue.  The top has been done and hanging in the closet for almost a year.

Pink Scrappy Bargello.  It's big enough just to lay on top of her bed, with no overhang.

I quilted it in pink with my new favorite wavy lines.

And the back was pieced from my stash.

Actually, the entire quilt is leftovers and remnant bin finds.

both girls have dresses made out of the pink cherries, and Miss Mae's 3rd birthday dress was made from the white with little flowers on it.   {Yikes!  that was five years ago!}

There are memories attached to almost all the pieces in it.

Each quilt I finished in December will get it's own post, so stay tuned!

I was out of the kitchen for two minutes.

seriously.

two minutes.

120 seconds.

The Fabric Fairy Visits Again

I am seriously slacking this time. 

I received this packet before Christmas but kept waiting to blog about it until I had actual time and didn't feel so rushed.

It arrived nicely wrapped and tied with a selvage string.

So cute!  I totally have to remember that!

the fabrics are awesome.

S'matter of fact, the print with the lemons on it?  I think I'm in love.

It will be transformed into something for my brand new kitchen.

maybe paired with the orange print next to it.  hmm....

and the linen cameras?  totally wonder-iffic.

The packet also came with a note, reminding me that I'm supposed to use these to create stuff for myself and not to give it away.

So again, thank you Fairy of Fabric Happiness.

I am ever grateful.

unbelievable fortunate to know such wonderful people.

wow. a lot of sewing.

Where to begin?

One project at a time.

Stockings.

My sister (Emmy's) first sewing attempt was a huge success.  I whipped up a sample, just to make sure my method was correct.

Took me about an hour.

Super cute, no?

mini red pom-poms!

 

these wavy lines are my new favorite quilting stitch.

(you'll be seeing more of them)

My machine does it all by itself and it works with the walking foot.

I loosely followed this tute - mostly the part about sewing in the lining all pretty.

Emmy did awesome.

Took her three or four nights to finish everything.

It was the first time I'd taught an adult.

She did all the cutting, pinning, sewing and quilting. 

She only had to re-cut 2 pieces and rip out one seam. (she did rip out that one seam three times...)

She did all the quilting, and when it wasn't perfect, I explained that she meant to do it that way, it's called "organic quilting"

we laughed.

a lot.

might have been the late hours - she could only come over after all the kids (hers and mine) were in bed.

it was fun

I totally hope she wants to sew again.

12 Days of Christmas

Here's my 12 Days of Christmas Banner/Bunting.

I adore it.

First time in a LONG time I made something for myself.

Thank you, Fabric Fairy.

It is BY FAR my favorite Christmas decoration.

Well, it's probably a tie with this

Seriously - if you have kids, this is the best nativity there is.  I have a fancy-smancy one too, but I don't set it up.  The visitors that Jesus gets are amazing.  Zhu-zhu pets, spiderman, transformers, polly-pockets, princesses....

Giveaways

There are two great giveaways going on right now.

Amber at A Little Bit Biased is giving away a "Pure" Layer Cake, her "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" quilt pattern and her newest pattern Star Bright.

 

check it out!

The fabulous Tracey at traceyjay quilts is giving a way a AccuGo fabric cutter.

You can enter here. 

Tracey is also starting the charity Quilt Hope In, which will raise money for Heartline Ministries by selling contributed handmade items in their etsy store.  Heartline Ministries supports women and children in Haiti.

Chocolate Three Ways Cookies

Heaven.

• 1 3/4 cups flour 
• 1/2 cups baking cocoa 
• 1 tsp baking soda 
• 1 14-oz cans Sweetened Condensed Milk 
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp (or so) vanilla extract 
• 2 cups chocolate chips, divided 
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), cut into chunks

Notice anything missing?

sugar.

no kidding.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix flour, cocoa and baking soda in bowl. Set aside.

Combine condensed milk, egg and vanilla in a small bowl. (I use a 4-cup liquid measuring cup.) Mix well.

Melt 1 cup chocolate chips and butter in large saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth.

Remove from heat, stir in condensed milk mixture. Yup. Into the saucepan. Mix well.

Stir in flour mixture. You’ll have some small lumps.

Stir in remaining 1 cup chocolate chips. It will be a sticky, gooey mess.

Drop by teaspoonful (I use a 1 tbsp measure) on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 7-ish minutes - until the edges are set, but the centers aren't. Let stand for a couple of minutes.

  

heaven.

 chewy, chocolately heaven.

