Quiet Time Sewing

 I haven’t been at the sewing machine much the last few weeks due to acquiring a bit of new hardware in this creaky body, but I have had fun catching up on some hand sewing projects.  

First in the queue were a couple quilts that needed the binding stitched down.  I had done the machine sewing in anticipation of my sewing vacation so the hand stitching was left.  Years ago I participated in a New York Beauty sew along.  I can’t remember who sponsored it, but the earliest note I made in my blog was in 2012.  Well…..ten years later it is now in the finished pile and I love it.  I am not a professional quilter, but Karrie at @karrie_ann_longarm_quilting on IG is, and she did an incredible job on it for me.

 After that it was time to tackle the points on my Kaffe Escher Cubed quilt.  The pattern had called for cutting them off, but I thought it would be fun to leave the points if I could figure out the binding of the angles.  I really like the way it turned out too. 

And lastly  I finished the Christmas stocking for the newest granddaughter.  I have made the felt stockings for each of the children in my daughter's family and love seeing them all hung at Christmas.  Ramona also makes them for her grandchildren and has a nice way of finishing hers off.  She was kind enough to give me her hints in completing this one.  I have always lined mine, but she makes a lovely quilted backing stocking for hers.  The stockings are Bucilla kits with all of the needed parts to complete the stocking - beads, sequins, threads and felt.  They are really quite fun to sew and they have such great detail.

These are the stockings for the rest of the children. 

Next week I will be participating in the Cookie Exchange Blog Hop so please be sure to pop back then.  It's always a fun event with some great recipes over the years.  

May Happenings

Happy May!  May is always our crazy month.  We have seven birthdays, our anniversary (53), Mother’s Day and then First Communions (2), Confirmations (2), and graduations (3).  It seems like it is party after party for the entire month.  There’s never a dull moment with a large family.

Sewing seems to take a back seat for the month of May.  I did manage to get my selvedge quilt quilted and bound.  It was a love/hate relationship.  I quilted the entire quilt and was not happy with the quilting.  I spent two days ripping out EVERY STITCH and requilting it!!!  The backing is a great Kaffe wide back that picks up all the colors on the front.  

Our granddaughter made her husband a pair of fleece pants for Christmas.  She left the extra fabric in my sewing room!  Their son turns one this month so I used the leftover fabric to make him a matching pair of pants and a robe that matches the pants.

My niece (in-law) cross stitched a stocking for her mom for Mother’s Day.  She asked if I could sew it into a stocking for her.  This was her first cross stitch project and I think she did a great job on it.  That metallic thread is difficult to use and all of the music is done in metallic gold.

Our momma tortoise celebrated Mother’s Day in her own way.  She laid 12 eggs this year.  

Workmen have kept us on our toes this month as well.  A new a/c unit was needed and replaced.  Of course, it’s never a “simple” replacement.  Ducting had to be replaced so there have been people inside, outside and up in the attic.  As well, we are replacing our sand volleyball court with something more practical.  After 30 years, the softer sand has blown away, leaving the court feeling more like gravel.  It isn’t a lot of fun to play on that surface.  I'll be glad to have them finish.  It’ll be nice to get rid of everyone and get the house back to ourselves.

I had a "new to me" visitor this week.  This little guy was on my path to my car.  The photo is enlarged, but it was really only about 9" long.  I loved the red band around the neck so I had to come in and look it up.  It was a non venomous ring necked snake!  The underside is a brilliant orange.  I am NOT a snake person, but this little guy was kind of cute.  He was much less intimidating than our resident five foot gopher snake that keeps scaring me in the backyard.  Although, he too, is a "good" snake.  

 
There is a field across the road from us.  The crops are rotated in it, but it is mostly planted in lettuces or cabbage.  They recently cut what we thought was a cover crop.  I thought it was such a lovely view with all the bales.  Except for the hilly background, I could imagine being back in the Midwest.

It's Getting Closer

As with everyone around this time of the year, we have been busy with Christmas approaching.  With three big dinners behind me, most of the shopping finished, Christmas projects completed and most gifts wrapped up, I feel as though I can breathe a bit easier now.  Christmas cards will be the task this week.

It has been awhile since I last blogged - or even followed blogs.  The stomach bug hit many of the little ones this past week, but it is nice to have that finished before Christmas.  I always feel so sorry for sick little ones on such a special day.

I finished the Christmas stocking for the newest grandbaby.

I'm sure she will appreciate it more as she gets older.  Right now the tree is more interesting.

There have been some wonderful bag tutorials being shown over at Elm Street Quilts the last few weeks.  I have always wanted to do one of the box bags.  I just love how this turned out and it was remarkably easy to do......all scraps from the bin.

We were lucky enough to have everyone home and healthy for our Thanksgiving celebration this year.

I'm sure that many of you are sewing along with Bonnie Hunter in her Allietare mystery.  Although I have not had much of a chance to keep up - yet, I have completed my 4-patch blocks for this week.  I will get the last two weeks done soon, I hope.

My lovely postcard from our Christmas Postcard Swap arrived from Fiona in Australia.  I always love seeing little pieces of art arrive from across the miles.  Fiona did such a beautiful job and I have added it to my small postcard display.

