Merry Christmas

"Today in the town of David

a Savior has been born to you;

he is Christ the Lord.

This will be a sign to you:

You will find a baby wrapped in cloths

and lying in a manger."

Luke 2:11-12

Tree Skirt finally finished

Last night was our quilt guild Christmas party. Everyone dressed in pajamas, had delicious food, and sang Christmas carols with quilting themed lyrics. It was really funny. We got the most adorable little favors, a Christmas tree made out of fabric, a spool of thread, and a flat head pin with a star stuck on it. I just think it's so cute!

In other exciting news, I got my quilt back from Kathleen. I was waiting on the porch when our mail lady came with it. Kathleen did a great job! I'm so happy with it. As soon as I got it out of the box I started the binding, and finished it the same day. Took a couple pictures of it. I'm always in awe of how much the quilting makes a difference. Before it's quilted it just doesn't seem to have the same presence it does once it's quilted. It just makes me want all of my quilt tops finished right now! The next task is trying to figure out which quilts I want to send next so I can get them on their way before the end of the week.

I've been busy working on Christmas gifts, but can't really post them at this time because the recipients read my blog. I don't think my mother in law does so this one is safe. I made her and overnight bag. It was one of my first attempts at machine quilting so it leaves something to be desired, but I feel like I kind of have the hang of it now, just need to practice to be able to get smooth and not so choppy. I hope after Christmas to make some fabric sandwiches and just practice. I had fun using two really different fabrics on this one.

Last year I started a tree skirt with what I thought was enough time to finish it for Christmas but it didn't work out. I had it all put together and quilted in the center but I didn't get the colored blocks quilted. Finished them up by adding a star in each one. I have to say after putting it together it was a little hard to get the scissors out and cut the opening for the tree. I was determined to finish it this year and I did. The problem is we still haven't gotten to go and buy a Christmas tree, so the little boy decided he'd fill the position for now. However you can only be a Christmas tree for so long before the tree gets tired and needs to lay down. Apparently tree skirts make a good resting blanket.

My sister told me that the littlest girl they have (a foster child a little over a year old) loves purses. I figured I would make her one for Christmas. I made it tonight. It's nothing too fancy, but at least that way if it gets ruined no big deal. It turned out cute though.

Entered a giveaway that is offering some cute items.

Sew Mama Sew giveaway winner

and the winner is: NewFarmChick

True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 163 Result: 120 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Thanks for entering, contact me with you address please :)

It's Giveaway day!

Comments closed, thank to everyone for playing, and all the nice comments!

Today is Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day! I've had fun in the past visiting lots of new blogs and entering for the giveaways. Since I have the worst luck ever I figured this time I would be one of the participants doing a giveaway. You'll receive the following item if you are the winner. It's a chicken pincushion made by me. I'm not sure what color you will get, that will depend on my mood on the day I mail it out. Just leave a comment and I'll put all names in a hat and let one of my helpers choose a name at random on the 6th. I've decided to add an extra entry for followers. Thanks for stopping by and have fun!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

I decided to write a list of things I am thankful for this year. So in the spirit of the Holiday I am thankful:

• For being healthy. A full appreciation for the gift of life didn't hit me until being faced with the possibility of my death. Now almost 3 years later I am ever so thankful for life
• For my husband who works tirelessly to not only support our family but to keep things functioning at our home. Who without to much complaining allows me to pursue my interests.
• For the big boy who is so smart and caring
• For the little boy who is so loving and funny.
• For the 5000 goofy faces the little boy makes
• For the ability to get my boys out of bed every morning and be at home with them every day, watching them as they grow
• For lots of room for the boys to play and explore
• For cows because I just love them
• for pumpkin, pumpkin pies, pumpkin whoopee pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, you get the point...
• For Family
• For a coal stove that keeps us very warm in the winter because I really don't like the cold (is it spring yet?)
• For my home
• For eggs fresh right from the chicken
• For friends

I could go on and on, but I need to get back to working on Christmas presents. I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving!

Experimenting

The other day I was looking on the Sew Mama Sew website and saw a tutorial for this bag listed. I thought it was pretty cute and decided to give it a whirl. Thankfully there is still plenty of cheap Moda fabric to be bought at Fabric Mart so it makes trying something new affordable in case you don't like it. However this turned out adorable!

A big thank you!

Thanks to Anya from over at the Hills Creek Quilter! I signed up on her Pay it Forward post. Last week I recieved a box in the mail. Apparently the box alone was enough of a gift because my youngest played in it for a long time.

Anya made me this beautiful bag out of my favorite colors! She also included a pillowcase for each of the boys. They were very excited!

The bag has now become the "Grandmother's flower garden quilt bag". I can easily carry it with me so that whenever i am somewhere and have a few minutes for hand sewing I can work on it. Hopefully it will inspire me to maybe finish it.

So thank you so much for your kindness, it is greatly appreciated.

Finally sewing again

Time to sew just hasn't been plentiful of late due to all the other things going on and the lack of sewing space. Last week I recieved a second email about the quilting fabric sale at Fabric Mart and finally made it on Monday. The sale has been going on for a while so there is much less fabric now then there was at the beginning. I wouldn't know that but I saw a picture on a blog I follow. They still had enough fabric that I was able to find something to buy. The new fabric gave me a renewed enthusiasm for projecting. I tend to go long stretches where I work on nothing because I don't have an actual sewing space. Maybe this winter my sewing room will get started. But anyway, here are my purchases:

a little christmas fabric

and some bag fabric

And look I even managed to knock out a bag in a couple hours. I was pretty proud of myself for actually making something that I bought the fabric for. I tend to have a bad habit of buying something with a purpose in mind and then getting sidetracked by another project. Not this time!

May 29th

Guinea keets I hatched for my dad. This is one fowl I have no interest in, although the keets are cute when they hatch.




Another quilted bag I am working on. I like the stripes with the floral.



And fabric for another. I'm currently addicted to making quilted purses. I wouldn't say I have a clue as t what I am doing, but it's fun!

I found it!

After at least three years I finally found the grandmother's flower garden project I had started. The good news is I found it in a rubbermaid container in the attic. The bad news is that the box was full of other unfinished project that I had completely forgotten about. Now I have even more things to complete. I loved working on this project for several reasons. Mainly it is completely hand sewn so I could take it where ever I went to work on it. Hand sewing or quilting is relaxing to me. Now that it's made it to the light of day again maybe I'll actually finish it.


I started a bag while I was down at my Aunt's over the weekend. Unfortunately I didn't have enough fabric to finish it. I had to run to the fabric store to pick up a yard of fabric for my aunt, and of course I had to look around. I bought a few pieces I saw that I liked. I made this bag this afternoon out of some of it. So now this is the first bag I made, and the other will have to wait until I get the fat quarter I need. It's certainly not great, but I have a pretty good idea of the process now. If I made this bag over I'd make the handles slightly smaller just because the bag turned out a little smaller than I planned since I didn't use a pattern. I did manage to put a pocket in it for keys or a cell phone.