 If you’re a peppermint addict like I am, you can add a couple of drops of peppermint extract with the vanilla. You can even dress them up pretty to take to a party. Just dust them with powdered sugar.

If you can manage to bake all the dough without hiding any in the back of the fridge, you should get about 3 ½ dozen.



Catching Up on Bee Blocks

I made a dent in catching up on my bee blocks.

Elizabeth wanted blocks inspired by the drunk love quilt.

 

Jodi wanted snowflake blocks based on this bake shop recipe.

they have a tiny bit of applique on them, which I completely stressed about - Applique scares me.

This marks the last month of this bee.  I've enjoyed it, but I'm very happy to have one less thing on my plate.

Wendy sent some super 30s reproduction prints and told us to have fun.  I REALLY don't want to send these back!

pretty, no?

last but not least, I was part of the first round of My Favorite Little Quilt Swap.  This was a neat swap!  You build a mini and then send pictures to the moderator you posts them to the group.  After the deadline, everyone vote on which they like best, the moderator determines who gets what based on the favorites, you send yours away, THEN you find out who made what.  I can't wait to find out which one I'll receive!

My entry was Bitty Blue.

Front

Back

The squares finished at 1/2".

tiny.

she's on her way to her new home!

Friday's Fabric Goodness!

I had a totally AWESOME package crammed into my mailbox on Friday.

maybe I need to look into getting a bigger box....

Anyway, I got a wonderful surprise from AUSTRALIA!  Yup.  Wow!

Someone halfway around the world cared enough to add a bit of happiness to my weekend.

Really, it did make it all better.

Wanna see what was in it?

Transportation Fabrics!  Linen Transportation Fabrics!

These are totally great.  Especially since they aren't boyish.

They're pretty gender neutral, which is great because girls like helicopters too.

I also played a bit with that panel the original Fabric Fairy sent my way.  I even convinced Mr Chaos that I couldn't finish the project without a yard of fabric from the expensive fabric store.  It was on sale, but yipes!  $7.50 a yard still hurts a bit.  Can't imagine buying enough for a whole project in there!

I finished it, but have yet to take a picture.

The kids have had a blast singing the song every time they see it.

Last night my sister and a friend came over after the kids were in bed and we watched  listened to White Christmas while I taught my sister how to make quilted stockings for her family.

She, who has never touched a sewing machine and only uses a needle and thread to sew up ripped bears and lovies, wants to make stockings.

5 of them.

We got everything cut out last night, no actual sewing.  She was so funny.

"this is way more involved than I thought it would be, I mean, 4 layers!"

(front, back, and two lining pieces..we haven't added any batting yet!)

hopefully I'll remember to take pictures next time we work on finishing them.

and I need to take a picture of the sample I whipped up to make sure my process was good before teaching someone else. It turned out super cute.

Oh well.

December.

Craziness on top of chaos.

happy days.

Thursday...Again

This has to be one of the best uses for a quilt.

Where's the baby you ask?

Baby A is pulling all the dish towels out of the drawer (which is why they are in the bottom drawer)

Baby B is trying to figure out what the heck a potato masher is for (again stored in a bottom drawer on purpose)

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

When I finally got home on late Saturday night early Sunday morning.

I was exhausted by the time I got to my car at the airport.

Then I had to spend 15 minutes thawing and scraping all the ice off the windows.

then drive home in the yucky cold rain.

I finally made it home and found my mailbox STUFFED with wet mail. 

This was in the mail.  luckily it had be sent in a plastic envelope, so nothing was wet.

Rapunzel!  and Sushi!  and Gnomes!

From Canada!

For those of you that are following, this makes 7 packages.

Seven wonderful bits of happiness.

I am so completely blown away by all of the caring, kind people out there.

Thank you.

I know I'm supposed to use all of them for me, but I feel like I need to give back in some way, so I want to give away a few things.

More than likely I'll be using stuff from my stash and not these beautiful fabrics, I haven't had enough of a chance to pet them!  Can't use them yet!

I did manage to finish The Boy's quilt.  The top has been sitting in the closet for about a year.  He wasn't too sure about the idea of spending the whole weekend away from home, so I told him that he could sleep with this and pretend I was giving him hugs to keep him warm.

May I present:

Holy Wonky Rails, Batman!

It finished at about 54"x60"

It's not perfect by any means, but done is better than perfect.

I pieced the back, making it a bit more subdued so he can flip it over when he's "too old" for Batman.

He doesn't care that it isn't perfect.  Or that the quilting isn't even and smooth.

He loves it.  and really, that's all that matters.