I hope to be around a bit more now that things are settled down a bit here.

Linking up with Sue and Bonnie.

One More Week

In just one short week, many of our homes will be filled with the smell of turkey cooking.  It is a great time of the year, but I must say that I enjoy the leftovers more.  I suppose it might be that we are too busy entertaining to think about enjoying the food.

With Thanksgiving being so late this year, Christmas will be right behind.  I managed to finish the latest Christmas stocking this week. 



When I do the cross stich stockings I like to use a fusible interfacing on the back to make sure that all of those stitches will stay in place over the years of use.  As well, I like to line my Christmas stockings.  Since this one had such a vintage feel to it, I found a fabric that also had a vintage feel to it.



This past week Kelly at I Have a Notion had a blog hop featuring Patsy Thompson’s embroidery designs.   Kelly was doing the most beautiful table runner.  Well…..I won the designs in her hop and I have been playing with them.  I have stitched these out on silk and I love the way they have stitched out.  The colors are a bit off, but I hope to get a better picture of them once I get the piece finished.  Aren’t the feathers stunning?
 





My mom, sister and I went to visit the Reagan Library this week.  They have a couple of new displays going on right now, one being famous cars from films, presidents and Heads of State.   It was fun to see them up close.  Here are a few of them.

Herbie

Owned by Elvis

Batmobile

Greased Lightening

The other display was California Christmas Trees.  These were fabulous.  They reflected all of the different areas of California.  Each was so unique and fun.  The room was a little dark for pictures, but this is one of them.  Love the surfboard!



In my quest to quilt my stack of finished tops, I have managed to get one more off the pile this week.  The pile, however, still remains tall.

Life Continues to be .....

.... a lesson in learning.   I entered another year of this learning business this week and it has been remarkable what I continue to learn.  Lesson # 6,000,000,000 or so is that Scrub*bing Bubbles bathroom cleaner does not make a good substitute for hairspray.  Duh!   It amazes me what I will do when I am not paying attention.  My advice is to NOT give it a try.

All in all, it has been a terrific birthday week with kids and grandkids popping in and out as well as many friends and family sending good wishes.  I am so blessed.

We spent the weekend with our son and DIL who live a couple of hours away.  They live in the wine country so it is always fun to see the wonderful fall colors in the vineyards at this time of the year.  Harvest is well under way and we watched one truck delivering the picked grapes for processing.   Machinery always fascinates me so I was intrigued at all of the workings there.  Our son works in the industry so it was great to get the inside story about how this all becomes wine in the end.

There is a large migratory area near them for the Monarch butterflies.  They tend to arrive around this time so many are being spotted around town. 

My creative side has been busy this week with Halloween.  Have you ever made a football costume?  I'll share a picture when I get the little one in it.  I hope it works as planned.

I finally finished the stitching for the Christmas stocking.  All I have left now is to make it into the stocking.  One down and one to go before Christmas.

Have you ever given thought to how many scissors you own?  Thearica asked that question on her blog.  I remember my mother hiding her sewing scissors from us when we were growing up.  My dad did a lot of traveling and he would bring her the beautiful Swiss and German scissors.  Now I understand why she hid them!!  I have scissors EVERYWHERE and decided to get a rough estimate.

Kitchen and office scissors.

Kid's scissors.

Pinking shears, embroidery, dress shears, buttonhole scissors and all else found in my sewing area. 

That is a total of 45 and I didn't count the thread nippers or the ones in the garage.  LOL 

Go ahead.....I dare you to count how many you have.  Once you do, post a picture of them and you could win a nice pair of Gingher scissors on Thearica's blog sponsored by Ken's Sewing Center. 


   

A Lost Week

The past week I have been battling an upper respiratory infection and my head has been in a fog.  Needless to say, there has not been a lot of productivity from this end.  The one thing that I did get finished was my needlecase for the Sewing With Friends Swap.  Since it has arrived at my swap partner's house, I can share it with you.

Ida has a pet turtle, as do wee, so I took off on that idea.  I really had fun creating this little guy.

.......but, best of all, look at what Ida made for me.  I just love how elegant this crazy quilt needlecase is.  She did such a fabulous job on it and filled it with all sorts of terrific goodies.  I love how personalized it is with the "M" on one side and the cowboy boot (Ida lives in Texas) on the other.    This has been such a fun group for swapping.

I was really glad to see Kate start up her newest swap - ALQS8.  I LOVE the way this swap is run and I have been thrilled with each round that I have been a participant.  This one is for a mini quilt so check it out and join in if you are interested. 

I had a really fun win arrive in the mail this week too.  This was from Jamie at Busy Bee Quilts .  Isn't the emergency thread kit a great idea?  It's all the colors that you are constantly needing.  Of course I love the jelly roll and look forward to using that in the near future.   Thanks so much, Jamie.

Since I have spent the better part of the week sitting around, I did make some great progress on my Christmas Stocking.  I am now onto the outlining stage.

One last small project that I tackled was another friendship bag.  The colors don't show up well, but it is in purples, blues and pinks.