Happy Belated Turkey Day

I sure hope that everyone got their fill of Turkey and the fixin's, because I know I did. Time goes by so fast that it was great to spend some quality time with friends and family.

While I haven't managed to get to posting lately, but I have finished a couple of Christmas quilts. Both of which I am very excited about. The first one shown here, is McKenna Ryan's new "Once Upon a Star" quilt. With my love for the arctic and anything that McKenna Ryan comes up with, this was at the very top of my "have to have" list when it was released this spring.

I will keep you in suspense with my other one for a few days! :-)

Did anyone get up and do some Black Friday shopping?? I looked thru the ads and decided that I really didn't need anything, but my annual pilgrimage to JoAnn's fabrics just had to happen. I needed nothing, but managed to come out of there with 5 sacks of stuff that I didn't need. How do these things happen??????? I did stock up on quilt batting and thread, and I bought fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's new Carolina Christmas quilt on Quiltville.com, but I still have no idea how this happens. It's a sickness I tell you. It really is! :-) :-)

Have a great weekend. Hope you get to some of those holiday projects yourself. The clock is ticking and time is running out. I can't believe Christmas is less than 1 month away now. Yikes!

Color Play-Wanna play?

While I finished up quilting some of my Christmas quilts, I thought I would share my favorite fall wall hanging with you. This is from the Mt Redoubt Designs book, 'tis the Season. By now, I am sure that everyone is aware that fusible applique is really my passion. Fast easy and the details that you get just can't be beat. Letitia Hutchings from Mt Redoubt is another one of my favorite designers. Her creative eye just blows me away. I bought his kit a few years back and when I was checking out the gal at the register mentioned that the fabrics in the store display were not the same as the ones in the kit. It was the store display that really grabed my eye. I was so disappointed that the fabric wasn't the same, that I put it on a shelf and didn't touch it for a couple of years. :-( It surfaced last fall, and I decided that even though I really didn't care for the fabrics in the kit, I would make it up since I bought the darn thing.

Well, who would have ever thought, but I was blown away with the finished project. I don't even remember what the original fabrics were that I fell in love with, but this one was beautiful. The first thing to jump out at me when I opened the package was the pink color. Just who would put pink in with nice warm fall oranges and blues????? It amazes me still that when I look at the finished product, I don't even notice the pink any more.

So now I get to thinking, how far can I go with colors and still find it satisfying to the eye? HUMMMMMMM This looks like it could be a challenge for me to take up next year! Anyone want to join in?

Looks like I need to take a photography class too. Every quilt photo makes things look like the are crooked, and they aren't! Really! :-)

Lamenting

As the snow falls, I sit and lament on how little fabric dyeing I managed to get to this summer. Brought on, no doubt, by with this lovely little pair of underwear that just found it's way in and out of my laundry. A friend and I did these for those "special" men in our lives a couple of summers ago. We laughed so hard that day, dreaming up yet more new and exciting ways to irritate them! Her husband thought they were a hoot and proceeded to wear his. My guys... well that was a different story. My youngest got a laugh out of them and eventually wore them (as a last resort)if he ran out of clean laundry. My older one and my husband were horrified by them. I was rather shocked to find these, in the laundry this week. My husbands found their way to the trash long ago, and my youngest lives 3000 miles away! Hummmmm Someone must be holding out their laundry on me!! But after next weekend, it won't be my concern. He will be moving into his own house and his the laundry responsibilities will fall on someone other than me!! Oh Darn! :-) Guess that gives me more time to do the stitching that I love so much.

I took a wonderful class the past 3 weeks, for a Christmas tree wall hanging. We ended it yesterday with practicing free motion quilting. We played on scrap fabrics and I was amazed at what fun we had. I put some of the techniques to work on a Christmas quilt that I finished up last night. Hope to stitch the binding down and have it posted real soon!

Hope your holiday projects are coming along. The clock is ticking!

So much to do, So little time

As those holidays approach, I am finding that I have way too many things I wanted to get done. I am going to have to give in and hope will be done for next year it seems, but I did get this little table topper finished this week. If you check out
http://melsownplace.blogspot.com/ you can find the pattern, that she so generously posted for us all. It's quick, easy and a great way to use some of your nickel squares up. I did a little adjusting of mine. Mostly because I didn't read the instructions. Oh well, the nice part of quilting is that you have the liberty of changing things to your liking. I am going to consider this to my liking and not that I didn't read thru things! :-O

One suggestion I have is that you really look at your border fabrics. Many times you are able to take parts of it, and incorporate them as appliques. That is exactly what the Angels are. You could adapt this method to just about any type of piecing. A flower from a floral print scattered across a quilt block might just be the thing to spice up things. How about a bear appliqued to a Bear Paw block! The ideas are endless.

I am heading back to the "sweat shop" (LOL) to work on a few more holiday projects. See you soon!

Took a little side step this week and started working on some towel sets. I have embroidered towels for many years now, but it wasn't until staying with a friend a couple years back, I was introduced to her grandmothers great bath mats. She just took a towel folded it in half, put quilt batting in between,(and this is the perfect place, to piece all those left over ends of quilt batting together) then just few little lines of stitching on it to keep things in place. Voila! If you have never stood on one of these, you don't know what your missing. Top that off with easy washing and they wear like no others, I will never purchase another bath mat again. It was such a simple idea, and simply wonderful. I have made plenty of them, and have even done personalized ones for the fishing lodge in Alaska that my youngest works at. I've had their clients wanting them too. They are really great!

As I said, I usually embroider towels sets, but this year I needed Disney's Cars theme. I found the perfect ribbon for them, so there you have it, even faster yet! This is actually for my oldest son, who is moving out!! Yep you heard me, at 27, he finally bought himself a new home. First time out on his own! He is a race car driver, so the cars theme for his new bathroom was a perfect fit. He actually approved the whole idea too! What we are both on the same page about something?
:-) I found the soap dispenser and tooth brush holder in "Cars" theme at Target, and they are too darn cute. He might not have much in the rest of the place, but his bathroom is going be just great!!

As a mom, sending your kids out on there own, you want nothing but the best for them. Not sure my shopping has actually added to that, but I can't stop myself from buying things like dish soap, laundry detergent, bathroom cleaner, toilet brushes and plungers. I am sure he will be just "thrilled" with his new goodie basket!! OR NOT! LOL!!

So as I prepare for his leaving, my husband is going thru his own little faze of this process. They are quite close, and he must be really dreading this next faze of life. The man who throws a fit every time any of us have brought a new pet home, found himself a new friend this week.


Meet Murphy, our new wild child. It's been so long since we have had a kitten, that I forgot just how darn cute they are. This guy is a fireball. He hasn't stopped running and exploring since he got here. It didn't take him more than about 3 minutes to decided that he was king of this castle and has spent every moment since proving that to us all! It's like raising a child all over again! Whew. I am sure there will be many adventures of Murphy in "quilting trouble" to come! That writing is on the wall.

I'm well on my way with Christmas projects this week and should have some ready to post real soon. Hope your all making progress on yours too!